Communication Destination

The destination of communication is either internal or external. The ratio between internal and external
communication varies from organization to organization. As the size of the organization increase, the
amount of internal communication tends to increase at a faster rate than the amount of external
communication.
Internal Communication
Each of the communication mediums discussed earlier in the downward, upward, and lateral
communication sections is also classified as an internal medium. Interoffice memos, reports, and
conferences are the most commonly used internal mediums within the modern organization.
Effective internal communication—downward, upward, and horizontal helps increase job satisfaction,
safety, productivity, and profits and decreases absenteeism, grievances, and turnover.
External Communication
Because most modern organizations have close ties with various publics – in fact they often depend on
these publics for economic survival - external communication plays a significant role in their operations.
Examples of publics that organizations communicate with are consumers, stockholders, governmental
agencies, foreign suppliers, wholesalers, and retailers.
Types of media used to communicate externally are: letters, reports, stockholder reports, proposals,
stockholder meetings, telephone conversations, and conferences.
While informal reports tend to be used commonly within the organizations, formal reports are more
commonly use externally. Employees in many organizations are now finding that their responsibility for
report preparation is increasing.
Organizations that have stockholders hold annual stockholder meetings to conduct official business—
such as electing individuals to the board of directors—as well as to present information of interest to the
stockholders. These meetings, although comprised mostly of oral communication, also use some written
communication.
An increasing amount of organizational business is conducted over the telephone. Although the use of the
telephone should result in the effective use of time, many employees are now finding that the telephone
has been a fairly significant time waster, especially when several calls have to be made before the caller is
reached. Excessive amounts of small talk during phone conversations can also waste time. Especially
wasteful of time, human resources, and monetary resources is the practice of providing a written
document to confirm the substance of the phone conversation. When this happens, the primary reason for
using the phone in the first place—to save time—actually takes more time because of the duplicate effort
involved in making the phone call and then preparing the written documentation.
A certain number of employees in most organizations spend part of their time engaged in face-to-face
conferences with individuals outside the organization. Included among these individuals are purchasing
agents, sales representatives, upper-level managers, and department managers. Considerable good will
can be lost easily—which may be very costly to the organization and to the outsider—unless both parties
treat each other with courtesy and respect.