Perceived downward messaage distortion in hierarchical organizations

Includes bibliographical references (pages 61-63)This is a quasi-experimental field study of perceived\ud distortion of downward communication and trust for the\ud sender of the message. Manipulated independent variables\ud were source (levels: personal/impersonal) and favorability \ud to the receiver (levels: favorable/unfavorable). An\ud assigned independent variable of supervisory level had two\ud experimental levels, supervisors and non-supervisors.\ud Using a simulated-situation methodology, messages were\ud created on a single topic, intradepartmental communication,\ud to conform to the four manipulated treatment conditions.\ud Subjects were randomly assigned to message treatment\ud conditions. Subjects were obtained from two organizations\ud (n total=157) and all data were collected on the job in\ud normal communication settings. Subjects evaluated one\ud simulated message on Likert-type scales and completed a\ud trust questionnaire. Data were pooled across organizations and a 2x2x2 ANOVA was performed for each dependent variable,\ud and perceived distortion and trust data were submitted\ud to a Pearson product-moment correlation analysis. A significant main effect for favorability (p_< .05)\ud was found. Messages favorable to the receiver were perceived\ud as significantly less distorted than messages\ud unfavorable to the receiver. A significant three-way\ud interaction was found among supervisory level, favorability and source. Supervisors perceived favorable\ud messages from a personal source as less distorted than\ud favorable messages from an impersonal source. Nonsupervisors\ud perceived favorable messages from an impersonal\ud source as less distorted than favorable messages from a\ud personal source. No significant results were found in the\ud analysis of variance for trust. A significant inverse\ud relationship was found between perceived distortion and\ud trust,as hypothesized