Bureaucratic Communication & Quality Assurance BY PROF ‘NIYI AKINNASO

1. Bureaucratic Communication& Quality AssuranceBYPROF ‘NIYI AKINNASO How to achieve effective Communication in a University Environment

2. Terms of this presentation • University environment • Bureaucracy • Quality Assurance • Effective Communication Effective communication is necessary in order to ensure the smooth operation of a bureaucracy and ensure optimal quality, especially in a university environment.

3. Features of a typical university environment • A complex environment in which people often walk in different directions during the day and sleep with their heads in different directions at night. • Multiple ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious, and social identities. • Multiple disciplines and knowledge biases. • A multilayered hierarchy that almost reflects the larger society. • A salaried workforce with members competing for promotion and often for the same position.

4. Fallout of the environment • Need for bureaucracy as the preferred form of authority. • Cut-throat competition, gossip, back-biting, etc. • Conflicting goals, ideas, and solutions to problems. • Pressure on communicative effectiveness: What you say or write matters. It can do or undo you.

5. What is a bureaucracy? • Bureaucracy can be viewed as the combined organizational structure, procedures, protocols, and set of regulations in place to manage activity, usually in large organizations, such as a university like FUTA. It’s main goal is to help realize the organization’s goals. • It is typified by (i) standardized procedures or rules that guide the execution of most or all processes within the organization; (ii) formal division of labor; (iii) hierarchy that reflects power structure; and (iv) relationships and social networks among members. • A bureaucracy traditionally exists to implement laws, policies, and regulations established by the leadership. That’s why it is said that a bureaucracy does not create policy but enacts it.

6. Max Weber and bureaucracy • Weber explains bureaucracy in relation to other types of authority, namely, charismatic authority (and the corresponding organizational type of a religious sect), traditional authority (typified by a monarchy), and legal-rational authority. It is this last type of authority structure which gave rise to bureaucracy. • With the dawn of the industrial revolution in 1750, the growth of the factory system, the spread of the railroads, the appearance of the telegraph in the nineteenth century, the advance of electronic communication in the twentieth century, and improvements in communication technologies in the twenty-first, bureaucracy has come to stay as the system of choice for nation-states, organizations, and universities .

7. What is quality assurance? • A major fallout of the development of bureaucracy is the need to assure quality. • Quality assurance, or QA for short, refers to a program for the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service, or facility to ensure that standards of quality are being met.

8. Achieving QA • In order to assure optimal quality, an organization must set goals, targets, standards, and how to achieve them. • There must be appropriate mechanisms in place for monitoring the attainment of goals, targets, and standards as work progresses. • This measure must be taken throughout the university, department by department, unit by unit, course by course. • In the case of university courses, for example, there must be standards for preparing course syllabi and evaluating courses and their teachers.

9. What is (effective) communication? • Communication is getting a message across from a sender to a receiver. • Communication is said to be effective when the sender’s aim or objective in sending a message is achieved by the receiver acknowledging, understanding, and implementing the message.

10. Communication as a meansof production • Effective communication is the foundation for harmony and effectiveness in any type of organization from family through university to multinational corporations. • That’s why, in addition to instruments of labor (tools, factories, infrastructure, etc.) and subjects of labor (natural resources and raw materials) communication is viewed as a means of production.

11. Channels of communication • Language • Speech • Writing • Silence • Gestures • Appearance • Clothing • Carriage and demeanor

12. Why communication problems exist in an organization • The onus of effective communication within any organization is on the leadership. In the case of a university, we are talking about the Principal Officers, Heads of Department, Program or Project Directors or Coordinators, Committee Chairmen, instructors, etc. • Management does not effectively convey information about policies, goals, mission, and specific objectives to workers. • Management sees no value whatsoever in communicating with subordinates, believing subordinates should shut up and do their jobs. • Management associates communication with problem-solving; if there are no problems, then there is no need for communication. • Poor mastery of the official language of communication. • Use of technical terms and “big” English

13. Top-down communication strategies • Ensure that every employee receives a copy of the strategic plan, which includes the organization's mission, vision, values statement, strategic goals and strategies about how those goals will be reached. • Ensure every employee receives an employee handbook that contains all up-to-date personnel policies. • Develop a basic set of procedures for how routine tasks are conducted and include them in standard operating manuals.

14. Top-down … II • Develop an organogram or organization chart that specifies the different channels and flow of information. • Ensure every employee has a copy of the organization chart, which reflects the hierarchy of information. • Ensure every employee has a copy of their job description. • Regularly hold management meetings (at least every two weeks), even if there's nothing pressing to report. If you hold meetings only when you believe there's something to report, then communications will occur only when you have something to say -- communications will be one way and the organization will suffer. Have meetings anyway, if only to establish and affirm the communication that things are of a status that there are no immediate problems.

15. Top-down… III • Hold full staff meetings every month or so to report how the department is doing, major accomplishments, concerns, announcements, etc. • Leaders and bosses should have face-to-face contact with employees at least once a week. • Management need not be anonymous. Management should stroll by once in a while. • Regularly hold meetings to celebrate major accomplishments. This helps employees perceive what's important, gives them a sense of direction and fulfillment, and let's them know that leadership is on top of things. • Ensure all employees receive yearly performance reviews, including their goals for the year, updated job descriptions, accomplishments, needs for improvement, and plans to help the employee accomplish the improvements.

16. Top-down … IV • Bosses should never talk down on junior workers, no matter their offence. Rather, they should be disciplined as appropriate. • Communication with subordinates will be discussed later.

17. Bottom-up communication • It is important for employees to provide status reports to their bosses/supervisors. • Bosses should respect the grapevine in order to protect vital information and ensure the flow of future ones. Such information should, however, be weighed against the informants biodata. • Junior workers should be encouraged to speak the language in which they have the most facility if bosses also understand such language.

18. Communication with subordinates • One aspect of African cultural patterns that has negatively impacted bureaucratic communication is our totalizing view of social distance, promoted by age distance, monarchical notions of hierarchy, and the omoodo practice. • Accordingly, we have a “ta-lo-n-bawi” and “shot-up-I-am-speaking” mentality. We believe we must put subordinates in their place by talking them down. • Yet, every worker within a bureaucracy is as important as any other. It is therefore important for bosses to address their subordinates and junior workers well.

19. What to do? • We must realize that politeness thrives on reciprocal obligation and requires the cooperation of both participants in a conversation. • If you want subordinates to respect you, you have to respect them as well. • We must realize that subordinates have various methods of resistance that can have negative impacts on their bosses’ performance and the achievement of the university’s mission. • It is the boss’s duty to maximize the productivity of subordinates by making them feel that their services are valuable. This can only be achieved through polite communication with them.

20. Formula for effective communication • First, develop a communication plan • What message? • What purpose? • Who is/are the recipient(s)? • What medium (speech or writing)?