Effective Communication Strategies for Business Organizations Report

This report delves into the multifaceted realm of organizational communication, examining both formal and informal communication channels and their impact on business operations. It provides a detailed analysis of various communication strategies, including upward, downward, and horizontal communication, highlighting their respective advantages and disadvantages within a business context. The report emphasizes the importance of effective communication for organizational success, providing insights into how management can foster better communication practices. Furthermore, it offers actionable recommendations to enhance communication strategies within business organizations, ultimately aiming to improve overall organizational effectiveness and facilitate smoother information flow among stakeholders. The report concludes by underscoring the critical role of aligning communication strategies with specific organizational requirements to achieve optimal results.

Running head: MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The following report deals with the various types of communication that might take place within
an organization, majorly the formal and the informal types of communication. The report
proceeds further to discuss the communicational strategies that should be adopted by the
concerned management of the business organization. The report majorly focusses on the various
strategies of upward communication, downward communication and the horizontal strategies of
communication. The report finally nears the end with certain recommendations to the concerned
management of the organization that might help in the establishment of the effective
communication within the concerned business organization.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
Organizational communication............................................................................................3
Communication channels.....................................................................................................4
Formal communication channel......................................................................................4
Informal communication channel....................................................................................5
Communication strategies...................................................................................................6
Upward communication...................................................................................................6
Downward communication..............................................................................................6
Horizontal communication..............................................................................................7
Recommendations................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................8
References............................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The effective communication refers to the processes that assist the easy understanding of
the message that is put forth by the concerned communicator of the message (Lundby 2014). The
effectiveness of the communication initiated by the concerned business managers is very
important since the effectivity of the communication helps in the facilitation of the sharing of the
concerned piece of information thereby contributing to the overall success of the concerned
company (Golob et al. 2013). The following report deals with the various types of
communication that might take place within an organization, majorly the formal and the informal
types of communication. The report proceeds further to discuss the communicational strategies
that should be adopted by the concerned management of the business organization. The report
majorly focusses on the various strategies of upward communication, downward communication
and the horizontal strategies of communication. The report finally nears the end with certain
recommendations to the concerned management of the organization that might help in the
establishment of the effective communication within the concerned business organization.
Organizational communication
The organizational communication refers to the process of initiating the communication,
connectivity and the network that is present among the various stakeholders of the concerned
organization (Verma 2013). The effectivity of the communications is important since the
effectivity relates to the proper functioning of the various departments persistent within the
organization. The flow of the information within the organization is broadly referred to as the
organizational communication (Tong et al. 2014). There are majorly two types of
communication that are found to be taking place within the organization, the formal and the

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informal types of communication. The organizations are also known to implement various
strategies in the matters that pertain to the communication that exists within the organization.
Communication channels
The communication channels present within the organization might refer to the medium
of communication that is used by the concerned employees of the organization in order to
communicate within the concerned organization. The efficiency and the effectivity of the
concerned communication channel might help in the determination of the correct direction of the
flow and the quality of the communication process that exists within the organization. The
communications within an organization is known to follow two distinctively different channels
namely the formal and the informal channels.
Formal communication channel
The formal channel of communication within an organization relates to the official
channels of communication that is practiced within the organization. The formal channel of
communication does, therefore, involve the formal rules and the regulations that are active
within the concerned organization. The formal communication channel demands the use of the
official tone of the communication along with the usage of the language and the word that are
best suited for the maintenance of the formality of the structure that exists within the
organization (Seidl 2016). The formal channel of communication is known to have its own
advantages and disadvantages. The key advantage of the formal communication is the avoidance
of any problems or glitches within the concerned organization (Durugbo, Tiwari and Alcock
2013). The rules and the regulations that need to be followed within the formal channels of
communication in the organization help in the avoidance of discrepancies among the concerned
stakeholders of the organization.

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On the other hand, the key disadvantage of the formal communication within the
concerned organization also originates from the rules and the regulations that need to be
followed by the stakeholders. The implementation of the various rules and regulations within the
organization might lead to the creation of the numerous issues and miscommunication within the
organization. This might follow due to the dilution of the main matter in the process of abiding
by the various rules imposed within the organization.
Informal communication channel
The informal communication that is followed within the organization generally indicates
the more casual approaches to the communication followed within the organization. The peers
and the colleagues within the organization are generally observed to be engaged in the informal
modes of communication that is generally non-official in nature. The informal modes of
communication prevalent within the organization help in the faster transmission of the concerned
message within the business organization (Sutton et al. 2013). The informal communication
channels might put forth the key advantage of enabling the swiftest transmission of the message
within the given organization. The informal communication does not involve as much
intermediary people as the formal channels and thus might result in the faster communication.
The informal mode of communication, however, might pose certain disadvantages as well. The
major disadvantage of this type of communication is the presence of the unauthentic and the
unreliable mediums of communication within the communicational channel. The major point of
contradiction that exits between the formal and the informal communicational channels refers to
the authenticity of the information that is received by the concerned authority at the end of the
concerned communication channel (Men 2014). The presence of the unreliable and the

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unauthentic intermediaries within the communication channel tend to pose the informal
communication channel to be less reliable than the formal channel.
Communication strategies
The multitude of business organizations that are operational within the international
market tend to follow certain strategies in order to deal with the communication processes that
are active within the organization (Mishra, Boynton and Mishra 2014). The major strategies
employed by the organizations are the upward communication strategy, the downward
communication strategy and the horizontal communication strategy.
Upward communication
The upward communication strategy generally deals with the bottom-up approach that is
maintained within the organization. The upward communication strategy holds that the
communication within the concerned business organization is initiated by the lower levels of the
hierarchy and is targeted at the concerned higher levels of the management of the organization
(Near and Miceli 2013). The concerned communication strategy helps in providing the
concerned employees with the needed motivation and engagement that they might need in order
to serve the organization in a better manner. The upward communication strategy helps the
concerned lower level employees of the organization to communicate their grievances and other
feedback to the concerned management of the concerned organization. This also helps the
concerned employees to put forth the various issues that they might be facing within the
organization.

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Downward communication
The downward communication, as suggested by the name, refers to the top-down
communication approach that is followed by the concerned organizations. In this case, the
communication flows from the top levels of the management of the organization to the lower
levels of the employees of the organization. The downward strategy of communication does not
allow the flow of the information from the lower levels of the concern to the higher levels. This
strategy is however more effective in the matters that pertain to the management of the various
conflicts and crisis that might arise within the organization (Saruhan 2014). This strategy of
communication helps in the communication of the various ideas and the visions of the higher
management to the lower management of the organization. This helps the concerned upper
management level to exercise greater control over the concerned employees of the organization.
Horizontal communication
The horizontal communication strategy is that strategy of communication that generally
refers to the communication processes that take place within the same hierarchy level in the
company. Thus, in simpler words, it might be said that the concerned communication strategy is
generally adapted among the members of the organization who serve in the offices of the similar
ranks. This strategy is known to have involved a more casual approach to the concerned
communication that takes place within the organization and involves lesser restrictions
(Cornelissen and Cornelissen 2017). This strategy helps the concerned managers to collect more
information during the concerned inter-organizational surveys that are conducted within the
concern. The major problem that is faced in this strategy of communication is the fact that this
strategy does not allow the communication among the different hierarchical levels that are

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present within the organization. This might lead to the conditions that might leave the various
issues faced by the lower levels of the company to remain unsolved or unattended.
Recommendations
The concerned organization is advised to determine the concerned strategy of
communication prior to the initiating the communication strategy within the concerned business
organization. This might help the concerned company to ensure that the chosen communication
strategy of the organization fulfils the criteria that have been set by the concerned organization.
The concerned company is also advised to implement the various strategies that might be flexible
enough to bring about the changes in the communication strategies in order to ensure that the
concerned organization is able to deal with the current scenario that the concerned company is
facing.
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussion, it might be pointed out that the communication
processes and the strategies that are implemented by the concerned organization are highly
dependent on the various situations that are faced by the concerned company. The various
communication channels and strategies have their own benefits and drawbacks. These should be
taken into consideration by the concerned organization during the selection of the concerned
communication strategy. The effectivity of the concerned communication strategy is dependent
on the alignment of the concerned communication strategy with the requirements that are posed
by the concerned company.

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References
Cornelissen, J. and Cornelissen, J.P., 2017. Corporate communication: A guide to theory and
practice. Sage.
Durugbo, C., Tiwari, A. and Alcock, J.R., 2013. Modelling information flow for organisations: A
review of approaches and future challenges. International Journal of Information
Management, 33(3), pp.597-610.
Golob, U., Podnar, K., Elving, W.J., Ellerup Nielsen, A., Thomsen, C. and Schultz, F., 2013.
CSR communication: quo vadis?. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 18(2),
pp.176-192.
Lundby, K. ed., 2014. Mediatization of communication (Vol. 21). Walter de Gruyter GmbH &
Co KG.
Men, L.R., 2014. Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, communication
channels, and employee satisfaction. Management Communication Quarterly, 28(2), pp.264-284.
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.
Near, J.P. and Miceli, M.P., 2013. Organizational dissidence: The case of whistle-blowing.
In Citation classics from the Journal of Business Ethics (pp. 153-172). Springer, Dordrecht.
Saruhan, N., 2014. The role of corporate communication and perception of justice during
organizational change process. Business and economics research journal, 5(4), p.143.

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Seidl, D., 2016. Organisational identity and self-transformation: An autopoietic perspective.
Routledge.
Sutton, J., Spiro, E., Butts, C., Fitzhugh, S., Johnson, B. and Greczek, M., 2013. Tweeting the
spill: Online informal communications, social networks, and conversational microstructures
during the Deepwater Horizon oilspill. International Journal of Information Systems for Crisis
Response and Management (IJISCRAM), 5(1), pp.58-76.
Tong, W., Jia, M., Zhu, P., Chloma, A.M., Bakouline, M.G. and Kreindeline, V.B., Apple Inc,
2014. Communication channel optimization systems and methods in multi-user communication
systems. U.S. Patent 8,705,659.
Verma, P., 2013. Relationship between organisational communication flow and communication
climate. International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Business Management, 1(1),
pp.63-71.