Relationships among types of communication, organizational level, and employee satisfaction and performance

This research was done to increase our understanding of communications in organizations. Using a typology of organizational communications developed by Greenbaum [1], four types of communication networks and their relationships to satisfaction and performance were examined. Measures of the four suggested types of communication were also empirically developed. The four types of communication were: 1) informative, 2) regulatory, 3) status quo, and 4) integrative. The results indicated that informative and integrative communications were generally more satisfying and beneficial to employees than regulatory and status-quo communication. It was speculated that the influence of communication would vary because of the employees' task demands, role conflict, and ambiguity, and that these would be reflected by organizational level of the employee. A further analysis of the relationships between types of communication and satisfaction and performance revealed that organizational level was a significant moderating variable. Implications for organizational practice were suggested.