Grapevine Communication and Its Impact on the University of the Philippines Manila’s Administrative Employees

Abstract

In any organization, communication plays a vital role in achieving organizational success. Its basic purpose to an organization is to essentially provide work satisfaction among its members which fosters higher commitment on performance. Eventually this encourages the actual attainment of productivity and goals. What brings this commitment to take effect is the operation of two basic structure, the formal and informal communication. Organizations that are either business or service oriented traditionally establish the formal structure first. The informal one usually comes in the latter part of the organization’s regular operation when there arise a need for it. Not too many companies are quite concerned nor recognize the basic purpose entailed by this informal network so long as the formal communication structure is formed. Recently, some attention has been focused on improving the grapevine and a possible plan of using it together with the formal channel. Previous studies has proven grapevine as an effective communication form in supplementing the formal channel when the latter fails to function accordingly. Communication experts as well as students have conducted successful studies which showed that grapevine is indeed useful in any kind of organization. In addition, there were indications that it positively affects the communication process of an organization such as performance improvement. Thus, another issue must be explored upon: What is the origin of the informal communication? This research will try to venture on this idea to find out how it operates compared to the formal structure and how it affects the organization. Likewise, the rationale behind this research is to discover ways of improving the informal communications scheme of the University of the Philippines Manila (UP Manila) which is expected to five rise to the promotion of personal welfare and general productivity. Further, the researcher has formulated the following specific objectives for this particular study. 1. To illustrate the various features of grapevine as a Informal communication network; 2. To describe the source of grapevine from the experience of UP Manila’s administrative employees; 3. To identify the existing patterns of grapevine in UPM; 4. To gather admitted views about grapevine from the respondents of the study; 5. To find out the problems created by grapevine in the various divisions of the institution; 6. To describe the benefits or positive effects of grapevine; and 7. To gather viable solutions to the problems brought about by the informal network as perceived by UPM employees. In an attempt to find some answers to these objectives a descriptive study was chosen from among the other types of research. UP Manila was chosen as the organization to be studied because it is assumed that its personnel are using grapevine in their daily task operations. Interview and survey questions were formulated to inquire on several areas that includes topics from the employees general perception of grapevine communication to their opinions on how to deal with the problems it creates along the process. Both tools will be answered by the 100 respondents carefully chosen which are widely distributed in UP Manila and in Philippine General Hospital (PGH). Before the detailed discussion of the findings, a brief word about how the researcher conducted the study, what is grapevine in the context of the UP Manila employees, how does it operate in UP Manila considering it patterns, and what are the present practices of UP Manila employees regarding grapevine. Through the cross-departmental study, the researcher aimed at gathering data about the source of grapevine and it impact. Also, the researcher did seek to identify ways of improving grapevine practices in UP Manila. Over 100 employees participated in the study, which was coordinated by the Office of the Assistant Administration. It concluded various individuals from the rank and file who are all situated in ten offices and 5 colleges in the university. The results of the survey and interview provided details on the actual operation of grapevine as an informal channel in UP Manila and there were gathered data showing that it is widely practiced across the different offices. The two instruments revealed that the real purpose of grapevine is not fully realized by the constituents of this study. They regard it more as rumor that some of them think it is useless to devote time on it. While others considers their involvement on this activity as a negative reputation that can be easily reflected on their work. Apparently, the respondents are unaware that rumor is just a by-product of grapevine, that this channel alone is not a threat at all to them or even the organization. Aside from the interviews and surveys conducted, the researcher also carried out personal observation within specific offices where all the respondents are working. It was found out that the informal communication practices of most UP employees are not properly done.