Abstract
Today’s turbulent global market is accompanied by diverse challenges that organizations ought to confront through processing continuous reforms and shifting workplace demographics, managing knowledge and learning, strengthening identity, advancing diversity issues, and engaging employees across cultures. This is necessitated by communication and listening concepts, therefore, leaders within organizations tend to establish relationship opportunities based on listening because it is multidimensional construct which encompasses diverse concepts that need to be integrated into leadership studies to enhance better communication in the corporate world. It is noted that effective communication on job related issues is a key component in securing individual performance. Internal communication is the pillar of successful solutions and professional communicators must serve the tactical, strategic, and leadership roles to aid organizations pursue the concepts of listening. The study seeks to address the understanding of the verbal and the non-verbal concepts of listening which have significant impacts in influencing an individual’s leadership potential. Having an extensive understanding of these concepts presents evidence that listening is essential and should be studied and incorporated within organizational setup.
Introduction
People engage in communication on daily basis and organizations are not exempted. Listening to people and understanding them is crucial because listening is depicted as the first skill that individuals develop hence all the cognitive skills rely on the ability to listen. Within the context of listening skills are the concepts of verbal and the non-verbal cues. Organizational leadership entails people communicating with the aim of developing relationships as they work to improve the society. Interaction is the basis of leadership, thus, there is need to focus on improving means at which employees address issues and develop relationships with others based on the concepts of listening since advancing organizational goals requires knowledge of listening and addressing others ethically. The scope of listening requires the combination of verbal and non-verbal responses accompanied by a person’s cognition and behavioral traits. The hallmark of interpersonal relationships is established through listening, whereby employees in the corporate world develop the inner drive to willingly pay attention to the clients.
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Literature Reviews
According to the study on “Increasing Importance of The Nonverbal Communication In Retail Industry” conducted by Irabatti (2012), human beings often communicate 35% through verbal communication while 65% is through nonverbal communication. An aspect of verbal and nonverbal contradiction often result in people believing in actions relayed instead and this has been noted as a great challenge in sectors where clients interact with sales persons directly. The author suggests that nonverbal communication of the sales persons is crucial because it proves to be more effective than verbal communication, thus saves time of sales staff. The research posits that in the personal selling domain, nonverbal and verbal cues aid people to communicate effectively in social and business settings. Based on the cognitive and behavioral listening perspective, a sales person or any employee can read and interpret the nonverbal traits of a client. The author suggests that such cues are essential since they don’t have to literally listen to a client views, but such forms of communication tip them if the prospect they are attending to is impatient and skeptical or if they have developed interest in the sales presentation.
Irabatti also highlights Fatt (1998) research on the importance of nonverbal communication in the corporate setup saying that it helps in reading the consumer’s thoughts regarding products and services because the prospects may be revealing information without being aware of it and such information can be used to improve service delivery. Focusing in social interactions, he claims that noticeable changes in body posture and gestures often show the truth relayed through the message since the individual will be distracted and may display aversion of eye gaze when the message relayed is a manipulation. He also relates this to a past study by Urbanaik (2005) which puts emphasis on the need to recognize and analyze nonverbal communication which is part of the listening concepts and integrate them in the organizational training programs because the field is new. He further reiterates that, ensuring employees acquaint themselves and stick to positive nonverbal cues in any transaction makes customers establish affirmative thoughts towards service providers and such aspects attract clients and boost the organizational image.
Zhan (2012) spices the subject on nonverbal cues through his journal article, “Nonverbal Communication in Pride and Prejudice” by relating his research to the past studies to help in establishing a foundation for the new field of listening concept which aids in communication. According to the author, people are used to the general trend of communication which is inclined towards language. He, however, suggests that communication does not just rely on the verbal concepts, but it encompasses a wide spectrum of nonverbal forms which are essentially not coded in words but serve a significant role in organizational setups while addressing diverse cultures. Hans (2015) also puts it that nonverbal cues aid in capturing and assisting clienteles from different cultural setups in meeting their wants. The author suggests that this listening concept has been classified into several spectrums to fully capture what employees need to understand and put into practice while attending to customers. The varied spectrums include body movement (kinesics), our use of time, and our use of space (proxemics).
In the corporate world, these key aspects are directly relevant to intercultural communication and may involve eye contact, facial expression, gestures, and the length of time between non-verbal communications. Such aspects require employees to cognitive and behavioral perspectives to interpret and understand the message passed by the clients. This is even more relevant while attending to clients with impaired judgments and hearing problems. The service provider can read their minds and relate to their listening ability. Ideally, Zhan was trying to demystify the perception that real communication is just based on verbal codes. He cites that nonverbal forms convey lots of information or sometimes carry large flow of information than verbal codes that organizational stakeholders should reconsider integrating in their systems through training programs to boost communication strategies while attending to clients.
Blahova (2015) in his study, “Specific role of nonverbal communication in business” talks about the need to improve effective communication while handling clients because it aids employees in acclimatizing with the person being attended to or their situation and in constructing better ways of assisting them. He, therefore, advocates for the adoption of the three concepts of listening and communication which are distinct yet interrelated; the concept of assertiveness, verbal communication skills, and nonverbal communication skills.
On another scenario, Sakvarelidze (2016) in his article, “Towards a Psychological Theory of Body Language” highlights that the concept of the body language or rather nonverbal communication is has been encouraged in most organizations because in the contemporary societal, there is a likelihood that the corporate environments have noticed that paralinguistic components are essential for reinforcing verbally conveyed contents in both listeners and speakers. With that in mind, it is easy to attend to an array of cultures and ensure customer satisfaction is attained in the process.
Listening often entail receiving information from various stimuli, both verbal and nonverbal. Such listening abilities include attention, perception, and processing. It is through listening, dialogue, and observation that human relationships are sustained and enhanced and this is clarified in Tandon’s (2015) article entitled “Barriers in Employee Effective Training and Learning” which makes references to a public speaking. He says that people can relate to what others intend to communicate through observation and cognitive establishments. The author describes and conducts an analysis of Lord Krishna’s picture while making a public address to Arjuna on Kurukshetra grounds. The author, therefore, proves that even without using the words people can still relay information with utmost efficiency since body language plays a profound role in the discourse. For that matter, facilitating training on such ideologies enables organizations to stand out among others because of valuing ideas which meet the desires of clients from diverse cultures.
Conclusion
Communication creates connections to others and this is achieved through focusing one’s attention to a variety of stimuli from the environment because the process involves shared understanding and interpretation. Interpretation assigns meaning to an experience hence it is pertinent to remain keen to decipher what the clients are saying. The relevance of such an experience is for the growth and development of relationships among people across the societal setup and in the corporate world. The essence of such interpersonal relationship developed at the workplace is to explore the significant role nonverbal communication while conducting a check on the longevity and effectiveness of interpersonal relationships which are key drivers for organizational growth.
References
Blahova, M. (2015). Specific role of nonverbal communication in business. European Scientific Journal, ESJ , 11 (10).
Hans, A., & Hans, E. (2015). Kinesics, Haptics and Proxemics: Aspects of Non-Verbal Communication. Journal of Humanities and Social Science , 20 (2), 47-48.
Irabatti, P. (2012). Study on Increasing Importance of Nonverbal Communication in Retail Industry. Abhinav Publication , 1 (4), 96-103.
Sakvarelidze, R., & Buachidze-Gabashvili, M. (2016). TOWARD A PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY OF BODY LANGUAGE. European Scientific Journal, ESJ , 11 (10).
Tandon R., (2015). Barriers in employee effective training and learning. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences , 6 (3 S2), 240.
Zhan, L. (2012). Nonverbal Communication in Pride and Prejudice. Theory & Practice in Language Studies , 2 (8).
