Symmetrical communication: an intra-organisational system to support conflict and crisis resolution in organisations

Abstract

The importance of symmetrical communication from below cannot be underestimated, as it can differentiate an organization from its competitors, contribute to its sustainable success, eliminate conflicts, mitigate crisis situations, and promote openness and employee engagement and a positive organizational culture with the support of symmetrical communication. The main objective is to evaluate the relationship between the selected identifying variables on the use of selected forms of symmetric communication for conflict resolution and setting strategic organizational processes. A questionnaire survey of Czech organizations (n1 = 183) was conducted, and the data obtained were evaluated using hierarchical logistic regression to examine the relationship between the application of different forms of grassroots communication, organizational characteristics, selected education, and age management activities along with qualitative research. The influence of the size of the organization and the amount of annual turnover on the use of most of the observed forms of symmetric communication was demonstrated. Communication through an human resources officer is positively correlated with the size of the organization (typically with more than 250 employees).

Keywords

• Bottom-up approach
• top-down approach
• feedback
• employee voice
• organisational culture
• modern HR trends