Global Journal of Management and Business Research, A: Administration and Management, Volume 23 Issue 1

Communicating through Non -Communication or Over-Communication Maria Silvia Avi Author: Full Professor in Business Administration Management Department- Ca’Foscari Venezia S. Giobbe – Cannaregio Venezia (Italy). e-mail: avi@unive.it Abstract- Communication is a topic that, at present, represents one of the most in-depth issues at both doctrinal and pragmatic levels. This issue is addressed both concerning interpersonal relationships between individuals and regarding the communication that companies implement within the entrepreneurial structure, and implemented between managers, employees and collaborators, or aimed at third parties outside the companies. The paper seeks to highlight some often underestimated observations regarding communication concerning the dissemination of news and information to the outside world by companies. The article's purpose is not to examine all the elements relating to communication but to focus on some specific aspects that are often not considered, not even at a doctrinal level, in the field of communication. This usually has severe consequences for the company's situation, which, precisely because it does not consider these elements, sees its income, financial, sustainability, and general conditions gradually worsen until it embarks on the dead-end road that leads to voluntary or judicial liquidation. Keywords: communication, corporate communication to the outside world, non-communication, gradualness in communication, over-communication. 1) Why Talk about Communication between us and others and Not between me and others After many publications on financial reporting, management control, auditing, corporate law, etc., I feel it is only suitable to devote an article to the problem of communication between information providers and receivers. When I explain that I teach financial statements and financial statement analysis, usually every interlocutor of mine comes out with a 'what a dry subject'. That makes me laugh a bit because, in 90% of the cases, my interlocutors say, 'I was never any good at maths, showing that they don't even remotely know what they are talking about. This is particularly relevant in the communication between people trying to compare their opinions; what you have pointed out above sounds like an almost ridiculous anecdote that has no place in an academic and scientific article. In reality, however, if one reasoned about the communication that companies must carry out to third parties outside the company, one would understand how this issue, which I posed as a personal anecdote, has enormous relevance. When a company publishes a balance sheet and highlights accounts that can only be understood if one has a basis in accounting, and people criticise the presence of these accounts by stating that the balance sheet is not understandable, one understands how in communication, there is an evident and considerable obstacle that prevents a clear and intelligible comparison between people's opinions and between the communication implemented by companies and the opinions that third parties outside the company have of that company. We will also return to this issue later because, although it may seem irrelevant, it identifies an essential element in the communication, financial and sustainability that companies carry out towards the outside world and third-party users who do not belong to the institutional setup. I live in Mestre. Mestre is the city that represents the mainland of Venice. And it is evident that if a person compares Mestre, a very typical modern city, with Venice, Mestre will always come out the loser in terms of romantic beauty and stratospheric magnificence of monuments, churches and museums. In this regard, again, to make it clear what is meant by communication and, therefore, what communication can lead to understanding the thought of the interlocutor with whom one is communicating, I can relate another anecdote that may seem absolutely out of place in an academic article but, as we will see in the following pages, is not at all. When I say that I live in Mestre, 95% of the time, the interlocutor emphasises, 'Mestre? What a horror! I passed there on the ring road. It's horrible. I am a lady, so I cannot express my thoughts here because I wonder how a mediocrely intelligent person can judge a city through a 'visit to the ring road'. Anyway, never mind. So much so that I continue to live in Mestre, with the aggravating circumstance that I am super well off here (...yes, I know...it should not write like that, but I do it anyway). The above shows how communication sometimes takes place without having the necessary information so that the thought one intends to spread can make sense. One wonders: does it make sense to criticise a city without having seen it and based only on what is said by people who themselves have never seen it? Does it make sense to express a negative judgement on a place when the landscape in question has been glimpsed from a ring road and has not been experienced, looked at, turned around, in the context of 29 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXIII Issue I Version I Year 2023 ( ) A © 2023 Global Journals