Information and Communications Technologies as a Driver of Effective Internal Communication

Internal communication is considered to be fundamental process for organization. The information and communication technology (ICT) has been a strong trigger of organizational change in every aspect, as well as in internal communication. This paper investigates ICT tools usage effects on internal communication. Three research hypothesis were set up: (i) employees' perceived importance of internal communication has a relationship with their ICT usage, (ii) employees' perceived quality of internal communication has a relationship with their ICT usage, and (iii) ICT tools usage contributes to the perceived impact of IT on informing, motivation, productivity, loyalty, organizational development understanding, reducing rumors within organization of employees, willingness to change and overall satisfaction of employees. In order to test hypothesis, data were collected via an online survey conducted among Croatian public relations experts. Data mining was applied in data analysis: including both, descriptive (distributions) and predictive models (Bayesian networks). Sensitivity analysis of Bayesian networks identified significant factors of successful internal communication. Results showed that Skype usage mostly contributed to the quality of internal communication, whereas social network usage mostly contributed to the perceived importance of internal communication. Bayesian network model identified e-mail usage as a predictor of employees informing and chat usage as predictor for productivity of employees. Organizations' management should embrace opportunities that new technologies have brought to the field of internal communications and use it as a tool for improvement.