Kinesics Communication: Understanding Non-Verbal Cues

This article discusses kinesics communication, which is the study of body motion as related to the non-verbal aspects of interpersonal communication. It covers the different types of body gestures and how they can be interpreted in different cultures. The article also includes personal reflections on the topic and how it can be applied in a present or future professional career.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION PRACTICE
Professional Communication Practice
Structured Reflection
Student’s name:
Name of the university:
Author’s note:

1PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION PRACTICE
1. Kinesics
Kinesics communication can be defined as the communicating through body movement
and it is one of the popular and well-known non-verbal forms of communication. As stated by
Burgoon et al. (2015), kinesics is interpretation of the body motion communication like gestures,
facial expression and movement of any part of the body. The author further stated that kinesics
has the equivalent popular term ‘body language’. Kinesics is the visual communication and it has
the expressions like eye behaviour, facial expression, posture and gesture and personal
appearance. In the year 1952, Ray Birdwhistell started to study on the area of gesture, posture,
movement and stance. His ideas were then resulted and synthesised in the paper Kinesics and
context. The way individuals’ body is held to communicate in many various messages is body
posture and the open body takes up space to indicate the domination and comfort whereas, the
closed-body can make small signal inferiority (Eunson 2005). Whenever, one person copies of
other person’s body as it shows the trust, agreement and liking. Kinesics is the study of body
motion as related to the non-verbal aspects of interpersonal communication. In addition, as stated
by Dwyer and Boyd (2003), gesture is the process of communicating through movement of the
arms and body. There are mainly five types of body gestures and emblems mean the direct
replacement of the words. Illustrators mean shaping the words what is being said whereas, affect
displays states about the shows of emotion. Regulators show the controlling of the flow of
conversation and adaptors mean self-oriented tension receivers.
Kinesics behaviour is a significant part of the non-verbal communication as body
movement can express the information as interpretation can vary by the culture (Archee et al.
2013). Body movement can carry out subconscious or low awareness level; however, kinesics
movement has a risk of being misinterpreted in the inter-culture communication circumstances.

2PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION PRACTICE
When the individuals communicate with others; the persons tend to look at the face. According
to Alves et al. (2014), the way the persons tilt the head can change the message and the eyes seek
to make an eye-contact. The individuals can re-establish the eye-contact and forehead or eye-
brows can add significant signals of anger and surprise.
2. Personal reflection
Kinesics includes the postures, gestures and expressions of the hand and understanding
the non-verbal communication helps to use it effectively to navigate many of the challenges in
life. Kinesics communication can help me to get success in job interviews as proper kinesics
communication is effective in giving all right verbal answers. I think that poor kinesics can
hinder during the interview in getting the success. Therefore, kinesics topic gives me interest as
kinesics helps me to understand the concept of disorganised, irresponsible and not-interested in
position. For me, the most meaningful aspect of the kinesics communication as it will help me to
understand the positive message and it will further help me to make the eye contact with the
interviewer. Kinesics interests me as it assists me to gain the information in non-verbal
communication through using the audio-visual, vidual and silent means.
Kinesics communication provides cues for understanding the verbal message by giving
meaning to this. Verbal communication further gets heightens if we add kinesics with it. The
people can pat someone if they are offended at the back as the indication of sorry. For me, the
most relevant element of kinesics communication is helpful when the sender of the message
cannot use the verbal communication. Kinesics communication is the substitute for the verbal
message. According to me, kinesics communication can help to share the information if verbal
communication is blocked because of interruption, noise and long-distance.

3PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION PRACTICE
Kinesics subject fascinates me as I am a bit of introvert in nature as I cannot always
express my feelings through verbal communication. Kinesics topic helps me to make my
presentation more attractive when my verbal communication is not so good. I can use picture,
graph, sign and my kinesics skill to make it more attractive. Kinesics is visual communication
and I can reduce the wastage of time as nonverbal communication reaches to the receiver very
fast. Kinesics communication reduces the wastage of valuable time of the communicator. I have
learnt many communication symbols through kinesics communication as some of messages can
be sent very quickly than oral or written messages.
3. Applying kinesics communication in present or future professional career
In the present time, I have to deal with studies and my internship within an organisation.
Kinesics communication can convey as much as the verbal or written communication within the
educational institutions and the workplace. In the workplace, I am applying the nonverbal
communication to read and react on the nonverbal signals. Having experienced the kinesics
communication in the theoretical perspective, I now realise that kinesics communication can be
applied in the future professional career to improve my gesture and body movements. I want to
build up my career in the multi-culture organisation; where I can use kinesics cues provided
through the eye contact and facial expressions. Kinesics will help me to work in the multi-
cultural workplace where the employees will belong from different culture and ethnic groups.
The kinesics communication can help me to work in large organisations through improving the
personal space, influence individual interactions and touch. While working in the large multi-
cultural workplace, gestures of the people are significant. People use specific gestures to
signifying the specific meaning as these gestures are called illustrators. In the workplace, I have

4PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION PRACTICE
to give presentations in front of large numbers of audiences and it will help me to understand the
verbal message.
Many of the people use gestures and body movements to be pin-point so that they can
share the message in a perfect way. In the future, I will use the eye contact while I will be in the
formal meetings. This eye contact will also help me I need to handle the clients. I have
significantly improved my skills in kinesics communication as it conveys and emotions by the
facial expressions as well as body positions. Affect displays may indicate my angry, receptive,
distracted and numbers of others' emotions. Most importantly, kinesics communication assists
me to have a smile and raise the eyebrows on right time and during the stress situation, I will try
to control my negative gestures as well. I will have ideas regarding the illustrative gestures
during the time of informative meetings in the future workplace. In addition, I will make sure
that misinterpreted gesture must be accurate and in case the co-workers create an issue; I will
make sure that I will not jump to conclusions. If I work into the global organisations, I will try to
understand the different interpretation of the gestures across the cultural lines. Most importantly
silent gestures will help me to be an easy, quick and efficient form of business communication.
Visual communication results in better retention of the information.

5PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION PRACTICE
Reference List
Alves, S.M., Rodrigues, J.F., Balcells, M.C., Foguet, O.C., Sequeira, P.J., Carvalhinho, L.A.,
Simões, V.A. and Franco, S.A., 2014. Validation and development of an observational system
for the kinesics communication of the fitness instructor. Motricidade, 10(1), pp.77-87.
Archee, R., Gurney, M. and Mohan, T., 2013. Communicating as Professionals. Research Direct.
Burgoon, J.K., Schuetzler, R. and Wilson, D.W., 2015. Kinesic patterning in deceptive and
truthful interactions. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 39(1), pp.1-24.
Dwyer, J. and Boyd, A., 2003. The business communication handbook. London: Prentice Hall.
Eunson, B., 2005. Communicating in the 21st Century. Sydney: John Wiley & Sons Australia
Ltd.