A study on the Effects of the Organizational Demographic Characteristics on its Communication

Kim, Hyoung Chul(Dept. of Business Adm. The Graduate School Yonsei University)

Organizational communication is a significant and contributing factor to organizational performance. Most of the previous studies have focused on its relationship to the cohesiveness or turnover rate in organizations. But few studies have examined the direct relationship between organizational demography and its communication. The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of organizational demographic characteristics on its communication.

The differential effects of the demographic characterisrtics on its communication were analysed on the data collected from 226 white-collar workers through questionnaires and interviews. Two in-depth cases were developed and analysed to complement the former analysis.

The results of the study are as follows:

First, the age similarity was the most important demographic variable affecting the organizational communication.

Second, there were statistically significant differences in the perceived importance of age variable between job-related and job-unrelated communication dimensions, while the respondents' perceived importance of tenure variable was not found to be a reason for frequent communication between the two dimensions.

Third, the age range from three years above the respondents' age were perceived as similar age groups among organizational members. And one level higher position was perceived as similar positions within organizations. Meanwhile, tenure differences within three years of work period were perceived to be similar among organizational members.