How Managers Really Communicate

In contrast to other studies of managerial communication, this investigation combined direct observation of managers in the natural setting with self-report measures to try to determine how managers really communicate. More specifically, the canonical correlation technique was used to analyze the relationships between communication behavior and managerial activities. A two dimensional managerial communicator model emerged. The first dimension represents a continuum from Humanistic Interactor (who interacts more frequently both upward and downward and exhibits more staffing and training/developing activities) to Mechanistic Isolate (who communicates very little but frequently engages in conflict management activities). The second relationship reveals a continuum from Informal Developer (who communicates spontaneously and is involved in training/developing activities) to Formal Controller (who uses scheduled communication interaction and exhibits monitoring/controlling activities). This model provides an empirically based framework for answering the important question of how managers really communicate.