An “Open Eye and Ear†Approach to Managerial Communication

Managerial communication does not restrain itself to corporate presentations, meetings, conferences, media relations, official correspondences like business letters, memos, proposals and reports. This is quite obvious from the fact that today we have “ hi-tech†communication like intranet, internet, teleconferencing, video-conferencing, net meeting, etc. … as part and parcel of our professional communicative life. But, communication is not always formal. In fact, informal communication is far more active in the work place than formal communication. People at workplace spend between 25 per cent to 70 per cent in face-to-face conversations, and about 88 per cent to 93 per cent in unscheduled communication (Whittaker et al., 1994). This enhances the level of informal communication in the organisations. This type of communication is sometimes backed by opportunity, and sometimes spontaneity. On one hand, it augments mutuality and solidarity, on the other hand, it spreads rumours and counters the formal communication network. Informal tie- ups give rise to cliquey functioning in the organisation, which in turn induces clique politics. The consequences can be low productivity, low morale, less belongingness and high attrition. To cope with these problems managers need to adopt “an open eye and ear†approach to organisational communication. The paper, here, attempts to provide a solution to the problem of informal (mis) communication and organisational politics that is acceptable to both academia and industry.