Workplace Communication Flows, continued

The Grapevine: Filling the Gaps

Page 3

If you missed the first or second page of this article, please go to
http://www.employee-communication.com/Downward-Communication.html

By: Robert F. Abbott

It's Tuesday morning, and Joe down the hall just emptied out his desk and left the building. Apparently for good.

Everyone wants an answer to the same question: "Why?" If there's no official answer, and sometimes even if there is one, the people around him begin speculating about possible reasons. If your workplace is typical, several competing reasons will vie for legitimacy.

This is a communication channel that no one owns and no one controls. And while we might complain about gossips and busybodies, we all use it sooner or later.
It has a function

Despite its many faults, though, the grapevine does have a place, a function, in all organizations. It fills in gaps left behind by conventional and official communication.

As I've noted, downward communication delivers enabling information from superior to subordinate, while upward communication involves com-pliance information reported back to the superior by the subordinate. And, lateral communication takes place between peers, helping us coordinate with each other.

No matter how full and how frank this official communication, though, it still can't provide enough information or answer all questions. In response, we fill in the gaps ourselves, guessing why Joe down the hall might have been fired or quit suddenly. And, we often get together in groups to speculate, which also generates content for this informal network.

New tools

Traditionally, the grapevine revolved around mouth-to-mouth communication, with only occasional bits of information written down or put on paper.

But, new technologies mean change. The Internet opened up all kinds of new opportunities for unofficial communication. Email, it's true, may be monitored, but that's easily circumvented. For example, free, anonymous email accounts offered all over the Net.

Then, there are cell phones and texting, which can be used to surreptitiously maintain the grapevine. While technologies enabling the grapevine may change, the same human traits continue to fuel this communication channel. They include our natural curiosity and our desire to influence the way others think and behave. Don't forget, either, about the need to get even or to belittle, which fuel many rumors that course through grapevines.
Speed

Given our human curiosity and the need to send out unofficial messages of one kind or another, it's not surprising this kind of communication moves rapidly and travels broadly.

Where downward, upward, and lateral communication are structured and flow formally through specific channels, the grapevine goes through multiple channels and even multiple versions. From another perspective, this is demand-driven communication and its speed reflects degrees of curiosity.

Summary

In this report we looked at a workplace communication model with four main types of flow in organizations, whether in businesses or not-for-profit organizations:

• downward, or enabling, communication that moves instructions and other directive information down or through a hierarchy
• upward, or compliance, communication that provides feedback to the people who originate downward communication
• lateral, or coordinating, communication that moves between peers to maintain or improve operational efficiency
• the grapevine, which fills in gaps in official communication and provides answers to unaddressed questions.

Applying this information...

Next time you set out to use communication, spend a moment reflecting on the types available to you, and how you can use them.

Do you want to send instructions? If you do, you're about to use downward communication. If you want to report to your boss or to a customer, it's upward communication. Understanding that there are different forms of communication, and that each has a distinct set of functions and characteristics, is the first step toward mastery of organizational communication.

After looking at the flows individually, next think in terms of a communication cycle, one that begins with information flowing down from management to employees or team members as they provide instruction and direction. Then, information flows upward to management as employees report on how they did at following the instructions and direction. And, of course, along the way employees communicated laterally and through the grapevine to be able to carry out their instructions. It's a communication theory that has the potential to help you deal with issues such employee morale and development, productivity, and dealing with problems in communication.

Next: Employee Surveys