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A Cross-Cultural View of Corruption
Comment on the following sayings
The duty of youth is to challenge corruption. Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It's self-defense. It's patriotism.
Before you read: Answer the following questions - Why do some people choose corruption and others not? - Do the social and cultural norms and valuesprevailiong in the societies in which they grew upaffect their decisions?
Read the text What Is Corruption? Corruption can be defined simply as behavior that corrupts. It tends to subvert the cultural system in which it occurs. This means that one cannot recognize corruption in a particular society without knowing something about how that society works. The West tends to be universalist in its outlook: every society works, or should work, essentially the same way. Its business practices, for example, should be based on a market system that is characterized by transparency and regulated by laws that apply equally to all players. A country that fails to conform to this model is viewed as underdeveloped or dysfunctional. It follows that corruption is basically the same, whether one does business in Sweden or Sudan. The reality, however, is that different cultures use radically different systems to get things done. Whereas Western cultures are primarily rule-based, most of the world’s cultures are relationship-based. Western business people trust the system, while people elsewhere trust their friends and family. Westerners organize their business around discrete deals that are drawn up as written contracts and enforced by a legal system. Others organize their business around personal relationships that are cemented by personal honor, friendship, or long-term mutual obligation. Loyalty to cronies is suspect behavior in Western business but represents high moral character in much of the world. The distinction of rule-based and relationship-based systems is only one of many cultural differences, but it already creates different ethical norms. Corruption as Culturally Defined Since cultural systems operate differently, business practices that are corrupting in the West may be acceptable elsewhere, even obligatory. Practices that are acceptable to Westerners may be corrupting elsewhere. And finally, practices that are corrupting both in the West and elsewhere may be corrupting for very different reasons. Each of these three possibilities may be illustrated as follows. What is corrupt in the West may be acceptable elsewhere. The classic example of the purchasing agent illustrates this point. The Western purchasing agent is expected to award contracts based on the quality of bids and transparently available financial information about the bidders. An agent who favors personal friends is viewed as corrupt, because cronyism subverts this transparency-based system. It creates a conflict of interest: a choice that is good for the agent and his or her cronies may not be good for the company. In much of the world, however, cronyism is a foundation for trust. A purchasing agent does business with friends because friends can be trusted. He or she may not even ask to see the company financials, since this could insult the other’s honor. It is assumed that cronies will follow through on the deal, not because they fear a lawsuit, but because they do not wish to sacrifice a valuable relationship in an economy where relationships are the key to business. In such a system it is in the company’s interest for the agent to do business with friends, and cronyism therefore presents no conflict of interest. What is acceptable in the West may be corrupt elsewhere. Lawsuits provide an example of this. In the West, which relies on rules and individual responsibility, lawsuits are routine and necessary. In Japan, however, they are corrupting. Japan is a strongly relationship-based culture in which interpersonal relations are based on maintaining harmony. Harmony is preserved by elaborate courtesies, humility, deference to superiors, and avoidance of confrontation. Lawsuits have no place in this system because they promote confrontation. Thus if a plane crashes, the victims’ families normally do not file suit; rather, the airline’s CEO personally apologizes to them. The apology does not indicate personal guilt as in the West but is intended to restore harmony. A dramatic illustration of this principle is provided by Shohei Nozawa’s tearful apology to employees and stockholders shortly after Yamaichi Securities declared bankruptcy. Nozawa was not admitting guilt and in fact had just assumed his position as CEO in order to clean up a mess left by others. His aim was to restore harmony among the stakeholders. What is corrupt both in the West and elsewhere may be corrupt for different reasons. Bribery, for example, is corrupting in the West because it induces people to depart from established rules and procedures. Furthermore, if bribes become common enough, people in general may lose faith in the system and flout the rules routinely. Bribery is also corrupting in most Confucian cultures, but for a different reason: it shortcircuits the building of relationships. China and Taiwan, for example, rely on the stability provided by long-term relationships of mutual obligation (guānxì). A bribe “buys” a relationship that lasts only until the next bribe is required. Since there is a fine line between legitimate guānxì relationships and quid-pro-quo bribery, bribery tends to be more common in Confucian countries than in some Western countries. An Western analogue would be litigiousness, or overuse of the legal system, since there is an equally fine line between legitimate lawsuits and nuisance lawsuits. Litigiousness is a form of corruption that is particularly prevalent in the United States. Bribery can also flourish in Western countries, of course, particularly when political upheaval or oppression break down the traditional rule-based mechanisms.
Bribery Around the World While on the subject of bribery, it is useful to survey briefly the state of affairs in several countries. The brief summaries given here do not reflect the subtlety and complexity of local situations, which should be researched thoroughly before doing business there. China and Taiwan. As already mentioned, bribery is common in these countries and is corrupting because it undermines more stable forms of relationship. In China particularly, the central government strongly discourages bribery, which erodes its power. The penalty for some types of bribery can be severe (e.g., death). Japan. Bribery scandals periodically come to light in Japan and may result in a flurry of prosecution and punishment. Bribery is corrupting primarily because it undermines group solidarity, the primary mechanism for social cohesion. Group solidarity is maintained by a careful process of cultivating loyalty and maintaining harmony, not by side payments. Singapore. Bribery is strictly forbidden in Singapore and is not practiced. India. Bribery and skimming are common in India, and facilitating payments are ubiquitous. The latter are small, routine payments made to obtain services to which one is already entitled. They are arguably functional in that they supplement the inadequate salaries of bureaucrats. On the other hand, bribery in the sense of influence peddling is both unnecessary and dysfunctional. It is unnecessary because Indian business and politics are based primarily on skilled networking and family connections, not bribes. It is dysfunctional because it corrupts India’s quasi-Western public administration. Although bribery is common, the system operates despite it, not because of it. It is therefore corrupting and should be avoided. Russia and Eastern Europe. Bribery is a way of life in many of these countries and is an unmitigated evil. It is a symptom of system breakdown, due to a recent history of political oppression or instability. It is best to rely on corporate clout, connections, and pro bono activities, and to maintain a clean reputation. Arab countries. These present a complex picture, due to regional variations and mixing of cultures. Kickbacks are other relationship-based practices are common, but their tendency to corrupt depends on the local situation. Turkey. Bribes and facilitating payments are very common in both business and public administration, and Turks find them quite irritating. Bribes that circumvent the law undermine the country’s quasi-Western administration and should be avoided. Some small payments may be unavoidable, as when settling a traffic ticket, getting children intoschool, or clearing customs. Sub-Saharan Africa. Bribery in much of central and southern Africa is out of control, and it cripples the economy. It represents the total corruption of an ancient patronage system that once held rulers accountable. It is a symptom of social breakdown that stems from Africa’s encounter with Western powers and a radically different economic system. Companies should use any means available to avoid paying bribes. They can often exert the necessary influence through the potential economic benefits of their operations and their willingness to fund infrastructure. Latin America. Bribery is common in Latin America but not ubiquitous. It is widely regarded as immoral, in many cases even by those who demand bribes. Bribery seems to be a holdover from a turbulent past and is arguably inessential for a system that can rely on other kinds of relationships. It in fact seems to be on the wane in some countries, such as Mexico. Business people should cultivate personal connections and avoid paying bribes. They should make it known that they work only with locals who play it clean.
Ethics and Human Nature The ethical norms discussed here ultimately reflect different interpretations of human nature. In the West, for example, human beings are viewed as autonomous rational individuals, whence the central role of equality and emphasis on individual responsibility. In a Confucian system, human beings surrender much of their autonomy to parents, ancestors, or rulers. Personhood is defined primarily by relationships with others rather than existence as an individual. This gives rise to the central role of authority and saving face, and it places responsibility on the ruler rather than the individual. A prevalent African view, which is shared by many other traditional cultures, is that the basic unit of human existence is the community. People do not distinguish their individual welfare from the collective welfare, and the economy is based on sharing of resources. The Hindu/Buddhist world view likewise declines to see human beings as separate entities but interprets them as manifestations of a single consciousness (atman). This highlights the connectedness of all life but assigns no role to egalitarianism. Each of these viewpoints supports a sophisticated ethical philosophy. Those of us who operate across cultures owe them respect not only for their own sake, but because they teach crucial insights that may be absent from our own traditions.
2. Match the notions related to corruption to theirdefinitions
3. Examine the following cases, based on real events, in which cultural norms clash. What will be the right/best scenario in each situation? Explain your choice.
Scenario A: Taiwan You (a Westerner) are a manager in your company’s Taiwan branch. You meet with a team representing a potential local supplier and notice that, after the team departs, one of them left behind a briefcase. While looking for the owner’s name, you find the case to be full of cash.
Scenario B: Korea Your accounting firm wishes to set up operations in South Korea, and you need a number of permits from the government. When the approval process bogs down, a local consultant offers to take care of the problem. When you ask how, he confides that he will hand his government contact a white envelope—with money inside. His consulting fee will include an unitemized allowance for the payment. A related scenario is even more common: your applications for customs clearance never seem to get through the authorities at the airport, and your Korean counterpart offers to take care of this in a similar way.
Scenario: China You are in Singapore to complete arrangements for a joint venture. Your Chinese counterpart has proposed several persons for top executive positions, including his son-in-law, his brother, and his nephew. Should you object?
Scenario: Kenya You run a book shop in Nairobi, and tomorrow is the deadline for a proposal you wish to submit for a government contract. You offer to pitch in to help your employees make photocopies. Your sense of equality encourages you to convince the staff that you are “one of them.” Yet they resist your offer and insist that they can take care of it, even though in reality they will almost certainly miss the deadline.
4. Answer the following questions
English as the EU language
Lesson 1 Tasks
I. Answer the questions below. 1. How many official languages are spoken in the EU (European Union)? 2. How many of them can you name?
II. Read the articles and find the answers to the questions below. 1. Who is Joachim Gauck? 2. What percentage of people in Portugal and Hungary speak no English? 3. What language are EU policy documents planned in? 4. Which company has published a book about language and creativity? 5. Which German words are regularly used in English? 6. Who recently published a report titled 'Language Rich Europe’?
III. Match each of these multi-word expressions in the left-hand column to the best definition in the right-hand column. to get by a.to use something for a particular purpose to elbow someone / something out b. you can’t dispute that something is true at all costs c.to have just enough of something no denying the fact (that ...) d.to make something go away to make use of e. to use something for a particular purpose
IV. Match the key words to their meanings and find them in the article to read them in context.
Article A
the fact that very different people or things exist within a group or place political control or influence, especially by one country over other countries . a mixture of different things or styles the activities of buying and selling goods or services a high degree of ability or skill in something ideas, behaviour or statements that are not true or sensible people in general to write something such as a legal document, speech or letter that may have changes made to it before it is finished the condition of being able to speak, write or use just one language introducing something and forcing people to accept it
Article B
something such as a tradition or problem that exists as a result of something that happened in the past a slight (possibly bad) smell the situation of being successful and having a lot of money to gradually change and develop over a period of time
to suggest that someone does something that you believe would be good, and to help them do it speaking more than one language and able to switch between languages according to circumstances essential to the existence, development or success of something admired and respected a major benefit to put clothes on (without fuss or effort)
V. Complete the table below with the authors’ arguments.
VI. Complete the table below with the right word.
VII. Answer the following questions. 1. Whose opinion do you support? Give the reasons. 2. Can you think of any other reasons why English should or should not be the language of the EU?
VIII. 1. In Article B, John Whitehead says that '... speaking English is rather like slipping on a new coat: some may come to feel completely comfortable wearing it, while others won't.' Do you agree or disagree with this statement? 2. Complete the sentence below with your own ideas. (250 words)
Lesson 2
Tasks I. Answer the following questions. 1. What is the world’s largest English-speaking country? 2. How many people worldwide are trying to learn English? II. Read the article and translate it in writing. Global Business Speaks English Ready or not, English is now the global language of business. More and more multinational companies are mandating English as the common corporate language—Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, Fast Retailing, Nokia, Renault, Samsung, SAP, Technicolor, and Microsoft in Beijing, to name a few—in an attempt to facilitate communication and performance across geographically diverse functions and business endeavors. Adopting a common mode of speech isn’t just a good idea; it’s a must, even for an American company with operations overseas, for instance, or a French company focused on domestic customers. Imagine that a group of salespeople from a company’s Paris headquarters get together for a meeting. Why would you care whether they all could speak English? Now consider that the same group goes on a sales call to a company also based in Paris, not realizing that the potential customer would be bringing in employees from other locations, who didn’t speak French. This happened at one company I worked with. Sitting together in Paris, employees of those two French companies couldn’t close a deal because the people in the room couldn’t communicate. It was a shocking wake-up call, and the company soon adopted an English corporate language strategy. Similar concerns drove Hiroshi Mikitani, the CEO of Rakuten—Japan’s largest online marketplace—to mandate in March 2010 that English would be the company’s official language of business. The company’s goal was to become the number one Internet Services Company in the world, and Mikitani believed that the new policy—which would affect some 7,100 Japanese employees—was vital to achieving that end, especially as expansion plans were concentrated outside Japan. He also felt responsible for contributing to an expanded worldview for his country, a conservative island nation. The multibillion-dollar company—a cross between Amazon.com and eBay—was on a growth spree: It had acquired PriceMinister.com in France, Buy.com and FreeCause in the U.S., Play.com in the UK, Tradoria in Germany, Kobo eBooks in Canada, and established joint ventures with major companies in China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Brazil. Serious about the language change, Mikitani announced the plan to employees not in Japanese but in English. Overnight, the Japanese language cafeteria menus were replaced, as were elevator directories. And he stated that employees would have to demonstrate competence on an international English scoring system within two years—or risk demotion or even dismissal. The media instantly picked up the story, and corporate Japan reacted with fascination and disdain. Honda’s CEO, Takanobu Ito, publicly asserted, “It’s stupid for a Japanese company to only use English in Japan when the workforce is mainly Japanese.” But Mikitani was confident that it was the right move, and the policy is bearing fruit. The English mandate has allowed Mikitani to create a remarkably diverse and powerful organization. Today, three out of six senior executives in his engineering organization aren’t Japanese; they don’t even speak Japanese. The company continues to aggressively seek the best talent from around the globe. Half of Rakuten’s Japanese employees now can adequately engage in internal communication in English, and 25% communicate in English with partners and coworkers in foreign subsidiaries on a regular basis. Adopting a global language policy is not easy, and companies invariably stumble along the way. It’s radical, and it’s almost certain to meet with staunch resistance from employees. Many may feel at a disadvantage if their English isn’t as good as others’, team dynamics and performance can suffer, and national pride can get in the way. But to survive and thrive in a global economy, companies must overcome language barriers—and English will almost always be the common ground, at least for now. The fastest-spreading language in human history, English is spoken at a useful level by some 1.75 billion people worldwide—that’s one in every four of us. There are close to 385 million native speakers in countries like the U.S. and Australia, about a billion fluent speakers in formerly colonized nations such as India and Nigeria, and millions of people around the world who have studied it as a second language. An estimated 565 million people use it on the internet. The benefits of “Englishnization,” as Mikitani calls it, are significant; however, relatively few companies have systematically implemented an English-language policy with sustained results. Through my research and work over the past decade with companies, I’ve developed an adoption framework to guide companies in their language efforts. There’s still a lot to learn, but success stories do exist. Adopters will find significant advantages. Why English Only? There’s no question that unrestricted multilingualism is inefficient and can prevent important interactions from taking place and get in the way of achieving key goals. The need to tightly coordinate tasks and work with customers and partners worldwide has accelerated the move toward English as the official language of business no matter where companies are headquartered. Three primary reasons are driving the move toward English as a corporate standard.
Competitive pressure. If you want to buy or sell, you have to be able to communicate with a diverse range of customers, suppliers, and other business partners. If you’re lucky, they’ll share your native language—but you can’t count on it. Companies that fail to devise a language strategy are essentially limiting their growth opportunities to the markets where their language is spoken, clearly putting themselves at a disadvantage to competitors that have adopted English-only policies Globalization of tasks and resources. Language differences can cause a bottleneck—a Tower of Babel, as it were—when geographically dispersed employees have to work together to meet corporate goals. An employee from Belgium may need input from an enterprise in Beirut or Mexico. Without common ground, communication will suffer. Better language comprehension gives employees more firsthand information, which is vital to good decision-making. Swiss food giant Nestlé saw great efficiency improvements in purchasing and hiring thanks to its enforcement of English as a company standard. M&A integration across national boundaries. Negotiations regarding a merger or acquisition are complicated enough when everybody speaks the same language. But when they don’t, nuances are easily lost, even in simple e-mail exchanges. Also, cross-cultural integration is notoriously tricky; that’s why when Germany’s Hoechst and France’s Rhône-Poulenc merged in 1998 to create Aventis, the fifth largest worldwide pharmaceutical company, the new firm chose English as its operating language over French or German to avoid playing favorites. A branding element can also come into play. In the 1990s, a relatively unknown, midsize Italian appliance maker, Merloni, adopted English to further its international image, which gave it an edge when acquiring Russian and British companies. The fastest-spreading language in human history, English is spoken at a useful level by some 1.75 billion people worldwide—that’s one in every four of us. Obstacles to Successful English-Language PoliciesTo be sure, one-language policies can have repercussions that decrease efficiency. Evidence from my research at Rakuten—along with a study I conducted with Pamela Hinds of Stanford University and Catherine Cramton of George Mason University at a company I’ll call GlobalTech and a study I conducted at a firm I’ll call FrenchCo—reveals costs that global English-language rules can create. Proper rollout mitigates the risks, but even well considered plans can encounter pitfalls. Here are some of the most common. Change always comes as a shock.No amount of warning and preparation can entirely prevent the psychological blow to employees when proposed change becomes reality. When Marie (all names in this article are disguised, with the exception of Mikitani and Ito) first learned of FrenchCo’s English-only policy, she was excited. She had been communicating in English with non-French partners for some time, and she saw the proposed policy as a positive sign that the company was becoming more international. That is, until she attended a routine meeting that was normally held in French. “I didn’t realize that the very first meeting after the rule came out was really going to be in English. It was a shock,” Marie says. She recalls walking into the meeting with a lot of energy—until she noticed the translator headsets. “They’re humiliating,” she says. “I felt like an observer rather than a participant at my own company.” Will Mandarin Be Next?Given the size and growth of the Chinese economy, why move to an English-only policy? Isn’t it possible that Mandarin could overtake English as the global language of business? It’s possible, but unlikely. There are two reasons for this. First, English has a giant head start. China can’t replicate Britain’s colonial history. The British Empire began embedding the English language in many parts of the world as early as the 16th century. Philanthropic work by American and British organizations further spread English, long before corporations began to adopt it at the workplace. Second, for much of the world, Mandarin is extremely difficult to learn. It’s easier to pick up “broken English” than “broken Mandarin.” Knowing Mandarin—or any language spoken by huge numbers of people—is an advantage, clearly. But for now, Mandarin is not a realistic option for a one-language policy. Compliance is spotty.An English mandate created a different problem for a service representative at GlobalTech. Based in Germany, the technology firm had subsidiaries worldwide. Hans, a service representative, received a frantic call from his boss when a key customer’s multimillion-dollar financial services operation ground to a halt as a result of a software glitch. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were at stake for both the customer and GlobalTech. Hans quickly placed a call to the technical department in India, but the software team was unable to jump on the problem because all communications about it were in German—despite the English-only policy instituted two years earlier requiring that all internal communications (meetings, e-mails, documents, and phone calls) be carried out in English. As Hans waited for documents to be translated, the crisis continued to escalate. Two years into the implementation, adoption was dragging. Self-confidence erodes.When nonnative speakers are forced to communicate in English, they can feel that their worth to the company has been diminished, regardless of their fluency level. “The most difficult thing is to have to admit that one’s value as an English speaker overshadows one’s real value,” a FrenchCo employee says. “For the past 30 years the company did not ask us to develop our foreign-language skills or offer us the opportunity to do so,” he points out. “Now, it is difficult to accept the fact that we are disqualified.” Employees facing one-language policies often worry that the best jobs will be offered only to those with strong English skills, regardless of content expertise. III. Answer the following questions. 1. What are pros and cons of English becoming the world’s business language? 2. Do you think most of the world will speak English one day? If so, when do you think it will happen?
IV. Write an essay on the pros and cons of having a universal business language. (250 words)
CULTURAL ATTITUDE TOWADS CORRUPTION Plan -Introduction -Definition of corruption -Factors promoting corruption -Measurement of corruption -Forms of corruption -Corruption across cultures -Language of corruption.
Introduction Corruption is a worldwide phenomenon not limited to any one region. Corruption is not a new phenomenon. Two thousand years ago, Kautilya, the prime minister of an Indian king, had already written a book, Arthashastra, discussing it. Seven centuries ago, Dante placed bribers in the deepest parts of Hell, reflecting the medieval distaste for corrupt behavior. Shakespeare gave corruption a prominent role in some of his plays; and the American Constitution made bribery one of two explicitly-mentioned crimes which could lead to the impeachment of a U.S. president.
No country is immune from the consequences of corruption. It occurs in all countries, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, dictatorships or democracies, socialist or capitalists. Governments have fallen because of accusations of corruption. Prominent politicians have lost their official positions due to corruption. Experts say that corruption breeds corruption and the longer it persists the more endemic it becomes. Corruption in cross-cultural perspective is a complex area of study which challenges our basic notions of what is right and wrong. In many countries, bribery is a way of life. There are many places where open corruption has taken hold and is endemic (widespread) among the population; e.g., Mexico with its mordida; Russia with its mafia; Africa with its swindles; Asia with its gift-giving; and America with its padding (doctoring the books). Whole countries can be said to have become kleptocracies, such as Zaire, Paraguay, and Haiti to name a few. Politicians often demand "kickbacks" from employees and contractors; tax and border officials overlook violations for cash; police and judges overlook crime if the price is right; and citizens regularly pay teachers and doctors extra to get decent educational and medical services. All such practices are far too common in many nations of the world. Bribery is particularly shameless where it occurs endemically. Economically, it functions as an extra tax on citizens as well as foreign investors. It impedes development and growth. It has a documented "corrosive effect" on public trust, the rule of law, and societal mores as a whole. The existence of widespread bribery plays a significant role in the operations of organized crime and terrorism – terrorists pay bribes, money-launderers pay bribes, and anyone who traffics in people, narcotics, weapons, or drugs pay bribes. Bribery is so embedded in some places that it is charitably referred to as "facilitating payments" or "grease." It is what it takes to get anything done in some places. Definition of corruption Defining corruption itself is problematic. It has been defined in many different ways, each lacking in some aspect. It can be simply defined as behavior that corrupts. Some experts defined corruption as an all-inclusive variable comprising of bribes, bureaucratic inefficiency, extortion, and embezzlement. The most well known is “the abuse of public roles or resources for private benefit” This is the definition used by the World Bank. (Robins on, 1998). Similarly, Transparency International has defined corruption as the misuse of entrusted power for private gain (Transparency International, 2005). From these definitions it should not be concluded that corruption cannot exist within private sector activities. Especially in large private enterprises, this phenomenon clearly exists, as for example in procurement or even in hiring. It also exists in private activities regulated by the government. In several cases of corruption, the abuse of public power is not necessarily for one’s private benefit but it can be for the benefit of one’s party, class, tribe, friends, family, and so on. In fact, in many countries some of the proceeds of corruption go to finance the political parties. Not all acts of corruption result in the payments of bribes. For example, a public employee who claims to be sick but goes on vocation is abusing his public position for personal use. Thus, he is engaging in the act of corruption even though no bribe is paid. Or a president of a country who has an airport built in his small hometown is also engaging in the act of corruption that does not involve the payment of a bribe. It is important to distinguish bribes from gifts. In many instances, bribes can be disguised as gifts. A bribe implies reciprocity while a gift should not. However, even though the distinction is fundamental, it is at all times difficult to make. At what point does a gift become a bribe? Does the distinction depend on the sizes of gifts? What about cultural differences that can explain different sizes of gifts? What if a large gift is not given to the person who provides the favour but to a relative to that person? In any case this indicates that identification of a bribe may not always be simple. Factors promoting corruption The causes or factors that promote corruption are those that affect the demand (by the public) for corrupt acts and those that affect the supply (by public officials) of acts of corruption. Among the factors affecting the demand, the most important are (1) regulations and authorizations; (2) certain characteristics of tax systems (3) certain spending decisions; and (4) provision of goods and services at below-market prices. Among the factors affecting the supply of acts of corruption are (1) the bureaucratic tradition; (2) the level of public sector wages; (3) the penalty systems; (4) institutional controls; (5) the transparency of rules, laws, and processes; and (6) the examples set by the leadership. (for more information see http://www.imf.org/external/Pubs/FT/staffp/1998/12-98/pdf/tanzi.pdf ) Measurement of corruption No one has ever tried to measure the exact amount of corruption worldwide. The extent of corruption in all parts of the world is anyone's guess. Some research suggests that corruption is more endemic in communist and socialist societies, but other research suggests that constitutional republics with strong federalism (strong state or provincial governments) have more endemic corruption. As will be shown in a moment, a veritable industry has evolved among business leaders to try and estimate the levels of "perceived corruption" in the form of indexes. If corruption could be measured, it could probably be eliminated. In fact, conceptually it is not even clear what one would want to measure. Simply measuring bribes paid would ignore many corrupt acts that are not accompanied by the payment of bribes. An attempt to measure acts of corruption rather than the amounts of bribes paid would require counting many relatively unimportant actions and identifying each act information that is simply not available. While there are no direct ways of measuring corruption, there are several indirect ways of getting information about its prevalence in a country or in an institution. The way the IMF and other international organizations look into the question of where corruption occurs is quite subjective, relying upon self-reported surveys. Survey data being what it is, this public-perception approach is the best the world has at the moment. Where corruption is worst, survey findings show that "commission" payments in foreign aid are usually laundered through intermediaries who divert the money from essential services like education and health (where bribery potential is low) to grandiose projects like transportation and defense (where bribery potential is high). The World Bank also conducts annual surveys which produce a Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) published by Transparency International showing which countries are highly corrupt (0 = corrupt; 10 = clean). This index is remarkably consistent from year to year, and a sampling of countries and their rank scores is as follows:
(For more information see https://www.transparency.org/cpi2014/results). Forms of corruption The exact form corruption will take depends upon context. What is corrupt in one country may not be in another. Communist and Islamic countries consider various aspects of capitalism to be corrupt. All countries pay lip service to the evils of bribery, fraud, extortion, embezzlement, and kickbacks. There is a wide range of opinion about what qualifies as corrupt, but less difference of opinion about "grand," "syndicated" or "systemic" corruption (these terms again, like the term "endemic" referring to an unspecified, but presumably large number of people regularly engaging in corruption). Grand corruption presumably involves the top levels of government, but determining the extent of corruption throughout a whole government is an inexact science. Some of the most common forms of "syndicated" corruption are as follows:
Bellow is the list of the forms of"systemic" corruption:
Although corruption comes in many shapes and sizes, it has one thing in common -- the inappropriate mix of public and private. Corruption almost always occurs for personal reasons when someone does something different than what their public duty requires of them. It violates one of the primary rules of public administration -- that public officials are not supposed to profit personally from public office. Bribery (a root form of systemic corruption) has been defined as "the use of reward to pervert the judgment of a person in a position of trust" (Nye 1967). Public office should not be an opportunity for plunder. Legislative decisions are also not supposed to be for sale to the highest bidder. All states should draw a sharp line between market and nonmarket mechanisms for allocating resources. Clearly, however, there is no such thing as a country totally free from corruption; and no such thing as "absolute integrity". Corruption acrosscultures Corruption can be defined simply as behavior that corrupts. It tends to subvert the cultural system in which it occurs. This means that one cannot recognize corruption in a particular society without knowing something about how that society works. The West tends to be universalist in its outlook: every society works, or should work, essentially the same way. Its business practices, for example, should be based on a market system that is characterized by transparency and regulated by laws that apply equally to all players. A country that fails to conform to this model is viewed as underdeveloped or dysfunctional. It follows that corruption is basically the same, whether one does business in Sweden or Sudan. The reality, however, is that different cultures use radically different systems to get things done. Whereas Western cultures are primarily rule-based, most of the world’s cultures are relationship-based. Western business people trust the system, while people elsewhere trust their friends and family. Westerners organize their business around discrete deals that are drawn up as written contracts and enforced by a legal system. Others organize their business around personal relationships that are cemented by personal honor, friendship, or long-term mutual obligation. Loyalty to cronies is suspect behavior in Western business but represents high moral character in much of the world. The distinction of rule-based and relationship-based systems is only one of many cultural differences, but it already creates different ethical norms.
Since cultural systems operate differently, business practices that are corrupting in the West may be acceptable elsewhere, even obligatory. Practices that are acceptable to Westerners may be corrupting elsewhere. And finally, practices that are corrupting both in the West and elsewhere may be corrupting for very different reasons. Each of these three possibilities may be illustrated as follows. What is corrupt in the West may be acceptable elsewhere. The classic example of the purchasing agent illustrates this point. The Western purchasing agent is expected to award contracts based on the quality of bids and transparently available financial information about the bidders. An agent who favors personal friends is viewed as corrupt, because cronyism subverts this transparency-based system. It creates a conflict of interest: a choice that is good for the agent and his or her cronies may not be good for the company. In much of the world, however, cronyism is a foundation for trust. A purchasing agent does business with friends because friends can be trusted. He or she may not even ask to see the company financials, since this could insult the other’s honor. It is assumed that cronies will follow through on the deal, not because they fear a lawsuit, but because they do not wish to sacrifice a valuable relationship in an economy where relationships are the key to business. In such a system it is in the company’s interest for the agent to do business with friends, and cronyism therefore presents no conflict of interest. What is acceptable in the West may be corrupt elsewhere. Lawsuits provide an example of this. In the West, which relies on rules and individual responsibility, lawsuits are routine and necessary. In Japan, however, they are corrupting. Japan is a strongly relationship-based culture in which interpersonal relations are based on maintaining harmony. Harmony is preserved by elaborate courtesies, humility, deference to superiors, and avoidance of confrontation. Lawsuits have no place in this system because they promote confrontation. Thus if a plane crashes, the victims’ families normally do not file suit; rather, the airline’s CEO personally apologizes to them. The apology does not indicate personal guilt as in the West but is intended to restore harmony. A dramatic illustration of this principle is provided by Shohei Nozawa’s tearful apology to employees and stockholders shortly after Yamaichi Securities declared bankruptcy. Nozawa was not admitting guilt and in fact had just assumed his position as CEO in order to clean up a mess left by others. His aim was to restore harmony among the stakeholders. What is corrupt both in the West and elsewhere may be corrupt for different reasons. Bribery, for example, is corrupting in the West because it induces people to depart from established rules and procedures. Furthermore, if bribes become common enough, people in general may lose faith in the system and flout the rules routinely. Bribery is also corrupting in most Confucian cultures, but for a different reason: it shortcircuits the building of relationships. China and Taiwan, for example, rely on the stability provided by long-term relationships of mutual obligation (guānxì). A bribe “buys” a relationship that lasts only until the next bribe is required. Since there is a fine line between legitimate guānxì relationships and quid-pro-quo bribery, bribery tends to be more common in Confucian countries than in some Western countries. An Western analogue would be litigiousness, or overuse of the legal system, since there is an equally fine line between legitimate lawsuits and nuisance lawsuits. Litigiousness is a form of corruption that is particularly prevalent in the United States. Bribery can also flourish in Western countries, of course, particularly when political upheaval or oppression break down the traditional rule-based mechanisms. Bribery Around the World While on the subject of bribery, it is useful to survey briefly the state of affairs in several countries. The brief summaries given here do not reflect the subtlety and complexity of local situations, which should be researched thoroughly before doing business there. China and Taiwan. As already mentioned, bribery is common in these countries and is corrupting because it undermines more stable forms of relationship. In China particularly, the central government strongly discourages bribery, which erodes its power. The penalty for some types of bribery can be severe (e.g., death). Japan. Bribery scandals periodically come to light in Japan and may result in a flurry of prosecution and punishment. Bribery is corrupting primarily because it undermines group solidarity, the primary mechanism for social cohesion. Group solidarity is maintained by a careful process of cultivating loyalty and maintaining harmony, not by side payments. Singapore. Bribery is strictly forbidden in Singapore and is not practiced. India. Bribery and skimming are common in India, and facilitating payments are ubiquitous. The latter are small, routine payments made to obtain services to which one is already entitled. They are arguably functional in that they supplement the inadequate salaries of bureaucrats. On the other hand, bribery in the sense of influence peddling is both unnecessary and dysfunctional. It is unnecessary because Indian business and politics are based primarily on skilled networking and family connections, not bribes. It is dysfunctional because it corrupts India’s quasi-Western public administration. Although bribery is common, the system operates despite it, not because of it. It is therefore corrupting and should be avoided. Russia and Eastern Europe. Bribery is a way of life in many of these countries and is an unmitigated evil. It is a symptom of system breakdown, due to a recent history of political oppression or instability. It is best to rely on corporate clout, connections, and pro bono activities, and to maintain a clean reputation. Arab countries. These present a complex picture, due to regional variations and mixing of cultures. Kickbacks are other relationship-based practices are common, but their tendency to corrupt depends on the local situation. Turkey. Bribes and facilitating payments are very common in both business and public administration, and Turks find them quite irritating. Bribes that circumvent the law undermine the country’s quasi-Western administration and should be avoided. Some small payments may be unavoidable, as when settling a traffic ticket, getting children intoschool, or clearing customs. Sub-Saharan Africa. Bribery in much of central and southern Africa is out of control, and it cripples the economy. It represents the total corruption of an ancient patronage system that once held rulers accountable. It is a symptom of social breakdown that stems from Africa’s encounter with Western powers and a radically different economic system. Companies should use any means available to avoid paying bribes. They can often exert the necessary influence through the potential economic benefits of their operations and their willingness to fund infrastructure. Latin America. Bribery is common in Latin America but not ubiquitous. It is widely regarded as immoral, in many cases even by those who demand bribes. Bribery seems to be a holdover from a turbulent past and is arguably inessential for a system that can rely on other kinds of relationships. It in fact seems to be on the wane in some countries, such as Mexico. Business people should cultivate personal connections and avoid paying bribes. They should make it known that they work only with locals who play it clean. Ethics and Human Nature The ethical norms discussed here ultimately reflect different interpretations of human nature. In the West, for example, human beings are viewed as autonomous rational individuals, whence the central role of equality and emphasis on individual responsibility. In a Confucian system, human beings surrender much of their autonomy to parents, ancestors, or rulers. Personhood is defined primarily by relationships with others rather than existence as an individual. This gives rise to the central role of authority and saving face, and it places responsibility on the ruler rather than the individual. A prevalent African view, which is shared by many other traditional cultures, is that the basic unit of human existence is the community. People do not distinguish their individual welfare from the collective welfare, and the economy is based on sharing of resources. The Hindu/Buddhist world view likewise declines to see human beings as separate entities but interprets them as manifestations of a single consciousness (atman). This highlights the connectedness of all life but assigns no role to egalitarianism. Each of these viewpoints supports a sophisticated ethical philosophy. Those of us who operate across cultures owe them respect not only for their own sake, but because they teach crucial insights that may be absent from our own traditions. teach crucial insights that may be absent from our own traditions. Language of corruption What do "beans for the kids" in Kinshasa, "a glass of wine" in Paris, and "little carps" in Prague have in common? The phrases tell you something about local cuisine - but they are also euphemisms for bribes. The language of corruption differs from one country to the next, but there are also striking similarities, as David Henig (University of Kent) and Nicolette Makovicky (University of Oxford) illustrate in the following examples. 1. Cash for soup (Turkish) If you are stopped by traffic police in North Africa the officer may well ask you to sponsor his next cup of "kahwe", or coffee. In Kenya you might be stopped by traffic policemen and asked to contribute to "tea for the elders" ("chai ya wazee" in Swahili). But in Turkey, the police would rather you give them "cash for soup", or "chorba parasi" - soup is traditionally eaten at the end of a night of heavy drinking. 2. Respect (Azeri) Whether it happens on the street, or in the boardroom, corruption rests on the abuse of power and privilege. But popular euphemisms often deny this reality and present corrupt behaviour as altruistic "favours" for friends. In Azeri, the word commonly used for bribe - "hurmat" - is interchangeable with the word for respect. An official requesting a bribe will therefore ask you to "do him a favour" - "hurmatimi ela". 3. A fish starts to stink at the head (Turkish) The phrase "a fish starts to stink at the head" (balik bashtan kokar) comes from Turkey, reminding us that petty bribes at street-level are often matched by greater corruption at the top of organisations and institutions. Mexican officials looking to earn a kickback for arranging a business deal will demand they are given "a bite" (una mordida), while their Colombian counterparts are said to "saw" (serrucho) off a part of a government contract for themselves. 4. Gratitude (Hungarian/Mandarin) The term corruption implies both illegal and immoral behaviour. But in some regions, what is technically illegal may in fact be seen as acceptable or even moral behaviour. In Hungary, doctors and nurses can expect a "gratuity" (haalapenz) from their patients in the form of an envelope containing money. In Poland, gifts in kind turn a faceless bureaucrat into an "acquaintance" (znayamoshch) who may be able to "arrange things" (zalatvich spravi) for you in the future. In China, healthcare workers and government officials also expect a "little token of gratitude" (yidian xinyi) for their services. As it is said in Russia, you cannot "put 'thank you' into your pocket" - that's "spasibo v karman ne polozhish". 5. Under the table (English/ French/ Farsi/ Swedish) Popular phrases used for speaking about corruption are often metaphorical. The well-known English phrase describing money being passed "under the table", for example, also exists in French (dessous de table), Farsi (zir-e mize) and Swedish (pengar under bordet). Other expressions emphasise movement. In Hungary, "oiling money" (kenepenz) is paid to officials to grease the wheels of bureaucracy, while the Russians know it is sometimes necessary to put something on the palm of an official's hand ("polozhit na ladon" or "dat na lapu") in order to move things along. 6. Something small (Swahili) Many euphemisms of corruption and bribery work to deflect attention from the action or minimise its importance. The Swahili expression "kitu kidogo" (something small) is a good example of this. In Ivory Coast the police used to ask for a "pourboire" (the cost of a drink), comparing the size of the bribe to that of a small tip. The Brazilian term for a bribe - "um cafezinho" (a little coffee) - also doubles as the term for a tip in the conventional sense. 7. Money for tea (Pashto/Farsi) The universal popularity of tea and coffee as metaphors for bribes points to another way euphemisms function to conceal the true nature of a corrupt transaction. In Afghanistan and Iran the expression for a bribe is "poul-e-chai", meaning "money for tea". In both countries, tea-drinking is an essential part of social life. Asking for "money for tea" carries the suggestion that the bribe will be shared with others. Some expressions - such as "beans for the kids" - appeal to a sense of charity by claiming a bribe benefits someone more deserving. 8. Cash for questions (English) Large-scale corruption has its own vocabulary, often created by the media. The "cash for questions" scandal involving British politicians comes to mind, as well as the Italian "tangentopoli" ("bribesville") scandal in the early 1990s. Combining "tangente" meaning kickback, and "-poli" meaning city, the term referred to kickbacks given to politicians for awarding public works contracts. 9. Nokia box (Hungarian) In Hungary, the term "Nokia box" became a symbol of corruption in 2010 after the head of the Budapest Public Transport Company, Zsolt Balogh, was caught handing over cash to the deputy mayor of Budapest, Miklos Hagyo, in a Nokia box. Since then, "Nokia box" has also became a sort of unit of measurement - meaning 15m forints ($65,000) - the size of Balogh's original bribe. 10. Little carp (Czech) In the Czech Republic, the terms "little carp" (kaprzhici), or "fish" (ryby), were used as a coded language during a large corruption scandal in Czech football. In the communication between the managers, referees and players, a "little carp" also operated as a unit of measurement, meaning 1,000 Czech koruna ($50) a "fish". The euphemism "little carp" has become a Czech synonym for corruption.
Communication strategies
Some information on cultural differences
Distancing and compromising are the key features of British and American communicative behaviour; their projections manifest themselves on practically every level of human interaction - physical and psychological, social and interpersonal, verbal and nonverbal. Unlike Ukrainians whose style of communication is largely determined by the context and the so called human factor, Britons and Americans tend to rely on strategies as their communication is highly ritualised and conventional. In conversations they emphasise formal aspects often at the expense of the content, avoid saying what they actually mean, demonstrate skin deep emotions - to maintain comfortable atmosphere, to avoid conflicts and save face. Effective communication between Ukrainians and their English speaking partners could be based on the two A-s of politeness: Avoid directness and Avoid silence which help to keep proper distancing and follow unwritten rules and regulations.
Consider the mini case below, choose the best answer and give your reasons. a) A Ukrainian reporter intended to publish a news story in a British magazine. He contacted the secretary and told her about the details. "Oh, how very exciting", she said, "I'll inform the person in charge, he'll have a closer look at your story". "Do you think I should come and speak in person?" asked the reporter. "No, I wouldn't think so, I'll ring you up and let you know his opinion", said the secretary. "What did her remarks actually mean?
A The secretary was genuinely impressed by the news story. B The secretary was just using a clicked expression of polite denial. C The secretary wanted to gain time to form her opinion.
Think of your examples in English and in Ukrainian illustrating the following functions: a) inviting sb, b) offering to do sth, c) expressing opinion (negative or positive).
Give examples of possible English set phrases involved in those functions and compare them with those typical of the Ukrainian conversation.
Distancing by tense shifting
Language review
Distancing is aimed at making requests and orders, suggestions and inquiries etc. sound less direct and therefore more polite. Consequently, certain tense forms and modals are used for this purpose. The tense shifting tactics is based on using utterances in the Future or Past Indefinite or Continuous tenses instead of those in Present Indefinite. Those tense forms serve to make the corresponding phrases in Present Indefinite more distant from the immediate reality.
Distancing by tense forms
The tactics are quite common for the following functions:
ordering, instructing, requesting, enquiring, stating intentions, advising, suggesting, offering etc.
Shifting to the Future or the Past
Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of distancing your utterances by shifting Present Indefinite to the Future or the Past. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Shifting to Continuous
Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of distancing your utterances by shifting Indefinite tenses to Continuous. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Task 1. Make the following sentences more polite (indirect). (Choose any 5 sentences).
1. Fetch me some application forms, please.
2. Use block letters only.
3. Sign it, please.
4. What do you look for?
5. Are you looking for anything special?
6.1 want this blouse and two shirts.
7. That's 120 dollars.
8. Let's take a few days off in July.
9.1 think it will be nice to go to the lakes.
10. What about borrowing a boat for our trip?
11. Could you help me?
12. Are you busy right now?
13. Have you got a double room?
14. How many days do you intend to spend?
15. Are you staying for the weekend?
16. What date do you plan to leave?
Task 2. Write a brief note / letter to a friend / colleague who wants to visit your town offering your assistance.
Distancing by modals
Interpersonal use of modals could, would, might is characteristic of quite a number of set formulae (also known as common formulae of politeness). It is the use of modals that makes requests and offers, instructions and orders etc. more indirect suggesting the idea of their being merely intentions.
Distancing modals
The tactics are quite common for the following functions:
requesting, offering, enquiring, suggesting, advising, ordering / instructing, expressing desire / opinion etc.
Using modals in set phrases
Consider the examples below illustrating the use of modals in set question formulae and verbal structures as another distancing technique. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Using modals in conditional and subjunctive phrases
Consider the examples below illustrating the use of modals in conditional and subjunctive expressions as still another means of distancing. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Task 3. Make the following sentences more polite (indirect). (Choose any 5 sentences).
1. Let's have an evening out.
2. I say, let's go to a restaurant downtown.
3. I don't want you to spend a fortune there.
4. You shouldn't talk in terms of money.
5. I should suggest a bar.
6. We should better go to a cafe.
7.1 thought you didn't like cafe meals.
8. We want a table in the corner.
9. Will you come this way, please?
10. What do you want to drink?
11. Perhaps you want to dance?
12. Won't it be better to have the candles lit?
13. That's what I call in time, as the French say.
14. Is there a telephone I can use?
15. Maybe you've picked up any lost purses?
16. Can you give me more details?
17. When did you find it missing, exactly?
Task 4. Write a brief note / letter to
a) a shop selling the items you're interested in to inquire about necessary details;
b) a friend working in a tourist firm describing a way of spending free time you prefer.
Downtoning information
Language review
Hinting is aimed at "neutralising" emotionally coloured utterances thus making them sound casual and less direct. The result desired could be achieved by using understatement (i.e. saying less than you imply). Understatement could be effected by the tactics of downtoning and negation. Information could be toned down by means of certain speech devices - adverbs, verbs and fillers - lessening or softening the impact of what is being said.
Downtoning devices
The tactics is quite common for the following functions: explanations, complaints, (negative) opinions, apologies etc.
Minimising emotional impact
Consider the examples of understatement given below to illustrate different ways
downtoning. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Avoiding certainty
Consider the examples given below to illustrate different ways of avoiding certainty by
using
a) fillers which level unwanted emotions and conceal negative attitudes
b) verbs of intention which lessen sharp criticism safely transferring what is being said to the realm of intentions. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Task 5. Make the following sentences more polite (indirect). (Choose any 5 sentences).
1. Pat says that Bess is buying a new cottage.
2. It looks like it is untimely.
3.1 was surprised and asked her husband.
4. My question took him unawares.
5. He was disappointed by her choice.
6.1 also think she is impractical.
7. The place is devoid of light and greenery.
8. The surroundings are industrial.
9. It is on the outskirts of the city.
10. She thinks it's a minor discomfort.
11. She says it's a 10-minute walk to the nearest bus stop.
Task 6. Write a brief note of explanation / apology/ complaint giving reasons for your failure at an exam / misbehaviour at a lesson / misusing someone else's property.
Hinting by negation
Language review
Understatement manifests itself in different types of negation, the most common being explicit, implicit and double negation. Explicit negation is typical of an ordinary negative sentence or could be expressed by a verb of thinking (transferred negation), or by a non-assertive word. Implicit negation could be found in an affirmative sentence containing the words of negative or minimising meaning. Double negation occurs when an ordinary negative sentence contains the words of negative meaning.
Types of negation
The tactics are quite common for the following functions:
offering, disagreeing, expressing (critical) opinion, (negative) attitude, dislike etc.
Explicit negation
Explicit negation is used to replace an emotionally coloured word by a neutral one, the purport of understatement each time being derived from the context (thus, e.g. I'm not pleased could be treated differently: I'm simply displeased / shocked / definitely disgusted etc.). Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of using explicit negation. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Implicit and double negation
Negation as well as negative attitude could be masked by negative adverbs (the manifesting itself implicitly) and words with negative affixes in already negative sentences (the changing the negative meaning for its opposite).
Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of using implicit and double negation as means of understatement. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Task 7. Make the following sentences more polite (indirect). (Choose any 5 sentences).
1. I suppose you've got no news about Roy.
2. Last time he told me nothing about his plans.
3. I couldn't approve of his behaviour of late.
4. I don't see what you mean. Could you be more explicit?
5. Well, he has ambitions.
6. He does not see that the job he is offered is not trivial.
7. 1 appreciate his talents but his approach could not be called reasonable....
8. During his job interview he didn't say a word.
9. He is not right in doing so.
10. The manager was led to think he didn't like the job.
11 . He has reason.
12. Roy has no background knowledge.
13. He has no experience in dealing with people.
14. It is likely he'll be denied this position.
Task 8. Write in brief a critical review of an article / essay by a friend of yours.
Softening and shifting responsibility
Language review
Softening and shifting responsibility must not be dispensed with, if you wish to keep the conversation going, it is aimed at making what is being said as little potentially offensive to the hearer as possible. Softening devices commonly used for the purposes that could be reduced to the following three types of opinion phrases.
Before looking at the table let us listen to three speakers expressing their views. Write down the words and word combinations they use for this purpose and comment on their relevance.
[Julie Pratten Absolute Financial English. English for finance and accounting. Delta Publishing, 2012, CD]
Generally speaking, softening tactics and techniques are based on the use of different probability phrases and opening phrases which serve to make utterances sound less definite and straightforward.
Softening devices
The tactics are quite common for the following functions:
expressing opinion / attitude, offering explanations, giving advice etc.
Personalising opinions
Certain opening phrases and set expressions could be used to soften an opinion, to make it sound just as if it were merely your personal point of view which the other party would be free to disagree with. Another way to "personalise" your opinion is to use an opening phrase with a verb of thinking or a verb of speech.
Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of "personalising" opinions. Think of
more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Generalising opinions
While expressing your attitude, it often becomes necessary to "conceal" your personal view, to mask it by a general statement (as if referring to something that is considered common knowledge) and thus avoid the risk of sounding dogmatic. Different impersonal and probability phrases do well for this purpose.
Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of generalising opinions. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Task 9. Make the following phrases indirect (you can also add fillers and verbs of intention if
necessary). (Choose any 5 sentences).
1. Why do you think he did poorly in the exam?
2. It is his fault.
3. It's due to the time limit. It was too short.
4. You should always leave time to check your answers.
5. Something's gone wrong.
6. The examination board postponed the final decision.
7. You can persuade them to look it all over again.
8. They are not ready with the results, it looks like that.
9. Oh, I can't know for sure.
10. I'd say we unanimously accept that tests take a lot of revising.
11. You can't learn English in a fortnight.
12. He is making a grave mistake.
13. He just doesn't care a bit for language learning.
14. He could turn to intensive methods based on hypnosis.
15. I know well, this approach has a lot of advantages.
16. I doubt that those methods work.
17. My advice is to turn to a professional teacher.
Task 10. Write a brief report on your progress in language learning showing your strong points (as an application for a contest).
Softening with questions
Discussing tactics and techniques
Question form, being softer and sounding less categorical, is a useful device to facilitate the exchange of information and to soften the purport of an order, advice or criticism. Why-questions and yes/ no questions which sound far more polite often soften denials, orders etc., cf: It could wait till morning.
Why couldn't it wait till morning? (pressing offer)
Couldn't it wait till morning? (persuasive question)
Could it wait till morning? (open question)
Commonly, the following types of questions can serve the purpose of reducing straightforwardness.
Types of questions
The tactics are quite common for the following functions:
suggesting, offering, enquiring, inviting an opinion, requesting, advising , ordering etc.
Softening statements
Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of turning statements into questions. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Softening by questions
Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of softening questions. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Task 11. Make the following phrases indirect. (Choose any 5 sentences).
1. Ben, have you heard the news? The Smiths are in town.
2. Let's spend a weekend together.
3. Will you be free next weekend?
4. Have you postponed your appointment?
5. We should invite them over.
6. Do you have their home address?
7. Don't forget to send them an invitation.
8. Chris could meet them at the station.
9. You'd better hire a taxi.
10. It would be proper to send a car.
11. Are you here for the first time?
12. Have you met Ben?
13. Sit down.
14. Have some whisky
15. Do you like it straight?
16. We'd better get going, dear Mr. Smith.
17. You can stay for the night.
18. Do you always say what you really think?
Task 12. Write a few lines (which you leave in haste) for
a) a friend asking to help find some things you forget to pack;
b) your elders / neighbours to remind them that your invitation/ request still holds.
UPGRADING
Overstatement
Language review
The communicative support strategy formally emphasising the effect of what is being said serves to demonstrate your interest to other partners. It is based on tactics and techniques of overstatement and aimed at exaggerating the (emotional) aspects thus making the process of communication comfortable for all participants. Different words with maximising / minimising meanings could function as emphasisers and intensifiers. Types of hyperbolisation can be reduced to the following.
Types of hyperbolisation
The tactics are quite common for the following functions:
expressing gratitude, sympathy, praise, apology; refusing, complimenting, enquiring etc.
Emphasising emotional impact
The emphasising function is mostly performed by degree adverbs often used in set formulae of politeness to intensify the expression of gratitude or sympathy, refusals or apologies which reduced to mere thank you or sorry - would sound rude.
Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of using overstatement. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Exaggeration
Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of using superlatives and emotionally coloured words in set formulae. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Task 13. Make the following sentences more polite (indirect). (Choose any 5 sentences).
Task 14. Write a letter ofthanks to a host family you spent summer with / a book firm who sent you a present.
INTENSIFICATION
The rules of politeness accepted in the English-speaking world presuppose that in communication partners repeatedly emphasise their (often formal) mutual concern in quite a number of everyday situations. It can be illustrated by the frequent use of different set phrases with sorry, please and thank you etc. Since those “etiquette formulae” have partially lost their initial meaning and are treated as mere formalities speakers need to make conventional phrases sound more sincere. Various techniques of exaggeration serve to create the effect of additional emotional impact.
The tactics are quite common for the following functions: apologising, complimenting, praising, expressing emotions etc.
Double exaggeration
Some degree adverbs or superlative adjectives become intensifiers when they lose their direct meaning and their function is merely exaggeration. Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of further intensification. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Expanding and repeating
Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of further intensification. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Task 15. Make the following sentences more polite (indirect). (Choose any 5 sentences).
1. I don’t mean to be nosy, but can you tell me who sang that piece?
2. Oh, it was Jill! She was nice, wasn’t she?
3. That’s what I was thinking. I like her voice.
4. She says she can’t do without singing.
5. Well, she was good in Carmen last spring.
6. I enjoyed the opera.
7. I remember you also sang there. I like your voice. You can sing nicely.
8. No, I’m a bad singer. Besides, singing classics is not my strong point.
9. I was very surprised when they offered me that part.
Task 16. Use overstatement to
a) express your positive opinion on smb’s presentation / a film you’ve seen,
b) compliment your friend praising the way s/he looks / does smth.
EXPANDING MONOSYLLABIC REPLIES
The strategy of keeping the conversation going is aimed at constantly reacting politely to what you are being said so that the talk would not unexpectedly end. Most “dangerous” in this respect are short answers which - incautiously used - might put a full stop to all the previous efforts, and the ensuing silence might cause embarrassment. Monosyllabic yes/no answers should be made more polite by expanding devices based on different ways of emphasising and softening.
Expanding devices
The tactics is quite common for the following functions:
accepting, explaining, (dis)agreeing, refusing, apologising, expressing an opinion etc.
Emphasising positive replies
Expanding devices could mainly be reduced to set formulae for emphatic agreement with adverbs and phrases with verbs of thinking. Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of expanding short answers. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Softening negative replies
Expanding devices could mainly be reduced to set formulae and sentences with verbs of thinking which often help to soften opinions as well as phrases of reservation. Softening formulae with but... are mostly used for apologies and polite refusals.
Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of expanding short answers. Think of more examples possible for some other functions of English.
Task 17. Give polite answers to the following questions. (Choose any 5 sentences).
1. Do you mind my accompanying you to the meeting? - No.
2. Shall I ask our new assistant to join us? - No. We won’t need her.
3. Can I borrow your car to get there? - No. It is impossible.
4. May I use the telephone over there? - No. It is out of order.
5. Can you tell me where the meeting takes place? - No.
6. Do you know what’s going on there? - No. I have no idea.
7. Do you know where the secretary is? - Yes. In the office upstairs.
8. Can you spare me a few minutes? - Yes.
9. Have you got an extra copy of the agenda? - Yes.
10. Is it possible for me to get draft proposals? - Yes.
11. Do you agree with the project considered? - Yes but not completely.
12. Isn’t the initial project more time consuming? — No.
13. Still, do you prefer the latest variant? - Yes.
14. Is it the best solution? - Yes, except for some minor points.
15. So you don’t insist on further discussion? - No.
Task 18. Write a few appropriate remarks to indicate
a) refusing an answer;
b) refusing a permission.
AVOIDING SILENCE
Avoiding silence tactics and techniques are largely used to maintain smooth and uninterrupted flow of communication. Different “silence fillers” and attention signals are used to prevent or fill in different awkward pauses in a conversation. Those phrases perform the important function of indicating that you follow what is going on, your reaction is adequate and the talk would not end abruptly.
“Silence fillers”
The tactics is quite common for the following functions:
expressing emphatic agreement, hesitation, surprise, concern, sympathy, praising etc.
Reply questions
Reply questions are used to politely demonstrate your interest in what is being said rather than to ask for information. There are three types of reply questions: short questions; question tags (negative and non-negative) and the so called “same-way” tag (only non-negative) and echo questions. Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of reacting politely; think of more examples.
Attention signals
Exclamations, interjections and fillers are necessary to demonstrate attention to your conversation partners. Exclamations are based on the use of pronouns, modals and set expressions Exclamations as well as interjections also help to emphasise different emotional reactions. Silence fillers, “allpurpose” nouns and hesitation devices perform the functions their names suggest, i.e. those of concealing embarrassment when hesitating, filling pauses to gain .me and the like. Consider the examples below illustrating different ways of reacting politely; think of more examples.
Task 19 Use the appropriate attention signals to react to the following:
a) you re told that you won in a lottery (say, a cruise abroad) / your friend won books worth $100 in a recent prize draw;
b) your friend tells you that he failed to join you yesterday because s/he missed the last train and had to spend the night at the station.
Task 20 Write a brief essay on the topic Display of emotions', get ready to make mini presentations.
To sum up the essentials of the unit, formulate brief recommendations for effective communication between Ukrainians and their English speaking partners.
VARYING THE DEGREE OF FORMALITY
Effective communication largely depends on the appropriate strategy. Choosing their strategies interlocutors should first of all take into account the context (the setting, partners’ social status, gender, interrelations, psychological atmosphere etc.). Those factors determine the style speakers adopt, the necessity to conceal or reveal their intentions, to suppress emotions or lessen straightforwardness of their messages. Softening, the most widespread strategy, manifests itself in the conventional set of question formulae varying according to the degree of politeness. The formulae are commonly used to implicitly request, ask for information or express opinions.
Softening devices
The tactics is quite common for the following functions:
requesting, enquiring / inviting an opinion, suggesting, advising, asking permission etc.
Request formulae graded
Consider the examples below illustrating possible ways of asking questions politely. Think of situations where those phrases can be appropriate and give your own examples illustrating their use in different contexts.
Opinion phrases graded
Consider the examples below illustrating possible ways of expressing opinions politely. Think of situations where those phrases can be appropriate and give your own examples illustrating their use in different contexts.
Task 21. Make the following questions more indirect; other polite variants could be possible. (Choose any 5 sentences).
1. Do you mind my accompanying you to the evening meeting?
2. Shall I ask our new assistant to join us?
3. Can I borrow your car to get there?
4. May I use the telephone over there?
5. Can you tell me where the meeting takes place?
6. Do you know what’s going on there?
7. Do you know where the secretary is?
8. Can you spare me a few minutes?
9. Have you got an extra copy of the agenda?
10. Is it possible for me to get draft proposals?
11. Do you agree with the project considered?
12. Isn’t the initial project more time-consuming?
13. Still, do you prefer the latest variant?
14. Is it the best solution?
15. So you don’t insist on further discussion?
Task 22. Write a brief note (in the form of questions)
a) suggesting a plan for improving the present-day school system;
b) asking your teacher/ colleague to confirm the changes in the work you both are engaged in.
Task 23. Complete the table below by appropriately varying the phrase go home with respect to different functions and offer an approach to translating your versions into Ukrainian.
Nonverbal Communication Lecture
What Is Nonverbal Communication? Nonverbal communication is the process of using wordless messages to generate meaning. Nonverbal communication includes nonword vocalizations such as inflection and nonword sounds such as “ah” and “hmm.” Communication is complex. We cannot quantify the relative contribution of nonverbal communication to verbal communication (Lapakko, 1997), but nonverbal communication often provides much more meaning than people realize. Indeed, when we are not certain about another person’s feelings or our feeling about him or her, we may rely far more on nonverbal cues and less on the words that are used (Grahe & Bernieri, 1999; Vedantam, 2006). You know the importance of nonverbal communication in your own life. Imagine how difficult communication would be if you could not see the people with whom you are communicating, hear their voices, or sense their presence. Actually, this is what occurs when you send e-mail or instant messages or chat with others online. As electronic forms of communication have become more prevalent, people have found creative ways to communicate feeling and emotions. Emoticons are sequences of characters composed in two-dimensional written formats for the purpose of expressing emotions. The most common example of the emoticon is the “smiley” or “smiley face.” Emoticons are a form of nonverbal communication, and they illustrate the importance of this means of communication, no matter the context.
How are Verbal and Nonverbal Communication Related? Both verbal and nonverbal communication are essential for effective interactions with others. How are the two related? Nonverbal communication works in conjunction with the words that we utter in six ways: to repeat, to emphasize, to complement, to contradict, to substitute, and to regulate. Let us consider each of these briefly. Repeating occurs when the same message is sent verbally and nonverbally. It consists of using gestures to strengthen a verbal message, such as pointing to the object of discussion. Emphasizing is the use of nonverbal cues to strengthen your message. Hugging a friend and telling him that you really care about him is a stronger statement than using either words or bodily movement alone. Complementing: Nonverbal cues can be used to elaborate on verbal messages to reinforce the information sent when trying to achieve communicative goals; messages have been shown to be remembered better when nonverbal signals affirm the verbal exchange. Contradicting occurs when your verbal and nonverbal messages conflict. Often this occurs accidentally. If you have ever been angry at a teacher or parent, you may have stated verbally that you were fine—but your bodily movements, facial expression, and use of space may have “leaked” your actual feelings. Contradiction occurs intentionally in humor and sarcasm. Your words provide one message, but your nonverbal delivery tells how you really feel. Substituting occurs when nonverbal codes are used instead of verbal codes. You roll your eyes, you stick out your tongue, you gesture thumbs down, or you shrug. In most cases your intended message is fairly clear. Regulating occurs when nonverbal codes are used to monitor and control interactions with others. For example, you look away when someone else is trying to talk and you are not finished with your thought. You walk away from someone who has hurt your feelings or made you angry. You shake your head and encourage another person to continue talking. While verbal and nonverbal codes often work in concert, they also exhibit differences that we will consider next. You shake your head and encourage another person to continue talking. While verbal and nonverbal codes often work in concert, they also exhibit differences that we will consider next.
Why are Nonverbal Codes Difficult to Interpret? Nonverbal communication is responsible for much of the misunderstanding that occurs during communication. Just as people have difficulty interpreting verbal symbols, so do they struggle to interpret nonverbal codes. The ambiguity of nonverbal communication occurs for two reasons: People use the same code to communicate a variety of meanings, and they use a variety of codes to communicate the same meaning. One Code Communicates a Variety of Meanings The ambiguity of nonverbal codes occurs in part because one code may communicate several different meanings. For example, the nonverbal code of raising your right hand may mean that you are taking an oath, you are demonstrating for a cause, you are indicating to an instructor that you would like to answer a question, a physician is examining your right side, or you want a taxi to stop for you. Also consider how you may stand close to someone because of a feeling of affection, because the room is crowded, or because you have difficulty hearing. Although people in laboratory experiments have demonstrated some success in decoding nonverbal behavior accurately (Horgan & Smith, 2006), in actual situations receivers of nonverbal cues can only guess about the meaning of the cue (Motley & Camden, 1988). Several lay authors have been successful in selling books suggesting that observers can learn to easily and accurately distinguish meaning from specific nonverbal cues. Unfortunately, these authors have not been able to demonstrate any significant improvement among their readers. Single cues can be interpreted in multiple ways. A Variety of Codes Communicate the Same Meaning Nonverbal communication is not a science: Any number of codes may be used to communicate the same meaning. One example is the many nonverbal ways by which adults communicate love or affection. You may sit or stand more closely to someone you love. You might speak more softly, use a certain vocal intonation, or alter how quickly you speak when you communicate with someone with whom you are affectionate. Or perhaps you choose to dress differently when you are going to be in the company of someone you love. Cultural differences are especially relevant when we consider that multiple cues may be used to express a similar message. How do you show respect to a speaker in a public-speaking situation? In some cultures respect is shown by listeners when they avert their eyes; in other cultures listeners show respect and attention by looking directly at the speaker. You may believe that showing your emotions is an important first step in resolving conflict, whereas a classmate may feel that emotional responses interfere with conflict resolution.
What Are Nonverbal Codes? Nonverbal codes are codes of communication consisting of symbols that are not words, including nonword vocalizations. Bodily movement, facial expression, bodily appearance, the use of space, the use of time, touch, vocal cues, and clothing and other artifacts are all nonverbal codes. Let us consider these systematic arrangements of symbols that have been given arbitrary meaning and are used in communication. Bodily Movement and Facial Expression The study of bodily movements, including posture, gestures, and facial expressions, is called kinesics, a word derived from the Greek word kinesis, meaning “movement.” Some popular books purport to teach you how to “read” nonverbal communication so that you will know, for example, who is sexually aroused, who is just kidding, and whom you should avoid. Nonverbal communication, however, is more complicated than that. Interpreting the meaning of nonverbal communication is partly a matter of assessing the other person’s unique behavior and considering the context. You don’t just “read” another person’s body language; instead, you observe, analyze, and interpret before you decide the probable meaning. Assessing another person’s unique behavior means that you need to know how that person usually acts. A quiet person might be unflappable even in an emergency situation. A person who never smiles may not be unhappy, and someone who acts happy might not actually be happy. You need to know how the person expresses emotions before you can interpret what his or her nonverbal communication means. To look more deeply into interpreting nonverbal communication, let us consider the work of some experts on the subject: Albert Mehrabian, Paul Ekman, and Wallace Friesen. Mehrabian (1971) studied nonverbal communication by examining the concepts of liking, status, and responsiveness among the participants in communication situations. • Liking is expressed by forward leaning, a direct body orientation (such as standing face-to-face), close proximity, increased touching, relaxed posture, open arms and body, positive facial expression, and direct eye contact. For example, look at how a group of males acts when drinking beer and watching a game on television, or watch newly matched couples in the spring. • Status, especially high status, is communicated nonverbally by bigger gestures, relaxed posture, and less eye contact. Male bosses sometimes put their feet up on their desks when talking to subordinates, but subordinates rarely act that way when talking to their boss. • Responsiveness is exhibited by movement toward the other person, by spontaneous gestures, by shifts in posture and position, and by facial expressive- ness. In other words, the face and body provide positive feedback to the other person.
Ekman (1993, 1997, 1999a, 1999b) and Ekman and Friesen (1969) categorized movement on the basis of its functions, origins, and meanings. Their categories include emblems, illustrators, affect displays, regulators, and adaptors. Emblems are nonverbal movements that substitute for words and phrases. Examples of emblems are a beckoning first finger to mean “come here,” an open hand held up to mean “stop,” and a forefinger and thumb forming a circle to mean “OK.” Be wary of emblems; they may mean something else in another culture. Illustrators are nonverbal movements that accompany or reinforce verbal messages. Examples of illustrators are nodding your head when you say yes, shaking your head when you say no, stroking your stomach when you say you are hungry, and shaking your fist in the air when you say, “Get out of that substitute for words and phrases. These nonverbal cues tend to be more universal than many in the other four categories of movement. Affect displays are nonverbal movements of the face and body used to show emotion. Watch people’s behavior when their favorite team wins a game, listen to the door slam when an angry person leaves the room, and watch men make threatening moves when they are very upset with each other but don’t really want to fight. Regulators are nonverbal movements that control the flow or pace of communication. Examples of regulators are starting to move away when you want the conversation to stop, gazing at the floor or looking away when you are not interested, and yawning and glancing at your watch when you are bored. Adaptors are nonverbal movements that you might perform fully in private but only partially in public. For example, you might rub your nose in public, but you would probably never pick it.
Finally, Ekman and Friesen (1967) determined that a person’s facial expressions provide information to others about how he or she feels. Consider the smile. Findings are overwhelming that the person who smiles is rated more positively than the person who uses a neutral facial expression. Indeed, you are more likely to be offered a job if you smile (Krumhuber, Manstead, Cosker, Marshall, & Rosin, 2009). Ekman developed the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) to taxonomize every conceivable human facial expression. (Now commercialised — see http://www.paulekman.com/
Perhaps a more provocative finding is that people are more likely to attend to faces that are angry or threatening than they are to neutral facial expressions. When adults were presented with multiple faces, including some that appeared threatening, they were more likely to attend to the angry faces than they were to others. Recently it was shown that children have this same bias and they observed angry and frightened faces more rapidly than they did happy or sad faces (LoBue, 2009). This response to threatening stimuli may have evolved as a protective means to help people avoid danger. Research on bodily movement today includes considerations of how our bodies and minds work together. Although we have known for some time that bodily movement has some basis in the brain and in our neurological functioning, a new focus combining these areas has shown promise. Choreographers, neuroscientists, and psychologists have joined together to study body and mind. This kind of collaboration between dancers and scientists may allow new discoveries that were not possible when people from these areas worked independently (McCarthy, Blackwell, DeLaunta, Wing, Hollands, Barnard, Nimmo-Smith, & Marcel, 2006). The future is bright for additional creative discoveries. Facial expressions are important in conveying information to others and in learning what others are feeling. Bodily movement and orientation adds to that information by suggesting how intense the feeling might be. When you are able to observe and interpret both facial expression and bodily movement, you gain a fuller understanding of the other person’s message.
Physical Attraction Beauty, it has been noted, is in the eye of the beholder. However, some research has suggested that particular characteristics—bright eyes, symmetrical features, and thin or medium build—are generally associated with physical attraction (Cash, 1980; Kowner, 1996). Moreover, such characteristics may not be limited to our culture but may be universal (Brody, 1994). Physical attractiveness affects many aspects of our lives. The influence of physical appearance begins when we are young. By age 4, children are treated differently based on their physical appearance by their day-care teachers (Cash, 1980; Langlois & Downs, 1979). When children misbehave, their behavior is viewed as an isolated, momentary aberration if they are physically attractive, but as evidence of a chronic tendency to be bad if they are unattractive. These patterns continue throughout childhood and adolescence (Knapp & Hall, 1992). Physical attractiveness generally leads to more social success in adulthood. Women who are attractive report a larger number of dates in college. Attractiveness may be affected by skin tone and hair color. Swami, Furnham, and Joshi (2008) found that men clearly prefer brunettes over blondes, and slightly prefer women who have light skin tones. Both women and men who are attractive are seen as more sociable and sensitive (Knapp & Hall, 1992). Do people change their view of mate preferences over time? Eastwick and Finkel (2008) found that men ideally desire a physically attractive mate while women ideally desire a mate who has strong earning prospects. In real-life potential partners, women and men did not evidence these preferences or differences. Stereotypes may exist in abstract thinking about potential mates, but they do not appear to be realized in actual behavior. The “matching hypothesis” suggests that women and men seek others who are of similar attractiveness. Lee, Loewenstein, Ariely, Hong, and Young (2008) recently demonstrated this consistent finding, although they did find that men were more oblivious to their own physical attractiveness in selecting a woman to date while women were keenly aware of their “physical attraction quotient.” They also asked whether less attractive people delude themselves when they are dating less attractive people with the sense that they are more attractive than others view them. They found that this is not the case. People have a fairly objective sense of their own, and their partner’s attractiveness. Similarly, people who are obese are less likely to have physically attractive partners than are people of normal weight. Body type is not the only factor in mate selection; obese people are seen as more attractive if they have good educations, good groom- ing, and more attractive personalities. Nonetheless, similarity in body type remains the strongest predictor in mate selection among these qualities (Carmalt, Cawley, Joyner, & Sobal, 2008). Physical attractiveness affects both credibility and one’s ability to persuade others. Attractive people receive higher initial credibility ratings than do those who are viewed as unattractive (Widgery, 1974). Women have more success in persuading the opposite sex when they are attractive than men have in persuading the opposite sex when they are attractive, but attractive women find that this effect dissipates as they grow older (Davies, Goetz, & Shackelford, 2008). When two attractive women interact, they compete dynamically for status which suggests that they feel that they have more social status or interactional power as a result of their physical beauty (Haas & Gregory, 2005).
Space Anthropologist Edward T. Hall (1966) introduced the concept of proxemics—the study of the human use of space and distance—in his book The Hidden Dimension. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeNGSZK01Hs&feature=related This researcher and others, such as Werner (1987), have demonstrated the role space plays in human communication. Two concepts considered essential to the study of the use of space are territoriality and personal space. • Territoriality refers to your need to establish and maintain certain spaces as your own. In a shared dormitory room the items on the common desk area mark the territory. For example, you might place your notebook, pens and pencils, and PDA on the right side of the desk and your roommate might place books, a cell phone, and a laptop on the left side. While the desk is shared, you are each claiming part of the area. On a cafeteria table the placement of the plate, glass, napkin, and eating utensils marks the territory. In a neighborhood it might be fences, hedges, trees, or rocks that mark the territory. All are nonverbal indicators that signal ownership. • Personal space is the personal “bubble” that moves around with you. It is the distance you maintain between yourself and others, the amount of space you claim as your own. Large people usually claim more space because of their size, and men often take more space than women. For example, in a lecture hall, observe who claims the armrests as part of their personal bubbles. Hall (1966) was the first to define the four distances people regularly use while they communicate. His categories have been helpful in understanding the communicative behavior that might occur when two people are a particular distance from each other. Beginning with the closest contact and the least personal space, and moving to the greatest distance, Hall’s categories are intimate distance, personal distance, social distance, and public distance. • Intimate distance extends from you outward to 18 inches, and it is used by people who are relationally close to you. Used more often in private than in public, this intimate distance is employed to show affection, to give comfort, and to protect. Graves and Robinson (1976) and Burgoon (1978) note that use of intimate distance usually elicits a positive response because individuals tend to stand and sit close to people to whom they are attracted. • Personal distance ranges from 18 inches to 4 feet, and it is the distance used by most Americans for conversation and other nonintimate exchanges. • Social distance ranges from 4 to 12 feet, and it is used most often to carry out business in the workplace, especially in formal, less personal situations. The higher the status of one person, the greater the distance. • Public distance exceeds 12 feet and is used most often in public speaking in such settings as lecture halls; churches, mosques, and synagogues; courtrooms; and convention halls. Professors often stand at this distance while lecturing.
Distance, then, is a nonverbal means of communicating everything from the size of your personal bubble to your relationship with the person to whom you are speaking or listening. A great deal of research has been done on proxemics (see, e.g., Andersen, Guerrero, Buller, & Jorgensen, 1998; McMurtray, 2000; Terneus & Malone, 2004). Virtual environments allow researchers to study the human use of space in relatively unobtrusive ways (Bailenson, Blascovich, Beall, & Loomis, 2001). Sex, size, and similarity seem to be among the important determiners of personal space. Gender affects the amount of space people are given and the space in which they choose to communicate (Ro’sing, 2003). Men tend to take more space because they are often larger than women (Argyle & Dean, 1965). Women take less space, and children take and are given the least space. Women exhibit less discomfort with small space and tend to interact at closer range (Addis, 1966; Leventhal & Matturro, 1980; Snyder & Endelman, 1979). Perhaps because women are so often given little space, they come to expect it. Also, women and children in our society seem to desire more relational closeness than do men. Your relationship to other people is related to your use of space (Guardo, 1969). You stand closer to friends and farther from enemies. You stand farther from strang- ers, authority figures, high-status people, physically challenged people, and people from racial groups different from your own. You stand closer to people you perceive as similar or unthreatening because closeness communicates trust. The physical setting also can alter the use of space. People tend to stand closer together in large rooms and farther apart in small rooms (Sommer, 1962). In addition, physical obstacles and furniture arrangements can affect the use of personal space. The cultural background of the people communicating also must be considered in the evaluation of personal space. Hall (1963) was among the first to recognize the importance of cultural background when he was training American service personnel for service overseas. He wrote: Americans overseas were confronted with a variety of difficulties because of cultural differences in the handling of space. People stood “too close” during conversations, and when the Americans backed away to a comfortable conversational distance, this was taken to mean that Americans were cold, aloof, withdrawn, and disinterested in the people of the country. USA housewives muttered about “waste-space” in houses in the Middle East. In England, Americans who were used to neighborliness were hurt when they discovered that their neighbors were no more accessible or friendly than other people, and in Latin America, exsuburbanites, accustomed to unfenced yards, found that the high walls there made them feel “shut out.” Even in Germany, where so many of my countrymen felt at home, radically different patterns in the use of space led to unexpected tensions. (p. 422)
Cultural background can result in great differences in the use of space and in people’s interpretation of such use. As our world continues to shrink, more people will be working in multinational corporations, regularly traveling to different countries and interacting with others from a variety of backgrounds. Sensitivity to space use in different cultures and quick, appropriate responses to those variations are imperative.
Touching Tactile communication (Haptics)is the use of touch in communication. Because touch always involves invasion of another person’s personal space, it commands attention. Touch is a powerful means of communication (Aguinis, Simonsen, & Pierce, 1998; Fromme et al., 1989). Usually, touch is perceived as positive, pleasurable, and reinforcing. The association of touch with the warmth and caring that began in infancy carries over into adulthood. People who are comfortable with touch are more likely to be satisfied with their past and current lives. They are self-confident, assertive, socially acceptable, and active in confronting problems. Touch is part of many important rituals. In baptism the practice can range from as little as a touch on the head during the ceremony to as much as a total immersion in water. Prayers in some churches are said with the pastor’s hand touching the person being prayed for. In some funda- mentalist Christian churches, the healer might accompany the touch with a mighty shove, right into the hands of two catchers. Physician Bernie Siegel (1990) wrote the following in his book on mind–body communication: I’d like to see some teaching time devoted to the healing power of touch—a subject that only 12 of 169 medical schools in the English-speaking world deal with at all . . . despite the fact that touch is one of the most basic forms of communication between people. . . . We need to teach medical students how to touch people. (p. 134) Religion and medicine are just two professions in which touch is important for ceremonial and curative purposes. Touch varies by gender (Lee & Guerrero, 2001). The findings relating touch with gender indicate the following: • Women value touch more than men do (Fisher, Rytting, & Heslin, 1976). • Women are touched more than men, beginning when they are 6-month- old girls (Clay, 1968; Goldberg & Lewis, 1969). • Women touch female children more often than they touch male children (Clay, 1968; Goldberg & Lewis, 1969). • Men and their sons touch each other the least (Jourard & Rubin, 1968). • Female students are touched more often and in more places than are male students (Jourard, 1966). • Males touch others more often than females touch others (Henley, 1973–1974). • Males may use touch to indicate power or dominance (Henley, 1973–1974).
On the last point, to observe who can touch whom among people in the workplace is interesting. Although fear of being accused of sexual harassment has eliminated a great deal of touch except for handshaking, the general nonverbal principle is that the higher- status individual gets to initiate touch, but touch is not reciprocal: The president might pat you on the back for a job well done, but in our society you don’t pat back. Further, both co-culture and culture determine the frequency and kind of non- verbal communication. People from different countries handle nonverbal communication differently—even something as simple as touch (McDaniel & Andersen, 1998). Sidney Jourard (1968) determined the rates of touch per hour among adults rom various cultures. In a coffee shop, adults in San Juan, Puerto Rico, touched 180 times per hour; while those in Paris, France, touched about 110 times per hour; followed by those in Gainesville, Florida, who touched about 2 times per hour; and those in London, England, who touched only once per hour. North Americans are more frequent touchers than are the Japanese (Barnlund, 1975). Touch sends such a powerful message that it has to be handled with responsibility. Touch may be welcomed by some in work or clinical settings, but it is equally likely that touch is undesirable or annoying. Certainly touch can be misunderstood in such settings (Kane, 2006; Lee & Guerrero, 2001; Strozier, Krizek, & Sale, 2003). When the right to touch is abused, it can result in a breach of trust, anxiety, and hostility. When touch is used to communicate concern, caring, and affection, it is welcome, desired, and appreciated.
Vocal Cues Nonverbal communication includes some sounds, as long as they are not words. We call them paralinguistic features—the nonword sounds and nonword characteristics of language, such as pitch, volume, rate, and quality. The prefix para means “along- side” or “parallel to,” so paralinguistic means “alongside the words or language.” The paralinguistic feature examined here is vocal cues—all of the oral aspects of sound except words themselves. Vocal cues include • Pitch: the highness or lowness of your voice. • Rate: how rapidly or slowly you speak. • Inflection: the variety or changes in pitch. • Volume: the loudness or softness of your voice. • Quality: the unique resonance of your voice, such as huskiness, nasality, raspiness, or whininess. • Nonword sounds: “mmh,” “huh,” “ahh,” and the like, as well as pauses or the absence of sound used for effect in speaking. • Pronunciation: whether or not you say a word correctly. • Articulation: whether or not your mouth, tongue, and teeth coordinate to make a word understandable to others (such as a lisp). • Enunciation: whether or not you combine pronunciation and articulation to produce a word with clarity and distinction so that it can be under- stood. A person who mumbles has an enunciation problem. • Silence: the lack of sound. These vocal cues are important because they are linked in our minds with a speaker’s physical characteristics, emotional state, personality characteristics, gender characteristics, and even credibility. In addition, vocal cues, alone, have a persuasive effect for people when they are as young as 12 months (Vaish & Striano, 2004). According to Kramer (1963), vocal cues frequently convey information about the speaker’s characteristics, such as age, height, appearance, and body type. For example, people often associate a high-pitched voice with someone who is female, younger, and/ or smaller. You may visualize someone who uses a loud voice as being big or someone who speaks quickly as being nervous. People who tend to speak slowly and deliberately may be perceived as being high-status individuals or as having high credibility. A number of studies have related emotional states to specific vocal cues. Joy and hate appear to be the most accurately communicated emotions, whereas shame and love are among the most difficult to communicate accurately (Laukka, Juslin, & Bresin, 2005; Planalp, 1996). Joy and hate appear to be conveyed by fewer vocal cues, and this makes them less difficult to interpret than emotions such as shame and love, which are conveyed by complex sets of vocal cues. “Active” feelings such as joy and hate are associated with a loud voice, a high pitch, and a rapid rate. Conversely, “passive” feelings, which include affection and sadness, are communicated with a soft voice, a low pitch, and a relatively slow rate (Kramer, 1963). Personality characteristics also have been related to vocal cues. Dominance, social adjustment, and sociability have been clearly correlated with specific vocal cues (Bateson, Jackson, Haley, & Weakland, 1956). Irony, on the other hand, cannot be determined on the basis of vocal cues alone (Bryant & Tree, 2005). Although the personality characteristics attributed to individuals displaying particular vocal cues have not been shown to accurately portray the person, as determined by standardized personality tests, our impressions affect our interactions. In other words, although you may perceive loud-voiced, high-pitched, fast-speaking individuals as dominant, they might not be measured as dominant by a personality inventory. Nonetheless, in your interactions with such people, you may become increasingly submissive because of your perception that they are dominant. In addition, these people may begin to become more dominant because they are treated as though they have this personality characteristic. Vocal cues can help a public speaker establish credibility with an audience and can clarify the message. Pitch and inflection can be used to make the speech sound aesthetically pleasing, to accomplish subtle changes in meaning, and to tell an audience whether you are asking a question or making a statement, being sincere or sarcastic, or being doubtful or assertive. A rapid speaking rate may indicate you are confident about speaking in public or that you are nervously attempting to conclude your speech. Variations in volume can be used to add emphasis or to create suspense. Enunciation is especially important in public speaking because of the increased size of the audience and the fewer opportunities for direct feedback. Pauses can be used in a public speech to create dramatic effect and to arouse audience interest. Vocalized pauses—“ah,” “uh-huh,” “um,” and so on—are not desirable in public speaking and may distract the audience. Silence is a complex behavior steeped in contradictions. To be sure, silence is far better than vocalized pauses in public speaking. Too, silence may signal respect and empathy when another person is speaking or disclosing personal information. One observer notes: “Sometimes silence is best. Words are curious things, at best approximations. And every human being is a separate language. . . . [Sometimes] silence is best” (Hardman, 1971). On the other hand, silence may signal the dark side of communication. People in power, in dominant cultures, or in positions of authority may silence others. Those with whom they come in contact may be marginalized or embarrassed and feel that they must remain silent because of sexism, racism, taboo, incidents of violence or abuse, shame, or a hostile environment (Olson, 1997).
Clothing and Other Artifacts Objectics, or object language, refers to the study of the human use of clothing and other artifacts as nonverbal codes. Artifacts are ornaments or adornments you display that hold communicative potential, including jewelry, hairstyles, cosmetics, automobiles, canes, watches, shoes, portfolios, hats, glasses, tattoos, body piercings, and even the fillings in teeth. Your clothing and other adornments communicate your age, gender, status, role, socioeconomic class, group memberships, personality, and relation to the opposite sex. Dresses are seldom worn by men, low-cut gowns are not the choice of shy women, bright colors are avoided by reticent people, and the most recent Paris fashions are seldom seen in the small towns of America. These cues also indicate the time in history, the time of day, the climate, and one’s culture (Frith, Hong, & Ping Shaw, 2004). Clothing and artifacts provide physical and psychological protection, and they are used to spur sexual attraction and to indicate self-concept. Your clothing and artifacts clarify the sort of person you believe you are (Fisher, 1975). They permit personal expression (Boswell, 2006), and they satisfy your need for creative self-expression (Horn, 1975). A person who exhibits an interest in using clothing as a means of expression may be demonstrating a high level of self-actualization (Perry, Schutz, & Rucker, 1983). For example, an actress who always dresses in expensive designer dresses may be showing everyone that she is exactly what she always wanted to be. Many studies have established a relationship between an individual’s clothing and artifacts and his or her characteristics. Conforming to current styles is correlated with an individual’s desire to be accepted and liked (Taylor & Compton, 1968). In addition, individuals feel that clothing is important in forming first impressions (Henricks, Kelley, & Eicher, 1968). Perhaps of more importance are the studies that consider the relationship between clothing and an observer’s perception of that person. In an early study, clothing was shown to affect others’ impressions of status and personality traits (Douty, 1963). People also seem to base their acceptance of others on their clothing and artifacts. In another early study, women who were asked to describe the most popular women they knew cited clothing as the most important characteristic (Williams & Eicher, 1966). Clothing also communicates authority and people’s roles. Physicians have historically worn a white coat to indicate their role. For many people the white coat signified healing and better health. As the white coat has begun to be phased out, however, the physician’s ability to persuade patients to follow advice may have declined as well. Thus the physician may need to learn alternative symbolic means of persuasion (Panja, 2004). Body modifications are a type of artifact. They include tattoos and piercing, which have been popular in recent years. Although they can be removed, the procedures may be both costly and time intensive. What do tattoos signal to others? Most people probably choose to adorn themselves with tattoos and piercings because they believe it adds to their overall attractiveness. A recent study, however, showed some different findings. Men with tattoos were viewed as more dominant than nontattooed men while women with tattoos were seen as less healthy than women without tattoos. These findings hold implications for a biological signaling effect of tattoos (Wohlrab, Fink, Kappeler, & Brewer, 2009).
What Are Some Ways to Improve Nonverbal Communication? Sensitivity to nonverbal cues is highly variable among people (Rosenthal, Hall, Matteg, Rogers, & Archer, 1979). You can improve your understanding of nonverbal communication, though, by being sensitive to context, audience, and feedback. The context includes the physical setting, the occasion, and the situation. In conversation your vocal cues are rarely a problem unless you stutter, stammer, lisp, or suffer from some speech pathology. Paralinguistic features loom large in importance in small-group communication, in which you have to adapt to the distance and to a variety of receivers. These features are perhaps most important in public speaking because you have to adjust volume and rate, you have to enunciate more clearly, and you have to introduce more vocal variety to keep the audience’s attention. The strategic use of pauses and silence is also more apparent in public speak- ing than it is in an interpersonal context in conversations or small-group discussion. The occasion and physical setting also affect the potential meaning of a nonverbal cue. For example, when would it be appropriate for you to wear a cap over unwashed, uncombed hair and when would it be interpreted as inappropriate? The distance at which you communicate may be different based on the setting and the occasion: You may stand farther away from people in formal situations when space allows, but closer to family members or to strangers in an elevator. The audience makes a difference in your nonverbal communication, so you have to adapt. When speaking to children, you must use a simple vocabulary and careful enunciation, articulation, and pronunciation. With an older audience or with younger audiences whose hearing has been impaired by too much loud music, you must adapt your volume. Generally, children and older people in both interpersonal and public-speaking situations appreciate slower speech. Also, adaptation to an audience may determine your choice of clothing, hairstyle, and jewelry. For instance, a shaved head, a facial piercing, and a shirt open to the navel will not go over well in a job interview unless you are trying for a job as an entertainer. Your attention to giving feedback can be very important in helping others interpret your nonverbal cues that might otherwise distract your listeners. For example, some pregnant women avoid questions and distraction by wearing a shirt that says, “I’m not fat, I’m pregnant”; such feedback prevents listeners from wondering instead of listening. Similarly, your listeners’ own descriptive feedback—giving quizzical looks, staring, nodding off—can signal you to talk louder, introduce variety, restate your points, or clarify your message. If your conversational partner or audience does not provide you with feedback, what can you do? Practice asking questions and checking on the perceptions of others with whom you communicate. Silence has many meanings, and you some- times must take great effort to interpret the lack of feedback in a communicative setting. You can also consider your past experience with particular individuals or a similar audience. Do they ever provide feedback? Under what circumstances are they expressive? How can you become more accurate in your interpretation of their feedback?
PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENTS
I. Answer the following questions.
1. What is nonverbal communication? 2. How do verbal and nonverbal codes work in conjunction? 3. What problems do people have in interpreting nonverbal codes? 4. What are nonverbal codes? 5.What are the types of bodily movement in nonverbal communication? 6. What role does physical attraction play in communication? 7. What are the factors determining the amount of personal space you use? 8. How are objects used in nonverbal communication? 9. How might you improve your nonverbal communication?
II. Match the words to their meanings.
III. Multiple Choice Tasks Choose the best alternative to complete the sentence/to answer the question. 1. What is included in nonverbal communication? A. Only vocalized cues. B. Only nonvocalized cues. C. Nonword vocalizations as well as nonvocalized cues. D. Vocalized words. 2. Nonverbal codes work together with vocalized words to … .
A. repeat and emphasize B. complement and regulate C. contradict and substitute D. all of the above
3. One of the difficulties of interpreting nonverbal codes is … . A. one code may communicate several different meanings B. no two nonverbal codes communicate the same meaning C. each nonverbal cue has only one perceived meaning D. observers can easily distinguish meaning from specific nonverbal cues 4. Bodily movement, facial expression, the use of time, and vocal cues, among other actions, are examples of … .
A. kinesics B. complementation C. nonverbal codes D. adaptors
5. When interpreting nonverbal communication, it is important to consider … . A. context B. only observed behavior C. gut instinct “reading” people D. context only observed behavior gut instinct “reading” people 6. Pointing to your wrist while asking for the time is an example of a(n) … .
A. adaptor B. illustrator C. regulator D. emblem
7. Compared to those who are unattractive, physically attractive people … .
A. are treated differently as children B. generally have more success socially C. are more likely to succeed at work D. all of the above
8. With regard to chronemics, Americans of high status … . A. are granted the opportunity of arriving late B. are always on time C. work on several tasks at a time D. view privacy as important 9. In relation to gender and tactile communication, which of the following is true? A. Females and their daughters touch each other the least. B. Men value touch more than women do. C. Women are touched more than men. D. Females touch others more often than males touch others. 10. Which of the following provide physical and psychological protection, permit personal expression, and communicate age, gender, socioeconomic class, and personality?
A. Vocal cues B. Affect displays C. Illustrators D. Artifacts
IV. Choose a television personality you admire. What do you like about this person? Watch this person for several minutes with the sound turned off, and make notes of the nonverbal expressions you observe. Turn the sound back on and make notes of the tone of voice, timing, and other audible expressions.
V. Complete the sentences to note cultural differences. Bowing (not done, criticized, or affected in …; shows rank in …) Slouching (rude in …) Hands in pocket (disrespectful in …) Sitting with legs crossed (offensive in …, …) Showing soles of feet. (Offensive in …, …)
VI. What does Eye Contact communicate in various cultures (the United States; Western Europe; the Middle East; Asia, Latin America and Africa?
VII. Analyse the following situation. An African-American male goes into a convenience store recently taken over by new Korean immigrants. He gives a $20 bill for his purchase to Mrs Cho who is cashier and waits for his change. He is upset when his change is put down on the counter in front of him. What is the problem?
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