Demonstrative Communication
Name
BCOM/275
June 10, 2013 profesor
Demonstrative Communication
Most people think of communication as a face-to-face conversation with words only. It can be easy to discount some different ways that a person can communicate his or her message to others during a face-to-face situation. This is with nonverbal communication that can include a person’s facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, eye contact, and other cues into how he or she are feeling about a conversation. These nonverbal cues can provide a great deal of insight into the thoughts that may be going through the conversation participants’ mind during their exchange. At times, these nonverbal gestures are very helpful in adding to the conversation. Some people do not even realize how much they are giving away with the cues their nonverbal gestures are giving away.
There are plenty of ways that demonstrative communication can be effective for the sender and the receiver in that it gives another dimension to the conversation. It gives the receiver more clues about the sender is truly feeling about the message that they are sharing. For instance, a sender could be relaying news that should be happy for them to be giving, but through their nonverbal cues let the receiver know that they are not feeling completely happy about what is going to be happening in their lives. For instance, a man could discover that he will be a father who certainly would be happy news, but he could be worried about the type of father he may be or if he will be able to provide for the mother and child. The receiver will be able to pick up on these nonverbal cues and ask for more information about why the person is not completely happy with the news. This can then help the conversation continue and allow the sender to get his worries off his chest, and perhaps move on to the feeling of happiness that he should be feeling. Nonverbal cues can help to make a conversation more effective for all parties involved.
There are times when demonstrative communication may not be very effective for the sender and the receiver because it can be misinterpreted. This is especially true in a situation in which the people involved do not know each other very well. For instance, if a woman drops her wallet and a man goes to give it back to her, but acts nervous about it; she may assume that he may have picked her pocket to get her wallet. She could also think he is trying to get her to give him money for handing it back to her. The difference between demonstrative communication that may be acceptable with friends and family may be ineffective in the workplace. Employees may feel uncomfortable or that a supervisor is sexually harassing them if a supervisor is more hands on when speaking to the employees who are under them. This may cause the employee to be unhappy in his or her position, and perhaps even complain about the supervisor, which could get the supervisor fired because of ineffective demonstrative communication.
Demonstrative communication may go beyond just the conversation, but that does not mean that it does not involve listening and responding. The conversation will be better understood by the receiver actually listening closely to what the sender is saying along with how the sender is relaying it to them through words, body language, tone of voice, and other nonverbal gestures. Many times listening to the tone of voice that the person is using can provide a wealth of information about the true feelings he or she has about what is being discussed. Demonstrative communication will add context to the conversation that can be used to further it along. Active listening is important during a conversation as the closer attention the receiver pays to everything that is being communicated to respond properly to the sender. For instance, the
