The Effects of Communication on the Performance of Organizations

2. L iterature R eview 2.1 Introduction Organisational communication is a vast, fast growing and multifaceted discipline, combining aspects of psychology, sociology, communication studies and management theory. The focus of academic and professional literature has shifted significantly over the decades but has predominantly concentrated on private sector organisations. A number of key studies and theorists, many of which date back several years, are cited repeatedly throughout the literature. As many of their contributions are still applied to organisational practice today references to these shall be made throughout this chapter. Given the enormity and complexity of the topic, it is by no means possible to explore all the issues applicable to internal communication in academic libraries. The aim of this chapter, therefore, is to provide a broad overview of the popular theory and contemporary thinking that is relevant to the scope of this investigation.

Baker (2002, p.11) notes that the traditional literature focused on “how variations in organizational communication were affected by variations in the size, structure, and types of organization and how different