Literature Review

Downward communication
Communication within a company is a vast concept that can be treated in various ways.
According to Kimberlee Leonard (2019), there are 4 types of business communications,
“internal upward, internal downward, internal lateral (including interdepartmental
communication) and external one.” Internal communication is about the relationships
established between people and groups of different levels and specializations in an
organization. (Frank & Brownell, 1989). Orsini, (2000) attributed communication as, “the
full range of ways that people communicate with each other within the organization”.
However, a more comprehensive definition can be described as, “It is a social process which
provides contact and information exchange between both departments and units of
organization and organization’s environment for the purpose of operation of organization and
accomplishment of the organization’s objective” (Kocabas, 2006).

Gibson, Ivancevich and Donnelly (2012, p.439) present a definition for the downward
communication: “communication that flows from higher to lower levels in an organization;
includes management policies, instructions, and official memos.”

Downward communication puts the basis of every company, performing several “key
organizational functions: a) It sends orders down the hierarchy, b) It gives organization
members job-related information, c) It provides organization members with job performance
review and d) It indoctrinates organization members to recognize and internalize
organizational goals” (Kreps, Gary L., 1990, p.203). The authors indicate that, even if, there
is by no means, a possible lack of downward communication in a working organization, the
effectiveness of it can be doubted since several factors affect it. (p.203)

The challenges that downward communication faces

A surprising fact is that the over usage of downward communication can, often, Boss 1
produce more harm. By giving too many orders and guidelines, the managers
can sometimes induce confusion and frustrate their employees. In the same

Manager 2
 Supervisor 4

time, it is highly risky in a bigger company that the managers would give mutually exclusive
tasks to their workers. This can lead to tension between the members of the organization, and to
put the subordinates in the place to choose between the directories. Thus, there will Foreman
be no way5 to
satisfy everyone and damages of the relationships between the employees will be expected.
However, a large part of the times, the problems in the downward communication occur because
Worker
of the unclear messages that workers get from their superiors. The vague or less precise 6
orders
are hard to execute, thus enhancing inefficiency. In the same time, workers do not specify the
things that they are not certain of, because of the mostly ungrounded fear towards the
management. This problem can be frequently observed in the serial type of organization
communication, “in which directives from the top of organization can be dramatically
misinterpreted by the time they reach the lower levels of the organization” (fig.1) (p.205).
Finally, repeated downward communication are perceived by the employees as a lack of trust in
them and a disrespect towards their competences. (Kreps & Gary L., 1990, p.204-206)

The simplest, at the first sight processes, that are considered to be well-known for years, can
cause a round of consequences that affect directly the company. However, during the years,
several researches have been done in order to find the best solutions in dealing with the leaks of
the downward communication. However, in our paper we will develop on decentralization and
building trust as to fostering downward communication.

Decentralized Organizational Communication

Chris Joseph (2019) defines decentralization as a “type of organizational structure in which daily
operations and decision-making responsibilities are delegated by top management to middle and
lower-level managers.” According to Kreps & Gary L. (1990), decentralization spreads the
communication and responsibilities of the top managers to the middle managers, thus fostering
the whole downward communication process. It is most efficient in the big organizations, since
the executives are not involved as much in the daily operations. This way they can delegate some
of their work to people in whose responsibilities it fits more.

A clear advantage of decentralization is minimizing the role conflicts: managers and even simple
workers are assigned with tasks and responsibilities that are clearly stated, so that they serve as
communication integrators and liaisons. (Kreps & Thornton, 1984; Likert 1961) It allows
employees to respond quicker to tasks and to achieve faster the overall goals of the company:
“decentralization allows immediacy in time and place, hence responsiveness.” (Vantrappen &
Wirtz, 2017).

Conclusively, decentralization fosters downward communication by: a) facilitating a better

Building Trust

Gibson, Ivancevich and Donnelly (2012, p.456) emphasize the importance of building mutual
trust in order to obtain a good communication between managers and subordinates. Because of
the external factors, like the lack of time, managers are frequently not able to “follow up
communication and encourage feedback”. Trust is thus needed to fill in the gap and facilitating
communication. The authors also mention that managers have observed a direct correlation
between the trustful relationships with their employees and a less problematic communication
with them: “Because they’ve fostered high source credibility among subordinates, no loss in
understanding results from a failure to follow up on each communication. Some organizations
initiate formal programs designed to encourage mutual trust.

What is more, Rachid Zeffane, Syed Tipu, and James C. Ryan (2011) have concuded “that trust
and commitment do not just happen; they are forged and maintained through effective
communication.”. Cummings (2013) reinforces this idea by explaining that trust is one of the
most important weapons of a leader and together with communication, makes the company able
to excel.

Balancing things out, we can conclude that trust and communication are interdependent. In order
to balance the little problems in the communication in a company, trust between the managers
and employees is needed. When workers will experience full trust in their ordinates, problems
like avoiding asking questions and worries regarding the attitude of the managers towards
employees will be avoided.

Interview Tool
The qualitative research was decided to be used along with the theoretical background in order to
provide a more profound analysis of the challenge statement. According to Doz (2011)
“Qualitative research is uniquely suited to “opening the black box” of organizational processes
the "how", "who" and "why" of individual and collective organized action as it unfolds over
time”. Because the qualitative research methods were, from our point of view, the most
appropriate for our paper we have chosen to use them, and thus, to collect data from observations
and interviews with the company. We have conducted two interviews, both with the Human
Resources Director for Repharm holding company, responsible for Mēness aptieka pharmacies.
The knowledges of the HR director enabled us to examine the communication processes that take
place in the firm and stimulated us to pay more attention in our paper on the downward
communication.

The two semi-structured interviews (appendix 1) allowed us to understand better the specific of
Mēness aptieka pharmacies communication system. The questions were formulated in a way that
would cover a broader segment of information and that the interviewer would not get neither too
relaxed while answering the questions, and as a consequence to hesitate to tell important things,
nor too anxious because of the intimidating questions. Since it was a semi-structured interview,
some questions arrived in the process of discussion.

However, we must take into account the subjectivity of the qualitative research method, and
especially the interviewing part, since people tend to have different opinions regarding the same
situations and interpret things differently. Thus, we tried to avoid radical questions and answers.

Overall, the interviews were productive, and we managed to obtain all the information that was
needed for the paper.