Main forms of organizational communication

The importance of communication in business becomes even more apparent when we

consider the communication activities of an organization from an overall point of view.

As we can see from a review of Ram’s half hour at Typical, these activities fall into three

broad categories of communication; internal-operational, external-operational, and

personal.

Internal-operational communication

Internal-operational communication consists of the structured communication within the

organization directly related to achieving the organization’s work goals. By “structured”

we mean that such communication is built into the organization’s plan of operation. By

the “organization’s work goals” we mean the organization’s primary reasons for being-to

sell insurance, to manufacture nuts and bolts, to construct buildings, and the like.

The Typical Company, to use a familiar example, has as its major work goals the

making and selling of whatsits. In achieving these work goals, it has an established plan

of operation, and communication plays a major role in this plan. More specifically, each

of Typical’s employees has an assignment in the plan. For the plan to work, some

communicating must be done. In some of the assignments certain working information is

“needed. And so that all assignments may be performed as a harmonious and unified

effort, certain coordinating information must be communicated. All this information flow

is internal¬operational communication.