Vertical Communication and Employee Performance in Emerging Economy Public Organizations: The Imperatives of Organizational Culture

The focus of this paper was to investigate the relationship between vertical communication and employee performance within emerging economy public organizations. Previous studies on organizational communication and employee performance have mostly been undertaken within the context of the private sector, with very few studies focused on the public sector. Hence, the focus of this paper on the exploration of how vertical communication impacts on employee performance, especially considering the moderating role of organizational culture on this relationship. The study adopted the cross-sectional survey as the design for the study and utilized the questionnaire as the primary data collection tool. A total of 461 participants were involved in the study as sourced from the Rivers State Civil Service Commission. Three hypotheses were tested, assessing the relationship between vertical communication and two stated measures of employee performance, namely – employee effectiveness and efficiency (bivariate); and also, that which assessed the moderating role of organizational culture on the relationship between vertical communication and employee performance. The findings showed that vertical communication significantly contributes towards employee performance as evidenced by outcomes such as employee effectiveness and efficiency. There is also evidence that organizational culture significantly moderates the relationship between vertical communication and employee performance. In conclusion, this study affirms that the vertical flow of communication across the organization drives the performance of employees, though this is highly dependent on the culture of the organization.