Organisational communication deals with how organisations present, represent, and constitute their organisational climate and culture; it is the structure, environment, attitudes, values, beliefs and goals that characterize the organisation and its members. Stanley A. Deetz in “Transforming Communication, Transforming Business: Building Responsive and Responsible Workplaces”, published in 1995, argued that one way to enlighten our understanding of organisational communication is to compare different approaches of communication in an organisation. Organisational communication can be defined as the sending and receiving of messages among interrelated individuals within a particular environment or setting out to achieve individual and common goals. Organisational communication is highly contextual and greatly depends on the culture of the people. Individuals in organisations transmit messages through face-to-face (oral, body language, sign language, signs etc), written (memo, e-mail, letter, newsletter, magazine, text etc), and mediated channels (electronics, phone etc).

Organisational communication basically focuses on building relationships and interacting with internal organisational members and interested external stakeholders. Mathew Koschmann explained in his animated YouTube video titled, “What is Organisational Communication?” that organisational communication has two perspectives. The conventional approach focuses on communication within organisations. The second approach is communication as organisation – meaning that organisations are results of the communication of those within them. Organisations are structures set up or established for people to communicate. Communication is not just about transmitting messages between senders and receivers; it literally constitutes, or makes up, our social world. Communication is the life of business! Much of our communication involves sending and receiving relatively unproblematic messages and acting on that information.

At times, communication is a bit more complex, such as when one needs to resolve conflict with a close friend or family member. The choice of words must be strategic. There is much more going on in some situations than merely exchanging information. One is actually engaging in a complex process of meaning and negotiating rules created by the people involved. For organisations to be successful, they must have competent communicators. Organisational communication study shows that organisations rely on effective and efficient communication skills from their members. A number of researchers on communication (Keith L. Davis, Anne Miller, Norma C. Holter and Donald J. Kopka, and Eileen M. Perrigo and Deborah Roach Gaut) identified effective oral and written communication as the most sought after skills by those who run organisations. In some situations, not talking in an organisation is communication! It either shows lack of ideas or that the person is a hermit. Communication is the way people relate with each other. Keith Davis defined communication as the sum of the things one person does when he wants to create understanding in the mind of another.

Organisational communication helps us in different ways in business, including: 1) to accomplish tasks relating to specific roles and responsibilities of sales, services, and production; 2) adapt to changes through individual and organisational creativity and adaptation; 3) complete tasks through the maintenance of policy, procedures, or regulations that support daily and continuous operations; 4) develop relationships where “human messages are directed at people within the organisation – their attitudes, morale, satisfaction, and fulfilment” and 5) coordinate, plan, control and monitor the operations of the organisation through management. The United States’ Department of Labour reported that communication competency is the most vital skill necessary for the 21st century workforce to achieve organisational success (Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, 1990).

The Public Forum Institute maintained that employees, especially those in C-Suites that will be representing organisations, need to be skilled in public presentation, listening, and interpersonal communication to flourish in an organisation. Organisations seek people who can follow and give instructions, accurately listen, provide useful feedback, get along with co-workers and customers, network, provide useful information, be a team-worker, and creatively and critically solve problems and present ideas in an understandable manner. Developing organisational communication awareness and effectiveness is more than just having know-how or knowledge. Efficient organisational communication involves knowing how to create and exchange information, work with diverse groups or individuals, communicate in complicated and changing circumstances, as well as having the aptitude or motivation to communicate in appropriate manners.

Communication is actually at the heart of every organisational process, and people must be able to interact with each other for an organisation to succeed. As a specialisation, organisational communication can arguably be traced back to Alexander R. Heron’s 1942 book, “Sharing Information With Employees” that looked at manager-employee communication. Linda L. Putnam and George Cheney professed that “organisational communication” developed out of three main speech communication traditions: public address, persuasion, and social science research on interpersonal, small group, and mass communication. Public-speaking training for corporate executives is part of organisation communication. Early works like Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” published in 1936 focused on necessary oral presentation and written communication skills for managers to succeed in organisations.

W. Charles Redding and Phillip K. Tompkins identify three eras in the development of organisational communication. During the ‘Era of Preparation’ (1900 – 1940), much of the groundwork was laid for the discipline that we know today. Scholars emphasized the importance of communication in organisations. The primary focus during this period was on public address or public briefing, business writing, managerial communication, and persuasion. The ‘Era of Identification and Consolidation’ (1940 – 1970) witnessed the beginnings of business and industrial communication, with certain group and organisational relationships being recognised as important. In the ‘Era of Maturity and Innovation’ (1970 – present), empirical research soared, accompanied by innovative efforts to develop concepts, theoretical premises, and philosophical critiques.
In modern organisations, leaders must know that eight major communication traditions are important. These are: (1) Communication channels, (2) Communication climate, (3) Network analysis, (4) Superior-subordinate communication, (5) the information-processing perspective, (6) the rhetorical perspective, (7) the cultural perspective, and (8) the political perspective. Since the 1980s, this specialization has expanded to include work on organisational culture, power and conflict management, and organisational rhetoric. To develop employees on organisational communication, studies must include skill development in organisational socialisation, interviewing, giving individual and group presentations, creating positive work relationships, performance evaluation, conflict resolution, stress management, decision making, and communicating with external stakeholders – like customers, immediate members of the public where organisation is located and government officials that give business direction.