Impact of organizational communication in enhancing work effectiveness in local government entities

1.2 The background on Organizational Communication

Redding and Thompkins (1988:07) identify three periods in the development of organizational communication. During the Era of Preparation (1900 to 1940) much of the groundwork was laid for the discipline that we know today. Scholars emphasized the importance of communication in organizations. The primary focus during this time was on public address, business writing, managerial communication, and persuasion. Herbert S. wrote in 1947 about organization communications system saying communication is absolutely essential to organizations. The Era of Identification and Consolidation (1940-1970) saw the beginnings of business and industrial communication, with certain group and organizational relationships being recognized as important.

During the Era of Maturity and Innovation (1970-present), empirical research increased, «accompanied by innovative efforts to develop concepts, theoretical premises, and philosophical critiques»

Follett were setting the cornerstones for organizational communication by acknowledging the role of communication as key to organizational practices. During the industrial age, the focus of organizational communication was on worker productivity, organizational structure, and overall organizational effectiveness. The organizational communication can arguably be traced back to Alexander R. Heron's 1942 book Sharing Information with Employees that looked at manager-employee communication (Redding et al, 1988:09). Putnam, et al (1985:131) stated that the specialization of «organizational communication grew out of three main speech communication traditions: public address, persuasion, and social science research on interpersonal, small group, and mass communication''.

Instead of providing a long, drawn out history of the field of organizational communication as we know it today, we've provided a brief timeline dating back to the 1750s when the Industrial Revolution began in the United Kingdom. The introduction of steam-powered machinery forever changed the way businesses operated and led to the eventual creation of the modern corporation. Major Events in Organizational Communication" is a summary of the major events in the history of organizational communication, it is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but only a representative list of some of the major key-moments in the study of organizational communication.

( www.2012books.lardbucket.org/books/an-introduction-to-organizational-communication)

Eisenberg, (2007:22) defines the organizational communication as the transmission of a message through a channel to a receiver. In the social constructionist approach, organizational communication can be defined as the way language is used to create different kinds of social structures, such as relationships, teams, and networks. The former definition emphasizes the constraints that are placed on communication given pre-existing organizational structures and the latter definition highlights the creative potential of communication to construct new possibilities for organizing. However, organizational communication may be viewed more profitably as balancing creativity and constraint, as it is never entirely either constrained or creative. The definition of organizational communication as balancing creativity and constraint focuses on how individuals use communication to work out the tension between working within the constraints of pre-existing organizational structures and promoting change and creativity.

For Herbert (1958:07), Organizational Communication is the process by which activities of society are collected and coordinated to reach the goals of both individuals and the collective group. Bevelas (1990:50) developed new theories on organizational communication which were emphasizing on learning organization and system thinking. He has shown that communication patterns or networks influence groups in several important ways, such as completion of the assigned tasks on time, the position of the factor leader in the group or group member satisfaction for occupying certain position.

African continent is not only unique in customs, tradition, and culture, but also in its means of communication. All the means of communication originated from the earliest Africans in the old Egypt. The civilization later spread to China, India, Greece and Rome. The uniqueness of the African means of communication is embedded in their originality, creativity, tradition and culture of the people. These essentially make them highly effective and enduring in the dissemination of information personally, inter-personally and through group communications.

( http://www.onislam.net/english/culture-and-entertainment/media/453259--africas-indigenous-means-of-communicati.html)

Scannell,(2009:77), the African Oral Media like the use of gongs, drum beats, town criers, puppet shows, dance, singing and masks actually influenced the Greek and the Roman civilizations which Harold Adams Innis, a Canadian economic historian of the 1940s, who influenced the thoughts of McLuhan, describes as the best means of communication that will be enduring.

In our country, organizational communication is to be reckoned effective due to many ways of improving and enhancing organizational work effectiveness in local entities. In Official Gazette n° 41 of 14/10/2013 on LAW N^O06/2013 OF 22/08/2013 REGULATING THE INTERCEPTION OF COMMUNICATION pp5-12, under the Presidential Decree, adopted by Parliamentary (The Chamber of Deputies, in its session of 16 May 2013; The Senate, in its session of 25 March 2013;) and promulgated the law regulating organizational communication of any accepted kind to enhance the local entities work effectiveness. (Official Gazette n° 41 of 14/10/2013). Currently, local entities in Rwanda have adopted the new and easier way called CUG (Closed User Group) from the top administrative level up to the village level.