ANALYSIS OF “THIS WEEK” IN THE COMMUNICATION CLIMATE OF EMPLOYEES OF ELF PETROLEUM NIGERIA LIMITED, PORT HARCOURT – RIVERS STATE

This study was on the impact of “This Week” on the communication climate of employees of Elf petroleum Nigeria limited, EPNL, and Port Harcourt. Four researches questions were formulated for the study. The content analysis research method was used. The population of study was 52 editions of “This Week” published between July, 2007 and July, 2008 while the sample size was 26 editions. The findings revealed that “The Week”, being a weekly published was an effective medium of internal communication in the organization. It was further gathered that to an extent, the newsletter gave prominence to employee-related issues. The findings also showed that the direction of courage of employee issues in the house journal was positive hence, building a good communication climate for the employees. It was also discovered that with the total of 60% courage of high employee-related issues, “This Week” has positively impacted on the communication climate of EPNL’s employees. The study of recommended a complete overhauling of “This Week” to increase its number of pages and total dedication to employee issues than host communities. It also recommended that employee-relation stories should often occupy front page, and that even stories that are unfavorable to management should always be carried. The study further recommended that the house journal should assume more interactive status and not a management harangues, and that the introduction of cartoons should be considered so that the newsletter can be bit biting on management, daring where articles tremble.