This article focuses on communication in the organizational structure.

In the development of an organizational structure, communication channels are an important consideration. The manager in a hierarchical system becomes a link in the communication chain. It is the hierarchical system that gives direction to and imposes restrictions upon the flow of communications. Management decisions and directions flow from higher to lower levels in the organization. Responses and reports from the lower level managers flow upward in the organization. Managers also spend time communicating with their peers. Therefore, we see from the outset that communications must function effectively in a lateral direction, as well as downward and upward. Committees influence the communication process within an organization. A well-run committee can serve as a supplementary link in the communication chain and provide a means for disseminating information. However, committees often fail to ensure that Managers A and B tell each other what they wish or need to know. Although they cannot give directions or issue procedures, staff members influence the communication process within an organization. The advice or recommendations of staff members are accepted by subordinate managers, because of the anticipated support by the staff member's superior. When a staff member is given functional decision prerogatives, he essentially assumes the same status as his superior with respect to such matters. T. C. Warner believes that "one's accomplishment is... in a very real sense dependent upon the quality of the communication with others." And John Connor says that "there is no more valuable asset in business life than the ability to express one's thoughts with clarity and precision." To set the stage for information and message flow through an organization, lets review the basic elements of the communication process. These elements include: someone to send the message (the encoder), some means for channeling it, someone to receive it (the decoder), and a feedback mechanism. A multiplicity of encoders, channels, decoders, and feedback mechanisms can be used. However, for the information in a message to be processed clearly, quickly, and with a minimum amount of degradation, management must establish clear, formal communication channels. Let's assume the message to be transmitted originates with the manager, or that he is serving as the agent for passing along a message from another source. Regardless of the source, the message passes through his (the sender's) filter before it reaches the intended recipient. The sender injects his attitudes and perceptions into the message; determines who should receive it; and the channels through which it should flow, i.e., upward, downward, laterally, or a combination of these. The attitudes and perceptions of the recipient, of course, influence the message translation, as well as the feedback he provides. Peter Drucker, noted exponent of good management practices, says: "The manager has a specific tool: information. He doesn't "handle" people, but instead he motivates, guides, organizes people to do their own work. His tool - the only tool - to do all this is the spoken or written word or the language of numbers. It does not matter whether the manager's job is engineering, accounting, or spelling. To be effective, a manager must have the ability to listen and to read, and the ability to speak and to write. Managers need skill in getting their thinking across to other people."

This describes quite adequately the manager's role in the communication process. The Communication Channels The communication channel selected for transmitting a message plays a significant role in maintaining the quality of the original message in its passage from the sender to receiver. The sender, given the opportunity to weigh the merits of using an oral or written communication, or a combination of the two, selects the most effective for the situation. Regardless of the communication channel selected, the sender will encounter obstacles. In the previous chapter, the various barriers to effective communication were analyzed. Considering the possible barriers, the sender must choose the channel which he feels will best guarantee transfer of the essence and meaning of his message without misunderstanding or distortion. To counteract possible interference in the communication channel, the message should attract attention, contain redundancy, continue repetition, or use a combination of these approaches. To attract attention, the message must be different from others competing for the recipient's time. A short handwritten message instead of the usual typed message is one method that can attract attention. To provide redundancy, the message must be rephrased several times (the technique used in newspaper articles), and/or summarized in the final paragraph. The sender should avoid too much redundancy because this tends to clutter the communication channel. To provide repetition, the message must be transmitted through more than one channel, as in spoken and written form, or transmitted more than once through the same channel, as in TV advertising. Now, let's turn our attention to the basic communication channels within an organization. There are three channels: formal, informal, and unofficial. Formal. The communication within the formal organizational structure that transmits goals, policies, procedures, and directions. Informal. The communication outside the formal organizational structure that fills the organizational gaps, maintains the linkages, and handles the one-time situations. Unofficial. The interpersonal communication within (or among) the social structure of the organization that serves as the vehicle for casual interpersonal exchanges, and transmittal of unofficial communications. A more detailed examination of each of these communication channels will provide a better understanding of these functions.

Literature study The channel, or medium, used to communicate a message affects how accurately the message will be received. Channels vary in their information-richness. Informationrich channels convey more nonverbal information. Research shows that effective managers tend to use more information-rich communication channels than less effective managers. The figure below illustrates the information richness of different channels.

Information channels differ in their richness. The key to effective communication is to match the communication channel with the goal of the message. For example, written media may be a better choice when the sender wants a record of the content, has less urgency for a response, is physically separated from the receiver, and doesnt require a lot of feedback from the receiver, or when the message is complicated and may take some time to understand. Oral communication, on the other hand, makes more sense when the sender is conveying a sensitive or emotional message, needs feedback immediately, and does not need a permanent record of the conversation Like face-to-face and telephone conversations, videoconferencing has high information richness, because receivers and senders can see or hear beyond just the words that are usedthey can see the senders body language or hear the tone of their voice. Handheld devices, blogs, and written letters and memos offer medium-rich channels, because they convey words and pictures or photos. Formal written documents, such as legal documents and budget spreadsheets, convey the least richness, because the format is often rigid and standardized. As a result, the tone of the message is often lost.

The growth of e-mail has been spectacular, but it has also created challenges in managing information and increasing the speed of doing businesses. Over 100 million adults in the United States use e-mail at least once a day. Internet users around the world send an estimated 60 billion e-mails each day, and a large portion of these are spam or scam attempts. That makes e-mail the second most popular medium of communication worldwide, second only to voice. Less than 1% of all written human communications even reaches paper these days. To combat the overuse of e-mail, companies such as Intel have even instituted no e-mail Fridays. During these times, all communication is done via other communication channels. Learning to be more effective in your e-mail communications is an important skill. To learn more, check out the OB Toolbox on business e-mail dos and donts. An important although often ignored rule when communicating emotional information is that e-mails lack of richness can be your loss. As we saw in the chart above, e-mail is a medium-rich channel. It can convey facts quickly. But when it comes to emotion, emails flaws make it a far less desirable choice than oral communicationthe 55% of nonverbal cues that make a conversation comprehensible to a listener are missing. Researchers also note that e-mail readers dont pick up on sarcasm and other tonal aspects of writing as much as the writer believes they will. The sender may believe that certain emotional signifiers have been included in a message. But, with written words alone, those signifiers are not there. This gap between the form and content of e-mail inspired the rise of emoticonssymbols that offer clues to the emotional side of the words in each message. Generally speaking, however, emoticons are not considered professional in business communication. You might feel uncomfortable conveying an emotionally laden message verbally, especially when the message contains unwanted news. Sending an e-mail to your staff that there will be no bonuses this year may seem easier than breaking the bad news faceto-face, but that doesnt mean that e-mail is an effective or appropriate way to break this kind of news. When the message is emotional, the sender should use verbal communication. Indeed, a good rule of thumb is that more emotionally laden messages require more thought in the choice of channel and how they are communicated.