Informal Communication in Organisational Management as Motivation for Workers

When we try to understand an organisation, one of the most common mistakes is to consider that the communication flows presented in the official organisation chart represent the communicational life of the organisation. In fact, the understanding of communicational phenomena in organisations is not limited to interpersonal communication, not even to official communication flows and structures. Communication in organisations is composed of formal and informal communication flows and networks. Therefore, the objective of this research is to demonstrate that organisational reality can only be understood if, in addition to official/ formal circuits, we consider the informal communication networks that workers establish. Based upon the available theory on organisational communication, the problem of knowledge that was behind this research was: "Do workers recognise the importance of informal communication networks and do they consider them as a source of motivation?" To answer these questions, we have set the following objectives: (1) to analyse the differences between formal and informal communication (2) to verify the importance of informal communication networks in organisational life; (3) to assess whether informal communication networks contribute to the satisfaction and motivation of workers. It is an exploratory study, carried out through questionnaires applied to workers of small and medium-sized enterprises, through which workers are asked to reflect on the importance of informal communication networks in their organisational day-to-day. In terms of findings, these results are significant as it regards the recognition by workers of the importance of informal communication networks for the proper functioning of the organisational structure and for their motivation and job satisfaction. These results reinforce the importance of informal communication in organisational life, and it is recommended that managers be aware of its importance for the organisation and for the workers.