Specifics of Communication
within Public Administration System
Natalya ALYUSHINA
Chair of Public Administration and Management
PhD in Psychology, Associate Professor
National Academy of Public Administration,
Office of the President of Ukraine
Issues for discussion
1. Specifics of Communication within Public
Administration System - the theory
2. Importance of Communication in Public
Administration
3. The Communication Process and How to
Improve Communication in Public Administration
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The term communication
In general the term communication is defined as a
transmission of information between two or among more
subjects within certain time and certain place, or as a
transmission of various information contents within
various communication systems by the utilization of
various communication media, particularly through
language.
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Within the process of communication,
it is important to answer the following
questions:
 Who is the recipient of my information?
 What information does this recipient demand? What
information may I / do I have to give him.
 Which way of the transmission does he or she
prefer?
 What do I want to achieve by providing the recipient
with the information?
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Without any regards to the form of communication, the
process of communication plays a very important role in
public administration.
Every member of an administrative organization needs
certain information for making a decision. Characteristics
of information flows determine features of the
communication within public administration system.
The above mentioned basic questions are applicable in
the field of public administration, that is represented by a
very large group of formal organization within which
many formal and informal relationships do exist.
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According to Herbert A. Simon, who is known for his theory of
administrative behavior (bounded rationality concept), “without
communication there can be no organization”. In his concept,
communication in organizations is a two-way process: it
comprehends both the transmittal to a decisional center or
orders, information, and advice; and the transmittal of the
decisions reached from this center to other parts of the
organization. It is a process that takes place upward, downward,
and laterally throughout the organization.
The organization provides channels of communication running in
all directions through which information for decision-making
flows. These channels are both formal and informal. The formal
channels are partly based on, and partly separate from, the lines
of formal authority, and the informal channels are closely related
to the informal social organization. The communication must
reason, plead, and persuade, as well as order, if it is to be
effective.
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Communication exists across the whole system of public
administration. It is a sectional issue. It always relates to the called
intergovernmentalism.
According to the OECD’s document Managing across levels of
government (OECD 1997) this phenomenon comes in response to
the twin pressures of budgetary deficits and calls for better quality
democracy.
In this context, the main concerns underpinning this work are to:
 facilitate the achievement of national objectives, e.g. fiscal
strategy;
 remove unnecessary duplication and overlap;
 obtain better value for taxpayers’ money;
 make services more responsive to local needs; and
 empower citizens to participate more in decision-making.
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The basic problem of complex organization (which is
a case of public administration) relates to the fact that
not all information relevant to the decision-making are in
hands of a subject of the decision-making. That is why
the communication is considered to be a necessary part
of the more complex form of cooperative behavior coordination. According to Simon, failures in
communication result whenever it is forgotten that the
behavior of individuals is the tool with which organization
achieves its purposes.
“The question to be asked of any administrative process
is: How does it influence the decisions of these
individuals? Without communication, the answer must
always be: It does not influence them at all.”
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In the simplest situations, the individual participant can bring his
activities into coordination with the activities of others through simple
observation of what they are doing. In most situations, however, the
successful performance of a task by a group of persons requires a
slightly higher degree of coordination. According to Simon, the
process of coordination in these more complicated situations
consists of at least three steps:
(I) the development of a plan of behavior for all the members of
the group (not a set of individual plans for each member);
(2) the communication of the relevant portions of this plan to
each member; and
(3) a willingness on the part of the individual members to
permit their behavior to be guided by the plan.
The mentioned requirements are applicable not only on individual
behavior, but also on the organizational behavior as can be seen in
many benchmarking-like analyses.
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The lateral character of communication and its feedback
aspect are often stressed in theory. According to Garnett,
key functions of lateral communication include task
coordination, information sharing, multidisciplinary problem
solving, and mutual emotional support. The lateral character
of communication is a prerequisite of the communication
network - “process whereby decisional premises are
transmitted from one member of an organization to another”.
This network has a potential to be an integrating device for
bringing together frequently conflicting elements of an
organization to secure cooperative group effort.
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In the public administration, the process of
communication may be often blocked due to many
circumstances. For example Long speaks about the
following critical types of communications blockages:
barriers of language, frames of reference, status
distance, geographical distance, self-protection of the
individual who reports actions, the pressures of work and
censorship. It is also necessary not to forget what Weber
already claimed - the modern communication (it means
“written” in his context) was one of the factors of growth
of the bureaucratization of society life.
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Importance of Communication
in Public Administration
The field of public administration, including
government and nonprofit agencies, attracts
people with a commitment to public service.
They work in jobs in which they will face multiple
demands from their agency stakeholders.
However, public administrators must use
effective means of communication in order to
succeed in practicing open and honest
government.
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Different Stakeholders
Before focusing on why communication is important in
public agencies, consider how communication impacts
the job of a single public manager.
A person in a leadership role works with many different
stakeholders, including other employees in the same
agency, members of other agencies, legislators, public
voters and agency program beneficiaries.
Information exchanges with each of these types of
stakeholders affects the outcomes achieved by the
agency.
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Special Interests
Communication also takes place between public
administrators and members of special interest
groups. This is particularly true when special
interests, including private corporations, hire a
lobbyist to influence legislation and administrative
rules that will affect their business model.
A public administrator must free herself from the
unnecessary influence of special interests, and
therefore strong assertive communication skills are
essential to the job.
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Transparency
Communication also matters when you consider the
role of a public administrator in the context of a
larger group of public servants. Effective
communication either leads to the success or
failure of their public agencies. Public
administrators must develop effective means of
sharing information with each other and with
stakeholders, especially the public. Open
government, or the sharing of non-classified
information, will increase government transparency
and encourage public trust.
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E-Government
The importance of communication also falls to the
"how" of public administrators, or how they get the
message out to constituents about government
activities. E-government is especially helpful in
delivering information to constituents as
consumers. Any agency can use an agency
website to provide notices about upcoming
meetings, policy initiatives, rules, procedures and
other details that affect the public. In the best
models, e-government provides an opportunity for
dialogue between public administrators and
citizens.
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Administration
The Communication Process
In our every day life we are communicating or sharing
information and ideas. Sometimes we understand what the
other person is saying sometimes we misunderstand. And
misunderstanding can lead to differences, conflict or
grievances etc. How communication affects our life and
working in organizations is explained through example:
Example: Most of us are familiar with the game of
“telephone,” in which one person whispers a message into
the ear of another, who whispers the message to the next
person, and so on. Inevitably, when the last person says
the message out loud, it is quite different from what was
first whispered in the ear of first person.
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This example of “Telephone” illustrates numerous
complexities in the communication process. We will highlight
three such complexities in the communications model which
will be presented to you.
In figure 1 we have tried to show that
(1) communication takes place in relationship between a sender and a
receiver,
(2) communication can flow in one direction and end there and
(3) message can elicit a response which is formally known as feedbackfrom the receiver.
What do we interpret from the figure? The figure is
explaining to us that in a simple flow (transmission) of
information from one person to another person, it is the
feedback which tells us if message is correctly received or
not .
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A Model of Communication Figure 1
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We will now see each component of the figure separately:
The sender
The sender (source of the message) initiates the
communication with some purpose. In an organization,
the sender will be a person with purpose for
communicating message or instruction to one or more
people in organization.
The Receiver
The receiver is a person whose senses perceive the
sender’s message. The message can be in words ,
symbol, gesture etc. There may be a large number of
receivers, or there may be just one. The message must
be crafted or designed with receiver’s background in
mind.
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Encoding
Encoding takes place when the sender translates the
information to be transmitted into a series of words,
symbols etc. Encoding is necessary because information
can only be transferred from one person to another
through representations of words or symbols etc.
Decoding
Decoding is the process by which the receiver interprets
the message and translates it into meaningful
information. It is a two-step process. The receiver must
first perceive the message and then interpret it.
Decoding is affected by the receiver’s past experience,
knowledge, position in organization etc.
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Noise
Noise is any factor that disturbs, confuses, or otherwise
interferes with communication. Noise can arise along
what is called the communications channel, or method of
transmission (such as air for spoken words or paper for
letters) or external or internal (as when a receiver is not
paying attention). Noise can also be referred to as
“barriers” to effective communication.
Feedback
Feedback determines whether the message received by
the receiver was understood in the manner in which the
sender wanted to convey the message. And that there is
no misunderstanding and misinterpretation of message.
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Types of Communication
Communication can be following two types:
1. Formal (written): letters, memos, reports, any
document in organization
2. Informal: unwritten, word of mouth, gossip, exchange
of information in the informal groups etc.
Other Types
Other types of communication are:
1. Verbal: Instructions, discussions etc.
2. Non-verbal: gestures, dress, body language, a frown,
smile, twitch nose etc.
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Interpersonal Communication
We have to understand the difference between
communication in general and interpersonal
communication. Interpersonal communication is the
communication that takes place between and amongst
individuals. The process of communication in
interpersonal communication is same i.e. sender,
transmission, receiver, feedback etc. The message must
be understood clearly and without any
misunderstanding.
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How to Improve Communication
Communication, whether interpersonal or general can be
improved significantly, if barriers to communication are
understood well. How well, those communicating deal
with four aspects of the communications.
These following measures are also referred to as
“barriers” to communication:
 Differences in perception;
 Emotional state;
 Inconsistencies between verbal and non-verbal communications,
and
 Trust (or distrust) between communicating parties.
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Differences in Perceptions
This is one of the most common communication barriers.
People who have different backgrounds of knowledge
and experience often perceive the same phenomenon
from different perspectives.
Suppose that a new supervisor compliments a worker
for his or her efficiency and high-quality of work.
Some may see this praise due to workers “nice
behaviour” to the supervisor. Language differences also
are often closely related to differences in individual
perceptions.
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Emotions all State
Emotional reactions like, anger, love, defensiveness,
hate, jealousy, fear, embarrassment etc. influence how
we understand others’ with our own messages. When
we are in intense emotional state the message can be
mis-interpretation can misunderstood. If employees are
behaving aggressively or sullenly, managers should get
them to talk about their concerns and pay careful
attention to what they say.
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Inconsistencies between
Verbal and Non-verbal Communication
The messages we send and receive are strongly
influenced by such nonverbal factors as body
movements, clothing, the distance we stand
from the person we’re talking to, our posture,
gestures, facial expressions, eye movements.
Suppose while a manager is using word of
praise but has frown on the face, a confused
message will be conveyed.
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Trust (or Distrust)
A receiver’s trust or distrust of a message is, to a large
extent, a function of the credibility of the sender in the
mind of the receiver. A sender’s credibility is affected by
circumstances in the context in which he or she sends
the message. In here the history of a work relationship
comes to bear on communication, in terms of promises
kept and broken. For example: a manager asks workers
to complete certain task and output in a given time frame
and promises to pay bonus. But when the workers finish
the task and output in a given timeframe and are not
paid bonus, distrust develops.
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The Importance of Effective
Communication
Effective communication provides a common link for the
management processes of planning, organizing, leading,
and controlling and
Manager’s time is spent largely in communication with
employees, supervisors, suppliers, or customers. There
effective communication skills of managers are very
essential to get the work accomplished.
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???
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Thank you for your attention
www.alyushina.com
natalya@alyushina.com
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