Communication in OrganizationMeaning and Importance of

communicationCommunication processForms of communication

Barrier to effective communicationCommunication with the public

Communication from outsideE-government

DEFINITION Communication is the process

through which information and meaning are transferred from one person to another person.

Communication: In general it means “any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person information. In public administration, it refers to communication within an org or between one org, and the other.

Communication may be intentional or unintentional in nature.

The act of communication involves transmission of the following:

Information regarding decision, advice, queries, etc about an administrative action.

 Importance of communication

1.     Allow people to engage in the planning, organizing, leading and controlling functions.

2.     Achieving integration and coordination of agency goals rules and human resources

3.     Able to convey vision, goals and give direction to others

4. Improve performance

The communication processThere are six elements involve in the

communication process1.Sender- is the person who whishes to relay

or to share particular information and meaning. Often they are the one who initiate the communication process. The sender has an intention to communicate with another person.

Encoding – the process of transforming information into understandable symbols, typically spoken, written words or gestures.

1.    Channels- the medium or methods used to transmit the intended information and meaning, such as by phone or in person

2.    Receivers- the person to whom the information and meaning are sent.

3.    Decoding- the process of interpreting and attaching personal meaning to the message.

4.    Feedback-the receiver’s response to the sender’s communication.

5. Noise- anything acting as information filter, such as knowledge, attitudes, and other factors that interferes with the message being communicated effectively. It can be of various types a) educational level, b) experience, c) culture

-The process of encoding and decoding are potential source of communication errors.

In the translation of symbols to meaning, knowledge, attitudes, and other factors can act as information filters and create noise, anything that interferes with the message being communicated effectively.

Forms of communication

1.     Verbal communication- refers to words spoken through various channels

2.     Written communication-information and meaning transferred as recorded words, such as memo, report, e-mail.

3.     Nonverbal communication-information conveyed by actions and behaviors rather than spoken or written words.

Forms of communication1. Verbal communication (refers to

words spoken through various cannels to convey information and meaning) e.g face to face, telephone.

Advantage: encourage immediate feedback ,easier

Disadvantage: inaccuracies, leaving out important information, forgetting, noise

2. Written communication (information and meaning are transferred as recorded word such as memos, report, letter, e-mail.

Advantage: more accurate as sender take more time to collect, organize and sent them to the sender.

Disadvantage: it prevent immediate feedback, complex and time consuming.

3. Non verbal communication (information convey by actions and behavior rather than by spoken or written words.) e.g body language.

It plays a critical role in relation to unshared understanding and meaning because it influence the massage sent and receive [what message I am giving]

Unconscious and subconscious

Categories of communication 1.     Formal communication Usually refers to written

communication, the use of formal communication usually determines by organizational size, because as organization grows they tend to make increasing use of formal communication and diminish the use of informal organization.

The other factor is public character; public organization tends to rely more heavily on formal communication. This is because:

1. Bureaucratic establishment that depend on written “official’ documents

2. Organization manages distrust so they rely on this papers or written word, which is shared, and binding.

3. Organization makes and maintains “papereality” that take precedence over the things and event they portray.

Formal communication may also be regarded as the messages that follow the hierarchical structure of the organization such communication can include directives, on a new procedure, or manual instruction.Often message use special jargon for precision/accuracy, which may create confusion

Flow of communicationCommunication flows in three separate

directions:1. Upward communicationCommunication flowing from lower to higher

levels of organization, such as progress report, suggestion, inquiries, and grievances

2. Downward communicationThe traditional flows of information from

upper organization level to lower level such as job direction, assignment or task, performance feedback, information concerning organization’s goal

3. Horizontal communication The exchange of information among

individual on the same organization or level either across or within department

4.Diagonal/crossway communicationThe flow of information, often in matrix

structure. Between individual from different units and organizational level

b) Informal communication

Refers to oral communication. It also includes attitudes, ideas, which can be transmitted by means of gesture, and body language. Although it has a place in organization life, its role is limited and in any case it is hard to analyze and define.

Informal Communication

It deals with more subjects but lack of authority although it may have considerable influence.

Informal communication may passes between staff at the same level ranging from how to get along with the supervisor to the observation on which rules are and are not enforced. It often reinforce formal communication

Informal Communication

It takes two forms1. Gossip chain

The spreading of information by one person to many others

2. Cluster chain An exchange in which one person or a selected few share information with few others

Barrier of effective communication

1. Personal barrier (as a result of differing individual differences)

 

a) Individual characteristic It has to do with the personality, back ground, ethnic, national culture, beliefs, and attitude even moods. These elements not only affect how a person chooses to communicate but cause a person to misunderstand and even blackout the message.

b) Semantic

It refers to the different uses and meaning of words, in which it also may influence the effectiveness of a message. Some words have numerous denotations and the meaning a person or a group attaches to particular words may differ according to circumstances and group characteristics.

c) Channel selectionCommunication channels can be personal barrier in that some individual always seem to lean towards a particular channels even though more effective channel exist.

d) Consistencyit is important to ensure that communication symbols and signals are consistent. If the words chosen to communicate a message do not match the sender body language, the potential for misunderstanding and confusion increases

e) CredibilityCredibility plays an important role in how a message is received and understood. If the receiver doesn’t consider that the sender is trustworthy and knowledgeable about the subject being communicated, he or she will likely loose interest or even reluctant to listen to the message.

f) Incrimination Sometimes people may be reluctant to transmit the information because it is likely to anger the supervisor and make the supervisor look bad. Manager needs to be aware of such situation.

2.Organizational barrier (organizational characteristics)

 

a) Power and statusPeople in the upper position usually hesitant to listen to those individual at lower level. It is because they believe that people at the lower level do not posses useful information

b) Goal and priority differencesGoal and priority differences among organizational department or divisions may influence how effective message is sent.

 c) Organizational structure

Finally, the structure of the organization can dramatically influence the effectiveness of communication. For example, if the firms organization does not provide sufficient upward, downward and horizontal communication then the quality and quantity of information sharing could be reduced.

3. Environmental barrierThe factors include noise, information

overload, and physical barrier within the environment

 Overcoming communication

barrier1. Listening2. Providing feedback 3. Being aware of the cultural diversity4. Choosing an appropriate channel

5. Structuring the organization for communication

6. Improving interpersonal relationship

Communication with the Public

Communication between a public organization and the publics essential to the agencies effort to achieve its goal. Government produced a lot of information and distribute it trough many channels. Some message are aimed for general publics, constituent group, legislators, private sector etc.

It can fall under informal and formal categories e.g. press release, reports, media interview.

Government communicate to the public because of several reasons:

1. They want to support or aim to enlighten people basically for their private activities e.g avoid contracting AIDS.

2. To publicize and win public popular support. It may include educational and economic benefit for certain people. Some have larger aims to impress people with the importance of service the agency perform

3. Public agencies publicizes service/ benefit they make available and the means by which people can obtain them.

4. Government communicate their laws and regulation e.g. the car driver and passenger must use safety belt. Police have lighter enforcement load if citizen comply voluntarily.

Communication from outside

Government agencies also obtain message from outside, from legislator, citizen complain, court, other agencies, private sector, NGOs and other parties.

Most call for response and urgency of action

Informal communication flows across organization occurs through many ways e.g. police tells environmental officer about dumping toxic waste, social worker tells reporter about their new project

The communication system of public agencies often appears inefficient and difficult to penetrate. It is because of the fact that different agencies response differently in their means to handle public concerns.

Some put high priority, others see no need to respond or are selective to whom they respond to.

many agencies use information technologies to reach citizen for all these purposes.

It also refers to any government functions or process that are carried out in digitall form over the Internet. Local, state and federal governments essentially set up central Web sites from which the public (both private citizens and business) can find public information, download government forms and contact government representatives.

E-government E-government is defined as a way for

governments to use the most innovative information and communication technologies, particularly web based Internet applications, to provide citizens and businesses with more convenient access to government information and services and to provide greater opportunities to participate in democratic situations and processes.

It emphasizes building good relations among governments, citizens, and businesses as a main aspect of e-government.

It also can be defined as:The use of information and communications

technology in the internal processes of government and the delivery of government products and services to citizens and industry

Definition:

It also refer to any government functions or process that are carried out in digital form over the Internet.

Local, state and federal governments essentially set up central web sites from which the public (both private citizens and businesses) can find public information, download government forms and contact government representatives.

Functions of E-government

1. To promote democratic participation by providing citizens with more digital connections such as e-mail and simplifying procedure for democratic elections such as e-voting

2. To deliver government service to citizens without any restrictions of time and space by bringing governmental information on-line

3. To make administrative work more transparent, efficient and accountable. Transparency – is defined as openness in laws, rules and procedures of the government. Through e-government, citizens, media can assess the performance of their government in all sectors such as economic, social and security e.g. through the ministry’s, department’s web site.

Accountability – means a government and its institutions must be duty bound to honestly give account to the public in relation to their performances in carrying out their activities. Thus the bureaucrats must be answerable to the people for the failures of the government they lead.

Through the utilization of ICTs, the major changes is that the national government find it very difficult to suppress/hide information because the public as more aware and demand the government to be transparent and accountable.

Consequently the condition will lead to the:

1. Less scope for corruption

2. More pressure on officials to perform well (efficient and effective bureaucrats)

4. Government can act as the center of information and public services. Additionally, more information should be provided in e-government.

This information includes regional natural resources, tourism information, regional income (original income, block grants, tax income), regional expenditures (routine expenditures, miscellaneous budgets, allocation budgets for regional development, etc.), regional regulations, infrastructure and public facilities data, regional development strategies, and all information concerning public interests

5. It allows citizens to communicate interactively with the government. They would be able to give opinions, ask questions, criticize, or make suggestions to governments and their apparatuses.

  From a brief explanation of the concept and the

function of e-government, it is clear that e-government will improve the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of regional governments. In other words, e-government promotes good governance.

Challenges of E-government Cyber crimes Lack of privacy Lack of motivation System dependency Indirect communication, etc