Gender Communication Differences in the Workplace
I selected this topic because I thought it would be interesting to find what types of
communication differences there are in the workplace. I found that there are basically two
types of communication, verbal and nonverbal.
While I was in the process of doing my research, I came across something that was
interesting. It was a quiz on Gender Communications that contained eighteen statements. It
basically wanted to find out how much do we know about how men and women
communicated. If you thought a statement was an accurate description of communication
patterns, you would then mark it true, if it wasn't then it would be marked false. Here are
some examples of statements that were used:
1. Men talk more than women. This statement is true because despite the stereotype,
the research is consistent and clear, in classrooms, in offices, in group discussions, in two
person conversations, men talk more than their fair share of the time.
2. Men are more likely to interrupt women than to interrupt other men. True When
women talk with other women, interruptions are evenly distributed. When men talk with
other men, interruptions are evenly distributed. However, when men and women talk with
one another, almost all interruptions are by male speakers.
3. During conversations, women spend more time looking at their partner than men
do. True One reason may be that men talk more and women listen more. Research shows
that a listener of either sex looks more at a speaker than the speaker looks at the listener.
Another possible reason why women look more frequently at a partner may be their need for
and expertise in decoding nonverbal signs. In a direct staring confrontation, however, women
will be more likely to avert their eyes, especially when stared at by men. Frequently, a woman
will tilt her head back rather than look d...