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An Analysis of the Intra-organizational Communication Flow at the SEAMEO Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA): Its Implications to Management
Abstract:
This is a naturalistic case analysis of the organizational communication flow at the SEAMEO Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA). SEA RCA is a regional organization hosted by the University of the Philippines at Los Banos (UPLB). It provides graduate education and research support to nationals of its member countries in the Southeast Asian region.
Data were gathered from 84 staff members of SEARCA (77.78%) at the supervisory, technical, and administrative levels through a survey questionnaire and interviews. Participant observation and content analysis of document were also employed while "who-to-whom" communication matrices were drawn out to determine the existing communication networks in SEARCA.
Official and non-official communication in SEARCA took the informal form of communication through face-to-face interaction (upward, downward, and horizontal) among staff members. However, official communications flowed significantly downward following the organizational lines since the majority of the respondents considered the management/immediate supervisor as the main source of "adequate" to "much" information on their job and other office matters.
Except for the informal communication network, this pattern of downward communication flow along the organizational lines was generally observed in the formal, feedback, and technical communication networks. However, the flow of technical communications sometimes deviated from the formal organizational structure as lateral flow was also observed.
SEARCA staff members performed different communication functions at any given communication situation. The variation in the communication functions a staff member performed depended on the organizational level of the other staff member he is communicating with.
As regards feedback activities in SEA RCA, most of the respondents said the management/immediate supervisor "seldom" responded to the feedback they gave on office-related matters. Moreover, they "seldom" received feedback on their job performance from the management/immediate supervisor. Most of the staff members preferred to give and receive feedback through general/unit staff meeting and face-to-face interaction.
The Center's decision-making system was generally perceived to be "centralized" by the majority of the surveyed staff members. However, variations in staff perception were observed among the organizational levels. The majority of them preferred the decision-making system of SEARCA to be "moderately decentralized." In general, communication problems in SEARCA were either organizational, personal, and channels- and media-re lated in nature.
Interpersonal communication appeared to be functioning smoothly in the Center.