ABSTRACT
This study examines effective
communication between management and staff in an educational institution. A
survey of the faculty of education, Ambrose
Alli University,
Ekpoma.
The instrument used for the study is
questionnaires. Seventy one (71) questionnaires were administered to the
management and staff of the faculty of education and collected back, analyzed
with percentage. The researcher adopted survey design. The analysis of data
revealed that management and staff did not utilize communication equipment
effectively, government did not allocate funds to purchase communication
equipment, effective communication was well felt in the faculty of education
and most of the respondents agreed with the study. It was concluded that there
is effective communication between management and staff in the faculty of
education, but government still needs to provide communication equipments such
as televisions, laptops, air-conditioners, radio, inter-com, satellites and
internet facilities. The researcher went further to proffer recommendations for
the study.
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The
educational system as an organization is deemed stable, peaceful and
progressive if there is effective communication. In other words, management of
educational system required the instrument of communication because of
determines and directs the constitutional actions.
According to griffin (2000), opined that
communication of the sharing of messages, ideas or attitudes that produces a
degree of understanding between a sender and receiver. A meaning of
transmission, involving location, relaying, reception, absorption and evaluation.
Information transmitted could be through
any of the forms which include verbal, non-verbal, written and non-written
which could be expressed through interpersonal relations such as facial
expression, eye signal, body movement and gesticulations. Transmission could be
through discussion, means, telephone calls, reports, letters, fax and internet
facilities.
There are formal and informal
communications- formal communication is that communication flows in accordance
with the rules, customs and convention within an educational system, while
informal communication relates conversation among worker that are usually
centered on worker interest, task undertaken in work places, but does not
follow with the official procedure. In other word informal communication is
indirect communication and it is referred to as grapevine or rumour.
Communication is made up of
interpersonal communication which is further divided into oral, written and non
verbal communication. Oral communication takes place during face to face
conversations, group discussions, telephone calls and other circumstances in
which the spoken word is used to transmit meaning. Written communication is
made up memos, letters, reports, notes and other circumstances in which the
written words used to transmit meaning.
However, this mode of communication
inhibits feedback and inter-change. Non verbal communication is a kind of
communication that does not involve the use of words. It often relies on facial
expression, body movement, physical contact, gestures, inflection and tone etc.
Effective communication is the corner
stone of an organization. In other to achieve effective communication,
different type of skills must be used to convey messages. The process of
effective communication is the foundation upon which managerial or
administrative function depend. However, for effective administration of
complex organization such as an institution of higher learning, a good and
effective communication system or network is most desirable in other to provide
linkage between individuals, management, staff, groups or department, the
institution as a whole and with the outside world.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
There
are non availability of communication equipment, poor attitudes to communicate
including creating communication gap as a result of not using the poor channel,
poor productivity and efficiency as a result of barriers to effective
communication and problem of information overload.
In view of this, the research work will
examine effective communication between management and staff in an educational
institution.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of the study is to examine
effective communication between management and staff in an educational
institution, a survey of the faculty of education, Ambrose Alli University,
Ekpoma with a view to find out:
i.
To examine whether communication
equipment exist in the department?
ii.
To ascertain whether effective
communication exist between management and staff in your department?
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The
research questions formulated are as follows
i.
Do you have communication equipments
in your department?
ii.
Do you have effective communication
between management and staff in your department?
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
STUDY
This
study will be of benefit to management, staff, student, government and
educational planners. Also, the study will enable management to make necessary
decision for planning, coordinating and controlling their workers and to be
aware of what are being achieved, what ought to be achieved and necessary
modifications through the feedback mechanism.
It will also enable staff to know their
responsibilities, have a sense of belonging and contribute to the general
effort of the organization.
The study will enable student to be
aware of the various types of communication and to know the proper channel of
communication to follow.
The government will not be left out as
this work will enable them to be aware of the organizational activities and
vice versa.
The study will also enable educational
planners to be aware of the organizational activities and be able to plan
rapidly and accurately.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The
educational institution as an organization is deemed stable, peaceful and
progressive if there is effective communication. In other words, an office that
is established for a purpose depends largely on communication. Hence it is
often said that communication is one of the fundamental functions of the
office, a process acclaimed to be
essential to all forms of business (Esene, 2005).
According to Ohiwerei (2006),
communication involved the giving out of message from one person or
organization and the receiving and understanding of the message by another
person or organization. The understanding can be achieved only if the parties
speak the same language, this if the words communicated have the same meaning
to both and used in the same sense.
According to Griffin (2000) added communication is the
sharing of messages, idea or attitude that produces a degree of understanding
between a sender and a receiver. It implies an attempt to share meaning by
transmission. Krauss and Morseila (2000), defined communication as the transfer
of information.
Koontz, O. Donnel and Weighrich (1980)
as coted by Okoh (1998), saw communication as the transmission of information,
skills, knowledge, ideas, emotions, feelings and attitudes between persons,
units, organization or states. He went further to say that communication goes
beyond transmission. It is a process involving ideation, relaying, reception,
absorption and evaluation. The right information must be transmitted in such a
way it is received by the right person, understand, believed, weighted
correctly and result in appropriate action. Clark
(2000), is of the view that communication is the basis of co-operative effort,
interpersonal influence, goal determination and the achievement of human and
organizational growth. Thus, communication cannot be said to have taken place
if the information transmitted by the sender to the receiver did not elicit the
desired response or reaction. Communication is a process which involves the use
of words, actions, pictures or visuals and numbers, the skills of sending are
speaking, writing, action and drawing while those of receiving are listening,
reading and observing.
FUNCTIONS OF COMMUNICATION
According to Sinha (2006) communication
serves four major functions. They include:
1. Information
2. Control
3. Motivation
4. Emotional
expression and interdependence
Information
It is the first and foremost function of
communication. This function is performed in many ways. Before providing or
passing information, one has to receive, collect or shift information from
various sources both external and internal, through various medias, verbal or
non-verbal, body language or paralanguage, sign language or audio visual aids,
books, journals, newspaper etc. the information gathered is of vital importance
to individuals and groups. It helps them to make decision by identifying,
analyzing and evaluating the data, and considering alternative choices. In
other words, policy decision can be taken only when information is available.
Education, research and development depend on information. It is also to be
noted that no information is insular.
Control
This is the ability to control member’s
behaviour. Every organization has a hierarchical system and formal guidelines
that employees are supposed to follow. When for example, the employees are
required to follow their job description or instruction or to comply with
company policies, communication is performing a control function Sinha also
added that this very function also gives the employee their code of conduct. It
is not always necessary for the bosses to formally issue instruction, impose
do’s and don’t or chalk out norms of behaviour. It is now becoming more and
more explicit that informal communication exercises greater control than formal
communication.
Motivation
Communication fosters motivation by
clarifying to employees what is to be done, how well they are doing and what
can be done to improve performance. The formation of specific goal, feedback on
progress towards the goals and reinforcement of desired behaviour all stimulate
motivation and required communication.
Emotional Expression and
Interdependence
The work group is a primary source for
social interaction. The communication that takes place within the group is of
vital importance to share their function as well as feeling of satisfaction.
Communication in this way, provide them a release of their feeling and that is
the fulfillment of an important social need. The members of the groups or
organization are human beings who have so much to share, gather or pass on. The
content of communication is not just the fact and figures or objective ideas,
but also feelings attitudes and interpretation.
BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
Several
factors can disrupt effective communication. These factors relates to the
characteristics of the sender, the receiver, interpersonal dynamic between the
sender and the receiver and environmental factors. These barriers only allow a
part of the message to filter through or be understood (Okoh, 1998). He however
itemized some of them:
1. Inadequate Planning:
This occurs often when people talk and write without having all the required
facts, which leads to incoherent speeches. Communication is not a casual
affair. The result is that the message to be sent across may not be carefully
planned, it may not be properly organized or composed or may be transmitted
through wrongly chosen medium.
2. Emotional Reaction:
Encoding and decoding of message depend on quite some extent of one’s emotional
state at a particular time. Extreme emotions like jubilation or depression are
likely to hinder effective communication. Emotional reactions include fear,
envy, anger, distrust, jealousy etc.
3. Distortions:
These are of two types. The first is semantic distortion that is caused by
ambiguous words, signs and symbols used in communication carry different
meaning to different people, groups and this could lead to misinterpretation of
the information sent. The other is poor expression such as choice of words,
poor organization and structure of message.
4. Information Overload:
The administrator is a very busy person and could saddle his subordinates especially
secretary and messenger with a lot of assignment at the same time. In such a
situation the subordinates respond to his/her assignment in different ways.
Firstly, they may disregard certain information, for example letter are
ignored. Secondly, subordinates are likely to make errors when they become
overwhelmed with too much information. Thirdly, they may delay processing and
responding to information at least for the time being. Lastly, escaping of
information completely.
5. Poor Listening:
Poor listening causes serious problems in communication. There are too many
talkers and few listeners. The reason is that most people are much involved in
their own problems and pampering their own egos. The result is that, they are
really not interested in the speaker. In order to become a good listener, one
should learn to rise above his/her egos, keep his/her eyes and ear open and empathize
with others.
6. Filtering:
Filtering means that a sender manipulates information in such a way that it
will be seen more favourable by the receiver. As information is passed on in an
organization, there is the tendency for the receiver to filter out negative
information and add on only what favour them this is very common in upward
communication.
7. Noise:
unfortunately, communication is very often affected, distorted and blunted by
noise that occurs primarily at the transmission level literally, the word noise
means interferences that occurs in a signal and prevent one from hearing. Sound
properly as a result of over crowed office or from heavy duty machines and
engines making a constant noise.
8. Poor Timing:
Time is a factor that the administrator does no seem to have enough due to his
busy schedule. Information are sometime passed at the wrong time. Hence, the
time for seeking the attention of the administrator, especially for a personal
favour will determine how effective the communication will be.
EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATION IN AN
ORGANIZATION
According to Ohiwerei (2006),
communication in an organization could not be said to have taken place if there
are no changes in the receiver’s behaviour that result form translating
(decoding) the message sent by a source, as this is the purpose of transferring
message, because communication process could only be meaningful and effective
when the desired change in attitude is attained. It is there suggested that
communication must be geared toward these three basic goals:
1. Changes
in receiver’s knowledge
2. Change
in receivers attitude
3. Changes
in receiver’s overt behaviours
Communication
effectiveness can only be ascertained through feedback that is, it tells its
source whether the message is well received or not. There are both positive and
negative feedbacks. The positive feedback means that a message is received as
intended while the negative feedback indicates that the message is wrongly
interpreted or received.
EFFECT
OF COMMUNICATION GAP AND THE DISADVANTAGES
Communication gap is a state that occurs
when what is being said is not been communicated to the addressee properly and
completely. There can be many causes of communication gap depending in where it
exists. Actually communication gap is the biggest hurdle in achieving the
organizational goal and does not help at all in achievement of organizational
goal.
Communication gap in an organization
means that the goals and objectives that are set by the top management are
either not communicated to the employees of the organization at all levels or
if communicated they are not been understood properly by the employees. This
can be because of improper communication channels, unrealistic goals,
inappropriate language.
The general reasons for a communication
gap vary and can be anything from differing languages and the differing quality
of language (both high brow and rude) through the vague instructions, poor
definitions and contradictory messages. It can often be down to gender
difference or a clash within the workplace.
Beating the communication gap is a major
hurdle in the organization’s pursuit of prosperity and progress. With the gap
unresolved it leads to goals and objectives not being met and this hinders a
business or educational organization fulfilling its potentials.
RESEARCH DESIGN
This
study is a survey research which is designed to examine effective communication
between management and staff in an educational institution using faculty of
education, Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma as a case study.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
The
population of the study is made up of management and staff of the faculty of
education Ambrose
Alli University.
There are four (4) departments and the
faculty office in the faculty of education comprising of 10 professors, 18
doctors, academic staffs 21 and the non academic staff 22, bringing a total
number of 71 (faculty office, faculty of education, Ambrose Alli University
Ekpoma).
SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUES
Based on the population, the techniques
to be used for selection of respondents is stratified random sampling. The
sample will be drawn to cover both management and staff in the faculty of education
in Ambrose Alli University.
71 will be used as sample for the study.
INSTRUMENT VALIDITY
To ensure that the instrument
constructed was relevant to the study. It was sent to the project supervisor to
ascertain the content validity of the items. It was after the validation
process that the questionnaire was administered to the respondents.
INSTRUMENT RELIABILITY
The reliability of instrument was
established by conducting test-retest of the instrument of fifteen (15)
management and staff in the faculty of education, Ambrose Alli University,
Ekpoma of different occasion with an interval of (2) weeks. The scores received
were subjected to Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient which
obtained a reliability significant alpha level of 0.75 to achieve the objective
of the study.
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION
The
questionnaire was administered to the respondents of direct delivery method and
was collected immediately after the completion of the questionnaire for
analyses.
METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
The data obtained was analyzed through
the use of percentage technique.
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSES OF DATA
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
The chapter
was concerned with the analysis of data and presentation of result inferred
from the questionnaire administered. The data are critically analyzed and
reported.
TABLE 1
|
S/N
|
ITEM
|
|
RESPONSES
|
||
|
|
|
YES
|
%
|
NO
|
%
|
|
1
|
Do government allocate funds to
purchase communication equipment in your department?
|
|
|
71
|
100
|
|
2
|
Do you communicate through use of
bulletin, telephone, fax and internet?
|
71
|
100
|
|
|
|
3
|
Do management and utilizes
communication equipment effectively in your department?
|
10
|
14
|
61
|
86
|
|
4
|
Do management and staff maintain
these equipment used in communicating?
|
20
|
24
|
51
|
67
|
|
5
|
Does these equipments enhance effective
communication in your department?
|
71
|
100
|
|
|
|
Total
|
|
171
|
47.6
|
183
|
50.6
|
The
above show responses in percentage from the analysis, 171 of the responded
answered “Yes” while 183 then answered “No”. This represents 47.6 and 50.6
respectively.
This
result from the table above gives belief to the fact government did not
allocate fund to purchase communication equipment in schools. And they
communication through the use of bulletin, telephone, fax and internet. Also
the equipment used in communicating enhance communication in the department.
TABLE 2
|
S/N
|
ITEM
|
|
RESPONSES
|
||
|
|
|
YES
|
%
|
NO
|
%
|
|
1
|
classification
of respondents by effective communication existing in department
|
65
|
90
|
6
|
10
|
|
2
|
classification of respondents by
communicating with colleagues effectively
|
66
|
93
|
5
|
7
|
|
3
|
classification
of respondents by processing information correctly in your department
|
61
|
86
|
10
|
14
|
|
4
|
classification
of respondents by arrange information according to degree of urgency
|
71
|
100
|
|
|
|
5
|
classification of
respondents by effective communication minimized workers reliance on grapevine
information
|
71
|
100
|
|
|
|
Total
|
|
334
|
93.8
|
21
|
6.2
|
From
the above. It can be seen that 334 of the respondent answered “yes” to the
question while 21 of the respondent also answered “No”. This represents 93.8
“Yes” and 6.2 “No”.
The
result shows that the respondents agreed effective communication existed between
their colleagues and they process information correctly, arrange information
according to degree of urgency. According to the findings effective communication
minimized workers reliance on grapevine information.
SUMMARY
This
study focused on effective communication between management and staff in an
educational institution. A survey of the faculty of education, Ambrose Alli University,
Ekpoma. Four (4) research questions were formulated to guide the study.
Review of related literature was carried
out to enable the researcher have a better insight into the subject of the
study. Data for this study were obtained from the use of research instrument
known as questionnaire. The questionnaire consist of two (2) parts. The first
past contained the demography of the respondents and the second part contain
twenty (20) questions which were framed to elicit respondent from management
and staff of faculty of education to find out the level of effective
communication.
MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
Based
on the study, the following findings were made:
1.
Government did not allocate fund to
purchase communication equipment in schools
2.
Management and staff communicated
through the use of telephone, bulletin, fax and internet.
3.
Management and staff did not utilized
communication equipment effectively.
4.
Effective communication existed in
their department
5.
Management and staff communicate
effectively with their colleagues
6.
Effective communication minimized
workers reliance on grapevine information
7.
Management and staff processed
information correctly.
8.
Management and staff arranged
information according to the degree of urgency.
9.
Effective communication enhanced
co-operation and understanding among workers.
10. Effective communication enhance job
satisfaction and motivation of staff.
CONCLUSION
Based
on the findings of the study, it was concluded that effective communication was
well felt in the faculty of education. It was also revealed that the faculty of
education lack communication equipments which inhibit effective communication.
It was also revealed that organizational goals cannot be achieved as a result
of barriers to effective communication. Also management and staff did not deliberately
create communication gap.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the findings of this study, the
following recommendations were made:
i.
Government should allocate funds for
the purchase of communication equipment such as laptop, television and radio to
enhance job satisfaction and motivation of staff.
ii.
Management and staff should be taught
proper utilization of communication equipment.
SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER STUDY
The
researcher advocates that similar study should be carried out in other
faculties in order to make a generalization.
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Esene,
R.A (2005): Introduction to business enterprise Krisbe publication p. 145-148 Agbor
Griffin,
R.W (2000) management (4th edition)
Krauss, R.M & Morseila, E (2000)
Communication and conflict’ in the third book of conflict resolution. Jossey
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Knootz, H; et al (1980) Management
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