A corporate issue dealt with towards the end is the type of internal communication a company will use, especially if it is a small company or has just been established. However, it is essential to know that there are different types of internal communication. Large organisations should focus on a communicative methodology for its employees to improve their workplace environment and overall performance.
A common way of classifying types of internal communication is in three categories: ascending, descending, and horizontal, depending on who is addressed. This way, there is communication from employees to managers, managers to employees, and between leveled hierarchical employees.
However, regardless of who initiates the interaction or participates in it while working, there is a more basic type of internal communication that should be considered. It divides communication into two categories: the optimal and the deficient, or, in other words, communicating well or communicating poorly.
In addition to these categories, there is another classification according to the style of communication used. These can be:
| Based on the style of communication used: | |
| Assertive | In this style of communication, people tend to avoid conflict and express their opinions submissively, sacrificing their own needs to avoid confrontation. |
| Aggressive: | It is characterised by imposing ideas in a snappy manner, without considering the feelings or positions of others, prioritising one’s own interests. |
| Passive: | In this style of communication, people tend to avoid conflict and express their opinions in a submissive manner, sacrificing their own needs to avoid confrontation. |
| Passive-aggressive: | Combines elements of both passive and aggressive styles, expressing resentment indirectly and avoiding direct responsibility. |
Types of internal communication based on quality
| Optimal internal communication | Poor internal communication |
| It’s practical: it doesn’t just create an impact it reaches its objective of exchanging messages correctly interpreted by the parties involved and help them work better. | –It’s ineffective: it might have an effect, but not the desired one nor the one necessary to work more comfortably. When the exchange of messages ends, the conclusions are no clearer than at the beginning. |
| It’s efficient: it doesn’t take up more time than needed to achieve the proposed objective, takes place through the appropriate channel, does not involve more people than necessary, and does not include noise that distorts messages. | –It’s inefficient: It takes too much time and energy to get the parties involved to understand each other, often involving people whose involvement in the conversation is unnecessary or has frequent interruptions. |
| It’s economically healthy: it contributes to better employee performance leading to better productivity, no just of individuals but as a team. | –It is economically detrimental to the company: if workers don’t communicate optimally because they don’t understand each other, are slow, or don’t use the right codes, their performance will suffer, affecting the overall productivity of the company. |
| It’s psychologically healthy: it’s not aggressive, cutting, or uncomfortable, but makes people feel good and not feel rejected when communicating with each other, whether it is to exchange good news or neutral messages or to manage a conflictive issue. | –It’s psychologically harmful: it makes you tired and uncomfortable and creates tensions that can be avoided. It’s common for it to turn into an argument or a power struggle. This causes the people involved to distance themselves from each other and avoid any sort of communication. |
| It is corporately healthy: it is developed in a way that contributes to a healthy work environment and preserves team cohesion. | –It’s corporately toxic: when team members don’t communicate with each other properly or hurt each other mutually instead of contributing by listening to each other and fulfilling a mutual objective, it results in team cohesion cracking, and the working environment fizzles out. |
Internal communication in large organisations
Effective internal communication is critical in large organisations to foster a healthy work environment and enhance employee performance. Given the scale and complexity of these organisations, internal communication can often become fragmented, leading to misunderstandings, inefficiencies, and even conflicts. Therefore, large organisations must adopt a holistic communication strategy that encompasses not just the direction of communication—whether ascending, descending, or horizontal—but also its quality and style.
This approach helps ensure that all communication, whether it is between managers and employees, within teams, or across departments, remains clear, respectful, and conducive to a positive work culture. By prioritising open, efficient, and psychologically healthy communication practices, large organisations can create a more cohesive and motivated workforce, ultimately driving better organisational outcomes.
“Communication is an ongoing day-to-day task, but it is undoubtedly a key element for all of us to work towards a common goal.”
– Pilar Collado Puerta and Laura Risquete Trigo from González Byass, an ifeel partner company.
How to develop effective internal communication
1. Establish which team members should be in each channel of the app you use for internal communication or who should be copied in the emails that are sent. Do not make a mess when deciding the types of internal communication to use. All those whose presence is not essential should be left aside to avoid a backlog of replies or people permanently receiving emails or notifications on issues in which they are not involved, with the disruption to their work rhythm that this would entail.
2. Set basic internal communication rules that align with the organisation’s company culture. For example, whether or not to allow the use of gifs or icons, whether or not to allow the use of swear words, indicate that it is better not to comment on personal issues within the internal communication channels, indicate whether any controversial issues should be left out of internal communication, etc
3. Encourage self-inhibition: do not overload internal chats with replies if it is not essential, send concise messages instead of long paragraphs, separate long messages into short paragraphs to facilitate reading, and do not overuse capital letters or question marks if it is not necessary, use bold and italics to facilitate comprehension, etc.
4. Always avoid using aggressive, denigrating, or rude language in any of the traditional types of internal communication (ascending, descending, and horizontal), whether in writing or face-to-face communication, even with a single word or short expression. It seriously harms the work environment and is never constructive in improving anyone’s performance.
Solutions for large organisations
At ifeel, we are committed to improving employee and company well-being. That is why we strive to help them generate stimulating and healthy work environments for their employees.
To assist in this process, our team of psychologists specialising in mental well-being has developed a mental well-being program for companies aimed at helping companies enhance employee engagement and boost productivity.
This collaboration allows HR managers to receive personalised, data-based advice on the most effective measures for detecting employee mental health issues and assessing the workplace climate. It’s the best way to understand their needs.
Moreover, ifeel’s corporate mental well-being solution offers employees a structured mental health care service tailored to their needs at any given time.
We hope you found this article on types of internal communication in a company interesting. If you want more information about our mental well-being solution for companies, simply request it, and we will contact your team soon.
