Organizational Communication - Definitional

In an organization, exist several different roles. Effective communication between the roles is essential in order for an organization to thrive. Needless to say, there are a wide variety of communication channels in an organization leading to different messages.

Some fundamentals that an organization should first establish include having a purpose, setting goals, and having a good sense of its “culture” and leadership. Deal and Kennedy are communication scholars who came up with four general types of organizational cultures: “Tough-Guy-Macho,” “Work-Hard-Play-Hard,” “Bet-Your-Company,” and “Process.” The settings of these cultures range from dealing with high risks or low risks and immediate feedback or slow feedback. Altogether having knowledge of these foundations helps set a theme and the desired work environment for any type of organization.

According to statistics, 96% of executives believe in a linkage between communication and productivity. In fact, having communication skills is highly expected out of graduates entering the workforce. It allows for better teamwork and also portrays the effectiveness of leadership within the organization. Conrad’s three communication functions in organizations include command, relationship, and ambiguity management leading to outcomes of coordination, satisfaction, clarity, and explanation. Keeping these functions in mind allow individuals within an organization to relay intended messages more effectively especially when it comes to delegating work or meeting customer needs. It is also critical for individuals at work to consider do I know what is expected of me at work? This mainly has to do with the two-way relationship between leaders and employees in which supportive communication or non-controlling communication is established. This also means building trust based on integrity, sharing control, openness, consistency, and demonstration of concern. These characteristics constitutes to a trusting relationship and effective use of communication for a general organization.

In order to make progress there’s actually different “directions” of communication that make take place. Downward communication is the relay of messages from upper management going down through the chain of command. Unfortunately, this may lead to information overload but scholars have recognized seven ways on how people adapt to it: omission, error, queuing, filtering, approximations, multiple channels, and escape. Unfortunately, these ways may not necessarily mean that the information has been taken into consideration or if has even been fully processed to one’s expectation. Another form of communication is upward communication, which allows for the delivery of messages from lower to higher levels of authority. This means employees can have their voice be heard by supervisors, managers, executives, etc. However, this is not always practiced in every organization as NASA has been used as an example. Nevertheless, upward communication demonstrates a management’s willingness to hear from secondary staff. There is also horizontal communication in which messages flow across levels and it involves task coordination, problem solving, information sharing, and conflict resolution. Through these different forms of communication, an organization is able to keep track of their productivity and ability to delegate work in different departments as they utilize the four functions of horizontal communication and being able to send and receive messages through the chain of command.

Tubbs, Stewart, and Sylvia Moss. Human Communication. 11th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008.