1. 6
THE JOURNAL OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION • 1 1 ; 4
As Professor Keith Davis notes, the term "communication" wasn't
even part of the typical supervisor's vocabulary in the 1940s.' And
Paul Pigors, who in 1949 wrote Effective Communication in Industry,
listed only two pre-1940 references in his bibliography of 103 titles.'"
But the groundwork established by the pioneers had been set, and
management was becoming more aware of the critical role which
communication played in organizations.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1 Henri Fayol, General and Industrial Management, translated by Constance
Storrs, New York, Pittman, 1949, pp. 34-36.
2 Henry C. Metcalf and L. Urwick (eds.). Dynamic Administration: The Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1949, p. 51.
3 Ibid.
" Ibid, p. 59.
5 Ibid.
* Claude S. Ceorge, Jr., The History of Management Thought, Englewood
Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1968, p. 132.
' Chester Barnard, The Functions of the Executive, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1938, p. 226.
«lbid, pp. 175-181.
' Keith Davis, Human Relations in Business, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1957,
p. 228.
ommunication in Industry, New York, National As-
A BRIEF HISTORY OF
INTERNAL ORGANIZATION COMMUNICATION
THROUGH THE 1940s
ROBERT D. HAY
University of Arkansas
IN THE HISTORY of man's cultural development, the communication
of ideas ranks as one of his most significant achievements. Communicating is done through actions, spoken words, and printed or written
symbols. Within the organization we communicate horizontally to
integrate plans, coordinate work, compare methods or results. We
communicate down to inform, motivate, direct, redirect, evaluate, or
keep in touch. Upward communication also takes place to report
progress or problems, and to offer solutions. As a result, the importance of the communication process to a manager within the organization seems self-evident.'
It is the purpose of this paper to give an overview of the development of internal organization communication during two eras: 1)

2. ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION • HAY
7
the Pre-Behavioral Era; 2) the Human Relations Era.^ I will emphasize those events which had historical significance during the 1930s
and 1940s.
DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATION DURING
THE PRE-BEHAVIORAL ERA
The first formal study of communications, according to Colin
Cherry, can be traced back to 1689. John Locke and David Hume
performed studies concerned with knowledge of "the real world; its
expressions in language and signs; its communicability; its use with
social and ethical systems."' In 1832, a new aid to communications
was invented, the Morse Code by Samuel Morse.* This was followed
in 1876, by Alexander Graham Bell's telephone.'
These dates are intended to give a very brief overview of the general concern for communications before 1900. From this point on let
us take a look at an historical overview of the development of communications in an internal organizational context.
In 1913, Hugo Munsterberg passingly mentioned the necessity of
communications in his book. Psychology and Industrial Efficiency.^
In 1916, Henri Fayol introduced the concept of the "gang plank" to
counter possible communications delays caused by the unity of command principle. It allowed communications to cross lines of authority but only when it was agreed by all parties and superiors were
kept informed at all times. The gang plank permitted swiit, sure
lateral communications without overloading circuits and preserving
the unity-of-command principle.'
According to many sources. Dale Carnegie is responsible for the
first popular treatment of communication to come to the attention
of the businessman. His writings and courses first achieved nationwide popularity in the early 1920s. Many professionals in the field
of communication tended to downgrade Carnegie's approaches to
the study of communication. Nevertheless, Dale Carnegie could
have been the first to link communications skill with success as a
COMMUNICATIONS IN THE HUMAN RELATIONS ERA
In 1927, the Hawthorne Studies, though not specifically a
nications project, seemed to serve as a stimulus to communications
research. The group from the Harvard Graduate School of Business,
headed by Elton Mayo, came to the following conclusions:

3. O
THE JOURNAL OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION' H : 4
(1) "The attitudes of the employees were more important than the physical
conditions as determinants of efficiency."
(2) "Direct observations of shop departments yielded considerable information concerning the social organization of employees, their informal interactions, and horizontal communications in general."
(3) "A massive interviewing program constituted a noteworthy pioneering
effort in the area of industrial communications."'
It is the opinion of W. Charles Redding and George A. Sanborn
in their book. Business and Industrial Communications, that the
Hawthorne Studies stand as the first serious attack upon the problems
of employee communication. The reason cited was the introduction
of nondirective interviewing programs. Also as a result of these
studies, the eoncept of upward communication was enhanced as
being an important segment of a communication plan.'"
In 1938, Chester I. Barnard is credited with a classic statement on
the nature and importance of managerial communications. He said,
"The first function of the executive is to develop and maintain a system of communications." " In a discussion of this statement in his
book. The Functions of the Executive, he contended that a manager
can only communicate with a limited number of people. Also, Barnard said that the factor of "acceptance" must be considered. According to Barnard, the authority of the sender, alone, would not
produce acceptance. Barnard gave four conditions which must exist
in order to have acceptance of communication:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
The communication must be understandable.
It must be consistent with the purpose of the organization.
It must be compatible with personal interest.
The receiver must be mentally and physically able to comply with the
In 1942, Alexander B. Heron wrote Sharing Information with Employees, in which he presented his experiences of many years as a
director of industrial relations with various companies. The book
provided one of the earliest statements of goals, attitudes, and criteria necessary for successful employee communication. According
to Redding and Sanborn, the sum of Heron's thinking was as follows: "Communication is a line function; it is a two-way sharing of
information; it is not a persuasion or propaganda campaign; it requires the freedom and opportunity to ask questions, get answers
and exchange ideas." "
Carl Rogers entered the scene in 1942 with his non-directive
interviewing technique,which was, in reality, a listening device

4. ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION • HAY
9
with demonstrated value in dealing with personal problems. The
catharsis of letting a person talk and having a person listen, with
studies. These included studies of indoctrination and training proreinforcement given to the speaker, was very useful in obtaining
understanding.'*
Paul Pigors, in 1949, said in Effective Communication in Industry,
that "communication is a joint process." He meant that management
and the employees had to work together to have successful communication. The notions of participation and two-way communication
were firmly entrenched in theory and practice.
The first communications research studies were conducted during
World War II. The impetus for this movement came largely through
the federal government's support of persuasive mass communication
cedures for servicemen; studies of the effects of psychological warfare and propaganda; studies of special efforts to sell war bonds and
to gain civilian support for government rationing and other war
effort programs." Two men were in the forefront of this researchKurt Lewin," the famed German psychologist who recognized the
value of two-way communication and participation; and Paul Lazarsfeld," the social scientist noted for his work in mass communication.
During the forties there also appeared on the scene such notables
as Hayakawa, Korzybski and Irving Lee, the semarfiicists. The
science of meaning with its emphasis on culture and its effect on
meanings of words and symbols was initiated during this period, but
it had little effect on internal organization communication."
In the area of written communication for business, the formation
of the American Business Writing Association was significant because it was the professional organization which brought together
such notables as C. R. Anderson, Robert Aumer, Bill Butterfield, and
Louis McKelvey whose books infiltrated the college campuses, particularly in business schools.
In 1946, Rudolf Flesch completed his Flesch Readability Formula
as his doctoral dissertation at Columbia." He was followed by Robert
Gunning and his Fog Index. Both of these readability formulas became very popular among those organizations who tried to simplify
their written language to an accepted education level of the readers.
Wendell Johnson's model of face-to-face communications was introduced in 1946,^° and then reintroduced in 1948, 1949, and 1953.
His model did build on the work of Korzybski in semantics. Wendell
Johnson listed five steps in the communication process which occur
in both speaker and listener. They were the 1) event or source of

5. 10
THE JOURNAL OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION* 1 1 : 4
Stimulation; 2) sensory stimulation; 3) pre-verbal state; 4) symbolic
state; and, 5) overt expression.
In 1949, the Shannon-Weaver eommunications model appeared,
based on research done by Wiener and Kolmogoroff in 1948. This
model was a mathematical one.^'
In summary, then, during the 1930s and 1940s the theory and
practice of internal organization communication was getting started.
The Hawthorne studies were important for their recognition of the
informal communications and grapevine as well as providing an
impetus for an interviewing program for employees. Chester Barnard
developed the notion that communication was the first function of an
executive. Alexander Heron viewed communication as a line function. Carl Rogers, Kurt Lewin and Paul Pigors stressed the two-way
notion of communication. The science of semanties was started.
Written eommunication courses in business schools were introduced.
Research in communications was initiated during the War. Readability formulas were initiated and eommunieation models were just
getting off the ground.
1 Charles W. Redding and George A. Sanborn, Business and Industrial Communication: A Source Book, New York, Harper and Row, 1964, pp. 4-5.
2 A Third Era-The Behavioral Science Era-would include that period of
time from 1955 to the present, in my opinion.
3 Colin Cherry, Studies in Communication, London, Martin Seeker and Warburg, 1955, p. 45.
* Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People New
York, Oxford University Press, 1965, p. 534.
5 Ibid., p. 759.
' Munsterberg, op. cit.
' Henri Fayol, General and Industrial Management, originally published in
1916.
8 Redding and Sanborn, op. cit., p. 5.
9 Ibid., p. 5.
i»;W., p. 7.
'• Chester Barnard, The Functions of the Executive, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1938, p. 226.
'2Zfoid., p. 165.
'5 Redding and Sanborn, op. cit., p. 7.
''' Carl R. Rogers, Counseling and Psychotherapy, 1942.
•SDuane P. Schultz (ed.). Psychology and Industry, New York, MacMillan,
1970, pp. 470-472.
•' Kurt Lewin was well-known for his Principles of Topological Psychology,
McCraw-Hill, 1936.
1 Paul Lazarsfeld was well-known for Communication Research, New York.
7
'8 Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian
Systems and General Semantics, Lancaster, Pa., Science Press, 3rd ed., 1948.

6. ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION • VAN VOORHIS
11
•9 Rudolf Flesch, Marks of a Readable Style, 1946, and The Art of Plain
Talk, 1948.
20 Wendell Johnson, People in Quandries, New York, Harper and Row, Chapteh 18, 1946.
2'Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver, The Mathematical Theory of
Communication, Urbana, 111., 1949.
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION: Advances Made
During the Period From World War II Through the 1950s
KENNETH R. VAN VOORHIS
University of South Florida
THE DEVELOPMENTS in organizational communication which were
reported in the literature during the period from World War II
through the 1950s refiected wide-ranging and somewhat fragmented
efforts. On the one hand, there were researchers who sought to define more clearly the nature of such basic concepts as communication,
information, and meaning, as well as develop theories depicting how
these concepts might be operationalized in communicative processes.
On the other extreme were practitioners asserting the significance
and importance of organizational communication, simultaneously
noting a number of problem areas to be overcome through adherence
to certain suggested guidelines or "principles" of organizational communication. In general, it may be noted that much of the study and
progress could be characterized as methodology-oriented rather than
content-oriented.
The major developments achieved during this period may be classified into three broad categories: (1) advances in "technological" or
"mathematical" communication theory, (2) experimentation with the
"behavioral" ramifications of the human communication process, and
(3) applications of the contributions of these two major aspects of the
emerging theory in attempts to achieve more effective communication and improved "human relations" in various organizational settings.
MATHEMATICAL COMMUNICATION THEORY
The first area of research and advancement in the building of
communication represented, to a great extent, the continuing efforts
to improve the technical aspects of communication transmission
necessitated by military objectives during the War. Much of the
theory was of primary interest to electrical engineers concerned with