THE ROLE OF COMMUNICATION IN AN ORGANIZATION
BY OLUWANISOLA SEUN EMMANUEL
EZINE ARTICLE EXPERT AUTHOR
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (C) 2009

Communication plays a very important role in an organization. In fact, it is said to be the life wire of the organization. Nothing in the universe, human or otherwise, that does not communicate; though the means of communication may be very different. Communication is very crucial and unavoidable since we have intentions which we want to pass across to another person, group or even to the outside world.

Communication in an organization is inevitable. Departments communicate from time to time in respect to daily activities and the organization’s relationship with the external world. It says what it intended via written and unwritten means, either planned or impromptu. It could be hierarchical, that is, from top to bottom or vice versa. It could be formal or informal; vertical, horizontal or diagonal. Whichever means, modes or types of communication, what matters is that communication takes place.

However, what is being communicated may be well understood and thus feedback or misunderstood or insufficient and thus communication breakdown. In fact, communication within an organization could be grapevine or rumour. In all, communication in an organization is very complex and it needs to be correctly handled and monitored to avoid chaos, crisis or conflict.

The basic functions and roles of the management could not be performed without communication. Planning, organizing, coordinating, budgeting, monitoring, controlling, staffing, delegation; and including marketing, production, financing, staffing (human resource managing), research and development, purchasing, selling, etc could not be well coordinated, harnessed and their goals achieved without communication.

At meetings, annual general meeting, ordinary meeting, urgent meeting, etc, communication plays a key role. The effectiveness of an organization also depends on the successfulness of its meetings where goals to be achieved, targets to be met, and activities to be carried out are ironed out and discussed. If the ideas are not well understood at the meeting, then one need to be sure that the workers will mess up everything. Thus, the chairman of the meeting must be an effective speaker or communication capable of ensuring that everyone got what has been discussed correctly. This will help eradicate rumour and grapevine and likewise help achieve set standards, goals and/or objectives.

In conclusion, everyone in an organization needs to have good communication skill, not the boss only, but also the subordinates. It is what all of us (workers) need to jointly strive to achieve the set goals. Remove communication in an organization, we are going to have dead entity, good for nothing and worth been shut down. Communication is the backbone for organization’s success.