CHAPTER ONE

                                             INTRODUCTION

1.1              Background to the Study

All human interactions are form of communication. In world business today, nothing can be achieved without good communication with employers, employees, clients, suppliers, and even customers. Looking at the most successful business people in the world, one will see people who have mastered the art of communication. Business all over the world today is very challenging. To stay profitable in the highly challenging and competitive global market economy all factors at production (i.e. men, machine and materials), should be wisely managed. Among the factors of production, human resource constitutes the biggest challenge because unlike inputs, employee management demands skilful handling of thoughts, feelings and emotions to secure highest productivity.

Communication has crucial impacts or among work groups in that organizational communication is a channel to pass information and policies. Organizational communication can be broadly defined as communication with one another in the context of an organization. This type of communication, in turn, includes activities of sending and receiving message through various layers of authority, using various message systems, and discussing various topics of interest to the group we belong to or the company we work for. Organizational communication research has mainly been conducted both in the business management field and in the communication field; however, researchers in the public administration field have provided little knowledge about organizational communication and its roles and effects.

Communication applied to all phases of management process. It is the process of transferring information from sender to receiver, who interprets the information in order to achieve organizational objectives. Information, according to Miller, (2002, Roll, 2004) is simply the vehicle by which we attempt to provoke or evoke a human response. Information on its own is quite static and lifeless. It simply exists waiting to be interpreted and have meaning attached by people. In the view of Nabeth et al (2002) information needs interpretation by people knowledge workers in an organization. Knowledge could be associated to objects that can be identified, separated from their initial context and handled in information system. Information system management is largely under a new label Information Technology (Wilson, 2002).

It is a public secret that no two people can ever have the same perception about an event. What one will deduce from a particular scenario is very different from what others can deduce. This is why even in exams, students respond differently though the same teacher taught them. This is a major communication barrier in the workplace. What the management can convey or try to put across to their employees will be based on their perception and how they understand it. What the employee can deduce from the message might be different from what was intended. This will cause misunderstandings and if a conflict of views were to arise, this could lower the levels of productivity in the workplace. The style and effectiveness of communication will influence the way employees communicate. For example, the extent to which they explain detail, how they interact with others when they talk and so on. All this will determine the level of communication in the workplace and the lower the effectiveness, the lower the productivity in the work place.

Nevertheless, what is important about communication is that the receiver must understand the message that has been sent across by asking certain questions; it may be possible to find out if the receiver has actually understood the message. This makes communication to be a two way process in a sense that it prevents the development of psychologically negative attitude among the personnel in an organization. Therefore, a feedback mechanism must be included into a communication process. There is need to avoid an excessive amount of one way communication. (Uwakwe, 2004). It is important to say that communication has been characterized as the stronghold of any organization. Without communication, organizations do not achieve its desired goals. The purpose of communication in an organization is to effect change to influence action towards the welfare of the enterprise.