communication

• Communication


  Social interaction through messages
• Communication is a process involving a sender, a message, a channel and a receiver
• Communication occurs within a given context e.g. in the classroom, at the cafeteria and at home among other contexts
• Purposes of communication


  • To inform
  • To motivate
  • To influence
  • To persuade
  • To plan
  • To express ideas
  • To warn
  • To challenge
• Verbal communication


  One way for people to communicate face-to-face, involving sound, words, speaking, and language
• Vocal sounds that are not considered to be words, such as a grunt, or singing a wordless note, are nonverbal
• Sign languages and writing are generally understood as forms of verbal communication, as both make use of words
• Nonverbal communication (NVC)


  The exchange of messages primarily through non-linguistic means, including: kinesics (body language), facial expressions and eye contact, tactile communication, space and territory, environment, paralanguage (vocal but non-linguistic cues), and the use of silence and time
• Categories of nonverbal communication

  • Physical
  • Aesthetic
  • Signs
  • Symbolic
• Importance of nonverbal communication for managers

  • To function effectively as a team leader the manager must interact with the other members successfully. Nonverbal cues, when interpreted correctly, provide him with one means to do so.
  • The team members project attitudes and feelings through nonverbal communication. Some personal needs such as approval, growth, achievement, and recognition may be met in effective teams. The extent to which these needs are met is closely related to how perceptive the team leader and team members are to nonverbal communication in themselves and in others on the team.
• Static features of nonverbal communication

  • Distance
  • Orientation
  • Posture
  • Physical contact
• Dynamic features of nonverbal communication

  • Facial expressions
  • Gestures
  • Looking
• Nonverbal communication


  • Hands, touching, holding, embracing, pushing, or patting on the back
  • Facial expressions (smile, frown, raised eyebrow, yawn, sneer)
  • Gestures (hand movements)
  • Eye contact
• Nonverbal communication


  Transmits important information from the sender to the receiver
• Areas of nonverbal communication

  • Environmental conditions where communication takes place
  • Physical characteristics of the communicators
  • Behaviors of communicators during interaction
• Proxemics


  The study of how people use and perceive the physical space around them
• Types of space in nonverbal communication

  • Intimate
  • Social
  • Personal
  • Public
• Chronemics


  The study of the use of time in nonverbal communication
• Kinesics


  The study of body movements, facial expressions, and gestures
• Posture


  • Can determine a participant's degree of attention or involvement
  • Can indicate the difference in status between communicators
  • Can reveal the level of fondness a person has for the other communicator
• Gesture


  A non-vocal bodily movement intended to express meaning
• Haptics


  The study of touching as nonverbal communication
• Immediacy behaviors


  Nonverbal actions that communicate interpersonal closeness (e.g. smiling, touching, open body positions, eye contact)
• Functions of nonverbal communication

  • Express emotions
  • Express interpersonal attitudes
  • Accompany speech in managing interaction cues
  • Self-presentation of personality
  • Rituals (greetings)
• The relative importance of verbal and nonverbal communication is widely debated, with no clear consensus on the exact percentages
• Ways nonverbal and verbal communication can interact

  • Repeating
  • Conflicting
  • Complementing
  • Substituting
  • Regulating
  • Accenting/Moderating
• Dance


  A form of nonverbal communication that requires the same underlying faculty in the brain as verbal language
• Intrapersonal communication


  Communicating with one's self, any form of relaying messages to your own person
• Normally successful communication requires having an independent sender and receiver, who send messages back and forth between them
• This definition of communication is currently challenged, there are some people who consider intrapersonal communication too useful to be discounted
• Actions considered intrapersonal communication

  • Dreaming (especially daydreaming and lucid dreaming)
  • Talking to oneself
  • Internal monologue, any thoughts you have about what is happening around you
  • Gesturing while you think
• The basis for what you communicate with others is your ability to communicate with yourself
• People who tend to know who they are, what they believe in and what their attitudes are and to have a clear understanding of their beliefs, values, and expectations


  • Are much more likely to be able to communicate these ideas to others
• Intrapersonal communication


  Involves the gathering, storing, and retrieving of information
• Components of intrapersonal communication

  • Cognitive component (meaning and language)
  • Affective component (attitudes and self-concept)
  • Operational component (listening and speaking)
• Intrapersonal communication is something that we do all the time, even if we are rarely aware of it
• Interpersonal communication


  The process of understanding and sharing meaning between ourselves and at least one other person where mutual opportunities for speaking and listening occur
• Interpersonal communication may take several forms: verbal (expressed in words), non-verbal (gestures, facial expressions, body language, silence)
• Good communication requires good listening skills - listening to the actual words, tone of voice, and observing body movements and posture
• Research shows we spend more than 40% of our time listening, and students spend 55% of their time listening, 13% reading and 8% writing