Understanding How Formal and Informal Communication Affect Internal Integration

This paper investigates the relationship between communication and integration as defined by Pagell’s (2004) model of internal integration, and explores how formal and informal communication interact over time to achieve internal integration between purchasing, manufacturing and logistics. With this aim, the paper discusses an exploratory case study of a leading company in the Italian mineral water and soft drink industry. The case analysis suggests that informal communication at the technical core level originates self-organized formal integration mechanisms that, in turn, support integration among purchasing, manufacturing and logistics. Moreover, contingent on organizational factors, the development of formal integration mechanisms can either facilitate or inhibit informal communication. Managers should be aware of these complex relationships because, when they leverage on formal communication to improve integration, they can unintentionally nurture positive/negative feedbacks on informal communication that, in turn, can influence inter-functional integration with non deliberated results.