Communication Channels in the Government of Amīr al-Muminīn Imam ʻAli

One of the main issues in organizational relations is the “Communication Channel” which, in fact, shows the path of relations in the organizational structure. As a great organization, the Alavi government has its own organizational structure and hierarchy, and it, accordingly, has organizational relations. The concept of” path of organizational relations” includes a group of interpersonal relations in the structure of an organization, a type of relation which is characteristic of Alavi government. In this paper, it is attempted to compare the style of relations followed by Amīr al-Muminīn, Imam Ali (a) with the leading theories about relationship management, in its wide sense so that the similarities and differences of the two may be identified. The present paper is a library- based research, in which the author uses an analytic-historic approach referring to reliable and authentic Islamic sources. Given that some kinds of the communication in Alavi government are of more important, there are some differences between the style of communication followed by Imam Ali and the issues discussed in the organizational communication today. The communication in Alavi government can be considered as as a kind of dynamic communication network because the speed of information transfer in this style is very high.