Information Flow to Front-line Employees

Abstract

This research is a case study within a large bureaucracy; the physical plant operations of a Tier-one university in the United States. The organization of study received low scores for internal communication in their all-employee surveys in 2012 and 2014 and was cited for “lack of information flow to front-line employees” in a peer audit conducted in 2011. Root causes for these deficiencies are investigated through (1) Activity Theory analysis, (2) Leader-Member Exchange Theory and (3) linear regression analysis of all-employee survey data. No formal initiatives addressing internal communications had been initiated when this study was launched so the research was used to identify areas for improvement within the organization.