Effect Of Communication Gap In The Achievement Of Organisational Goals

INTRODUCTION
1.10 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Communication is a very vital tools in carrying out our day today activities which makes the saying that if you don’t say here I am nobody will say there you are unique and outstanding from every business firms world wide today. Everyone needs communication with people around to share experience jobs, frustration, hopes and fears. From childhood we all learn how to communicate, as children, we are able to recognize and identify happiness and annoyance in our parent’s faces or words. And at school, we learn how to write and interpret numbers and diagram; we also came to understand the silent language of communication expressed in faces, gestures and body movement that is the body language of non verbal communication. This array of skills has helped us to be active members of the family, school and work group.
It is only when people have come to know others through work, play or study that they prepared to open up and to trust others with a share of them, their inner thought reactions and feelings.

According to Chester Bernard the first executive function is to maintain a system of communication which is fundamental to the existence of any organizational communication function. Which is the means by which social inputs are fed into social system or organization the means by which behaviour is modified, changed is affected, information is made productive and goals are achieved be it in business, military etc.

Every organization is established to achieve a set objectives for example certain business organization are set up for profit making by the provision of goods and service. While others are set up mainly for the provision of service by training high level of manpower for both in the public and private sector of the economy.
However the defined objective of any organization has to be achieved through the instrumentality of individual person who form the basic unit of the organization. The people’s readiness to perform for the attainment of goals and objectives of an organization.

As defined by Drucker, management is concern with the direction and control of an enterprise and involves planning and the direction of the work of others. These managerial functions cannot be successfully carried out in the absence of communication. Brown defined communication as the process of transmitting ideas and thought one person to another for the purpose of creating understanding in the thinking of the person receiving the communication, Drucker made the following statement. The manager has a specific tool, information. He does not “handle” people; he motivates guides and organizes peoples to do their own work. His toll to do this is the spoken or written work. no matter whether the manager’s job is engineer, accounting or marketing effectiveness to a large extent depends on his ability to listen and to read or his ability to speak and write. It needs skill in getting his thinking across to other people as well as skill in finding out what other people are after.

The above contribution by Drucker implies that communication is needed to convey information necessary for an on going operation and secondly that communication can have an impact on the attitude of people in the organization and consequently on the general performance of the organization. Managers spend a lot of their time in order to co-ordinate human and physical resources of an organization into effective and efficient working units. It is only when the human and material element of and organization is harnessed into a working whole that the objective goals of the organization can be achieved.

Before any organization decision can be made relevant information, facts feeling and ideas must be communicated within all organization.

In recent years, communication has been tipped as a management function because of its growing importance in large organization and also because it has been realized that communication is not forced but has to be learnt.

Language, which is deemed the most important tool of communication in organization, have many features which limit their- assuredly in communication. Available statistics show that there are more than three language in Lagos State alone while the entire nation is said to have about 3000 different language. It was observed that in the organization where this research was carried out, workers were selected from almost all the ethnic groups in Nigeria with different social and cultural backgrounds. This shows that the rate of communicating effectively in organization cannot be predicted correctly. As S.I. Hayakawg had it, the meaning of words is in the words, they are in use and no word has exactly the same meaning.

1.11 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The problem of communication between persons, organization and the society as a whole can be classified into four.

i. People do not know how to communicate. There are proper channels of communication they are channels by which communication should be forwarded to the subordinate. An important need of a worker is to be informed about what is happening around him in his work place. Communication and information therefore are important factors in cultivating and maintaining a mutually satisfactory relationship between an employer and the employee.
ii. No availability of proper communication facilities. There are no proper facilities for communicating due to the fact that the infrastructural facilities are not efficient for instance, the telephone facilities are not functional all the time, the radio messages, fax etc. are not working.
iii. People are ignorant of what to communicate. Instead of communicating what is expected to be communicated, people do not know the organizational goals are, so they tend to direct their attention on what would not maximize the organization’s goals.
iv. People are ignorant of the need to communicate. People normally imply that the lower hierarchy knows what to do but sometimes the subordinate needs to be advised on what to do before they can do it the way the upper hierarchy wants it done.

1.12 PURPOSE OF STUDY
From all that has written above, it is the aim of this study to take a segment of the seaports (Nigerian Port Authority) and study the impact of communication and the achievement of its goal.

 To find out how effective communication is one of the management functions, that is the impact on the smooth running of the organization.
 To examine the communication methods and find out the most appropriate way for the smooth performance of the organization.

 How lack of proper communication facilities can hinder and or promote passing information effectively between and among people on organization.

1.13 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of this study is very wide if it has to be carried out in all the seaports in the country. This study covers the activities of the Lagos Ports Complex (LPC) Apapa Quays (APO).

In this study, attempt was made to examine the impact of communication gap the achievement of organizational goal.

1.14 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The research questions are as given below:
i. Which way does communication flows in your organization?
ii. Does management keep union abreast with the state of affairs / event in the organization?
iii. Is their adequate consultation between management and union?
iv. Are duties delegated in your organization?
v. How the industry is rated in achieving goal in relation to good communication?

1.15 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
Research hypothesis comprises of Ho and Hi
Where Ho = Null
Hi = Alternative
I made the research hypothesis:

i. Ho = There is no significant relationship between communication and organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
Hi = There is a significant relationship between communication and organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

ii. Ho = There is no significant relationship between poor communication and delegation of duty.
Hi = There is a significant relationship between poor communication and delegation of duty.

iii. Ho = The level of communication does not determines the extent of industrial peace and harmony.
Hi = The level of communication determines the extent of industrial peace and harmony.

1.16 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Having stated the problems, the significance of this research is the extent to which it tries to identify and provide solution to surmount some of the problems. It is hoped that the organization used as a case study and other organizations, individual, and association will benefit from the research result and findings as well as the recommended situation.

1.17 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The study is limited based on the fact that there is not time and material resources to cover the whole nation. This study is limited to Lagos Ports Complex (LPC) Apapa Quays (APQ) and the findings may not reflect the situation in the whole country. These findings may not be valid for the whole ports in Nigeria, but by and large what happens in the ports in Apapa Quays can be said to apply to other seaports in the country.

1.18 DEFINITION OF TERMS
The following terms used in this study should be taken to mean the following:

Communication:
Communication can be defined as a means of transfer of ideas, information, facts, thought, and understanding from one person to another.
Co-operation
This is the understanding that exists between a group of individual which makes them get unified in pursuance of a common goal.

Information
This is something, which give knowledge on forms of facts.

Effectiveness
Thus can be defined as the ability or power to have a noticeable or desired impact effect.

Efficiency
This is the state or quality of being able to produce a desired or satisfactory result well at a reduced time and cost.

Impact
This is the force exerted by one object when stricking another.

Motivation
This term can be defined as the act or state of being motivated need and purpose.

Attitude
This is the position of manner of standing of body a manner of feeling and behaving.

Gap
Is an empty space between two objects or between two parts of an object.

Productivity
This is the measured ability to grow things or the calculated rate of making goods.

Productivity ratio
The ratio between the goods and services produced in relation to resources employed.

Idea
A picture in the mind or an opinion

Encode
Turn a message into codes an agreed arrangement by which certain signs are given a special secret meaning.