Organizational Communication: Channels, Tactics, and Strategies

This report discusses the different elements in the organizational communication process, including communication channels and tactics. It evaluates the effectiveness of different communication strategies and identifies some major shortcomings. The report concludes with recommended steps to enhance future communication objectives and processes.

Running head: MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
Management communication
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Executive summary
The aim of this report is to discus about the different elements in the organizational
communication process. Different communication channels and different communication tactics
are being critically evaluated in this report. In addition, there are number of articles being used to
critically analyze the elements of the organizational communication along with identifying some
major shortcomings of the articles. This report concluded with a few recommended steps that
will help to enhance the future communication objectives and processes. This report also
concludes that initiation of the communication strategies is mainly depended on the
organizational situation. This also determines the effectiveness of the communication strategies.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Organizational communication........................................................................................................3
Communication channel..................................................................................................................4
Formal communication channel..................................................................................................4
Informal communication channel................................................................................................6
Communication strategies...............................................................................................................7
Upward communication...............................................................................................................7
Downward communication..........................................................................................................7
Horizontal communication..........................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Recommendations............................................................................................................................9
Reference.......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Effective communication is one of the major factors in the current business scenario that
determines the effectiveness of the contemporary business organizations. This is due to the
reason that current business organizations are having huge number of stakeholders and
departments and thus they are in the need of effective communication process in order to connect
with each and every stakeholder effectively (Abu Bakar and Su Mustaffa, p. 109).
This report will discuss about the different channels of organizational communication
along with the different tactics of organizational communication available. The information for
the report is gathered from the secondary resources for further analysis. In addition, the
difficulties that may be faced by the business organizations from the certain communication
channels along with from certain tactics of the organizational communication will also be
discussed and critically evaluated in this report.
Organizational communication
Organizational communication is the process of initiation of the communication, network
and connectivity among the different organizational stakeholders. It is important due to the
reason that effectiveness of the organizational communication determines the connectivity and
relationship between the different organizational stakeholders (Christensen and Cornelissen
2013, p. 72). There are mainly two types of organizational channels available that will be
discussed in the following sections.

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Communication channel
Communication channel refers to the medium through which the subject of particular
communication process is being transmitted (Sakai et al., p. 3). Thus, effectiveness and
efficiency of the communication channel will determine the flow and quality of the entre process
of communication. The following sections will discuss about the types of communication
channel.
Formal communication channel
Formal communication channel refers to the official mode of communication process,
which involves formal rules and regulations. Thus, in this case, the stakeholders involved in the
communication process are responsible to use official tone, words and languages along with
maintaining the formal structure. However, there are number of advantages and disadvantages to
be faced from the initiation of the formal communication channel. According to Tenhiala and
Salvador (2014), one of the major advantages of initiating the formal mode or channel of
communication is the lack of glitch in the process. This is due to the reason that according to the
authors, formal communication channel involves more rules and regulations to be followed by
the involved stakeholders. Thus, the probability of origination of glitch in the process is less
compared to other mode of communication.
However, in this article the authors have no discussed about the possibility of having
glitch in the formal communication channel also. This is due to the reason that in the case of the
formal communication channel, huge involvement of the rules and regulations sometime causes
issues and barriers in the communication process due to the reason that the core subject

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sometimes gets diluted with following much regulations and restrictions. However, these issues
are not being discussed by the authors.
Informal communication channel
Information communication channel refers to the more casual approach of
communication process. This is mainly initiated among the peers and is largely considered as
non official. However, informal communication process is being initiated in the organizations
also, only between the same hierarchical levels. According to Verma (2013), one of the major
advantages that can be gained from the initiation of the informal type of communication channel
is the speed of the transmission of the message. This is due to the reason that in case of the
informal communication channel, less rules, regulations and restrictions are being involved. In
addition, the author has also stated that in the case of informal communication channel, fewer
intermediaries are involved in the process and thus the message can swiftly transmit to the target
stakeholder. Thus, as per the authors, this is one of the major advantages for the informal type of
communication channel.
However, in this case also, one of the major questions left unanswered. This is the
probability of the having speed of communication in the formal type of communication channel.
This is due to the reason that in some cases the speed of the communication in the informal
channel of communication get restricted due to the presence of unreliable and unauthentic
mediums. On the other hand, formal communication channel always follows the reliable and
authentic mediums, which helps in having more speed in the communication process. Thus, this
can be treated as one of the major gas in this article.

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Communication strategies
There are number of communication strategies being used in the contemporary business
organizations based on their situations. There major three communicating tactics are upward,
downward and horizontal. The following sections will critically discuss about these three tactics.
Upward communication
Upward communication refers to the bottom up approach of communication in the
organizations. This denotes that communication flow mainly transmits from the lower
hierarchical level to the upper hierarchical level. Thus, the feedback from the employees gets
effectively communicated to the upper level of the communication. According to Koc (2013),
initiation of the upward communication helps in having motivated and engaged employees in the
organizations. This is due to the reason that with help of the upward communication tactics,
lower level employees will have the option to transmit their feedback and opinion to the upper
level of management. Thus, their issues and challenges will get properly communicated and can
be mitigated effectively. According to the authors, this will lead to the enhancement of the level
of motivation and engagement of the employees and increase in the organizational performance.
Downward communication
Downward communication refers to the top down approach of communication in the
organizations that denotes that the communication flows from the upper level to the lower level.
In this case, the communication of the upper level management only flows to the lower level
employees and not vice versa. According to Spaho (2013), downward communicational tactic is
mostly effective in the crisis management and conflict management in the organizations. This is
due to the reason that in case of the downward communication, the vision of the upper level

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management gets effectively communicated to the lower level employees. In addition, it is also
being stated by the author that initiation of the downward communicational tactic also helps in
having more control over the organizational processes. Thus, in case of the organizational
conflict, upper level management will have greater control over the employees and they can
mitigate the challenges accordingly (Borca and Baesu 2014, p. 503).
Horizontal communication
Horizontal communication refers to the flow of communication between the same
hierarchy levels. This flow of communication can be between the same upper level management
or among the same lower level employees. This is also considered as one of the major tactics of
communication due to the reason that it involves fewer restrictions and promotes more casual
approach. According to Voinea, Busu, Opran and Vladutescu (2015), initiation of the horizontal
tactic of communication enables the managers to gather information more effectively due to the
reason that it involves less hierarchical barriers like the other two tactics. Thus, according to the
authors, the effectiveness of this communication tactic is also more than the other two.
However, one of the major issues being identified in this article is that horizontal
communication tactic cannot be considered as the most effective one due to the reason that it
does not involve higher or lower hierarchy levels in the communication process. According to
Mishra, Boynton and Mishra (2014), involvement of the employees in the organizational
communication process is one of the most important factors to be considered. However, in the
case of the horizontal communication, employees from the lower hierarchy level will not be
involved and thus this tactic cannot be considered as the most effective.

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Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded from the above discussion that communication process in the
organization is very much depended on the organizational situation. This is due to the reason that
all the communication channels and communication tactics are having various merits and
demerits. Hence it is up to the particular organization to initiate the communication process on
the basis of their demanded requirements and preferences. It can also be concluded that the
effectiveness of the communication process can only be enhanced when it can be well aligned in
line to the organizational requirements. The different communication tactics discussed in this
report also having their own merits and demerits. Thus, it denotes that a particular
communication strategy cannot be called effective over others due to the reason that they will
have different outcome in different situations.
Recommendations
 It is recommended that organizational requirement should first get determined prior to the
initiation of the communication strategy. This will ensure that communication strategy
initiated will fulfill all the criterions desired by the organizations.
 It is also recommended that communication strategies should be flexible enough to
change in accordance to the organizational demand and requirements. This will ensure
that the current and latest communication strategies of the particular organization are
applicable with the current and present external business situation.
 It is also to be ensured that communication strategy in the organization should cover all
the associated stakeholders in order to have the maximum effectiveness.

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Reference
Abu Bakar, H. and Su Mustaffa, C., 2013. Organizational communication in Malaysia
organizations: Incorporating cultural values in communication scale. Corporate
Communications: An International Journal, 18(1), pp.87-109.
Borca, C. and Baesu, V., 2014. A possible managerial approach for internal organizational
communication characterization. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 124, pp.496-503.
Christensen, L.T. and Cornelissen, J., 2013. Bridging corporate and organizational
communication: Review, development and a look to the future. In Organisationskommunikation
und Public Relations (pp. 43-72). Springer VS, Wiesbaden.
Koc, E., 2013. Power distance and its implications for upward communication and
empowerment: Crisis management and recovery in hospitality services. The International
Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(19), pp.3681-3696.
Mishra, K., Boynton, L. and Mishra, A., 2014. Driving employee engagement: The expanded
role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication, 51(2),
pp.183-202.
Sakai, J., Wu, L.S., Sun, H.C. and Guo, Y.X., 2013, December. Balun's effect on the
measurement of transmission characteristics for intrabody communication channel.
In Microwave Workshop Series on RF and Wireless Technologies for Biomedical and
Healthcare Applications (IMWS-BIO), 2013 IEEE MTT-S International (pp. 1-3). IEEE.
Spaho, K., 2013. Organizational communication and conflict management. Management: journal
of contemporary management issues, 18(1), pp.103-118.

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Tenhiälä, A. and Salvador, F., 2014. Looking inside glitch mitigation capability: The effect of
intraorganizational communication channels. Decision Sciences, 45(3), pp.437-466.
Verma, P., 2013. Relationship between organisational communication flow and communication
climate. International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Business Management, 1(1),
pp.63-71.
Voinea, D.V., Busu, O.V., Opran, E.R. and Vladutescu, S., 2015. Embarrassments in managerial
communication. Polish Journal of Management Studies, 11.