PurposePrevious research assumes that informal communication may be highly relevant for organizations, but little is known about its actual relevance for employees or its functions and effects. The article aims to examine functions, types and effects of informal communication in organizations.Design/methodology/approachResearch on internal communication usually focuses on formal strategic communication with or among employees. Informal communication between employees in organizations has received far less attention, although a great deal of communication in organizations is informal. Therefore, the present study analyses informal communication in organizations. The authors conducted a quantitative online survey of employees working for different organizations in Germany.FindingsThe authors show that five types of employee can be differentiated regarding their informal communication behavior: the chatterer, the focuser, the strategist, the small-talker and the networker. Moreover, the study demonstrates that informal communication significantly increases employees' perceptions of being informed, as well as their affective commitment, both of which increase job satisfaction. Finally, results show that informal communication does not decrease employees' productivity, but instead helps them to carry out their jobs more effectively.Originality/valueAlthough previous studies indicate that a large part of the communication among employees within an organization is informal, research has rarely dealt with this phenomenon, instead focusing especially on formal communication. This is one of the first papers that focuses on informal communication among employees using quantitative survey data.

Purpose Editors of employee magazines work in a grey area between public relations and journalism. On the one hand, they need to accommodate the company management’s interest in a positive presentation; on the other, they must meet the employees’ need for objective and independent information. Although employee magazines reach millions of recipients every day, its editors have rarely been the focus of academic work. The purpose of this paper is to change this and scrutinise the way the editors view their professional role and the role conflicts to which they are subjected. Design/methodology/approach We conduct 15 qualitative semi-structured interviews with editors of employee magazines to analyse their professional role and possible conflicts in their work. Findings The editors’ self-concept varies significantly along two dimensions, which the authors use as the basis for distinguishing four types: the management ambassador, the employee representative, the mediator and the service provider. Originality/value The study sheds light on employee magazines, a medium between public relations and journalism that has not been analysed before. It helps to specify the role of these magazines and its editors’ between the expectations of the management and the employees.

Chief executive officers as representatives of their companies are increasingly the focus of attention from both the public and the media. The head manager represents the company and in some cases even personifies it. The growing exposure of chief executive officers has turned some of these individuals into celebrities and media stars. Some studies have shown that the image of the chief executive officer is closely linked to that of the company. However, the presentation of chief executive officers in media coverage has received little research interest. The present study aims to fill this research gap by conducting a content analysis of two German newspapers and one magazine published from July 2013 to June 2015 to assess chief executive officer press coverage. We focus on the personalization of chief executive officers in corporate coverage by deriving six frames which show that chief executive officers are presented very differently in the media, for example, as an individual or a representative of the company.

PurposeThis study aims to analyze the structures, forms and functions of informal communication in telecommuting settings. Previous research on telecommuting has not considered the influence of telecommuting settings on informal communication, and research on informal communication has mainly focused on face-to-face communication while working in a physical office. This article aims to bring these two research strands together by analyzing the informal communication behavior of employees working from home.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted qualitative interviews with 21 employees who were working from home. The participants were recruited using quota sampling and the data were analyzed following the procedure for examining qualitative data proposed by Mayring (2014).FindingsThe findings reveal similarities as well as differences between those working in an office and those working from home in terms of informal communication with co-workers: Informal communication fulfills similar functions in both cases, but remote work leads to less informal communication and hinders incidental exposure to other employees. Informal talks need to be planned in advance or strategically initiated. The authors identified five informal communication scenarios in telecommuting settings that partly, but not fully, overlap with scenarios in regular office settings.Originality/valueThe present study is one of the first to examine informal communication in telecommuting settings. Previous studies have either excluded the aspect of informal communication or the situation for employees working in telecommuting settings. The results provide new insights into informal communication behavior in remote work.

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