FOUNDATIONS IN BUSINESS NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

HOW IMPORTANT IS NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION?

HOW DO NONVERBAL CUES FUNCTION? 1. Manage Impressions 2. Initiate & Manage Relationships 3. Attract & Distract Messages 4. Aid Learning, Imitation 5. Demonstrate & Violate Expectations

NONVERBAL SENSITIVITY DECODING Attunement Deciphering Contextualizing Integrating ENCODING Spontaneous Deliberate Adapt to Situations Coordinate Signals SIMPLE COMPLEX

BODY LANGUAGE ( K I N E S I C S ) GESTURES * Emblems Increase Attention & Retention * Illustrators Increase Persuasion * Self-touch Decreases Persuasiveness Eye Contact Facial Expressions Gestures Body Movement Posture

BODY LANGUAGE & STATUS MEHRABIAN, Ph.D. People with high status have:  Increased Eye Contact Audience  Increased use of Gestures  Increased Affirmative Nods  Increased Facial Expressivity  Decreased Self-Manipulation  Decreased Backward Leans

PARALANGUAGE / VOCALICS ‘Beside/Beyond the Tongue’ INCLUDES RATE PITCH VOLUME ACCENT/DIALECT QUALITY ARTICULATION PRONUNCIATION PERSUASIVE MESSAGES HAVE FASTER RATE FLUENCY CHANGES IN INTONATION VOLUME STRONG DELIVERY

TOUCH & SPACE (Haptics and Proxemics) 1. Touch and Space cues serve as “contact codes” 2. Different types of touch accomplish different goals. Culture bound rules for use. 3. Noncontact cultures are sensitive to space violations. 4. Does touch always increase persuasiveness? Expectancy Violations Theory: Violation Size & Violator’s Reward Power dictate Persuasiveness.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE  Attractive people are more persuasive than Unattractive people  Endomorphs less persuasive than ectomorphs or mesomorphs  Mature-faced = competent  Baby-faced = trustworthy  Shortness and hair loss (esp. in men) may inhibit persuasiveness

USE OF TIME aka (CHRONEMICS) Higher status people have greater “bandwidth” of appropriate chronemic use, and can make people wait. Marketers may use time to increase the pressure to buy a product. Non-urgency tactics can be used to soft-sell.

ACCESSORIES AND ENVIRONMENT (ARTIFACTS)  Choices in clothing and environmental artifacts can facilitate persuasion or indicate power and status  Individual Personality & Preferences  BICKMAN, Ph.D. - Uniforms Increase Compliance People claim they are not influenced by uniforms, however uniformed guards had the highest compliance rate (36%) compared to civilian (20%) and milkman (14%)

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION, THROUGH: BODY LANGUAGE SPACE & TOUCH PARALANGUAGE TIME PHYSICAL APPEARANCE ARTIFACTS INITIATES & MANAGES RELATIONSHIPS