Maintaining discipline: Downward communication occurs inconformity with officially recognized rules and regulations. So it helps in establishing official discipline in the organization.
Increasing efficiency: Downward communication provides necessary guidance, orders. Instructions and explanations of various complex issues to the subordinates that ultimately increase the efficiency of the employees. Informing organizational plans and procedures : In an organization, the top-level executives develop the plans, policies, strategies, procedures etc. Downward communication plays a significant role in communicating those plans, policies, strategies and procedures to the lower levels of the organization.
Explaining the complex issues: Sometimes subordinates need explanation of organizational policies and procedures. In such situations, managers rely on downward communication to provide necessary explanations and analysis.
The major advantages of downward communication are highlighted below:. In conclusion we can say that Downward communication ties together the entire organization and ensures the achievement of organizational goals.
Though downward communication provides many advantages to the organization, it is not free limitations. Its main limitations or disadvantages are discussed below:. From the above discussion, it appears that downward communication is not always effective and successful. Therefore, along with downward communication, managers should use other forms of communication.
I discovered that our department heads and staff members were reacting to my personal aversion to prolonged analysis of numbers. I now force myself to give priority to this necessary work and, therefore, so do my reporting people.
The whole area of upward perception and performance appraisal remains to be studied definitively, but an informal trial in our company suggested that appraisals by the subordinate of the boss are most accurate, appraisals by the boss of the subordinate are less accurate, and self-appraisal is the least accurate—as measured against quantifiable results. Careful studies could establish or refute this premise. If true, however, the real trick will be to utilize these appraisals without seriously threatening levels of supervisory authority.
The second point is to be yourself—whatever that is. This warning does not mean that managers should not adjust their methods of supervision as required. In fact, such change is the object of improved boss-subordinate communications.
Simply stated, supervisors should always act in a manner that is most natural to them. Whether the supervisor is a Casper Milquetoast or King Kong, he is most effective when using his natural personality and methods of expression.
Too many times higher-level managers have worked hard to change a tough guy into a human relations star or a reserved person into a tiger only to wonder later what went wrong with results after the subordinate caved in and changed his style. Sometimes managers try to change themselves on their own initiative to match the kind of managerial type they think their boss prefers.
If he changes all his signals, the result will be confusion and a less effective organization. The result of the program was that bosses refrained from making their own opinions and directives clear to their subordinates.
Confusion and frustration multiplied in those organizations headed by dedicated graduates of understanding-listening training. We stopped the training, assessed what was happening, and then told our managers to return to their natural manner of running their jobs. We now use understanding-listening as a specific technique primarily in interviewing candidates for employment.
Assuming you really know yourself and behave naturally, you must then learn to control the signals you send so that all your communications are effective. Signals in interpersonal communications are many and varied.
The words you use, tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, body attitude are all signals. What you choose to write rather than communicate orally may signal the relative importance of a message.
So too may be covering a subject in private rather than at a group meeting. All these signals and many more are read by people to determine not only what is being communicated but also how important the subject is to the communicator.
Just get all the facts clear and the reaction will be in proportion to your personal interest in the subject. But when you must communicate policy, practice, or whatever on subjects that interest you less or to which you are personally opposed to some degree, then candor is the key. Make it clear that something must be done because it is the law, or larger corporate considerations require it, or because budget controls demand it.
This will fail for several reasons. First, if the immediate boss does not feel personally responsible for a given matter, the subordinates will not either.
Second, it confuses people to see conflict between different levels of authority. If employees respond to one, will they fail to satisfy another?
Just make it as clear as possible why something must be done even though it is not a prime personal interest of yours. This signaling technique worked in the budget control problem mentioned earlier. I acknowledged to my subordinates that budgetary analysis and control were not my favorite pastimes but that I saw them as top priorities for the subordinates and me.
I then insisted on budget reviews and commitments in detail whenever we got together. They got the message. The fourth principle, listening, is a shorthand introduction to the need for good upward communications.
The problem is to relieve b. The best solution is to establish a good balance of two-way communications by deliberately improving upward communications. Bosses will then get a feedback on the effectiveness of their downward communications.
Thus a continuing cycle of up-and-down signals will restore balance to what is usually a downward and less effective information flow. Before discussing how to establish good upward communications, I shall restate the theory. The better the interpersonal perception, the better the communications. Upward communications are poor in most hierarchical organizations because perception downward is poorer than perception upward. As you go higher, the word gets more garbled, edited, or, even worse, eliminated entirely.
New England Telephone found that the upward communications program developed as a result of our study is a very effective tool in overcoming this problem. I shall briefly summarize our study techniques and findings, then go on to what we are at present doing and experiencing in our own program. First, we surveyed hundreds of companies in the United States and Canada for communications programs and also sought enlightenment from many colleges and business schools.
Seventy-five companies were studied in depth. Seven U. We encountered no experts, studies, or programs on upward communications. Most corporate communications programs dealt with downward communications, and the few that were aimed upward were individual techniques, such as employee suggestion plans, methods for answering questions, or ways of letting off steam.
Although we found no comprehensive communications programs, we did discover individual techniques of merit that could be combined under one umbrella. The upward communications program that resulted from this study started in New England Telephone in and is still evolving. It is now fully implemented in all five divisions in Massachusetts, including corporate headquarters in Boston, after an month trial period in one area.
We select key private-line questions and answers of general interest for publication in the company newspaper. It is the most widely read column in the paper. The practice of telephoning questions via the coordinators is growing because it permits personal discussion between one of the coordinators and the questioner that hones the points and aims the question to the right person.
It further allows the coordinator to determine how to handle sensitive personal situations. Problems are sometimes resolved or questions answered by the coordinator during the discussion.
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