Communications in Organizations

Communications are central phenomena in organizations. When one conceives of the organization as an ever changing system of interactions, one notes that communications aid in the development and maintenance of organizational purposes, as its members motivate and inspire each other toward goal accomplishments. Structures are differentiated within the organization—and then redifferentiated again and again; these subunits, each specializing in its own activities, use communications in coordinating their outputs. The employment of hierarchies within organizations for the exercise of control, so that purposes may be achieved with some efficiency, involves communication nets; such exercise of influence may be informal (as in persuasion) or more formal (as in authority). The messages involved in the origin and evolution of the internal stratification system within an organization are multitudinous, as conditions of esteem and status wax and wane. In addition to serving as the matrix which links members together in organizations in all these varieties of ways, the communication system serves as the vehicle by which organizations are embedded in their environments. The inputs and outputs of organizations are mediated through communications. As Barnard put it, “In an exhaustive theory of organization, communication would occupy a central place, because the structure, extensiveness, and scope of the organization are almost entirely determined by communication techniques” (1938, p. 91). ¹