Problems Of Downward Communication

PROBLEMS OF DOWNWARDCOMMUNICATION(BRMFinal Report) By Amir Wali Khan ID: 10093)
Date: 6th Nov 2016
BRM FINAL REPORT
(PROBLEMS OF DOWNWARD COMMUNICATION)
Submitted To,
Sir, Usama Bin Iqbal
Submitted By,
Amir Wali Khan
ID: 10093

Table of Contents
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 3
1. Scope of the study................................................................................................................. 4
2. Abstract................................................................................................................................ 4
3. Literature Review.................................................................................................................. 4
3.1 Downward Communication................................................................................................ 4
4. Resolving communication problems....................................................................................... 5
5. Research Methodology..........................................................................................................7
6. Research Findings.................................................................................................................. 8
7. Limitations of the Study.........................................................................................................9
8. Directions for Future Research............................................................................................. 10
9. Recommendations .............................................................................................................. 10
10. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 11
11. Bibliography.................................................................................................................... 11

Executive Summary
When leaders and managers share information with lower-level employees, it is called
downward, or top-down, communication. While downward communication may
sometimes invite a response, it is usually one-directional rather than reciprocal–the
higher-level communicator does not invite or expect a response from the lower-level
recipient.
Examples of downward communication include explaining an organization's mission
and strategy or explaining the organizational vision. Effective downward
communication gives employees a clear understanding of the message they have
received. Whether informative or persuasive, effective downward communication
results in the recipients taking action or otherwise behaving in accord with the
communicators' expectation.
In the workplace, directives from managers to employees are the most basic form of
downward communication. These can be written manuals, handbooks, memos, and
policies, or oral presentations. Another example of downward communication is a
board of directors instructing management to take a specific action.
Expert of business communication have identified five benefits of effective downward
communication:
 Better coordination
 Improved individual performance through the development of intelligent
participation
 Improved morale
 Improved consumer relations
 Improved industrial relations
Ensuring effective downward communication is not necessarily an easy task.
Differences in experience, knowledge, levels of authority, and status can make it more
likely that sender and recipient do not share the same assumptions or understanding of
context, which can result in messages being misunderstood or misinterpreted. Creating
clearly worded and non-ambiguous communications and maintaining a respectful tone
can overcome these issues and increase effectiveness.
We conducted research on downward communication in organizations, which is mostly
the dominant communication flow method being used throughout many organizations.
In this research we have identified the problems occur between upper management and
the lower level employees in communication and how we can eliminate those problems.

1. Scope of the study
The downward communication refers to the communication between a superior to his
subordinate. We can have a brighter scope of downward communication by adopting
the following steps:
(a) Creating a mechanism and system for regular downward communication for
instance arranging meetings, appraisal interviews, coaching and induction
programs, procedure manuals, newsletter etc;
(b) Promoting a culture in the organization where ideas and opinions are welcomed
and valued
(c) Having good communication skills should be essential part for a manager’s
appraisal and reward
(d) Discouraging extra protocol for managers which hampers free and smooth
communication with subordinates.
(e) Letting managers communicate with confidence and removing the fears attached
to it. Their confidence can be improved by appreciating their decisions.
2. Abstract
Downward communication is mainly done by means of oral media or method. Usually,
the supervisors give instructions to their subordinates through face-to-face and
telephonic conversation. Beside this, managers also exchange relevant information to
their subordinates through meetings, conferences, lectures etc.
Organization of any size and nature sends important information to its employees in
written forms through letters, circulars, manuals, bulletins, posters annual reports etc.
generally, letters and memos communicate important organizational directives;
circulars, manuals and bulletins communicate policies and procedures and annual
report communicates organizational activities and performance at the end of the year.
In addition to oral and written media or method, audio, visual and audio-visual media
are also used in downward communication. Radio, television, poster, signal, symbol,
graphs etc. some of the commonly used instruments that convey messages to the
subordinates.
(thebusinesscommunication.com unpublished 2015)
(source: http://thebusinesscommunication.com/what-is-downward-communication-
methods-of-downward-communication/)
3. Literature Review
Communication is the process whereby one individual or group of individuals attempts
to stimulate meaning in the mind of another individual or group of individuals through
intentional use of verbal, nonverbal, and/or mediated messages. Human communication
in everyday life: Explanations and applications. This definition can be easily broken
down into a series of characteristics: source, message, channel, and receiver (Wrench, J.
S., McCroskey, J. C., & Richmond, V. P. 2008).
3.1 Downward Communication
Downward communication is that communication in which information flows form
superior to subordinates. Through downward communication, managers communicate
organizational goals, policies, procedures, orders, instructions, decisions etc. to their

subordinates.In the process of downward communication, messages of the top
executive reach to the lower levels moving through the chain of hierarchy. Downward
communication can be of written or oral. Written forms of downward communication
are manuals, handbook, notices, electronic news displays etc. whereas, face-to-face
conversation, telephonic conversations, speeches, meetings etc(Essays, UK
unpublished November 2013).
There are two primary ways that the accuracy of a message can be distorted. First, some
messages are simply based on inaccurate information. For example, a manager who
hears a false rumour and then passes the rumour on to her or his subordinates has
passed on inaccurate information. Obviously, when the truth of the rumour is learned
by subordinates, the manager’s credibility is going to be negatively impacted because
her or his subordinates will perceive the manager as not being a trustworthy source of
information. The second way messages can contain inaccurate information is as a result
of multiple people in the communication chain (Redding, W. C. 1966).
When discussing adequacy, there are two possible extremes that managers could swing
to: communication under load and communication overload. Communication underload
occurs when subordinates are not provided enough information to complete their jobs.
Communication under load can come in the form of inadequate on-the-job training,
limited feedback from one’s supervisor or insufficient information on policies and
procedures in the organization (Jason S. Wrench 2012).
The second problem associated with adequacy of information involves communication
overload, or when subordinates are provided too much information to complete their
jobs. In an ideal work environment, supervisors will function as gatekeepers of
information and make sure that adequate information is passed on to a subordinate to
help the subordinate excel in her or his job. Unfortunately, some supervisors do not
know how to function as gatekeepers, so they pass along any information they receive
to their subordinates without filtering information that is not useful for their
subordinates (Huseman, R., Lahiff, J., & Wells, R. 1974).
4. Resolving communication problems
2.1 According to Robbins, S. P. &Hunsaker, P. L. (2008) the use of a “Question Box”.
Many organizations have suggestion boxes placed around the organization and
encourage employees to provide suggestions on how to improve processes or the
work environment. Instead of looking for suggestions (or in addition to), the
question box provides an opportunity for employees to ask questions or request
information. A virtual question box may also be used. A virtual question box is an
online anonymous location where employees and managers can submit questions
from any networked computer without physically dropping them in the publicly
placed box. The key to success with this intervention is to take questions seriously
and provide very prompt feedback (e.g. 36 hour turnaround or less). Meetings may
be a good place to summarize the questions and provide answers when
appropriate. Or, the questions and answers can be posted on a bulletin board.
2.2 Next recommendation is a program called the “Ask me/Tell me” program. Instead
of waiting for employees to seek out information, managers and supervisors can
approach them directly and ask about employees’ informational needs. For
example, most meetings in organizations end with the meeting leader asking if
anyone has any questions. We encourage managers and supervisors to move that
question to the beginning of each meeting. This simple switch tells employees that

their questions and concerns are more important than the impending meeting
agenda. By quickly responding to their concerns and informational needs, their
perception of the communication concern in the organization will likely change. In
order to keep the program going, it may be helpful to require managers and
meeting leaders to schedule time for “Ask me/Tell me” until it becomes part of the
organizational culture (Robbins, S. P. & Hunsaker, P. L. 2008).
2.3 Create opportunities for more informal time for employees to interact with
managers. Employees are often hesitant to interrupt their busy boss for small
things such as information needs. Managers who provide opportunities for casual
work conversation actually help employees feel needed and comfortable with
sharing their information needs. To do this, managers should work alongside staff,
take them to lunch, walk to their car after work together, etc. Initiating “water-
cooler” conversations and fostering open communication through these informal
means supplements communication that occurs through formal reporting lines
(Robbins, S. P. &Hunsaker, P. L. 2008).
2.4 Try to improve the quality of your meetings. Here are some general suggestions
for how to run a better meeting. First, try to plan meetings well in advance to
maximize efficiency. The meeting organizer should send out an agenda and
supporting materials before the meeting. Assign time limits for discussion items on
the agenda in order to avoid lengthy deviations from the meeting purpose. Second,
make certain that clear ground rules are established for how meetings should run
in the organization (e.g., no side conversations). Meetings with structure foster
greater participation from attendees. Third, ,ask for feedback from meeting leaders
and attendees on their overall satisfaction with meetings, the effectiveness of
organizational meetings, as well as their ideas for improving the ground rules,
agenda development, and attendee participation (Robbins, S. P. &Hunsaker, P. L.
2008).
2.5 Our final recommendation is to focus on the managers and supervisors who may
need some general skill development in the area of communication. For those
managers who need development in this area, the shelter can assign them a
mentor/coach to provide advice and counsel. Or, send these individuals to a
general supervisory training program which are readily available in most
communities (often through a continuing education department associated with a
university). The need for training (and refresher training) on general management
and communication topics is typically a high need for most. In addition to the
above, managers should be encouraged to consider the following advice. First,
often the best way to improve communication is by listening. By listening closely,
avoiding interrupting others mid-sentence, asking clarifying questions, and
repeating/summarizing what is said, confusion and misinterpretation can be
avoided. Second, managers should ask employees questions and solicit their
feedback to be sure communication is being understood. Third, managers and
supervisors should make sure to find the time to provide feedback to their
employees. Continuous positive and even negative but constructive performance
feedback ensures that employees know where they stand. This is also a way of
addressing issues before they become big problems(Robbins, S. P. &Hunsaker, P.
L. 2008).

5. Research Methodology
The broader purpose of the study is to find out the frequency and volume of problems in
downward communication. More specifically the objectives of the study are:
 How frequently a manager passes imperfect or incomplete information to
subordinates
 How often subordinateswerenot provided enoughinformationto completetheirjobs
 How often subordinateswereprovidedtoo much information to complete their jobs
For the tangible research work, we approached 20 (twenty) professionals belongs to
different organization. These professionals were requested to respond to all questions
up to the best of their knowledge withreference to the working practices implemented
in their organizations.In this researchstudy we used the Likert scale questionnaire
approach to develop questions for measure problematic areas. Each scale was a 5-point
scale with 1= strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree.
Study participants included professionals working on all levels of the organizations. One
questionnairewas distributes to each professional. From (20) professionals only (20)
responded back, response rate is (100 %).
S # Question
Strongly
disagree
Disagree
Uncertain
Agree
Strongly
Agree
Communication flow
1 Most of the information I receive on a
daily basis comes from my manager.
5% 40% 5% 45% 5%
2 Most of the daily communication I
receive comes in the form of
"directives" from top-management.
5% 35% 20% 35% 5%
Accuracy of Information
3 I receive information from my
manager is detailed and accurate.
25% 20% 10% 40% 5%
4 My co-workers and I rarely receive
unreliable information from our
manager.
5% 60% 20% 10% 5%
5 The directives that come from top-
management are clear and consistent.
10% 25% 15% 50% 0%
6 The information we receive from
other departments is consistently
reliable.
10% 25% 30% 35% 0%
7 I feel comfortable passing along
information that I receive from my
manager to my co-workers.
5% 0% 20% 55% 20%
Adequacy of information
8 I receive the information I need to
effectively perform my job.
15% 20% 20% 35% 10%

9 Most of the group meetings I attend
are informative and worthwhile.
10% 20% 15% 45% 10%
10 I receive the information I need to
perform my job in a timely manner.
10% 15% 20% 55% 0%
11 I am often delayed in my job because I
do not have the information I need.
5% 40% 10% 20% 25%
6. Research Findings
According to the survey 40% participants agree and 5% strongly agree that most of the
information they receive comes from upper management mainly from their managers.
Besides that the information which comes is mostly in shape of directives i.e. work
order they receive from their managers. Whereas 37%disagree and 5% strongly
disagree with it and believe that the information they receive mostly comes from other
sources like colleague, other departments, office notice boards and website, emails
etc.13% percent participants are uncertain about the source of information.
According to survey 38% participants agree and 6% strongly agree that the
information they receive from upper management is accurate. However, 26%
participants disagree and 11% strongly disagree with it and believe that the most of the
information is inaccurate and unreliable. 19% participants are uncertain about the
accuracy of information.
5%
38%
13%
40%
5%
Downward CommunicationFlow
Strongly disagree Disagree Uncertain Agree Strongly Agree

Among all participants 39% agree and 11% strongly agree that they get enough and
timely information to complete their job. Whereas, 24% participants and 10% strongly
disagree with it and believe that they don’t get enough information to complete their job
and most of the time they delayed to complete their job due to lack of information.
16%participants are uncertain about it.
We disagree with the literature review as our research shows that the problem with
downward communication are lesser but these still matter. The organizations should
take stances to improve the quality of downward communication to increase
productivity and satisfaction of employees which in return enhance the organization’s
profits and help it to achieve its strategic and financial goals.
7. Limitations of the Study
There are number of limitations with the research study:
11%
26%
19%
38%
6%
Accuracy of Information
10%
24%
16%
39%
11%
Adequacy of Information

The considered sample size (20) for the research is not satisfactory enough to reflect
the accurate image of the organizations with measuring the communication problems.
The method used by us in order to gather the data is very common i.e. use of the
Questionnaire. Other methods could have been used for this research study like group
discussions/discussion forum etc.
The sample size (20) was not sufficient in order to have statistically important results of
the correlations between the variables.
The data, which was obtained from few organizations and was in the shape of
perceptual measures. Normally, instead of perceptual measures, the objective measures
are more desirable and they particularly are more consistent in outputs.
8. Directions for Future Research
After this research which is based on downward communication problems the future
research directions could be included:
 Longitudinal studies should be conducted to establish the relationship between
other variables
 To improve validity, future research should obtain a representative sample from
more organizations. Mainly the multi-national organizations and foreign
organizations should also be included in the research.
 Future research should seek additional performance outcomes at the job level
from larger samples with increased statistical power.
 Measures with few items are more likely to experience unreliability than
summated measures with greater numbers of items.
 Future research should seek to develop more complete measures of
communication problems tapping multiple dimensions.
 Other communication methods like upward communication should also be
considered in future research.
9. Recommendations
We give following recommendations to eliminate communication problems in an
organization:
1. Conduct programs to communicate formal information to large number of
employees at different levels all at one time.
2. Use of a “Question Box” encourages employees to provide suggestions on how to
improve processes or the communication in work environment.
3. Managers and supervisors approach employees directly and ask about
employees’ informational needs.
4. Create opportunities for more informal time for employees to interact with
managers.
5. Improve the quality of meetings.
6. Focus on the managers and supervisors who may need some general skill
development in the area of communication.

10. Conclusion
In general all organization from large corporations to small establishments can benefit
from improving communication flow both vertically (supervisor to employee) and
horizontal (between co-workers).
Communication problems are continuous and need ongoing attention. The solution
above (e.g. the Question Box, Ask me/Tell me Program, Focus on Meetings, and
Communication Skill Development) are all effective methods for improving downward
organizational communication. The improvements will be short lived, however, if old
habits are allowed to return and are deeply ingrained in the organizational culture. We
recommend continued reassessment of the communication components as well as
occasional training refreshers on these simple interventions.
We disagree with the literature review as our research shows that the problem with
downward communication is lesser but these still matter. The organizations should take
stances to improve the quality of downward communication to increase productivity
and satisfaction of employees which in return enhance the organization’s profits and
help it to achieve its strategic and financial goals.
11. Bibliography
Allen, J. A., Rogelberg, S. G., & Scott, J. (2008). Meaningful Meetings: Improve Your
Organization’s Effectiveness One Meeting at a Time. Quality Progress, 41, 48-53.
Essays, UK. (November 2013). Communication Flow And Types Of Communication In
Organisations Management Essay. Unpublished, Retrieved from
http://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/communication-flow-and-types-of-
communication-in-organisations-management-essay.php?cref=1
Huseman, R., Lahiff, J., & Wells, R. (1974). Communication thermoclines: Toward a
process of identification. Personnel Journal, 53, 124–135
Redding, W. C. (1972). Communication with the organization: An interpretive review of
theory and research
Robbins, S. P. &Hunsaker, P. L. (2008). Training in Interpersonal Skills: TIPS for
Managing People at Work. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Wrench, J. S., McCroskey, J. C., & Richmond, V. P. (2008). Human communication in
everyday life: Explanations and applications. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Wrench, Jason S. (2012), An Introduction to Organizational Communication, Unpublished

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