1.

Introduction
1.1 About the organisation
Air Mauritius Limited is the national airline of Mauritius, based in Port Louis, the
island's capital. It operates regional and international services to over 30 destinations
with 80 flights per week. Its main base is Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International
Airport, Mauritius.

Air Mauritius was incorporated in June 1967 and it started its operations modestly.
The first flights to the Sister-island of La Reunion favored the taking off of a regional
identity.

Today, 40 years later, the national carrier of Mauritius flies direct to several
European, Asian, African and Regional destinations more than 25.
Air Mauritius operates in many countries and faces country risks. These can take
many different forms including:

The devaluation of a currency that the Company receives as part of its

proceeds from normal operations;

Exchange controls or other actions taken by the governments, restricting

the Company's ability to repatriate its funds as a result of adverse
economic conditions

Outbreaks of diseases or epidemics forcing

operations

temporarily.

the Company to stop

1.2 Organizational Structure of Air Mauritius

Chief Executive Officer

INTERNAL AUDIT
EVP Internal Audit

Co Secretary/ General Counsel

Flight Safety

Programme office

Finance

Flight Operations Quality

Security

Maintenance Quality

Medcor, MK properties & Spl Project

Ground Operations Quality

Sales &
Distribution

HR &
Organisational
Development

Strategic
Planning

Communicat
-ion &
corporate
Affairs

Ground Operations

Flight
Operations

Information
Systems &
Cargo

Cabin Operations

The organizational structure of Air Mauritius as shown above is arranged in a

functional structure, has many level of hierarchy and narrow span of control. In other
words it is a tall organizational structure and thus implies that communication is slow
because there is a big gap between the CEO and the employees, tight control
exercised by the CEO and difficulties to locate source of error when needed.
3

Technical
Services

The arrangement of the organizational structure where the CEO has control over all
the different part of the organization is a clear case where centralization is applied.
Centralisation is the extent to which power and authority are retained at the top
organisational levels. It can be good in the sense that it allows for easier co-ordination
for management and allow CEO of Air Mauritius to maintain full control on decisionmaking. However it can be de-motivating for employees, as they do not participate in
decision-making and also the fact that CEO needs to take most of the decision implies
that he will have little time to concentrate on other more important tasks.

1.3 Statement of problems

Air Mauritius faces a lot of communication problems. For instance:

1. Organizational structure is tall and the facts that centralization is adopted tend
to make communication slow, encourage distortion and filtering of
information. The organizational structure also lead to some employees had
more that one immediate supervisor leading to conflict when information was
to be received or send.
2. Communication overload that leads to employees overlooking important
information.
3. Too many face to face meetings, leads to waste of time and difficulties for
employees with weak listening ability to understand the message that is being
conveyed.
4. Feedback from employee to superior is rarely considered and employees are
rarely provided information. This has being on of the main factors that lead to
a spread of informal communication inside the organization. The Main method
for passing information to the employee is the newsletter. However it contain
too much information that discourage employees to read them

1.4 Purpose of Study

1. Find out what are the communication problems Air Mauritius currently face?
2. Analyze and find a strategy to overcome the present and future
Communication problems?

1.5 Research Question

What communication strategies should be adopted by Air Mauritius in order to

solve its current communication problems and allow for effective flow of
information?

1.6 Assumption and limitations

As survey will be directed to only some employees of Air Mauritius, the
outcome results would not be very reliable in the sense that it would not
reflect the point of view of all the whole number of customers.
When proposing the communication strategies that Air Mauritius should
adopt, we would not take into account the financial situation of the
organisation.
The Manager maybe biased and therefore give wrong data that can change the
outcome of the research.

1.7 Method of communication between Manager and Employee at Air Mauritius

Face to Face meeting
E mail
Letters
Memos
Newsletter
Telephone

2.Review of literature
2.1 Organisational structure

It is the way in which an organisations activities are divided, organised, and coordinated.

2.1.1

Departmentalisation

Some major ways of departmentalising are :

Functional Structure

Managing
Director

Quality
Manager

Personnel
Manager

Quality
Officer

Financial
Manager

Financial
Supervisor

Production
Manager

Production
Supervisor

Foreman

Foreman

Marketing
Maanger

Production
Supervisor

Foreman

Marketing
Officer

Foreman

Divisional Structure

(Organisation and Management Support Material). Refer to appendix 1- Definition

of terms for chapter 2 ( 2.1 Organisational structure)

2.1.2

Factors that determine the shape of an organisational structure

Level of Hierarchy
Span of control

Tall organisational Structure

Flat Organisational Structure

(Vincent Gabriel, (2003), Management third edition, Pearson Education Asia

Singapore Pte ltd: 23/25, First Lok Yang Road, Singapore)
Refer to appendix 1- Definition of terms for chapter 2 ( 2.1 Organisational structure)

2.1.3

Difference between tall and flat organisation

Tall organisational structure:

Slow communication because of big gap between manager and employee
Administrative expenses
Difficult to locate source of error
Tight Control

Flat organisational structure:

Faster and easier communication from manager to bottom employees
Easier to locate source of error
Delegation of work
Less control
2.1.5

Centralisation v/s Decentralisation

Decentralisation is the extent to which power and authority are delegated to lower
levels.

Centralisation is the extent to which power and authority are retained at the top
organisational levels.

Factors influencing degree of centralisation and decentralisation

Cost.
Size and Character of organisation
Availability of control techniques
Quality of Middle and Junior Management

(Organisation and Management Support Material) Refer to appendix 1- Definition

of terms for chapter 2 ( 2.1 Organisational structure)

2.2
Communication in the organisation may take the form of:
a) giving instructions;
b) giving or receiving information;
c) exchanging ideas;
d) announcing plans and strategies;
e) comparing actual results against a plan;
f) laying down rules or procedures;
job descriptions, organisation charts or manuals

2.3

Expectation of employees regarding communication :

a) Information
b) Upward communication
c) Face to Face communication
d) Good line Management
.

2.4
Encode

The classic Telecommunication model

Transmit

Channel

Receive

Decode

Source
Destination

Feedback

(Organisation and Management Support Material) Refer to appendix 1- Definition

of terms for chapter 2 ( 2.3 Expectation of employees regarding communication)
6

(Organisation and Management Support Material)

10

2.4.1

Possible reasons for poor communication

1. Encoding problem:

2. Transmission problems:

3. Decoding problems:

2.4.2

How to improve communication channel

1. Plan message to improve encoding

2. Select the appropriate channel
3. Ensure that the recipient is receptive

2.5

Flow Patterns

The structure of an organisation should provide for formal communication in 4

directions: Downward, upwards, horizontal and diagonal.
2.5.1

Downwards communication

2.5.2

Upward communication

2.5.3

Horizontal communication

2.5.4

Diagonal Communication

(Organisation and Management Support Material) Refer to appendix 1- Definition

of terms for chapter 2 ( 2.5 Flow patterns)

11

2.6

Different method of communication

Written communication:
Letter
Memo
Newsletter
E-mail
Bulletins and report
Oral communication:
Face to face meeting
Video conferencing
Telephone

2.7

Informal Communication Channels

The danger with informal communication is that it might be malicious, contain

inaccurate rumour or half-truths, or simply be wild speculation. This type of gossip
can be unsettling to people in an organisation

Refer to appendix 1- Definition of terms for chapter 2 ( 2.7 Informal

Communication channels)

12

3.Methodology
3.1

Introduction

To get the required information in order answer the research question I will have to
9

consider both field research (primary data) and desk research

3.2

10

(secondary data).

Procedures used

3.2.1 Primary data

Primary data will be collected in the following ways:

1. A questionnaire

11

will be design and directed to the employees of Air

Mauritius in order to collect information about the communication method

used and the communication problems that occurs. Only a sample of 15
employees will be given the questionnaire.

2. An interview with 2 employees will be conducted so as to get more details of

the communication problems from the employees point of view. We would
use the same questions as in the questionnaire for the interview.

3. An interview

12

will be held with the Procurement Department Officer Mr

Dario Mariole to get more precise information.

3.2.2 Secondary data

Secondary data will be collected through the newsletter of Air Mauritius.

Involves the collection of primary data. These are information, which no one has yet
collected. Primary data is collected through direct investigation, usually through
questionnaire and survey.
10
This involves collection of secondary data. These data, already exist within or
outside an organisation.
11
Refer to appendix 2 for sample of Questionnaire.
12
Refer to appendix 2 for interview question for Manager.
13

4 .ANALYSIS
4.1

Analysis of data gathered from employees.

Question 1: What method of communication is most commonly used?

Pie Chart showing the most common method of

communication used at Air Mauritius
Emails
20%

Letter
10%
Memos
15%

Face to face
communication
40%

Telephone
15%

As shown in the above chart, the majority that is 40% of the employees interviewed
thinks that face to face meeting is the most commonly used method of communication
at Air Mauritius. 25 % of them refer to e-mails as the most common communication
method.

14

Question 2: According to you is it the most appropriate method to use?

Pie Chart Showing whether the commonly used method of communication is

appropriate for Air Mauritius

Yes
42%
No
58%

As shown in the pie chart above, 58% of the employees interviewed consider that the
most common method of communication used at Air Mauritius is inappropriate. The
remaining considers that it is the right method of communication.

15

Question 3: What is the most frequent problem you have encountered when receiving
information?

Chart showing the most frequent problem encountered when receiving

an infromation at Air Mauritius

60%

54%

50%
40%
%30%

26%

20%

15%

10%

5%
0

0%
Noise

Different interpretation of word

Distraction

Information overload

As shown in the diagram above, the big majority of the employees that is 54%
interviewed state information overload as the main problem when receiving
information at Air Mauritius. 26% of them state that noise is the main problem when
receiving information. It is understand that the employees usually are faced with noisy
environment when receiving information.

16

Question 4: What is the most frequent problem you have encountered when passing
on information?

Chart showing the most frequent problem encountered when passing on information at Air Mauritius

48%

12%

24%
16%

Noise

Distoration of information

Failure to speak clearly

Innapropriate Channel of communication

As shown in the diagram above, 48% of the employees at Air Mauritius replied
Distortion of information as the most frequent problem encountered when
communicating. It means that information when passing from employees to manager
and vice versa is changed as people understand differently and tend to remove or add
words.

17

Question 5: Does managers allow/considers feedback from employees?

Chart showing whether the managers at Air Mauritius

considers the feedback from employees

46%
30%

24%

Sometimes

Ne
ver

Always

So
m

0
0 0 0

Al
w

0 0%0

50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%

Never

As shown in the diagram above, 46 % of the employees say that Managers at Air
Mauritius only consider their feedback sometimes. This can be very disturbing at time
because managers ignore employees even when they are right about something.

18

Question 6: Does the Manager provide feedback to employees?

Chart showing whether Managers at Air Mauritius Provide

feedback to employees

20%

55%
25%

Always

Sometimes

Never

As shown above, 55% of the employee interviewed recognise that managers at Air
Mauritius always provide feedback to employee when required. This is a good thing
because it allows manager to advice employees on their performance and ways to
improve them.

19

Question 7: Does Manager withhold information from you?

Chart showing whether manager withhold information from employee

54%
54%
52%
50%
48%

46%

46%
44%
42%
YES

NO

As shown above, the 54% of employees interviewed acknowledge that their managers
do restraint information that important for them. This can help to worsen relationship
between managers and employees and also keep employees uninformed about whats
going on it the company.

20

Question 8: What is the speed of communication between the CEO and employees.

Chart showing the speed of communication at Air Mauritius

15%

85%

Fast

Slow

As shown above, 85 % of the employees interviewed at Air Mauritius, say that

communication between CEO and employees are slow. That is if the CEO pass a
message, which is intended, for a particular employees, it takes a lot of time before
reaching them.

21

4.2

Managers Interview.

What are the types of communication do you use to communicate to your

employees? Why?
Normally when communicating at Air Mauritius, it is a policy that immediately after
sending an email or a fax, the sender phones the receiver to confirm whether the latter
receives the information. Also we use face-to-face meeting whether important
information has to be communicated.

Do you think the communication method you are using appropriately fits the
needs of the organisation?
Yes I think that it perfectly suit our operation specially where we manager have to
communicate everyday about crucial issues to large number of employees. Therefore
E-mail and Face to Face meeting are two very well chosen method of communication.
How far do you respond to your employees?
We most of the time respond to any of our employees queries, or anything else that
employee request. However there is a limit to what information is to be provided to
the employee. Not all information that the employees request can be granted.
What are your view concerning the evolution of communication over the past
few years?
With the ever-challenging world that we are faced with, communication has become a
great part of an organisation. With competition hosting the market of air Mauritius, it
has become imperative to communicate faster and more accurately.
Why do you feel communication is important in your organisation?
It helps to pass on information, maintain a positive relationship and to solve problem
related to functioning of organisation.

What is the problem that you encounter when retrieving information from
employees?
There has being a lot of filtering specially to cover the negative aspect of the
information being communicated.
What are your views on the informal network of communication?
At Air Mauritius this is our greatest weakness that we have not being able to counter
till now. Some of the employees have so much time that they gossip and creates
unnecessary tension within the organisation and among the employees that affect our
effective operation.

22

How do you view the organisational structure?

I agree that our organisational structure is tall and limits fast communication from top
to bottom, but I had to maintain that because on many occasion there was mistake
being committed and maintained by the employees. Therefore that structure really
helped us to control the employee and limits the probability of error occurring.

5. Identification of communication problems at Air Mauritius

23

5.1

Problem 1:

The arrangement of the organizational structure of Air Mauritius does good for the
functioning but also bears the title of causing of problem. It is a tall organizational
structure and thus implies that communication is slow because there is a big gap
between the CEO and the employees. For instance if the CEO needs to communicate
with an employee in the communication and corporate affair department, he will need
to pass through a complex path before reaching the latter.

It also can lead to information getting distorted as it moves from on person to

another. If an employee needs to provide a piece of information to the CEO, he will
need to pass through the supervisor and managers. In that case it will bear some
limitations as the supervisor and manager can understand the message differently thus
will pass on the information in the way they understood it. As a result, when the
information reaches the CEO the outcome of the latter would have change thus can
lead to problem dealing with a certain issue.

Also the structure encourages filtering as another form of distortion of information.

The fact that the structure is tall and information has to pass through many people,
encourage employee to change information to maintain a positive image of
themselves because they know that it will be difficult for managers to trace the one
responsible.
Also at some point employees had two immediate supervisors, which they had to
report to that is there was no unity of command. This usually created some conflict,
24

as both supervisors understood information differently. Furthermore when

communicating to employees each one of them formulated the message differently
thus making it hard for the employees to understand the message and who to listen to.
Supervisor 1

Employee
1

5.2

Supervisor 2

Employee
2

Employee
3

Employee
4

Problem 2:

As use of email has taken off within the business world, a number of problem like
communication overload have come along with the immense benefits. At Air
Mauritius E-mail are used extensively and it usually leads to unnecessary messages
being sent. This can be really bad because employee or manager can overlook
important information, as they cannot decode all the messages. There are 2 ways in
which communication overload can arise at Air Mauritius. Firstly with Manager
encoding to many information at one time some of which is irrelevant or when
employees sent tons of emails to their supervisor and managers. Therefore we see that
2 major factor leads to communication overload, firstly is how much information we
encode and secondly is how we transmit the information.
Encode

Transmit

Channel

Receive

Decode

Source
Destination

Feedback

25

The good thing about Air Mauritius when manager or employee send an e-mail is that
they most of the time seek feedback on whether it is well received. They do that by
phoning the receiver of the message to confirm whether they have received the email. In doing so they limit the chances of important information from being
overlooked and also keep proof that message has being received so that employee or
manager do not say that they never received the e-mail.

5.3

Problem 3:

Face to face meeting form part of oral communication and it is widely used at Air
Mauritius. The employees complain that they hold too much of face-to-face meeting
even for small issues. According to management face-to-face meeting is very
advantageous for effectively communicating to employees as firstly it allow for
immediate feedback and also help manager to reinforce their message with
appropriate gesture and visual aid. However the point of view of employee is totally
different because face-to-face meeting can be inappropriate for people with weak
listening ability to understand the message that is being conveyed and is also time
consuming in the sense that the time lost could have being used in more productive
activities.

Air Mauritius uses a lot of Visual aid when carrying face-to-face meeting. It is very
helpful to presenter in order to capture the attention of the receiver of the message.
Without visual aids, the meeting will be very boring and the receiver will not
concentrate on the message being convoyed. However the other way round, too much
visual aid can also lead to distraction of the receiver because at a point they will tend
to concentrate more on the visual part than on the meeting itself. The different visual
aids used at Air Mauritius during meeting are folder, binder, handouts, Wall board,
videos and computer display projection.

5.4

Problem 4:

26

Communication and human resources professionals have long recognized the key role
that immediate managers play in keeping their employees informed. The better the
managers' communication, the more satisfied the employees were with all aspects of
their work life. Normally employees like to give feedback where possible to
management thus providing them with a sense of belonging and participation but also
like to receive information from managers about what is going on in the organization.

However at Air Mauritius, feedback from employees are rarely considered that is
there is very little upward communication that takes place. There is an impression that
has long being framed in the managers mind that subordinates cannot take part in
decision making because they are not skilled for it. In so thinking they do not take
into consideration any or very little feedback provided by the employees even if they
are right.

All employee where those of Air Mauritius or any other organization, wish to be
aware of whats going on in the organization specially about issue that has direct
impact on their job. But at Air Mauritius it seems that this very vital prerequisite is
not totally respected and is one of the major factors that lead to the spread of informal
communication inside the organization. As employees of Air Mauritius are not given
information, they try to get some by themselves and use this to start the process of
gossiping. With a small amount of information at hand, they start customizing it and
passing it to the other employees till it is totally spread around. The problem, is that it
contain inaccurate rumor and it get to ear of people rather quickly that can be
unsettling to people in the organization and for the organization itself.

Even though Air Mauritius issue Newsletter to their employee, it is not sufficient. The
newsletter do provide information to employees about what is happening but it is not
sufficient to cater for their need and on top of that it is very different from that when
the information is provided by the manager itself. Also the Newsletters content is
quite bulky that can be discouraging and boring for employees to read. In that case
even if the manager are providing information to employee through the mean of
newsletter, it may be overlooked and they may assume that they did not get the
information.

27

6. The Challenges face by organization in todays business world

The business world is changing very rapidly through and adding new challenges for
organization to overcome. There is for instance Outsourcing, Talent shortages, New
labour laws, Globalizations, Shifting demographics, an ageing workforce. Therefore it
has become very important for organization to attract, motivate, and retaining
employees. Communication is one of the bright solutions to achieve these.

The Company faces increasing competition as the Government continues to review its
air access policy to gradually liberalize selected routes on a bilateral basis.

28

7. Recommendation to the communication problems identified.

7.1

Solution to Problem 1:

Air Mauritius should modify its organizational structure and make it flatter. In that
case it will be able to make communication between managers and employees faster
thus will allow Air Mauritius to become face the ever-challenging international
environment where fast communication and decision-making is the major factors of
reaping high profits. Nowadays all organization like Air Mauritius employs
specialized employees who are responsible for its functioning. Therefore knowing
how to communicate to them has become imperative because if you ineffectively
communicate with them they wont feel valued thus may decide to leave the
organization. This will dramatically affect the sustainability of the organization. With
a flatter organization structure, there would be a higher degree of delegation thus will
provide employee lower in the hierarchy to participate in decision making thus will
motivate them.

A flatter organizational structure would also help to solve the problem of distortion of
information, as the message sent from manager to a particular employee will pass
through less people. In that the degree of distortion would still be here but would be
less consequent.

A flatter organisational structure would also help to identify and solve the problem of
filtering of information, which is very common at Air Mauritius. With such a
structure it would be easier to identify the one filtering the information as it passes
through few people.

29

However when deciding to adopt a flatter organisational structure, Air Mauritius

should also make sure that every single employee have not more than one immediate
supervisor that is there should be unity of command because when there are more
than one, there tend to be situation where they understand information differently.
Furthermore there are great chances that employee are given different instructions
thus can get confusing and lead to inefficiency at work.

7.2

Solution to Problem 2:

In order to solve the problem of communication overload at Air Mauritius, both

managers and employees should make sure that the content of their e-mail is brief and
relevant. This will increase the probability of the email being read by the person
concerned and important information not being overlooked.

In addition, if manager or employee needs to communicate different issues, they

should send them separately that is one e-mail should comprise of one issue. In that
case it would be easier for employee to understand and will reduce the chances of him
overlooking some important notes. The numbers of employees are much more than
that of manager. Therefore if every single employees sends an email to the manager,
at the end of the day he would have to read hundred of email that can be very boring
and also lead to important information being ignored. To overcome that problem,
employees should send e-mail collectively with their colleagues where appropriate.
For Instance if all employees have to talk to manager about the same issue. It is
preferable for them to put all their points on a single e-mail so that manager does not
get bored and information does not repeat itself. In doing so, there is less risk that
information is overlooked.

Also Air Mauritius should get hold of the technological system that is used by many
organisation nowadays that inform the sender that the receiver has received and
opened the e-mail. This will save time of having to phone the person and will also
allow manager to keep records in case the person assume that he /she did not get the
mail.

30

7.3

Solution to Problem 3:

When doing Face-to-Face meeting, there is no assurance everyone assimilates that

message being conveyed. There may be people who dont have good listening skills.
In that case the meeting may have no effect on them.

Therefore a solution would be to send a report that engulfs every issue that has being
discussed in the meeting to each employee by mail. This will cater for those who did
not manage to assimilate the information and could be kept as record for reference in
future.

Moreover Face to face meetings must be organized only for important issues
especially where the needs for feedback of employees are needed. Unnecessary
meetings should be avoided to reduce boredom of employees and allow them more
time to dedicate to their work.

7.4

Solution to Problem 4:

Employee help in the functioning of an organization, however recently with the

various problems like Talent shortages, New labour laws, Shifting demographics, and
ageing workforce at horizon, Organization should pay more attention to how they
treat their employees and take measures to attract, motivate, and retaining employees.

At Air Mauritius it has become imperative to start taking measure to attract, motivate
and retain employees, because in case they fail, or ignore it, the consequences will be
very sever for Air Mauritius in future as its employees may start leaving.

In order to achieve that, Air Mauritius should encourage and consider feedback from
employees. This will give them a sense of belonging to the organization, as they
would be participating in improving things and in decision-making. It can be further
strengthen with the open door policy. An open door policy provides employee access
to any manager or supervisor including the CEO. It encourages feedback about any
matter of importance to an employee. However it should be modified, because open
31

door policy means that employees are free to talk with any manager at any time but at
Air Mauritius the Managers wont be reachable at any time and day. Therefore it
should be communicated when and at what time the manager would be free to meet
the employees.

Also, information about what is happening in the organization should be

communicated to employees by mail or the newsletter. However the newsletter should
be modified because as it is now, it is viewed as being too bulky for employee to read.
By providing information to employees the spread of informal communication is
diminished, as employee would have sufficient information thus gossip will have a
very minim effect on them.

32

8. Conclusion
One of Air Mauritius main aim is to improve its image with all stakeholders. But what
it should take into consideration is that employees too form part of stakeholders.
Therefore by ignoring their needs and wrongly communicating with them, is putting
their aim at peril.

The organizational structure of Air Mauritius is a tall one thus encourages slow
communication, as there is a big gap between the CEO and the employees. With the
government of Mauritius liberalizing the economy, Air Mauritius would be face with
even more competition than before. In that case it need to act faster than his
competitors in order to make profit. However in order to act fast, it will need to fasten
its decision making process thus will have to bring changes in its organizational
structure.

In the assignment, while researching the solutions to improve the various

communication problems, we totally forgot to acknowledge the importance of
upgrading the communication skills of both managers and employees. Because it is
imperative to firstly teach them to communicate before actually making changes to
organizational structure or adopting the best way in which to communicate.

33

APPENDIX 1
2.1 Organisational structure

13

It is the way in which an organisations activities are divided, organised, and coordinated.

Organisational structure takes into account the following:

Who has overall responsibility for decision making
Formal relationship between different people and department
Formal channel of communication
Way in which accountability and authority maybe delegated

Departmentalisation
Departmentalisation is the grouping of employees and tasks into areas of work
activities that are similar and logically connected. Some major ways of
departmentalising are :

Functional Structure

14

It is the grouping of people having similar working skills and expertise and who
are engaged in the same activities. Example of a Functional Structure is shown
below.
Managing
Director

Quality
Manager

Personnel
Manager

Quality
Officer

Financial
Manager

Financial
Supervisor

Production
Manager

Production
Supervisor

Foreman
13

Foreman

(Organisation and Management Support Material

34

Marketing
Maanger

Production
Supervisor

Foreman

Marketing
Officer

Foreman

 Divisional Structure

Divisional structure groups similar products, services or market thus creating

departments, which look like small separate businesses within the organisation itself.
Those departments are commonly known as Divisions, which are again categorised as
Product Divisions, Geographic divisions, and Customer Divisions.

Factors that determine the shape of an organisational structure

15

Level of Hierarchy- The number of layers from top of business to bottom.

The number of layers determines whether the organisational structure is tall or
flat.
Span of control The number of subordinates reporting directly to a specific
manager.

The number of levels of hierarchy affects the size of the span of control. For instance
a tall structure has a narrow span of control and many hierarchical levels whereas a
flat structure has a wide span of control and few hierarchical levels.

Tall organisational Structure

15

(Vincent Gabriel, (2003), Management third edition, Pearson Education Asia

Singapore Pte ltd: 23/25, First Lok Yang Road, Singapore)

35

Flat Organisational Structure

Difference between tall and flat organisation

Tall organisational structure:

Slow communication because of big gap between manager and employee
Administrative expenses
Difficult to locate source of error
Tight Control

Flat organisational structure:

Faster and easier communication from manager to bottom employees
Easier to locate source of error
Delegation of work
Less control
2.1.5

Centralisation v/s Decentralisation

16

Decentralisation is the extent to which power and authority are delegated to lower
levels. In a decentralised organisation, employees at lower levels are able to
participate in decision-making.

16

(Organisation and Management Support Material)

36

Centralisation is the extent to which power and authority are retained at the top
organisational levels.

Advantages of Centralisation:
Co-ordination of activities is easier when top management takes decision.
Full control on activities thus preventing bad decision to be taken.

Disadvantage of Centralisation
De-motivation- as lower level workers do not participate
Less time for senior manager to concentrate on more important matters.

Advantages of decentralisation
More time for manager to concentrate on more important matters.
Motivating for the employees as they have the chance to participate

Disadvantages of decentralisation
Loss of control from managers
Higher quality managers have to be employed so that they can be delegated
work thus leads to higher cost.

Factors influencing degree of centralisation and decentralisation

Cost: the more costly the action to be decided the more probable is that the
decision would be taken at the top levels of management.
Size and Character of organisation: In very large organisations, especially
those producing wide range of product, it is desirable to decentralise decision
making.
Availability of control techniques: Development of computers and
availability of statistical and accounting data has facilitated process of
decentralisation.
Quality of Middle and Junior Management: A shortage of talented middle
managers will limit the decentralisation process.

37

2.2
Communication in the organisation may take the form of:
g) giving instructions;
h) giving or receiving information;
i) exchanging ideas;
j) announcing plans and strategies;
k) comparing actual results against a plan;
l) laying down rules or procedures;
job descriptions, organisation charts or manuals

2.3

Expectation of employees regarding communication

17

e) Information :
Employees wish to be aware of what is going on and dont want incomplete or
distorted information, both about central concerns of the organisation and about
questions of direct bearing on their jobs.`
f) Upward communication
Employees want to be able to make suggestions for improvement of work processes,
they want their initiatives recognised and they want to feel valued by the attention
given to their views.
g) Face to Face communication
Inspite of established reports that employees prefer face-to-face interactions with their
bosses, most organisations appear to rely more and more on formal, technologydriven written communication.
h) Good line Management
It has been established that line managers (managers of functional areas directly
involved in the production of goods and services) who are good at communicating
directly with staff are a great contribution to the success of the organisation. A poor
relationship between supervisor and employee has been shown to have a high impact
on the intention to quit the job.

The expectations of employees from their supervisors are that she or he:
17

(Organisation and Management Support Material)

38

 Takes a personal interest in their lives

Seems to care for them as individuals
Listens to their concerns and responds to them quickly and appropriately
Gives regular and fair feedback on performance
Holds efficient and regular meetings in which information is freely shared
Explains what is going on in the organisation

2.4

The classic Telecommunication model

Encode

Transmit

18

Channel

Receive

Decode

Source
Destination

Feedback

2.4.1

Possible reasons for poor communication

4. Encoding problem:
Lack of planning
Deficiencies in use of language
Use of obsolete words

5. Transmission problems:
18

(Organisation and Management Support Material)

39

 Inappropriate channel used

Failure to speak clearly
Noise
Distortion

6. Decoding problems:
Failure to take message
Distraction
Different interpretation of words
Information overload

2.4.2

How to improve communication channel

4. Plan message to improve encoding:

Give training to improve skills
5. Select the appropriate channel
Make sure information does not pass through too many people
6. Ensure that the recipient is receptive
It is important to make sure that the message is received in an environment
that lends itself to concentration.

40

2.5

Flow Patterns

19

The structure of an organisation should provide for formal communication in 4

directions: Downward, upward, horizontal and diagonal.
2.5.1

Downwards communication

Flow of information from individuals in higher hierarchical levels to those lower

down.
2.5.2

Upward communication

Flow of information from individuals in lower hierarchical levels to higher up.

2.5.3

Horizontal communication

It is necessary for co-ordination and integration of various parts of the organisation

2.5.4

Diagonal Communication

It is important in situations where members cannot communicate effectively and

swiftly through other channel.

2.6

Different method of communication

Written communication:
Letter
Memo
Newsletter
E-mail
Bulletins and report
Oral communication:
Face to face meeting
Video conferencing
Telephone

19

(Organisation and Management Support Material)

41

2.7

Informal Communication Channels

20

The formal pattern of communication in an organisation is always supplemented by

an informal one, which is sometimes referred to as the grapevine or bush
telegraph. People like to gossip, and talk about rumours and events, on the
telephone, over a cup of tea in the office, on the way to home from work, in the
corridor, at lunch, and so on.
The danger with informal communication is that it might be malicious, contain
inaccurate rumour or half-truths, or simply be wild speculation. This type of gossip
can be unsettling to people in an organisation, and make colleagues mistrust one
another or act cautiously.
For example, suppose that you work for a company in London, and your friend
from another department telephones to say that he has heard from someone else in the
personnel department that your office is going to be moved to Cardiff, and anyone
refusing to go will be given the sack. This sort of news would be certain to upset you
for a while, even if it turns out eventually to be wrong.
The grapevine

The grapevine is one aspect of informal communication. A well-known study into

how the grapevine works was carried out by K Davis using his echo-analysis
technique: the recipient of some information, A, was asked to name the source of his
information, B was then asked to name his source, C etc until the information was
traced back to its originator. His research findings were that:
a)
b)
c)
d)

the grapevine acts fast;

the working of the grapevine is selective: information is not divulged randomly;
the grapevine usually operates at the place of work and not outside it;
perhaps surprisingly, the grapevine is only active when the information
communication network is active: the grapevine does not fill a gap created by an
ineffective formal communication system;
e) it was also surprising to discover that higher level executives were better
communicators and better informed than their subordinates;
f) more staff executives were in the know about events than line managers (because
staff executives are more mobile and get involved with more different functions in
their work).

42

APPENDIX 2
Questionnaire for Employees
1. What method of communication is most commonly used?
Face to face meeting
Emails
Letters
Memos
Telephone
2. According to you is it the most appropriate method to use?
Yes
No
3.

What is the most frequent problem you have encountered when receiving
Information?

Noise
Different interpretation of words
Distraction
Information overload
4. What is the most frequent problem you have encountered when passing
on information?
Noise
Distortion of information
Failure to speak clearly
Inappropriate Channel of communication

43

5. Does manager allow/considers feedback from employees?

Always
Sometimes
Never
6. Does the Manager provide feedback to employees?

Always
Sometimes
Never
7. Does Manager withhold information from you?

Yes
No
8. What is the speed of communication between the CEO and employees.

Fast
Slow

44

Interview Question for Manager

1.

What are the types of communication do you use to communicate to your

employees? Why?

2.

Do you think the communication method you are using appropriately fits
the needs of the organisation?

3.

How far do you respond to your employees?

4.

What are your view concerning the evolution of communication over the
past few years?

5.

What is the problem that you encounter when retrieving information

from employees?

6.

What are your views on the informal network of communication?

7.

How do you view the organisational structure?

45