Factors Affecting Effective Organizational Communication?

Abstract

Organizational communication is key to the act of organizing and accomplishment of organizational goals. Previous research shows that simplicity is associated with more efficient communication. In this study, we investigate factors that may lead individuals in organizations to deviate from the use of simple communication. In a study of the Enron email corpus, we find that the hierarchical direction (upward or downward) of the communication, hierarchical distance between communicators, and size of the audience are associated with changes in the level of simplicity (readability) of email communication in ways which are contrary to what may be deemed effective.