CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
It is fundamental that any organization that wishes to pursue an activity in full accordance with the society in which it exists, to commence the work based on a set plan, a management strategy carefully set up as management represents an important area of the proper functioning of the organizational and the social systems, particularly in the conditions of modern era, marked by the increasing complexity of technological and informational products, radical transformation at the level of social structure, trends of globalization of the economy and, especially, changes to the product at the organizational level. In this study we shall consider the role of communication in an organisation that will adapt to all organization changes as a necessity.
Continuous global developments in economic, political, social and technological aspects are actually affecting the communal and organizational lives at a crucial manner. In line with these developments organization management are compelled to restrategise new management patterns to struggle even harder competition conditions. This new management patterns believe to enhance employees’ performance by referring to the power of communication (Erogluer, 2011). Communication with its pros or cons is essential part of life and also it has an important role on all activities aimed at gaining organizational objectives (Ada et al., 2008).
Communication entails all aspects that a person does when he making a transformation in someone else’s mind. Communication is a process that involves expressing, listening and understanding (Banerji and Dayal, 2005). Similarly, laying emphasis on social aspect of communication, Gerbner also defined communication as “a kind of social interaction formed by entries”. Communication that takes part on the base of social life and forms the content of organizational structure is a process which aims conducting good relationships between groups and organizations (Dogan, 2005). Multilevel area of the concept of communication together with its analyses from different viewpoints has affects on its definition. Erogluer (2011) revealed that communication concept has 4560 different usages. According to Oliver (1997) communication is the process of exchanging ideas, emotions and opinions through words, letters and symbols between two or more people. Yet it is uncertain whether symbols are transfer truly or not, to what extent symbols meet the transmitted message and how effective transmitted fact on the receiver (Kalla, 2005; Baltas and Baltas, 2002).
Mckinney, Barker, Smith & Davis, (2004) stated that communication is important in any organisation as it will bring about an improved performance of employees. Thus, any organization that knows the role of communication adopts it in their organizational environment and form part of their organizational culture. This is so because it ensures effective coordination of factors of production like land, labour, capital and entrepreneur but human elements of organization are considered to be an efficient network of change and advancement. According to Snavely (2001) as cited by Robins (2006), communication process is initiated through the following means the sender-encoding-the message-the channel decoding- the receiver- noise and feedback. Since most of the basic management process- planning, organizing, leading and controlling – cannot be performed without effective communication. For better understanding of the study, we shall critically look at the role of communication in the bank industry.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Many organizational conflicts spur from lack of effective communication. Thus, it is crucial to suggest that in communication, emotions, environment, psychological and technical characteristics of the medium is relevance to ensure the performance of the organisation. According to Okoye (2004), communication is beyond receiving information but stretch to understanding and feedback. Conflicts in organizations have been traced to breakage in communication process (Lee, 2003; Scott, 2004). According to Chudi –Oji (2013), with the efforts aimed at improving organizational performances through effective communication, it is a pity that some banks in Nigeria do not pay much attention to effective communication systems.
In addition to this, the inability to understand the role to play by staff as a result of lack of effective communication seems to limit their organizational performance, which could create maladministration in coordinating of organizational activities. Therefore, performance of employees in relation with their roles and responsibilities seem to question their communication techniques in terms of performance in the banking sector. Constant exposure of employees to the innovations in the banking sector in terms of communication channels have experienced absolute decline and if not quickly addressed may have negative effect on the performance of the employees in the banking sector which may have effect on their financial performance. These problems highlighted have made the researcher to investigate role of communication in the bank industry in Nigeria.
1.3 Research Questions
The following are some of the questions which this study intends to answer:
i) What is the importance of communication in the banking industry?
ii) In what ways does communication affect employees’ performance in the banking industry?
iii) How effective has the communication techniques enhance employee’s performance in the banking industry?
1.4 Research Objectives
The main aim of this study is to investigate the role of communication in the bank industry in Nigeria. The specific objectives a
i) To determine the importance of communication in the banking industry
ii) To examine how communication affect employees’ performance in the banking industry
iii) To identify how communication techniques enhance employee’s performance in the banking industry
1.5 Research Hypotheses
The following will be the research hypotheses to be tested in the course of this study:
i) There is a significance influence of effective communication on the employees’ performance
ii) There is a significance relationship between communication techniques and employees’ performance
1.6 Significance of the Study
This study investigates the the role of communication in the bank industry in Nigeria and therefore would benefit managers and board of directors of organizations in the course of improving their knowledge will find this study useful in that they will not want to fall into the same unfortunate situation before implementing the solution proffered by this study. It will add to academic knowledge in the area of management sciences.
1.7 Scope of the Study
This study covered workers of different commercial banks in Nigeria. However, this study will go a little further to discuss communication in some details.
1.8 Limitation of the study
The attitudes of some workers in different organizations visited partially affected this project and its quality. The issue of not on seat, come back tomorrow and the likes, contributed to the delay of this project. Also, the issue of finance contributed to the delay of this project too.
1.9 Definitions of Terms
The following terms were used in the course of this study:
Communication: the imparting or exchanging of information or news.
Employee: a person employed for wages or salary, especially at nonexecutive level.
Performance: the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Productivity: the effectiveness of productive effort, especially in industry, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input
