Heard or Just Informed?

Internal communication and organizational climate in third-sector institutions

Abstract

Internal communication remains a structurally underexamined dimension of organizational life, particularly in social sector institutions where the quality of working conditions directly shapes the wellbeing of the populations served. This study examines how internal communication influences organizational climate in a Portuguese third-sector institution, drawing on data collected from 70 employees across six service units. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was adopted, and structural equation modelling was used to test six research hypotheses derived from the proposed conceptual model. Constructs were operationalized through two validated instruments: the Internal Communication Index (Pirrotta et al., 2025) and the Organizational Climate Questionnaire (Moreno-Menéndez et al., 2025). Results indicate that internal communication exerts a strong and positive effect on supervision, work engagement, and self-fulfillment, while both supervision and self-fulfillment are independently shaped by the perceived communication climate. All six hypothesized paths were confirmed and statistically significant. The findings reveal that employees hold limited knowledge of the institution's annual objectives and results, pointing to a concrete gap between formal communication intent and actual informational reach. Taken together, the results position internal communication as a structural leverage point in the management of human capital in social sector organizations, with implications that extend from supervisory coherence to professional fulfilment and collective commitment.