Communication has existed since the beginning of human beings, but people didn’t pay attention to it until the 20th century, especially into the 21st century along with the communication technologies development. Nowadays, there have many communication theories. Among of these theories, interpersonal communication (IC) and organizational communication (OC) are the most commonly-used theories applied in business to help us resolve problems.
IC, as a kind of device that organizers usually use to communicate with their employees, more emphasizes individuals interacting face-to-face than OC. It can help us understand how and why people think and behave. However, IC is hardly defined in its own area of study, yet often occurs within other environment like organizations (“Interpersonal communication,” In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2011). OC, as a subfield of communication, mainly looks at human communication within or among organizations, which is the most basic and central part in business management (Simon, 1998). It relates to the achievement of organizational goals and the formation of organizational culture. Meanwhile, OC is also the most common management behavior which is carried out under certain circumstance and is influenced by organizational culture. The behavior culture of enterprises determines the behavior characteristics and communication ways and styles of employees; the material culture determines the condition of communication technology, communication mediums and channels of companies (“Organizational Communication”, In Baidu, The Free Encyclopedia, 2011 ).
Interpersonal Communication and Organizational Communication in Business
In the process of actual application in business, OC is often considered as one field of IC and IC as one means of OC on the contrary. These two communication theories seemingly serve different objects, people versus organizations. Actually,