Auditing senior management communication practices in the NHS: a regional study

Area of Science:

• Organizational Communication
• Strategic Management
• Human Resource Management

Background:

• Organizations face constant strategic change, necessitating effective management of human resource implications.
• Manager-staff communication is critical for successful organizational change.
• Understanding communication patterns is essential for navigating these changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline how communication audits can provide insights into organizational communication patterns.
• To illustrate the application of communication audits within the National Health Service (NHS).
• To demonstrate how audit findings can inform an action plan for improving communication practices.

Main Methods:

• Delineation and explanation of the nature of communication audits.
• An investigation within the NHS focusing on communication between regional, district, and local management levels.
• Analysis of communication patterns among senior managers at different hierarchical levels.

Main Results:

• The NHS investigation illuminated specific communication patterns between senior managers at regional, district, and local levels.
• Identification of areas for improvement in inter-level management communication.
• Development of a targeted action plan to enhance communication practices.

Conclusions:

• Communication audits are valuable tools for diagnosing and improving communication within organizations undergoing strategic change.
• The findings from the NHS study offer insights into improving management communication across different organizational levels.
• The study discusses the generalizability of its findings to the broader NHS context.