An Analysis of Non-Verbal Communication in Cross-Cultural Business Activities

With the rapid development of science and technology, the world is becoming a global village. As a result, business contacts between countries are becoming more and more frequent. So, learning to communicate with another people from different culture is vital important to businesspersons.

Besides verbal communication, non-verbal communication, such as eye movement, posture, touch and facial expressions, is also of great importance. It can exert influences on people’s communication, reflecting people’s thoughts and complement the verbal communication. Psychologists claim that the impact people make on others depends on 7% what one says, 38% how one says it, and 55% by body language. Since how one sounds also conveys a message, 93% of emotion communicated without actual words. Thus, the businesspersons need to be very careful with their non-verbal information. It is certain that one’s unconscious movements, for example, the gesture of lifting of the eyebrows will be taken seriously.

Non-verbal languages have more advantages than verbal ones. They are of more directness, more convenience and more expressiveness. But they may cause some problems in cross-cultures business interactions. Therefore, appropriate use of non-verbal signals can help business people to achieve better understanding and contribute to further development of international business.

A positive and honest message conveyed by one’s non-verbal communication will generate far more opportunities than one can think. Non-verbal messages can move prospects from suspicion to openness and receptiveness. People can also use body language to calm hostile or dissatisfied clients.

Uses of colors are also potentially offensive to a given culture if the creative people doing the ads are not fully aware of color implications. Some companies have failed to sell their products overseas and have never known why. The product or its container was merely an inappropriate color. Choice of package and product coloring is very tricky. International marketers need to know what colors and how they might affect product packaging, and advertising messages.

Most people may have found that the mood changes when the environment around changes. As to negotiations, environment choosing plays a great role. While choosing a suitable meeting room, the location of the building in which the meeting room is, the square of the room, the arrangement of seats, the sound and light setting and the decoration, etc. should be counted in. Each small element mentioned may have psychological and physiological impact on the negotiators.

This thesis discusses non-verbal communication in cross-cultural business activities and aims to improve the businesspersons’ communicative ability while doing international business. Non-verbal communication cannot be avoided in people’s life and it is of great importance in our daily communication. Although the world seems to be shrinking in some ways, the necessity of respecting and observing the use of non-verbal language of another country is as important as ever. Businesspersons need to know enough about the correct behaviors of a particular country so that they can avoid unintentionally offend its customs.

The meaning of any non-verbal communication act depends upon the individual involved, the context in which the act is performed, and the cultural background of the interacting people. Some non-verbal communication signals are universal in all cultures; however, most of them are not.

Businesspersons should remember that there are differences in interpretation of meanings and methods of communicating. They would better remain flexible and do not take things for granted or jump to a conclusion without further thinking. If people hold cultural relativism and have a good study on the strategies, they can make good use of the function of non-verbal signals and successfully avoid the above-mentioned problems while doing cross-cultural business.

To sum up, non-verbal communication is one of the key factors that influence the consequence of business communication. It is important for businesspersons to know the conventions and customs of non-verbal communication. The world economy will develop more rapidly with the better business communication, which will also leads the society to develop in a harmonious way. In a word, the more knowledge one has about non-verbal communication, the more success they will achieve in business field.