Assessing organizational communication practices: The case of bank of abyssinia in jimma town

Abstract

This study aimed at describing organizational communication practices on Bank of Abyssinia in jimma town. The study involved both quantitative and qualitative methods using close -ended questionnaire and in-depth interview as data collection tools. Questionnaire as a method of survey was employed to obtain data from 93 selected samples. Also, the researcher conducted indepth interviews with 8 sampled top level managers to understand their ideas and views. The key informants were selected using purposive sampling technique and for the survey questionnaires, the researcher used comprehensive sampling technique. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the quantitative data and thematic analyses were employed for the qualitative data. The findings show that Bank of Abyssinia Jimma town has not adopted proper communication strategies in terms of openness, inclusiveness, two-way (bilateral) communication. The study also found that there was a gap in the organizational flow of information in Bank of Abyssinia Jimma town. The managers did not practice feedback oriented communication and employees were not involved in decision-making processes on the day today activities of the Bank. The study recommended that information flow inspire employees to participate in developing policies for the organization and ultimately enables the acceptance of the same. Therefore, managers at Bank of Abyssinia should strive to have means of receiving information concerning the organization from the lowest level and disseminating the same downwards.