EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN ENHANCING PRODUCTIVITY IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1            Background of the study

There is a general saying that “there is no smoke without fire,” this also means that there is no organization without communication. Every organization requires the effective utilization and management of effective communication and its related tools for the passing of important information and for improving workers’ relationship with others. Communication is the process of passing information between persons and among people Barrett, (2002. In an organization, it provides a way of motivating, influencing and interaction of people. It is through this interaction that individual pulse is felt. Communication in organizations is indispensable because it is a bridge through which understanding, messages, information and ideas are relayed from one person, place or thing to Adegbuyi (20015), noted that the element of communication is an important part of the working environment. It allows individuals to gain information and knowledge on which they can then act. Most importantly, when communicating with others the party for which the message is intended needs to receive and accept it. Due to this two interface, the sender and the receiver should ensure that both parties interpret and act on the message in the same way. In this way communication becomes communication, through readings, listening (the receptive skills), speaking and writing (the productive ski would find it difficult to unravel some of the mysteries of life. Those things that we are ignorant of or have knowledge of, or that we have doubts about can be explained to us better through communication. Effective communication is therefore needed for management to develop and sustain a competitive advantage for organizational performance and improvement (Rowe, 2001 in Adegbuyi, 2015 therefore the ability of one to impart knowledge, pass a rule or an instruction, make a request, transmit or share an idea with a view to ensuring that organizational objectives are attained and individuals’ interests are achieved through mutual understanding (Peter, 2015) Effective communication is a communication between two or more persons wherein the intended message is successfully delivered, received and understood. In other words, communication is said to be effective when all the parties (sender and receiver) in the communication, assign similar meanings to the message and listen carefully to all what have been said and make the sender feel heard and understood. In the business context, the communication is effective if the information shared among the company employees contributes towards the organization’s commercial success (Barrett, 2002). Effective communication includes not just the way you use the words but also covers several other skills such as, non-verbal communication, ability to understand your own emotions as well as of the other person with whom you are communicating, engaged listening, ability to speak assertively, etc. Elving,&Hansma(2008), reveal that effective communication creates mutual understanding between management and workers which helps in building genuine relationship among both parties in the organizations. Effective communication improves job satisfaction (Ogbo, 2014) and which in turn improves productivity (Rho, 2009). It can be said Effective communication skills is necessary for any educational manager, as it can serve as a tool to manage conflicts, pass vital information, make good decisions, and receive feed backs which can help strengthen good working relationship with other employees within and outside the organization. A communicative leadership is especially important in organizations with values that are nonnegotiable (Shilbury, 2013). Effective communication is inevitable to any organization because it creates mutual balance between members of the organization and serves further as a tool to relate with those even outside the organization. Effective communication management is a systematic method of unifying human and material resources to work harmoniously for the realization of set goals, through establishing proper channels of communication, creating a hierarchy of information flow and receiving appropriate feedback. On the other hand, performance of tertiary institutions refers to the extent to which tertiary educational setups are achieving the purpose for which they were established. It includes the extent to which tertiary educational institutions are attaining set goals using the available human and materials resources.

1.2            Statement of the problem

In almost all school activities, communication plays an important role. How the aims of schooling are understood and communicated, become prerequisites for what activities will be carried out in the school(Robbins,2006). The importance of communication to any organization cannot be over-emphasized as it can be used to attain stated objectives of the school. However, it is one thing to communicate, and another thing to communicate effectively and yet another to manage effective communication. Many conflicts arise in tertiary institutions due to ineffective communication management which further hampers the rate at which such organization performs(Weimann,2010). Many school administrators have been observed to lack the necessary skills to manage effective communication. This is shown in their poor attitudes towards feedback and communication follow up system. Also many tertiary institutions lack effective communication guidelines that should direct the way people communicate. Many tertiary institutions are performing very poor through the quality of graduates they produce yearly. Given the importance of effective communication in other to enhance productivity, and the observed problems from school managers, it becomes pertinent for a study to be conducted that will determine whether tertiary institutions’ enhanced productivity has anything to do with effective communication management.

1.3            Objective of the study

The general objective of the study is to examine the effective communication in enhancing productivity in Nigerian universities. The specific objective of the study is as follows:

1.      To examine the benefit of effective communication in enhancing productivity in Nigerian Universities.

2.      To evaluate the challenges in communicating effectively in Nigerian Universities.

3.      To examine the extent to which school goal attainment in tertiary institutions depends on effective communication.

4.      To examine the extent to which employee work productivity in tertiary institutions depends on effective communication.

1.4            Research Questions

The following questions have been prepared for the study

1)      What is the benefit of effective communication in enhancing productivity in Nigerian Universities?

2)      What are the challenges in communicating effectively in Nigerian Universities.

3)      To what extent does school goal attainment in tertiary institutions depends on effective communication?

4)      To what extent have  employee work productivity in tertiary institutions depends on effective communication?

1.5            Significance of the study

This study is significant as it understood that employee productivity will be enhanced, by executing the four managerial function that can improve through effective communications thereby aiding the organization achieve its goal.

This study will be significant to the academic community as it will contribute to the existing literature on effective communication and workers productivity.

1.6            Scope of the study

This study will examine the benefit of effective communication in enhancing productivity in Nigerian Universities. The study will also evaluate the challenges in communicating effectively in Nigerian Universities. The study will further examine the extent to which school goal attainment in tertiary institutions depends on effective communication. Lastly the study will examine the extent to which employee work productivity in tertiary institutions depends on. Hence this study will be delimited to Universities in Lagos state.

1.7            Limitation of the study

In the course of carrying out this study, the researcher experienced some constraints, which included time constraints, financial constraints, language barriers, and the attitude of the respondents.

In addition, there was the element of researcher bias. Here, the researcher possessed some biases that may have been reflected in the way the data was collected, the type of people interviewed or sampled, and how the data gathered was interpreted thereafter. The potential for all this to influence the findings and conclusions could not be downplayed. 

More so, the findings of this study are limited to the sample population in the study area, hence they may not be suitable for use in comparison to other companies and locations.

1.8            Definition of terms

Communication:  the imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium

Productivity: the state or quality of being productive

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