THE ROLE OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION IN THE MILITARY PROFESSION
THE ROLE OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION IN THE MILITARY PROFESSION

Summary/Abstract: The military represents an institution characterized by highly diverse communicative practices, in which, alongside verbal communication, a wide range of nonverbal communicative signs plays an indispensable role. This paper examines nonverbal communication in the military profession by analyzing the dominant forms of nonverbal codes and their meanings, classified into three categories that the scientific and professional literature identifies as paralinguistic, kinesic, and proxemic communicative signs. In addition to these categories, the paper also considers other forms of nonverbal communication that are significant within the military but, due to their distinctive characteristics, cannot be classified within the aforementioned typology of nonverbal symbolic systems. It may therefore be argued that the communicative demands of the military have continuously enriched the repertoire of nonverbal communication codes generated by the specific context and the profound complexity of both peacetime and wartime conditions in which they are employed.The paper discusses the various implications of nonverbal communication for the effectiveness of military personnel in everyday communication and in the language and style of military commands. Its objective is to emphasize the importance and power of understanding both intentional and spontaneous nonverbal codes in facilitating effective message transmission as well as the accurate interpretation of messages within the superior–subordinate relationship. Furthermore, the study explores the principal characteristics, means, and functions of nonverbal communication within military organizational systems. The paper concludes that this topic has not yet received sufficient attention in the scientific and professional literature and that further empirical research is needed to enhance understanding of this phenomenon, which plays an important role in the everyday functioning of military organizations.

• Details
• Contents