Communication in Administrative Bureaucracies

Abstract

This paper examines the structural constraints on the frequency of both department head and subordinate communication within 44 local government bureaucracies. The effect of organizational size, shape, decentralization, routinization and boundary spanning on the frequency of both department head and subordinate communication were examined. The organizational variables explained 50 percent of the variance in the frequency of subordinate communication but little or none of the variance in the frequency of department head communication.