COMMUNICATION AS A TOOL FOR ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Communication is a means of bringing about change. It is the mainstream of any organization growth. There is need form interaction and understanding of management-employee relations this will bring about increased performance of all parties involved in the communication process or chain. According to Banihashemi (2011), communication as a medium, a means to performance ends, or as constitutive, as the end in itself. Communication is a process of transmitting information from one person to another. According to Stephen (2011), communication is a critical factor in directing and mobilizing the workforce towards the accomplishment of the organizational goals or objectives. By creating understanding it enhances co-operation and promote effective performance. According to Williams (2007) smart managers understand that the end effective, straight forward communication between managers and employees is essential for success.

According to (Mckinney, Barker, Smith& Davis,2004)communication is essential to effective team performance and communications for any organization is like blood flow in the human body. Therefore any organization that understands the importance of communication uses it in their organizational environment. Since, it ensures coordination of factors of production and most importantly material and human elements of organization as an efficient network of change and advancement. According to Snavely (2001) as cited by Robins(2006), communication process is initiated through the following means

-The sender-encoding-the message

-The channel decoding-

-The receiver noise and feedback.

It is estimated that managers spend over 80% of their day communicating with others. Since most of the basic management process- planning, organizing, leading and controlling – cannot be performed without communication. Importantly, the relevance of communication keeps advancing as the world becomes a Global village. The need to become visible to the world has made many organizations to embrace new technology that would increase organizational performance. There are also many issues affecting communication ranging from difference in sex, role of silence, inference of government and cross- cultural inference. This would stand as a mile stone for Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) as a whole networked for organizational communication and performance. Therefore it becomes important to emphasize on innovation and use of communication medium or channel to bring about high performance rate. Hence any breakdown in communication process or chain can have serious adverse effects on organizational performance.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Many organizational disputes or disagreement can be attributed to failure in communication. Hence it is important to highlight that communication is relevant to enhancing organizational performance. In the view of Okoye (2004), communication goes beyond reception of information but understanding and feedback. Most organizational conflicts/disputes have been traced to communication as supported by (Lee, 2003; Scott, 2004). According to Chudi –Oji (2013), In spite of the laudable roles of communication in improving organizational performances, it is regrettable that most organizations pay lip service to the maintenance of communication systems. This communication breakage has significant affected organizational growth which has contributed to low productivity level of employees as well as the high level of unemployment currently in Nigeria. Therefore, performance of employees in relation with their duties and responsibility seems to question their communication techniques in terms of performance in organizations. These problems mentioned above, has posed the following questions that would guide the study and thereby enhance quality of communication in the Nigeria Television Authority

1.3   RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

        The specific objective of the study is to determine and evaluate on the strategies of enhancing organizational performance through communication. The specific objectives of the study include.

1.     To investigate the relationship between communication and employee performance in Nigeria Television Authority.

2.     To examine the communication techniques that enhances performance in Nigeria Television Authority.

3.     To ascertain whether communication gap has affected administration structure procedure in Nigeria Television Authority.

4.     To examine if communication affect organizational performance.

5.     To ascertain if organization environment affect communication

6.   To verify if communication difficulties affect various management    cadre in organization.

1.4   RESEARCH QUESTIONS 

Undoubtedly communication in an organization is the strategy for enhancing and directing the performance of any organization in this present day complex and competitive environment that notwithstanding the following questions will be asked.

1. Does communication affect organizational performance?
2. Does organization environment affect communication?
3. What are the communication difficulties affect various management cadre in organization.
4. How can organizational performance be enhanced by communication?
5. What is the impact of the environment on both inflow and outflow of communication in the organization?
6. What are the major factors responsible for the difficulties encountered in the interpersonal communication between top level managers and lower level managers?

This research question will be answered in the objective of the study.

1.5   SCOPE OF THE STUDY     

The research work is to study effectiveness of communication as a tool for enhancing organizational performance with regard to Nigeria Television Authority, NTA.

The scope of this study is not intended to embrace in detail all that may have been required to develop the topic of the study because of its broad and its inherent difficulties associated with obtaining data because of time constraints – which will hamper a useful detailed development of the research topic.

        However, this study will be in terms of the population studied, here the unit of data collection will be taken from the public affairs community relation department sales department, administrative and human resources department.

More so, the studies carried out so far are

1. The reaction of top management staff to communication
2. The process that can enhance communication in organization.
3. How can communication enhance organizational performance?
4. Factors that account for the achievement and failure of organization

1.6   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The research work will be of immense benefit to various forms of organization in Nigeria at the conclusion of this research work, both top and low level managers in Nigeria organization would be able to view communication as a means by which people are linked in an organization to achieve their common objective and ensure organizational growth.

This research work will be of importance to Nigerians in general because it would describe the various methods techniques and means by which communication as a strategy for enhancing organizational performance.

More so, this study would produce an insight for top middle and low level managers in organizations in Nigeria to understand the ongoing: in the Nigerian business environment.

The research work would be a useful source of materials for information, teaching and for future research purposes.

Finally this study will assist in knowing the benefit to be enjoyed and derived that really emphasizes on the concept of organizational communication as a strategy for its organizational growth and performance.