Perceptions of Body Movement

  The way that we as humans perceive even the simplest thing such as a shift in body posture is fascinating. Our bodies non-verbal movements have the capability of completely changing not only the way that our verbal messages are received, but also our movements can change the way that our personalities are perceived.

  I recently started a new part-time job. At the end of each day, the MOD(Manager-On-Duty) rounds up the employees and discusses the way that the day went. As I looked around the room at the other employees I noticed how I had subconsciously placed each person into categories in my head just by looking at them. There was two chairs in the room, one of which was obviously reserved for the MOD. As I stood and watched the other employees file in I made a mental note of which ones looked at remainding chair, debated whether to sit in it, but in the end stood off to the side. Then one girl came in and strode directly to the chair. She plopped down on the chair and slid down into an extremely relaxed position. She remained in this position for the remainder of the meeting, keeping a neutral expression on her face throughout it. Due to this, I found myself automatically assuming that the girl obviously had more seniority over the other employees and was therefor able to stake claim to one of the chairs. Later on, I found out that this was not actually the case, the girl had in fact only been working at the store for less than a month. Through her relaxed body position, this girl was able to change the way that I had perceived her. If instead the girl had walked in  and stood around the MOD like the others had, I imagine I probably wouldn't have given her a second thought and placed her in the same category that I had placed the others in.

   The manager's body position also affected the way that she was perceived. As the employees filed into the room, the MOD was facing the opposite direction of the door writing something on a paper. After all the employees settled, the MOD continued to finish what she was writing for a couple more seconds. Then she turned her chair around to face the workers and straightened up in her chair. These non verbal cues gave off an impression of authority and power over her subordinates. Feeling slightly intimidated I shifted in my spot, throwing off my own subconscious non-verbal cue of unease(which hopefully nobody else caught). The MOD then smiled and launched into a joke regarding how the day went. I laughed and relaxed my position. The MOD non-verbal communication was strategically able to relax her workers after a long day of work and yet, her body position was still able to communicate a sense of power. I admire that skill in not only a manager but any body seeking a role of influence.

Dealing With Conflict

Humans generally like to stick with what they know. Whether it is because they are scared of the unknown or like the way things are at the time, humans are generally resist to messing up the flow. This results in people trying to resist the natural progression of conflict. They don’t want to embrace conflict because they don’t like when things become unpredictable, as they often do when conflict arises.

People also avoid conflict because they want to be liked by the people surrounding them and don’t want to appear to have too many bad qualities. But as Margaret Heffernan debated in the Ted Talk, conflict is not a bad thing. Inviting conflict encourages group/team members to express what they think and opens the door to debate.This debate has the possibility to point out any flaws in the plan and smooth these flaws out.

While groups should always encourage conflict, they must also be prepared to handle the conflict once it is started. Each of the 5 conflict-handling styles discussed in class have benefits and disadvantages in my opinion. The avoiding style is by far the easiest way to handle conflict. Many times I have chosen to ignore conflict in a group simply because I didn’t care enough to confront it. While easy, the avoiding style can lead to the conflict progressively growing, until it gets to the point of not being able to be ignore. At that point it is a lot more difficult to handle the situation.

The dominating style is good because the person is able to get what they want out of the situation, but it could be at the cost of someone else in the group. This may lead to conflict in itself.

In comparison, the obliging handling style, or complying with others wishes but not one’s own, will mostly successfully avoid conflict. Although while it may avoid conflict, ignoring one’s own wishes comes with price, often times leading to feelings of resentment towards the group.

Integrating is said to be the best handling style. While there is no denying that it is theoretically the best style to use, it by no means is an easy style to achieve. In the real world, finding a solution that makes everybody happy is next to impossible. Everybody has different opinions and values and trying to find a solution that accounts for everyone’s view is almost not worth the effort.

Personally I find the compromising handling style to be the most effective way to handle conflict. It allows for both sides to keep what is most important to them, and while they may need to give up something else,  in the long run it turns out to be for the best.