NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION, CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

As Ekman(1969) explains: Informative, communicative and interactive are some categories involved in non-verbal communication; all of these behaviors influence the way how our messages are perceived by others and the effectiveness in correctly transmission of the information we are trying to send. When cultural differences are in the middle is really important to attend these kind of behaviors due to the facility of committing mistake when interacting with people who was different background, education, beliefs, faith, religion, etc; that’s why creating a global map of who are we dealing with or will relate in a future is basic, doing some research about the other culture, using tools such as Hosftedes’ dimensions or Edward T.Hall Cultural dimension allow to create a preliminary vision of different places , which values are developed, if it is individualism or collectivism; Feminine or Masculinity, uncertainty avoidance; relationship with natures, context, space, time , power distance.. In a global world when each country has certain practices, ethnocentrism must be keep away from personal interaction and cultural sensitivity must be welcome. Studying the concepts mentioned above became useful when avoiding faults in crucial manners is the goal.

In business as in any relation that is being developed; it is important to take Informative, communicative and interactive communication into account in order to avoid misinterpretations and interferences; here will be presented some examples of non-verbal communications differences: a Germans who is monochromic and a Colombian who is polychromic set a reunion, the German arrives  on time even some minutes before, and the Colombian arrives 15 minutes late, he excuses, but this action could still be perceive for the German as disrespectful. Another example could be the Japanese who has a high power distance and a deep sense of respect to elder people and could interpreted the lack of a sign of respect to authority as inappropriate.  As a conclusion it could be said that non-verbal communication is even more challenging when cross-cultural interaction is in between, but it could be understate when studying and learning about the other part of the communicative cycle.

REFERENCES

Paul Ekman and Wallace V. Friesen, The repertoire of non-verbal Behavior, Semiotica; University of California San Francisco. 

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