Role Of Communication At The Workplace

In the workplace today, we are likely to have a diverse mix of culture, age, race and gender balance. Nonverbal communication varies amongst all of these and also on the different contexts of the workplace i.e. meetings, conferences, tea breaks etc.

Early morning when arriving at the office, colleagues usually wave their hands and give a smile to greet each other depending on the relation you may have with the colleague. If it is a senior manager then the wave and smile may be more reserved. The senior manager will not necessarily wave and smile back but may just nod to show that they acknowledge your gesture. Colleagues who work closer to each other or may have developed a good relation, shake hands. Amongst Kenyans, colleagues may slap their hands together signifying the level of their friendship. If this was done with a European, they might get uneasy. In some cultures, women do not shake hands with men, however if a man insists, this may weaken the relation between them and make office work difficult to accomplish in case their work is closely related.

Depending on the performance, a supervisor may tap the supervisee on the shoulder, give a smile and nod their head signifying work well done. However, if the work does not meet expectations, this usually involves shaking the head from side to side, frowning, clicking, clasping the hands and a big distance between them. The supervisee may look down and fiddle with their hair or ears signifying nervousness. These may vary depending on the culture or race.

During tea time, when colleagues gather at the coffee station or cafeteria, there may be groups formed either in terms of race, culture, age, status or gender. If you do not belong to a particular group, it becomes difficult...

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... very formally, it may not have the same impact. The cleaner may be perceived not to take his work seriously. Likewise, if women dress up too exposing, it implies that they are not serious. A particular lady who wears exposing clothes and seems to get the annual award for performance every year may be perceived as to be taking advantage of the male managers even if she really performed the best every year. People with warm colored clothes are easily approached as compared to people with vivid colored clothes. Color may also impact on the seriousness of the person. People should be aware of the clothing styles and traditions of different cultures and races in order not to offend their colleagues in the workplace.

Communication has a major stake in the workplace and particular attention should be paid to nonverbal communication in order to be an effective communicator.