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Understanding Gestalt Communication
Nadeem Yousaf
Communication
is a source of interpersonal reinforcement
to condition relationship among people.
Like all other social settings,
we
use a lot of verbal
and
non-verbal communication
in organizations as well,
which greatly
affect on motivation level of employees and overall
efficiency
of the organization.
A key thrust of the article is that communication is not just
process of exchanging words but a gestalt process.
Commonly known communication is that
communication
is what the receiver understands, not what the sender says. During the
process of interaction, human beings try to read each others'
mind through verbal
words
and non-verbal
cues
of communication. Non-verbal means of communications are as important as
verbal
-
may be more. For example, facial display
of expression
is a component of an emotional response to an immediate stimulus; the
smile can be classified as an insult
or
as
a
playful
tactics
to escape aggressive counteraction.
Human beings
take support of non-verbal communication because the overt accusation
sometimes can be more dangerous. It is said that people exchange
behaviours of aggression, domination, or antagonism, but more often,
they interchange only displays or representations of dominance and
submission behaviour
consciously or
often unconsciously).
There is another important facet of non-verbal
communication
is
that
it
is
a key part of our human system for interaction
whether or not it
displays
intentional,
consistent, reliable, or ambiguous
message. We gather information about others through non-verbal cues,
therefore,
investigations shows that strangers tend to look at one another
significantly more than friends;
the
function is to collect information about others.
During conversation, people not only take into account verbal words
to decode the message
but also
curiously
observe sitting/standing posture, tone
and
pitch
of the voice
and context
of the
situation. There are ample evidence which shows that non-verbal
behaviour leaks the informationtion
regarding one's true intentions and feelings.
For example, listener might be angry even though speaker uses very
polite words if non-verbal cues are not matching with the verbal cues.
Here is an example to clarify.
“Upon entering a shop, the sales girl/boy walks quickly
up to you and kindly asks if you need help. Aside from the words, the
speed or the way with which you are approached is clearly a type of
communication. It might mean "I'd really like to help you", or perhaps "
hurry up we're about to close". Setting aside other reasons, non-verbal
language plays a role whether one would feel comfortable or not in the
shop.
Communication is a gestalt experience. In the
context of communication, verbal communication works as
a
`figure' and the non-verbal communication
and
the context work as
a
`ground'. And, if there is a communication gap then we
fill this gap by our past experience. Let us consider the following Figure
1 and Figure 2 in order to understand gestalt communication experience.
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Figure 1 |
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Figure 2 |
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If we ask someone which square is overlapping in figure 1,
the respondent will be perplexed to confirm which one is overlapping. The
respondent can come up with different answers but without being sure. We
do encounter this kind of phenomenon in the real life when we are unsure
which information is giving us more
and
correct information regarding other's behaviour. When we experience such
situations we use three strategies:
(1) get more information;
(2) deliberate interpretation from the available
information;
(3) or, remain confused.
We usually go for second option if there is no access to
the first option, for we do not like to remain in confusion. The cognitive
dissonance theory suggests that human beings try to maintain consistency
among cognitive elements because inconsistency produces psychological
discomfort.
If there is a communication gap it will be filled with inference to avoid
dissonance as shown in the above figure 2. If we ask people how many
squares they see in the figure2,
they will readily reply "two". The square 'C' is not
even a
complete
square
but still we see two squares. The reason behind is that our perception is
influenced by our previous understanding. When we interact with each
other, if there is any inconsistency
in
message,
we fulfil the gap
by
relying on
our previous knowledge.
In Conclusion, inconsistent or double barrel communication which does not
give
clear information to the listener hampers intrapersonal communication,
which in return negatively affects the organization.
However, we should not put all blame to the sender if communication breaks
down, sometimes it is the problem with receiver that he/she decoded
information incorrectly. Stereotyping is one of the examples, when a
receiver interprets communication by relying on its own mental-set than
analyzing information in an innovative manner. It happens quite often when
two people meets from different cultures and social backgrounds.
Bibliography
1. Yousaf, M.N (1993): Psychology and Organizations;
Conscious and unconscious minds of organizations (Thesis), University of
Bergen, Norway
2.
Davis,
k. & I.W. Newstrom (1989): Human Behaviour and Work (p.71)
3.
Scheflen, A.E: Body languages and the social order by (p.23-72)
4.
Sims, H.P., D.A. Gioia et al. (1986): The Thinking
Organization (p.138)
5.
Bull, P (1983): Body Movement & Interpersonal Communication, (p.12/124)
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