PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION_NOTES

FORMAL & INFORMAL FLOWS OF

COMMUNICATION
 FORMAL FLOW OF COMMUNICATION
Communication flows in an organization:
a) Vertical
(i) Downward (ii) Upward
b) Horizontal/ Lateral
c) Diagonal
d) External
 DIAGRAM

MANAGING
DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR DIRECTOR DIRECTOR

1 2 3

MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER

1 2 3 1 2 1 2
 VERTICAL COMMUNICATION: DOWNWARD
DOWNWARD COMMUNICATION/ ENABLING

• Communication from higher level to subordinate level of hierarchy in an organization.

• Information flowing from the top of the organizational management hierarchy and telling people in the organization
what is important (mission) and what is valued (policies).
• Downward communication comes after upward communications have been successfully established.
• When a manager instructs an employee, she enables the employee to do his job e.g. communications sent from
management to workers, like e-mails and performance reviews; manager explaining task to employee; shareholders
instructing management etc.

Purposes:
# Give instructions # Transmit vital information
# Encourage two-way discussion # Announce decisions
# Seek co-operation # Boost morale
# Increase efficiency # Obtain feedback
 VERTICAL COMMUNICATION: UPWARD
UPWARD COMMUNICATION

• Communication from subordinate level to higher level of hierarchy in an organization e.g. employee to
supervisor, supervisor to department head, department head to vice president, and so on.
• Information is collected and flows up to the top levels of management for review and decision making.
• Without upward communication, management works in a vacuum, not knowing if the messages have been
received properly, or if other problems exist in the organization.

Purposes:
# Exchange information
# Provide feedback
# Offer ideas
# Express enthusiasm
# Achieve job satisfaction
 HORIZONTAL COMMUNICATION
LATERAL/ HORIZONTAL COMMUNICATION

• Communication that takes place at same levels of hierarchy in an organization.

• Normally involves coordinating information, and allows people with the same or similar rank in an
organization to cooperate or collaborate.
• No superior/subordinate relationship exists here; it is a case of two or more people with roughly equal
amounts of power and prestige.
• That makes this form of communication voluntary and discretionary e.g. vice-presidents of a company may
hold a quarterly meeting to discuss the upcoming quarter.

Purposes:
# Facilitate co-ordination of the task
# Resolve conflicts
# Solve organizational problems
# Improve teamwork
# Build goodwill
# Boost efficiency
 DIAGONAL COMMUNICATION
DIAGONAL COMMUNICATION

• Communication that takes place between superiors of one group and subordinate
employees of other workgroups is called diagonal communication.
• It generally does not appear on organizational chart e.g. to design a training module, a
Training Manager interacts with an Operations Personnel to enquire about the way they
perform their task.

Purposes:
# Flexibility of communication across different levels
# Speedier transaction of business
# Certain degree of Informality
# Involves people of all levels
 EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION
EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION

• Communication with people outside the company is called “external

communication”.
• Supervisors communicate with sources outside the organization, such as suppliers,
vendors, banks, financial institutes, and customers.

Purposes:
# Sales volume # Public credibility
# Operational efficiency # Company profits
# Overall performance # Public goodwill
# Corporate image # Customer satisfaction
 ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES
ADVANTAGES OF FORMAL COMMUNICATION:
• Increase overall efficiency
• Permanent record and reference
• Maintenance of discipline
• Ease of co-operation and co-ordination
• Ease of delegation of authority
• Free from mistakes

DISADVANTAGES OF FORMAL COMMUNICATION:

• Wastage of time
• Inflexibility
• Lack of initiative
• Expensive
 INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: GRAPEVINE
THE GRAPEVINE

• Grapevine communication is defined as unstructured and informal network

formed on social relationship rather than organizational charts or job
descriptions. It is actually an informal vehicle through which message flows
throughout the organization.
• Grapevine communication is the informal communication network within an
organization.
• Other flows of communication are structured and flow formally through specific
channels, whereas the grapevine goes through multiple channels and even
multiple versions.
• Channels: Face to face, Personal e-mail, Chat engine, Personal phone, Social
media etc.
 GRAPEVINE: CHAINS
GRAPEVINE CHAINS: Grapevine communication is classified into four types of chains.

a) Single Strand Chain: The single strand chain involves the passing of information through a line of persons to
the ultimate recipient. In the figure, the person A tells B, who tells C, who tells D, and so on, till the information
has reached most of the persons involved or concerned. The longer the strand, the more the distortion and
filtering effects e.g. if any employee is at the verge to be declared as the new team leader.

b) Wheel/ Gossip Chain: In this type, a group of people gather up to discuss matters of mutual interest. One
person stays at the centre and the information passes along the spokes of the wheel to others stationed on the
rim. These chains are generally considered to be slow in passing the information e.g. a message of ‘not-on-job’
is passed through this type of chain.

c) Probability/ Free Flow Chain: The probability chain is a random process in which someone transmits the
information to others in accordance with the laws of probability and then these others tell still others in a
similar way. This chain may also be called random process. In this chain it is observed that only some people in
the organization get to know the information.

d) Cluster Chain: In this chain, people tell something to a few selected individuals and then some of these
individuals relay the information to some other selected individuals. It is observed that individual
communicates with only those individuals he/ she trusts. Most of the informal messages flow through this
chain. Vyapam scam is the best suitable example for this type of chain.
 DIAGRAM
B
A B C D E
G C
A
SINGLE-STRAND CHAIN GOSSIP CHAIN F D
PROBABILITY CHAIN CLUSTER CHAIN E
K
F E
G
A B C
X A A A
D I
A
H
J A A A
 GRAPEVINE: ADVANTAGES
Advantages of Grapevine:

• Speed: Being free from documentation and hierarchal barriers, grapevine

serves as the fastest medium of exchanging thoughts and information within
and outside an organization.
• Quick Feedback: The feedback of the rumour reaches in no time back to the
person from where the rumor originated.
• Group Cohesion: Gossip increases interaction between the employees which
directly increases workability of any organization.
• Updation: Grapevine keeps the employees updated. Any news, good or bad,
reaches everyone and allows them to respond according to it.
• Substitute for Formal Communication: The formalities of professional
communication are often replaced by the informal grapevine.
 GRAPEVINE: DISADVANTAGES
Disadvantages of Grapevine:

• Trust Issue: Grapevine is not trustworthy as it does not follow the official path of
communication and is spread by gossip and unconfirmed report. It is also impossible to
maintain the secrecy of the information
• Partial Transmission, Distortion and Misunderstanding: Being a form of oral
communication, only a part of the information is transmitted. Sometimes the meaning
and the subject matter of the information is distorted, which develops into
misunderstanding.
• Goodwill Issue: It hampers the goodwill of the organization or any particular individual.
• Control Issue: Under informal communication system no established rules or policy is
obeyed. So it is very difficult to control the information. As a result the discipline of the
organization is hampered.
 HOW TO PREVENT RUMOURS
How to Prevent Rumours:

• Provide information through the formal system of

communication on the issues important to the employees.
• Supply employees with a steady flow of clear, accurate and
timely information.
• Present full facts about important events, issues, and topics so
that the chances of rumour can be minimized.
• Keep formal communication lines open and the process as short
as possible.