ANALYSIS OF “THIS WEEK” IN THE COMMUNICATION CLIMATE OF EMPLOYEES OF ELF PETROLEUM NIGERIA LIMITED, PORT HARCOURT – RIVERS STATE
CHAPTER ONE
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING
- Background to the Study
Communication is to society, what a skeleton is to human body (Udoakah 2006, p. 77). This shows that no relationship flourishes without establishing the maintaining communication networks. Hence, the better the communication structure, the healthier the relationship.
These envisaged favorable relationships transcend the simple interpersonal ones to those of complex organizations and major establishments in various sectors. The significance of this has necessitated and justified the advocacy of effective communication pathways in organizations so as to increase productivity without puncturing the balloon of goodwill to any of the public.
Put simply, this forms of major thrust of the dimension of public relation that is essentially for the staff of any organization. Employee relations float on the waters of internal communication. It concerns itself with all forms of communication directed at the employees of an organization for the purpose of harmonizing relationships between the management and the internal publics.
According to Stauss and Hoffmann (2000, p. 143) as cited in Tench and Yeomans (2006, p.334), internal communication is the planning use of communication actions to systematically influence the knowledge, attitude and behaviors of current employees. These employees could be communicated through a variety of methods, including newsletters, notice boards, staff briefings and intranets.
Tench and Yeomans (2006, p.337) posits that the strategies purpose of internal communication can perhaps best be summaries as one that is concerned with building two-way involving relationships with internal public, with the goal of improving organizational effectiveness. Their justification is anchored on the fact that better informed employees were thought to be better motivated employees who, in turn contribution to increased productivity – this belief still holds water today.
The basic communication needs of employees, they argue, are: general information about the organization, specific information to help them to do their jobs, clarity about their roles, a clear company/organization vision, information on workplace practices, opportunities to be involved and consulted, feedback on performance, access to training and development, and access to communication channels.
Of all the media literature that could be used for effective internal communication, the house journal seems to be the most appropriate since it could enhance feedback, or has feedback mechanism, and thereby building good employee-management relationship.
Benson-Eluwa (1998) avers that house journals or organs are special information media created in an organization to share information and to secure the participation of all employees in the company.
There are basically five types of house journal: the sales bulletin, the newsletter, magazine, tabloid newsletter, and the wall newsletter. Different organizations public one type or the other. Their choice of a particular house journal against another is informed by the target public in most cases. For instance, “The Shell Bulletin” is a monthly news magazine for the staff of shell Nigeria; “Mobil community News” is a newspaper published by ExxonMobil to its host communities; Mobil news” is for ExxonMobil employees, while Elf petroleum Nigeria limited (EPNL) Published “ partnership” newspaper on sustainable development to its host communities. But the house journal of focus to this study is “This Week”- a weekly newsletter for staff of EPNL and TUPNI (subsidiaries of total).
A newsletter is just what the name implies – a letter that carries news about an organization to its employees or constituents. The readers are usually interested if the newsletter takes the right tone, it can be valuable channel of communication.
A newsletter can promote organizational objectives, but it should not be used to mount harangues. If it is nothing more than the voice of management, it may be a failure, but if it provides genuine two-way communication, it can be a valuable part of a public relations program (Wilcox and Nolte 199, p. 321).
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