This thesis is based around five studies examining the psychology of interpersonal
communication applied to organizational settings. The studies are designed to
examine the question of how the way that people in positions of power in
organizations communicate with subordinates, affects various measures of health,
well-being and productivity. It is impossible to study modern organisational
communication without recognising the importance of electronic communication. The
use of e-mail and other forms of text messaging is now ubiquitous in all areas of
communication. The studies in this thesis include the use of e-mail as a medium of
communication and examine some of the potential effects of electronic versus face-to-face and verbal communication. The findings of the studies support the basic
hypothesis that: it is not what is said that matters but how it is said. The results
showed that an unsupportive, formal, authoritarian style of verbal or written
communication is likely to have a negative effect on health, well-being and
productivity compared with a supportive, informal and egalitarian style. There are
also indications that the effects of damaging communications may not be confined to
the initial recipient of the message. Organizational communication does not take place
in a vacuum. Any negative consequences are likely to be transmitted by the recipient,
either back to the sender or on to other colleagues with implications for the wider
organisational climate. These findings are based on communications that would not
necessarily be immediately recognised as obviously offensive or bullying, or even
uncivil. The effects of these relatively mild but unsupportive communications may
have implications for the selection and training of managers. In the final section of the
thesis there is a discussion of how examples of various electronically recorded
messages might be used as training material