Management Skills

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Table of ContentsPart A – Article Review………………………………………………………………….Page 2

Part B – Video Reflection……………………………………………………………….Page 8

Appendix 1……………………………………………………………………………………Page 13

Appendix 2……………………………………………………………………………………Page 14

Appendix 3……………………………………………………………………………………Page 15

Appendix 4……………………………………………………………………………………Page 16

Appendix 5……………………………………………………………………………………Page 17

Reference List……………………………………………………………………………….Page 19

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Part A – Article Review

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PART A – Article Review

Language and Communication is the essence of social interaction, when we interact

with others we communicate. Communication involves not only the verbal aspect and

what we hear, but we also communicate with our facial expressions, signs and

gestures, also know as the aspect of non-verbal communication. There are several

different factors that can affect communication between individuals such as their

motives, the attractiveness and likeableness of the person they are conversing with

and the context in which the communication is taking place.

The articles that will be reviewed as they explore the different aspect involved in

communication and language and they will be compared and critiqued as they are

analyzed upon one another. An empirical investigation of the impact of non-verbal

communication on service evaluation by Mark Gabbot and Gillian Hogg explores the

role and importance of non-verbal communication in the way consumer’s perceive

and evaluate the experience in a service encounter. Gender, race, and speech

stereotypes by Popp et al take a look at the stereotypes associated with the genders

and races, in particular with Black people and how that impacts perceptions of

individuals. Finally When Actions Meets Emotions: How facial displays of emotion

influence foal-related behavior by Francesca Ferri explores how the emotional state

and facial expression of an individual can influence the interaction behavior of those

involved. Finally The Conception and Perception of Noncontent Speech Performance:

Implications for Speech-Accommodation Theory by Putman and Street takes a look at

the speech-accommodation theory and test to see if it is indeed a valid theory or not.

We will now break down the articles and highlight where there were similarities

between them.

The articles both touch on the correlation between the personality and likeableness of

an individual, and the deliverer’s willingness to co-operate or accommodate to that

person. Gabbot and Hogg said that those who are perceived as more attractive are

assumed to be more likeable and therefore people are more willing to cooperate with

them (2000). Similarly, in Ferri’s article, it explored how the emotions of a person can

influence the action of others and said how a happier person can be perceived as more

attractive when conversing, and the conversation will more likely be successful

because of the willingness to converge between the individuals. The results also

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revealed that those exerting happy emotions are more likely to receive greater

accuracy and care when receiving help, as the giver is more willing to cooperate

(2010).

Also the articles briefly look at the influence that the ‘context’ of a conversation has

on the appropriateness of different communication methods that should be used.

Gabbot and Hogg in their article agree that the context in which the service

(conversation) takes place clearly affects the primary communication exchange, for

example the physical environment can be designed to facilitate appropriate non-verbal

communication (2000). Putman and Street similarly said how the situation or context

will greatly affect the likelihood of speech accommodation and can influence the

motivation of an individual to converge or diverge, for example in an interview where

the motivation of an individual is to get the job, they are more inclined to change their

speech style to that of the interviewer in an act to appear similar to them (1984). Ferri

et al also touches on the important of context and says that the context is important

when perceiving basic facial expressions, for example in Japan it is common for

individuals to display a smile when they are in disgust or disagreement, whereas in

western cultures the relevant facial expression will be displayed to expressed the

feelings of an individual (2010).

Stereotypes are prevalent in today’s society more than ever, and two articles in

particular explored the common stereotypes of today associated with one’s gender and

their race or culture and the effect on conversation, both expressing similar views to

each other. Gabbot and Hogg say that men and women encode and interpret

communication cues different, and that people of similar races or culture can better

read the non-verbal behavior of one another. The articles then goes on to describing

the stereotypes of women, that they smile more and approach closer to men in

conversation, that they fidget less and make more eye contact (2000). Much like in

Popp et al where they say the differences in gender-related speech styles can affect the

way men and women communicate and that men and women speak differently to each

other, for example that men are more boastful, aggressive, straightforward and

dominating while women are more polite, gentle, talk more rapidly and indulge in

more gossip and gibberish, highlighting the different stereotypes that are prevalent in

todays society about genders. Popp et al also focused on the stereotypes associated

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with Black people and said how White people (a different race) perceive Black people

differently and in ways that might not be as accurate compared to if a Black person

was to perceive one of their own race (2003).

Popp et al tested to explore the stereotypes associated with Black people in society

(2003). The study used 170 undergraduate students at the University of Connecticut

all primarily of the White race, and asked them to participate in a variety of activities,

varying in relevance to the actual study, with the primary source of results coming

from an activity which required the students to imagine a character in a story, in

particular a Black male, how they would sound, how they would speak, and the

participants were then asked a questionnaire on their fictional character’s

characteristics and finally completed a Marlowe Crowne Social Desirability Scale in a

self-report to gain information about the participants’ perceptions of themselves. A

strength for this study is that they examined stereotypes of race and gender jointly

which was not done previously with other studies but Popp et al knew the connection

between race and gender with stereotypes, and the study also included open ended

measures such as the imagination task that allowed the participants to fully engage

their

Putman and Street conducted two studies, the first to “examine the relationship of

noncontent speech levels and adjustments to interviewees impression management

effort” and the second to “examine communicators’ encoding choices in relation to

creating impressions of likeability and competence” (1984). The hypotheses were

certainly in favor of the occurrence of speech accommodation, that the participants

would indeed converge to create a likeable impression to those they’re

communicating with and that the social attractiveness is positively related to

similarities between the individuals. The first study had 40 participants while the

second on had 20, which raises doubts about the studies, as the sample sizes were so

small, so they could have had a larger sample size to increase credibility of the

studies. Both studies involved participants being involved in an interview, with the

first requiring the participants to recreate a particular impression during the fact

finding interview (eg. Competent and likeable, competent and non-likeable etc) so

they would be able to witness whether convergence or divergence would occur in the

interview. The interviewer was aware of the study being undertaken and was told to

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ask a set of questions and to not converge nor diverge in the interview so they could

assess how the participant would act. The second study was very similar except that

neither the interviewer or interviewee knew that they were in a study, and there were

more open ended questions that the interview was going to ask, which allowed for a

greater degree of fact finding and conversing. The fact that the studies conducted by

Putman and Street was undertaken firstly with one unaware participant in the

interview and then both participants in the second interview unaware of the study, this

was good as it meant there was a control (first study) which could then be compared

with the second study and they could accurately examine the occurrence of the

speech-accommodation theory in action in two different circumstances.

Ferri et al aimed at “verifying how specific the effect is of the facial expression of

emotions of an individual with respect to how the action aimed at the same individual

is executed” (2010). Unlike the other studies, Ferri et al used a kinematic approach to

analyse the simulation of feeding others, which involved the participant requiring to

‘grasp’ food on the computer screen and put it on the mouth of person on the screen,

who would be portraying either one of four emotions, happy, neutral, disgust or

angry, and the feeding trajectory of the mouse was recorded to gather data for the

experiment to see the effect that facial emotions would have on the participant. Firstly

I think that using a moving image of a persons face while they display an emotion

instead of just a static image of a face would invoke more of a response from the

participants, as they feel more connected or disconnected from the face on the screen,

defiantly affecting their speed and accuracy when feeding the face even more so. Also

the study could have been improved by incorporating more situations and goals, not

only the goal of feeding a face, but different ones to examine how the context will

effect the actions that are executed upon the individual varies, for example the degree

of assistance that is given to a person on the street who needs to replace their tire and

expresses the different facial expressions and moods to see how that would affect the

assistance given to the participant.

Similar to Popp et al, Gabbot and Hogg used a questionnaire to go with their video

scenario’s that were played to participants to determine the effect that non-verbal

communication, in particular the kinesics, oculesics and para-linguistics, when

evaluating a service that has been provided, looking at the importance of non-verbal

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communication in giving a good service (2003). The study involved a total of 377

participants, with 203 reporting on the positive scenario and 174 reporting to the

service given in the negative scenario, which I believed was an adequate sample size.

Popp et al made sure that the video scenarios that the participants watched and

reported on in the questionnaire were identical to each other, same women, same

location, same clothes, same script and even same length of the video, but the key

difference would be how the script was acted out by the female actress, this was good

as it ensured that only the independent variable was affecting the participants

perception of the service and ensured credibility to the experiment. One critique for

this study was that it was not conducted in a real-life scenario, only through a visual

experience, I believe that although the results would have been the same, the

scenario’s would have had a larger impact and effect on the perceptions of the

participants if it was real life and they were able to use all five senses to better be

equipped to evaluate the service and would have given the study more creditability.

But with that said, conducting the experiment one person at a time in a real life

scenario would have been much more time consuming and used up much more

resources so I understand why they opted to go with the visual experience over the

real life experience for the study.

As can be seen from analyzing the four articles and reviewing them against each

other, they all say similar things in regards to language and communicating. We found

out its obvious that the stereotypes place on people based on their race or gender can

certainly affect one’s perception of them and is still relevant in today’s society. Also

that people all have a motivation or demotivation to converge or diverge when

conversing with others based of their likeableness and attractiveness or the context of

the situation, and that the verbal and non-verbal communication cues that is portrayed

will ultimate determine the success of a conversation.

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Part B – Video Reflection

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PART B: Video Reflection

To base my analysis and reflection on the topic area of “Language and

Communication”, I chose the comedy-drama “Lost in Translation” which is film

about two characters, Bob Harris and Charlotte, who are brought together

unexpectedly in a foreign land and are attracted by their similarities in personal life

problems and their similar situation in life. Throughout the film through the

interactions the two characters have with each other, and those around them, we see

how the concepts of the Speech-Accommodation theory, and the importance of non-

verbal communication and the cues associated with that, we see how relevant they are

in our everyday lives and although most of our communication with others is

automatic, we see how these concepts are in our everyday lives.

In this reflection we will focus mainly on the two main characters of the film, Bob

and Charlotte. Bob Harris, a middle aged actor experiencing a mid-life crisis where

he’s marriage is lacking meaning and he is confused with where he’s life is going.

From the film we can see that he is a very outgoing and friendly individual, and is

experienced with human interaction, and throughout the film we see the speech

accommodation theory in place as he interacts with all types of other characters.

Throughout the whole film, we see Bob ‘converging’ with nearly all of the people he

interacts with, apart from the two male fans who pester him at the bar scene early on

in the movie, where in accordance with the theory, Bob is unattracted to escalate

conversation with the two males as they unexpectedly interrupt he’s alone time, so he

consequently appears disinterested and politely leaves the table and wishes the males

a good day. In that specific scene we can also relate this back to the Ferri et al article,

where in contradiction the article, even though Bob was displaying disinterest and a

bored facial expression, the males still continued with their questions and annoying of

Bob because they were so caught up and star struck that they didn’t see they were

annoying Bob. This scene suggests that although we may display certain facial

emotions during our interactions, the context will affect how one may perceive non-

verbal cues such as facial emotions and the context of the interaction and this

perception of will ultimately determine the effect of the non-verbal cue. We see Bob’s

friendly nature and the accommodation theory with he’s interactions with the

Japanese characters in the film. Even though there is an obvious language barrier

between Bob and the Japanese characters, throughout the film we see Bob trying to

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imitate the culture and traditions of the Japanese people, such as bowing and politely

greeting each person that he meets, and when conducting conversation with the

Japanese we see Bob converge with he’s interactions and genuine interest in the other

people.

Charlotte’s personality is also outgoing in nature, very friendly but also very confused

and saddened with her life, as we saw through the reoccurring lack of passion and

even lack of acknowledgement at times of her husband John to her, as she is usually

left by herself in tears confused and trying to figure out what to do next. We see the

importance of non-verbal communication as explore in the text and the articles in the

scene where John has to leave for work suddenly and he’s with Charlotte in the hotel

room. Although he verbally communicates that he loves her and says goodbye, he's

lack of eye contact and rapid pace of he’s speech suggest a lack lustred meaning

behind the words he speaks, and we see a Charlotte who is wanting some attention as

we see her position her body toward John and gazing at him while he walks around

the room waiting for him to acknowledge her. In the flower making scene with

Charlotte we see her her friendly nature and eagerness to find something to do, were

she wanders around the hotel and finds a room where they are making bouquets, and

in accordance with the article by Ferri et al, her confused and vulnerable facial

emotions brought about action from the Japanese lady to instruct her and show

Charlotte what to do, confirming the article that facial emotions expressed by an

individual will affect if others will be more willing to assist them.

The evidence of the speech accommodation theory and the use of non-verbal cues in

our interactions with people is clearly seen through the interactions between the two

main characters, Bob and Charlotte and their similar personalities. When they first

met each other, they were initially brought together through their shared boredom at

the hotel’s bar, and from that first interaction we saw they were both similar to each

other in their personalities, both friendly, outgoing, funny etc, and although there was

an age gap between them, their similarities brought them together throughout the film

and in accordance with the speech accommodation theory, they both clearly found

each other attractive from their similar ‘lost in life’ situation and their personalities, so

they ‘converged’ through the whole movie and they became closer to each other, as

they found comfort and joy from each other. This sense of comfort between the

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characters is seen in the karaoke scene where the audience first see the shared

attraction as portrayed by the non-verbal cues that Bob and Charlotte were giving

each other, constant and consistent eye contact from Charlotte and gazing eye from

Bob, prolonged smiles and capped off with Charlotte resting her head on Bob’s

shoulder, we saw how through the non-verbal communication between the characters

their relationship grow as they found increasing attraction and comfort with each

other. We see from the film that Bob and Charlotte both have similar personalities and

that’s what helped attract them to each other and brought them closer to each other.

Their personalities are very common in real life, everyday we interact with people

who are friendly, outgoing and looking for a purpose in life, but that doesn’t mean

that we treat them all the same way and generalise them because each person does

have their own story and motivations, and when interacting with these people its best

to reciprocate the friendliness toward them as that will ensure a successful

conversation and relationship with them.

In the film, we only get the see group interaction briefly when Charlotte and Bob go

out to a bar and karaoke with her Japanese friends, but from these group scene we see

the idea of increased acceptance and accommodation of speech and converging of the

group with Bob and Charlotte as they recognise that they are identified as a group

together with the aim of having fun and that ultimately led to the whole group having

a fun night out on the town. Although I do believe that there is increased acceptance

and willingness to converge in a group context, if there are individuals though who go

against the group norm or beliefs then they might be treated as outsiders then as they

are not accepted anymore and divergence occurs.

Lost in Translation is a film where the context has meant that the communication

between characters is emphasised because of the fact that the two main characters are

in a foreign land and have to rely on their friendly outgoing personalities to interact

with others and make successful relationships. Through reflection upon the film and

its relevant to Language and Communication, I saw the important of non-verbal

communication in everyday life, and that sometimes it might mean more than the

verbal aspect of communication as it normally reveals the true intentions of someone.

Also I see how the speech-accommodation theory was certainly shown throughout the

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film with the main characters and their interactions with themselves and others,

opening my eyes to how people have different motivations to converge or diverge in

conversation and that the context of the situation greatly impacts whether the former

or the latter occurs.

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Appendix 1

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Appendix 2

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Appendix 3

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Appendix 4

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Appendix 5

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Reference ListFerri, F. Stoianov, I. Gianelli, C. Borhgi, A. Gallese, V. 2010, "When Action Meets Emotions: How Facial Displays of Emotion Influence Goal-Related Behavior: e13126", PLoS One, Vol. 5, Issue 10, .

Gabbot, M. Hogg, G. 2000, "An empirical investigation of the impact of non-verbal communication on service evaluation", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 34, pp. 384-398.

Popp, D. Donovan, R. Crawford, M. Kerry, M 2003, "Gender, race, and speech style stereotypes", Sex Roles, Vol. 48, pp. 317-325.

Putman, W. Street, R 1984, "The Conception and Perception of Noncontent Speech Performance: Implications for Speech-Accommodation Theory", International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Vol. 46, pp. 97-114.

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