COMMUNICATION FOR ORGANISATIONAL AGILITY
BY
TANKO AHMED, fwc
08037031744 – ta_mamuda@yahoo.com
CEO, Tsangaya Human Re
Former Snr Fellow, National Institute (NIPSS), Kuru-Jos

A Paper Presented at a One-Day Workshop on
Organisational Communication for Work Efficiency and
Effectiveness for Staff of the Jigawa State Polytechnic
February 2020

AGILITY
*Quick, *Lively, *Alert, *Swift, and *Responsive
with *Dexterity

Citations on Communication
“The art of communication is the Language of Leadership”
(James Humes)
“It is not the distance that keeps people apart, but lack of
communication”
(Anderson, 2012)
“Communication works for those who work on it”
(John Powell)
“Communication must be HOT – Honest, Open and Two-ways”
(Dan Oswald)

Citations on Organisations
“Organizations that develop effective
communication processes are more likely to
both have positive work environments and be
more effective in achieving their objectives”.
(Morley, et al. 2002:69)
“Effective communications facilitates the free
flow of information among employees and
reduces misunderstandings and confusions”
(https://www.managementstudyguide.com/can-a-robot-think-critically-and-muse-philosophically.htm)

INTRODUCTION
‘Like all living systems, organizations establish and maintain
themselves through communication with their environments
and among their parts’ – Thayer Lee (1988:2)

Background
• Organisations are living systems sustained
by communication processes in circulatory
lifeline configuration.
• This paper describes, explains and stresses
the importance of organisational
communication.
• General literature on the subject points to
need for using communication to raise
performance for organisational agility.

Theorem
• Theories driving this approach tend to construct
organisations as living systems heightened
activities for healthy and robust work
environments.
• The Jigawa State Polytechnic routinely operates
on a well-established mandate, clear vision, and
specific mission in providing much needed
human resource asset.
• The paper treats communication as a critical
component in the management and execution
of service delivery in a given work environment.

Problem Statement
• Organisations of all kind are set on a given mission
with visions on how to deliver on specific goals
utilising communication processes.
• The issue to be addressed is the weakness in
effective and efficient organisational
communication in running the affairs of
organisations like the Jigawa State Polytechnic,
Dutse.
• It is assumed that an effective and efficient
organisational communication will improve
performance, smarten and enhance the agility of
the institution.

KEY TERMS

Communication
• Communication is the process of
transmitting information from one person
to another.
• It is the act of sharing of ideas, facts,
opinions, thoughts, messages or emotions
to other people, in and out the
organisation, with the use of the channel
to create mutual understanding and
confidence
https://businessjargons.com/communication.html

Role of Communication
• Communication takes place between at least
two persons or more, involving messages
delivered, received and reacted to among
participants. It is one of the most significant
tools in social life and management of
organisations.
• Communication plays a crucial role in
organizations by generating and interpreting
messages between employees (Barret, 2002)

Process of Communication

Organisational Agility
• Organisational agility applies to organizations that
are active, quick and smart in responding to signs,
changes and events within their internal and
external environments.
• Organisations need to be in good shape through a
smart and sustained process of interactions among
their internal components and with others in their
external environments by use of communication
(Lee, 1988; Mao and Quan, 2015).

Organisations as Living Systems
• The Communication Scholar, Lee Thayer
describes organisations as living systems and
explains that:
• Organisations “… establish and maintain
themselves through communication with
their environments and among their parts …”
(Thayer, 1988:2)

COMMUNICATION
FOR
ORGANISATIONAL AGILITY

Meaning and Practice of Organisational
Communication
• The ideal meaning and practice to look for in
deploying communication for organisational
agility go beyond the technical enhancement of
performance through improved efficiency and
effectiveness.
• The internal actors, practitioners, participants or
stakeholders of an organisation, as well as, the
external forces or influences need to be
considered in the equation.
• Certain principles, like the 7Cs of organisational
communication, exhibit the desired or ideal
meaning and practice in achieving, sustaining and
advancing.

The 7Cs of Organisational Communication
1) Clarity - Simple and organise
2) Conciseness - Straight to the point
3) Concreteness - Specific not generalized
4) Completeness- Without missing part
5) Correctness - Fact checked
6) Courtesy - Be civil and gracious
7) Consideration- Show respect

The 7Cs and Organisational Agility
• The 7Cs of organisational communication
also stand for means of achieving
organisational agility through routine
activities.
• The 7Cs of organisational communication
are interconnected into simple, straight,
specific, wholesome, accurate, polite and
empathic framework opened to individuals,
teams, sections, units or directorates.

Figure 2: The 7Cs of Effective Communication
Source: https://www.seyens.com/7cs-effective-communication-science/

THE CASE OF JIGAWA STATE
POLYTECHNIC

The Polytechnic
• The Jigawa State Polytechnic is the main hub
for human resource development for Jigawa
State, Nigeria. It consists of faculty and
administrative staff engaged and charged
with the responsibilities of responding to
the challenges and opportunities from its
internal and external environments.
• In addition to routine planning,
management, training and development of
the human resource needs, the Institution
also plays the role of providing intellectual
support to government activities and the
larger society.

The Polytechnic (cont.)
• By implication, the Polytechnic also requires
the continuous improvement in efficiency
and effectiveness in its service delivery
through organisational communication for
organisational agility.

Challenges and Prospects for the Jigawa State
Polytechnic
• For the Jigawa State Polytechnic to be an
‘agile organisation’ through ‘organisational
communication, it must be run at the rate
of efficient and effective service delivery.
• Natural and routine challenges and possible
prospects may occur at random which will
require appropriate responses.

Rising Questions
• Is the Polytechnic characterised with
networks of individuals, teams, units and
sections operating in functional cycles?
• Does it possess and instill common purposes
to with it pursues with dexterity?
• Is the available system quick and responsive
to sudden changes in the internal or external
environment?

Tail End Inquiries
• These tail end inquiries are diagnostic
for the in-house faculty and
administrative staff of the Jigawa State
Polytechnic.
• They are challenged to perform an on-
the-spot organisational self-assessment
in a real-time simulation exercise.

CONCLUSION

Summary
• The paper sets out to describe and explain
communication for organisational agility with
particular reference to the Jigawa State
Polytechnic, Dutse.
• It cites the conceptual and theoretical
direction of defining and constructing
organisations as living systems requiring
regenerative efforts in efficient and effective
communication for improved performance.

Conclusion
• The paper itemizes the 7Cs of communication
as principles or guidelines for the ideal
communication for organisational agility and
concludes with basic questions for the faculty
and staff of the Polytechnic to determine if
the Institution treads on the right path.
• A simulation exercise is specially designed to
test these assumptions by the Workshop
Participants and put the principles into
practice.

References:
Ahmed, T. (2012) ‘Thinking for policy and strategy: The emergence of knowledge workers’. A Lecture
Delivered to the NIPSS-PSLC Participants on June 28 in Kuru-Jos
Anderson (2012) It’s not the distance that keeps people apart, it’s the lack of communication.
AmyReesAnderson Blog. Retrieved from http://www.amyreesanderson.com/blog/its-not-distance-that-
keeps-people-apart-its-a-lack-of-communication 8/2/2020
Barret, D. J. (2002) Change communication: Using strategic employee communication to facilitate major
change. Communication: An International Journal, 7(4), 219 - 231.
Momoh, T. (1990) ‘Communication as a management and development tool’. A Lecture Delivered to the
NIPSS-SEC 12-1990 Participants on Thursday, February 15, 1990 in NIPSS, Kuru-Jos
Morley, D., Shockley-Zalabak, P. and Cesaria, R. (2002) Organizational influence processes: perceptions of
values, communication and effectiveness, Studies in Communication Sciences, 2, 69–104.
Pettus, A. (2008) What makes the human mind? In The Harvard Magazine, Nov-Dec. Retrieved from
http://havardmagazine.com/2008/11 10/4/12
Thayer, L. (1988) Organization-communication: Emerging perspectives, Vol 2. Norwood, NJ: Ablex
https://www.managementstudyguide.com/can-a-robot-think-critically-and-muse-philosophically.htm
https://businessjargons.com/communication.html
https://www.seyens.com/7cs-effective-communication-science/