Communication from below: Feedback from employees as a tool for their stabilisation

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Abstract

Given the current organisational changes in a turbulent global economic context, is the appropriate setting of the communication process, with an emphasis on feedback from employees to management for organisations to cope with external changes. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, communication from below is required as it is a primary issue in the context of significant organisational change and can help to shape positive perceptions of change. The main aim is to evaluate the relationships between selected organisational variables regarding the use of different forms of employee-to-management communication. A questionnaire survey of Czech organisations ( n ₁ = 183) was conducted, and the data obtained were evaluated using statistical tests (Wald statistic) to determine whether a demonstrable relationship existed between the traits. The results showed a relationship between the application of most types of bottom-up communication and organisation size in terms of the number of employees, majority ownership, and, for selected types of communication forms, annual turnover. However, none of the communication types examined depended on the sector in which an organisation operated. The results of the qualitative research confirmed that grassroots communication was crucial in all the types of organisations examined and helped to improve organisational climate. This study contributes to theory and practice by confirming that feedback from employees is a tool for their stabilisation. The managerial implications include the finding that effective feedback settings help prevent conflicts in organisations. The study contributes significantly to the deepening of knowledge on the issue of systematic communication leading to the sustainability of organisations, which is also demonstrated by the almost zero overlap with previous studies.

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The Interaction Effect of Crisis Communication and Social Support on The Emotional Exhaustion of University Employees during the COVID-19 Crisis

Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol, Tipnuch Phungsoonthorn (2022)

Although formal communication from an organization’s management is crucial during a crisis to reduce the uncertainties of employee, less is known about the moderating role of social support that could make employees rely less on formal communication to reduce those uncertainties. Grounded in uncertainty reduction theory, this research examines the role of crisis communication on the perceived uncertainties and emotional exhaustion of employees who work at private international universities that have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, this research explores the moderating effect of social support in terms of supervisor support and coworker support on the association between crisis communication and perceived uncertainties. Questionnaire data were collected from 300 employees from two private international universities in Thailand. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. The analysis shows that perceived uncertainties mediate the negative association between crisis communication and emotional exhaustion. Moreover, the moderating effect analysis shows that the association between crisis communication and perceived uncertainties is significantly moderated by coworker support, but not by supervisor support. Simple slope analysis also clearly shows that the negative association between crisis communication and perceived uncertainties only presents in employees with a low level of coworker support. For employees with high coworker support, crisis communication does not associate negatively with perceived uncertainties. This research implies that the informal communication that employees obtain from social support could play a compensatory role for their need to rely on formal communication to reduce uncertainties during the crisis.