Direction of communication
Direction of communication:
Flow of communication can be vertical or horizontal.
Vertical Communication:
Vertical communication can be further divided in upward and downward communication. It is discussed as follows.
Upward communication: Upward communication involves flow of information from a lower position to higher position that means subordinate position to a superior position. Feedback from the lower laver employees to the higher authorities is known as upward communication. Workers may communicate their requests, grievance, suggestions, and schemes to joint committees of managers or to the management.
Upward communication consists of information about employees’ work performance, performance appraisal of their staff, feedback regarding orders and instructions, new ideas and suggestions and personal problems. It moves from operator to supervisor, supervisor to department head and department head to management. Upward communication may bring issues to upper level and enable them to solve the issue and create new downward communication process.
Downward communication: Downward communication is type of communication in which information or data is communicated from superior to its subordinates in downward direction of chain of command of organisation. Superior communicates orders advices or instructs his workers and enables them to do the job as expected. It facilitates the activity of delegation and coordination that are important for organisation.
Downward communication includes sharing of mission, strategy, goals, new rules, job descriptions and task to be done in downward direction that is from higher management to lower level of management and through them to workers. It can be in form of notices, letters, circulars, memos etc. It facilitates work to be done and prepare for changes if any.
Lateral or horizontal communication:
It refers to the flow or transmission of information among the staff of same level across different departments or sections of the organisation. It is a form of informal communication. If manager of any department need some information from other department’s manager they can catch up directly with each other.
As staff involved in this type of communication is of same level the form of communication is voluntary and it helps coordination between the departments. This type of communication is useful because it facilitates people from different departments to work together in a synchronized manner in order to solve problems and increase productivity.