Employees’ Perspectives on the Role of Informal Communication on Organizational Performance in Tanzania: A Case of Selected Higher Education Institutions in Meru District-Arusha

Abstract

Though it may have various senses to different organizations- interaction, relationship, exchange, influence, control, power and community; in its application, informal communication typically occurs outside of customary official channels. It is not only a significant part of the communication networks of an organization but also has an important influence on it. This form of communication does not follow the ordinary stipulations because it is based on personal connections of the organization’s members, since it moulds, mainly, personal or group interests. Various studies on this area stress on the fact that many managers overlook the importance of informal communication as they rely solely on formal channels of information flow. In this line of argument, the current paper investigates the place of informal communication in two selected Universities in Meru District- Arusha region. Specially, the present study was guided by two objectives which were intended to identify and determine: (i) forms of informal communication which are common in the researched institutions and (ii) the importance of informal communication in organizational performance. The researcher targeted both academic and administrative staff with the later involving top management personnel, necessitating the use of stratified and purposive to select a total of 54 respondents. The research sought to collect qualitative data, thereby, using qualitative research approach. Qualitative research approach was employed in order to collect qualitative data concurrently through scaled-items questionnaire and open-ended interviews, and analyse them separately, but merge the results during analysis and interpretation. Analysis of data from questionnaires involved simple calculations on excel while thematic analysis was applied regarding interview data. Interpretation and eventual discussion based on side-by-side comparison of the two forms of data. Generally, findings from the field revealed that most top management in the researched Universities do not treat informal messages with the required importance. Chief forms of informal flow of information were found to be casual talks during tea/ lunch break (rumour and gossip), walk and talk as well as single strand network. On the other hand, the findings show that informal messages are indispensable, quicker and plenty, may increase sense of job satisfaction and aid in workers’ emotional relief; thereby making informal communication very crucial in organizational performance. The researcher eventually recommends for a well-developed policy for information flow to avoid negative effects of rumour and gossip. Managers are advised to take informal messages seriously so as to utilize their positive feedback and get rid of the negative ones. The researcher also recommends for further studies on the best practices on handling flow of informal messages, how to fully utilize the potentials of informal communication and comparison between the positive and negative feedback of informal communication in organisational settings to mention but a few.