Professional Communication

Flow of Communication

Formal Flow

 It refers to the communication that follows the official hierarchy and is required to do
one's job.
 It flows through formal channels.
 Internal – Operational- Communication that occurs in the process of operation within an
organization
 External – Operational- the work related communication that an organization has with
people outside the organization

Directions of Formal Flow

Within the network of formal organisational structure, there are four types of directional flow.

 Upward
 Downward
 Horizontal
 Diagonal

Refer to Page no 10-12, & Fig 1.2 Booklet

Grapevine/Informal flow

Grapevine is an informal channel of communication. It spreads at all levels irrerespective of the

chain of command. Messages transferred through grapevines are generally ‘rumours’. They are
unstructured, multidirectional and mostly unreliable.

1
Informal Communication Patterns
 Single Strand- The message is passed from one person to another along a single strand.
 Gossip Network- Transfer of information to all the others.
 Probability- Random transfer of information
 Cluster- Transfer of information from some people to a selected few.
 It depends on the active and interested member in the channel.

Advantages and disadvantages of the grapevine (Refer to Booklet)