Management Perspectives

Vertical communication in an organisation heralds flow of communication between superiors and subordinates (both upward and downward) in day-today activities. Numerous methods and theories have been developed over years for eloquent vertical communication in organisations; nevertheless, a great Indian epic, Ramayana, holds timeless leadership and management lessons, particularly regarding communication. Managers, business communicators, and leaders can draw a slew of valuable inspirations and insights from Ramayana. Among them, two lessons—one on upward communication and another on downward communication—are of great virtue to imbibe. 

Clear and predictive downward communication
A leader with no or scarce communication skills can never be successful. This anonymous saying highlights how communication is crucial in leadership. A leader is someone who becomes the face of the management among the employees. If he is good at communicating with employees, he can form excellent teams, maintain a propitious organisational culture, and can yield results.

You might not have heard about cases of mission failure in security forces owing to lack of communication; even if you did, such cases would be few. Line organisations such as army, police, and other security forces cannot afford to have miscommunication, because it can have serious to catastrophic consequences. Therefore, the leaders in such organisations maintain clear thinking and pass on explicit directions to their subordinates. 

Upon choosing Hanuman to visit Lanka to look for Sita, Lord Rama told him what was to be done once he saw her. As Hanuman had never seen her before, by sharing fine details of Sita such as her characteristics and appearance, Rama guided Hanuman on how to identify her. Rama had anticipated that Sita may refuse to talk to Hanuman since she did not know him. Hence, Rama gave his ring to Hanuman, which he could show to Sita as proof that the ring was indeed sent by Rama and that Hanuman was on Rama’s side. Additionally, Rama also shared with Hanuman incidents that were only known to Sita, apart from Rama himself, which would further enhance Hanuman’s credibility. This is an epitome of downward communication: the boss (Rama, in this case) makes his aim (of what to tell Sita) clear to his subordinate (Hanuman) when he assigns him the job. Secondly, he predicts the kind of issues that may arise when his subordinate would embark on the mission and prepares him accordingly. 

Straight and succinct upward communication
Upward communication paves the way for managers to get the desired results as well as feedback on scope for improvement. It helps maintain mutual trust, enhances workplace culture, and makes the employees feel valued.

Unlike English, Tamil and Hindi are verb-final languages. This means, in Tamil and Hindi, a sentence generally starts with subject, followed by object, and ends with verb. These are known as SOV (Subject- Object-Verb) languages. But this rule is often broken during critical situations to get the message across, by communicators who are fluent with the language. For instance, the great Kambar—a Tamil poet who authored the Tamil version of Ramyana, contravenes the structure of the language, especially in the Sundara Kandam. Hanuman, upon returning from Lanka after meeting Sita, immediately reported to Lord Rama. 

Here, the author could have used the regular language structure (S–O–V: I–Sita– Seen), but it could have led to confusion or misinterpretation. But, knowing that Hanuman intended to convey his message in a concise and clear manner, Kamabar used the action verb in the beginning of the sentence. He started the sentence as “Kanden Seethaiyai,” which translates to ‘Seen Sita’. 

Hanuman came straight to the point without confounding Rama. Not just that, Hanuman also composed his message keeping the receiver in mind, which is another significant aspect in communication. These are classic examples of how communication should be: straight, clear, and succinct.