Understanding the Link Between Organizational Communication and Innovation: An Examination of Public, Nonprofit, and For-Profit Organizations in South Korea

• Author: Jiwon Suh,James Harrington,Doug Goodman
• DOI: 10.1177/0091026018760930
• Published date: 01 June 2018
• Date: 01 June 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026018760930

Public Personnel Management

2018, Vol. 47(2) 217 –244

© The Author(s) 2018

Reprints and permissions:

sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

DOI: 10.1177/0091026018760930

journals.sagepub.com/home/ppm

Article

Understanding the Link

Between Organizational

Communication and

Innovation: An Examination

of Public, Nonprofit, and

For-Profit Organizations

in South Korea

Jiwon Suh1, James Harrington1, and Doug Goodman1

Abstract

Innovation and internal communication are essential for any successful organization.

Although communication within organizations has long been studied in the for-profit

sector, we still know little about the impact of communication types on innovation in

the public and nonprofit sectors. To examine this question, we leverage and construct

a longitudinal dataset using 5 years of the Korean Workplace Panel Survey (KWPS)

from 2005 to 2013. Employing media richness theory, this study finds that internal

communication positively influences innovation in the for-profit sector, which is a

finding consistent with prior studies. Similarly, in the nonprofit sector, we find that

meeting with the executive director and the number of communication channels

utilized in an organization has a positive impact on innovation. However, we do not

find that these communications have any impact in the public sector.

Keywords

internal communication, innovation, public sector, nonprofit sector

Introduction

Innovation has not only become vital and diffused throughout various business prac-

tices in the for-profit sector, but has also in recent years received more attention in the

1The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jiwon Suh, Public and Nonprofit Management, The University of Texas at Dallas, 800 West Campbell Rd.,

GR31, Richardson, TX 75080, USA.

Email: Jiwon.Suh@utdallas.edu

760930PPMXXX10.1177/0091026018760930Public Personnel ManagementSuh et al.

research-article2018

218 Public Personnel Management 47(2)

public sector (S. E. Kim & Lee, 2009; Moon & DeLeon, 2001; Walker, 2008).

Government efforts to reinvent bureaucracies have emphasized organizational innova-

tion to enhance performance, although, despite these efforts, they remain stereotyped

as rule-oriented and constrained by red tape (Battaglio & Condrey, 2007; Moon &

DeLeon, 2001; D. Osborne, 1993; Sørensen & Torfing, 2011). Scholars agree that

innovation enables public and nonprofit organizations to enhance efficiency, improve

performance, deliver better services, and be more responsive to customers

(Frederickson, 1996; D. Osborne, 1993; Sørensen & Torfing, 2011).

Innovation is also critical to the nonprofit sector. Nonprofit organizations are

known as “leading innovators in tackling social problems” (Dover & Lawrence, 2012,

p. 991) and are believed to exhibit greater propensities for innovation (McDonald,

2007; S. P. Osborne, Chew, & McLaughlin, 2008). For instance, although social entre-

preneurship is not an exclusive descriptor of nonprofits, the term has its roots in the

nonprofit sector where it was coined to describe the sector’s high level of innovation

(Phills, Deiglmeier, & Miller, 2008). In addition, nonprofit organizations are under

pressure to adopt businesslike approaches that may demand innovation. Stakeholders

and clients expect to see effective, accountable, and well-performing nonprofit organi-

zations that exhibit continuous innovation (S. P. Osborne et al., 2008).

Research suggests that an organization’s internal communication facilitates continu-

ous change. However, the effects of communication on organizational innovation, spe-

cifically employee-driven innovation, have not received as much attention in the public

and nonprofit sector research as they have in for-profit sector research (Dover &

Lawrence, 2012; Windrum, 2008). Furthermore, little is known about the different

effects of communication on innovation across the three sectors, especially in an inter-

national context. In this sense, studies in the Korea context are noteworthy when consid-

ering Korean Confucianism and the relationship between nonprofits and governments.

Major themes in the literature include examining the effectiveness of communica-

tion on productivity (Clampitt & Downs, 1993), job satisfaction and turnover inten-

tions (Gregson, 1990), job commitment (Putti, Aryee, & Phua, 1990), and understanding

organizational strategies (Al-Ghamdi, Roy, & Ahmed, 2007). Unlike in for-profit sec-

tor research, only a relatively small number of studies on public and nonprofit organi-

zations, such as law enforcement organizations and hospitals, have examined the

effects of communication (Pincus, 1986; Quinn & Hargie, 2004).

Kuchi (2006) argues that stakeholders understand organizational changes and

direction through communication. He notes, “the more stakeholders hear and learn

about why and how an organization is moving in a particular direction, the lesser con-

flicts there will be between stakeholders and the organization’s understanding of pro-

grams and priorities” (Kuchi, 2006, p. 219). Employees understand their employing

organizations’ strategies, gain knowledge and information, and build trust with senior

management via their organization’s internal communication (Al-Ghamdi et al., 2007;

Byrne & LeMay, 2006; Tkalac Verčič, Verčič, & Sriramesh, 2012). Furthermore, inter-

nal communication serves a pivotal role not only in innovation but also in organiza-

tional performance. Effective internal communication enhances not only an

organization’s reputation and credibility externally but also employee job satisfaction