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COMMUNICATION STYLE AND STAFF PERFORMANCE IN THE SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EDUCATION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Educational leadership in contemporary time is witnessing dramatic changes, owing to various factors ranging from social to political, technological and economic. The educational policy makers and administrators are therefore faced with the challenge of ensuring effectiveness in the delivery of qualitative education towards the attainment of educational goals and objectives.

Educational production like other forms of production demands human, material and financial resources. The effective leadership of other resources is contingent upon the proper leadership of human resources, which requires the establishment and maintenance of effective communication system. The point to stress here is the importance of communication in the leadership of human resources in school organisation, which has not been fully utilized for effective human resource leadership.

Communication is particularly needed in a school to establish and disseminate the goal of the school, to develop plan for the achievement of the school objectives, to organise human and other resources in the most effective and efficient way, to select, develop and appraise members, to lead, direct, motivate and create a climate in which people want to contribute and to control performance.

Communication covers all activities that an individual does when he wants to make a transformation in someone else’s mind. Organisations are social units that congregate for production, formed by individuals who have different views and knowledge to reach a common goal. From a wider perspective, organisations are not only in the efforts to provide inter-organisational cooperation and common sense for production, they also try to establish relationships with the external world and adapt dynamic, competitive and uncertain conditions by strategizing the information they gained from their environment and transferred to information processing centres of the organisations.

According to Hindi, Miller, and Catt (2004) organisational and administrative activities in and out of organisation require effective and functional communication system. In this context, communication is a vital part of organisations. Effective communication helps organisations to strengthen the employees to reach organisational goals. Groups and individuals are connected to an organisation with communication phenomenon.

Communication in today’s organisations is not only complex and varied but more important to overall organisational functioning and success. While research used to focus on understanding how organisational communication varied by organisational type and structure, the emphasis has increasingly turned to understanding how new communication technologies and capabilities can help bring about new and more effective organisational forms and process (Descantis & Fulk, 2009).

Communication style on the other hand, is fundamental to social interaction. As such, the study of communication is a huge area of research incorporating a wide range of disciplines. An individual’s communication style can be understood in several different ways. Some researchers, in attempting to clarify what is meant by communication have proposed a tight but rather narrow definition. For example, Hartley (2003) defines interpersonal communication as a face-to-face meeting between two people. However, much of modern-day communication, especially organisational communication, is neither face-to-face nor confined to two people.

Hartley also claims that interpersonal communication does not simply mean the exchange of messages between two people. Instead, he focuses on the exchange and creation of meaning. This highlights a potential problem arising from the structural properties of e-mail communication. Section 1.3e examines the question of whether e-mail communication can ever be classed as conversation (in Hartley’s sense of creating shared meaning) or whether it is limited to the mere exchange of messages. However, it may be that Hartley’s emphasis on the joint creation of meaning, even in face-to-face meetings is a rather idealised notion of a conversation. It must be recognised that the exchange and creation of meaning may be entirely one-sided, especially when there are differences in status and power between the communicators. In order to fully understand interpersonal communication it is necessary to first take a much broader view. Psychological approaches to communication tend to start with the distinction between verbal and non-verbal communication (e.g. Cappella and Palmer, 2003).

Learning to identify the different communication styles - and recognising which one we use most often in our daily interactions with friends, family and colleagues - is essential if we want to develop effective, assertive communication skills. But how can we tell the difference between the styles, and is there a time and place for each one in certain situations?

Being assertive means respecting yourself and other people. It is the ability to clearly express your thoughts and feelings through open, honest and direct communication.

Becoming more assertive does not mean that you will always get what you want but, it can help you achieve a compromise. And even if you don't get the outcome you want, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you handled the situation well, and that there are no ill feelings between you and the other person or people involved in the discussion. There is various communication styles, an administrator can use in an organisation. Some of these are passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive and assertive styles.

Passive communication is a style in which an administrator developed a pattern of avoiding expressing his opinions or feelings, protecting his rights and identifying and meeting his needs. As a result, passive individuals do not respond overtly to harmful or anger –inducing situations.  He allows others to deliberately of inadvertently infringe on their rights.

Aggressive communication style is a style in which an administrator expressed his feelings and opinions and his needs in a way that violates the rights of others. Aggressive communicators will often try to dominate others.

Passive-aggressive communication is a style in which the administrators appear passive on surface but are really acting out anger in subtle, indirect, or behind the scenes way. Passive aggressive communicators will often use sarcasm appear cooperative while purposely doing things to annoy and disrupt.

Assertive communication is a style in which the administrators clearly state their opinions and feelings, and firmly advocate for their rights and needs without violating the rights of others.

Teachers' job performance according to various literature reviewed is measured through both curricular and co-curricular activities which include punctuality and absence, teaching mode, classroom leadership, students achievement in external examinations, contribution to school life and interpersonal relations. It is believed that employees would be motivated to perform, if they are aware that their performance would bring benefits such as pay, promotion, praise, recognition etc. The waves of protests and strikes coupled with low morale exhibited by teachers can best be managed if their salaries and other conditions of service are favourable enough to meet individual needs. Improvement of teachers' salaries and other conditions of service are a promising way of increasing teachers' morale, making the profession more attractive enhancing retention of teachers and improving quality of teaching and learning.

Performance is something, a single person does. Performance of the teachers in schools is highly affected by motivation. Teachers are when motivated their performance automatically reached towards high level. In schools teacher’s performance can be mapped well through arranging training programs for the teachers and they will get motivated and their confidences will also increases. Motivation has a direct and positive effect on job performance when we properly account for effort. Effort has a positive effect on job performance. It was difficult to obtain support for the view that motivation has a significant effect on job performance. Teachers’ Performance Dessler, Griffin (2005) explored that the performance of a teachers’ is determined by three factors i.e. motivation, work environment and ability to do work.

According to Chandrasekar (2011) examined that the workplace environment impacts on teachers’ morale, productivity and job performance both positively and negatively. If the work place environment is not liked by the teachers’ so they get de-motivated and their performance also affected. Poorly designed work timings, unsuitable authorities or duties, lack of appreciation, and lack of personal decision making opportunity. People working in such environment are not satisfied they feel stress on themselves and it impacts on employee’s job performance. Performance of teachers in all education system, the performance of teachers is one of the handfuls of factors determining school effectiveness and learning outcomes. Mohanty (2000) explains that teacher performance as the most crucial input in the field of education. Teachers are perhaps the most critical component of any system of education.

Statement of the Problem

Communication is a powerful tool in the operations of any organisation. It is also important to note that the way information is translated to a receiver could also play a significant role in determining the effectiveness of such information. Ayatse (2005) in his study ‘observed that communication is needed to establish and disseminate the goals of the enterprise. It is because the competencies and skills they possess will enable them to exhibit work behaviours appropriate and relevant to the performance of the job. Researchers such as Aarya Nijat and Jennifer Murtazashvili (2015) propound that most of school administrators assumed position of authorities not because of their professional training but by virtue of their years of service, gender, relationships with higher authority, among others. 

In these regard it is obvious that such school administrator will adopt “seat-of-the-pant” style in disseminating information to their subordinates as against the professional style of communication. In such situations subordinate are always disenchanted with the general administrative style of the administrator.

Some schools of thought are of the opinion that being assertive in communicating with subordinate would make the organisation to function well. Some other schools of thought also believe that aggressive style, passive, manipulative styles, etc if better used could be the magic wanted that would take the organisation to the berth of success.

One begins to wonder whether there is any best style of communication. To what extent could any style of communication facilitate staff performance in secondary schools? All these are the thrust of this study.

Purpose of the Study

1.   To determine the relationship between assertive communication style and teachers’ job performance in secondary school.

2.   To find out whether aggressive communication style and teachers’ job performance are significantly related.

3.   To ascertain if passive communication style has any significant relationship with teachers’ jobs performance.

4.   To establish the relationship between passive-aggressive communication style and teachers’ job performance.

Research Question

The following questions were raised to guide the study:

1.   Is there any relationship between assertive communication style and teachers job performance in secondary school?

2.   Is there any significant relationship between aggressive communication style and teachers job performance?

3.   What is the nature of relationship between passive communication style and teachers job performance?

4.   Is there any significant relationship between passive-aggressive communication style and job performance?

Research Hypotheses

The following questions were developed to guide the study:

H01: There is no significant relationship between aggressive communication style and teachers job performance?

Ho2: There is no significant relationship between assertive communication style and teachers job performance?

Ho3: There is no significant relationship between passive communication style and teachers job performance?

Ho4: There is no significant relationship between passive-aggressive communication style and teachers job performance?

Significance of the Study

The findings of this study would be useful in the following areas:

The study reflected the assessment of the relationship between communication styles and teachers’ job performance and to identify possible area where such communication styles could be more effective. It would go a long way to help future researchers and students alike. The study would be of benefit to the teachers in the aspect of staff development because of the crucial role they play in the educational industry.

The study would also be of benefit to school managers and policy makers as it would help them to improve on communication style and job satisfaction among teachers.

The study would be of benefit to all stakeholders in educational industry because understanding the relationship between communication at work and improved performance would enable cordial relationship with teachers to increase productivity.

It would also help the government to see the need for adequate financial provision, to provide necessary communication medium that would help to foster ease passage of information to motivate teachers in the industry. Knowing the importance of communication on teachers’ productivity would encourage teachers for in-service programme to improve their skills thereby be of great benefit to students’ learning and their professional growth.

The recommendations of this study would also assist in no small way, the employers of labour like the Federal/State Ministry of Education and other agencies in their administration to achieve greater performance and efficiency. In addition, it is hope that it would serve as a useful addition to the existing literature, especially for other researchers who intend to investigate on similar topic. They would find the outcome of this study a reference point.

Scope of the Study

This study covered all the Junior Secondary Schools in Somolu Local Government Area under the District II of Lagos state. Somolu local government was chose suitable for this study because of the number of junior secondary schools situated around somolu axis that would enhance collection of necessary data for the study. This study focused on the various communication styles like: aggressive, assertive, permissive and manipulative communication style.

Limitation of the Study

The study would be faced with the following challenges:

·         Insufficient fund to carry out the study in large size

·         Time frame allocated for the study

·         Materials accessible for the study among others

Definition of Important Terms

The following were operationally defined:

Communication: this is the exchange of information, ideas and facts between two or more people.

Staff: these are all the employees in the schools system.

Organisational Structure: this is a process of logically grouping activities, delineating authority and responsibility and establishing work relationships will enable both the organisation and members to realize their mutual objectives.

Assertive style: is a style in which the administrators clearly state the opinion and feeling and firmly advocate for their right and needs without violating the right of others.

Passive style: this style allows others to deliberately infringe on their right.

Passive-aggressive style: this style use sarcasm appears cooperative why purposely doing thing to annoy and disrupt.

Aggressive style: this is a style in which the administrator tries to dominate others.

Performance: is a systematic and purposeful quantification of work outcomes over a period of time.

Leadership: is the quality or responsibility of leading a group of people to achieve a specific goal.

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