How the directions of formal communication influence communication flow in organizations

How the directions of formal communication influence communication flow in organizations

I know you might be imagining why communication almost appears in every article under this label but the label itself is organizational communication meaning anything communication in organizations is what would be shared here under this category or label. And yeah, communication is everywhere. Marketers and public relations professionals all use communication. This leads us to the two types of communication in organizational settings; formal and informal communication. These are two familiar terms, right? They are what you already know but I will discuss in detail with you in this article, how formal communication influences communication flow in organizations using its directions as factors.

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Anything formal stands for rules, officiality, and or conventions. Back in our middle school days, we established that you can write a letter using the formal method or the informal method and, on some occasions, what is termed as semi-formal. Do you remember the rules that were associated with formal letter writing? How were they? Strict, definite, so official right? That is the same for formal communication. It is the rules and norms established by an organization to control the communication behavior of people. In other words, they are the standards set by the organization regarding how communication should take place within the organization’s territory. 

This means that how you communicate to others within an organization is guided by certain rules established mostly in the organization’s policies. And because it is formal, every member of the organization must strictly follow it. This is why an employee cannot get up one day to walk into the Chief Executive Officer’s office to demand information. Rather, there are various processes and procedures the employee must pass through and that is what formal communication is all about. There are four directions of formal communication and I entreat everyone working under any organization to know this so that communicating with authorities and other bodies within the organization or company would not be a challenge.

The first direction of formal communication is downward communication. This is the commonest among the other three directions I think because I see this manifest almost every day within organizations and those who have prior knowledge about this communication direction, you would attest to this. This direction basically says that every organization has a hierarchy which means some people have higher positions all the way to people who are just employees. Now, whenever a communique is released from the top management to the people I refer to as employees, then downward communication has taken place. So, any update you receive from management, or people who are of higher positions than you are done through the downward communication. Let us consider a practical example;

In an organization like Google, I am not that familiar with their organizational chart but you and I know there is a Chief Executive Officer right, followed by various positions to the last rank in the Google organization. Whenever the information is carried from the top to the down, that is what formal communication means by downward communication.

If it is not downward, what do you think it would be? Upward communication is another formal communication direction that is employed to make communication function effectively in organizations. With this, communication doesn’t descend, it rather ascends. It is just like a give-and-take form of communication between downward and upward communication. This makes it possible for those at the bottom or those I term as employees to communicate directly with the top management. I believe this is not also a new experience as we see it much of the time, right? Even in a classroom setting, when your teacher teaches and you do not get the concept, do you ask your colleagues or the teacher? The teacher of course because he or she delivered the information that is confusing you and he or she is the one that should clarify you. It is the same experience with upward communication.

With the example I gave about Google, let's use same for the upward communication. When those at the bottom receive information from the CEO and they tend to misunderstand the communique, what is supposed to be done? The employees also have to put on paper or any other means depending on the means they got their information to send a direct communique to the CEO to seek clarifications.

The third direction is the horizontal or lateral communication. At your junior high school level in mathematics, did you ever come across vertical and horizontal lines? Well, they are here too. Horizontal communication happens between managers of the same level as the nature of a horizontal looks like. These people are of the same position and they use this communication especially when there is a conflict resolution, there is a problem or there is information that should be shared at that level only. A clear example is in the university setting. There are many departments on various university campuses. Each department is headed by a Head of Department. If the Head of Department for Strategic Communication shares information with the Head of Department for Development Communication, then lateral or horizontal communication has taken place.

The last formal communication direction that jointly influences communication flow in organizations is diagonal communication. Now, let me clarify things here. With downward, and upward communications, it goes through the prescribed processes and channels before the bottom people and top management receive the information respectively. In as much as they are top to down and vice versa, they have to go through certain officers or position holders before the final destination. But with diagonal communication, it does not pass through the prescribed channels, it just happens. This is where most people tend to chip in protocol. Well, it happens, and mostly when there is an urgent project that needs to be signed by top management. An example is when a student makes a complaint directly to his or her Dean while the prescribed channels should be through the course rep, Head of Department, and lastly the Dean. That is diagonal, it is not straightly done, it is diagonal in nature.

All these play major roles in ensuring that communication and formal for that matter becomes effective in every organization. If you know this employee, you can channel your grievances to top management, and know how to go about when you want to propose a project or solve a problem in the organization.

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