Direction of Delivery Channels

DELIVERY CHANNELS WITHIN ORGANIZATIONS                                                              3

Direction of Delivery Channels

In the direction of the delivery channels the information moves horizontally, from a sender to receiver. It also moves vertically, down from top management or up from the front line. Information can also move diagonally between and among levels of an organization, such as a message from a customer service representative up to a manager in the manufacturing department, or a message from the chief financial officer sent down to all department heads.

As Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of best-selling books such as Flow, has noted, “In large organizations the dilution of information as it passes up and down the hierarchy, and horizontally across departments, can undermine the effort to focus on common goals.” 

The organizational level the sender can influence the receiver’s attentiveness to the message. For example, A senior manager sends a message to a production supervisor. The supervisor, who has a low status within the organization, has to observe the message with more attention. Therefore, if the same message conveyed in the opposite direction, however, may not pay the attention. 

According to some analysis, regular communication with one’s supervisor will lead to better job performance ratings and overall organizational performance (Snyder & Morris, 1984; Kacmar, et. al., 2003). 

Therefore, the supervisor has to keep in mind that they have to send the messages as quickly as possible to the managers in the appropriate words and also in the respectful manner. Also, understand the levels of the communication while talking to the boards of directors, supervisor and the employees.