Likert's Communication Theory

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One prominent view of organizational communication is that if communicationis bad, an organization is likely to have problems and if it is good, an organi-zation's performance and overall effectiveness will also be good (Roberts andC'Reilly, 1973).This thinking seems to derive from Likert (1957) who presentedcommunication as an "intervening variable" effected by sUch "causal variables"as leadership behavior, organizational climate and organizational structure andaffecting such "end result variables"as job satisfaction, productivity andprofits.
Evidence to support Likert's theory has been provided by Mann, Indik andVrocm (1963), Likert himself (1961, 1967), Marrow, Seashore and Bowers (1967),Bowers and Mann (1969), and Seashore and Bowers (1970)./n one study, Likertand Bowers (1968) reported correlations between a communication index and fourmonthly performance indexes …show more content…

Almost four decades ago, Chester Barnard (1938) described the main taskof an executive as communication, "in an exhaustive theory or organization,communication would occupy a central place, because the structure, extensiveness,and scope of the organization are almost entirely determined by communicationtechniques." Thirty years later, Beckhard (1969) listed several variablesdirectly or indirectly related to communication as characteristics of a healthyorganization.Researchers (see e.g., Conrath, 1974; Goldhaber, 1974; Redding,1964, 1972; Roberts and O'Reilly, 1974) and practitioners (see e.g., Greenbaumand White, 1975; Haney, 1973) alike have agreed on the hmportance of communicationto organizations.Some have even called it "management's sacred cow."(Higham,1953)As Roberts and O'Reilly (1973) have stated, "communication in one form oranother, occupies most of a manager's tine and possibly that of other workers."It has even been said (Porter and Roberts, 1972) that "communication is every-where in organizations...that it is the 'water' that the organizational re-searcher 'fish' seem to discover

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