altA lecturer with the department of psychology, Enugu state university of science and technology, Dr. Ejike Okonkwo, has disclosed that effective communication is strategic in managing relationships between organizations and their diverse publics, saying it is central to organizational media and public relations.

Okonkwo, who stated this in a paper, titled, “Developing effective communication skills for organizational media/public relations,” in Abuja at the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) 3-day national media workshop, stressed that for an organization to achieve effective communication for the media and public relations, it must identify the necessary channels, flow and networks for communication.

His words: “Effective communication occurs when a desired effect is the result of intentional or unintentional information sharing, which is interpreted between multiple entities and acted on in a desired way. This effect also ensures the message is not distorted during the communication process. Effective communication should generate the desired effect and maintain the effect, with the potential to increase the effect of the message.”

He however stated that although barriers to effective communication, such as filtering, selective perception, information overload, emotions and communication apprehension pose as a challenge in achieving growth, organizations must strive to demonstrate the understanding that communication is a dual process and not a one-way process, where the sender encodes a message to be communicated to the receiver, depending on the cognitive and linguistic abilities of both the sender and receiver.

He further disclosed that organizations that engender effective communication skills will experience increased productivity, increased level of employee awareness and enhancement public relations.

Caleb Nor
Corporate Affairs
NICO, Abuja