Communication Networks (Week-11)

Organizational communication addresses how information is transferred between employees in the company or organization. There are two ways by which communication takes place in the organization. It can be done via formal network or informal network. Both methods work concurrently, the lower-level employees use informal communication and upper level is dominated by formal communication.

Generally four types of communication networks are adopted by the organization.

Grapevine Network:

It is an example of informal communication in the organization. Many time such communication consist of rumors like layoff, promotion and demotion. This network shows the knowledge of people about company and their willingness to share it with others. The information of certain news which is to be declared officially are often leaked or transmitted in this type of communication network before the official announcement.

Downward Network:

Downward communication network is one of the method for formal communication. In such communication network the information is sent from the upper level position and it get transmitted down towards the employee who are in lower level. It is such a network which is present in almost all the companies.

Horizontal Network:

It is a formal way of communication which generally takes place between peers working at same level. It is such a communication where peers help each other to work together by arranging meetings. They also help each other to get succeeded at workplace, have a stress free environment and strengthening bond with each other.

Diagonal Network:

It is all way of communication where employees at every level communicate with each other regardless of their ranking in the organization. It is also called Omni-directional communication. A movie production is a perfect example of such communication network. In movie director, actors, script writer, light man and all other people having different roles work together at the same time on a single project.

According to me in communication network the information which people shares can be formal or informal. It contains all the information which sometimes doesn’t belong to the organization. It can be about the organization or some personal problems which employees faces in their life. While in a team where there are limited number of people, who are more focus to complete their common goal. Most of the times the way of communication used in between teams are formal and it is related to their goals. Almost all the work and communications are well coordinated in teams.

The Lost episode is the perfect example for the working as a team, where at first all the survivors were not able to communicate with each other properly. After understanding each other they decided to assign a task to oneself and try to do it properly. All are trying to find a way out of the island which was their common goal. Sometimes there are conflicts and problems due to improper communication, but they solve it among themselves because there was no other way for them as they have to work together and get out of the island.

I want to ask people that what type of organization network they have in their company?