Non-verbal communication is easily understood as the process of communication through wordless messages. These messages can be elucidated as apparent behavior exhibited through gestures, postures, facial expressions, eye contact, clothing, symbols, infographics, proxemics, chronemics, haptics and even through silence. However, verbal communication, especially speech, also displays non-verbal cues through the emotion and speaking style as well as intonation, rhythm and other prosodic attributes. These non-verbal actions are extremely culture-bound. Although, certain non-verbal aspects are universal, a greater part of it is determined by the culture of the country. For instance, Asian culture is typified as less expressive in facial expression than Latin cultures.
Business is now a transaction across the global village. It has broken down all the boundaries of the states and countries to become a global phenomenon, thus reposing a great responsibility on the cross-culture communication. "When in Rome behave like a Roman"—over the years we have been listening to it, but we take little trouble to understand how the Romans actually behave, eventually leading to a cross-culture communication gap. It is absolutely necessary to unbolt the door to international business customs and practices so as to enable international managers to conduct business successfully around the world. |
