Taxonomy of Communications

Communication is the vehicle of control. A communication system provides the means with which information, statements, views and instructions are transmitted through an organisation. Although we often speak of the ‘flow’ of communications, in fact this flow consists of a series of discrete messages of different length, form or content. These messages are transmitted through certain channels (or ‘lines of communication’), which comprise the communication network; some of these channels are heavily congested, others are not. Each message is generated by a transmitter (an individual, a group, a department, a computer) to a receiver or several receivers. It may induce action or provoke a reaction in the form of a counter-message, or both. Every individual or department in an organisation acts as a transmitter and a receiver (though not for the same messages). Some individuals transmit more than they receive, others receive more than they transmit, depending on their role and function in the organisation. Messages in a communication network, then, are a manifestation of interactions in the system and of the control mechanisms at work.