Research paper

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ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR ISSM 507

A REVIEW OF NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

LITERATURE.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 1

Kinesics 2

Oculesics 2

Haptics 2

Paralanguage 3

Proxemics 3

Artifactual communication 4

Artifactual communication and mirroring 4

Incongruence 4

Handshakes 4

How to spot a lie through non-verbal communication 5

Non verbal communication is very important in the workplace 6

Smile types 6

Nonverbal communication and body posture 8

Gestures 10

Colours and embedded messages 11

Non-verbal communication and cultures 13 Non-verbal communication and ambiguity 15 Conclusion 15 References

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Introduction

Communication comes from the word ‘communicatio’ which means sharing or distributing, so in general

sense A is communicating with B if anything is shared or transferred between them (Roberta A. Hinde,

1972). Professor Mehrabian combined the statistical results of the two studies and came up with the

now famous—and famously misused—rule that communication is only 7 percent verbal and 93 percent

non-verbal. The non-verbal component was made up of body language (55 percent) and tone of voice

(38 percent). Non verbal communication is a very powerful means to communicate, Ralph Waldo

Emerson quoted ‘what you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say’, when communicating

to really understand the message person is trying to pass is to look beyond the words he/she is speaking

and analyze their body language, if you can understand a persons body language then you will know

when a person is telling lies, hiding a secret, or telling the truth.

Non-verbal communication involves Behaviour and elements of speech besides words themselves that

transmit meaning. Non-verbal communication includes pitch, speed, tone and volume of voice, gestures

and facial expression, body posture, stance, and proximity to the listener, eye movements and contact,

and dress and appearance.

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Kinesics

Kinesics includes movement of the face, hands and feet, recent studies found that there are over 21

different kinds of facial expressions which translates different meanings. It involves the movement of

any part of the human body, it could be weaving the hands, smiling at a person and so on.

Oculesics

Oculesics involves eye movement, eye behaviour, gaze and eye related non-verbal communication

(Sullivan, Larry E. (Ed.) (2009), the way a person moves are eyes can send a lot of message, it could show

a sign of sarcasm or show that they are lying.

Haptics

Haptics involves physical contact of individuals, it could be through hand shake, hugs etc. when you miss

someone for example you give them a hug to show a sign of love.

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Paralanguage

Paralanguage some people refer to this as vocalics, it involves tones of voice, how a person says a word

is very important, when two people say the same sentences for example, depending on the tone of

voice used it can be perceived to mean completely different things. A person’s tone of voice can send

various messages, depending on the tone used you could tell if the person is happy, sad or angry.

Proxemics

Proxemics: involves communicating through the distance you give a person, Edward T. Hall stated that

He concluded that there is a direct correlation between social standings and physical distances between

people. It means that when you consider someone to be in your 'friend's zone' you literally prefer him in

a certain distance, away from your intimate space, but close enough to be a friend. The are four main

zones in proxemics which are public distance zone, social distance zone, personal distance, intimate

distance.

The figure below shows an illustration

Public distance: This space usually ranges from 12 feet, its usually a zone for public speaking, or just

random walking in the public and interacting with someone through eye contact or maybe just making

facial expressions.

Social distance: this space ranges from 5 to 10 feet, it’s a zone people who don’t really know each other

very much start with. People seem to be more comfortable staying at this distance when they don’t

know each other very much.

Personal distance: it ranges from 2 to 5 feet, this space is usually kept by friends and family, the closer

they in relationship to each other the more the gap between them tend to reduce.

Intimate distance zone: this is usually half a foot, it is for loved ones and very close friends and family.

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Culture also has great influence on proxemics, for instance in some cultures it might be rude to talk to

someone way elder to you from a far distance, it might show a sign of disrespect. Basically, the closer

you are to a person the closer the space would be, however sometimes this is affected by

circumstances, sometimes moods or environment also contribute to perception of proxemics

communication as well, for example imagine being in a class room versus being in a club, in a club you

probably would mind a person breaching your social distance, where as in a classroom you would expect

everyone to be highly focused and mind their personal space. Also, experiences can contribute to how

comfortable you are when people are within close or far range, for example doctors who interact with

different patients every day and treat them might have no problem with close distant interaction with a

perfect stranger.

Artifactual communication: This involves what we wear to represent who we are, its concerned with

what we put on, the cloth, shoes, ear ring, make up etc. that we put on this all sends a message, also

other message could be read like for instance a person with a phone with a cracked screen might send a

message to another person that, that person is not very careful person. However, appearance may not

really reflect a person’s true character it could be just clue as to what the person’s character would be

like, there is this saying don’t judge a book by its cover for example seeing an American person dressed

like a British person wont mean he is British.

Artifactual communication and mirroring: People tend to mirror other people when they see certain

attributes in people, it could be the way they dress, talk or sleep, for example seeing a person that

wears a cowboy boot, you would tend to imagine the person is really into country culture or seeing a

person that likes the same song you like, you may imagine you would have other things in common with

each other.

Incongruence: this is when a person’s body language and the words he or she speaks conflict with each

other, for example saying you trust someone but not looking at the persons face and making sarcastic

facial gestures while the words are being said or a person facing your direction with the face, but saying

he or she is leaving.

Handshakes: handshakes can be used as a form of communication, people used handshake to try to

know what the other person really think about them, when both hands make contact for instance there

are other gestures people try to read, like the facial expression during the hand shake, was the person

giving a nice smile during the handshake? Was the handshake usually brief? did the person look nervous

during the handshake? Or was it a long handshake? Or did the person carry a disgust gesture during the

handshake? People check if the hand is soft, hard, passive, aggressive, friendly or unfriendly. For

example, a limp handshake could send different messages, it could send a massage to the other person

that the individual is sick, in general a handshake should be mutual, it should be palm to palm, you

would want to apply the same pressure the other party applies.

Giving Upper handshake: this is used when a party has a feeling of power and high social status, it is

basically done by putting the hand on top of the other person’s hands while doing the handshake, this

puts the other individual at a disadvantage, it sends a message of discomfort to the other individual

immediately and could cause them to do a retreat response or an attack response, because he or she

perceives the other person as an insult or risk.

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Giving Submissive Handshake: This is done by giving the other party the advantage by offering a

handshake and allowing their hands rest on top yours, this sense a sense of relief to the other party, it

sends confidence to the receiving party, people tend to have more confidence in you when you give

them confidence.

How to spot a lie through non-verbal communication

People tend to make general non verbal moves in our every day lives, for example not making eye

contact, folding the arms, looking down at the ground, may just be attitudes a person is used to it might

not necessarily mean anything, how to really make meaning out of these non verbal moves and tell if a

person is lying or not is by watching their expressions few seconds after a word is said, what you are

saying would have to be in direct relationship with the persons non verbal moves. That is when a

question is ask, the person is expected to throw in a deceptive behaviour within the first five seconds

the question is ask to trick the other person, if a person doesn’t show a deceptive behaviour five

seconds after the question is asked this could be an indication the person isn’t lying. The question is

does the person say or do that thing as a response to the question, the way to tell if a person is lying is

paying choose attention to the person’s deceptive behaviour when the question is asked, one deceptive

behaviour is a red flag but to really tell if a person is lying is if he or she expresses two or more

deception behaviour after the question is asked (Susan Carnicero, 2016). Sometimes the deceptive

behaviours could be portrayed even before the question is finished, people tend to think fast and

understand where you are going even before the sentence is complete, people think faster than words,

you could have series of deceptive behaviours after a question is asked and these deceptive behaviours

could last minutes and would occur in clusters that is one after the other, however you cant really tell

how big of a lie a person is telling based on their deceptive behaviours, all the person does is try to buy

you into believing what he says through his/her non verbal deceptive behaviour, basically the person

just tries to get in a manipulative behaviour to trick the person asking the question, when analysing a

persons behaviour it would be a good thing to ignore all the truthful behaviours, a person could use one

truth to make you believe all he or she is telling is the truth, is good to ignore the truthful behaviours

and focus on other deceptive behaviour when analysis is done, you should watch out for evasive

behaviours too like asking a person a question and the person doesn’t answer the question rather goes

ahead the say things related or not even related to the issue, for example asking a person if he stole

money and the person starts saying he or she doesn’t know why money keeps getting missing, that

doesn’t answer the question asked, we need to make sure they are actually answering the

question(Susan Carnicero, 2016).

Exclusionary qualifiers: these are words like maybe, not really and so on, they by for follow up questions,

further question should be ask on these exclusionary qualifiers because they usually hide hidden

messages to them, usually when a person answers a question with these exclusionary qualifiers they are

cutting something out.

Aggression: another red flag is aggression, when a question is asked and the person answers

aggressively that’s a huge red flag, like for example asking an employee if he or she stole a particular

product and the person goes on and starts shouting about the weak controls and security the store has

to prevent theft or when they demonstrate an unexpected high level of concern that could be a red flag

too, an example of an inappropriate level of concern would be when you ask a question about someone

killing his or her child and the person’s smiles before replying the would be an inappropriate level of

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concern and it’s a red flag, imagine smiling when asked a question like that? It is inappropriate and

should be considered a red flag.

Normally straight forward answers like yes or no are more truthful than when a person starts telling long

stories and giving different kinds or deceptive behaviours non verbally. When people tend to be too

convincing when a question is asked if could be a red flag for lies, a conceiving statement is one of the

most convincing proof a person is lying, for example asking an employee if he or she stole something

and the employee to goes on and on about how go of an employee he or she is, that could be a red flag,

another example is asking a question and the person replies with a wouldn’t do a thing like that,

wouldn’t and didn’t are two different things, imagining asking a woman if she killed her children and she

replies with I love my children so much, I have always cared for them and I wouldn’t kill them, wouldn’t

and couldn’t are two different things, clearly the question wasn’t answered, that’s a huge red flag,

people would say I swear to god, I swear on my life and so on, just to make you believe of manipulate

your perception about them.

Behavioural Pause: People also try to pause their behaviour when a question is asked to trick the other

person, behavioural pause can also be seen as a form of deception, taking time to answers a question

that doesn’t need a lot of thought to it could be seen as a red flag, for example asking a person if he or

she stole money from the counter yesterday, the answer normally should be a direct no or if they did

and want to be truthful about it a yes would be good.

Gestures: gestures made after a question is asked could be a form of deception the person is using to

trick you into believing them for example checking their watch, scratching their face and acting

innocent, they could also use the artifactual form like appearing really groom with a suit and a tie to

look really innocent.

Non verbal communication is very important in the workplace

It can reinforce what we say or contradict our words, for example when a supervisor explains a task to a

co-worker through body language a well experienced supervisor would be able to know if the worker

understood or not. It is very essential for really understanding the massage the coworkers or

management are trying to pass across. Body language is very important for how others perceive you, in

an interview for example you would want to look groomed and try to maintain eye contact with the

interviewer when answering questions.

Smile types

There are six kinds identified by Chris the author of six common smile types, 2013

1) The tight-lipped smile with low intensity

2) Tight lipped smile with high intensity

3) The uneven smile

4) The upper smile

5) The grin or smirk

6) Broad smile

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The tight-lipped smile with low intensity

The tight lipped smile with low intensity. This smile happens as the lips are stretched across the face

and no teeth are showing with very little upward curl in the corner of the mouth and indicates a hidden

attitude or thought, uncertainty, hesitation or lack of confidence. This smile is used to placate others or

to pose for photographs or when we aren’t in the mood to socialize. Strangers passing on the street will

greet each other with a tight lipped smile. The smile is a feigned or dishonest smile so that others don’t

catch on that we actually don’t like them. It might also appear out of nervousness or stress so it can

appear when meeting new people. For this reason we can call the tight lipped smile the “polite smile.

(chris, 2013).

Tight lipped smile with high intensity. This is a variation on the smile above, yet the corners of the lips

rise even further with some teeth showing, gaze is steady and warm and the posture is relaxed. We find

this smile appearing when meeting new acquaintances, so it’s not a full honest smile, but does show

openness to others(chris, 2013)

The uneven smile. We might see this smile associated with tongue-in-cheek humor or sarcasm. The

smile happens when only one side of the face sports a smile and the other side does not. The opposite

side may even be down turned or frowning. The uneven smile depicts a frame of mind in which opposite

or conflicting emotions are present (chris, 2013). This could be used as a sign of sarcasm or when making

jest of someone.

The upper smile. In this smile, the upper lid is raised to expose only the top row of teeth, but the true

significance is that the lower teeth remain hidden. In the upper smile the jaw and teeth remain closed

and the message conveyed is of medium pleasure and comes off as insecure. Used car salesman, who

beam light from their teeth in this way, will seem to have a hidden agenda(chris, 2013).

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The grin or smirk. The smirk indicates smugness and arrogance. It is a tight lipped smile with the

addition of a degree self-satisfaction for good measure. The smirk has accompanying dominant body

language such as head back, shoulders back, open postures along with dialogue riddle with exuberant

pride. The smirk will also happen when someone is under direct verbal attack. It’s the sort of face that

makes you want to say “Wipe that grin off your face”. Sometimes though the smirk is due to the stress

of being put under fire and isn’t always an attempt at questioning authority(chris, 2013).

Broad smile. In this smile the upper and lower teeth are made visible. The gaze is relaxed and the smile

is intended to convey joy and pleasure. This is a true smile and not one that is easily faked. The telltale

sign of an honest smile is the appearance of crow’s feet in the corners of the eyes. Crow feet make it

seem as though the eyes are smiling. It is difficult to replicate these smiles without being truly amused

or in good company as the muscles are usually out of our conscious control. We should be careful to use

this smile, as with all smiles, when most appropriate. In the wrong context the broad smile will simply

appear insincere (chris, 2013).

Nonverbal communication and body posture

Communication begins before you even start to speak, before you start to speak people perceive you in

a certain way based on how you are dressed, your body posture, gestures and facial expressions.

Position matters also for example when a top executive at a company is talking to his staff members, it is

important he faces them and stands firm, also when communicating to people, they could be

interviewers, your professor at school, or your boss at work, it is important to stay in an environment

where there are less distraction, which could damage the real message you are trying to pass across,

these distractions could be moving cars, people shouting, birds flying and so on.

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Some bad postures

This is hands in the pockets stance, this is not a good posture to convey a strong message to people as

they would find it hard to take you seriously, the stance doesn’t really convey something professional is

able to be passed, its more of a casual stance.

This posture is know as hands on your hips, when this is done you tend to look over confident and

powerful.

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This posture is not very good for flexible communication, as less gesture could be passed through this

stance.

A good neutral stance for communication to the public is shown in the image above.

Written communication

Even written communication have non verbal messages as well, the colour of font used, the

capitalization used, the emoticons used, all have a form of non verbal element embedded.

Gestures

Gestures has to do with the movement of the parts of our body to convey a message.

These are some examples of gesture done with the fingers.

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Some more examples of body gestures are shown above.

Colours and embedded messages

Colours also passes a form of embedded message in them few examples are listed below:

Blue: the colour shows calm, trust, smart, faith, natural, stable, power.

Red: shows, love, immediacy, energy, sale, passion, anger, hunger.

Black: shows, bold, rich, power, mystery, elegance, evil, strength.

Green: shows, soothing, eco-friendly, natural, envy, jealous, balance, restful.

Yellow: shows, cheer, attention, childish, fresh, warmth, energy, optimism.

Orange: shows, health, attraction, standout, thirst, wealth, youthful, happiness

Pink: shows, tenderness, sensitive, caring, emotional, sympathy, sexuality, love.

Purple: shows, royal, mysterious, arrogant, luxury, childish, creative, sadness.

The colour blue, red and black are explained below as they relates to non verbal communication.

Blue: blue is the colour of honesty, responsibility, trust, diligence and loyalty. It is sincere and honest

and doesn’t like to draw attention. Blue is reliable and responsible. The colour is a symbol of inner

peace, security and diligence. The colour seeks peace and tranquility above everything else Blue is the

color of the spirit, devotion and religious study. It enhances contemplation and prayer. On the other

hand, blue's devotion can be to any cause or concept it believes in, including devotion to family or work.

Communication: Blue relates to one-to-one verbal communication and self expression.

Peace and calm: The color blue induces calm and peace within us, particularly the deeper shades.

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Honesty: Blue is the colour of truth.

Authority: The darker the color blue, the more authority it has.

Religion: Blue is the colour of devotion and religious study.

Wisdom: Blue enhances the wisdom of the intellect(empower-yourself-with-colour- psychology.com).

Red: the colour is strong and indicates need to survive, it signifies ambition and determination, its strong

willed and can be used as a symbol of hope to those who are shy and lacking will to survive. The colour

red awakens our physical life force. It’s the colour of sexuality and can stimulate deeper and more

intimate passions, such as love, sex and the positive side and revenge and anger on the negative side.

It could be used to refer to love usually used on valentines day, but really reflects sexuality and lust, love

is usually expressed with pink. It could be used to stimulate sexuality or could fuel anger and

destruction.

It could be used to stimulate appetite, often being used in restaurants. Being surrounded by too much

of the color red can cause us to become irritated, agitated and ultimately angry. Too little and we

become cautious, manipulative and fearful.

Stimulating: to the physical senses- the sexual and physical appetite. It stimulates the deeper passions within us, such as sex, love, courage, hatred or revenge. If you have a flagging sex life and would like to introduce more passion into it, introduce some red into the bedroom – the more red, the more passion, but don’t overdo it or it will have the opposite effect.

Exciting and Motivating: it excites our emotions and inspires us to take action.

Attention-getting: it demands you to take notice, alerting you to danger. This is why we have red traffic lights and stop signs – it is the universal color for danger.

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Assertive and Aggressive: drivers of red cars should take note! A small survey I did a few years ago showed that drivers of red cars, including females, said they felt quite aggressive behind the wheel of their red car(empower-yourself-with-colour-psychology.com).

Black: is the colour of mystery, it relates to hidden and unknown, it keeps things bottled up inside, hidden from the world. It gives protection from external emotional stress. People who like black may be conventional, conservative and serious, or they may think of themselves as being sophisticated or very dignified.

Formal, dignified and sophisticated: As in the little black dress and the formal dinner suit.

Aloof: Black sets itself aside from others with its heavy and intense energy. It keeps others at arm's length.

Depressing: Black can close us to the positive aspects of life, forcing us to look at our disappointments and the black or negative aspects of our life. It can create a fear of the future.

Pessimistic: Too much black encourages us to look at the negative side of life.

Non-verbal communication and cultures: Different cultures have their own form of non verbal communication and this tends to cause disruption in the communication process, people may offend others without even knowing it, this is because of the cultural differences in communication. Expressions like smiling, laughing and crying are mostly similar amongst different cultures. According to researches, six expressions are universal; they are, happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, anger and surprise. However in some cultures showing these feelings may not be

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good ethics. In countries like japan for instance nodding the head could just mean you are listening to them while it other countries it would mean a yes or no. In the western world eye contact is taken as a good gesture because it tends to show honesty and concern, while in other countries like for example Asian, Middle Eastern, Hispanic and Native American it isn’t really a good act. In Eastern cultures women should especially not have eye contact with men as it shows power or sexual interest. In some cultures, whereas, gazes are taken as a way of expression. Staring is taken as rude in most cultures(businesstopia, 2017), some cultures take pointing of the fingers to be disrespectful, others don’t. The thumbs-up signal is vulgar in Iran. The "OK" signal made by forming a circle with the thumb and forefinger refers to money in some countries, while in others it's an extremely offensive reference to a private body part. Point with the wrong finger, or with anything less than your entire hand, and you risk offending somebody, and while some cultures value eye contact as a sign of respect, averting your eyes may be the sign of respect in others(Molly Edmonds, 2017). For European Americans, the average conversational distance is approximately twenty inches. In many Latin American and Caribbean cultures, that distance reduces to fourteen to fifteen inches. In Saudi Arabia, among same-sex speakers, the ideal conversational distance reduces even further to nine to ten inches. The concept of personal space is unseen, yet can result in a

good deal of intercultural discomfort and misunderstanding.

the diagram below shows how people, from four different cultures greet each other.

The greeting style in India and Greece is similar to some parts of china. In western culture, especially in North America, people hug each other some times and shake hands or just say hello other times when they meet up. In Latin America a single kiss in the cheek is used as greeting, in Italy greeting is done with a handshake or with kisses to each side of the face both kissing opposite sides, in Spain when two people know each other they give kisses in both cheeks or if they are not too familiar with each other they exchange handshake, in Russia they give three or six kisses in the cheek and one on the mouth.

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Non-verbal communication and ambiguity Non verbal communication could be ambiguous sometimes that is, it could have different meanings to different people, this could be due to cultural differences and experiences. A hand gesture in The United States of America could mean something much different in a place like Europe or Asia, even though it is the same gesture. In some cultures, it is rude to not look in to people’s eyes when you are speaking to them, where as in other cultures, it is expected that you do not look at them directly in the eyes. Conclusion Non verbal communication is an essential element when communicating, it makes up a huge percentage of the communication process, hence when people communicate they should not all be mindful of the words they speak but also they should be mindful of the non verbal signals which they give. Non verbal communication vary also among cultures so in a diversified environment like the work place for example it is important to know when to used certain non verbal signals. REFERENCES: Roberta A. Hinde, 1972, Non Verbal communication, Cambridge University press. (Sullivan, Larry E. (Ed.) (2009), The SAGE Glossary of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Edward T. Hall, Notes on intercultural communication Philip Houston, Michael Floyd, and Susan Carnicero(2016), Spy the lie Chris blog (2016), six common smile types and meanings. empower-yourself-with-colour-psychology.com(2017). Businesstopedia(2016), importance of non verbal communication. Molly Edmonds(2017), how stuffs work culture

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