Whether you are in America or in any other part of the world and working either in local police department or doing business, the way public organization manage information has an effect in every individual. Today, there are new technologies that used to collect data, store information, analyze it and publicize the information. However, the way every organization handles information is vital since it will promote their value, competence and effectiveness.
For a long period of time, most public organization has been facing difficulties when it comes to formulation of messages. This is due to pressures from political leaders and also from the public scrutiny. This is what Graber had to say, “the process of managing communication in public organizations has been more demanding and intimidating (Graber 2003).”
In his book, The Power of Communication: Managing Information in Public Organizations Doris A. Graber has helped students see the way in which communication networks should be handled. Graber elaborates ways in which effective channels of communication can be constructed to enable transmission of information to the correct audience and also to relate citizen’s feedback and policy decisions. This paper mainly describes communications theory that can be applied to public administration.
In the world today, knowledge has indeed become power making it crucial for every person working in public organizations to possess excellent knowledge regarding organizational information. Communication in public administration is a major problem. Governments have performed several functions that are controversial and that normally affect the lives of the citizens. Sophisticated methods are being used by many citizens to challenge the actions of the government.
The government therefore is required to possess excellent skills in information and communication management in order to be able to deal with the complex tasks. Information both from the government and the public needs to be well assessed, framed and selected before it is communicated.
This will enable communication process to be effective since the flow of information will be properly guided before it reaches the targeted group. Lack of responsible and effective communication and information management usually flood the flow of information making it to become a threat instead of being an added advantage to good government.
The quality and nature of public administration communication system generally determine the performance of units in existence in the government sector. However, all public administration system regardless of size is in need of constant information flow regarding what is taking place both inside and outside of the organization.
This is the only way that will guarantee success in the system. Littlejohn’s thoughts were that, “All the new information that flows in the system should be combined with existing information in the system before decisions are made (Littlejohn 2003).” When information is passed in every unit in the public administration system, it will generate further actions and communications.
It is therefore important to make sure that all the messages that are passed through public administration system can be easily comprehended by the recipients. However, much information usually gets lost during the process of preparing and transmitting messages to the intended persons. Distortion of information is also possible during the process especially when intermediaries are involved in reframing of the information.
Generating information usually force the Members of the public administration to learn more from the decisions they had made in the past. Feedback should be used to adjust policies regarding material and human resources. There are some theories which postulate that public administration systems are in constant flux instead of equilibrium (Miller 2003).
However, the decisions made must anticipate developments and it must take into account the fact that it takes a period of time before information is received by the receipt and a feedback is given out. The receipt had to first read the message, consume it to understand what it states before giving out a response. If the recipient is not given enough time to read and understand the message, the decisions/ feedback may not be appropriate since they were made in a hurry without clear thinking of the repercussions.
Decisions made should be ahead of public administration current goals so as to compensate for the time lags which is usually unavoidable in the communication process. Statistics should be monitored to anticipate for changes in demands made by the public.
Most government systems including public administration system are not usually very effective when it comes to anticipation of the ways in which problems should be solved. Most of the time, you find that there are gaps that exists between available information to the intelligence-gathering agencies and available information to operating agencies (Littlejohn 2003).
Information usually passes through various channels. If in any case one of the channels is missing, then the intended message will not reach its destination. This is because there will be no capacity available to handle information being sent.
A good example is when there is an emergency in the society for example floods whereby the people need urgent help but they are not able to reach public administration offices through the telephone channels because of disruption or jam in the network (Graber 2003). Many people may end up losing their lives in such cases but if the lines were not disrupted or jammed then the people could have been able to get help hence lives could have been saved.
Public administration system should ensure that their units of operation are properly connected so that messages or information sent do not fail to reach the targeted persons. Miller stated; they should make sure that messages related to security reach government officials in time so that they decide on how to act or respond to the issue before it affects the citizens (Miller 2003).
The pattern in which information diffuses in the public administration sector depends greatly on the structure of communication network in the organization. Most leaders within the system usually receive much information at a time. Those leaders who are part of the channel of communication of essential messages do not effectively participate in decision making process.
The channels used in communication process in the public administration system vary depending on the total number of population it connects to the information flow character (Littlejohn 2003). The flow of information in public administration sector may either follow one direction in shape of commands or it might be reciprocal which involves information exchange between individuals. The character of information in the public administration may determine how well the system functions.
Many times, performance of public administration system is mostly affected by time taken to deliver a message to the targeted group and the time taken for the receiver to respond. When problems occur in public administration sector, the public should focus mainly on resolving the problem instead of bashing the sector since that will not help solve the problem. This has been a major issue and challenge faced by public administration system.
Problems facing public administration system can be discovered by making a follow-up on communication flow paths and examining and analyzing the meaning conveyed and how it was used. Chaos theory can also be applied in the public administration system based on the above analysis of communication process and problems faced within the system. Chaos theory entails going astray due to unexpected and unpredictable occurrences (Graber 2003).
Most large organizations including public administration are often unpredictable especially when it comes to their actions. Information that flows in the public administration system is usually unexpected moving either backward or forward in an unintended direction. There is actually no stability when it comes to information received or passed hence this is why public administration sector is usually faced with multiple failures.
In conclusion, effectiveness and efficiency of public administration performance lie mainly on well-executed and well-designed information management. However, the way the organization handles information is vital since it will promote their value, competence and effectiveness.
For a long period of time, public administration system has been facing difficulties when it comes to formulation of messages. This is due to pressures from political leaders and also from the public scrutiny. The process of managing communication in public administration has been more demanding and intimidating. This paper has mainly described the best theory that can be used in the public administration system to ensure that there is efficiency and effectiveness in the department.
References
Graber, D. (2003). The Power of Communication: Managing information in Public Organizations. New York: CQ Press.
Littlejohn, S. (2003).Theories of human communication. Belmont: Wadsworth.
Miller, K. (2003).Communication Theories: Perspectives, processes, and contexts. New York: McGraw-Hill.