In order to understand communication flow when analyzing an organization and its chain of command employees answer to, what decisions are made on behalf of the organizations when communicated to employees or others within or outside an organization, one must first understand and determine whether the organization functions as a tall or a flat one. Larger organizations are typically structured as tall organizational hierarchies in which the span of control is narrower and more management roles are established. A flat organizational structure is typically wide and doesn’t have many management roles. Tall organizations consist of many managers, giving each manager the responsibility of supervising subordinates. Managers in tall organizations may have a small area of control as the organization grows larger the more levels of management increases causing the structure to grow taller. Though tall organizations allow management to work closely with its subordinates, this may skew the lines of authority causing the lines of communication to become distorted. Flat organizations tend to communicate more effectively up and down since there are very few management roles. However, if the organization only has a few mangers this may cause the mangers to become overwhelmed with the number of subordinates they must supervise directly.
Though tall and flat organizational structures seem to have pros and cons associated with communication among management to subordinates, it is important to first assess the foundation of an organization when determining which structure is most effective in communication flow. In doing so one must consider the size of the organization, the objective of the organization along with the market in which the organization is servicing. To further understand tall and flat organizational structures one must analyze the dimensions of an organization which