GOOD COMMUNICATION AS AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT FOR STRONG EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

CHAPTER ONE

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Introduction

Employees are regarded as the most valuable element in an organization. They contribute immensely to the growth and development of any organization. Hagos and Zewdie (2018) suggest that the progress of any organization is hinged on the input made by the employees. Basically, employees are instrumental in the utilization of other resources such as technology, finance, information and other managerial tools in the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. Employees do not carry out these functions in a vacuum: they need to interact and synergize with others to get their jobs done, so there is a growing concern for managers in organizations to create a positive work environment. However, having a pleasant work relationship amongst employees makes it easier for employers to mobilize their energies with their employees to achieve results (Galer et al., 2005). According to Buckingham and Coffman (2000) a survey carried out on 2,500 organizational departments in 24 organizations has revealed that the existence of an effective employee relations is depended on the managers’ leading and managerial practices.

Employee relations as described by BambooHR (n.d.) is an organization’s concerted efforts to maintain a conducive working environment for a positive relationship with its employees. In addition for the organizations to be able to maintain positive employee relations, they must first see their employees as partners and contributors in the organization. This aspect encourages the employers to create a platform for an open door system where employee’s views are welcomed and valued. The Management Study Guide (n.d.) posit that employee relations deals with the avoidance and resolution of negative issues that may arise among employees in the course of the discharge of their official duties. Employee relations are encompassing. It involves creating a work environment that strives to satisfy both the needs of the employers and the employees, improving better communication, providing a system for grievance procedure, and having an organizational culture based on the values of trust, mutual respect and dialogue in the organization.

All organizations, both public and private entities rely on some form of communication to send their messages across to their target audience, or inform their target audience of the mission and vision of their entity. Employee mostly hypes performance at the work place when effective communication is at its ultimate. For instance, when the information about an organization’s policies and procedures are at its optimum level with openness and accuracy; and also when the information provided is adequate, factual and has good feedback (Kacmar et al., 2003; Neves & Eisenberger, 2012).

Meanwhile, only sizeable modern age organisation has placed value on effective work place way of communicating. It is assumed by some management members that, communication is the simplest task for everyone to execute but research has shown that communication thus make and unmake the existence of an organisation. In most organisations, managers often leave that aspect of effective communication to the human resource department as their focus only reaches for the operational activities.