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Journal of Contemporary China (2008), 17(54), February, 167189

Internal/Employee Communication and Organizational Effectiveness: a study of Chinese corporations in transition


NI CHEN*
This study has probed into the insights of possible contributions to the overall organizational effectiveness that internal/employee communication may render, and also identied possible key factors that communication effects may hinge on. The result of this study reveals that the relationship between internal/employee communication and corporate effectiveness is more signicant than what has previously been assumed. This study thereby suggests that as Chinese corporations prepare themselves to become viable game players in the new world economy, sufcient attention must be paid to improving internal/employee communication. This study has also tested James Grunigs Excellence Theory against Chinese corporations move toward communication excellence in recent years. Closely examining Chinese corporations communication structure and operation, this study has found that the integration of employee/internal communication into managerial structure and practice holds as one of the keys, proposing that corporate communicators shall become part of the organizations dominant coalition so as to insure communication excellence, leading up to overall organizational effectiveness.

Introduction Excellent internal/employee communication is essential in any organization if it is to survive and thrive. As a management tool, it helps identify, establish, and maintain relationships between an organizations management and its employees.1 Existing research results have shown that as a middle-range concept of public relations, effective internal/employee communication contributes to the building of a
* Ni Chen holds an associate professorship in the Department of Communications Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University. With a Ph.D. in Mass Communications Journalism from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University, in 1992, she taught at universities in the United States from 1992 to 2001. Her research interest falls largely in the areas of Public Relations, International Communication, Organizational and Corporate Communications, etc. In addition to a co-edited book, International Public Relations: A Comparative Analysis, her research works have been published in such journals as, Public Relations Review, Public Relations Quarterly, International Communication Bulletin, Asian Journal of Communication, Journalism Educator, Newspaper Research Journal, etc. This author also wishes to acknowledge a research grant support by Research Grant Council, Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 20032005. 1. See Heidi Bartoo and Patricia M. Sias, When enough is too much: communication apprehension and employee information experiences, Communication Quarterly 52(1), (2004). ISSN 1067-0564 print/ 1469-9400 online/08/54016723 q 2008 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/10670560701693146

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satisfactory organization employee relationship, thus increasing the value of communication and public relations functions to the organization.2 Studies have also found a correlation between employee ratings of their managers communication and business unit protability.3 Today, we are living in a world where change is the only constant. With corporations being merged, downsized, and re-engineered more frequently than ever before, it becomes imperative that companies in transition ensure the best possible international/employee communication. China has been adapting itself to modern business norms and practices. Chinese corporations4 have been making changes to meet the challenges to transform deriving especially from China joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). To communicate changes to their employees openly, directly, honestly and from an equal footing has become a formidable task. What, then, is the nature and scope of internal/employee communication in Chinese corporations while going through transition? Can ndings on the practice of internal/employee communication drawn primarily from Western corporations be replicated in the Chinese context? To address these general questions, this study begins by asking how internal/employee communication in Chinese corporations functions in terms of its current status, structure and operation. Then, it investigates the intricate relationship between internal/employee communication and the contribution it makes to corporate effectiveness. More specically, it addresses the roles played by communication specialists in the corporate decision-making process, thereby to make a distinction between true policy makers and communication strategists or managers; in another words, how large a role a communication manager would play in formulating basic corporate policy outside the realm of communication itself, and what an impact it may exert on the overall effectiveness of internal/employee communication. Literature review and hypotheses Historically, corporate internal/employee communication in the West has been predominantly one-way and asymmetrical. Seminal thinking on bureaucratization is found in the arguments by European sociologist Max Weber. It presumes that complex organizations operate most effectively when workers adhere to rules and procedures handed down from above and administered uniformly for all workers.5
2. For this point, see L. Grunig, J. Grunig and D. M. Dozier, Excellent Public Relations and Effective Organizations: A Study of Communication Management in Three Countries (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002), ch. 11; H.-S. Kim, Organizational Structure and Internal Communication as Antecedents of EmployeeOrganization Relationship in the Context of Organizational Justice: A Multilevel Analysis, unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 2005. 3. Rodney Gray, What CEOs should do to improve communication and how you can help, The CW Asia Pacic Supplement, (JanuaryFebruary 2005), p. 15. 4. From an employee communication perspective, according to R. Heath, the word corporate should be general enough to embrace all collectivities that are organized and functional, serving as stakeholders . . . in the mix of product/service marketing, image management, brand equity, and public policy management. Here, the Chinese corporations under study fall largely into this range. See Robert L. Heath, Onward into the Moe fog: thoughts on public relations research directions, Journal of Public Relations Research 18, (2006), p. 95. 5. See, Charles Camic, Philip S. Gorski and David M. Trubek, Introduction, Max Webers Economy and Society: A Critical Companion (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005).

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American social psychologist Douglas McGregor has made almost the same proposition. His famous X-theory is still referred to commonly in the eld of management and motivation. The X-theory asserts that workers work hardest and best when offered tangible positive rewardor a threat of punishment. Thus, X-theory is often used to justify contract appointments in any type of organization, presuming that because employees are not trustworthy, they should be kept in check; they should be told what they should (or should not) do at every step; they should be watched all the time.6 To date, X-theory remains a basic principle guiding the development of positive management style and techniques within an organization. Similarly central to organizational development is the Y-theory which has largely supplanted X-theory. Chris Argyris,7 Tom Peters,8 Peter Drucker 9 and others have contended that workers perform most effectively and exiblyas required for organizations operating in the information-agewhen they help determine their own goals and procedures. As the counterpart of X-theory, Y-theory postulates that people are mostly good, enjoy work, and like to take on responsibility. Even in the prevailing poor condition of developing countries, Y-theory describes how employees can be motivated to perform effectively better than X-theory does.10 Therefore, corporations and other organizations need reforms so as to encourage, reward and empower employees rather than discourage, punish and constrain them for the reason that only a few of them are not up to expectations.11 Recently, decentralization and worker autonomy have been emphasized in the re-engineering movement of the corporate world.12 With the X Y-theories in mind, William Ouchi13 developed the so-called Z-theory. The theory is often referred to as the Japanese management style. It advocates a combination of all thats best about Y-theory and modern Japanese management. Assuming that workers have a strong loyalty and interest in team-working and the organization, the Z-theory offers freedom for and places trust with workers and employees. Whereas X Y-theory is mainly focused on management and motivation from the managers and organizations perspective, Z-theory places more reliance on the attitude and responsibilities of the workers. It is largely guided by these theories that the practice of internal/employee communication has evolved in the West. To Dover,14 US corporations have gone through
6. P. V. Indiresan, Can contract appointments enliven bureaucracy?, Business Line (Internet edn), (4 October 2004), available at: www.blonnet.com/2004/10/04/stories/20041004. 7. Chris Argyris, Reasons and Rationalization: The Limits to Organizational Knowledge (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 412. 8. Tom Peters and Nancy Austin, A Passion for Excellence: The Leadership Difference (New York: Warner Books, 1985). 9. Ibid., pp. 79 81. 10. Robert Frank and Fero Kuminiak, Primitive Asymmetrical C-Command Derives X-Theory, (2000), available at: www.cog.jhu.edu/faculty/frank/papers/nel-acc.pdf. 11. Indiresan, Can Contract Appointments enliven bureaucracy?, p. 2. 12. Dean Kazoleas and Alan Wright, Improving corporate and organization communications: a new look at developing and implementing the communication audit, in Robert L. Heath, ed., Handbook of Public Relations (New York: SAGE Publications, 2001). 13. William Ouchi, Theory Z: How American Management can Meet the Japanese Challenge (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1981), pp. 2 18. 14. C. J. Dover, Three eras of management communication, in W. C. Redding, ed., Business and Industrial Communication: A Source Book (New York: Harper & Row, 1964).

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three eras of internal/employee communication: (1) entertaining employees in the 1940s; (2) informing employees in the 1950s; and (3) persuading employees in the 1960s. In identifying four models of communicationpress agentry, public information, two-way asymmetrical, and two-way symmetricalGrunig and Hunt equated Dovers three eras to the press agentry (entertaining employees), public information (informing employees), and two-way asymmetrical (persuading employees).15 Both press agentry and public information are one-way models of communication, with persuading employees two-way asymmetrical. In addition, they believed that a new era of open (symmetrical) communication developed in the eld of internal/employee communication in the 1970s and 1980s.16 The Western practice of internal/employee communication has been gradually but surely moving from one-way to two-way models. Embracing Western theories and practices rather quickly, Chinese corporations would still have difculties in adopting open symmetrical communication. Studies suggest that China has a long tradition of ordinary people obeying the dictates of higher authorities, either imperial courts, or the Communist Party, or elders.17 Those at the top make and enforce the decisions without participation from below, with the subordinates only helping to carry out instructions. Such a structure and process usually produce imbalanced and asymmetrical effects. In addition, the current Chinese communication system has been structured on Marxist Leninist philosophy of communications,18 with the media functioning as a mouthpiece of both the ruling party and government. Though changes in the systems have been observed, the deeprooted cultural tradition and political system are bound to have a great inuence on the way in which internal communication is structured and conducted. Culbertson recalls an encounter with a communication executive of the Capital Iron and Steel Corporation in Beijing. When asked how to ensure workers complaints and suggestions reach top management, she seemed puzzled but explained that managers set goals and arranged procedures but with the workers interests in mind. Furthermore, she commented that its really unthinkable for workers to complain about their treatment at the workplace.19 This viewseemingly paternalistic in Western eyessuggests little interest at management levels in opening two-way symmetrical employee communication within Chinese organizations. One may well assume that the dominant mode of internal/employee communication in Chinese corporations is one-waytop-downand asymmetrical. Based upon this assumption, several hypotheses are proposed: Hypothesis 1. When making major decisions, management seldom engages employees in the process.
15. J. E. Grunig and Todd Hunt, Managing Public Relations (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1984), ch. 1. 16. J. E. Grunig, Symmetrical systems of internal communication, in J. E. Grunig, ed., Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1992). 17. Ni Chen, Public relations in China: the introduction and development of an occupational eld, in Hugh Culbertson and Ni Chen, eds, International Public Relations: A Comparative Analysis (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996), pp. 121154; C.-J. Hung, Cultural inuence on relationship cultivation strategies: multinational companies in China, Journal of Communication Management 8, (2004), pp. 264281. 18. J. Y. S. Cheng, Introduction: Chinas modernization programme in the 1980s, in J. Cheng, ed., China: Modernization in the 1980s (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1989). 19. Interview with Hugh Culbertson, 15 June 1996, Athens, Ohio, USA.

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Hypothesis 2. Chinese corporate communicators tend to spend more time on distributing information out to, and less on seeking input and feedback from employees. Hypothesis 3. The intended effect of communication would be more unbalanced than otherwise. In other words, employee communication aims more at enhancing productivity rather than establishing mutually benecial relationships between management and the employees. Hypothesis 4. The dominant mode of employee communication within Chinese corporations, therefore, would be in the following rank order: one-way, top down . two-way asymmetric . two-way symmetric. The four Models of Public Relations (press agentry, public information, two-way asymmetric, and two-way symmetric) and the Excellence Study highlight the efciency of symmetric as an important generic principle of excellent public relations and can also be applied to internal/employee communication.20 However, there continue to be allegations that the two-way symmetric model is not always feasible or desirable.21 In practice, a mixed-motive model (combining both two-way asymmetrical and two-way symmetrical) tends to prevail because communicators serve as advocates both for their organizations and for strategic publics.22 A recent study on an assimilation accommodation continuum veries that one seldom practices completely in either the symmetric or asymmetric mode, but rather a mixed mode. The mixed-motive model implies true symmetrya compromise between asymmetrical forcing of its view on publics and equally one-side accommodation to publics views, applying to the winwin zone in the persuasionaccommodation continuum.23 This model is widely adopted. Hypothesis 5. To examine the models applicability in Chinese corporations, this study suggests that Chinese corporations practice the mixed-motive model more frequently than others. In further examining the model orientation for internal/employee communication in Chinese corporations, this study takes into consideration one additional factor: the channels used (one-way vs. two-way) for internal/employee communication. Hypothesis 6a. Communication channels used in Chinese corporations are more of one-way than two-way types. Hypothesis 6b. Channels used correlate with model orientations. It is more likely for corporations whose internal/employee communication is more two-way to adopt two-way channels. Hypothesis 7. In a related vein, it is less likely that mechanisms exist within Chinese corporations to ensure workers’ complaints/suggestions would reach top management.
20. Grunig, Symmetrical systems of internal communication. 21. G. M. Vasquez and M. Taylor, Research perspectives on the publics, in R. Heath and G. Vasquez, eds, Handbook on Public Relations (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2001), pp. 127 138. 22. David M. Dozier with Larissa A. Grunig and James E. Grunig, Managers Guide to Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1995), pp. 48 49. 23. Ibid.

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Moreover, employee communication has been largely one-wayfrom management to employees and other internal constituencieseven in the West. Employee publications, annual reports to stockholders, bulletin boards, and corporate television have helped to get the word out on management directives and reasons for them to such publics. Some other measures, however, are taken to get employees input and feedback. Suggestion box and town-hall meetings are the usual examples. Only recently has management undertaken systematic research efforts such as communication audits to ensure that internal stockholders provide input prior to policy formulation so as to facilitate policy changes and adjustments.24 Even among todays prominent corporations, such efforts are often sporadic and incomplete. Although considered as the two staples of employee communication, the use of suggestion box and town-hall meetings to allow employee input and feedback is believed to meet the need to be rethought, revamped, maybe even scrapped altogether.25 Grunig pointed out, however, that suggestion boxes and employee management meetings are often used to give the appearance of a participatory management style rather than for the purpose of conducting an open, frank, and honest dialogue with the workforce. Several hurdles tend to hamper the genuine use of the two measures to receive employee input and feedback. First, workers today are better educated than previous generations. Second, merging, downsizing, and corporations in transition have nurtured feelings of alienation, detachment, and disaffection among workers. Third, the department/ofce in charge of corporate employee communication, also facing downsizing, lacks the resources to properly administer their programs.26 Thus, one may presume that in Chinese corporations, suggestion box and town-hall meetingsthe two often cited (86%) channels for internal/employee communication are more likely to be used for the purpose of giving the appearance of a participatory management style. Indeed, one communication manager said in an interview that this was more than just an assumption. In her experience, the only time when top managers asked about suggestion box or managementemployee meetings was before they were to talk to the mass media or report to the governmental supervisors about the corporate culture and leadership style. More specically, she explained, they would only be interested in the numbers (of suggestions from the box and meetings), not the effects (of employee communication).27 Hypothesis 8. The use of two-way communication channels, in particular, suggestion box and town-hall meetings, does not always square with the two-way mode of communication, providing no guarantee of high level of trust and openness between management and employees within Chinese corporations. Existing studies also indicated that size and type of organizations may serve as signicant factors in shaping the way in which internal/employee communication may
24. Owen Harqie, Dennise Tourish and Noel Wilson, Communications audits and the effect of increased information: a follow-up study, The Journal of Business Communications, (October 2002), pp. 1819. 25. John Guiniven Suggestion boxes and town hall meetings: x em or forget em, Public Relations Tactics, (February 2000), p. 22. 26. Ibid. 27. Interview, 8 August 2003, Pudong, Shanghai, PRC.

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be structured and conducted.28 It is often assumed that the larger the size of the organization, the more resources available, and the more likely that the management would allocate resources to internal/employee communication functions. Regarding the type of organizations, Chinese corporations have become increasingly diversied. A good number of previously 100% state-owned enterprises continue to be transformed into shared/limited corporations. During this transition, management would not only opt to communicate information out to employees, but also actively seek feedback from employees so as to help attain organizational objectives. Presumably, they would have a larger incentive to engage in two-way communication. Meanwhile, more and more private-owned companies have emerged in China, with the majority of them being family-run operations. Their internal/employee communication would be most likely to be based upon a narrowly dened networkfamily members to relatives to friends, with less concern with communicating with everyone else, the employees. Furthermore, for corporations that have already completed the transition from state-owned to shared limited, less frequent two-way communication is expected as management usually deems such communication to be no longer necessary. Using the size and type as independent variables, two more hypotheses are offered. Hypothesis 9. The larger the size of the corporation, the more likely its mode of internal/employee communication would be two-way than one-way. Hypothesis 10. The different types of organizations may have different inclinations toward adopting two-way approaches in employee communication and would then follow this rank order: corporations in transition . shared/limited incorporations . privately-owned enterprises . state-owned corporations. Organizational culture, often dened as the sum total of shared values, beliefs, symbols, assumptions, and expectations that integrate a group of people who work together, is believed to affect internal/employee communication.29 Culture and communication are so closely related that communication creates culture and culture shapes communication.30 Participative and authoritarian are basically the two types of organizational culture, with the later presumably fostering organic structure, symmetrical communication systems, and organizational excellence and effectiveness.31 Authoritarian culture, on the contrary, leads toward mechanical structure, asymmetrical systems of communication, and mediocrity and ineffectiveness. An early study revealed that the participative culture and excellent communication was correlated, though in a mild way.32 This may be attributed to the fact that a participative environment does not make up for the absence of either competent and
28. Christoff Loch, Collaboration, motivation, and the size of organizations, Working Paper No. 5, Xerox, (1995), available at: http://ideas.repec.org/p/wop/xeroxp/_005.html; C.-J. Hung, Exploring types of organizations public relationships and their implications for relationship management in public relations, Journal of Public Relations Research 17, (2005), pp. 393 425. 29. Carter McNamara, Organizational Culture, (1999), available at: www.mapnp.org/library/org_thry/culture; P. Murphy, The limits of symmetry: a game theory approach to symmetrical and asymmetrical public relations, in J. E. Grunig and L. Grunig, eds, Public Relations Research Annual, Vol. 3 (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1991). 30. Dozier et al., Managers Guide to Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management, ch. 10. 31. Grunig, ed., Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management, ch. 20. 32. Martha M. Lauzen and David M. Dozier, Issues management mediation of linkages between environmental complexity and management of the public relations function, Journal of Public Relations Research 6, (1994), pp. 163 184.

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dedicated communication managers or such managers from a rms dominant coalition which are the two important elements to forge excellence in communication in general, and public relations per se. However, the intricate relationship between organizational culture and internal/employee communication is worth exploration in a Chinese setting in which a large number of corporations are going through a transition from 100% state ownership to a shared/limited one. In the midst of such a transition, corporations are facing both threats and opportunities, inevitably requiring employees participation. Accordingly, four more hypotheses are generated. Hypothesis 11a. Corporations in transition are more likely to entertain a participative culture than the ones with relative stability. Hypothesis 11b. In transitional corporations, top management would attach greater importance to improving internal/employee communication than management from other types of organizations, and the information exchange between management and employees would also be more frequent. Hypothesis 12. Corporations with a participative culture model their employee communication more on the two-way symmetric system than the others. Conversely, corporations with an authoritarian culture are more likely to hold on to one-way models. Hypothesis 13. Participative culture leads to a higher level of trust and openness between management and employees, as well as employee job satisfaction. The key to creating and maintaining benecial and harmonious relationships between employees and management is high-quality communication processes more symmetrical than asymmetrical.33 Moreover, two-way approaches, especially symmetrical ones, do appear to warrant higher degree of employee job satisfaction, higher national standing of the company, higher stock prices, higher levels of trust and openness between management and employeesall being indicators of organizational effectiveness. Hypothesis 14. Corporations adhering to a two-way symmetrical model of communication enjoy a higher level of trust and openness between management and employees and a higher level of employee job satisfaction than those practicing the other three models of communication. Hypothesis 15. The use of two-way communication channels helps achieve higher levels of trust and openness between management and employees, as well as greater employee job satisfaction than the use of one-way channels. In addition to the above factors, this author examines the types of roles that corporate communicators play. A great deal of research has concluded that the roles tend to fall into two categories: communication managers and communication technicians.34
33. James Grunig, Two-way symmetrical public relations, in Heath and Vasquez, eds, Handbook on Public Relations, pp. 11 30. 34. See, Chen, Public relations in China; David M. Dozier and Larissa A. Grunig, The organization of the public relations function, in James E. Grunig, David M. Dozier, William P. Ehling, Larrisa A. Grunig, Gred C. Repper and Jon White, eds, Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).

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Communication managers conceptualize and direct communication programs, whereas communication technicians provide technical services including writing, editing, graphics, and media relations.35 The IABC Excellent team contented that public relations must entail a management function that operates at the highest levels if it is to make organizations more effective. Communication managers should be intimately involved in decision making at the highest possible leveloften by the top executives who are in control of management and thus referred to as the dominant coalition. The whole process is termed empowerment.36 Although communication managers nominally vote in policy decisions made by the dominant coalition, in practice, their specialized role in the decision making process is no more than that of a communicator, who communicates the views of publics as well as the likely consequences of policy decisions to other senior managers after communicating with various publics potentially affected by the policy. Performing this role, a communication specialist assists with the management by building stable, open, and trusting relationships with strategic constituencies. And the quality of these relationships is a key indicator of the long-term contribution that the communication specialists may make to organizational effectiveness. The roles played by corporate communicators in Chinese corporations are found to have little to do with decision-making. This authors earlier studies noted that very few Chinese public relations practitioners were part of the dominant coalition.37 Their role orientations were determined not solely by the importance that practitioners attached to each of the specic rolesmanagers vs. techniciansbut, rather, by organizational structures,38 especially in state-owned and state-run corporations. Communication managers in most Chinese corporations practically remain outside of the dominant coalition. Rather than helping formulate alternative policy proposals, they largely react to proposals formulated by others. Rather than pointing out legal ramications, labor management implications, or nancial aspects, they focus almost entirely on assessing the nature and impact of recentor possible future public reaction to the alternatives being considered.39 Based on these observations, one hypothesis is rendered. Hypothesis 16. The role that communication specialists play in a Chinese corporation is more of a communication technician than of a communication manager. On the basis of the above-listed hypotheses, this study aims to address these research questions: Would those who consider themselves as communication managers make communication-related decisions only? Or, are they the True Managers participating at and performing an important part in organizations decision/policy
35. Grunig, ed., Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management. 36. D. R. Holtzhausen and R. Voto, Resistance from the margins: the postmodern public relations practitioner as organizational activist, Journal of Public Relations Research 14, (2002), pp. 5784; B. K. Berger, Power over, power with, and power to public relations: critical reections on public relations, the dominant coalition, and activism, Journal of Public Relations Research 17, (2005), pp. 528; J. Grunig, Furnishing the edice: ongoing research on public relations research as a strategic management function, Journal of Public Relations Research 18, (2006), pp. 163164. 37. Chen, Public relations in China, pp. 121154. 38. Kim, Organizational Structure and Internal Communication as Antecedents of EmployeeOrganization Relationship in the Context of Organizational Justice, pp. 150154. 39. Chen, Public relations in China, pp. 131144.

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making process? And how would it affect the overall effectiveness of internal/employee communication? Research methodology This study has employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches. They consist of in-depth interviews, focus-group meetings, and a sample survey. A stratied sampling approach has been applied. The targets of this study are conned to Shanghai-based, medium-to-large size Chinese corporations, spreading across manufacturing and service industries, excluding foreign corporations and joint ventures. To show ofcial interest in and support of this research, the Shanghai Foreign Economy and Trade Commission (SETC) has provided a full list (with mailing addresses, telephone numbers, and websites) of what it characterizes as medium-and-large corporations under its supervision. A total of 100 Chinese corporations were randomly selected from the SETC list as primary subjects for this study. This random selection was determined on the basis of the qualied pools. An online research was conducted to identify communication department and corporate communicators of each selected corporation. Also, a preliminary background research on each of these selected subjects was performed before they were contacted for a possible interview. As many as 20 corporate communicators were chosen randomly and approached; and 17 (85%) agreed to the request of an in-depth interview. Several showed enthusiasm for the nature and scope of the research and requested the nal results of this study. Lasting for more or less two hours each, interviews were carried out mostly in the ofces of these executives with some in a nearby tea house and coffee shop. Focus groups created for specied research purposes can provide valuable insights. From the chosen corporations, this study has formed four focus groups, each representing one particular type of organizationcorporations in transition, shared/limited rms, privately-owned companies, and state-owned-and state-run corporations. Each group consists of between eight and 12 people who are the employees representatives/opinion leaders. These people were selected on the basis of the consultation meetings this investigator had with the management teams and the leaders of the labor unions from the selected corporations. Although this investigator had to explain in general to them the nature of the questions to be raised with the groups, no group was provided with a pre-prepared list of questions. One meeting was organized with each group, running on average for one and a half hours. With participants permission, the focus group meetings were videotaped and transcribed thereby to identify and analyze the attendants reactions to and comments on a set of open-ended questions. For the sample survey, this study used a mailed questionnaire: a carefully prepared questionnaire which was also pre-tested, and was sent out to all the people in charge of internal employee communication in the 100 selected corporations. The survey aims to reach out to as wide a circle of corporations that qualied for the study as possible. Thus, 100 questionnaires were mailed out; 92 were returned, yielding a high response rate of 92%. This study has also become a longitudinal project. In the past three years, this investigator tracked possible changes in the selected corporations regarding 176

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consistently the structure and operation of internal/employee communicationthe channels being used for communication, the amount of efforts being placed on balanced two-way communication, and the degree to which corporate communicators were involved in corporate decision-making process.

Operational denitions In analyzing the structure and operation of Chinese corporate internal/employee communication, the following measures were chosen to be included: (1) the mode of internal/employee communication; (2) communication channels applied (one-way vs. two-way ones); (3) time spent on seeking feedback vs. disseminating information; (4) intended effects of communication; (5) size and types of organizations; (6) organizational cultures; and (7) roles that corporate communicators play. First, respondents indicated the main thrust of their communication mode. In measuring a companys primary communication approach, the four Grunig Hunt models were briey explained to the respondent and they were then asked to identify a particular model. Those corporations practicing internal/employee communication largely or primarily using press agent/publicity or public information were said to practice in a one-way mode. Those adhering to two-way asymmetric or two-way symmetric modes were lumped together as two-way or mixed-motive model. Second, respondents reported which communication channels were used through which management communicates with employees were carried out: one way vs. two way. One-way channels include: corporate/department meetings; ofce memos/letters/notices; corporate broadcasting; in-house publications; closed circuit TV programs; and the companys website. Two-way channels involve: face-to-face conversations; telephone calls; bulletin boards; town-hall meetings; suggestion box; informal/social gatherings; open forums; and surveys. The internal-consistency reliability was high. Coefcient alphas were 0.91 for one-way channels, with 0.89 for two-way channels. Third, respondents estimated the percentage of their time spent on seeking feedback vs. distributing information from and to employees. Fourth, respondents characterized the emphasis/purposes/objectives for internal employee communication. In identifying the purposes/objectives that internal/employee communication is to achieve, three relationship variables and two productivity variables were introduced. Three relationship variables were: (a) achieving mutual understanding and trust between the management and employees; (b) increasing employee job satisfaction; and (c) helping management better serve employees needs. Two productivity variables were: (a) gaining employee support for corporate leaders and their decisions; and (b) increasing productivity. Fifth, respondents indicated the corporate size and type. An arbitrary decision was made to categorize corporate sizes of medium number of employees (ranged between 80 and 200), and large (201 and above). Corporate types are classied into: (a) state owned corporation; (b) corporation in transition (from state owned to shared limited); (c) shared limited companies; and (d) privately-owned enterprises. 177

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Sixth, respondents described organizational cultures of being one of the following: authoritarian, participative, or mixed. A brief description of each was provided. Authoritarian culture features little inuence or participation from others when a leader or manager makes decisions. The leader tells others what to do and usually enforces sanctions against those who fail to comply. He/she views followers as essential for goal achievement but usually feels little responsibility for subordinate needs and relationships. Participative culture emphasizes the engagement of others in decision making. It assumes creativity will be greater and there will be more broadbased support for goals if participation is high. This type of culture is likely to generate a climate in which problem solving can take place while interpersonal relationships are preserved. It values human resources, organic structures, innovation, and symmetrical communication. Mixed culture entails the features of both. Seventh, respondents reported on the role(s) they play and described the two major roles: communication technician and communication manager. The former is to: write communication materials, present information on issues important to the organization; handle the technical aspects of producing communication materials; produce brochures, pamphlets and other publications; and specialize in writing and producing communication materials. The latter is usually to: make communication-policy decisions; be responsible for communication programs; be expert in solving problems; be accountable for programs; be expert in diagnosing communication problems; conduct informal and formal surveys to evaluate projects; keep others in the organization informed of media reports; create opportunities for management to hear the views of various internal and external publics; act as a liaison in promoting two-way communication; outline alternative approaches for solving problems when working with managers on communication problems; act as problemsolving facilitator, helping management dene problems; and set objectives and plan programs systematically. One particular item used for the rst time in this study was the role of True Manager, which was measured in two ways: rst, respondents identied themselves either as or not as a part of the dominant coalitiona member presenting at the top management; second, respondents made a clear distinction as to whether they participate only in communication-related decisions/policies, or overall organizational decisions/policies. Internal-consistency reliability between the two items was very high with coefcient alphas being 0.98. In measuring the effectiveness of internal/employee communication, three key indicators of organizational effectivenesslevel of employee job satisfaction, level of trust, level of openness between management and employeeswere used. A vepoint scale was used to tap various levels. Scale values ranged from 1 (extremely low) to 5 (extremely high).

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Findings and discussion Status of internal/employee communication programs An early study found that internal/employee communication activities were usually part of the larger public relation function of an organization.40 Grunig also argued that as employees are a strategic public for nearly all organizations, programs to communicate with them should be part of an integrated and managed communication program.41 This, however, has not been the case with most of the Chinese corporations under study. This study has found the following. 1. Of all the Chinese corporations surveyed, internal/employee communication is mostly (n 82, 89%) housed in human resources and personnel departments either designated to a unit or just one person. A majority of the people surveyed (n 80, 87%) claimed to have no direct access to top management and hardly participated in the corporations major policy/decision making. Their job responsibility was simply to carry out the decision already made by the top management; and, thus, they were practically excluded from their organizations dominant coalition. 2. About 92% of the respondents (n 85) stated that there had never been any research, such as a communication audit, conducted to evaluate communication effects. 3. Survey results also showed very low mean scores (on a ve-point scale) on: (a) amount of attention and importance that top management attached to internal and employee communication (m 1.25); (b) amount of effort the top management made to improve the communication (m 1.5); (c) amount of support that the managers in other departments such as, marketing, provided to the organization and execution of employee communication programs (m 1.33); and (d) level of understanding the top management and heads of other departments had regarding the roles and functions that internal/employee communication could offer (m 1.78). 4. Few corporations (n 15, 16%) had increased the budget on employee/internal communication in the past three years. As public relations is still a relatively new practice in the Chinese corporate community, many communication executives explained during the interviews that the top management had not yet fully realized the functions of public relations at management level and, in particular, failed to attach due importance to internal/employee communication.42

40. H. M. Shatshat, A comparative study of the present and ideal roles of communication directors in selected business organizations, Journal of Business Communication 17(3), (1980), pp. 5163. 41. Grunig, Symmetrical systems of internal communication, ch. 20. 42. Interviews, 10 December 2003, 29 December 2004, and 22 December 2005, Shanghai, PRC.

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Structure and operation of internal/employee communication by psychological/philosophical and practical measures In analyzing the structure and operation of Chinese corporate internal/employee communication, this study examined: (a) the mode of internal/employee communication; (b) communication channels applied (one-way vs. two-way ones); (c) size and types of organizations; (d) organizational cultures; and (e) roles that corporate communicators play. Hypothesis 1 asserts that when making major corporate policies and decisions, the management seldom engages employees in the process. This assertion was fully supported. An overwhelming 82% of respondents (n 75) felt that employees had seldom been engaged, if not consulted at all, in any type of policy/decision making process. In addition, when estimatingon a ve-point scaletheir beliefs regarding the impact that employees feedback might have on organizational policies/decisions, only ve (5.4%) respondents asserted that employees feedback had a large impact; as many as 51 (55%) respondents thought employees feedback had very little, if any, impact; and the rest fell in-between (n 36, 39%). Thus, Hypothesis 1 gained support. Along with Hypothesis 1, Hypothesis 2 also received positive support. Chinese corporate communicators, as predicted, did spend more time on distributing information out to employees, and less on seeking input and feedback from them. On average, the respondents reported to have spent about one third of their time (33%) soliciting employee input/feedback/suggestions (M 59.43, SD 26.678). Information distribution accounted for two-thirds (67%) of their time (M 29.41, SD 19.036). A further statistical analysis revealed that time spent on information distribution correlated highly and positively with one-way top down (r 0.58, p , 0.001), and two-way asymmetrical (r 0.45, p , 0.001) modes of communication; hence, this further validates the nding pertinent to Hypothesis 6b, which will be discussed later. Very much in line with the above ndings, Hypothesis 3 was fully conrmed. The data yielded a clear tendency that for most Chinese corporations (n 86, 93%), their intended purposes for internal/employee communication leaned toward enhancing productivity X 2 (3, N 91) 9.05, p , 0.01 than did those (n 6, 7%) for establishing mutually benecial relationships. Thus, the intended effect of the communication is imbalanced and asymmetrical in nature. On the whole, respondents all agreed that management placed more emphasis on productivity enhancement than anything else when conducting internal/employee communication. One interviewee stressed that to every CEO nowadays, the primary task is to nd the ways to enhance productivity; he or she may employ various means to build relationships with employees but only to serve one end, namely, to render the highest possible level of productivity. This type of mind-set, in her judgment, has prevailed among most of the Chinese corporate leaders.43 Assuming the dominant mode of employee communication within Chinese corporations would be one-way, top-down . two-way asymmetrical . two-way symmetrical, Hypothesis 4 was not fully supported. The most popular communication
43. Interviews, 29 December 2004, Shanghai, PRC.

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mode was two-way asymmetrical (n 31, 34%), followed by one-way, top-down mode (n 29, 32%), mixed-motive (n 22, 24%), and two-way symmetrical (n 10, 11%). Although few variations surfaced between and among the four modes, the data did reect a subtle change in managements thinking and behavior. It indicates the existence of two-way asymmetrical communication within Chinese corporations that has never been observed and documented before. More specically, a typical state-owned-and-run Chinese corporation used to be structured in a way that those at the top undertook all decision making and implementation. They believed that employees were subordinates who were apt to receive information and act upon it with no questions asked. In addition, employees were viewed as those who could hardly provide any useful or helpful input. The internal/employee communication thus became one-way, downward and persuasive. However, thinking at the management level seemed to have changed somewhat as management realized that employees feedback could be used to help formulate organizational policies and decisions so as to ensure that these policies and decisions would be better accepted and carried out by employees.44 As such, the communication, though becoming twoway, produces asymmetrical and unbalanced effects, serving only the corporations seeking attainment of corporate objectives as the core purpose. One participant, also echoed by several others, pointed out that the management people talk to us mainly to get what they want; it has never been intended for our (employees) benets and well being.45 In analyzing the model orientation further, the mixed-motive model was singled out, and hypothesized to be the most popular mode of communication in Chinese corporations (Hypothesis 5). However, the data failed to support it. Compared to twoway asymmetrical (n 31, 34%) and one-way top-down (n 29, 32%) approaches, a mixed-motive approach was applied by fewer organizations (n 22, 24%), ranked as the second least popular one. Stemming from all these ndings, one can contend that the mode of internal/employee communication in Chinese corporations is one-way in nature, and two-way asymmetrical with unbalanced effect at best. To further validate the above ndings, this author looked into a particular factor the channels used for communication (one-way vs. two-way). The data generated endured Hypothesis 6a, which assumes that communication channels used in Chinese corporations are more one-way than two-way types. In terms of frequencies, one-way communication channels were used 30% (n 1,710) more often than two-way channels (n 569). Interestingly, when asked to cite three most frequently used one-way channels, the respondents mentioned the following: (a) corporate meetings (with everyone attending, featuring one CEOs speech or report); (b) corporate broadcasting announcements; and (c) ofce memoranda. The three most often cited two-way channels included: (a) use of suggestion box; (b) face-toface informal chatting; and (c) town-hall meetings. It is apparent that communication channels used in Chinese corporations remain traditional and largely non-electronic.
44. Interviews, 10 December 2003, Shanghai, PRC. 45. Focus group discussion, 8 April 2004, Shanghai, PRC.

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While many Western corporations invest money in improving internal communication systems via introducing modern technologies to secure timely and accurate communication with their employees, Chinese corporations seem to be lagging far behind in this regard. In addition, Hypothesis 6b was supported by the statistics showing a clear correlation between channels used and model orientations. As asserted, the use of two-way channels correlated highly and positively with two-way model orientations (r 0.66, p , 0.001); and the same held true with the use of one-way channels and model orientation (r 72, p , 0.001). Corporations whose employee communication was modeled more as two way tended to use two-way channels; while those whose dominant mode of communication was one way turned to one-way channels. More specically, Hypothesis 8 posits that the use of suggestion box and town-hall meetings does not always square with the two-way communication because often such measures are used for giving the appearance of a participatory management stylein other words, for making management look good, and employees feel better. It is, however, interesting to note that the use of suggestion box and town-hall meetings were the two most frequently cited two-way channels by respondents. Contrary to expectations, the adoption of suggestion box and town-hall meetings did correlate positively and strongly with two-way modes of communication (r 0.47, r 0.35, p , 0.001), implying that the uses of suggestion box and town-hall meetings indeed were intended for ensuring two-way communication. Thus, Hypothesis 8 was rejected. It should be noted that the intended effect for such two-way communication is often unbalanced. During a focus-group meeting, almost every participant acknowledged the application of suggestion boxes and town-hall meetings and stressed that these measures were nothing new, because they can be traced back to pre-reform periods. Even to date, both management and employees thought of them as a way to put up a front [zhuang menmian in Chinese], showing how democratic and caring the management was. However, many did regard them as easy, effective and personal tools to facilitate internal/employee communication. When asked specically how often they would rely on suggestion boxes and town-hall meetings to enhance internal/employee communication, many responded very often. Several participants emphasized that as part of Chinese organizational culture, both management and employees are used to the century-long practice of shangshu (submitting a suggestion to a higher authority) and mianjian (presenting views face to face), and suggestion box and town-hall meetings serve these purposes well.46 In a related vein, Hypothesis 7, suggesting that it is less likely that mechanisms exist within Chinese corporations to ensure that workers complaints and suggestions reach top management, was fully supported. Specically, 71 (77%) respondents noted that there were no people or departments/ofces in their organizations who/which were designated to be in charge of corporate communication in general and internal/employee communication per se. When needed, the task relating to internal/employee communication was often assigned to such people as the President of Labor Union, Assistant to Chief Managers, the Head of Womens Union, and
46. Focus group discussion, 8 April 2004, Pudong, Shanghai, PRC.

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Deputy-Director of Personnel Ofce. Furthermore, as many as 80 respondents (87%) claimed that no systematic surveys were ever conducted to gain employees input/feedback/comments within their respective corporations. Moreover, most (n 87, 95%) had never done, nor heard of, a communication audit. As far as we can tell, participants at one focus-group meeting stressed, employee communication has never been institutionalized, because it seldom becomes a long-term policy agenda for top management; it gets the top managements attention only when theres management employee dispute which may burst into a crisis.47 Employee communication was more a short-term, contingency-oriented, and ad hoc arrangement than an integral part of the management.48 In addition to the fact that the dominant communication structure in Chinese corporations is one way and top down, its actual practice also relies heavily on the use of one-way channels. After looking at the model orientations and communication channels, the other factors that may affect internal/employee communication are closely examined, among which the key ones are organizational size, type, and culture. In regard to the size factor, Hypothesis 9 assumes that the larger the corporation is, the more likely it is that the mode of communication would be two-way than one-way. This hypothesis, however, received only partial support. Though the statistics showed a signicant association (r 0.126, p , 0.05) between the size of corporations and two-way mode of communication, the data only suggested a possible tendency for larger corporations (n 79.2%) to hold on to two-way modes, and smaller ones (n 34.1%) to one-way modes (X 2 2.908, df 1, p . 0.05). Concerning the types of organizations, Hypothesis 10 species that corporations that are more inclined to adopt two-way approaches in internal/employee communication would follow this rank order: corporations in transition . shared limited companies . privately-owned enterprises . state-owned corporations. Thus, this hypothesis was not supported though the data did reveal a tendency that the shared limited company (n 44.9%) leaned toward the two-way modes more heavily (X 2 1.65, df 2, p . 0.05) than did the other three: privately-owned enterprises (n 20.9%), corporations in transition (n 18.2%), and state-owned corporations (n 16.3%). Regarding organizational cultures, Hypothesis 11a proposes that corporations in transition are more likely to have participative culture than other types of corporations with relative stability. The data rejected this hypothesis. Much different from what was expected, participative culture seemed to be housed more in shared/limited companies (n 57.1%), rather than in state-owned corporations (n 12%), corporations in transition (n 10.9%), and privately-owned corporations (n 9.5%) (X 2 5.606, df 3, p . 0.05). In addition, the data also revealed a clear tendency of state-owned corporations with their corporate culture being more of a mixed culture (n 59.6%)

47. Focus-group meeting, 8 April 2004, Pudong, Shanghai, PRC. 48. Focus group meeting, 11 August 2005, Shanghai, PRC.

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Table 1. Mean importance, efforts and amount of information exchange by organization types Corporations in transition (n 31) Importance Efforts Amount 1.3540* 1.1873 9.3974 Shared limited (n 33) 2.7831* 1.4689 11.4857 State-owned (n 17) 2.4923 1.3746 10.9436 Privately-owned (n 11) 1.0367 1.2548 10.0437

F 3.3789 (df 3,168; p , 0.01) 4.1574 (df 3,172; p . 0.05) 2.4916 (df 3,278; p . 0.05)

Note: * Means differed signicantly based on Scheffes test.

than an authoritarian culture (n 25%), or participative culture (n 15.2%). And the difference was statistically signicant (X 2 0.42, df 3, p . 0.05). As for the importance that top management attached to and the efforts that management placed on improving internal/employee communication, as well as frequencies of information exchange between management and employees, as Hypothesis 11b assumes, organizations should follow the same rank order as proposed in Hypothesis 11a. The date rejected the hypothesis (see Table 1). Regarding the amount of importance that management attached to internal/employee communication, shared limited companies scored the highest. State-owned enterprises came in second; and privately-owned corporations fell in between the last two. However, the analysis of variance and accompanying Scheffes test revealed a signicant difference only between shared limited and corporations in transition. Regarding the amount of effort that top management placed on improving internal/employee communication, and the amount of information exchange between management and employees, the data showed the same overall rank order. Shared limited companies exceeded state-owned enterprises; and the privately-owned corporations scored higher than corporations in transition. The rejection of these two hypotheses may be attributed to the fact that the transition is limited only to ownership/management change. Corporations in transitionfrom state-owned to shared limitedexhibit a strange phenomenon. With structural reshaping, largely at the level of top management, theres little change with regards corporate culture. One participant of the focus group pointed out that the problem is with the management, as the primary concern of the management was how large a share theyd be able to own or control in the corporation after the transition is completed.49 Managements in these corporations tend to operate in a black-box by manipulating, upholding, and even distorting information about the process of ownership and management changes. They
49. Focus group interview, 8 June 2004, Pudong, Shanghai, PRC.

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preferred little communication internally: in many cases employees were only informed of the nal decisions, not ever consulted during the process. Media reports on the amount of state property lost to a small number of individualsmainly management peoplehave been outrageous. As it happens, those already rich and powerful become wealthier and more powerful; and the powerless further weakened and marginalized; which, no doubt, has given rise to the growing number of open complaints, demonstrations, and even strikes by workers who are disadvantageously affected. Hypothesis 12, stating that corporations with different cultures tend to differ from each other regarding model orientations, was fully supported. The data indicated that corporations with participative culture (n 61.4%), as compared to those with authoritarian culture (n 36%), tended to follow more twoway models (X 2 23.597, df 1, p , 0.01). However, among the three two-way models, again, the symmetrical model (n 20%) did not stand out as the most popular one in corporations with participative cultures. It fell behind the two-way mixed (n 42.9%) and two-way asymmetrical (n 30%) models. The data also suggested that corporations with an authoritarian culture modeled their internal/employee communication more on one way (n 64%) than two way (n 36%), and the difference was statistically signicant (X 2 52.224, df 3, p , 0.01). The data analyses thus yielded a clear correlation between the organizational cultures and the model orientations within Chinese corporations, indicating that organizational culture was an inuential factor over internal/employee communication. Effects of internal/employee communication as reected in terms of levels of job satisfaction, trust and openness between management and employees Having discussed the structure and operation of internal/employee communication, this study also attempts to measure the effects of such communication. Three key indicators of organizational effectivenessemployee job satisfaction, level of trust, level of openness between management and employeeswere examined across such variables as corporate culture, communication model orientation, and communication channels. Hypothesis 13 supposes that participative culture leads to higher level of trust and openness between management and employees, as well as employee job satisfaction. In a related vein, as asserted in Hypothesis 14, corporations adhering to a two-way symmetrical model of communication enjoyed a higher level of trust and openness between management and employees, as well as a higher level of employee job satisfaction, than those adopting the other models of communication. These two hypotheses were fully supported (see Tables 2a and 2b). Regarding Hypothesis 15, the data also indicated a direction in which corporations applying two-way communication channels (N 151, M 2.95, SD 0.733) surpassed those which did not (N 22, M 2.64, SD 0.790) on warranting the higher level of openness in management employee communication, 185

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Table 2a. Mean levels of trust, openness and job satisfaction by corporate cultures Participative culture (n 21) Level of trust Level of openness Level of job satisfaction 4.0271* 4.236* 3.982* Authoritarian culture (n 37) 2.1352* 2.081* 2.003* F 6.357 (df 2,439) 5.632 (df 2,019) 5.149 (df 2,086)

Note: * Means differed signicantly based on Scheffes test.

Table 2b. Mean levels of trust, openness and job satisfaction by model orientation Two-way symmetrical (n 10) Level of trust Level of openness Level of job satisfaction 4.252* 4.736* 4.079* Non-two-way symmetrical (excluding mixed model) (n 60) 3.091* 2.485* 3.085*

F 7.263 (df 2,238) 6.544 (df 2,145) 4.621 (df 2,392)

Note: * Means differed signicantly based on Scheffes test.

although statistically not signicant [t(1.366) 1.878, p . 0.05]. To further validate the ndings, this study has compared the use of one-way channels with two-way ones in measuring the levels of trust, openness, and the job satisfaction respectively. The data conrmed in a statistically signicant manner ( p , 0.001) that the use of two-way communication channels, compared to the use of one-way channels, helps reach a higher level of trust (3.787 vs. 3.616), openness (6.996 vs. 6.151) and job satisfaction (4.741 vs. 4.715). As anticipated in Hypothesis 16, Chinese corporate communicators (n 156, 82%) do play the role of communication technician more than that of communication manager (n 34, 18%). Of all the respondents, an overwhelming majority claimed that their job responsibilities sat mostly on designing and executing special events, and sometimes, on writing of communication materials such as newsletters, etc.; thus, they were seldom consulted by top management when organizational decisions were made. In sum, the study found that the following key correlates had rendered the internal/employee communication more effective as measured by levels of trust and 186

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Table 3. Mean of trust, openness and job satisfaction by corporate culture, communication mode/channels/purpose with the status of communication specialists within organizations Dependent variables Independent variables Participative Culture Two-way Symmetric Mode Two-way Channels Relationship Building As the purpose CS-DC CS-NOT-DC F-Values CS-DC CS-NOT-DC F-Values CS-DC CS-NOT-DC F-Values CS-DC CS-NOT-DC F-Values Trust 3.95 1.83 23.11* 3.21 3.06 12.46 2.89 2.71 40.43 4.81 2.01 8.75* Openness 4.12 2.01 26.30* 2.65 2.27 10.35 4.51 3.93 51.90 2.77 1.83 6.17 Job Satisfaction 2.68 1.79 20.25* 4.31 3.48 15.87* 3.22 3.16 62.27 4.36 3.05 9.82*

Note: * p , .001 CS-DC Corporate communication specialists are part of the dominant coalition within organizations. CS-NOT-DC Corporate communication specialists are NOT part of the dominant coalition within organizations.

openness between management and employees, as well as employee job satisfaction. They were: (a) participative culture being established as corporate culture; (b) two-way symmetrical approach being adopted as dominating communication mode; (c) two-way vehicles being applied as main communication channels; and (d) the objective/purpose of internal/employee communication being set for relationship building between employees and management. Would these ndings remain the same or changed when a new variable is introduced in the overall measurement? It was proposed that these four factors would lead to higher levels of trust and openness between management and employees, as well as employee job satisfaction only when communication specialists were part of the dominant coalition, participating in a companys major decision and policy making. The statistic outcome revealed several interesting ndings (see Table 3). First, organizations which have participative culture in place scored higher on all three measureslevels of trust, openness and job satisfaction, with statistically signicant results only when their communication specialists were part of the dominant coalition, participating in a companys major decision making process. Second, the same is true for the association between the practice of two-way symmetrical communication and higher level of employee job satisfaction, as well as relationship building and higher levels of trust and employee job satisfaction. Third, corporations with their key communicators being communication managers, as compared to those where their communicators were not, tended more likely to warrant better communication effects, though some differences were statistically insignicant ( p . 0.01). Therefore, this particular variable appeared to be the determinant factor on which the communication effects seemed to hinge. 187

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Data collected from in-depth interviews were used to further validate the above ndings. Answers were sought to the question of whether those who consider themselves as communication managers make communication-related decisions only or they actually participate at and perform an important part in an organizations decision/policy making process, thus, making themselves True Managers. This study found that even those who thought of themselves as communication managers mostly ended up being lower-level managers making communication-related decisions onlythey were not part of the dominant coalition. We are marginalized and have never been in the main stream of the organization; therefore, how can we play the management role if we are dened and positioned as technicians.50 Less than half of the interviewees (n 22) believed that they were True Managerspart of the dominant coalition within their organizations. Conclusion and implications This study has attempted to establish a linkage between internal/employee communication and organizational effectiveness by using psychological, philosophical and practical measures. It has tested the validity of Grunigs Excellence Theory by investigating Chinese corporations move toward excellent communication in meeting the challenges to transform as requested by Chinas entry into WTO. This study has specically probed into the insights of possible contributions to the overall organizational effectiveness internal/employee communication may make, and identied possible key factor that communication effects may hinge on. The Excellence Theory prescribed that communication specialists should be on the management teamas part of the dominant coalition. It also suggests that excellent communication hinges on the practice of symmetrical model, which uses communication to manage conict and increase employee satisfaction.51 Kim also nds organizational justice to be a critical mediating variable between symmetrical communication and organization employee relationships.52 The result of this study entails that the relationship between internal/employee communication and corporate effectiveness is more signicant than the existing literature has assumed. By examining Chinese corporations communication structure and operation, this study has found that the integration of employee/internal communication into managerial structure and practice holds one of the keys to excellent communication and organizational effectiveness in Chinese corporations. First, in Chinese corporations, the internal/employee communication is structured and operated in a one-way and top-down manner. Often assigned not solely as corporate communicators, those in charge of internal/employee communication spend more time on distributing information to employees than seeking input and feedback from them. Such a deciency is mainly due to the lack of interest among the top managers in open, two-way symmetrical communication. Good news is that new thinking at the management level has emerged: some managers, especially those
50. Interview, 22 December 2005, Shanghai, PRC. 51. See Grunig et al., Excellent Public Relations and Effective Organizations. 52. Kim, Organizational Structure and Internal Communication as Antecedents of EmployeeOrganization Relationship in the Context of Organizational Justice, p. 154.

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from shared limited enterprises and even state-owned corporations, have come to realize that employees feedback should and could be used to help better formulate organizational policies and decisions so as to ensure that these policies and decisions would be accepted and carried out toward achieving the organizational goals. Although becoming two-way, the communication still produces asymmetrical and unbalanced effects, serving the corporations only with seeking attainment of corporate objectives as the core purpose. Thus, the mode of internal/employee communication in Chinese corporations is one-way in nature, two-way asymmetrical with unbalanced effects at best. Second, the internal/employee communication in Chinese corporations relies heavily on utilizing one-way communication channels which remain traditional and non-electronic. As Western corporations increasingly devote resources to improving internal/employee communication by using the state-of-the-art technologies to secure timely and accurate communication with employees, Chinese corporations, especially those in transition, have yet to pay sufcient attention to the upgrading of their internal/employee communication facilities. Third, few communication executives in Chinese corporations function as true policy makers, with most acting either as a communication strategist or as a technician. More specically, this study has identied a distinction, often neglected in earlier research, between those who are true policy makerspart of the dominant coalitionand those who are only communication strategists or managers. Furthermore, this study has found that this distinction becomes the most inuential and determinant factor on which the communication effects seem to hinge. Fourth, this study has established a linkage between internal/employee communication and organizational effectiveness. By measuring the effects reected in the levels of trust and openness between management and employees, and employee job satisfaction, the study has revealed several key correlates, including: (a) participative culture serving as the base for internal/employee communication; (b) two-way symmetrical approach being adopted as dominant communication mode; (c) two-way vehicles being applied as main communication channels; (d) the objective of internal/employee communication being set for employee management relationship building; and (e) corporate communicators being the True Managers, or part of the dominant coalition. The statistical outcome suggested that the rst four factors would lead to better organizational effects only when factor (e) is in place. Thus, there exists an urgent need for Chinese corporate communicators to enter the organizations dominant coalition in a time of systemic transition. To be part of the decision-making team, they must rst become excellent communication strategists, setting and implementing communication strategies and overall policies. After all, this study supports Grunigs recent urge to transform public relations strategic management functions into standard operating practice in most organizations, especially those in structural and systemic transition.53 In that, this study ventures to suggest that as Chinese corporations prepare themselves to become viable game players in the new world economic system, due attention must be given
53. Grunig, Furnishing the edice, pp. 151176; also see E. L. Toth, ed., The Future of Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management: Challenges for the Next Generation (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007).

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