When Demosthenes was asked what was the first part of oratory, he answered, `action'; asked about the second, he replied, `action'; for the action third he still answered, `action'. This shows us that people tend to believe actions more than words.

Our actions are a means of communication, subject to interpretation by others. Even the failure to act is a way of communicating. Today, many researchers are concerned with the information sent through communication that is independent of and different from verbal of non-verbal cues information; namely, the non-verbal communication.

While verbal communication is organized by language non-verbal communication is not. In business organizations, understanding the messages of team members as well as those of anyone else with whom you are communicating often involves more than merely listening to the spoken words. Non-verbal cues, in fact, can speak louder than words.

Your personal appearance, facial expressions, postures, gestures, eye contact, voice, proximity, touch—all of these non-verbal signals influence the way your message is interpreted or deciphered by your partners in a communication process. These silent messages communicate your

Feelings during any form of inter-personal communication that you have with your seniors, subordinates, or colleagues. Non-verbal communication includes all unwritten and unspoken messages, both intentional and unintentional. Though they have a profound impact on your receivers, it is difficult to interpret them accurately.

It may also include the way we wear our clothes or the silence we keep.

In person-to-person communications our messages are sent on two levels simultaneously. If the non-verbal cues and the spoken message are incongruous, the flow of communication is hindered. Right or wrong, the receiver of the communication tends to base the intentions of the sender on the non-verbal cues he/she receives.

Imagine that you are comfortably seated inside a movie hall and waiting for the movie to begin. The hall is noisy with people talking to each other, chatting over cellular phones, enjoying the music being played, etc. All of a sudden the hall becomes dark and the music stops. Now you sense a totally different mood in the auditorium. You and the others become silent, as you know that the movie is about to start in a few seconds. The darkness and the silence in the hall communicated something to you.

Recall a conversation during which you raised your eyebrows to convey your disbelief at a statement made by your partner or a meeting in which you appreciated a member by patting his back. Reminisce that deafening roar of applause that you received at the end of an inaugural address delivered by you to a large audience in a huge conference hall of an organization.

All the situations mentioned above convey a significant fact—we communicate not only through words but also through means other than words. Your smiling or frowning face, your furrowed brows, your immaculate clothing, your animated movements, your vibrant voice, your firm or limpid handshake—all communicate something to your listeners.distance.

Relevance of Non-verbal communication in organizations:

Belief in the importance of non-verbal communication is not new- ‘Don’t watch a person’s mouth but his fists’ was the advice of Martin Luther, the sixteenth century religious reformer.

Once we become professionals, we find that we are ill-equipped to cope with contradiction between the verbal and non-verbal messages that we come across in our organizations.

The words we generally use convey objective information; non verbal messages reveal our emotions and attitudes.

When we do words to talk about our emotions, we often talk about what we think we ought to feel, not what we really feel.

The gestures may be used by people, who are not actually talking, to comment on what is being said without breaking the flow of the speaker. Body movement can be used without the mutual obligation or ritual conduct that seems to be required by conversation. It may sometimes be used as a substitute for speech where the words might be regarded as too explicit or indelicate.

One study of a party showed how people used hand gestures as initial salutations to capture another's attention before entering into conversation. Another study showed how patients used flamboyant gestures to attract the doctor's attention away from his medical notes. In this context, gesture has the additional advantage of indirectness as well as visibility. A direct request for attention might be seen as a challenge to the doctor's authority.

Communication is more than verbal. Verbal exchanges account for only a fraction of the messages people send and receive. Research has shown that between 70 and 90% of the entire communication spectrum is non-verbal. Consequently, you should be aware of the different forms of non-verbal communication that you are likely to encounter during negotiation conferences.

Although we continually send and receive non-verbal messages, most of us are not fully aware of the ways that we communicate non-verbally. Still, if you watch carefully, you will see that most leading professionals (e.g., doctors, lawyers, politicians, and corporate chief executive officers) are excellent non-verbal communicators. Some people call it charisma. Others call it style.

If you are only aware of the sender's verbal message, you will likely miss the major portion of the overall communication. Being aware of both non-verbal and verbal messages will give you an important edge. Skills in interpreting non-verbal communications will help you glean useful information from others involved in the communication process. An awareness of non-verbal communication may also prevent you from harming your own position by inadvertently sending non-verbal signals that disclose confidential information or a weaknesses in your position.

When we display non-verbal signs, we may not intend to do so. Indeed, non verbal communication may take place even against our own intention. As a member of an audience, we may try to look attentive, but be unable to suppress a yawn. The speaker may see that we are bored, despite our best intention not to show it.

Different Strokes for Different FolksNon-verbal behaviors in different cultures can cause

even greater problems than the ones related to language differences.

There is the story of the Indian sales team of a company who were in a meeting in Japan. After winning a big business contract they started laughing and talking in their own language in such a way that the Japanese customer became confused about the commotion around him and suspected that something may have gone amiss during the negotiations. The customer halted the negotiations and the business contract was lost. The client had not signaled a culturally appropriate response to the successful bid and their celebration was misinterpreted. If the customer had understood the way of celebration as normal in another culture, he may not have thought it necessary to change his business decision.

The fact that non-verbal communication can be unintentional, unconscious, and idiosyncratic makes It very difficult to study Indeed the scientific study of non-verbal communication became possible only with the development of sophisticated recording—film or videotape—which allows repeated viewing, if necessary in slow motion. However, the major disadvantage of videotape is that the human observer still has to transcribe the behavior into appropriate categories.

Since non-verbal cues are important in emotional communication, they have also been regarded as central to inter-personal relationships.

Knowledge of non-verbal communication is important for managers who serve as leaders of organizational `teams', for at least two reasons:

First , to function effectively as a team leader the manager must interact with the other members successfully. Non-verbal cues, when interpreted correctly, provide the manager with one means to do so.

The team members project attitudes and feelings through non-verbal communication. Some personal needs, such as approval, growth, achievement, and recognition, may be met in effective teams.

Secondly, how something is expressed may carry more significance and weight than what is said, i.e., the words themselves. Accompanied by a smile or a frown, said with a loud, scolding voice or a gentle, easy one, the contents of our communications are framed by our holistic perceptions of their context.

Walking the TalkA good body posture is usually an indicator of confidence

and uprightness. However, without internal mental and emotional 'posture', your words will sound hollow to your audience. For instance, a used-car salesman from a dubious franchise may have great, body posture, greet you with a warm smile and a firm handshake.

However, if in his heart he sees you as just another customer whom he can take for a ride, then sooner or later, his internal conflict between what he says and what he really thinks will cause him to 'trip up'. His movements and gestures will start giving away his real intentions. You will start feeling uncomfortable around him, even though you may be unable to pinpoint why. However, if the same used-car salesman is genuinely interested in helping you find the right car and puts your needs before his own, then his words and actions will remain in harmony with his underlying intentions and you will instinctively trust him, even though you might not be able to identify the reason for such trust.

Silent language plays an important role in two areas directly related to management: how managers motivate their employees, and how the executives communicate their leadership and decision-making style. Studies have also shown the importance of non-verbal clues in the processes of job interviews and advertising.

Forms of Non-verbal CommunicationNon-verbal communications can involve conscious or

subliminal messages.Conscious Non-verbal CommunicationSenders of conscious non-verbal communications are

aware that they are sending a message and all also aware of the general meaning of that message. For example, the individuals extending a hug know that they are embracing someone and that the action is normally perceived as indicating affection. Receivers of conscious nonverbal communication are aware of receiving a message and its intended meaning. The receiver of a hug, for example, generally realizes that the message is a sign of friendship.

Subliminal Non-verbal CommunicationSubliminal messages are communicated to the

subconscious mind of the receiver of subliminal messages are not consciously aware of the message. However, these messages are important.

• Gut reactions are frequently based upon your subconscious reading of subliminal non-verbal communications.

• Police and military uniforms subliminally communicate the authority of those -caring them.

• Well-dressed executives project success and credibility.• A poor sense of dressing up transmits a message of failure

and a lack of credibility.• Young, beautiful people are often seen in advertisements

to communicate the sub-conscious message that the advertised product is associated with youth and beauty.

Subliminal messages are often more powerful than conscious messages. The advertising world is replete with

Voluntary or Involuntary Messages Conscious and subliminal messages can e both transmitted voluntarily or involuntarily.

Involuntary Non-verbal Communication Most non-verbal messages are involuntary. In fact, many communicators are not aware that they communicate non-verbally.

• Body language is one area where the involuntary nature of non-verbal communication is particularly evident. Everyday people unintentionally convey non-verbal signals by their facial expressions, gestures, and body postures.

James Vicary was the first to use a subliminal message n an advertisement in 1957. His goal was to make people want popcorn and Coke by flashing 'Eat popcorn' and 'Drink Coke' briefly on a screen during movies. He claimed that popcorn sales rose by 57.5% and Coke sales by 18.1% Subliminal slogans have come a long way since then. One of the best-known examples of subliminal advertising slogans is Nike's `Just do it'.

This slogan could mean different things to different people depending on their personal experience or cultural background. To a murderer, it could mean just go out and kill whomever you want. To a teenager, on the other hand, it could mean do what you feel like doing, even if it means breaking some rules.

Closer home, Britannia (India) Ltd revamped its essential image of a biscuit company into a healthy eating, processed food company through its now famous 'Eat Healthy, Think Better' communication. Similarly, Bharat Petroleum Co. Ltd, a major retail arm of the oil industry, projects its image under the banner 'Pure for Sure' at its various fuel pumps around the country.

Arms and the ManAn interesting example of an involuntary message is the

position of the arms during a negotiation. In general, an open arm position suggests that someone is receptive to the negotiation process. Watch for changes in this position. If your counterpart's arms are lying open on the table where both of you are sitting as you start the negotiation, and he/she takes his/her arms off the table and crosses them over his/ her chest when you mention that your company has a standard deposit of 50% on all first time orders, it is a fairly reliable signal that he/she is not particularly pleased with this information. At this point, you may want to clarify your words, or even better, ask your counterpart if he/she would like to express his/her concern about the deposit.

Another example would be that of people telling lies who often involuntarily send a telltale non-verbal message to listeners by frequently blinking their eyes.

Since involuntary non-verbal communication represents unplanned physical responses, this communication form tends to be particularly revealing and more honest than verbal communication.

Voluntary Non-verbal Communication: Non-verbal communication can also be controlled by a knowledgeable person.

A person who knows that people telling lies often blink their eyes can take special care not to blink when telling a lie.

A person who knows that a hug indicates friendship can consciously hug his/her worst enemy as trick to put the person off guard or as part of an effort to improve their relationship.

Functions of Non-verbal Communication1.To create impressions: we use non-verbal

communication to create impressions.Legs can Talk tooPeople often say they cross their legs for comfort, but this

is only partially true. If you have ever crossed your legs for a. long period of time, you know that this position can be extremely uncomfortable. Crossing your legs can be disastrous in business negotiations. Gerard I. Nierenberg and Henry H. Calero, in their book How to Read a Person Like a Book, describe a study in which they found, after videotaping 2,000 transactions, that no sales were made by people who had their legs crossed. If you want to give the impression of being co-operative and trustworthy, sit with your legs uncrossed, feet flat on the floor and body tilted slightly towards the other party. This posture sends a positive signal.

Physical appearance cues weigh heavily on this function, but kinesics, chronemics and other cues can contribute to how others form perceptions of competence and character.

2.To manage interactions: non-verbal communication is used to manage interaction. Facial expressions, vocalics, and even proxemics are used to signal turns in conversations.

3. Expressing emotions: non-verbal communication is a primary means of expressing emotion. In fact, some experts have identified non-verbal expression to be part and parcel of emotional experience. In addition, each cultural community has its own rules for display of emotions.

4.Send relational messages: non-verbal communication allows people to send relational messages. We convey affection, power, respect, and dominance through non-verbal cues.

5. To convey deception: deception is conveyed and detected via non-verbal cues.

6. To send messages of power and persuasion: Finally, non-verbal communication also is used to send messages of power and persuasion. Leadership is conferred on the basis of non-verbal cues.

Kinesics The best way to access executives' managerial potential is not to listen to what they have to say, but to observe what they do when they are saying it. Body language is the unspoken communication that goes on in every face-to-face encounter with another human being.

Kinesics Facial expression, posture and gesture

Oculesics Eye contact

Haptics The communication of touch

Proxemics The communication of space and proximity

Appearance and Artifacts

The physical characteristics, the attire and the ac-cessories such as perfume, make up, jewellery.

Paralinguistics / Vocalics

Variations in pitch, speed, volume and plauses that convey meaning

Chronemics

The effects of time on communication

Kinesics is articulation of the body, or movement resulting from muscular and skeletal shift. This includes all actions, physical or physiological, automatic reflexes, posture, facial expressions, gestures, and other body movements. Body language, body idiom, gesture language, organ language, and kinetic acts are just some terms used to depict kinesics. In ways that body language works in non-verbal acts, body language parallels paralanguage. Kinetic acts may substitute language, accompany it, or modify it. Kinetic acts may be lexical or informative and directive in nature, or they may be emotive or empathic movements. It is also the anthropological term for body language.

Facial Expression Your boss's smile makes you feel happy while his frown leaves you discomfited; your subordinate's confused expression indicates the need to continue with an explanation; your customer's smile and nodding signal the time to close a sale.

The face seems to be the most obvious component of body language, but it is certainly the most confusing and difficult to understand. Modern studies of facial

Chares Bell in 1806 published Essays on the Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression: As Connected Fine Arts. Charles Darwin's The Expressions of Emotions in Man and Animals was apparently influenced by Bell's earlier work. Facial expressions are like sentences in human language, they are infinite in variety. There are five basic physical descriptions of facial expressions: neutral, relaxed, uplifted, and droopy.

The neutral expression could result in various expressions, such as pleasure, mask. thoughtful, and quiet attention.

The relaxed expression could result in love, pleasure, and submission.

The tense expression could result in fear, surprise, determination, contempt, extreme interest.

The uplifted expression could result in happiness, anxiety, rage, love and attention.

Finally, the droopy, in distress, suffering, grief, dismay, and shock.

Facial expressions may portray the artists and clowns . we effectively exploit facial expressions and gestures as social entertainment.

The face can be used to communicate emotional meaning more accurately that other medium in inter-personal communication. Facial expressions tell the etudes of the communicator. Researchers have discovered that certain facial areas our emotional state fetter than others. For example, the eyes fiend to reveal happiness or sadness, and even surprise. The over face can reveal happiness or surprise; me smile, for example, can communicate friendliness and co-operation. The upper

Facial expressions also provide information about a communicator's thought process. For example, one could judge the confidence of the communicator in the

information being given, or the reliability of this information. Facial expressions also serve as a source of positive or negative feedback from the receiver. The face has the capability to produce messages of very high quality, in which the meanings

Facial expressions that indicate an emotion that a person is communicating without actually feeling it are called facial emblems.

These emblems serve as a kind of short hand that is widely understood Facial expressions also serve as listener responses, indicating attention to the speaker.

There are six categories of facial expressions that are generally agreed upon by researchers: happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger, and disgust.

The human face is the most complex and versatile of all species, serving many different functions. The overall facial expression is important to a receiver's perception of credibility. An expression of dullness detracts from an image of dynamism. A speaker's face must show interest and attention. This helps considerably in the credibility rating.

Posture: Have you ever watched great presenters in action—men and women who are alone on the stage yet make us laugh, cry, and be swept along by their words and enthusiasm? Watch them carefully and you will note that they do not stand rigidly in one spot.

They bounce and run and stroll and glide all around the stage because they know that human beings are drawn to movement. As part of man's genetic heritage, we are programmed to pay attention to movement. We instantly notice it, whether we want to or not, assessing the movement for any hint of threat to us.

The right posture: Get your posture right and you will automatically start feeling better. The next time you notice that you are feeling a bit down, take a look at how you are standing or sitting. Head position is a great one to play around with, with yourself and others

When you want to feel confident and self-assured keep your head level both horizontally and vertically upright.

You can also use this straight head position when you want to be taken as authoritative and serious.

Legs are the furthest point away from the brain, consequently they are the hardest bits of our bodies to consciously control.

They tend to move around a lot more than normal when we are nervous, stressed, or being deceptive.

So the best strategy is to keep them as still as possible in most situations, especially at interviews or work meetings .

The angle of the body in relation to others gives an indication of our attitudes and feelings towards them. We angle towards people we find attractive, friendly, and interesting, and angle ourselves away from those we do not

Good communicators are sensitive to small cues like these and tailor their behaviour accordingly. They will notice a forward-leaning position as an indication that their remarks are being well received and will capitalize upon the point that led to this action. When a remark results in pulling back, a smart communicator will uncover the damage and try to rectify it.

Awareness of such subtle messages can make the difference between success and failure in a variety of business settings: interviews, presentations, group meetings, and one-to-one interactions.

Body relaxation and tension is a strong indicator of who has the power in one-to-one relationships. As a rule, the more relaxed person in a given situation, has the higher status. Height also affects perceptions of power: tallness usually equates with dominance. Standing up tall can help you appear more authoritative, whereas a slumped posture or slouched shoulders create an appearance of submissive or passive demeanor.

Perceived Competence: Posture also can influence perceived competence. The difference between gesture and posture is that a gesture conveys a message by using one part of the body, whereas a postural shift involves the movement of the body as a whole.In a nutshell, posture is indicative of attention, involvement, relative status between persons, and the degree to which another person is liked. Posture can also reveal the intensity of emotional states and is almost always studied in conjunction with other kinds of non-verbal communication behaviours.

A list of some postures and the message they communicate is given below:Slumped posture = low spiritsErect posture = high spirits, energy, and confidenceLean forward = open and interestedLean away = defensive or disinterestedCrossed arms = defensiveUncrossed arms = willingness to listenGestures - Gestures are observed actions. By moving parts of your body, you can express both specific and general messages, some voluntary and some spontaneous.

Ambiguous or unambiguous: Gestures can be either ambiguous or unambiguous. Point at water and then point to your mouth. This is an example of an unambiguous gesture.

Another person watching you is almost certain to understand that you want to drink water. There is hardly any chance of misinterpretation here.

On the other hand, when you observe some listeners nodding their head to what you have just said, you are confused whether they agree or disagree with you.

Unnatural gestures: Unnatural gestures, such as touching the body and playing with objects like clothing or pens, are detrimental to the conveyance of the message and hurt credibility.

Leg and foot movements also are known to represent discomfort and should be avoided. Finger-tapping, lip-licking, and smiling too often are tentative gestures that show lack of confidence. These gestures do not enhance the communicator's message and should not be used.

Beneficial gestures: Beneficial gestures are usually performed with the hands, arms, and head. These should be used to emphasize a point.

Communicators should keep their hands and elbows away from their bodies to avoid the appearance of nervousness. In short, gestures that show participation and dynamism are beneficial to anyone who wishes to establish his/her credibility.

If someone says something that you disagree with, then by all means show your disapproval by crossing them.

Hand gestures are so numerous it is hard to give a brief guide.

Palms slightly up and outward are seen as open and friendly.

Palm down gestures are generally seen as dominant, emphasizing, and possibly aggressive, especially when there is no movement or bending between the wrist and the forearm.

This palm up, palm down gesture is very important when it comes to handshaking and where appropriate we suggest you always offer a handshake upright and vertical, which should convey equality. One of the most frequently observed, but least understood, cues is a hand movement.

Most people use hand movements regularly when talking. While some gestures (e.g., a clenched fist) have universal meanings, most of the others are individually learned and idiosyncratic. Hand gestures are ubiquitous in face-to-face communication, and appear to be integral to the production and comprehension of language in face-to-face contexts. In fact, listeners take into account the information conveyed by gesture, even when this information is not related to the information conveyed in speech.

Gestures can be broadly classified into two categories: conscious and spontaneous.

Conscious Gestures: When we reflect on what kinds of gestures we have seen in our environment, we often come up with a type of gesture known as emblematic.

For example, when you enter an office and the receptionist is on the phone, he/she may flash an emblem such as a hand movement to signal you to sit down and wait.

Some emblems communicate specific messages only within certain cultures or subcultures.

The American `V-for-victory' gesture can be made either with the palm or the back of the hand towards the listener. In Britain, however, a `V' gesture made with the back of the hand towards the listener is inappropriate in polite society.

Examples of emblems in American culture are the thumb-and-index-finger gesture that signals `okay' or the `thumbs up' gesture. Emblematic gestures are consciously produced and are, therefore, easier to remember.

Another conscious gesture that has been the subject of some study in the interface community is the so-called propositional gesture'. An example is the use of the hands to measure the size of a symbolic space while the speaker says ‘it was this big’.

Spontaneous Gestures: Spontaneous (unplanned, unselfconscious) gestures accompany speech in most communicative situations, and in most cultures (despite the common belief to the contrary). People even gesture while they are speaking on the telephone.

The spontaneous common gestures are of four types:Iconic Gestures: Iconic gesture depict, by the form of the gesture, some feature of the action or event being described, such as the gesture of holding a tube with a handle that accompanies `Press the [handle of the caulking gun slowly as you move nozzle across the window ledge that needs caulk]'. Iconic gestures may specify manner in which an action is to be carried out, even if this information is not given in the accompanying speech.

Metaphoric Gestures: Metaphoric gestures are also representational, concept they represent has no physical form ; instead the form of the gesture comes from a common metaphor. An example is `the meeting went on and on' accompanied by a hand indicating rolling motion.

Deictics: Deictics spatialize, or locate in the physical space in front of the narrator, aspects of the discourse; these can be discourse entities that have a physical existence, such as the tube of caulk that the narrator pointed to on the workbench, or nonphysical discourse entities. An example of the latter might be pointing left and then right while saying, `well; Rekha was looking at Tina across the table...'.

Deictics do not have to be pointing index fingers. One can also use the whole hand to represent entities or ideas or events in space.

Beat Gestures: Beat gestures are small baton-like movements that do not change in form with the content of the accompanying speech. They serve a pragmatic function, occurring with comments on one's own linguistic contribution, speech repairs, and reported speech. An example is, `she talked first, I mean second' accompanied by a hand flicking down and then up.

Beat gestures may signal that the information conveyed in the accompanying speech does not advance the `plot' of the discourse, but is an evaluative or orienting comment.

Oculesics: Oculesics is the way eyes are used during a communication exchange. This may include eye contact or the avoidance of eye contact. It may also include all other eye movements, such as looking at other body parts of the other person. Oculesic movements are frequently associated with kinesics.

Eye contact is a direct and powerful form of non-verbal communication. The superiors in an organization generally maintain eye contact longer than the subordinate. The direct stare of the sender of a message conveys candour and openness.

It elicits a feeling of trust. Downward glances are generally associated with modesty. Eyes rolled upward are associated with fatigue.

Studies on eye contact and its effect on communication and credibility have found that maintaining your gaze while communicating is beneficial to credibility, and, conversely, averting eye contact is detrimental to credibility. Eye contact studies have produced information about the effect of eye contact on the three components of credibility—dynamism competence, and trust worthiness.

The avoidance of eye contact also signals something meaningful. Looking away contributes to maintaining psychological distance.

Eye Behaviour is usually divided into two categories, gaze and mutual gaze

Mutual gazing is present when two individuals interact and look at each other. Gazing serves four functions: regulatory, monitoring, cognitive and expressive.

Wise business communicators make a point of attempting to engage every member they are talking to by looking at him/her because they consider the eyes to c the most accurate predictor of be speaker's true feelings and attitudes. You should remember that maintaining good eye contact with those you meet or with whom you interact would enhance effectiveness of your communication.

The following can serve as effective guidenlines on eye contact:

• If you have trouble staring someone in the eye, look at something else on their face.

• When speaking to a group look at everyone.• Look at people who are key decision makers or

hold power.• Look at reactive listeners.• Do not look at the floor, scripts or anything that

causes you tilt your head away from the receiver.• Do not look at bad listeners who may distract

you.

HapticsHaptics or tactile communication or touch is an

important form of communication for many primate species. Primates are social animals. They live in large groups. Touch helps the group form bonds and stay peaceful. Primates often groom each other. Female primates often hold and frequently cuddle and comfort their young. Mother tigers lick and nuzzle their babies, chimpanzees groom each other, and bear cubs wrestle with each other. Touch is used to comfort, to establish dominance, and to establish bonds. Humans are no exception.

We feel loved, cared for, respected, appreciated, and emotionally supported with touch. This form of non-verbal communication also exists in-other communication activities, such as a handshake, touching someone's feet to show respect, an arm around the shoulder, a kiss, or a hug.

Although used most frequently during greetings and departures, touching may occur in a variety of circumstances, including a conversation. Some cultures place great emphasis on physical contact between people during a conversation, while people from societies in which touching is limited may feel uncomfortable in such a situation.

Haptic behaviour may be divided into the following degrees of intimacy:

• functional/professional • social/polite• friendship/warmth • love/intimacy

Successful persuaders often touch those they are seeking to persuade. Touch is especially go imparting a sense of empathy. The skin's use for communication is highly related to subliminal perception, or communication in in which the meaning is less obvious. In business situations, touching suggests dominance. In other words a person of higher status is more likely to touch a person of lower status.

ProxemicsFor most of us, someone standing very close to us

makes us uncomfortable. We feel our `space' has been invaded. People seek to extend their territory in many ways to attain power and intimacy. We tend to mark our territory either with permanent walls, or in a classroom with our coat, pen, paper, etc. We like to protect and control our territory.

Personal space is your `bubble'—the space you place between yourself and others. This invisible boundary becomes apparent only when someone bumps or tries to enter your bubble. As a species, man is highly territorial, but we are rarely aware of it unless our space is somehow violated

Spatial relationships and territorial boundaries directly influence our daily encounters.

Decades of psychological and anthropological research have formulated the concept of proxemics. Proxemics is the study of the nature, degree, and effect of the spatial separation individuals naturally maintain. It defines regions around people and the acceptable social behaviours in those zones. As the distance between two people decreases the degree of intimacy is increased, culminating in physical contact.

Space, distance, and territory are factors related to proxemic communication.

The term 'proxemics' was coined by a researcher E.T. Hall in 1963.

He investigated man's use of personal space in contrast with `fixed' and `semi-fixed 'feature space Fixed feature space is characterized by unmovable boundaries (divisions

in office building), while semi-fixed feature space is defined by fixed boundaries such as furniture.

The study of spatial territory for the purpose of communication uses four categories of space

• intimate distance for embracing or whispering,

• personal distance for conversations among close friends,

• social distance for conversations among acquaintances, and

public distance used for public speaking

In organizations, most people use space and distance to communicate important information about themselves.

There are three basic principles that summarize the use of personal space in an organization: The higher your position (status) in the organization,

• more and better space you will have,• the better protected your territory will be, and• the easier it will be to invade the territory of

lower-status personnel.

Appearance and Artifacts: Potential employers, customers, and colleagues are usually impressed by people who are trim, muscular, and good in shape. One's physical appearance creates an image of the person in the same way that other nonverbal messages do. People who look attractive are considered to be likable and persuasive, and they have generally successful careers.

They are also found to be credible more often than less attractive people. This channel of non-verbal communication confers a meaning that is transmitted by physical characteristics of the body, attire, and the accessories. These three, physical characteristics of the body include facial shape, body shape, height, skin colour, body odour, hair, deformities, etc.

Attire refers to clothing and accessories refer to other appendages or manipulable objects in the environment that may reflect messages from the designer or the user, such as fragrance, cosmetics, furniture, art, pets, or other possessions such as glasses, jewellery, handkerchief, flowers, helmet, and so on.

In today's society, the purpose of clothing has changed from merely fulfilling a need to expressing oneself. Clothing and other artifacts are especially powerful signifiers and convey a great deal of detailed information about someone's job, personality, values, and lifestyle. For example) uniforms of one sort or another are a feature in many, if not most, fields.

Some uniforms are obvious—the army, the navy, or the air force, the police, schools, and some colleges, and even hospitals.

Most of the other occupations and organizations have more subtle uniforms, which consist of a clearly defined range of regular clothing that are acceptable. In other words, there is an unspoken dress code in many organizations. The importance of clothing is a central aspect of impression management as prescribed by writers for the business market.

Generally, people are treated the basis the social status their dress indicates, that is to say, poorly-dressed people are treated poorly and the well-dressed ones are regarded favourably and treated well. Your dress should flatter your body type, rather than exposing your weaknesses.

To establish credibility, you should wear styles that fit the environment and make you feel comfortable. The kind of clothing you wear can influence how people react to you. For example, if you are aware that discussions are hard to get going if you appear in a business suit and tie when you are among the shop floor employees, you can dress down.

Appearance also takes into account personal grooming. Overall appearance is the non-verbal factor that people are most aware of and manipulate the most. Appearance communicates how we feel and how we want to be viewed.

Your appearance says a lot about you, from the clothing you wear, to your to your hairstyle, the jewellery you wear, these artifacts often communicate information about you.

The most influential artifacts you own are your clothes. Before you even speak, your artifacts will speak for you. Be aware that bad breath, body odour, and overpowering cologne or perfume will also speak for you.

Personal physical appearance usually provides the first available data about a stranger. Right or wrong, people make inferences based on this `superficial' data. Inferences are made based on others' height, weight, skin colour, hair style, clothing, and any other physical attribute and artifact.

You must always keep the following in mind:• Pay attention to good grooming, including a neat

hairstyle, body hygiene, polished shoes, and clean nails.•Invest in professional-looking clothing and accessories• Avoid flashy garments, clunky jewellery, garish make-

up, and overpowering perfume.

Ensure that you feel comfortable in your attire and that your accessories suit you before embarking on your business day

Paralanguage/Vocalics: You may have overheard two people arguing in the adjoining room, even though you could not make out their words, their emotions and the fact that they were arguing were explicit from the sound and tone of their voices. Likewise, you might have heard two of your colleagues talking to each other in a different language other than yours, though you could not understand the contents, you would have had some idea about their talk or at least their feelings—excitement, delight, frustration, exhaustion, boredom, or grief—from the tone of their voice and other non-verbal means.

The voice is an extraordinary human instrument. People from different walks of life recognize that the human voice communicates something beyond language. These effects are referred to by impressionistic descriptions, such as tone of voice, voice quality, manner of speaking, or `the way they said it'.

Every time we speak, our voice reveals our gender, age, geographic background, level of education, native birth, emotional state, and our relationship with the person being spoken to. All these clues (and many more) are contained in small fragments of speech, and other people can `read' our voices with remarkable accuracy. When we speak, we `encode' important information about ourselves; when we listen to others, we can `decode' important information about them.

Paralanguage refers to all vocally-produced sound that is not a direct form of linguistic communication. Thus, paralanguage includes utterance that may have strong signifying traits but no semantic meaning. This `non-lexical' vocal communication may be considered a type of non-verbal communication, in its broadest sense, as it can suggest many emotional nuances. This category includes a number of sub-categories:

• Tone (direct, commanding, loud, harsh, derisive, disguised, soft, gentle, comforting, pleasing, wheedling, volatile, scheming, sharp, boisterous, rage, nasal, etc.) • Inflection (spread–narrow)

• Pitch (high–low)• Intensity (loud-soft)• Articulation (precise-imprecise)• Rhythm (smooth–jerky)

Quality• Dysfluencies/Pauses (silence-vocalized) •

Tempo/Pacing (rapid–slow)

Tone Tone, taken in its most literal meaning, is a feature of non-verbal communication. It is the physical level at which the sound of the human voice is transmitted.To a linguist (or speech therapist), `tone' means the quality of sound produced the voice in uttering words. Ina general sense, `tone' is the attitude of the speakerrevealed in the choice of vocabulary or the intonation of speech. Tone is used to convey an attitude. This may be done consciously or unconsciously.could be said that there is no such thing as a text or verbal utterance without a :one. In most cases, tone is either taken for granted, or perceived unconsciously.

Linguists and speech therapists chart intonation patterns by a system of marks on a page to suggest the rise and fall of the tone. Intonation is the term by which we refer to the patterns of sound that are evident in every utterance. We sometimes use the term `monotone' to imply an absence of intonation. This usually suggests some negative state of mind on the part of the speaker.

Voice Inflection: Voice inflection is the way we change the tone of our voice to emphasize key words. You can vary your voice by stressing a word or phrase, stretching a word or phrase, or pausing before a word or phrase.

Stressing—I've got a BIG project Stretching—I've got a b—i—g project. Pausing—I've got. ..a big project.Pitch: Pitch is a measure of how high or low a voice is, and is mainly determined by the speed of vibration of the vocal folds; the higher the pitch, the faster the rate of vibration, and the lower the pitch, the slower the rate of vibration.