The Role of Non-Verbal Communication in Intercultural Business

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Communications - Intercultural Communication, course: Seminar, language: English, abstract: In this seminar paper I will analyze the diverse functions and forms of non-verbal communication (NVC). In addition, I will focus on business context. Business context in this paper means the realm of big companies with at least branches in two different cultures. Therefore, I have chosen five countries that Germany has a strong business interest in, and which have different socio-cultural frameworks: Saudi-Arabia, China, Japan, Russia, and Brazil. The proceeding in this paper is that after explanatory notes to functions and types of NVC, I will show a photo of one notable business representative of each of the five countries. Based on these photos, I will illustrate the characteristic features of NVC in the respective country. Differences to German NVC will be lined out with special hints to potential pitfalls, causing severe economic consequences. Finally, I will summarize the main issues of this paper, consider the results and come up with a conclusion. The sources used for this paper are not only scientifically proven literature. For the definition of NVC in general, long-established surveys of prominent academics are available, like I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt (Similarities and Differences between Cultures in Expressive Movements), and M. Argyle (Non-verbal Communication in Human Social Interaction). To be responsive to the business related task of this paper, I also draw on "how-to books", internet posts and a quality journal.