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AN INVESTIGATION OF DOWNWARD COMMUNICATION
WITHIN A CHURCH ORGANIZATION
by
COLEMAN LAFAYETTE LEMMONS, JR., B.A.
A THESIS
IN
SPEECH COMMUNICATION
Submittedof Texas Tech University to the Graduate Faculty in
Partial Fulfillment ofthe Requirements for
the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
Approved
Accepted
December, 1975
IOo-lS
(2.0 p ^
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am deeply indebted to Dr. T. Richard Cheatham for
his direction of this thesis and to the other m.embers of
my committee, Dr. William J. Jordan and Dr. Margaret L.
McLaughlin, for their helpful criticism.
I am also grateful for the cooperation of the elders
of the Broadway Church of Christ in allowing me to do
this field research.
1 1
III. IMPLICATION OF RESULTS AND SUGGESTIONS
- FOR FUTURE RESEARCH - Implication of Results - Reasons for Small Response - Validity of Instrument Modification - Effects of Loosening Controls - Effective Downward Communication - Suggestions for Future Research
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- APPENDICES
- A. JACOBSON-SEASHORE CHECKLIST
- B. MODIFIED JACOBSON-SEASHORE CHECKLIST
LIST OF TABLES
1. Sunday School Class of Respondents 17
2. Age of Respondents 18
3. Sex of Respondents 20
4. Frequency of Contact from Ministers
and Secretaries 23
5. Reason for Contact from Ministers and
Secretaries 24
6. Function of Message Communicated from
Ministers and Secretaries 25
7. Importance of Contact from Ministers
and Secretaries 26
8. Frequency of Contact from Elders 27
9. Reason for Contact from Elders 28
10. Function of Message Communicated from Elders 29
11. Importance of Contact from Elders 30
12. Correlation of Structure Variables 31
13. Ministers' and Secretaries' Effective
Downward Communication 33
14. Elders' Effective Downward Communication 34
15. The Messages' Dispersion 35
16. The Awareness of Messages 35
17. The Messages' Media Source 36
18. The Distortion of Messages 37
19. The Amount of Time Since the Messages
Were First Received 37
20. The Physical Location When messages Received 38
V
CHAPTER I
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Introduction
The New Testament describes the church as an organiza-
tion in several ways, but one of the prominent customs is
to compare it to a body. This practice corresponds to
what Burns and Stalker call the organic model of organiza-
tion. The model is accurate because it describes a system
which derives from the member's deep involvement and "pre-
sumed community of interest with the rest of the working
organization m... survival and growth... "
In the organic system, relationships develop between
individuals in much the same way as the relationships which
develop between different organs of the body. Members are
joined with other members of the body to function in a cli-
mate of supportiveness; participative decision-making; trust,
confidence, and credibility; openness 4 and candor; and empha-
sis upon high performance goals.
Communication serves as the "nervous system" for each
of the members of the body, passing information to aid the
functioning of relationships. Not only does communication
serve as the nervous system, but also: "the communication
of the church in all places, has to do with getting the word
of justice and love into the bloodstream of man and into the
veins and arteries of his human community." Both nervous
and circulatory systems are essential for survival and
growth.
Since church communication has been compared to the
message-giving properties of the nervous system, and to the
traits giving life to interdependent body functions within
the circulatory system of the blood, communication in the
church organization will be defined as the flow of messages
within a system of interdependent relationships.^7
Review of Previous Theoretical Literature
The ValueCommunication of StudyingSystems
A principle value of the study of the communication
system of any organization is the measuring of effectiveness,
As Smith and Brown have stated, frequent and reciprocal com-
munication between leaders and followers is "the important
o
correlate of organizational effectiveness." If survival
and growth is to be maintained, effective vertical communi-
cation must be encouraged between leaders and followers.
The term vertical communication is used to describe the
phenomenon of leader-follower communication.
Vertical communication is important for those concerned
with control, accountability, and authority; and for the
organization 9 which specifies exactly who is responsible to
whom. When leaders (elders and ministers) of a church
elders and ministers (leaders) and Sunday school students
(members) of a local congregation of the Church of Christ.
The Church Communication System
The church, like any organization, behaves dynamically
in order to better serve its members. Eugene Walton has
stated that "the most significant factor accounting for the
total behavior of the organization is its communication
system, and that the dynamics of the organization can be
best understood by understanding its system of communica-
tion." 12 Walton goes on to say that leaders communicate
downward in an organization for four reasons: (1) he feels
he has the assigned legal position of command; (2) he feels
he should use his capacity to influence the member's per-
sonal opinions concerning the welfare of the organization;
(3) he views the member as a competent advisor in the orga-
nization; and (4) he enjoys social interaction with the
members.
The need to communicate functions in four basic message
types: (1) to tell members about a decision and how it is
to be carried out; (2) to attempt to personally affect the
quality of work in the organization; (3) to share the making
of policy decisions with members in order to help the orga-
nization to remain alive and perpetuate itself; and (4) to
help the members improve their attitude, morale, satisfac-
tion and fulfillment as individuals.^14
The reason for contact as well as the function of mes- sages are the structural characteristics of the communica- tive system. The structure of the system as a whole is made up of four types of individuals who tend to fall into the categories of communication (1) monopolizers, (2) keepers, (3) sharers, and (4) givers. The reason for the monopo- lizer's communication is approval—he feels he has the assigned legal position of command; and his message function is to inform members about a decision and how it is to be carried out. The reason for the keeper's communication is influence; he feels he should use his capacity to influence members' personal opinion concerning the welfare of the church. His message function is to persuade--to personally affect the quality of work in the church. The reason for the sharer's communication is expertise--he views the member as a competent advisor in the church. The sharer's message function is to regulate--to share in the making of policy decisions with the member in order to help the organization to remain alive and perpetuate itself. The reason for the giver's communication is sociability--he enjoys social in- teraction with the members; and his message functions to integrate—to help the members improve their attitude, morale, satisfaction and fulfillment as an individual in the church. The structure is represented by the following r. 16 figure.
Deviations from these ideals will show the individual's
tendencies to be one of the four types of communicators.
Groups of people can also be measured in terms of tendencies,
such as the group of ministers could be keepers as a whole;
secretaries, sharers as a whole; and adult Sunday school
class #1, monopolizers as a whole. It could work in any way
to show the structural tendency of the communication system
of each group or individual.
The leader—member, contact—avoidance pattern in the
church will be influenced by the structure of the communica-
tion system. Leaders who are consistently any one of the
four types of communicators will avoid contact, while the
leader who is an ideal type (25 percent or so of each type)
will probably contact members more frequently. 18 No doubt,
the leaders who are consistently any one of the four types
will also be considered by the members as not very important
to their growth as a member of the church.
Sometimes church members do not get the bulk of their
information from the structure of the church that we have
previously described. An analysis will study whether mem-
bers of the church are getting the majority of information
either from the elder, minister-secretary, Sunday school
class communication situations; or from somewhere outside
that communication system.^19
Previous Field Research To my knowledge, no previous study of this type has been done anywhere among the Churches of Christ. Such re- search, however, is being done to an increasing extent in businesses, schools, hospitals and many other organizations in an attempt to observe their communication system. One of the earliest attempts to measure the vertical communication system in an ongoing organization 20 was done by Eugene Jacobson and Stanley Seashore. The primary design of their study was to discover communication networks, hier- archial structure, relationship properties between members of the organization, and the psychological concomitants necessary for the success of the group. 21 An instrument was designed by Jacobson and Seashore to gather data about these variables, and has been proven valid by several studies done 22 at the University of Michigan (see Appendix A ). In a pilot study conducted by Randal Jack Givens and the author in the spring of 1974, the Jacobson-Seashore instrument was found to be unreliable in the areas of "Subject Matter" and "Reason for Contact," and has been modified to better suit the church organization. Since relationship variables are different for businesses (the subjects of the University of Michigan studies) and churches (the subjects of the present study) some wording was changed in the instrument (see Appendix B ). We also found a
checklist give indications of a hierarchial
structure?
lb. Will unwritten communication rules between
individuals and groups be observable from
the checklist data?
2. Is there a correlation between the reason for con-
tact plus function of message, and the tendency of
people to be either monopolizers, keepers, sharers,
or givers?
2a. What is the proportion of monopolizers,
keepers, sharers, and givers of the total
number of the population?
2b. What is the ratio of tendencies to be a
monopolizer, keeper, sharer, or giver in each
individual and group?
2c. Is there a correlation between the extent to
which a leader is a monopolizer, keeper,
sharer, or giver and the subject's view of
how important his contact with that individ-
ual is? How does it effect the amount of
contact?
3. What data will ECCO Analysis provide concerning
the dissemination of messages throughout the
church system?
3a. What are the primary media in which messages
travel?
3b. What is the amount of distortion in the
system?
3c. What is the direction which information
tends to flow in the church system of
communication?
3d. Who are the communication isolates in the
system?
3e. Is there a correlation between monopolizers,
keepers, sharers, and givers and the amount
of dissemination their messages receive in
the system?
3f. Is there a correlation between the amount of
contact a person has and the amount of dis-
semination his message has in the
organization?
Rationale
Since the Jacobson-Seashore and ECCO Analysis instru-
ments have been found to be valid and reliable in studies
of business and government organizations, it is reasoned
that, with only a few modifications their instruments may
be applied to the church organization. This communication
audit is considered in the remaining chapters as follows.
END NOTES
12:14-27.Ephesians^ 1:22,23;^ Ephesians^ 4:11,16;^ I^ Corinthians 2 tion (London:T.^ Burns andTavistock,^ G.^ M.^ Stalker, The Management1961), p. 121.^ of^ Innova- (^3) Arnold S. Tannenbaum, Control In Organizations (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968), p. 21. (^4) Gerald M. Goldhaber, Organizational Communication (Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown, Co., Pub., 1974), p. 79. (^5) Keith Davis, "Management Conmiunication and the Grape- vine," Harvard Business Review, 31 no. 5 (Sept. 1953): 43. Stephen C. Rose, "Communication in the Metropolis," comp.(Waco, Texas: George A. WordTorney, Toward Books, Publishers, 1970), Creative Urban p. 91.Strategy (^7) Goldhaber, p. 79. g Clagett G. Smith and Michael E. Brown, "Comniunication StructureSociometry, and 27 Control no. 4 (Dec. 1964):Structure in 450. a Voluntary Association," 9... cation Richardin Formal^ L. Organizations," AdministrativeSimpson,^ "Vertical^ and^ Horizontal Science^ Communi- Quarterly (June 1959) : 189. Earl Planty and William McHaver, "Upward Communica- tions: Ano. 4 (January Project 1952): in Executive 306. Development," Personnel 29 Goldhaber, p. 79. 12 Eugene Walton, "A Study of Organizational Communica- tion Systems," Personnel Administration, 26 no 3 (May 1963):
13 Walton, p. 46. 14 Goldhaber, pp. 13, 14. 15 Daniel A. Tagliere, People, Power, and Organization Chapters(New^ York: 1-3.^ American^ Management^ Association,^ 1973), 13
Tagliere, p. 32. 17 Walton, p. 46. 18 Eugene Jacobson and Stanley Seashore, "Communication PracticesIssues, 7 no. in Complex 3 (Autumn Organizations," 1951): 33. Journal of Social 19 Patterns,Keith in^ Davis,Organizations,"^ "A Method Personnelof^ Studying Psychology,^ Communication 6 no. 3 (Autumn 1953): 301-12.
ments becauseField^ researchthe field^ is different organization^ from was^ laboratorygoing on beforeexperi- the experiment, and will be ongoing after the field research is performed. 21 Jacobson and Seashore, pp. 28-40. 22 StructureRobert using^ Weiss, Sociometric^ "An^ Investigation Techniques," Master's^ into^ Organizational thesis. University of Michigan,1952, and Mrs. 0. C. Poll, "The ApplicationStratification of ScalingSystems, Techniques "Master's tothesis, University Partially-Ordered of Michigan. 23 Davis, "A Method of Studying Communication," pp. 301-12. ECCO Analysis is derived from "episodic communication channels in organizations," and reports data in the manner of communication echo. ^^Davis, "A Method of Studying Communication," pp. 306-7. (^26) Weiss and Poll.
