Organizational Communication in Public Health Institutions
Kwame Owusu Kwateng, Hannah Vivian Osei, Ernest EkowAbban
2014
International Journal of Business and Management
This paper examined the management of organizational communication in state owned health institutions in Ghana. The study revealed that there is a positive relationship between communication and employees commitment to their jobs. The most preferred tools for communication were memos and meetings in state owned companies. However, monitoring and control of communication was very poor. The study recommends the establishment of bi-weekly meetings. It is recommend that management of health
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... ions must monitor to ensure adherence to instructions. Organization of regular meetings in the various directories must be encouraged to ensure effective communication. Introduction Communication according to Mershamand Skinner (2005) plays a very crucial role in all aspects of organizations. They contend that communication permeates all activities in an organization both internal and external. It is a work tool that allows individuals to understand their organizational role, co-ordinates organizational sub-units and stakeholders. Garnett et al. (2008) draws our attention to the fact that effective communication within an organization can lead to positive organizational outcomes. For instance in an organization, procedures, policies, regulations and other information may flow from the top managers to the lower level managers and across all stakeholders of the organization. All forms of communication, to some extent, shapes the opinions and perceptions of people about various objects and places such as persons, communities, organizations, governments and society. Moreover, Seitel (2004) points out that effective communication system have become the key to nourishing the organization. It is very essential that management show concern about the aspirations, attitudes and preferences by their employees. The organization stands to gain from satisfied employees, working at jobs to which they are best suited. When organizations commit themselves to effective communication with their employees, a number of important benefits can result. Well-informed employees are usually satisfied employees (Baskin et al., 1997) . It is in the light of this that the study was conducted to evaluate the effective planning, monitoring and control of communication in public sector hospitals, how employees receive adequate information and what channels of communications are used to ensure effective delivery of messages to help employees carry their duties successfully. The widely held view is that, communication is the life blood of every organization; thus not being able to communicate well will create a vacuum which may also lead to distrust and speculation. However, information overload may also occur when the information is too much (Bartoo & Sias, 2004) .One may receive large amount of information but it will not necessarily be the right amount of information, likewise when employees are deprived of information; it has the tendency of creating an avenue where they prefer to rely on speculation as a tool of information. Communication management in public hospitals has not achieved the desired results. The hospital runs a decentralized system made up of clinical directorates, non-clinical directorates and supporting units. It must be emphasized that, each directorate is run in a semi-autonomous manner with their own management team responsible for the day to day administration of the directorates. However, there is communication gap as most staff complain of not having access to most information issued by either their directorate management team or executive management of the hospitals and this may be attributed to reasons such as; the institutionalization of the decentralized administrative system; coupled with the increase in staff strength; increase in sub-specialized discipline and expansion of facilities; running of 24-hour service with shift system where some staff will be off duty or have to wait for their shift to start before they come to the www.ccsenet.org/ijbm International Journal of Business and Management Vol. 9, No. 11; 2014 180 hospital. These therefore make it very difficult for most staff to be abreast with information meant for their benefit as most staff tends to express misgivings about information flow in the hospital. This point to the fact that, poor organizational communication can sometimes create conditions where members in the organization may resort to grapevine information. It is in the light of this that the researcher is evaluating the management aspect of communication in the hospital. The study will bring to light the communication planning process in public hospitals. The findings will also help management, Board of Directors, staff members and policy makers to understand and appreciate the importance of effective management of organizational communication in public. Literature Review Communication within the Organization Communication has beyond reasonable doubt proven to be most significant tool in our daily, social and even management of businesses. Duncan and Moriarty (1997) believe that communication forms the backbone of all human activities.In the organizations, Barker and Camarata (1998) argue that communication cannot be left out if the organization is set to be an effective and continue learning one. Organizational communication is a collective process of interacting, generating and interpreting messages among individuals in the organization through one-way or two way manner (effectively termed as directional or bidirectional respectively) (Stoll, 1995) . Communication in an organization is therefore seen as a transfer and receiving of ideas, feelings and attitudes between management and the workers. It also involves an understanding of the information (Frost and Bondy, 1994). Stoll (1995) examined how communication patterns within organizations are influenced by the hierarchical relationships. In concluding the research a high bureaucratic organization usually focuses their communication on the vertical direction as formal as possible. These top-down chains of command in high bureaucratic organizations are characterized by written forms of communication with little or no forms of personal interactions. Research on organizational communication mostly focused on understanding how organizational communication changes depending on organizational type and structure.Mersham and Skinner (2005) have also emphasized the importance of organizational communication citing it as the life-line of every organization hence the removal of this key tool (organizational communication) would invariably lead to the non-existence of any organisation. In the opinion of these researchers, communication is a key element of all activities of an organisation; it provides an important medium through which individuals understand their organizational role whilst bringing various sub-units in an organization together. Poor organizational communication may pose a threat to harmony and to a large extent chaos among the various units in the organization. Channels of Internal Communication Practices Organizations can easily assess the usefulness of formal communication as a function of management if they are able to apprehend the relevance of mission and vision statements, goal statements, plans for implementation, and channels used to disseminate them (Lewis, 2000) . The challenge for management is to determine what to communicate, when to do so, who to receive the communication and most importantly which channel will be convenient for the communication. Data on research about big institutions posit that recipients of formal communication formulate their own understanding of a message and the purpose for that information. A sender's ability to select and present the best way to send messages to recipients will help eliminate self explanationswhich will improve effective communication. The effectiveness of communication is to some extent determined by the usage of organizational network and the method of selection. Passage of information from one person to the other in an organization depends on the interconnected channels referred to as networks. Communication flow may be downwards, upwards, laterally, and by diagonal means in an informal network. Organizations may have different forms of communication; the most common modes of communication are: vertical (upward communication, downward communication) horizontal communication and diagonal communication. 2.2.1 Vertical Communication The vertical channel of communication perceived as one of the most common and important channels of communication in an organisation. The free flow of this form of communication usually prevents friction within the organisation, a situation that will provide a healthy work environment, free of conflict and frustration (Van Staden et al., 2005). Upward Communication Upward communication is said to be any message sent from a subordinate to a supervisor or manager (Barker & www.ccsenet.org/ijbm International Journal of Business and Management Vol. 9, No. 11; 2014 181 Gaut, 2002). This mode of communication serves a variety of needs: it is often used by the employees to communicate valuable information to management. This communication's direction enables the employees to communicate their concerns to the management. Smith (2005) argues that, emphasis is now being placed on how communication is channeled back in an organization from the employees. Serious emphasis is now put on attitude surveys which tend to bring out employee voice. Frost and Bondy (1994) poses an argument which believes that upward communication presents a valuable feedback mechanism, and also provide information for decisions. More importantly it helps employees to relieve some of the pressures and tensions of work; and it adds to their sense of participation in the organization. Downward Communication Tubbs and Moss (1991) states that, after supervisory communication, the second most important factor in determining the communication climate in an organization is downward communication. This form of communication is initiated by the organization's upper management; and it goes downwards through the "chain of command". Organizations owe it as a duty to initiate various channels of communication to mitigate tensions and to clearly explain policies and procedures. Job instructions, organizational procedures, individual expectations and evaluation, training and company directed propaganda are examples of downward communication (Tubbs & Moss, 1991). Fieding (2006) postulates that "downward communication serves five important functions which includes provision of specific instructions about duties of a job or task that would be performed. 2.2.4 Lateral/Horizontal Communication www.ccsenet.org/ijbm International Journal of Business and Management Vol. 9, No. 11; 2014 182 statement whilst 8% strongly agreed to that assertion. This is in line with the view of Kalla, (2006) that effective communication is generally analyzed before they are issued in organizations. Moreover, when a statement that communication achieves its goals and objectives was put before the respondents, 43% remained neutral, 14% disagreed, 6% strongly disagreed, 3% strongly agreed whilst 32% agreed with the statement. This indicates that even though, majority of the respondents remained neutral, majority agreed that communication in the hospital achieved its stated goals. Seitel (2004) stated that communication is the key to the nourishment and achievement of organizational goals and objectives. The finding points to the fact that the public hospitals are able to meet the stated goals and objectives through the effective communication reported. Again, when the statement that communication in the hospital meets the needs and expectation of staff was put before the respondents, 4% strongly disagreed, 30% disagreed, 25% agreed, 4% strongly agreed, whilst 36% remained neutral, However, with mean score of 3.05 it can be deduced that respondents were not too sure about how the organizational communication are able to meet the demands of the staff. Mersham and Skinner (2005) define communication as the lifeblood of organizations which seeks to meet the needs and expectation of employees and that without which there will be no organization. Per the outcome we realize that staff needs on certain organizational information are not adequately addressed. From these two outcomes, it can be deduced that communication on how to effectively carry out duties are effective but the problem is how management are able to communicate issues that affect employees. On downward vertical communication is effective in Public Hospitals, responses were, 8% disagreed, 2% www.ccsenet.org/ijbm International Journal of Business and Management Vol. 9, No. 11; 2014 184 strongly disagreed, 17% remained neutral, however, 35% strongly agreed, whilst 35% agreed to the statement, this is a confirmation of the reality of what prevails in the hospital so far as medium of communication from superiors to their subordinates is concerned. The downward communication under review reflects formal and instructional communication within the public health sector. As depicted by respondents, the formal means of downward communication are viewed as effective. Moreover, when the statement that management acts on informal communication in Public Hospitals was put before respondents, with 5% strongly disagreed, 16% disagreed, 54% remained neutral, whilst 18% agreed and 4% strongly agreed with the statement. This points to the fact that there is a communication gap when it comes to the informal communication within the public sector. It also indicates that the sector is crippled with bureaucratic and formal means of communication which may not augur well for the effective address of issues relating to a particular department. Furthermore, when the statement that horizontal communication facilitates the management of communication in Public Hospitals was put before respondents, 1% strongly disagreed, 15% disagreed, 51% remained neutral 26% agreed whilst 3% strongly agreed, This indicates that majority of the respondents who took part in the study were not aware about the extent to which horizontal communication facilitates the management of communication in the hospital. It should therefore be noted that horizontal communication in organizations are normally informal and it exists amongst people on the same level of authority. Frost et al. (1994) indicated that the function of horizontal communication includes task co-ordination, problem solving, and information sharing and conflict resolution. Respondents view on frequency of communication to subordinates www.ccsenet.org/ijbm International Journal of Business and Management Vol. 9, No. 11; 2014 186 predictions, only three representing internal communication systems are responsive to the employee's needs, effective monitoring of communication improving employees commitment to their job and internal communication systems creating an enabling environment that enables co-workers were the statements that were affected by the dependent variable which is indicated as effect on communication. This means that effect of communication on employees had significant contribution on the statements .however the extent of significance depended on the co-efficient variable. It should be noted that a negative coefficient signify that there is no direct relationship between the variables whilst a positive co-efficient variable indicates that there is a positive relationship amongst the variables. This therefore suggest that even though effect of communication contributed significantly to the statements there is a positive relationship between effect of communication and the employees commitment to their jobs to a large extent. This is line with Kitchen et.al (2002) proposition that effective employee communication is crucial to achieving successful change in organizations. They believe that internal communication programmes must motivate employees support for a new direction, encourage high performance, limit misunderstandings and rumours and align employees behind the company.
doi:10.5539/ijbm.v9n11p179
fatcat:jay2urxdkng5xgei3pinbehssa