1. Running head: ORGANIZATIONALCOMMUNICATIONS 1
Organizational Communications Correlates to Productivity
Andre Stubbs
Youngstown State University

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Organizational Communications Correlates to Productivity
The organizational communication correlates to productivity in many different ways. One
of the ways is through the communication of others and yourself when speaking to any
employee. Another way is through the climate assessment of the employees at the organization
and also the communication that goes through one another in the hiring process. The last but not
least thing that communication would play a part in is the leadership styles. Communication of
others, climate assessment, hiring, and leadership styles are all ways that the organizational
communication correlates to productivity.
Communication productivity
When working with the communication productivity in an organization the
communication productivity increases when employees are satisfied with their jobs and with the
level of communication they receive from the management. When a manager has an effective
communication in his or her organizations, it has a direct impact on the staff’s reactions as well
which is the ultimate goal when dealing with communication through employees. The best form
of communication in the workplace is positive feedback on their performances. Linda Ray
(2004) says that “When employees receive regular feedback on their performance, and are told
what’s going on in the company and what role they play in the overall success of the business,
they will reward you by working harder and more efficiently” (P. 14). Having that positive
communication to employees about their performance is a great way to have a better customer
service.
There is a term fostering autonomy, which means the employees are giving some sense of
responsibility that gives them some leeway when it ultimately comes down to what is best for the
company. When a company has the chance to develop a culture of open communication between

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employees, supervisors, and the owner of the business, they are able to encourage autonomy in
the workplace. Now when the supervisors have developed a communication style with the staff
of the company it tends to shifts the communication more towards mentoring rather than
ordering. They help add to the open culture that results in increased productivity in the
workplace. Poor communication between employees, supervisors, and management can lead to a
significant waste of time.
It can cause many complications in the workplace. At the same time managers that
develop a more effective kind of communication techniques are much more likely to avoid the
resistance to the change that happens within the organization. Supervisors have often not been
able to clearly relay instructions, or wrongly assume that employees know how to perform a task.
This not only leads to reduce the productivity in organizations but it also can be the cause of
negative customer reactions and the loss of the business instead employees should communicate
and check up on employees.
Climate assessment
An organization’s climate and infrastructure are variables that greatly affect how people
feel in a certain environment and how they act as well. This is shown in hospitals and clinics
where patient-centered communication is vital to quality care. The climate and infrastructure can
affect communication in many ways. A set of assessment tools was developed to measure the
climate of hospitals and clinics nationwide. Wynia, McCoy, Griffin, Osburn (2010) researcher at
“Validation of an organizational communication climate assessment tool kit” says that “The
communication climate assessment tools were field tested in 14 diverse organizations nationwide”
(P. 20). The tools provided insight from staff and patients that were used to evaluate the climate

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and its effect within the organizations. The tools were found to be very reliable in predicting
patient-reported quality.
The tools were also useful in conveying a patient’s belief about the trustworthiness of an
organization and whether they felt like they were receiving quality care. The key to quality care
is effective communication. A valid tool, capable of providing organizations with detailed
feedback on their communication performance, has been developed for the use of health care
organizations. This tool can also be used over a period of time to track the performance and
improvement methods if needed.
Hiring as culture matching
When applying to an organization the communications skills in an interview play a huge
role in the hiring aspect of the culture. In many ways the way a person communicate, in an
interview with his or her future boss can be the determining factor of getting hired at that job or
not. In some organizations everyone who applies for a position has to takes a mandatory
grammar test to determine whether or not they are fit for the position at their organization that
they need filled. In so many ways the way a person speak grammatically correct in an interview
tend to make fewer mistakes when it comes to doing things that are completely unrelated to
communications.
Employment communication plays an important part between an applicant and the
employer. Employment communication is a conversation the applicant has with an employer. For
example you have an interview for a job you have applied, you show up, the interview starts by
asking several basic questions that get the interview started. After that the employer approaches
you with more profound questions such as what qualities do you have that will be suitable for the
job position that you have applied for. Based on the questions that the applicants were asked the

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employer was able to establish how the applicant’s answers would be and how they would do in
the workplace of the organization that is doing the interview.
L. Rivera (2012) had said that
“In business, communication is always used, from working
with a customer to speaking to your supervisor. Thus is important
the applicant haves good communication skills. In communication
skills, an employer will see if you have the skill to persuade a
customer into purchase a product, or the skill to satisfy the
customer’s needs, such as implementing useful information that
will satisfy the customer” (P. 4).
When deciding whose best for the position the employer chooses the candidate based on the
communication that shows they have knowledge of the job and they felt more comfortable based
on the communication.
Leadership styles
When it comes to communication and the leadership style the leader needs to have a
thorough understanding of organizational culture, nature, and the impact so that he or she can
communicate a new vision of commitment to the members of the staff of the organization.
Leadership is both dynamic competence and a relational process between two members and how
they communicate which require a specific skill. Sharma and Sharma (2010) says that “that
leadership style must be adjusted according to the situation to ensure organizational effectiveness
and The core of culture and communication that is formed by values which are not visible but
shared by people even when membership in group changes” (P. 13). This is explaining that the

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culture of a person can be the cause of a person’s values that can shape the way that person
would communicate with another person.
Comparison
Between communication of others, climate assessment, hiring, and leadership styles are
the ways that communication are correlated with the productivity of organizations is shown
above in various ways. They all play a part with each other because communication is a huge
part of a normal everyday life in the workplace and without communication there would be a lot
of issues around the workplace that causes the employees to have a harder time trying to
accomplish their work.

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History of the Case:
A case was found that studied one factor of organizational communication in the
workplace, the factor studied was communication in the workplace and its role in productivity.
The study chosen looked at the role of gossip as informal communication channel between
themselves and management within their workplaces or organizations. It was believed that
managers in hospitals could benefit from using gossip in hospitals in such a way as to positively
influence the attainment of their goals. Certain functions were found in existing data on the
subject that were believed to explain the social functions of gossip that could be revised for the
use of managers. These Social functions of gossip were:
1. Collecting and disseminating information about individuals or societies.
2. Creating a sense of belonging to a group, becoming part of a group, socializing
3. Bringing people together, creating strong bonds between group members, and
providing a feeling of intimacy and connectedness to group members
4. Learning about expectations, organizational rules, values, principles, and
behavioral norms.
5. Entertainment, satisfying emotional needs, and escaping boredom.
Gossip can influence the flow of information in positive ways, but can also result in
negative outcomes if not used correctly. Gossip can be used as a tool for psychological
harassment in the workplace, as well as to circulate false or negative information throughout the
organization. This aspect of gossip was found to be impossible to completely illuminate from
workplace, which was one of the reasons it was found to be important for managers to control
gossip.

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What Happened in this Case:
A study was conducted to look at how nurses used gossip in their workplaces as a type of
informal communication channel. There were three research questions that guided the study:
1. How frequently gossip was used
2. What were the topics, purpose, ways, and times gossip was used
3. How the nurses felt when they gossiped
The study took place in a city in the eastern part of Turkey. The nurses were from four
different hospitals within the city, two served under the Ministry of Health and two served under
a university. The data collected in the study was collected June through September of 2011. Of
the 600 nurses reached within the hospitals during the study only 264 of them completed the
study fully.
The tool used to gain data or information from the nurses participating in the study was a
questionnaire developed using previous studies examined in their literature review. The
questionnaire had two major parts to it. One part was a section of multiple choice questions
about their gossiping conditions. While the second part was a series of questions on the nurses’
age, education level, kind of work, weekly working hours, position, and number of patients
treated.
The study resulted in ways that differed from the outcomes predicted or expected as a result
of the previous research. The study showed that although nurses did in fact gossip, that they
chose not to gossip with their managers. Instead they chose to gossip with other nurses in their
unit and in other units. However one factor found in the study that positively reflected the
information found in the literature review was the topic of gossip among the nurses. The

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literature review reported that 80% of workplace gossip was about work. The study reflected this
by reporting that nurses were found to mostly talk about matters that related to their work such as
working conditions and management styles.
My Implications of the case:
This study into the role of gossip as an informal communication channel in hospitals
among nurses reflected the idea of communication within an organization influencing the culture
of an organization and its flow of information. Gossip was used by the nurses to share their
opinions and experiences with their working conditions and the management styles they were
exposed to while in the workplace. This discovery shows the influence of the type of information
circulated on the organizational communication within the hospitals, and should therefore show
the importance of controlling the type of information circulated. The channel of communication
between the nurses, gossip between their peers and fellow nurses, can also be seen as a
trustworthy source of information to the nurses, which is another reason gossip should be closely
monitored and used for positive reasons and goals by managers within organizations. The
application of using gossip as an informal channel to spread positive information and opinions
about the organization and any staff could be beneficial to managers willing to use this tool for
the benefit of their organizational communication.

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References
Ray, L. (2004). The effect of Communication on Productivity
Rivera, L. (2012) American Sociological Association: Hiring as Cultural Matching: The case of
Elite Professional Service Films. 77, 999-1022
Sharma, S,. K,. Sharma, A. (2010). Examining the relationship between organizational culture
and leadership styles. Journal of the Indian academy of applied psychology, Vol.36, No.
1, 97-105
Wynia, M. Johnson, M,. McCoy, T., Griffin, L,. Osborn, C,. (2010) Validation of an
organizational communication climate assessment tool kit.