Depending on the span of control and organisational structure of a business, information has the ability to flow up, down and horizontally between departments and management. Successful businesses will usually have the information flow upwards from the roots of the business on the shop floor to management. This means that the employees with the first hand experience of sales and those that have opinions on how they are making sales can relay information or advice to management. Management can then analyse performance of products to decide whether to keep selling them or put them out of production. Some businesses, usually businesses that were established a long time ago, still have an autocratic management style where managers tell employees what is happening within the business, or tell them what to do, but this method normally demotivates and can make it harder for management to get a grasp of whats happening on the shop floor. Information can flow horizontally where employees ask colleagues for information in different departments at the same level.
Internal Flows to External Bodies:
Business to business communication is essential to be successful, in most cases, a business will tend to communicate with it's suppliers for the most part. Suppliers sell raw materials to a business which then transforms them into a finished product, making money by adding perceived value. Some businesses prefer to operate a just in time system where suppliers have to be heavily involved in operations as they supply raw materials when the businesses needs them, normally to the day.
Here are the roles of the departments in diagram form, here we can see that Sales, Research and Development and Marketing all deal with supplying information from customers whilst Distribution, Mergers and Acquisitions and Operations relay information from suppliers. Human Resources don't necessarily have to deal with either as they are completely immersed in the business.
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