Upward Communication

If the manages have to transmit information down the line of authority, they have also to receive information continuously emanating from levels below them. The communication channel, which pushes the flow of information upward, is known as the upward channel of communication.
For the upward communication, some methods are in used.
Open-door policy. The employees are given a feeling that the manager’s doors are always open to them. Whenever they like they can walk into his room, without any hesitation whatever, and talk to him about their problems.

1. Complaints-and-suggestions boxes. At some convenient place in the office, complaints-and-suggestion boxes are installed. The employees are encouraged to drop their complaints or suggestions.
2. Social gatherings. Social gathering are frequently arranged in different departments. These gathering offer a very informal atmosphere in which the employees shed their inhibitions and feel free to talk about their problems.
3. Direct correspondence. Sometimes the manager may directly write to an employee and ask him to communicate with him. Alternatively, the employees may write to their higher-ups at their own initiative.
4. Counselling. In some organisations, workers are encouraged to seek the counsel of their supervisor on their personal problems. What they think to be their personal problems is often a conglomeration of domestic and official problems. As they feel encouraged to talk about themselves freely, they provide the managers with valuable information.

Disadvantages of upward communication
1. Employees are usually reluctant to initiate upward communication. The managers might keep their doors open, but they cannot force the employees to walk into their room.
2. Employees often feel that if they communicate their problem to their superiors, it may adversely reflect on their own efficiency. If a supervisor has trouble in getting cooperation from his workers and points it out to the departmental manager, the letter might feel that the supervisor himself is incompetent.
3. Upward flow of communication is more prone to distortion than downward communication. In downward communication, distortion is often unconscious. However, upward communication is deliberately distorted. Some managers lose their cool if they are confronted with unpleasant fact. So information, particularly of the unpalatable sort, is suitably ‘edited’ before it is passed on to them.
4. Sometimes in the process of upward communication, workers become too bold, ignore their immediate superiors and directly approach the topmost authorities with their suggestions or complain. These officers who have been by-passed feel slighted, while the high-cups get suspicious of the workers’ intentions. The relations between the workers and their immediate superiors get strained and work suffers.

Advantages of upward communication
1. Providing feedback. Upward communication provides the management with necessary feedback. The management is able to ascertain whether the directives issued to the lower staff have been properly understood and followed.
2. Outlet for pent-up emotions. Upward communication gives the employees an opportunity to vent their problems and grievances. Although the management often thinks it knows and realises the grievances of the employees, the latter hardly feel convinced and satisfied. In any case, it is of vital importance to look at the employees problems as they look at them. The genuine and pressing grievances are redressed; a ground is prepared for the solution of some other problems; and with regard to those problems, which cannot be immediately solved.
3. Constructive suggestions. Often employees offer constructive suggestions to promote the welfare of the organisation. Some of these suggestions, when implemented, definitely prove beneficial.
4. Easier introduction of new schemes. Since the employees feel themselves to be a party to the decision-making process, it helps the organisation to introduce new schemes without antagonising the employees.
5. Greater harmony and cohesion. Upward communication acts as a kind of lubricant. It makes the atmosphere in the company congenial and creates greater harmony and cohesion between the management and the employees.