Introduction
As the business world is getting more complex, it is imperative that businesses should learn different ways of verbal and non-verbal communication so that their messages are properly interpreted. There is a growing importance of learning non-verbal communication because people come from different cultures and their upbringing determines their comfort level. Therefore, this research aims at highlighting the importance for HR managers to learn about haptics (touching) and proxemics (maintenance of space/distance). In addition to this, strategies for training employees in haptics and proxemics are also discussed in this paper.
Body of the Paper
The Importance and Benefits of Learning about Haptics for HR Managers in the Workforce Management
Haptics concerns the non-verbal communication by touching one another. Either haptics are used to comfort one another or sometimes, is considered uncomfortable by some people. For HR managers, learning haptics is important because it will help them discourage offensive and comfortable behavior at work. Touching other people in the workplace is considered a bad idea since people come from different cultures. As an exception, touching the other person is allowed in professions such as therapists and doctors etc . Learning haptics is beneficial or important to HR managers because it will help them identify potentially offensive behaviors of the workforce while protecting those who discourage physical contacts (such as friendly pats, kissing and hugging) by others.
Marques (2010) found that if misinterpreted, haptics may cause increase in sexual harassment lawsuits and legal liabilities for an organization. People working in a law firms should keep their physical contact under control while kissing and back slaps are common in a talent-oriented organization. Massaging and touching shoulders may make female employees feel extremely uncomfortable.
The Importance and Benefits of Learning about Proxemics at Work for HR Managers
The manner in which distance and personal space is maintained in the workplace to communicate with other is known as proxemics. Learning proxemics will benefit HR managers since they will be able to understand how much space people in the workplace maintain while communicating and how it reflects status of their relationship or level of closeness to each other . For instance, people with intimate personal space, extending up to 2 feet, tend to have confidential communications. People having intimate communication will hold hand, hug each other and stand side-by-side.
If HR managers learn this proxemics style, they can determine that if strangers approach reserved or introvert people in the intimate zone, they may feel awkward and discomfort at the same time. People maintain intimate space with their family and loved ones. Learning proxemics is beneficial to HR managers as they can identify how far employees stand when communicating with others. They can identify and understand four different spatial body zones or personal spaces. HR managers can easily identify the close relationship between two people in the workplace if they maintain a personal distance of two to four feet while communicating with each other. Learning proxemics is important and beneficial for HR managers to teach employees how much distance/space to maintain when involved in social situation to meet new people for interaction or finalizing business transactions. Such a social distance should be four to twelve feet in length. However, public distance should be more than twelve feet in length which is probably maintained by strangers. For HR managers, learning proxemics is beneficial to know when a person will back up or feel uncomfortable if others invade their personal space .
Different Strategies for Training all Employees about Haptics and Proxemics
Employees should be adequately trained in haptics and proxemics by customizing their courses. Experienced instructors in haptics and proxemics are suggested to lead the training program using a variety of content, teaching styles, presentations, and group discussions. Based on the best practices in haptics and proxemics, the best training strategy is to motivate employee participation in group discussions for identifying different ways haptics and proxemics could be applied . The best strategy in this case is to incorporate such material, content and presentations that aim to enable employees in adopting and adjusting their behavior at work. The training session should motivate employees to work outside their cultural comfort zone. For teaching haptics, employees should be made aware about different cultures. For instance, Italians and French tend to frequently touch each other even though they are walking. In contrast, people from the British prefer not to touch at all. Cultures that allow touching for haptics communication more often are France, Greece, India, Italy, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Parts of Asia and the Middle East. Employees should be made aware that there are some cultures that strongly discourage haptics communication where the names of Australia, Canada, England, Estonia, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Northern Europe, United States, Portugal, and Scandinavia.
Wickhorst & Geroy (2006) have stressed in their research that to teach proxemics to every employee, each participant in the training program should be made aware of four distinct forms of distance. For close relationships, an intimate distance should be maintained that ranges from zero to forty five centimetres or up to two feet. For conversations between relatives, colleagues and friends, a personal distance of about forty five to eight centimetres or two to four feet should be maintained. For social distance, employees should be trained to maintain a distance of 1.30 to 2 metres in meeting at social gatherings whereas for public distance, should be beyond twelve feet and is maintained with audience, clients, and lecturers.
Teaching Comparison between Haptics and Proxemics
Based on the importance of both the forms of non-verbal communication, it is concluded that they are equally important to managers and employees. Proxemics is important when a person is maintaining social and public distance. As a person gets closer, he/she must be aware about the comfort zone of others as well as the art of touching (haptics) to build closeness and trust. The more a person gets closer, the more important learning about haptics becomes. Teaching proxemics to employees should be on a high-priority but learning haptics should be a next concept to learn .
Conclusion
After carefully analysing the importance of learning haptics and proxemics for HR managers, it is concluded that learning haptics is beneficial for HR managers to identify and discourage unwanted personal contact and panty talk with female workers even though the handshake is considered a universal touching form. In the same way, learning proxemics is important for HR managers because people belong to different cultures and have separate perspectives that determine their personal space for non-verbal communication. Furthermore, employees should be trained to apply the concepts and build trust with others by boosting their cultural awareness. To train employees in haptics and proxemics, it is important that the training program should be customized to enable personnel to deal with cultural clashes since people come from diverse cultural backgrounds
References
Barker, R. &. (1990). The importance of proxemics at work. Supervisory Management , 35 (7), 10-11.
Keyton, J., Caputo, J. M., Ford, E. A., Fu, R., Leibowitz, S. A., Liu, T., et al. (2013). Investigating verbal workplace communication behavior. Journal of business communication , 50 (2), 152-169.
Marques, J. F. (2010). Enhancing the quality of organizational communication. Journal of Communication Management , 14 (1), 47-58.
Wickhorst, V., & Geroy, G. (2006). Physical Communication and Organization Development. Organization Development Journal , 24 (3), 54-63.
