Whether you’re steering an enterprise-level business or directing a small non-profit, organizational communication is a term you need to keep in mind.
Customers, clients, employees and stakeholders of all kinds expect professionalism and clarity in all areas, and communication is no exception. When they encounter organizations that don’t know what to say (or how to say it), they rightfully become frustrated.
But what if you’re not sure how you can prioritize organizational communications for your operation, or even what they involve? What actually makes communication organizational? It isn’t a subject matter that most people are inclined to consider.
Well, if you’re looking for guidance, you’re in the right place. This article will provide a succinct organizational communication definition, detail some key communication types, and lay out the fundamentals of organizational communication so you can start working on it in your operation. Let’s kick things off with the core question.
What is organizational communication?
Organizational communication covers all the communication an organization participates in. It can be internal (team meetings or training sessions) or external (sales calls or social media posts.) Poor organizational communication can cause major brand damage, so getting it right is vital.
That might sound easy enough, but it’s actually a serious challenge. Indeed, the complexities have made communication study an enduring topic of investigation. Writers such as Herbert A. Simon and W. Charles Redding have paved the way for today’s students by solidifying it as an academic discipline.
Students who find communication particularly fascinating have the option of taking it to a doctoral level. They can then look for professorial positions or find work in consulting, marketing, project management, or human resources.
People with communication skills and qualifications are so valuable in the business world because no workplace can function well if it can’t maintain a strong standard of communication.
This is why most job adverts will ask for communication skills, and why good HR departments hold communication workshops and training sessions to ensure that everyone can operate at a reasonable level.
Types of organizational communication
With so many different objectives being pursued simultaneously, organizational communication moves in many directions. This makes it helpful to talk about organizational communication types (or categories).
There are plenty of possible ways to arrange these types, but these three core pairings offer a good start:
Internal vs. external
An easy way to split communication in an organization is to look at internal and external exchanges. Internal exchanges are between employees, while external exchanges involve people from outside the organization.
Internal communication
Whether collaborative and mission-driven or casual and morale-building, internal comms make up most of the average organization’s exchanges.
To be optimally effective, they need strong employee engagement and connection, so large organizations (or those reliant upon remote working) can struggle with traditional methods. This is where online communication solutions are invaluable.
External communication
There are various ways in which an organization might communicate with the outside world. It could release marketing materials, post job listings, liaise with stakeholders, update customers, or comment on industry trends.
It’s important to be consistent across all these exchanges, so having clear brand guidelines in place and sticking to them should be a big priority.
Formal vs. informal
This method of splitting communication types is quite simple. It’s all about the language and tone an organization uses when communicating. Corporate communication calls for the ability to assess what level of formality is required in a particular situation.
Formal communication
The more serious the topic becomes, the more formal the communication gets. Internal exchanges lean towards formality when they concern major problems that need addressing, pitches to high-level executives with little time to spare, or the documentation of essential processes.
External exchanges, however, are most formal when they involve current or prospective customers.
The key to formal communication is professionalism. Slang terms, expressions of apathy, and refusals to take responsibility should all be avoided. Such things can ruin careers when they appear at critical junctures in formal exchanges.
This is why creating and following a strong organizational communication plan should be a priority for any ambitious operation. The better the plan, the fewer chances there are for mistakes to creep in.
Even so, bear in mind that formality can go too far, leading to exchanges feeling stilted, impersonal, and even robotic. This is particularly worrisome when engaging with customers increasingly likely to expect more than just good service from the brands they support.
There’s no perfect solution, though. All you can do is develop an instinct for when you can benefit from letting personality shine through.
Informal communication
Most communication in organizations takes place between formal exchanges. With instant messages, emails, or just face-to-face conversations, employees can spread information without even thinking about it.
This is sometimes known as “grapevine” communication because casual chats can easily involve gossip and rumors, so it’s important to have guidelines or employee handbooks to keep it in line.
When it’s used well, informal communication is preferable for most people. Workers are usually happy to discuss things informally because it reminds them of their freedom to operate as they see fit, and good managers are happy to see that happen because employees who feel in control tend to be happier.
Oral vs. written
The last of the three core category pairings when analyzing organizational communication is oral and written communication. Both types are used regularly, and each has a big role to play in making an organization a success.
Oral communication
Oral (spoken) communication is so important because proficient use of complex emotion-affecting elements such as body language and eye contact can win someone over in a way that written communication rarely can.
This is true even with remote conversations, as a skilled communicator (equipped with a reliable video calling platform, of course) can use tone and facial expressions to great effect.
Within an organization, oral communication covers one-on-one sessions (common for performance reviews), small group meetings (online training sessions, for instance), and sometimes public speaking occasions (e.g. industry events).
The requirements are slightly different in each situation, so it takes immense skill and practice to be a truly proficient oral communicator.
Written communication
Written communication (which can be handwritten or typed) is a key consideration for effectively running an organization. Most communication passed to customers and stakeholders alike will be in text format, and there’s so much legal paperwork to be done.
Provided they’re given enough time and resources, having skilled writers around is a tremendous advantage. With that said, it’s necessary to be aware of the drawbacks of leaning heavily on written communication.
Emails, instant messages, social media posts, and other written channels take keen awareness of what to say and how to say it, and the time allowed to compose written messages also makes it harder to excuse poor results. Misspeaking is easily excused, but miswriting is not.
A sensible approach for an organization is to have a brand writing handbook in place and require anyone doing any writing for the operation to follow its guidelines carefully. The writers who prove their reliability can then be given opportunities to be more creative, while the others can continue to rely on the directions.
Downward vs. upward vs. horizontal vs. diagonal
We’ve covered the main communication types, but there’s also directionality. So what is an organizational communication direction supposed to indicate?
Put simply, the way you communicate changes depending on how you relate (usually professionally, but potentially personally as well) to the person you’re talking to.
Downward communication
Downward communication involves communicating with someone ranked below you in your organization. It’s commonly used for instruction; think of a supervisor discussing performance with a frontline employee, a CEO sending a mass email about corporate changes, or a manager delegating tasks in a team meeting.
Upward communication
Upward communication involves communicating with someone who outranks you within your organization.
Imagine a frontline employee asking their manager for advice, passing feedback to their supervisor, or reporting a recurring problem to the head of their department. Having a fair amount of upward communication is good for an organization’s health because it mitigates the impact of hierarchy.
Horizontal communication
Horizontal communication occurs between employees on (or roughly on) the same level. Collaboration in general is the primary driver here because similarly ranked colleagues don’t have power over one another.
Team meetings, for example, often involve peers exchanging updates and suggestions, while instant messaging chats see the sharing of resources and constructive criticism.
Diagonal communication
Diagonal communication covers the relatively rare instances of conversation between people on different levels and in different departments (or even different companies in instances of corporate partnerships).
It warrants a distinct type here because such exchanges present unique challenges.
When someone technically outranks you but has no direct power over you, you need to be cooperative while standing your ground. And when you’re tasked with working on a project with someone from another department, showing curiosity about how they operate can help produce some insights you can use to improve.
Organizational communication examples
We’ve already mentioned some examples of organizational communication, so let’s get into more detail. Covering internal and external communications, here’s why certain instances of communication matter and how they should be approached.
Internal communication examples
Executed well, these instances of internal communication help organizations improve their operations:
Team meetings
Team meetings are vital for strong organizational communication. All teams should regularly share ideas, ask for feedback, and freely voice their opinions. Historically, team meetings would be held in meeting rooms, but it’s now common for them to take place remotely.
At RingCentral, we focus on helping remote employees work effectively from anywhere, and that certainly involves being productive in team meetings.
This is why we’ve made video meetings easier than ever with RingCentral RingEX and RingCentral Video, offering HD meetings for up to 200 participants with convenient screen-sharing, carrier-grade infrastructure, and enterprise-grade encryption.
Training sessions
Introducing employees to new skills and helping them sharpen their existing ones is necessary for operational refinement and general morale. This is complicated enough in person, so running training sessions for remote workers can be a major challenge. You need to ensure that people are paying attention.
Good training sessions, then, are designed to convey ideas quickly in digestible parts that don’t strain attention spans. They neatly explain the value of the information being provided, and take advantage of gamification (a core part of workforce optimization) through issuing quizzes, puzzles, and more formal assignments.
Performance reviews
Employee performance must be assessed to ensure that productivity remains high, but explaining to someone how you’ve rated their output poses a significant communication challenge. If you’re too delicate with criticism, they might not take your comments seriously. If you’re too heavy-handed, you might crush their spirit.
Finding the right balance takes practice and awareness of how individual employees respond to feedback. It’s also vital to give employees opportunities to be critical of their colleagues and/or managers. A fair give-and-take process benefits everyone and prevents lingering issues from hampering progress.
Work social events
Work social events themselves involve communication, but what’s most interesting about them is that their informal exchanges impact the formal exchanges that take place back at work.
Colleagues that are awkward or uncomfortable around one another can benefit from practicing their communication in pressure-free situations.
Team-building exercises are often effective at getting people to share information and opinions more openly and honestly. This is a big reason why successful organizations invest in interaction-rich social events. When people spend time together, they get better at collaborating (and enjoy it more).
External communication examples
External communication has much broader brand implications. These instances of external communication require careful management:
Customer support exchanges
Fielding general queries or specific concerns, customer support teams are tasked with navigating many difficult conversations, and any one of those conversations has the potential to cause big problems should it be mismanaged. After all, a dissatisfied customer can easily spread negativity online.
Effective customer support exchanges pair sensible structuring (the most basic structure being greeting, acknowledgement, solution, then follow-up) with open and empathetic engagement. The core element, ultimately, is careful listening. Support agents who really pay attention to what callers are saying get the best results.
Press releases
Despite being somewhat archaic, press releases remain useful for announcing notable organizational actions, spreading word about brand updates, or responding to crisis events that threaten to worsen if ignored. They may only need one-way communication, but that doesn’t make them easy to get right.
The biggest element of getting a press release right is fully understanding the context surrounding it. How will people respond to the sentiments expressed (or the words used to express them)? Are there expectations to meet? Will an informal tone earn support or criticism? Considering such questions is imperative.
Industry newsletters
Many leading organizations care about being considered thought leaders, and a great way to demonstrate expertise is to release a regular industry newsletter. The biggest obstacle in the way here isn’t brand damage, however: it’s apathy. Sending out newsletters that don’t interest people is just wasting time and effort.
What makes a newsletter worth following is a solid mix of actionable insight and good writing (ideally showing some personality and thus likability). Consistently valuable releases with a steady tone will eventually attract readers, and acting upon feedback from those readers will help keep them.
Social media posts
Social media platforms allow organizations to dynamically engage with the people they want to reach, making them powerful, but also making them dangerous. Companies that get too cavalier with their posting can commit social faux pas, potentially leading to widespread condemnation (or even boycotts).
The combination of potential and risk pushes some companies to outsource their social posting, passing it to businesses built to nail it despite the loss of authenticity that entails. Those willing to keep it in-house, though, can earn plaudits through creativity, honesty, and tasteful self-deprecation.
Why is organizational communication important?
Organizational communication is important because it affects information distribution, employee engagement, and public relations. Clear and consistent communications limits mistakes, speeds up admin, and fosters positive relationships both internally and externally.
Information distribution
Excellent organizational communication helps information circulate the operation quickly and accurately. It’s when people fail to check their facts (or just struggle to express what they mean) that falsehoods get around, leading to bad decisions, frustrated customers, reputational damage, and even legal disputes.
Everyone within the organization should know how to verify and share information properly, whether they’re helping a coworker, supporting a client, or making a public announcement.
Employee engagement
When an employee feels their voice is heard, they’ll be more likely to work hard and stay productive. That’s why it’s an issue that not even 3 out of 10 U.S. employees believe their opinions are taken seriously at work.
If you can nail workplace communication, you can help your employees feel involved, understand what’s going on with the business in general, and provide meaningful contributions.
Public relations
Perception is incredibly important in business, and external communication issues can cause serious (potentially even irreparable) damage to an organization.
When a company unthinkingly posts something insensitive on social media, misses a chance to impress a dissatisfied customer, or fails to appropriately address public criticism, it risks losing all credibility and ruining its long-term prospects.
How to achieve effective organizational communication
Eager to improve the communication both inside and outside of your organization? It’s a worthwhile goal, and the good news is that it’s absolutely achievable if you do two things in particular:
Create a full organizational communication strategy
Each organization’s communication strategy will be different, naturally, but there are some elements that every strategy should feature.
If you can cover all of the following, you can establish a solid foundation to build upon:
- Company handbooks. Every employee should have access to a document that features a code of ethics, guidelines on communicating with customers and clients, and a clear social media policy.
- PR processes. It’s sometimes necessary to represent a company through external media, but it’s a risky proposition. HR professionals, public relations pros, and copywriters alike should have formal processes for dealing with external comms so they can act quickly, confidently, and safely when needed.
- Training sessions. Extensive training is key in organizational communication. All employees should be trained in company communication policies for both oral and written communication. And if they’re working remotely, they should know how to communicate well via team messaging apps and video calls.
- Responsive actions. Employees won’t trust their managers if they repeatedly report issues but don’t see anything done about them, and customers won’t trust companies that ignore their feedback. A communication strategy must set expectations for acting upon employee and customer issues alike. If it doesn’t, employees will grow resentful and customers will stop caring.
- Data-driven analytics. The ever-present nature of communication coupled with the complexities of language can lead some to think communication performance can’t be usefully tracked. That isn’t the case. Metrics such as turnover rate and employee satisfaction can say a lot about the impact of communication tactics, so pay close attention and iterate accordingly.
Explain organizational communication expectations
If there’s a secret to strategic organizational communication, it’s this: Ensuring that everyone through the organization—no matter their role or seniority—knows what’s expected of them. Any weak link in the chain has the potential to cause problems.
Here’s a quick breakdown of who should be doing what:
- CEOs and senior managers. Those at the top of the workplace hierarchy are responsible for setting the tone and establishing the culture, so they need to lead by example. That means holding themselves accountable when they communicate poorly and investing in the resources needed for training.
- Human resources teams. Using their knowledge of people’s skills and preferences, HR professionals should create documents and guidelines to help other members of staff communicate effectively. They should always be available to receive feedback and address any complaints or concerns.
- Managers and team leaders. Teams will only communicate well if they’re managed appropriately and encouraged to express themselves. Managers should ideally listen as often as they speak, as they can’t help the people they manage if they don’t understand how they feel or what makes them tick.
- All other employees. Everyone else needs to know the value of strong communication in the organization, too. They should also feel that their input is valued and that they should act to address problems they notice instead of trying to pass them along. If everyone has a can-do attitude and knows they’re contributing, the operation will run much more smoothly.
Don’t overlook organizational communication
As we’ve seen, organizational communication isn’t some minor topic to think about occasionally. Instead, it’s the backbone of an effective and efficient business.
If your operation has employees that can’t get their thoughts across clearly or provide insightful updates, it’s always going to struggle.
So, now that you know exactly what organizational communication is and how you can start improving it, make it your organization’s mission to communicate properly.
With commitment, consistency, and a little help from the video and messaging products at RingCentral, you’ll be getting it right every time.
View a free demo today to find out more about how RingCentral can help.
Organizational communication FAQs
What are the four directions of organizational communication?
The directions of organizational communication are downward, upward, horizontal, and diagonal.
Downward and upward communication is communication between superiors and subordinates in either direction. Horizontal communication is between colleagues and peers. Diagonal communication is between individuals technically at different levels of a hierarchy but also in different departments or even companies.
Why is organizational communication essential?
Organizational communication is essential as it keeps all stakeholders on the same page, pulling towards the business’s goals and objectives. Getting it right ensures you’ll excel in information distribution, employee engagement, public relations, and more.
Originally published Jul 18, 2024, updated Jul 30, 2024
