AN EVALUATION OF INTERNAL PUBLICATION AS A TOOL FOR ORGANIZATIONAL HARMONY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. Background to the Study

In contemporary society, organizations are faced with problems which include but not limited to industrial disharmony due to ineffective or lack of corporate internal communication (publication). In every industry, corporate institution or any organized setting particularly a profit making venture, public and industrial relations are two fundamental concepts that affect their output. The co-existence of these two concepts is channeled to a particular purpose; which is industrial harmony (Ngonso and Ugwonno, 2011). Industries and organizations, whether public or private, profit or non-profit oriented; are made up of internal and external publics. Thus, internal publication as a public relations tool remains one of the most important tools for effective relations among identified publics of various institution.

Internal publication being a tool of public relations is of great importance in its role of achieving industrial harmony within the public (internal publics) of an institution. This communication system also enhances two-way communication within an organization as it involves creating opportunities for feedback which in turn leads to the achievement of industrial harmony. According to Black (1989) public relations involves the establishment of two-way communication to resolve conflicts of interest seeking common grounds or areas of mutual interests and establishment of understanding based on truth, knowledge and full information. Also, according to Nwosu (1992) public relations includes winning friends, keeping and influencing them. This implies that the function of public relations is not just to win the heart of the publics, but also to sustain the friendship.

The internal and external publics remain the two complex environments or publics upon which the success and failure of an organization is dependent. The internal and external environment are made up of people with different socio-economic, socio-political, religious affiliation and overall psychological background but with associated interest with which the organization has its direct day-to-day dealings and which often time result in disagreement, crisis or conflicts. These conflicts at times come as a result of the organization’s acts and policies or acts and opinions of the organization’s publics. This group of people includes, the employee, opinion leaders, shareholders, government agents, regulatory bodies, suppliers, customers and community people (Ngonso and Ugwonno, 2011).

Effective communication remains the live wire of every industry/organization. Gamble and Gamble (2002, p.5), capture this reality of communication as they summarized thus: “A college student; An octogenarian; Two people in love; A doctor and a patient; A native and a foreigner; Parents; Children; Friends; Enemies; Decision makers; Speakers; all these people share at least one thing; a need to communicate”. In a nutshell, the internal publics (employees) are supposed to understand what an organization does, they should know the activities and policies, and this is because a breakdown in communication can lead to unnecessary conflict.

Internal publication has been referred to as “employee relations” or “employee communication.” by many companies. This sub function of corporate communication has become increasingly critical, as corporations have realized the importance of fostering relationships with employees and publics as a way of creating, retaining and enhancing industrial harmony. Employees are one of the most important resources an organization possesses and effective communication is needed to make them understand their organization and contribute consciously to the attainment of its goals (Asemah 2011, p.288).

A strong internal communication function can boost morale, help create happier employees who are more productive, and allow management to develop ambassadors of the corporation and its brands. Through the use of digital and social media, companies have found ways to enhance communication with employees and create a two-way communication rather than the traditional top-down communication in which management simply tells everyone what to do (Lexicon. 2011)

It is therefore not out of place to refer to internal publication as the numerous means or channels through which corporate internal communications are executed. These media are; news bulletin, magazine, brochure, in-house journals, circular/memos or other communication vehicles that are internally produced or published by an organization/industry which contains news reports and articles on corporate and industry updates, business operations, corporate culture and career profiles. It provides employees or company staff the opportunity to know and be acquainted with the company’s programs and policies thereby reducing gossips and grapevine within corporate environment.

Kogi State University is one of the fastest growing State Universities in Nigeria, it has from time to time experienced certain obstructions in academic activities as a result strike actions which are normally caused by some form of misunderstanding. These misunderstandings could be averted using internal publications hence this study to ascertain the extent to which internal publications are used to communicate information within the University and to establish it’s influence on the relationship between the institution and its staff.

1. 2. Statement of the Problem

It is no longer news that members of staff of Nigerian educational institutions have in recent times experienced disharmony, instability and other forms of industrial conflict and Kogi State University is not an exception. Most of these problems have been as a result of poor communication (Enyi, 2001). Despite the available of various internal communication tools and it’s adoption in kSU, the desired internal harmony has not been achieved, could this be as a result of inappropriate adoption or the publics not understanding the communication.

Hence this study sets to evaluate the extent to which internal publications have been used as tools for harmony in Kogi State University, to identify the challenges associated with its adoption and to suggest ways they can be effectively used for the achievement of organizational harmony.

1. 3. Objectives of the Study

The objectives are:

1. To ascertain the extent to which KSU use internal publication for for communication within the organization.
2. To determine the extent to which KSU workers are exposed to institutional internal publications.
3. To ascertain the extent to which internal publications in KSU has boosted the relationship between management and staff of the institution.
4. To identify the problems affecting effective adoption of internal publications for communication in KSU.
5. To suggest how internal publications can be effectively utilized to create institutional harmony in KSU.

1. 4. Research Questions

This research work seeks to proffer solution to the following questions

1. To what extent does KSU use internal publication to communicate within the organization.
2. What is the degree of exposure of KSU workers to institutional internal publics.
3. To what extent has internal publications boosted the relationship between management and staff of the institution?
4. What are the challenges facing the use of internal publications for communication in KSU?
5. How can internal publications be utilized to create insitutional harmonyin KSU?

5. Significance of the Study

The study is significant to the management and members of staff of the university, public relations department of corporate organizations andresearchers on related study.

This research work will be very relevant to the public relations unit of Kogi State University as it will reveal the various media for effective communication with the internal publics of institutions. It is believed that through the findings of this study, more strategies for efficient use ofinternal publications for organizational communication will be made known.

Also, this study would create better awareness on the concept of internal publication and its application. It is hoped to encourage industrial harmony in the higher educational institutions by exposing managers/managements to the relevance of internal publications to the achievement of institutional harmony within the university system. This will contribute to the body of existing knowledge on industrial communication and it will serve as source material for future researchers in this field.

6. Scope of the Study

The project work will focus on the entire role of internal publications in the achievement of industrial harmony amongst staff of the KSU. The study will also look into the public relations unit of KSU to evaluate their efforts in the utilization of these internal media to achieve organizational harmony and will evaluate the perception of the staff of KSU on the effectiveness of internal publications in the institution. The study will cover both the academic and non-academic staff of KSU.

7. Definition of Terms

The key words in this research work and the most frequently used words will be defined to ensure proper and easy understanding of the study. The following salient concepts have been conceptually defined for the study.

Communication: Communication can be defined as the sending of a message via a channel to a receiver with a feedback to confirm the effectiveness of the communication process.

Employee/worker: This is any person who is not a manager and who works for another in any organization for fixed wages.

Internal Publications: Internal publication is a publication (news bulletins, books, journals, magazines, newspaper etc.) that provides civic employees with timely, factual information on civic plans, policies and programs of an organization on regular basis.

Industrial Harmony: Industrial harmony refers to a friendly and cooperative agreement on working relationships between employers and employees for their mutual benefit.

Internal communication: Internal communication is any short or long-term vehicle of communication between the employer and the employee such as publications, special events, memorandums, programs and forums, targeted to specific employee groups, individual departments and offices or corporate-wide.

Industrial Relations:     A tripartite relationship involving three parties namely, the owners of work, the employees or their representatives and government agency for the purpose of setting job rules and regulations.

Two-way Communication: Two-way communication always includes feedback from the receiver to the sender; both sender and receiver listen to each other.

Public Relations: It is the art and science of using communication to maintain a mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence between two parties.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORK

DISCLAIMER: All project works, files and documents posted on this website, UniProjectTopics.com are the property/copyright of their respective owners. They are for research reference/guidance purposes only and some of the works may be crowd-sourced. Please don’t submit someone’s work as your own to avoid plagiarism and its consequences. Use it as a reference/citation/guidance purpose only and not copy the work word for word (verbatim). The paper should be used as a guide or framework for your own paper. The contents of this paper should be able to help you in generating new ideas and thoughts for your own study. UniProjectTopics.com is a repository of research works where works are uploaded for research guidance. Our aim of providing this work is to help you eradicate the stress of going from one school library to another in search of research materials. This is a legal service because all tertiary institutions permit their students to read previous works, projects, books, articles, journals or papers while developing their own works. This is where the need for literature review comes in. “What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.” - Austin Kleon. The paid subscription on UniProjectTopics.com is a means by which the website is maintained to support Open Education. If you see your work posted here by any means, and you want it to be removed/credited, please contact us with the web address link to the work. We will reply to and honour every request. Please notice it may take up to 24 – 48 hours to process your request.