ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC RELATIONS AND STRATEGIC

COMMUNICATION

INTERNAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES AND PRACTICES OF

PUBLIC RELATIONS IN ETHIOPIAN SUGAR CORPORATION

By

GETENET TEKLEWOLD

JULY, 2019
ADDIS ABABA
 INTERNAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES AND PRACTICES OF
PUBLIC RELATIONS IN ETHIOPIAN SUGAR CORPORATION

By

GETENET TEKLEWOLD

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND

COMMUNICATION, ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF MASTERS IN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND STRATEGIC

COMMUNICATIONS

Approved by the Board of Examiners:

_______________ _______________ _______________

Chairperson Signature Date

_______________ _______________ _______________

Advisor Signature Date

_______________ _______________ _______________

Examiner Signature Date
 DECLARATION

I, Getenet Teklewold, declare that this thesis entitled “Internal Communication Strategies and
Practices of Public Relations in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation” is my own original work. I have
carried it out independently with the guidance and suggestions of my research advisor professor
Ton Veen. And it has not been presented in Addis Ababa University or any other Universities.
And all the sources of materials used for the thesis have been duly acknowledged.

Getenet Teklewold __________ ____________

(The Researcher) Signature
 LETTER OF CERTIFICATION

This is to certify that Getenet Teklewold has carried out his thesis on the topic “Internal
Communication Strategies and Practices of Public Relations in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation”
under my supervision. This work is original in its nature and is suitable for submission in partial
fulfillment of the requirement to earn Master Degree in Public Relations and Strategic
Communication.

___________________
Ton Veen (Prof.)
(Advisor)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am very grateful to my Almighty God who made the completion of this paper possible for me.
It would not have been possible to devote so much time and energy to this work without the
patience and understanding of my advisor. A very special vote of appreciation to Prof. Ton Veen
for his guidance, advice and constructive comments: his sharp eyes, and all wise observations as
well as suggestions have been an indispensable part of the creation of my paper from the
inception.

It is a heartfelt gratitude that I extend to Ethiopian Civil Service University Library workers.
Special thanks go to Ato Gashaw Aychiluhim, Ato Asegid Tesfaye, Ato Reta Demeke, Ato
Melkamu Tekle, Ato Zemedkun Tekle and all ESC employees. In general I admire the motivation
of the corporate communication and employees. Finally, I cannot undermine the support of my
family who keep on encouraging me and boost up my energies. Thank you! You deserve all the
wages till this end! Last but not the least, I ask pardon to those, whose efforts are included in my
paper directly or indirectly and failed to acknowledge in it. Any remaining shortcoming is,
absolutely, my own responsibility.

Getenet Teklewold

I
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Content page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...............................................................................................................I
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ........................................................................................ V
LIST OF TABLES ..........................................................................................................................VI
LIST OF GRAPHS .........................................................................................................................VI
ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................................... VII
CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 1
1.1. Background ............................................................................................................................ 1
1.2. Statement of the Problem ....................................................................................................... 3
1.3. Objectives of the Study .......................................................................................................... 4
1.3.1. General Objectives .......................................................................................................... 4
1.3.2. Specific Objectives .......................................................................................................... 4
1.4. Research Questions ................................................................................................................ 5
1.5. Significance of the Study ....................................................................................................... 5
1.6. Scope of the study .................................................................................................................. 5
1.7. Limitation of the Study .......................................................................................................... 6
1.8. Organization of the Study ...................................................................................................... 6
CHAPTER TWO .............................................................................................................................. 7
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ........................................................................................ 7
2.1 Meaning and Definition of Public Relations ........................................................................... 7
2.2. Public Relations in Ethiopia ................................................................................................... 9
2.2.1 Challenges facing public relations practice in Ethiopia ................................................. 13
2.3 Qualifying factors of Professional Public Relations ............................................................. 14
2.4 Concepts and Types of Communication ............................................................................... 16
2.4.1. Types of Communication .............................................................................................. 18
2.4.1.1. Intrapersonal Communication ................................................................................. 18
2.4.1.2. Interpersonal Communication ................................................................................. 18
2.4.1.3. Group Communication............................................................................................ 20

II
 2.4.1.4. Mass Communication ............................................................................................. 21
2.4.1.5. Public Communication............................................................................................ 21
2.5. Organizational Communication ........................................................................................... 21
2.5.1. Formal and Informal Communication ........................................................................... 22
2.5.2. Communication Channels.............................................................................................. 23
2.5.3. Direction of Communication ......................................................................................... 23
2.5.3.1 Downward Communication ..................................................................................... 24
2.5.3.2 Upward Communication .......................................................................................... 24
2.5.3.3 Lateral Communication ........................................................................................... 25
2.5.3.4 Diagonal Communication ........................................................................................ 25
2.5.3.5 Grapevine ................................................................................................................. 26
2.5.4. Ethical Communication in an Organization .................................................................. 27
2.6 Practices of Public Relations ................................................................................................. 27
2.7. Theoretical Framework ........................................................................................................ 30
2.7.1 Press A-gentry (Publicity) ......................................................................................... 31
2.7.2 Public Information Model ............................................................................................ 31
2.7.3 Two -way Asymmetric ................................................................................................... 32
2.7.4 Two- way Symmetric ................................................................................................... 32
CHAPTER THREE ........................................................................................................................ 35
METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................................... 35
3.1 Research Design .................................................................................................................... 35
3.2 Sources of Data ..................................................................................................................... 37
3.3 Sampling Techniques and Procedures................................................................................... 38
3.3.1 Purposive sampling......................................................................................................... 38
3.4. Data Collection Procedure and Tools................................................................................... 39
3.4.1 Data Collection Procedures ............................................................................................ 39
3.4.2 Data Collection Tools ..................................................................................................... 39
3.4.2.1 Document Analysis .................................................................................................. 39
3.4.2.2 Questionnaire ........................................................................................................... 40
3.4.2.3 Interview .................................................................................................................. 40
3.5 Methods of Data Analysis ..................................................................................................... 41

III
 3.6. Ethical Consideration ........................................................................................................... 41
CHAPTER FOUR ........................................................................................................................... 42
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS OF FINDINGS ............................................................ 42
4.1. Communication Strategies of PRs in ESC ........................................................................... 45
4.2 Practices of Public Relations in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation ............................................. 49
4.2.1 Crisis Communication .................................................................................................... 52
4.2.2 Communication Channels............................................................................................... 54
CHAPTER FIVE ............................................................................................................................ 56
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................................... 56
5.1 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................... 56
5. 2 Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 58
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................... 61
Appendix One .............................................................................................................................. VIII
Appendix Two ............................................................................................................................. XIII

IV
 ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

CEO Chief executive officer

DEO Deputy executive officer

EAP Employee Assistance Program

E.C Ethiopian Calendar

EO Executive officer

ESC Ethiopian Sugar Corporation

GM General Manager

HR Human resource

ICT Information Communication Technology

IT Information technology

MOI Ministry of information

NGO Non-governmental organization

PM Prime Minister

PRs Public Relations

SPSS Statistical package for social science

V
 LIST OF TABLES

Table Page
Table 1 Communication hierarchy of ESC……………………………………………..49

Table 2 Research and independence of PRs practitioners……………………………....51

LIST OF GRAPHS

Graph page
Graph I Gender of employees………………………………………………………...43

Graph II Age of employees………………………………………….………………..43

Graph III Educational level of employees………………………….………………....44

Graph IV Work position of employees……………………………………….………..44

Graph V Years of experience……………………………………………….………...45

Graph VI Types of communication…………………………………………………....46

Graph VII ESC employee communication………………………………………….….48

Graph VIII Communication channels……………………………………………….….54

VI
 ABSTRACT

This research examines internal communication strategies and practices of public relations in
Ethiopian Sugar Corporation. It also identifies various channels of communication being used in
ESC for internal communication purposes. Literatures on strategic communication and practices
of public relations are discussed wisely in relation to the research objectives. Grunig two-way
symmetry of public relations theoretical framework was employed under the study. Thus, this
research is carried out using mixed approaches: and primary and secondary data were part of
the study. Under the qualitative method, data gathering tools such as document analysis:
strategic communication of ESC, crisis communication, channels of communication and in-depth
interview with all (4) purposely selected public relations practitioners were included. In
quantitative method questionnaires were distributed to 20% conveniently selected Ethiopian
Sugar Corporation employees. In regard to communication, interpersonal communication is
found to be more convenient than group and others; this is because of the communication strategy
and practices of public relations. The internal communication strategy more of has limitation in
in research and elaboration of key functions: due to its independence of the practitioners. The
crisis communication is not convenient to perform proactively: due to budget deficit and
limitation of trainings. The overall finding of the study shows that there is partially independent
public relations practice and less practical communication strategy in ESC, i.e. the
communication hierarchy, type and level needs improvement & training for the success of the
internal communication strategies and practices of public relations. Based on the findings, a few
important recommendations that would contribute for improving the strategic communication and
practices of public relations especially, in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation, were made.

VII
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background

The present "Ethiopian Sugar Corporation" with a vision of executing sugar corporation
development activities at a large scale came in to existence on October, 2010 by the council of
Ministers Regulation No.192/2010. Now there are 8 sugar factories under operation and 5 other
projects under construction. Some of them are entered in to regular production in few years‟ time
(Corporate Communication EO, 2019). The corporation has more than 350,000 citizens of job
opportunities which 62,000 are regular and 350 are in the head office (Ethiopian Sugar Industry
Profile, 2017) and HR of the corporation. To satisfy the internal and external public, to achieve
the corporation core values, to create transparent work atmosphere, effective communication
strategy and researchable public relations practice is unquestionable.

Strategic public relation is a modern blueprint to build truly effective PRs communications in the
organization. Strategic communication is a term used to denote the higher-level concerns behind
communicative efforts by organizations to advance organizational mission. Most of the experts on
management, leadership, communication and organizations believe that for any type of
organization effective communication is the key to growth, effectiveness and success (Krishan,
2011). According to Krishan internal communication is often overlooked at organizations, and yet
it is crucial for all type of organizations. Working towards sustainability is not the sole
responsibility of top management rather it requires collective efforts of each member of an
organization: and that is possible only through effective internal communication: “effective
internal communication is the first frontier in the battle for the customer” (Aarti and Aakanksha,
2013).

Internal communication has been defined in several ways. Looking at the definition by Kalla
(2005), internal communication is described as an integrated internal communication activity
including all types of communications, both formal and informal, that are taking place within all
levels in an organization. However, Welch and Jackson (2007) define internal communication as
a strategic management style in which interactions and relationships between an organization and

1
its stakeholders are taken into account. To validate this strategy and the practice of PRs
practitioners heavily plays great role.

The crucial concern when internal communication is being implemented in organizations relates
with the channel and content of the communication that is targeted towards the organizations
internal stakeholders (Krishan,2011&Verghese, 2017). The appropriateness of the communication
tools/channels and times of release or heard matters the information credibility of the source. The
public relations practitioners have to practice updating of information from the credible source to
void rumors and gossip. Either traditional or modern communication tools have to be
implemented in the organization to validate the communication process. This interchange of
information naturally requires channels to go through in order to be delivered from one person to
another. These channels are called communication channels. There are various types of
communication channels that people use when exchanging information. Some common channels
are e-mails, telephone calls, meetings (Tenhiälä & Salvador, 2014), face-to-face conversations,
video conferencing, web-based tools, bulletins, documents and memos (The Role of Formal
Internal Communication in Organizational Identification, 2016).

The types of communication which are interpersonal, verbal, nonverbal and written
communication obviously have to be implemented according to the issue strategically and wisely
to communicate and understand mutually. According to Nawafino (2016) the level of
communication which are intrapersonal communication, interpersonal communication, group
communication, mass communication or public communication needs to be strategic to become
effective in the work environment. The direction of communication: upward, down ward,
diagonal, lateral and grapevine in the other side have values for the effectiveness and formality of
the communication and public relation practices. Robbins and Coulter (2012) stated formal and
informal communication in an organization in the following ways, „formal communication refers
to communication that takes place within prescribed organizational work arrangements and
hierarchy, whereas, informal communication is a communication which is not defined by the
organization structural hierarchy‟. Sometimes the formality or informality of the communication
doesn‟t matter rather the way of understanding each other matters a lot (Lazenby, 2005).

Public relations education has been given in Ethiopia since 2016 by Addis Ababa University. It is
an open chance for Ethiopians to take international courses of public relations and fields. Public

2
relations practitioners have also got chance to update and upgrade their profession horizontally
and vertically. However, as the government PRs are not professionals as Zemedkun (2014) stated,
different stakeholders including public relations practitioners, seriously complain about the
problems in the practice of public relations in ESC (Corporate Communication EO, 2017). Hence,
according to them in the past consecutive years the government couldn‟t give more attention to
PRs. Consequently, it is clear that most of the government PRs is not lead by professional
communication strategy and without strategy public relation practice couldn‟t be effective. That‟s
why PRs found below the profession it requires for decades. The professional public relations
have to qualify experience, relationship building ,attitude, proactively and passion, performance,
knowledge of the field, communication, technology, organizational, and management skills,
ethics, positive outlook and advocacy (Seitel 2011: Baines et al, 2004:325). Being professional in
public relations helps PRs practitioners to be proactive in the whole activities of the organization.
Communication strategy in the other side solves communication problems strategically with the
help of public relation practitioners.

This study to this end focused on examining the internal communication strategies and practices
of public relations in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation. A two-way symmetry of public relations
theoretical framework used to inform the study. Mixed approaches are employed in the study with
purposive and convenience samplings.

1.2. Statement of the Problem

Interactive communication of the organization public relations and employees is vital: to be active
in proactivity, professional communication strategy and practices of public relations plays a great
role. Though, two-way symmetric communication of stake holders and public relations
practitioners creates mutual understanding to go far. However, communication barrier and
limitation of interactive communication in the organization creates ineffectiveness of internal
communication strategy and practices of public relations. Internal communication occurs at any
levels within organizations. It may be formal or informal. The use of appropriate channels and
content of communication especially is determined by public relations practitioners and budget of
public relations. Though, giving apparent and immediate response sometimes pays a wage and it
relies on the effort of the public relations practitioners practice, knowledge and skills (Pearson,
2012).

3
Hence, the role of internal communication is to improve organization value by communicating
effectively with employees being „an important asset to the firm‟ and instilling a sense of
belonging by using effective communication strategy. Effective and strategic internal
communication can reduce uncertainty and rumors, serve as a catalyst of change and the internal
audience is the most important for the communicator. Communicating effectively with employees
can build organizational commitment, achieve superior business outcomes, influence corporate
reputation, share knowledge, gain trust, instill a sense of belonging, create awareness and engage
employees. Practicing professional public relations here ultimately enhances the organization
internal communication. Without effective and professional internal communication strategy and
public relations practice, in a country like Ethiopia where the government is the major factor in
information and communication efforts in ESC access to information and practicing
professionally matters a lot. Effective internal communication leads to improved outcomes, and
committed employees are more productive. Though, communication is understood to be strategic
in nature. Hence, success of the organization is constructed by its internal communication with in
the organization; the strength in love or hate of the employees towards the organization is also
implicated in its success.

The independence of the public relations practitioner from any external bodies in addition to
professional qualification directly affects the communication strategy and practitioners practices.
Based on the above listed statements, the study aimed to examine the internal communication
strategies and practices of public relations in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation. Accordingly, the
researcher undertakes this particular study to fill the knowledge and skill gap in the
aforementioned area.

1.3. Objectives of the Study

1.3.1. General Objectives

The general objective of this study is to examine internal communication strategies and practices
of public relations in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation.

1.3.2. Specific Objectives

The specific objectives are:-

4
 1. To assess components of Ethiopian Sugar Corporation communication strategy.
2. To examine how public relations practices are being practiced in ESC.
3. To examine how ESC employees view the significance of internal communication
strategies and practices of PR in their organization.
4. To analyze tools/channels of communication being used in ESC for internal
communication purposes.

1.4. Research Questions

1 What are the components of Ethiopian Sugar Corporation communication strategy?

2. What are the practices of public relations in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation in relation to the
professional standards?
3. How ESC employees view the significance of internal communication (strategies) and
practices of PRs in their organization?
4. What are the communication tools/channels used in ESC for internal communication
purposes?

1.5. Significance of the Study

The results of this study are expected to enable PRs practitioners of ESC to understand
communication strategies so it helps to achieve the corporation vision easily. It also will try to
find out lists of PRs practices to aware the responsibilities and duties in ESC & identify the best
communication strategies and practices of PRs that helps to create a charismatic work
environment in the corporation. Finally, it indicates problems in practices of PRs and
communication gaps between the public/employees and ESC: It will also serve as a reference for
other researchers who conduct their study in related cases.

1.6. Scope of the study

The study carried out in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation which is found in Addis Ababa near
Kasanchis. This study mainly focused on examining Internal Communication Strategies and
Practices of Public Relations in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation. Concerning sampling, the data was
gathered from 100% of public relations practitioners of the corporation and 20% of employees

5
from in-depth interview and questionnaire respectively. Apparently, the respondents were selected
and organized by purposive and convenience sampling techniques.

1.7. Limitation of the Study

In this study, the study had faced various problems. Among these, financial, and bureaucratic
constraints, inability to get nearby public Library, inconsistency of network and electric power,
shortage of resources etc. Especially, it was difficult to get enough data and other guarantee
information of the past decades of public relations practices in Ethiopia. The other limitation is
lack of similar studies conducted in Ethiopian government organizations about the topic though
this is the first study which carried out. Some respondents were also unenthusiastic to express
their views blatantly.

1.8. Organization of the Study

The study contains five chapters. The first chapter deals with introduction: background of the
study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, significance of the
study, scope, limitation of the study and organization of the study. The second chapter reviews
literature related to the study. The third chapter entertains the methodology of the study. The
fourth chapter discusses the findings. And the fifth chapter concludes and gives recommendations
based on the findings. At the end of this study Bibliography and Appendices are also included

6
 CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter deals with review of related literature that explains the meaning and definitions of
public relations, public relations in Ethiopia, challenges facing public relations practices in
Ethiopia, qualifying factors of professional public relations, concepts and types of
communication, channels of communication, organizational communication and directions of
communication, and practices of public relations. It also discusses formal and informal
communications and its channels. Moreover, it attempts to entail two-way symmetrical theoretical
frame work of Grunig and Hunt that are related to strategies and practices of public relations. It is
not possible to come across so many academic research works and references that are related to
the internal communication strategies and practices of public relations in Ethiopia especially in
government private organizations, some efforts were exerted to highlight somehow the available
relevant literatures on the topic.

2.1 Meaning and Definition of Public Relations

One of the difficulties in public relations is getting an agreeable definition among scholars (Tench
and Yeoman, 2009: 35). Different scholars and practitioners give different definitions in different
times. Public relation is commonly considered to be a „young profession‟ a type of
communications byproduct of twentieth century capitalism (Chalkley, p.3). According to Seitel
(2011: 36), the most ambitious effort to come up with universally acceptable definition of public
relations was commissioned in 1975 by the foundation for Public Relations Research and
Education. At that forum more than sixty public relations leaders were participated and about 472
(some says 500) different definitions were forwarded for analyses. Based on it the American
academic Harlow produced the first all-inclusive definition of PRs.

Public relations is a distinctive management function which helps establish and

maintain mutual lines of communication, understanding, acceptance and cooperation
between an organization and its publics; involves the management of problems or
issues; helps management to keep informed on and responsive to public opinions;
defines and emphasizes the responsibility of management to serve the public interest;

7
 helps management keep abreast of and effectively utilize change; serving as an early
warning system to help anticipate trends; and uses research and ethical communication
techniques as its principal tools (Harlow 1976: 36).

The definition of Harlow covers most aspects of PR and it‟s too long; other researchers like
Grunig and Hunt separated the tasks and defined in a single sentence. Grunig and Hunt (1984: 6)
defined PR „the management of communication between an organization and its publics‟, which
Grunig later refined as „an organization‟s managed communications behavior‟. The practical PRs
Banik (2004:5) defined as the establishment of two-way communication to resolve conflicts of
interest and the establishment of understanding based on truth, knowledge and full information:
from this perspective PRs requires execution of communication program designed to bring public
acceptance and common understanding. Public relation is abroad set of communication efforts
used to create and maintain favorable relationship between an organization and its stakeholders.
Similarly Schmitz (2012:10) said public relation is a „strategic conversation‟. As you might
imagine, it is an ephemeral and wide-ranging field, often misperceived, and because of lack of
message control inherent in public relations, it is difficult to master. The concept of mutuality in
Schmitz and Banik definition makes PRs practitioners an intermediary between the organization
and its publics. It helps to work hard for the sustainability of mutual advantage. Bahil (1994:6)
added PRs is a systematic approach to solve problems. It is creating an understanding between the
organization and the target audience, with the objective of building good will and good image.
Since PRs is an investment towards good communications and good relationship. Public relations
efforts must ensure that not only does the organization understand its publics; the publics must
equally understand the organization. It must understand its reasons for whatever actions it takes.
According to Banik, Schmitz and Bahil communication should be two way (symmetrical) and
there must be mutual understanding among each other for the development of the organization
and to fit the public interest.

Another definition given by Cutlip, Center and Broom, in their book of Effective Public Relations
which is considered as the bible of public relations in America: A public relations is the
“management function that identifies, establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships
between an organization and its publics upon whom its success depends.” Now, watch out the last
phrase of the definition, „upon whom its success depends,‟ this is the fact that many organizations

8
have not realized. A company‟s success or failure depends considerably on its relationship with
its various publics. The elements of public relations just described in the above definitions are part of the
process that defines today‟s public relations: knowing the definition of the profession helps the
practitioners to practice the profession wisely.

2.2. Public Relations in Ethiopia

Finding the starting time of public relation in Ethiopia faced me difficult. But some researcher
said the practice of public relations in Ethiopia is a recent phenomenon. According to MoI (2003)
cited in Zemedkun (2014:19) “the beginning of newspapers since 1900‟s that provided
advertisement space for business organizations together with the introduction of printing press,
telecommunication and the rail way by Emperor Minilik II in the late 19th century paved the way
for the development of mass media and communications in all aspects including the emergence of
modern public relations”. However, during the previous regimes, public relations were conducted
in a traditional manner in various government organizations. Accordingly, there were a number of
public relations resembling practices during those times. Preparing and distributing newspapers
entitled “Bandirachen” (Our flag) in order to arise patriotism among Ethiopian guerrillas during
the fascist Italy occupation (1936-1941), and Amharic language paper entitled “Yetor Wore”
(War news) that was distributed by the allied forces during world war II can be mentioned
(Solomon, 1998:20-21 cited in Zemedkun, 2014:19).

Zeray (2016) estimated PR is emerged in the late 19 century. However, it has begun to be taken
seriously as one instrument of success by different organizations lately in the 1970s. Similarly,
Solomon (2000), modern public relations practice is believed to have been started in 1960‟s in
Ethiopia. The emergence of the practice of modern public relations came as a result of the
establishment of the Ministry of Pen in 1940‟s. Ministry of Pen helped to create more PR in
government organizations (MoI, 2004 cited in Zemedkun, 2014). Then media organizations such
as Radio, News Agency and Television services were organized and administered under the
ministry of Pen. Some years later the ministry was replaced by the Ministry of Information and
tourism in 1950‟s with similar task of administering the media organizations in addition to
carrying out the responsibility of culture and tourism. Then, 1960‟s when the Ministry of
Information replaced it; the responsibility of leading the media organizations was also transferred
to the new ministry. The practice of public relations that started to take shape during the 1960‟s

9
continued for years without any change in form and content. The major purpose of the public
relations was merely serving the interest of the ruling class/group. As the public relations at those
times were so unprofessional, it was unable to respond to the situations arising in those times. The
foundation of different international and national organizations and institutions in Ethiopia
created significant change in the history of public relation practice. The establishment of the UN
Economic Commission for Africa in 1958 and African Union in 1963 as its head quarter in Addis
Ababa was among the significant dynamics that were worth mentioning (Solomon, 1998). While
such huge developments were taking shape in the country, the public relations practice in the
country remained without any remarkable progress. The head of public relations at the final years
of Emperor Haile Selassie in an interview, said the following about the public relations overall
situation:

The notion and practice of PR was developed during the 1960‟s … until around 1974,
a minimal consideration was given to PR. A study was made in the ministry where by
the public relations Bureau was promoted to a public relations and information
department … the activities were routine reception, protocol, running the printing etc.
System and strategy as to how to promote Ethiopia‟s real needs were unthinkable.
There, of course, have been some publications... But they reflected the interest of the
ruling feudal autocracy than that of the public at large (Solomon, 1998: 22).

According to Solomon (1998) the 1974 devastating famine was one incident that can be
mentioned to substantiate the failure of PR in the government organizations. Nothing was known
to the nation as well as the whole world about the fatal famine. Previously, the country‟s image
was that of the king‟s himself, rich, the bread basket of Africa. However, the famine was telling
another story, the country wasn‟t rich as it was depicted by the image of the Emperor (Zemedkun,
2014:21). It seems that the system was convinced the story would remain untold forever; so it
opted to focus on working how to hide instead of trying to manage the crisis. However, The
British Journalist, Jonathan Dimbleby not only exposed “the hidden hunger” to the world, but also
the ignorance and weakness of the government public relations (Solomon, 1998: 22). These and
other economic, social and political causes lead Ethiopia to a great revolution against the down
fall of the emperor. This clearly shows the weakness of the PR practice and professionalism in
Ethiopia. The end of 1960s and beginning of 1970s different private and governmental

10
organizations for example the Shoa Sugar Factory, Metehara Sugar Factory etc. come in to
existence. These helped writer Sibhat Gebreigziabher and Dereje Deressa to establish Alem
Public Relations Consultancy Firm which was the first public relations consultancy firm in the
history of Ethiopia (Solomon, 1998: 23). After the down fall of the emperor from 1974-1991, it is
remembered as a dictatorship era. Zemedkun (2014) stated that “the soviet model of socialism
adopted by the military government led the public relations and the media practice to the full-
fledged propaganda. The media and the few government public relations units fell under a strict
control and guidance of assigned military officers” (p.22)

To accomplish the special mission of the government, Ministry of Information and National
Guidance came to existence. The entire PR was assigned by the military government and work for
it. During this time creating conducive environment without professionalism seems irrationality.
Even though the communication models employed in the PR activities during this time were press
a gentry, propaganda and persuasion models, devoid of democratic substances (Solomon, 1998:
24). After the down fall of Dergu regime EPRDF come to power and created some modifications
on media rules and government offices. In this fast global world hiding information is impossible
to this new generation/millennial. Now a day, public relation activities are mainly considered as
hub of developmental activities; thus, in each government offices, there is public relation office.
Among these offices, the state (government) universities in the country have opened offices for
public relations practices which aimed to promote and report the day-to-day teaching learning,
research, community services and technology transfer issues to the internal and external publics.
According to Zeray, recently political parties, government, business organizations and others
establish public relations department and work tirelessly to introduce their programs and receive
opinions from public. The criticisms and opinions they receive from the public help them to
identify what to improve and what to do next to maintain good working relations with the public.
Thus, public relations serve as mirror and bridge between the organizations and the public.

It seems that it is very hard nowadays for organizations to survive without

successfully conducting public relations activities. Particularly, governments who
faced serious challenges to survive and indulged themselves in serious crisis leave no
stone unturned to come out of their catastrophe through conductive massive public
relations. And political parties who aspire to hold state power should undertake

11
 successful public relations activities just because it is unthinkable for them to win
elections without introducing and working on their programs to be accepted by the
public. Political parties who won election also need to work hard on public relations
activities to maintain their stay in power and sustain their voters intact. To be more
precise, having successful public relations is not a matter of choice but a matter of
survival (Zeray, 2016).

From the government point of view till PM Abiy Ahmed comes to power, public relation has two
fundamental missions: creating national consensus locally and building Ethiopia‟s internationally.
The national policy was established to create awareness locally about the benefits of unity in
diversity and tolerance. The national policy gives more emphasis on rapid economic growth,
prevent disintegration and civil war, and promote the country‟s image internationally to facilitate
the development of investment, trade, and tourism sectors and to aspire the country to have its
rightful place international politics. However, it is failed to successfully introduce the basic
concepts. The government introduces developmental journalism. Investigate journalism are not
introduced to expose corruption and bad governance which makes the public satisfactory. This
makes the public annoyed of government journalists and PRs.

In 2002 the government established ministry of information to realize the effective dissemination
of government information then some efforts were made to ensure effective government
communication system. This ministry created a team and share experience from different African
countries like South Africa. In 2003 Ato Berket Simon presented a paper titled on” the future of
the private press in Ethiopia and the government perspective,” by the Minister of Information and
he clearly indicated the government had failed to disseminate information properly. The
government PR officers lack profession and code of ethics this creates barriers with media to
reach the public relevant and timely information. Ultimately, the purpose of practicing public
relations in Ethiopia especially in government private organizations was to teach the importance
of tolerance, unity based on diversity and create good image of Ethiopia externally to collectively
beat the acute poverty and strengthen the democratic principles which are the pillars of the nation
to survive and continue politically stable.

12
 2.2.1 Challenges facing public relations practice in Ethiopia

According to Fuller (2017) there is no African country where public relation is in proper practice
like South Africa. This is practically true that most of the world‟s disciplines originated from the
developed countries. Public relations in Ethiopia/government private organizations recently show
a little progress even though they have various challenges and factors. The challenges need
serious attention and follow up for its independent professional development. Among these
challenges Fuller (2017) listed poor understanding of public relation concept, lack of
specialization in the profession, language barriers, lack of technological know-how,
infrastructural limitations, lack of ethics by the existing professionals and organizations, negative
cultural habits, attitudes and taboos. According to Kok (2000:7) “the governments seek to provide
citizens with information about its intentions and activities: this is a legal obligation that enables
people to exercise their constitutional rights to express their opinions freely.” Dissemination of
information is crucial to know about the where of the organization and to get feedbacks from the
publics and vise verse. However, PR was not free to release information about the organization
due to government involvement of politics: frustration. Though, even the public, journalists were
not getting information of the organization freely. Dahl (1998) writes the following about
availability of independent source of information held by the government organization:

How can citizens acquire the information they need in order to understand the issues
if the government controls all the important sources of information? Or, for that
matter, if any single group enjoys a monopoly in providing information? Citizens
must have access, then, to alternative sources of information that are not under the
control of the government or dominated by any other group or point of view….
Citizens will not be able to participate effectively in political life if all the information
they could acquire was provided by a single source (Dahl, 1998:9, cited in Getahun,
2005:33).

Media relations, planning, writing, research, counseling, stakeholders‟ relation, media monitoring,
crisis management, public affair and lobbying are some of the PR practices and or responsibilities.
The media and other stakeholders as Gregory (2003: 14) put it, the media works 24 hours a day all
the week and highly facilitated by enabling technologies. The PR has to use the media to aware the
public about the product and service of the organization or any news about the organization.

13
Accordingly, all the stakeholders should get information via different media out lets. The PR should
research to get the type of media people use in different areas. The limitation of information creates
miss understanding between the organization and the public.

Public relation Professionals and professional associations are another factor that faced public
relations practice in Ethiopian. Warner (2000:248-49) listed the importance of education, short
and long term courses and training for the PRs practitioners. The development of different
organizations in different levels in public relations apparently increases the number of
professionals and reputation practice. The professional associations also helped universities and
students to use their journals, newspapers, magazines and materials as references (Warner,
2000:249). It also increases the strength of the profession/association and the reputation of the
practices and its independence. Ethiopia, since today, has not professional associations of public
relations. In the other side the development of professionals and professional associations clearly
pave the way to be ethical in the profession and accountable for each action. For example, most
people questioned the ethics of lobbying in Ethiopian government organizations (Zemedkun,
2014:17). Being professional in public relation makes active in crisis management. “Good crisis
management presupposes good communication management both internally and externally”
(Duin, 2000:203). This is managed by delivering the accurate information through the mass media
to the public and it‟s done only if the PRs is free from external involvement. The perception of the
profession by different bodies in the organization is also another problem that faces PRs. The
common perception of spinning with public relations is one critical problem in relation to the
reputation of the practice (Thurlow, 2009: 249-250). So, without effective public relation practice
achieving the organization vision matters a lot. Recently, the challenges of PR gets due attention
and universities opened departments of PRs/strategic communication since 2016 in Ethiopia.

2.3 Qualifying factors of Professional Public Relations

Even though public relations profession experienced significant growth over the last 100 years or
so, it is still enfant in Ethiopia. Government organization PRs officers are not graduated and or
specialized by the field. PR as a profession has started to be given in Ethiopian Universities since
2016. The profession like other professions has to qualify some basic knowledge and skills.
(Heerden, 2004:89). The professional public relations have to qualify diversity of experience,

14
relationship building, attitude, proactively and passion, performance, knowledge of the field,
communication skill, organizational and management skills/knowledge, technical skills, ethics,
positive outlook and advocacy (Seitel 2011:43-45, Baines et al, 2004:325). This helps the PRs to
be confidential in the whole activities of the organization, to effectively use PRs tools /channels
and create smooth relationships with the organization and its publics.

Laskin (2006) observed that depending on educational and professional backgrounds PRs officers
practice PR differently professionals with communication background perform different tasks and
value different outcomes in their day-to-day activities in comparison with practitioners with
background in other field of study. As a result, the overall practice of PR depends on who is
performing it. Professional PRs experienced the qualitative growth of expanding far beyond
traditional media relations to a strategic management function which notably contributes to the
organization‟s value creation as boundary spanners and counselors (Grunig, 2006; Mahoney,
2011). Unless PR and media work together with the profession, barrier of information will be ok.

Professionalism empowers public relations managers to negotiate with clients to change

organizational behavior, to consider the interests of publics as well as their own interests (Grunig,
2000). An awareness of the extent to which public relation is a profession and the areas where
professional standards are low will help in taking the necessary steps for adopting high
professional standards. More or less different professional associations and licensing are in
Ethiopia. However, PRs has not association till now. This hurts the profession to crawl again.
“Licensing of public relations has been an issue of keen debate since years. Public relations
should be defined by law, with licensing and registration of practitioners, as is the case with
lawyers, medical doctors and other professions” (Seem, 2006:13). Edward Bernarys also
dedicated his career to licensing PR “licensing would protect the profession and the public from
incompetent individuals who have no knowledge, talent or ethics required by this profession”.
This identifies PRs from other profession. PRs associations include only a portion of those
working in the PRs field; these associations exert considerable influence through their advocacy
for the professionalization of this practice. PR has predominantly been a practice based field but
owing to attempt to create a scientific base, PR is developing into a profession. Striving for the
professionalization of PR institutionalizes the best practices and establishes standards of quality
that serve the public interest. Grunig & Hunt (1984) stated PR profession and association “a set of

15
professional values, strong professional organizations that socialize practitioners into these
values, professional norms such as those provided by a code of ethics that can be used to enforce
values, technical skills acquired through professional training, and an intellectual tradition and an
established body of knowledge”.

2.4 Concepts and Types of Communication

Communication, the life blood of every organization, is a process that links the individual, the
groups and the organization, (Shibeshi, 2014: 157) is defined differently in different times and by
different scholars. Among these James Gruing, Berlo and Van Ruler are some of them.
According to Berlo (1960) and Grunig (1992:559) “Communication is a two- way process of
reaching mutual understanding, in which participants not only exchange (encode-decode)
information, news, ideas and feelings but also create and share meaning.” Communication is a
two-way street (Robbins and Coulter, 2012) that means both the person communicating and the
person being communicated has to be participated equally; it is an interactive communication.
Interactive communication can takes place through meetings, teleconferencing, multimedia
presentations, group discussions and other such as two-way exchanges. When many speakers are
involved, there may be a need for a mediator who will facilitate effective flow of communication
from different speakers. Berlo also states that communication is a means of connecting people and
it is a key function of management an organization cannot operate without communication
between levels, departments and employees.

The definition in Wikipedia stated “Communication is strategic when it is completely consistent

with the organization mission, vision, values and when it is able to enhance the strategic
positioning and competitiveness between their competitors” (retrieved on 20/03/2019). Hallahan
also stated „Strategic Communication is being purposeful, in order to advance an organization‟s
mission through communicating‟ (Hallahan et al. 2007:3). One part of the strategic
communication is internal communication. According to Zajkowska:

Internal communication takes place within the organization or group among people,
among different groups of employees and between employers and employees. It could
be oral or written, visual or audio visual, formal or informal, and upward or down
ward. Internal communication serves to inform, instruct, educate, develop, motivate,

16
 persuade, entertain, direct, control and caution people in the organization (Zajkowska,
2011).

Kalla (2005) described internal communication as an integrated internal communication activity

including all types of communications, both formal and informal, that are taking place within all
levels in an organization. An organization, which wants to take seriously the area of internal
communication, should first demonstrate how the actions taken in the area of communication
support the implementation of its strategy (Allyson, 2004cited in Zajkowska, 2011)). It is a
necessary condition to measure the effects of the strategy by conducting surveys concerning
communication which allow providing a proof that the actions are effective and simultaneously
enable accurate identification of the needs of the employees. Showing the managing staff whose
internal communication has a positive impact and that it contributes to achieving the goals of the
organization increases the importance of the corporate communication in a real manner. Though,
to be successful in communication, the process of the communication is determinant. The
communication process involves the exchange of information between a sender and receiver. The
main components of this model are the sender, the receiver, the message and the channel. The
communication process includes the sequential steps of encoding, transmitting and decoding
(Shibeshi, 2014).

In the other side communication theorists stated „Communication is transferring thoughts,

information, emotion and ideas through gesture, voice, symbols, signs and expressions from one
person to another. Three things are most important and essential in any communication process
they are sender, receiver and the channel (medium)‟ (Van Ruler, 2018). So, communication is a
very important part of any organization. It takes place among business entities, within markets,
various groups of employees, buyers and sellers, service providers and clients, sales person and
prospective buyers, and within the organization and with the press.

Internal communication strikes a balance between extreme; communicating too little creates a
vacuum that causes distrust and speculation. However, too much information can result in
information overload or the paradox of plenty in which an overabundance of information is
ignored. Bartoo and Sias (2004) noted that receiving a large amount of information is not
necessarily the same as getting the right amount of information. The right amount, however, is
hard to determine. Effective internal communication strives for information adequacy, which is a

17
measure of the relationship between information needed and information received. When a
personal letter is written at an official address, beside writing the name of the addresses, the
envelope is super scribed „ private‟ or „confidential‟ to convey the nature of communication.
Sharing of knowledge and skills, corporate concerning, reviewing monitoring, performance
appraisal, counseling and training are among the issue that internal communication addresses.

2.4.1. Types of Communication

There are different types of communication according to its purpose and channel. The public
relation communication strategy has to consider this during planning and before implementing in
the organization. Intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, mass or public, formal or informal are listed
below to discuss.

2.4.1.1. Intrapersonal Communication

Intrapersonal communication can be defined as communication with one‟s self, and that may
include self-talk, acts of imagination and visualization, and even recall and memory (As cited in
McLean (2005). Ehondor also stated that it is a simple process of mental communication;
however, complex because it embodies all the elements of a standard communication model and
simple because the process of communication can be controlled by significantly self. Similarly,
communications expert Leonard Shedletsky examines intrapersonal communication through the
eight basic components of the communication process (i.e., source, receiver, message, channel,
feedback, environment, context, and interference) as transactional, but all the interaction occurs
within the individual. From planning to problem solving, internal conflict resolution, and
evaluations and judgments of self and others, we communicate with ourselves through
intrapersonal communication. Because Intrapersonal communication is a mental exchange of
message with one self. All this interaction takes place in the mind without externalization, and all
of it relies on previous interaction with the external world. (Communication for business
professionals, May 2018)So, intrapersonal communication is the fight and or communication of
one self without any external involvement.

2.4.1.2. Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal communication in recent years has been consistently placed high as an important
requirement for conducting successful job performance in the organizations. It looks reasonable to
18
determine that one of the most impeding forces to organizational effectiveness is a privation of
effective communication. Moreover, good interpersonal communication skills are very important
to employees for making a successful organization. Singh (2014) argued that interpersonal
communication is the process of transmitting information and common understanding from one
person to another, which is very essential for the success of any organization. Therefore, it must
be effectively handled to ensure the attainment of the organization‟s goals.

Interpersonal communication, essentially, breaks down barriers which people put up to protect
themselves (Amodeo and Wentworth, 1995) because, you allow yourself to become vulnerable by
putting yourself out there. Interpersonal communication provides a way of reaching others with
facts, ideas, thoughts and values. It is a connection of meaning among employees so that they can
share what they know and feel. Interpersonal skills, which are applicable for every employee,
consist of information exchange, communication, diplomacy, conflict resolution, problem-
solving, the motivation of others, teamwork and influences are vital for the organization goal
achievement (Aldag & Kuzuhara, 2002). Additional skills include planning, goal setting, change
management, stress management, time management and delegation (Subrahmanyam, 2018)
Moreover, good interpersonal communication skills are very important to employees for making a
successful organization (Brun, 2010). And organizations must be both interpersonally and
intellectively competent in order to be maximally effective (Jossey, 1998).

Interpersonal Communication can be an effective tool for motivating employees of the

organization involved in various activities (Singh, 2014). Appropriate communications provide
employees with feedback and reinforcement during the effective organizational change. This
increases organizational affectivity, enables employees to make better decisions and prepares
them for the advantages and disadvantages of change.

In the other hand managers who engage in interpersonal communication with their subordinates
demonstrate that they not only care about the organization, especially one that uses teams, but
also care about their employees. Taking the time to get to know who your employees are will
make them feel valued. This is not to say that every employee will want to get to know you on a
more personal level but it at least tells them that you would like to. The more valued the employee
feels, the fewer barriers they feel they need to build around them and the more easily information
flows. As barriers come down, relationships are formed that create value within the organization,

19
job satisfaction increases, and the workplace becomes a place where everybody likes to be
(Karmos, 2005). It is equally important for a manager to communicate interpersonally with upper
management, as well. Since managers serve as a gatekeeper of information between upper
management and subordinates, an effective manager understands their role in keeping the lines of
communication open. When organizational information fails to reach its intended recipient, the
entire organization can suffer.

2.4.1.3. Group Communication

A group may be defined as three or more individuals who affiliate, interact, or cooperate in a
familial, social, or work context (Schmitz, 2012).Group communication may be defined as the
exchange of information with those who are alike culturally, linguistically, and/or geographically.
Nandini (2012) &McLean (2005) defined, „group communication is an extension of interpersonal
communication where more than two individual are involved in exchange of ideas, skills and
interest: a group is a number of people with a common goal who interact with one another to
accomplish their goals, recognize one another‟s existence and see themselves as part of the
group.‟ According to Employee Assistance Program (EPA, January 23, 2014) good
communication practices are at the heart of every successful organization. Communication serves
two essential functions in every organization. It disseminates the information needed by
employees to get things done and builds relationships of trust and commitment. Here, group
members may be known by their symbols, such as patches and insignia. They may be known by
their use of specialized language or jargon (Schmitz, 2012). Group members may also be known
by their proximity, as in gated communities.

Groups Communication helps to provide an opportunity for people to come together to discuss
and exchange views of common interest of the organization (Nandini, 2012:8) the communication
might be formal or informal, horizontal or oblique, verbal, non-verbal or written (Zoltan, 2018)
Similarly Mehmet et. al. (2015:12) stated “groups are created formally and informally within the
organization at different times and for different goals. Those groups have the negative and
positive influences on the organization structure and function”. The communication channel
structure and flow highly determiners the internal communication of the organization. Thus,
organizations should private appropriate communication channels/tools for it (Zoltan, 2018).
There are different types of groups in an organization that has different missions of formation and

20
interest. These are formal, informal, task and control group types, and interest and friendship
groups, primary and secondary groups (Judge & Stephen, 2013 as cited in Mehmet et al, 2015).

2.4.1.4. Mass Communication

Mass communication is the most important process for every kind of organization (Rasel, 2013).
It is distinctive in view of its scale. Essentially, it addresses a large scale of people. Public
speaking, newsletters and journals, radio, television, dotcoms etc. are channels of mass
communication. By its nature, mass communication addresses a vast, well spread out and
heterogeneous group of people and such us, special efforts will have to be mode to sustain their
interest and achieve the desired response. At government level, there is often a separate
department of mass communication to deal with this functional area (Fang, 1997). Mass
communication has been used or can be used to promote beneficial changes in behavior among
members of populations (Maibach, 2008).

2.4.1.5. Public Communication

Public communication happens when individuals and groups engage in dialogue in public sphere
in order to deliver a message to a specific audience. Public speaking events, newspaper editorials
and billboard advertisements are few forms of public communication (Nawafino, 2016).
According to Nawafino the speeches fall in to three general categories: i.e. to persuade, to inform
and to entertain. Though, sometimes it helps to share information and create a clear understanding
with an audience: other times it helps to change their attitude and or follow a different course of
action.

2.5. Organizational Communication

Effective communication is essential for the functioning of any organization. Managers need to
transmit orders and policies, build cooperation and team spirit, and identify problems and their
solutions. Employees need to clarify directives, provide feedback, and make their problems
known. Team members need to share feelings and perceptions to solve problems and resolve
conflicts (Shibeshi, 2014:157-158)

The most important role of organizational communications is relationship building. Relationship

building will provide strong basis in case of crisis management and help in facing the changes in

21
organization. This will raise moral of employees and make contribution to strategic goals of the
organization (Spaho, 2015). As organizations increased in size, formal top-down communication
became the main concern of organizational managers. Organizational communication in today‟s
organizations has not only become far more complex and varied but more important to overall
organizational functioning and success. Communication in organizations serves three major
purposes. It allows members to coordinate actions, share information, and satisfy social needs
(Spaho, 2015). When employees are happy with how their supervisors communicate with them,
their job satisfaction and work output increase and they are more committed to the organization.

2.5.1. Formal and Informal Communication

Informal and formal communications are used in an organization. Formal communication follows
well defined hierarchical pattern and periodicity and it reduces personal biases (Gómez, 2017).
Communications flowing through formal channel are downward, horizontal and upward
(Lunenburg, 2010) whereas communications through informal channels are generally termed as
grapevine (Robert et.al., 2002:7). Memos, circulars, instructions, guidelines, clarifications,
agreements and reports are some of the channels that facilitate the flow of formal communication
in an organization (Lunenburg, 2010). Towards ensuring communication on an on-going basis,
organizations develop formal communication systems. Staff meeting, union management
meetings, manager conferences, periodical review meetings and employee meetings are examples
of formal communication.

Informal communication takes place in unstructured manner and outside the formal forms. There
is an element of spontaneity in this communication. Informal communication works in smaller,
loosely knit organization. It is used more often in situations where there are no rigid hierarchical
ties (Robert et. al., 2002:5). It takes place through chats, conversations, informal talks and etc.
Informal communication, generally associated with interpersonal, horizontal communication, was
primarily seen as a potential hindrance to effective organizational performance. This is no longer
the case. Informal communication has become more important to ensuring the effective conduct
of work in modern organizations.

22
 2.5.2. Communication Channels

Now a days communication process within organizations are rapidly changing. Communication
channels are the term given to the way in which we communicate. It is therefore the methods
used to transmit our message to recipient, or to receive a message from someone else. Public
relations channels implemented by the public relations departments serve as a two-way
communications with the public. There are multiple communication channels (as I have listed
above) available us todays. Selection of the particular medium for transmitting the message can
be critical, because there are many choices. The medium can be verbal, nonverbal, written,
computer-aided or electronic. According to Shibeshi (2014: 158-59) face-to-face, telephone, and
written communications, voice mail, electronic mail, video conferencing, faxing, and personal
computers make a vast magnitude of complex information immediately available for problem
solving and decision-making. Knowing how to obtain, transmit, and process information through
the multitude of existing communication channels is essential for any manager and most
organization members. To do so effectively through any medium, however, requires that
managers understand the basic communication process.

According to Daft and Lengel (1986), rich communication channels are ones that “can overcome
different frames of reference or clarify ambiguous issues to change understanding in a timely
manner"(p. 560). In order of decreasing richness, they consider face-to-face communication,
telephone, personal documents such as letters, impersonal documents, and numeric documents.
Written communication is useful as a way of recording what has been said by every member, for
example taking minutes in a meeting. Each communication channels has its weakness and
strength. For example, broadcasting news of an upcoming event via a written letter might convey
the message clearly to one or two individuals. It will not, however, be a time- or cost-effective
way to broadcast the message to a large number of people. On the other hand, conveying
complex, technical information is easier via a printed document a spoken message. The recipients
are able to assimilate the information at their own pace and revisit anything that they do not fully
understand (Lazenby, 2005).

2.5.3. Direction of Communication

The purpose of organization communication is to provide the means for transmitting information
essential to goal achievement. Shibeshi (2014) stated that much of the communication flow is

23
carried in four distinct directions: downward, upward, horizontally and diagonally. The other
major communication flow is the grapevine (p.163). An organization‟s structure influences the
communication patterns within the organization. The structure of an organization should provide
for communication in three distinct directions: downward, upward, and horizontal (Lunenburg,
2010). These three directions establish the framework within which communication in an
organization takes place. According to Scott downward and upward communications are formal
communication and lateral, diagonal; grapevine communications are informal communication
(p.11).

2.5.3.1 Downward Communication

Top-down approach: this is also known as downward communication. This approach is used by
the top level management to communicate to the lower levels. One of its major functions is to
achieve influence through information. This is used to implement policies, guidelines, strategies,
objectives, etc. In this type of organizational communication, distortion of the actual information
occurs. This could be made effective by feedbacks (Lunenburg, 2010). In this case sharing of
information helps to minimize the spread of rumors/gossips and inaccuracies regarding higher-
level intentions, and create a sense of security.

Likewise, Scott also stated downward communication moves from top to bottom i.e. from the
CEO down wards. It travels through senior executives to junior functionaries, from the head of
the division to the head of the units (p. 8). Corporate goals, business priorities; motivational
letters, work-related instructions, newsletters, letters from the CEO/GM are examples of
downward communication. There may be some communication, which would move from both
upward to downward. For example, budgeting, which is a two way process, it is a top to bottom
as well as bottom to top communication/exercise (Lunenburg, 2010).

2.5.3.2 Upward Communication

Organizations have different hierarchical levels or ties of communications. Upward

communication is the one which moves upward i.e. from bottom to top levels in its hierarchy
(Lunenburg, 2010). Any communication that moves from employees to supervisors, supervisors
to managers, managers to executives …are categorized under upward communication. Employee

24
suggestions, performance reports, feedbacks on the organization and requests for facilities or
instructions are examples of upward communication in the organization (Scott, p. 9).

Upward communication is primarily nondirective and is usually found in participative and

democratic organizational environments. Typical means for upward communication besides the
chain of command are suggestion systems, reports, appeal and grievance procedures, complaint
systems counseling sessions, joint setting of objectives, the grapevine group meetings, the
practice of open door policy, morals questionnaire etc. Managers should encourage upward
communication because it provides feedback on how well employees understand the downward
communication. It can encourage employees to submit valuable ideas (Shibeshi, 2014: 163-64).
Though, through this communication, subordinates convey their opinions, suggestions,
complaints etc. to their superiors. The lower level employees initiate up-ward communication and
the message ultimately reaches to the upper-level management.

2.5.3.3 Lateral Communication

Lateral/horizontal communication occurs between workers at generally equal levels in an

organization. Under this communication information flows between persons of equal status in
organization. Communication between departments or people on the same level in the managerial
hierarchy of an organization can be defined as horizontal or lateral communication (Rasel, 2013).
Lateral communication generally takes place in an organization and it is neither upward nor
downward. It proceeds in a horizontal manner and takes place among equals and at peer level. It
may also be described as peer level communication. Any communication that takes place , orally
or written , from one division head to the other, from one group head to the other , may be
described as lateral communication. An important point in any such lateral communication is that
there is not much difference in terms of the hierarchical levels or positions of the senders and the
receivers. Most effective form of communication Barrier of subordinates or boss is not present
here (Scott, p. 12-13)

2.5.3.4 Diagonal Communication

It is the sharing of information among different structural levels within an organization. For
example, diagonal communication could involve higher level management communicating to
lower level management a shift in organizational objectives, as well as the ensuring dialog about

25
how best to achieve the new goals (Scott, p. 14). Diagonal communication flows with persons at
different levels who have no direct reporting relationships. This kind of communication is used to
speed up information flow, to improve understanding, and to coordinate efforts for the
achievement of organizational objectives. A great deal of communication does not follow the
organizational hierarchy but each occur the chain of command (Shibeshi, 2014:165)

2.5.3.5 Grapevine

Grapevine is a random, unofficial means of informal communication that prevails in

organizations. Grapevines flourish because communication is a natural human tendency. People
who know each other in the organization talk together informally. One thing they have in
common is the organization they work for, so they talk about the happenings in the organization.
The source of such communication may not be clear and it spreads through an organization with
access to individual interpretation as gossip, rumors, and single-strand messages. Grapevine
communication is quick and usually more direct than formal communication/message (Scott, p.
15). Sometimes, it gets more powerful and becomes more respective than formal communication.
The prevalence of this type of communication in an organization has to be recognized and
accepted. A skilled communicator can derive benefits from it and may always be possible to
control grapevine. But, an able communicator knows how to influence it like any other types of
communication because it has its own merits and demerits. Grapevine can include destructive
miscommunication, but it can also be beneficial from allowing feelings to be expressed, and
increased productivity of employees (Spaho, 2015). Miscommunication has often been the cause
of hurt feelings, incomplete tasks, and relationship frustration.

Grapevines carry two types of information: work related and people related. As I said earlier,
employees want to know what is going on in the organization. When they are not kept informed
through formal channels, they seek information from the grapevine. Likewise, they are curious
about the people they work with. Grapevines carry the type of personal information not generally
communicated through formal channels. Some employees consider the grapevine their main
source of information. It is fast-they get information quickly and more information is given than
is normally included in face and with people they know. Thus, the grapevine often has a strongest
impact on them than formal downward communications, which are often written and may
originate from someone that they do not know personally (Shibeshi, 2014: 165-66).

26
 2.5.4. Ethical Communication in an Organization

Communication is one of the basic needs of life. Similarly ethics are thought to be basics of life.
In Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs security and social needs also includes ethics. Communication
without ethics can bring disasters to personal life or to an organization (Adeel, 2012: 12). So,
ethics and respect are basic parts of communication. Communication without ethics not only leads
to disaster a society but also an organization. Communication without ethics commonly takes
place in an organization for communication between different levels in an organization however,
it has to be managed by different organization managers, communication departments (by giving
training and advice), and experienced ones. It is important to practices ethical communication for
resolving conflicts, as well as everyday interactions. A person who practices ethical
communication advocates truthfulness, accuracy, and honesty; as these foster and maintain the
integrity of ethical communication. Being un-honest will only lead to more lies which can really
do damage. Lies are hard to keep straight unlike the truth because the truth doesn't change.

According to Adeel (2012) person who wants to communicate ethically needs to strive to
understand and respect others before evaluating and responding to their messages (P.14-15).
Think before you speak! Another aspect of ethical communication is promoting communication
that consists of caring and mutual understanding that respects the unique needs and characteristics
of individuals. Respect is very important in everyday interactions. Everyone deserves to be
respected regardless of their job, socioeconomic status, gender, and or race or anything of the
organization. People who practice ethical communication will support individuals sharing
information, opinions; and feelings when facing significant choices while also respecting the
privacy, and confidentiality of individuals (Robbins and Coulter, 2012:420) In order to really
practice ethical communication a person must believe that unethical communications threaten the
integrity of all communication. Unethical communication also compromises the wellbeing others
(Adeel, 2012).

2.6 Practices of Public Relations

Public relations functions are designed to build trust and credibility with groups that are important
to the organization. PRs develops and implements program to meet organization‟s objectives:
sustainable image, brings customer loyalty, and other relevant public including employees,

27
suppliers, stockholders, governments, labor groups, citizens, action groups and the general public
(Belch and Belch, 2004:95) Effective public relations functions can also promote the
organization, help communicate during a crisis or defend its reputation from attacks that people
make on it in the media.

Different writers and scholars have listed numbers of functions that might be considered as public
relations practices. Some would prefer to split relatively huge tasks into smaller pieces and the
others opt to enumerate in a very summarized and inclusive way. By this reason I have used the
following sources. According to (Seitel 2011: 44, Jethwaney et.al. 2000:56-60, CIPR, PRSA, &
BIPR) the following are the major practices of public relations:

Media relations: creating and dissemination of news worthy information to the media to attract
and gain attention of the organization products, or services. It also involves setting up and
maintaining a professional and mutually beneficial working relationship with news gatherers and
gatekeepers, in part by becoming known as a credible source and as a provider of factual, expert
information whether or not that information results in media coverage.

Preparing different events: having events in organizations fully encourages and develops the
communications of Employees in different levels. It also helps to boost new ideas, possibilities,
and knowledge and …

Corporate communication: promote the understanding of the organizations and its products and
services; they undertake external and internal communication.

Special event: attract media attention by arranging newsworthy organizations. Special events are
backbones of service marketers

Research: the public relations practice desperately needs research. The strategic plan itself cannot
be prepared without research. It helps to understand the organization overall activities.

Strategic Planning: Public relations practitioners, who operate at the top level, participate in the
formulation of organizational missions, policies and goals by doing effective plan. It must be
done before the beginning of a new budget year.

28
Writing and Editing: Writing is a very vital skill in public relations. Therefore you must learn
not only to appreciate good writing but must also be able to write well. The beauty about writing
is that it is a skill that can be learned. Good writers are in high demand in most organizations.

Mass Production: Practitioners of public relations engage in the writing of various messages for
the purpose of communicating with the publics. This is why the skill of writing is vital to public
relations. Some of the messages that PR practitioners write are packaged as magazines and other
forms of publications, which require editing and production.

Management: Public relations practitioners engage in management work. Public relation is a

distinctive management function which helps to maintain mutual lines of communication between
an organization and its publics. PR practitioners manage people, communication, and, media,
events etc.

Corporate Counseling: Public relations practitioners advise management on matters concerning

their organizations‟ relationships with their various publics.

Speaking: To represent their organizations, PR practitioners do engage in speaking assignments

of different kinds for different publics.

Coaching: PR practitioners also engage in training, advising and coaching top management staff
on public speaking and press interviews.

Crisis Communication and management:

Crisis communication is used by an organization following a major crisis that threatens their
image and financial performance. Different crisis might occur because of different causes it can
be internal or external in origin. Even though crisis management and communication is essential
for all organizations, the natures of crises differ according to political and other views. The nature
of the crisis matters the way of solving. The contingency plan helps during such times. To
practice defensive public relations ,the PR officers are expected to manage it essentially the
flowing of information between the organization and the public, through different media out lets
by broadcasting the important information, advising management on what to do and how to do it;
try to be proactive before crises happened on their strategic plan. So the crisis could not
aggravate. According to Solomon S. (2015:8-9) and Olusegun (2006:125) during and before a

29
crisis a PR officer is required to perform the following eight stapes: the PR officer has to create
awareness about the crisis, do assessment, team building, positioning and Strategy, readiness,
action, evaluation, follow-up to closure sequentially and professionally.

In general, according Burnett (1998: 477), crisis may produce gains as well as losses. For
example, crisis in Ethiopia during the last years in factories produces losses (burning of ESC by
protesters caused by the leading of the government). Organizational crises may also be turned into
opportunities (Smith et al., 1996).

2.7. Theoretical Framework

The most difficulties in thesis doing is getting a unified theory or model. According to (Willacy,
2016) there is no one unifying „public relations theory or model‟ because theorists see from
different angles (Van Ruler, 2018: 3) Different scholars/theorists use different models and
theories; among them Van Ruler, J. Gruing and Hunt, Taylor and Every, Hallahan … are the
pioneers. For example Van Ruler argued that in communication theory, there are at least three
different lenses with which to view how this process works: „communication as a one-way
process of meaning construction, in which the sender attempts to construct or reconstruct the
meaning developed by the receiver; communication as a two-way process of meaning
construction, in which two or more people construct new meanings together; and communication
as a omnidirectional diachronic process of meaning construction, in which the focus is on the
continuous development of meaning itself‟ (Van Ruler, 2018: 4). Whereas Willacy (2016)
described communication theory as one-way or two-way:

Grunig and Hunt‟s four models of public relations practice provide a picture of a set of methods
and approaches that are used by practitioners, firms, institutions, colleges, universities,
governments and etc. in managing and sustaining good working relationships with their publics.
To provide public relation practices, Grunig and Hunt (1984) argued that these models are
conceptual representations of reality that provide a good insight into the nature of public relations
practices commonly found in public relationship management, it would be naive to think that
these models are capable and exhaustive enough to capture the diverse nature of public relations
practices used by practitioners, governments, businesses and non-governmental organizations all
over the world. Nevertheless, Grunig and Hunt (1984) contend that some of the varieties of

30
methods and approaches adopted in the management of this discipline in general is likely to fit
into one of the these models. The models are:-

2.7.1 Press A-gentry (Publicity)

It is relatively an ancient form of communication model. In this model, the focus of public
relations effort is on getting favorable coverage or publicity from the media (Seitel, 2011: 81). It
is essentially a one-way communication where messages will be sent from a source to a receiver.
It is marked by manipulation, exaggeration and deception (one-sided argument) as its purpose
(Solomon, 1998: 9). Accuracy, ethics and truth are not seen as an essential factor in this model
only shameful deception was related to the assertion public relation to achieve its goal (Solomon,
1998:10). Under this model, there is little or no concern for research.

2.7.2 Public Information Model

It is an early form of one way communication designed not necessarily to persuade the public but
rather to inform them. However, unlike the press a gentry/publicity model, it disseminates truthful
and accurate information. Both this and the press a gentry‟s model have been linked to the
common notion of public relations as propaganda (Seitel, 2011: 81). Messages send from the
sender to the receivers with no regard for response or feedback from the receiver. AS Ojomo W.,
(2006:41-42) stated, in this model” the public relations professional acts much like a typical
journalist or news reporter „in residence‟ in the organization and the information he or she
disseminates is relatively objective. Indeed, the purpose of public information here is the
dissemination of truthful information.” When we compared to the Press a-gentry model, the
public information model got a huge acceptance, as a result it became the dominant form of
public relations in many organizations (Solomon, 1998: 11). There was a slight change that came
up with public information model that change from deliberate deception to openness and reason.
As it is indicated by Solomon (1998: 10), this stage was identified as public relations practice
having a significant influence on public opinion that may have its own contribution to prevent
policy changes of social significance. During this time the principle of Lee which promotes telling
the truth is the best way to effective public relations was a widely accepted way of doing public
relations business. It was also a time when the first “public Bureau” was opened in Boston and
Washington in 1902 then followed by Lee‟s office of publicity (Solomon, 1998:10-11).
Government public relations are restricted to providing “information” rather than “publicity” and

31
to avoid practicing “Public relations”. Thus, even today, government agencies are essentially
limited to practicing the public information model (Grunig & Hunt, 1992: 37).

2.7.3 Two -way Asymmetric

Unlike the press a gentry and public information model, which promotes a one-way
communication system, the asymmetric model recognizes that communication is a two-way
approach between the sender and receiver. The trust of this model is scientific persuasion. It
uses research to establish the nature of the publics‟ attitude in order to develop a more effective
public relations campaign to reveal how best persuade the public towards the organization‟s
poi nt of view (Otubanjo, Amujo, and Melewar, 2010:3) Here, the idea of two ways
communication was introduced as a result of looking for a feedback, the purpose of seeking
feedback wasn‟t to change position that has been seized by an organization, and instead the
feedback was to be used to introduce another form of persuasion so that the audience would
accept the interest of the organization (Seitel, 2011: 81-82). This third model of public relation is
a period when some social science research such as opinion polling, random sampling and
organized feedbacks and the likes were introduced to the public relations practice. It was also a
period when an overseas mission of public relations was begun. The PR uses slogans which is
catchy by the official public relations that would persuade the public (Solomon, 1998: 13).
During this period, public relation scholar such as Barany‟s was advocating public relations
practitioners should strive for satisfying the public interest. He contributed valuable works such
as crystallizing public opinion (1923), the engineering of consent (1955) and propaganda,
(1955).Those materials have helped as references for the public relations practitioners in the areas
such as ethical values, attitudes and key interests of the people (Solomon, 1998: 13).

2.7.4 Two- way Symmetric

The two-way symmetrical model of public relations as described in Grunig‟s Excellence Theory
is focused primarily in making sure that decisions made by an organization are mutually
beneficial between itself and its audiences. The goal of Grunig‟s symmetrical communication
model is one that embraces negotiation between the organization and its publics, and one that also
fosters mutual understanding. The symmetrical model of communication is a democratic
framework for the PR practitioner to follow, and one that can both be effective or detrimental,
depending on the situation (Van Ruler, 2018 & Willacy, 2016). According to Willacy (2016)
32
“two-way symmetric model provides an organization with the tools and path needed to create a
strong company reputation built upon solid, long-lasting relationships, because both the
organization and its audiences are provided with a voice in processes and developing issues or
problems” (p.22). The two-way symmetrical model for communication maintains both the
organization‟s best interests and its audiences‟ best interests at the forefront in the most fair and
balanced way possible. Through the use of this model, both the organization and its audiences can
collaborate together to both grow and strengthen an overall organization, leading it to greater
success.

In this model, public relations practitioners serve as mediators between organizations and their
publics. Their goal is to achieve mutual understanding between organizations and their publics
(Charles, 2006& Singh p.5). According to Seitel (2011:82) the symmetric model advocates for
free and equal information flow between an organization and its publics based on mutual
understanding. Here the PR is a mediator between the organization and its publics striving always
at achieving mutual understanding rather than an adversarial relationship. The major advocate and
founder of this model James E. Grunig mentioned that it would be difficult to exactly identify
when this model came into being. However, he noted that those men who are considered to be
the founders of modern public relations Lee and Bernarys used to council their clients in a way
both the organization and the public mutually benefit from each other‟s interaction (Grunig, 1992:
286, Solomon, 1998: 15). According to Solomon, it is very important model to resolve conflict or
disagreement within the organization and/or between an organization and its publics.

Following the Second World War professionalism in public relations has begun to take shape as
public relations offices flourished almost everywhere. The emergence of professionalism, the
demand for further refinement and expansion of professionalism together with consolidation of
research work in quality and quantity as well as public relations education, created conducive
environment for the popularization of the symmetric model of public relations (Grunig, 1992:
289, Seitel, 2011: 85). According to Solomon (1998) “public relations is the communication and
interpretation of information to the publics of an institution; the communication and interpretation
of the information, ideas and opinion from those publics to the institution in an effect to bring the
two into harmonious adjustment” (p.15).

33
According to Grunig it has proved that the symmetric model can benefit the target audience as
much as the organization. Although research supports the idea that the two ways symmetrical
model makes public relations more ethical, senior managers of organizations who are oriented to
the bottom-line also want to know whether it pays for their organizations to be ethical. Several
studies have shown the ineffectiveness of the press a gentry, public information, and two- way
asymmetrical models (Grunig, 1992: 308). This research is conducted based on two way
symmetric public relations model, where public relations departments give equal chance to the
interest of the public as that of the organization/corporation. The two-way symmetry model of
public relations is the most progressive and ideally the one that might serve the interest of publics,
an organization.

34
 CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

Chapter three is about research methodology which includes research design, source of data,
sampling techniques and procedure, data collection procedures and tools, methods of data
analysis and ethical considerations.

3.1 Research Design

The application of appropriate methodology is crucial to achieve the overall objectives of a

particular study thereby addressing the research questions raised by the research. This study
aimed at examining the internal communication strategies and practices of public relations in
Ethiopian Sugar Corporation. Accordingly, mixed methods are appropriate for assessing the
internal communication strategies and practices of PRs in ESC Study. Here, Creswell (2003)
listed the importance of mixed methods below.

Mixed methods model has much strength. A researcher is able to collect the two types
of data simultaneously, during a single data collection phase. It provides a study with
the advantages of both quantitative and qualitative data. In addition, by using the two
different methods in this fashion, a researcher can gain perspectives from the different
types of data or from different levels within the study (p. 25).

Thus, it employed a questionnaire, interview and PRs document analysis pertinent to Ethiopian
Sugar Corporation. It is conducted based on two- way symmetric public relations model, where
public relation communication department gives equal emphasis to the interest of the public as
that of the corporation (Grunig, 1984, Charles, 2006& Singh, 2014:5).

As Wimmer and Dominick (2006) put it qualitative techniques can increase a research‟s depth of
understanding of the phenomenon under investigation. Berg (2001) believes that utilizing
qualitative technique enables researchers to search for how people structure and give meaning to
their daily lives by sharing in their understandings and perceptions. He further notes that
researchers using qualitative techniques examine how people learn about and make sense of them.

35
Document analysis employed as a major research design for this research. According to Wimmer
and Dominick (2010) document analysis is an efficient way to investigate the content of a certain
PRs levels and others. The ESC communication crisis communication, communication strategies,
communication channels , daily, weekly, monthly, yearly … documents were used for this study.
„Document analysis is often used in combination with other qualitative research methods as a
means of triangulation „the combination of methodologies in the study of the same phenomenon‟
(Denzin, 1970, p. 291 as cited in Bowen, 2009: 28). By triangulating data, the researcher attempts
to provide „a confluence of evidence that breeds credibility‟ (Eisner, 1991: 110). By examining
information collected through different methods, the researcher can corroborate findings across
data sets and thus reduce the impact of potential biases that can exist in a single study.

Interview is conducted to get their insight on the issue at hand. In depth-interviews are aiming at
exploring a respondent‟s point of view, experiences, feelings, values and perspectives. Thus, the
corporation communication PRs practitioners were part of this interview. According to Dawson
(2002) semi structured interviews are very common and important to compare and contrast with
information gained in other interviews (p.28-29). The researcher also remains flexible to raise
important information with clear elaborations.

According to Creswell (2003), questionnaire provides a quantitative or numeric description of

trends, attitudes, or opinions of a population by studying a sample of that population. From
sample results, I generalize or make claims about the population. Among the two types of survey
which are cross sectional and longitudinal survey the researchers used cross sectional one. Cross-
sectional study is aimed at determining the frequency (or level) of a particular attribute, such as a
specific exposure, satisfaction or any other service-related event, in a defined population at a
particular point in time. Independent and dependent variables are measured at the same point in
time using a single questionnaire. Thus, Questionnaires were distributed to selected ESC
employees so that they can give their reflections on how public relation is practiced in their
respective corporation. The information that obtained through questionnaires had also helped to
find out what internal communication strategies, and challenges existed in the practice of public
relations and also in practicing it as a practitioner.

Peshkin (as cited in Leedy and Ormrod, 2005) pointed out that qualitative research serves one or
more of the following purposes: reveal the nature of certain situations, settings, processes,

36
relationships, systems, or people-description; test validity of certain assumptions, claims theories
or generalizations with in a real world contexts- verification; judge the effectiveness of particular
policies, practices or innovations-evaluation; and gain new insights about particular phenomenon,
develop new concepts or theoretical perspectives about a phenomenon or/and discover the
problems in the phenomenon- interpretation. Quantitative research deals with data in the form of
numbers and uses mathematical operations to investigate their properties (Walliman, 2011). The
levels of measurement used in the collection of the data i.e. nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio are
an important factor in choosing the type of analysis that is applicable, as is the numbers of cases
involved. In most quantitative studies, we want to see how many cases of a population fall into
various categories of interest (Neuman, 2014).

Many researchers tend to use mixed-method approaches to achieve broader and often better
results a method referred to as “Triangulation” (Dawson, 2002: 20). Discussing the necessity of
triangulation, and said that the “weaknesses in each single method will be compensated by
counter-balancing strengths of another”. This clearly shows how the use of mixed methods helps
this research to make a credible conclusion (Creswell, p.237-239). Though, mixing quantitative
and qualitative data in a single study (or a program of study), with the inclusion of multiple
methods of data and multiple forms of analysis, the complexity of these design calls for more
explicit procedures. These procedures also developed in part to meet the need to help researchers
create understandable designs out of complex data and analyses (Creswell, 2003:23-24).

3.2 Sources of Data

Both primary and secondary sources of data are used for this study. Ajayi (2017:3) distinguished
and listed primary and secondary data and its effect. Based on this, Primary data was collected
using semi-structured interview questions and questionnaire which contained a mixture of closed
ended and open-ended questions based on public relations literatures. And secondary data was
collected from different documents of Ethiopian Sugar Corporation, different books, journals,
articles, previous studies and Internet. The corporate communication executive officer and PRs
practitioners were part of the interview. The actual data collection was made by using a self-
administered questionnaire. The researchers distributed at the working time and collected
questionnaires the following days. By considering that all of the respondents are educated, the
entire questionnaires were prepared in English. Moreover, participants of the study were informed

37
about the objective of the study and they were also be notified of about the confidentiality of their
response.

3.3 Sampling Techniques and Procedures

Based on the information collected from Ethiopian Sugar Corporation/HR there are 350
employees and 4 PRs practitioners till this paper has done which were target population of my
study. The study uses non-probability sampling techniques which are purposive & convenience
that are used to select the respondents from Ethiopian Sugar Corporation. Participating and giving
experienced employees gives fruit full information. Basically the researchers consider it is better
of getting information from experienced individuals in the corporation than the early emerged
ones in order to have more reliable and rational data. Because of large number of the total
population, convenience-sampling technique was used to select the sample respondents.
Although, non-probability sampling has problems related to selection bias, in small inquiries and
researches by individuals, the sampling technique can be adopted and can be done wisely
(Kothari, 2004).

The data source came from Ethiopian Sugar Corporation. Thus, documents that were written in
public relation with in this year were purposely selected and analyzed. Corporate public relation
communication director and public relation practitioners were interviewed with the aim of finding
out their reflection on matters related to this research topic. As stated in the above section, for my
questionnaire, I used convenience sampling method to select sampled respondents from the total
population. Therefore, out of the total population I took sample size of 20% individuals that have
a better experience in the organization and also who were willing to participate in my study. In
the case of non-probability sampling, the choice of sample size is determined by the insight,
judgment, experience or financial resource of the researchers (Kothari, 2004). Thus, the
researcher considered available fund and time, sample size and own judgment to determine the
sample size.

3.3.1 Purposive sampling

Singh (2006) stated that “purposive sampling is selected by some arbitrary method because it is
known to be representative of the total population, or it is known that it will produce well
matched groups. The idea is to pick out the sample in relation to some criterion, which is

38
considered important for the particular study” (p.100) Purposive sampling helps to use best
available knowledge and better control of significant variables. Purposive sampling gives a
researcher an advantage to create smooth relationship between the information seeker and
provider. Maxwell (1996) also stated purposive sampling is a strategy in which particular settings,
persons or events are selected deliberately in order to provide important information that cannot
be obtained from other choices. It is where the researcher includes cases or participants in the
sample because they believe that they warrant inclusion (Taherdoost, 2016). Based on this, in
depth interview was targeted to obtain relevant information about the internal communication
strategies and practices of public relations in Ethiopia Sugar Corporation. It was freely discussed
on the PRs tools/channels, practices of PRs in the corporation, internal communication strategies,
and professionalization: educational level and field of study. The information was gathered
strategically & the documents were selected purposely to triangulate the interview, documents
and the questionnaire.

3.4. Data Collection Procedure and Tools

3.4.1 Data Collection Procedures

My study data source came from the Ethiopia sugar corporation employees, PRs practitioners and
documents. Thus, documents that were written in public relations were analyzed and corporate
public relations communication director and PRs practitioners were interviewed. Similarly,
questionnaires were distributed to the ESC selected employees.

3.4.2 Data Collection Tools

3.4.2.1 Document Analysis

One of the objectives of this study is to examine internal communication strategies and practices
of public relations in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation. Based on the research objectives, documents
that are subjects of analysis were collected from already identified Ethiopia Sugar Corporation
communication offices. Looking the documents helps to see the type of internal communication
tools/channels and internal communication strategies, the practice of public relations, directions
and types of communication. In this regard brochures, communication strategic plans, photos,
crisis communication, press kits, e-mails, banners, event data etc. were purposely selected and
clearly scrutinized.

39
 3.4.2.2 Questionnaire

Dawson (2002) listed the three types of questionnaire and its uses. In this research I used
combined questionnaire: closed –ended questionnaire with boxes or tables to tick, scale or rank,
and open ended questions for more detailed responses (p.30-32). This clearly helps to gather
factual and relevant data from the respondents. The closed ended questions were designed to get
definite answers and were used for simplicity. Open ended questions were aimed to get
organizational objective, mission and vision, the major practices of PRs practitioners, the internal
communication channels, the best internal communication strategies of PRs, and suggested
recommendations of employees to enhance internal communications and practices of public
relations.

The scale of measurement for the study is interval scale. An interval scale of measurement is
based on ordered interval that are of equal length and the zero value is arbitrary. Five points
Likert scale are used which include weights for Agreement: 1= strongly agree 2= agree 3=
Neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree.

3.4.2.3 Interview

One of the techniques used in this research is in-depth individual interview. “Semi-structured in-
depth-interview is the most common type of interview in qualitative research” (Dawson,2002: 28-
29). Few prelisted questions were used as a guide of interview to the pertinent points and not to
forget important information about the research questions. Semi structured interview is pretty
much effective in reading the interviewee face, gestures and to get original information through
hints. Though, open ended interview questions allow large amount of discussion and dialogue
between the interviewer and the interviewee. According to Deacon et. al. (1999) Semi-structured
interview questions guide helps to guarantee consistency between the research objectives and the
data gathered.

Semi-structured interviewing abandons concerns with standardization and control

seeks to promote an active open-ended dialogue… The interviewer controls the
discussion by referring to an interview guide that sets out the issues to be covered
during the exchange (p.65).

40
Thus, the interview data were recorded (in audio) in order to avoid interruption of the discussion
and to preserve the discussions more perfectly; basic notes were also taken in the meantime. In
addition Bryman (2004) also makes the following statement while discussing the advantages of
semi-structured interview.

Semi-structured interview covers a wide range of types. It typically refers to a context

in which the interviewer has a series of questions that are in the general form of
interview guide but is able to vary the sequence of questions. The questions are
frequently somewhat more general in their frame of reference from that typically
found in a structured interview schedule (p.543).

3.5 Methods of Data Analysis

The documents and interview results were analyzed qualitatively with simple sentence structures.
It also compiled the same data together to understand easily. The data that were gained from the
questionnaires were analyzed and interpreted using statistical package for social science (SPSS)
version 24. As a result, descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted by employing
different methods.

3.6. Ethical Consideration

The study is ethically clear from Addis Ababa University School of Journalism: Department of
Public Relations and Strategic Communication. The researcher used the data from Ethiopian
Sugar Corporation Communication department head, team leaders and practitioners, and
employees which were collected through document analysis, interviews and questionnaire;
permission was obtained from each. To maintain the confidentiality of the information provided
by the respondents, the respondents were instructed not to write their names on the questionnaire
and assured of that the responses were used only for academic purpose and kept confidential.
Finally, respondents were included in the study based on their free will.

41
 CHAPTER FOUR

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS OF FINDINGS

Introduction
This chapter of the study concerned on the analysis and interpretation of data collected through
interview, document analysis and questionnaires. The interview was made with the public
relations practitioners of Ethiopian Sugar Corporation. Document analysis was one of the data
collection tool used during my research. The communication strategy, crisis communication,
internal communication channels which are printed/aired by the corporate communication (PRs)
were part of the finding. The document includes the corporation and projects new activities, up
dated data, the corporation communication structure, new strategic plans, communication policy,
duties and responsibilities, accountability and transparency of the practitioners and employees. In
general these different documents published/aired in different times and distributed for the public,
stakeholders, and employees. The communication PRs practitioners informed me their
experiences in data collection unreturned; though, to minimize unreturned, 130 questionnaires
were distributed and the target 72 were collected from experts, officers, and different position
employees of Ethiopian Sugar Corporation.
As I have stated in chapter three, in this chapter I analyzed and interpreted the documents,
interviews and questionnaires i.e. the communication strategies, practices of public relations,
communication channels, types of communication they used and the direction of communications
based on the research questions and objectives. The response from the respondent analyzed and
interpreted based on the research questions and review of related literature by the researcher in
mixed approaches and discussed below briefly. Please consider that gender, age, work position,
educational level and work experience are not part of the study.

42
 Demographic Condition of Respondents

Gender

90 80.6
80
70 58
60
Male
50
40 Female
30 19.4
14
20
10
0
Gender percent

Graph I: gender of employees

Age

41-50
29% above 50
17%

31-40 20-30
37% 17%

Graph II: age of employees

43
 Level of Education

50 48
45
40
35
30
25 22
20
15
10
5 1 1
0
Diploma 1st degree 2nd degree Phd

Graph III: educational level of employees

Work position of respondents in the organization

30

25

20

15

10

Graph IV: work position of employees in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation

44
Graph V: years of work experience of employees

4.1. Communication Strategies of PRs in ESC

The main objective of this study, as previously stated, is to examine the internal communication
strategies and practices of public relations in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation. Therefore, the
researcher conducted an interview with four (all) public relation practitioners who have different
work experiences under public relations: collected available documents and questionnaires from
different work position of employees. The following analysis and interpretations are based on the
research questions and reviews of literature.

The first public relations communication strategy and profile of the corporation was prepared by
Public relation practitioner Ato Reta in 2012 (PRs deputy executive officer, 2019) and it was
served for some years. As he noted, at that time he prepared it in Amharic and English versions.
The new public relations communication strategy of Ethiopian Sugar Corporation (2009-2012

45
E.C) published in April 2009 e.c, listed five main points of the strategies (p1-2). It includes the
internal and external communication strategies, media relations, communication channels, public
relation practices and budgets; it was prepared by the communication department and discussed
by different managerial levels (PRs executive officer, 2019). However, the employees response
showed that they were not discussed the communication strategy with the public relations
practitioners. The document shows that the corporate communication has its own mission and
vision statement in the first pages. According to the questionnaire result 97.2% of the employees
understand the mission and vision of the corporation communication and only 2.8% employees
couldn‟t understand it properly.

Based on the interview and questionnaire result Ethiopian Sugar Corporation employees have
both formal and informal communications with the employees, experts, officers, board members
and committees.

Types of communication used in ESC in %

formal
formal &informal
communication
communication
44.4%
46%

informal
communication
45.8%

Graph VI: Types of communication used in ESC

The corporation employees used formal communication like formal letters with reference
numbers, minutes and formal discussions etc. However, they also used informal communication
channels according to the strength and weight of the information/work (PRs team leader, 2019
and documents). He, as example, noted that” when my signature is very important and if I were in

46
field, we can discuss in phone and the work continues then I will sign after I come back to office.”
Different minutes with different issues of information are available in the document. For example,
April 23-25 meeting minutes of employees about privatization of industries and their consensus
with the top managers and public relations are available in the communication department. Even
though, 46% of employees agreed on both formal and informal communications of the
corporation, sometimes informal communication has its own disadvantages. For example, in the
past some years grapevine created crisis of the corporation in burning of the sugarcane fields and
death of employees (PRs deputy executive officer, 2019). According to the employee response,
among many grapevine crisis PRs proactively solved only 33.4% and the rest 29.1% PRs reacts
on. The PRs executive officer said that” even though we are communicating each other in
different levels, we are not always following formal procedures, according to the information
weight we might discuss informally and changed in to formal stages.” PRs Deputy executive
officer, and team leader also agreed with the executive officer‟s idea. They convinced me that if
we follow procedures emergencies may not get weight and it might hurt the organization, so we
are working proactively friendly and effectively (PRs media relation team leader, 2019). The PRs
team leader also believed the wisely uses of both formal and informal procedures of
communication with employees to create interactive work environment that helps to share the
responsibility fully.

The employee response in below graph shows that, Ethiopian Sugar Corporation employees have
best interpersonal communication, better public communication and good group communication
of each other‟s. This data show that group communication of the employees needs due attention
and revised strategic communication channels.

47
 37.5
mass/public communication
27

26.4
group communication percent
19 respondent

65.2
Interpersonal conmmunication
47

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Graph VII: ESC employee communication

The organizational communication of the corporation, according to the respondents‟ response, is

hierarchical and well mannered. 45.8% of them believed the effectiveness of the communication
hierarchy whether it is formal or informal communication: in addition, 40.2% of the employees,
and all public relations practitioners stated that the hierarchy of communication is wisely used and
managed. The research data show that this is due to the attractive and interactive communication
of the managers, experts, officers and public relations practitioners to the employees and the
smooth interpersonal relationship of each other‟s. However, 26.3% of the employees believed the
corporation communication is not hierarchical and 33.3% of the employees don‟t understand even
the communication style of the corporation and its effectiveness. These 33.3% employees are
looking the corporation communication hierarchy neutrally. This clearly indicates that there is
„AH‟ moment of 33.3% employees to decide about their organization communication hierarchy
and this is positive to decide rationally after their looking.

48
Table 1: Communication hierarchy of Ethiopian Sugar Corporation

Communication of Ethiopian Sugar Corporation is hierarchical

frequency percent frequency percent

yes 33 45.8 Agree 29 40.2

no 15 20.8 neutral 24 33.3

I have no idea 24 33.3 disagree 19 26.3

4.2 Practices of Public Relations in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation

The corporate PRs executive officer of Ethiopian Sugar Corporation explained that PRs is
member of the management since 2012. Recently, the management and the CEO have positive
attitude towards public relations, and employees are very co-operative (PRs DEO, 2019). The
documents result of different event photo graphs, mini-media documented files, minutes,
outlooks, e-videos and letters showed that public relations practitioners aggressively aware of
communication/PRs practices in different times to the employees. This indicated that employees
and ESC officials understand the significance of public relations in their organization and have
mutual understanding and two-way symmetric communications. According to (PRs team leader,
2019) after the new manager of the corporation and PM Abiy Ahmed comes to power, they all in
all accepted and agreed in internal communication hierarchies in different discussions and
meetings in the corporation.

In contrary, according to PRs EO (2019), even if the Corporate Communication is the member of
the management, due to the corporation deficit, public relations and communication department
couldn‟t influence the management in different issues. For example the Corporate
Communication Department of Ethiopian Sugar Corporation couldn‟t influence the management
to allocate budget for relevant equipment (machine), for advanced trainings, for updating and
upgrading professionals. Because, professional continuous horizontal and vertical training helps
to develop skills, know ledges, attitudes, performance and different aspects that help practitioners
to achieve their mission. In the other side the communication DEO stated that” sometimes we are

49
the mouth piece of the management, we are not allowed to work investigative communications
even in the corporations and industrial sites.” Apparently, as he stated the management needs only
the positives of the corporation to be told for the employees.
According to all interviewee all the employees have positive attitude towards public relations and
communication department. However, the questionnaires result shows that 37.5% of the
employees help public relation practitioners by giving immediate response of PRs questions (i.e.
data, information, minute), sharing experiences and 27.8% respondents don‟t support the PRs
practitioners. The other 34.7% of the respondents are neither supporting nor discouraging the
practice of public relations, they are neutral. This shows that further training has to be given for
the employees to be part of public relation practitioners practice. Public relation practitioners also
have to research why these employees are not supporting them.

It‟s very real that public relation is profession and it is a professional practice. All 83.3% of the
employees and all of the interviewees of public relation practitioners believed on it. Regarding
practicing professional public relations in the organization, the interviewee‟s response is more or
less similar; all of them stated that they haven‟t qualified public relations and strategic
communications profession/education from well-known institutions. However, they have related
field of studies like Journalism and Communication, and Foreign Language in BA/MA
qualifications. But they have work experiences of journalism and public relations in various
government organizations and institutions. Regarding this, the communication EO said, “I have
nine years of experiences in media and six years‟ experience in public relations and I have been
working in ESC since 2017. So, I think that I am professional in the field because my
qualification is Journalism and Communication with experiences.” The communication DEO also
added that” even though I haven‟t learned PRs, I have 26 years of experience in journalism, and
public relation practices. This helped me to be professional public relation practitioner of the
corporation. I have got experience in different years with different PRs staffs starting from 2010
after I became ESC PRs practitioner.” The above statements show that all of the public relation
practitioners are practicing public relations through experience. Though, this is an opportunity to
ESC PRs practitioners to support their practices by formal professional training and education to
enhance their knowledge and skill to achieve the objective expected from PRs practitioners.

50
Even though, public relations have its own professional practices in the assigned organization,
50% of the corporation employees agreed that ESC communication department don‟t have
qualified knowledge and skill of the profession. The research also showed the degree of emphasis
given to public relations practice and practicing in relation to strategic communications is
medium, 52.8% and 47.2% respectively. The employees understanding towards the profession
relation to strategic communication and two-way symmetric communication clearly shows the
acceptance of public relations practice in the corporation. Based on the documents, interviews and
questionnaires result advisory and counseling role of the management, giving training (i.e. about
using the new media, giving information to media out lets, solving communication gaps among
each other …), preparing different events and exhibitions, research, strategic planning, giving
directions for the regional PRs, giving answers on website questions, writing different
information and editing, translation, crisis communication and corporate counseling are the major
practices listed especially by the interviewee and employees. According to the interview result,
all of the PRs practitioners have their own practices in the corporation and finally they decide
together to implement and announce for the public.

Table 2: research and independence of public relation practitioners

PRs practitioners carry out research for the smooth Public relation practitioners are
relationship of communication in the organization independent from influence

No. of Percent No. of percent

respondents respondent

Strongly agree 1 1.4 19.5 1 1.4 12.5%

Agree 13 18.1 8 11.1

Neutral 28 38.9 41 56.9

Disagree 22 30.6 41.7 18 25 30.6%

Strongly 8 11.1 4 5.6

disagree

51
In relation to research, the communication EO stated that “research is one of our practices and
once it was done by the PRs department to assess the best internal communication strategies and
channels and based on our finding we left print channels and use outlooks and electronics.” After
wards, as he stated they use outlooks as best communication channels of employees and PRs
practitioners. But I haven‟t seen enough research documents done by PRs practitioners in their
documents and websites: 41.7% employees also agreed with few/no research is done by the PRs
practitioners. The documents and questionnaires result shows that PRs practitioners had
limitations in conducting research as a tool of problem solving and smooth relationships of
communication in the organization.

4.2.1 Crisis Communication

Ethiopian Sugar Corporation Communication has crisis communication; however, it is not

proactively applied as they replied. DEO of the corporate communication listed the burning of
sugar cane fields as examples and death of employees in different years in different factories.

According to the ESC PRs practitioners‟ interview, evidence documents and questionnaire results,
they have two-way symmetric communication strategies among employees. According to the
interviewee the strategic communication listed the communication channels and its use in detail.
It shows that these channels helped them to solve communication problems and crisis among each
other. “We aggressively use outlook for each of the employees except drivers, and we give phone
calls for them: because drivers are always in ride and couldn‟t see outlooks and respond
immediately” (Communication team leader, 2019). The corporate communication EO and DEO
shared me their experience of problem solving in the organization with a threat of privatization of
the organization. Investment opportunities in Ethiopian Sugar Industries, April 2019 stated all the
information of the sugar industries in Ethiopia with its details. It also stated about privatization of
the industries to the employees (p9). As soon as they heard the rumors of the employees towards
privatization, the managers and PRs practitioners called for a meeting of employees. They said,”
we called the employees for a half day meeting and aware the issue in detail and discussed until
we come up with agreement. This helped employees to work freely without threat in the
corporation in their work position.” Hence, 44.5% of the respondents have interactive
communication with the public relations practitioners, and 48.6% have positive strong interaction.
Similarly, 59.8% respondents have interactive communication with managerial. This interactive

52
communication shows mutual understanding of employees and trust among one other that helped
highly for the achievement of the organization mission.
Among practices of public relations, training and experience sharing is one of them. Regarding
training and experience sharing, all of the respondents have similar answers. The communication
media relation team leader said “I haven‟t got any training prepared by ESC, but only once I
participated one month training by the Ethiopian Communication invitation. However, obviously
we share experiences from different PRs practitioners in different organizations informally.”
Their cause is budget allocation of the corporation to the public relations department due to the
corporation deficit. Nevertheless, the Communication EO stated” twice in a year we share
experiences with all public relation practitioners of the corporation in different industry zones but
sometimes it might be once in a year due to many reasons.” Apparently, public relation is a
profession and professional practice: however; the practitioners are working with experiences and
even couldn‟t get professional training. In addition, 65.3% of the employees aggressively stated
that PRs practitioners couldn‟t get training and they aren‟t train us in various issues. This clearly
hurts the organization internal communication and practices public relations.

One of the problems now a day is the new media. However, it is not the problem in ESC.
According to the corporate communication media relation team leader the corporation has its
official media out lets and they use it effectively and genuinely by updating all necessary
information ultimately. The official face book and e-mail website are full of information and also
they add phone numbers for further information. The Communication DEO said that “we work
together with the IT department to manage the new media: now we have 12,000 likes in our face
book and we can communicate easily with our followers. However, if issue, topic or crisis
happens we have crisis communication to solve the problem with the help of the government rule
and regulations.” 41.7% of the employees believed the effective strategy of public relations
practitioners towards using and managing the new media especially face book. This indicates
effective communication and mutual understanding of public relations practitioners and
employees with the new media out lets.

53
 4.2.2 Communication Channels

80 76.4
68.1
70
60 55
50 49
50
40 36
frequency
30 percent
20
10
0
electronic face-to-face communication
communication communication in print

Graph VIII: Communication channels

As we have seen above, the internal communication channel of Ethiopian Sugar Corporation has
electronic, face to face and print availabilities. Similar to the above employees‟ response, the
result of public relations practitioners‟ interview also showed similar figures. PRs practitioners
said that” We effectively use internal communication channels: especially; outlook is our first
hand communication channel that we daily used accordingly‟‟. According to the interviewee, they
exchange information in outlook with all employees except drivers effectively. However, they
also use face to face communication, mini media, billboard, notice board, articles, telephone calls,
personal e-mails, notice boards, journals, brochures, fliers, different events, letters, face book,
exhibitions and different meetings according to the issue. The communication strategy of ESC
(2009-2012 E.C) listed the channels in table with its detail descriptions of two-way symmetric
communication and public relation practices (p22-23). Near the main gate next to the cafe they
use mini media that have audio and video to inform the corporation information; it works with the
available information in all working days. The information is uploaded Friday and Monday,
however, if there is immediate information they upload any time and open for the employees
(Communication EO, 2019).

54
The documents indicated that they update information in their official face book web sites
www.ethiopiansugar.com and e-mail: info@ethiopiansugar.com. In each of the department
including the guards and drivers they do have telephones/mobiles that they use for
communication of information accordingly. 01155227475 is their major communication line of
the corporate communication department from anywhere (Communication media relation team
leader, 2019). Journals also used as a communication and information channel but they don‟t have
e-journals. Different event and exhibition photo graphs are also posted in the billboard. Various e-
videos are documented in the media room with its year, month, and date. Brochures, fliers,
communication strategies, photos and news letters are found in the corporation library openly to
the employees to read and comment every time. The Communication DEO and media relation
team leader also stated that” soon in the coming year we plan to have special events of employees
especially surprising like when they get married, graduated from university, birth days of elders
and thank you programs for retired ones. They added that we will prepare a gift cards signed by
the CEO and special employees and will give for our workaholic employee”. The research finding
shows that these channels clearly increase the employee‟s intrapersonal, interpersonal, group,
mass and public communication/interaction of Ethiopian Sugar Corporation employees.
According to the interviewee, by using these listed channels they update the corporation
information to the employees and 37.5% employees immediately see the information and gives
feedback. It‟s clear that practitioners get support from employees that enhance their practice and
interaction. In other words the smooth relationship of employees and public relations practitioners
strengthens the public relation practices and increases the achievement of the organization
objectives.

55
 CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter tries to deal with brief conclusions and recommendations of the research topic. As a
result, the first issue to be discussed here would be the conclusions of the interviews, content
analysis and response of employees. Possible recommendations are also recommended based on
the research findings that could help to minimize the problems and sustain the strengths of
Ethiopian Sugar Corporation internal communication strategies and practices of public relations.

5.1 Conclusions
The whole attempt of this research is to examine internal communication strategies and practices
of public relations in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation. In order to answer the research questions and
achieve the objectives, the study employed qualitative and quantitative research approaches. In
this regard, relevant Ethiopian Sugar Corporation public relations documents were analyzed,
questionnaires with employees were collected and interviews with public relation practitioners
was conducted. Based on the findings obtained from the research, the following conclusions are
drawn:

The research shows that Ethiopian Sugar Corporation Communication has its own public relations
communication strategy with 25 pages, and crisis communication. It was prepared in April 2017.
The strategic communication was prepared by Public Relations and Communication Practitioners
of the corporation and discussed by different managerial levels. It included the communication
strategies, media relations, communication channels and interaction with the internal and external
publics, follow up and feedback strategies, training and experience sharing programs, research
activities and the total interactions with different stakeholders. Even though public relations have
a strategic communication, it is not prepared by the right public relations professional practitioner.
Regarding crisis communication, ESC public relations practitioners sometimes couldn‟t
proactively solve the corporation employee‟s problems due to budget deficits: the burning of the
sugar cane fields and death of employees are listed as examples.

The practitioners have BA and or MA qualifications with related fields. They have learned
English as a foreign language and Journalism &Communication which are not the right public

56
relations and strategic communication education. As the interview and employees response
shows, ESC public relation practitioners are working by experience. However, supporting
practitioners by different professional training, sharing of experience, giving horizontal and
vertical education of public relations, doubles the practitioners‟ skill and knowledge towards their
profession. Though, professionalizing public relations practitioners (as 4.2 para4) is an important
matter in order to achieve the objective expected out of public relations practitioners.

The Ethiopian Sugar Corporation, NGOs, universities, colleges, institutions, government and
concerned bodies couldn‟t give the PRs practitioners training to update and upgrade themselves.
According to the interview result, they themselves share experience with other co-workers and
formal horizontal or vertical training was not given for the practitioners due to the corporation
deficit. It shows the attention of concerned bodies towards public relation profession. In the other
hand, there is no public relation association in the country that additionally pains the practice of
public relations profession and guarantees the practitioners.

According to the research finding, employees have formal and informal communications with
different managerial levels, experts, officers, practitioners and among themselves: it shows the
wisely interaction and communication of each other. They have effective internal communication
and: as graph VII shows employees and PRs practitioners have best interpersonal communication
and interaction among one another. The electronic-internal communication channels are pretty
much effective & interactive than others. I conclude that outlook is their best communication
channel.

According to the finding a relatively attention and emphasis is given to public relations practice
after the new manager comes to power, and employees believe in the practice of public relations
practitioners. The interview result shows, ESC public relation is member of the management since
2012. Recently, the management and the CEO have positive attitude towards public relations and
its practice. Based on the finding, even though employees positively view the significance of
public relations practices, they don‟t fully support them (4.2 para3).

According to the interview and employees response, PRs practice is not fully independent from
external bodies and it affects its practice (table 2). The current available documents on public
relations practice are more of organized and well balanced with the employee‟s responses except

57
doing research. Independent and effective public relations demands research work. Even if, the
communication strategy listed research and its importance, the interview conducted with public
relations practitioners, contents and the response of employees clearly indicated the fact that the
practice of public relations in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation has limitations of proper public
relations research. Research is one of the most important items in the practice of public relations
to do activities proactively. However, as ESC public relations practitioners are not fully
independent, it limited their practice in research and investigative communication activities.

In general, I can say that they have communication strategy and crisis communication with
limited elaborations, the internal electronic communication channels are pretty much effective
than prints and face-to-face communications, employees have best interpersonal communication
with PRs practitioners : the practitioners couldn‟t get horizontal and vertical professional training
that helps their profession, practitioners are not fully independent, no professional association is
found in Ethiopia that guarantees PRs practitioners, they have budget shortages and these all
affect public relations practices to practice effectively.

5. 2 Recommendations

Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are forwarded:

1. Communication strategy is the back bone or the where of public relations practices. It also
includes all the practices of public relations, media relations, audiences, communication
channels/tools, training programs, research …as I have listed above. I suggest, the
communication strategy should be prepared by public relations professionals and or experts.
Communication Strategies ought to prepare based on the vision and mission of the
organization with elaborations to be understood by other un participated employees.
2. Strategic communication guides, manages and advises the types and directions of
communication of employees. The types and directions of communication should be wisely
used and managed by practitioners and employees. Especially, group communication and
lateral communication needs due attention and improvement.
3. Employees have good habits to communicate with out looks. However, due to electric power
and language barriers they may miss timely information, response or feedbacks. Though,
Communication channel of the corporation shouldn‟t dependent on outlooks and electronics.

58
4. ESC public relations practitioners sometimes couldn‟t proactively solve the corporation
employee‟s problems due to budget deficits: however, recently, public relations practitioners
solve the rumors of employees about privatization threats of sugar industries proactively.
Though, it is better to revise the crisis communication & it should be prepared strategically
and wisely to solve crisis proactively with sufficient budget allocations.
5. Ethiopian Sugar Corporation public relations practitioners have learned foreign language, and
Journalism and Communications. They have experiences in practicing public relations in
different institutions. However, they couldn‟t get professional training and experience sharing
in public relations profession. Thus, the development of professional practitioner in the
practice of public relations should be given due attention by the corporation, government and
or concerned bodies.
6. Transforming the practice of public relations more than anything demands strengthening the
value of organizations. To increase the value of the profession & professionals, various public
relations programs in higher learning institutions at different levels should be open, give
scholars for those budget shortage organizations with/without cost sharing.
7. Till the completion of this paper there is no public relations professional association in
Ethiopia. Public relations professional association must be found in Ethiopia and help the
strength and guarantee of the profession and practitioners.
8. Developing the practice of public relations in Ethiopian Sugar Corporation requires research.
Even though, the communication strategy signifies the power of research, the corporate
communication has limitations. The Corporate Communication should give emphasis to
conduct applicable research.
9. Even though, the corporation employees view the significance of public relations, they don‟t
fully support the practitioners practice. It is due to shortage of training and experience sharing
among employees and public relations practitioners. Though, the corporate communication
practitioners should give dimensional training and share experiences to aware the practice of
public relations with employees. The corporation has to prepare various celebrations like
events (Well coming and departing of employees, surprising of employees because of their
great job for the corporation…) that increase their communication and intimacy.

59
10. Public relation practitioners are not fully independent in their practices in ESC. They offend
to do investigative communications with various stake holders. External bodies must give
freedom of public relations practitioners.

60
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aarti K. R and Aakanksha (2013, April- September). Effective internal communication: A way
towards sustainability. International journal of business and transformation

Adeel.A (2012). Ethical Communication in an Organization: Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan

Ajayi,O.V. (2017,Sep24). Distinguishing between primary sources of data and secondary sources
of data

Aldag, R. J., & Kuzuhara, L. W. (2002). Organizational behavior and management: Integrated
skills approach. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western.

Ali Adeel (2012). Ethical Communication in an Organization: Pakistan institute of engineering &
applied sciences, nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan

Amodeo and Wentworth (1995). What is interpersonal communication? Self – revealing

communication: A vital bridge between two worlds, Romania

Amujo, O. C. & Melewar, T. C. (2011). Contemporary challenges impacting on the practice of

public relations in Nigeria (1990-2011) PRism vol.8 no.1
http://www.prismjournal.org/homepage.html retrieved on 27/12/2009

Asegid (2019, May 16). Internal communication strategies and practices of public relations in
ESC (Getenet, interviewer)

Asgar M. (2012). Rethinking Convenience Sampling: Defining Quality Criteria: Islamic Azad
University, Ardabil Branch

Bahil (1994). Marketing public relations work. New Delhi: Raj Kamal electric press.

Baines, et.al. (2004). Public Relations, Contemporary Issues and Techniques

Banik (2004). Effective public relations in public and private sector.

Bartoo & Sias (2004). When enough is too much: Communication Apprehension and Employee
Information Experiences in Communication: Quarterly, Vol. 52, 2004, p.15-26

61
Belch, E. and Belch, M.A. (2007), Advertising and promotion: an Integrated marketing
communications perspective, 7th ed., McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York, NY.

Benita S. (2009). The Strategic Role of Public Relations Is Strategic Reflection: A South African
Research Stream

Bereket S. (2003, Jan). The Fate of Private Press and The Vision of The Government in Ethiopia,
Unpublished paper, presented at the Ghion Hotel, Addis Ababa for discussion.

Berg B.L. (2001). Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. (4th ed.), California Stole
University, Long Beach

Berlo, D.K. (1960). The process of communication: New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Beryman.A. (2004). Social research methods: (2ed.) Oxford University press.

Bowen (2009, August). Document analysis as a qualitative research method: Research gate, p28

Brun, J. P. (2010). Missing pieces: 7 ways to improve employee well-being and organizational
effectiveness. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Burnett, J. (1998). Introduction to marketing communications. USA: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Catherine D. (2002). Practical Research Methods 1st ed., How To Books Ltd, 3 New Tec place,
United Kingdom, Crown Press

Chalkley (n.d). Public Relations: Strategies and Tactics

Charles Onwunali (2006). Principle and practice of public relations: Lagos, Akoka

Cornelissen (2011). Corporate Communication a guide to Theory and Practice: Great Britain:
(3rd ed.) Sage publications Ltd.

Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods

Approaches. (2nd. ed.). London: Sage Publication.

Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative Inquiry Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches.
(2nd, ed.) London: Sage Publication.

62
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods
Approaches. (3rd. ed.). United Kingdom

Culver (2012, June19). Writing a communications strategy: Oxford University

Cutlip, S M, Center, A H & Broom, G M (2000). Effective Public Relations, (8th ed.), Prentice

Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Daft, R.L. & Lengel, R.H. (1986). Organizational information requirements, media richness, and
structural design: Management Science, 32, 554-571.

Deacon, D. & et al. (1999). Researching Communication: A Practical Guide to Methods in Media
and Cultural Analysis. London: Arnold.

Dominick, R.D. (2011). Mass media research. (9th edn.).USA:LynUhl

Edmond. (2003). Public Relations Theory and Practice

Edwards (2009). Symbolic Power and Public relations Practice. Locally individual Practitioners
in their social context: Journal of Public relations Research

Ehondor.B. (2017, Feb.). Intrapersonal communication as a foundation for personal branding

Eisner, E. W. (1991). The enlightened eye: Qualitative inquiry and the enhancement of
educational practice. Toronto: Collier Macmillan Canada.

Elise Wach (2013). Learning about Qualitative Document Analysis

Erica W. & Bruce E. Pinkleton (2006). Strategic Public Relations Management Planning and
Managing Effective Communication Programs.(2nd ed.)

Fang, I.(1997). A history of mass communication. Newtown

Flick, U. (2005). An Introduction to Qualitative Research: London: Sage Publications

Gashaw A. (2019, May 15). Internal communication strategies and practices of public relations
in ESC (Getenet, interviewer)

63
Geremew C. (2017). The Practices and Challenges of Public Relations within Two Ethiopian
Towns: Harar and Dire Dawa, Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Getahun A. (2005). Public access to government information in Ethiopia: an assessment of public

information practice in selected government institutions

Gomez, L.F. (2017, March). Formal communication

Gregory, A. (2003). Public Relations in Practice

Grunig, J. E. (2001). Two-way symmetrical public relations: Past, present, and future. In R. L.

Grunig, J & Hunt, T (1984). Managing Public Relations: Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont,
California.

Grunig, J, and Grunig, L (1992). „Models of Public Relations and Communication‟, in Grunig
(ed), Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management, Erlbaum,
Hillsdale, New Jersey, 285–325.

Grunig, L. A., Grunig, J. E., & Dozier, D. M. (2002). Excellent in public relations and effective
organizations: A study of communication management in three countries. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Grunig, J, Grunig L, and Dozier. D ( 2006). The Excellence Theory, in C Botan & V Hazleton
(eds), Public Relations Theory II, Rout ledge, New York City, 21–62.

Grunig (2011). Public relations and strategic management: institutionalizing organization public
relations in contemporary society: University of Maryland, USA

Hallahan et.al (2007). Defining Strategic Communication

Halvor Nordby (2011). The nature and limits of interactive communication: A philosophical
analysis, University College of Lillehammer

Hamed Taherdoost (2016). Sampling Methods in Research Methodology: How to Choose a

Sampling Technique for Research

Harlow (1976). Building a public relations definition: public relations Review, vol. 2, no. 4.

64
Heerden, V., Rensburg (2005). Public relations roles: Empirically verified among public relation
Practitioners in Africa. Communicare 24 (1) - July 2005.

Hovland (2005). Successful communication: A toolkit for researchers and civil society
organizations. Retrieved from http://www.odi/resources/downloads/155.pdf,
on16/02/2019.

Ilker E. (2016). Comparison of Convenience Sampling and Purposive Sampling: Near East
University

Jesper F. & Mats Heide (2014). From Public Relations to Strategic Communication in Sweden:
The Emergence of a Trans boundary Field of Knowledge

Jethwaney, J. (2010). Corporate Communication: Principles and Practices. Oxford University

Press. (OUP, India)

Joanne Barnett (2006). How To…Draft a Public Relations Strategy

Johansson (eds). Strategic communication theory, Mid Sweden University

Johnny. (n.d). Organizational communication

Johnston, Kim A. & Everett, James. L (2015). Cultural influences on strategic communication:
The Routledge Handbook of Strategic Communication

Jossey (1998). Four methods that facilitate the transfer of learning (vol.25). 2nd ed.

Kalla, H.A. (2005). Integrated internal communications: a multidisciplinary perspective,

Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 302-14.

Karmos,A.H.(2005, April 9). Interpersonal communication skills: Communication and

interpersonal skills.

Kelly. et.al.(n.d). Investor Relations: Two-way Symmetrical Practice.

Kothari (2004). Research Methodology Methods and Techniques (2nded.), New age international
(p) limited, New Delhi, India

65
Krishan,R.(2011). Internal communication process and tools: A study on CPSEs. New Delhi:
Indian institute of mass communication

Laskin (2006). Profession in public relation and practice of public relation:

Lazenby,W (2005,August). Informal and formal channels of communication: Mexico

Leedy, P. D. and Ormrod, J.E. (2005). Practical research planning and design. (8th ed.) New
Jersey: Pearson Merril Printice Hall.

Leedy, P. D. and Ormrod, J. (2009) Practical Research: Planning and Design (ninth edition).
Harlow: Pearson.

Lisa Beth Hornaman (2000). Public relations education and the public relations profession

Lunenburg (2010, Nov.). Formal communication channels: Upward, downward, horizontal and
external. Focus on colleges, universities and schools. P. 4

Mahoney (2011). Public relation and media relations:

Maibach, L.C (2008). The effectiveness of mass communication to change public behavior:
Effectiveness of mass communication

Maxwell, J.A. (1992). Understanding and validity in qualitative research. Harvard Educational
Review, 62(3), 279-300.

Maxwell, J. A. (1996). Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach, London, Applied

Social Research Methods Series.

Maxwell, J. A. (2005) Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach. (2nd ed) Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage

McLean, B. (2005). What Matters in the Communication Strategy: Maastricht: ECDPM.

Mehmet et. al. (2015, Dec.). Groups and their effects in organizations. Istanbul

66
Melkamu (2019, May 16). Internal communication strategies and practices of public relations in
ESC (Getenet, interviewer)

Melkote, S.R. and Steeves, H.L. (2001). Communication for Development in the Third World:
Theory and Practice for Empowerment (2 ed.) New Delhi: Sage Publications.

Ministry of Information (2004). Facts about Ethiopia. Press and Audio Visual Department: Addis
Ababa.

Monga (2003). Marketing management. New Delhi: Elegant prentices.

Nandini, D. (2012). Fundamentals of communication -Calicut University: Retrieved on Jan. 05,

2018, from http://www.universityofcalicut.info/fundamental-of-communication-calicut-
university

Nawafinao (2016, Mar.16).Public communication: Retrieved on February 12, 2019, from

https://study.com/academy/lesson/types-of-communication-interpersonal-non-verbal-
written-oral.html retrieved on 08/03/2019

Neuman (2014). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches (7th ed.). USA

Nicholas N. and Marcus (2003). Principles of public relations: Syprus: University of Nicosia Press

Nordby (2011). The nature and limits of interactive communication: A philosophical analysis,
Vol. 7 – Issue 1

Ojomo W., (2006). Principles and practice of public relations. National Open University of
Nigeria

Ommering.V., (2003,Oct). Horizontal communication: A style to compose control software,

Philips.

Otubanjo, B.O., Amujo, O.C. and Melewar, T.C. (2010), “150 Years of Public Relations
Practices in Nigeria, 1859-2009”, Public Relations, Advertising & Marketing Journal,
Vol. 23 No. 2.

67
Pamela A.M (2006). Principles & practice series Effective Internal Communication: SOAS,
University of London

Pearson.V., (2016, Jan. 15). Writing a communications strategy, University of Oxford

Rasel (2013, Sep.18). Lateral/horizontal communication with examples: Types of communication

Reta (2019, May 15). Internal communication strategies and practices of public relations in ESC
(Getenet, interviewer)

Robert.et.al. (2002). Informal communication in organizations: from Function and technology.

Informal communication, p220

Robbins and Coulter (2012). Ethical communication in organization:

Robson, P. J., and D. Tourish, (2005). Managing internal communication: an organizational case
study. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 10(3).

Ruler.V.B (2018). Communication Theory: An Underrated Pillar on Which Strategic

Communication Rests, International Journal of Strategic Communication, 12:4, 367-381,
DOI: 10.1080/1553118X.2018.1452240

Schmitz, A. (2012). An introduction to group communication

Scott,A.T.(n.d). Types of communication

Seem (2006). Professionalism in Public Relations & Corporate Communications: An Empirical

Analysis

Seitel, P. F. (2011).The Practice of Public Relations: New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
Publishing

Severin,W.and Tankard (1979). Communication Theories, Origins, Methods: New York: Hastings
House.

Shibeshi. A. (2014, Nov.). Educational management: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Shimelis M. (2017). The practice of government public relations: a case study of Ethiopian

68
 Government Communication Affairs Office: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Singh, K.Y. (2006). Fundamentals of research methodology and statistics: New age international
(p) limited publisher, New Delhi.

Singh, A.K. (2014, Oct-Dec). Role of interpersonal communication in organizational

effectiveness: International journal of speech in management& business studies, 1(4)

Singh K. (eds). Public relations: Principles and Model: New Delhi

Smith, R. D. (2013). Strategic planning for public relations (4th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Solomon A. (1998). Censorship and Ethics: Practice and Problems in Ethiopian Television.
Graduate School of Journalism and Communications. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa
University.

Solomon A. (2000). Public Relations in Ethiopia: Problems and Tendencies. Ministry of Tourism
and Culture

Solomon S. (2015). An assessment on the status of professional profile of PRs officers’ in the
major bureaus of Tigray regional state government, Ethiopia

Spaho,K.(2015). Organizational communication process. International journal of communication,

Bosnai

Sriramesh, K. &Verčič, D. (2003). The global public relations handbook: Theory, research and
practices. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Subrahmanyam,P.D. (2018, May-Jun). Corporate leadership: International journal of trend in

scientific research and development, 2 (4)

Taherdoost (2016, Jan.). Sampling methods in research methodology: How to choose a sampling.
International journal of academic research in management (IJARM).

Tench, R. Yeoman, L. (2009). Exploring public relations. London: Pearson Education Limited.

Tenhiälä & Salvador (2014). Communication channels.

69
Tesfaye B. (2018). The Practice and Challenges of Public Relations in Ethiopia: The Case of
Government Universities, Ethiopia

Thurlow, A. (2009). Mount Saint Vincent University: Canadian Journal of Communication

Verghese, A.K. (2017, July- Sep.). Internal communication: Practices and implications. SCMS
Journal of Indian management

Walliman,N. (2011). Research methods the basics: USA and Canada

Warner (2000). Professional public relation:

Weiss (2018, Oct.). The leaders’ edge: Growing a global enterprise. Business leadership
innovation
https://www.speakeasyinc.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjw27jnBRBuEiwAdjQXDBpf9NAVpW3
eGkwPh2RtJke_VWRfwjk_QyiGhitq9aFntt7vsc14tBoCx-MQAvD_BwE retrieved on
04/24/2019

Welch .E and Belch. A. (2004). Advertising and promotion. New Delhi: Tata me Graw -hill

Welch, M. and Jackson, P.R. (2007). Rethinking internal communication: a stakeholder approach,
Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 12 No. 2,

Wilber S. (1965). The Process and Effects of Mass Communication: United States of America.
University of Illinois of press Urbana

Willacy.M. (2016, December). Two-way symmetric communication between public utilities and
the public: Boise State University Graduate College

Wimmer, D. Roger and Dominick, R. Joseph. (2003). Mass media research: and introduction. 7th
ed. Thomson Wadsworth. USA.

Wimmer, R. and Dominic, J. (2006). Mass Media Research: An Introduction. USA:

Thomson/Ward worth Learning.

Yin, R. K. (1994). Case study research: Design and methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.

70
Zajkowska, M. (2011, February). The importance of internal communication: Human resource
management and economics, Poland, vol.5.

Zoltan,R. (2018). Group communication, performance and satisfaction in organizations: Group

dynamics and team functioning in organizational context, Romania.

Zemedkun T. (2014). The practice and challenges of public relations in Ethiopian federal
government offices, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Zeray H. (2016). PR and Media Works: The Most Misguided Profession in Ethiopia

https://hornaffairs.com/2016/12/10/pr-and-media-works-misguided-profession-ethiopia/
retrieved on (25/12/2018)

Investment Opportunities in Ethiopian Sugar Industry April 2019

Ethiopian sugar industry profile (2017, January) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The role of formal internal communication in organizational identification, case no.15

(International Management May 23, 2016)

71
 Appendix One

Addis Ababa University

Graduate School of Journalism and Communication

Department of Public Relations and Strategic Communication

Questionnaires for Employees

Dear Respondents,
The purpose of this questionnaire is to collect data for the research to fulfill M.A requirement in
Addis Ababa University, Graduate School of Journalism and Communication, Department of
Public Relations and Strategic Communications.
I would like to state your genuine, honest and accurate response will have greater input to the
dependability of the research findings. Therefore, I kindly request you to provide your genuine
answers to the questions that appear below. I would like to remind you that the answers you will
provide me is solely used for research purpose and kept confidential. Thank you in advance for
your cooperation!

Part I- Personal information- Please circle or write your responses for the following personal
information based on the type of questions.
A) Please circle your responses for the following personal information
1. Gender A. Male B. Female
2. Age ___________________
3. Educational level
A. Diploma B. 1st degree C. 2nd degree D. PhD E. other
B) Please write your responses for the following personal information
4. Your work position in the organization _________________________________
5. Years of Experiences______
6. Field of Education ________________________________
Part II- Basic Questions
7. Do you understand your organization vision and mission?
A) Yes B) No C) I have no idea

VIII
8. Do you get the corporation information freely?
A. yes B. No C. I have no idea
9. Do you think the PRs practitioners are positive to well-come feedbacks from the
employees/publics?
A. yes B. No C. I have no idea
10. Do you think public relation is a professional activity?
A. Yes B. No C. I have no idea
11. Do you know the practice of PRs in your organization?

A. Yes B. No C. I have no idea

12. Do you think the internal communication tools; channels are effective in your

organization?

A. Yes B. No C. I have no idea

13. Is the communication of the organization hierarchical?

A. yes B. No C. I have no idea

14. Do you think public relations practitioners are assigned based on appropriate knowledge and
skills?
A) Yes B) No C) Difficult to say
15. Does your organization PRs practitioner help to update you about the corporation
information?
A. yes B. No
How___________________________________________________________________
16. What is the degree of emphasis given for public relations practice of your organization?
A) Very high B) High C) medium D) low E) very low
17. How do you see the practice of public relation practice in relation to strategic communication?
A) Very high B) High C) medium D) low E) very low

Part III- Major Questions

Please make a tick (√) mark on your choice that is provided in front of each question.
1=Strongly Agree 2=Agree 3=Neutral 4= Disagree 5= Strongly Disagree

IX
No Items 1 2 3 4 5
I Internal Communication Strategies
1 ESC organization communication strategy is developed and
run professionally.
2 Internal communication helps the PRs practice significantly
3 Formal communication is highly dominated in our
organization
4 Informal communication is highly dominated in our
organization
5 Employees have effective interpersonal communication

6 We have effective group communication /interaction in the

organization
7 Public/mass communication is held strategically in our
organization
8 Communications tools, channels are effectively used in the
organization
9 Electronic communication(e-mail, phone calls) is commonly
used in ESC
10 Face –to-face communication is common in ESC
11 Memos and documents are used as communication channels
in ESC
12 communication in our organization doesn‟t follow its
hierarchy
13 Communication gaps/problems are always solved by
communication in the organization
14 PRs (the organization)gives us training about different
organizational issues like communication and interaction
15 Managers have good communication interactions with us
16 PRs have smooth relationship with employees
17 Public relations practitioners carry out research for the
smooth relationship of the communication in the
organization

X
No Items 1 2 3 4 5
II Practice of Public Relations
1 PRs practitioners are assigned professionally
2 PRs has given better job structures in the organization
3 The practice of PRs is open to the employees
4 PRs do activities based on the vision and mission of the
organization.
5 PRs decide an appropriate time to deliver information
6 Less budget is assigned to PRs department that obstacles
their practice
7 Public relations practice is necessary in our organization
8 Organizational managers and employees believe in the
importance of PRs and its practice
9 PRs have a very good relationship with internal publics
10 PRs works strategically to each activities
11 PRs builds a positive relationship between the public and the
organization via strategic communication
12 PRs creates goodwill by managing a two-way
communication process
13 PRs solves grapevine and change in to opportunities
14 PRs select and use the right PR tools
15 PRs prepares Print and emailed information to the internal
publics
16 PR effectively manages and uses the new media for the
publics (face book, twitter, …)
17 The PRs websites are full of updated information
18 PRs initiate us to work strategically towards the organization
vision
19 We think that PRs have the necessary knowledge & skills
20 PRs in ESC is done under professional principles, standards
& ethics
21 We aggressively help public relations department in any
need to develop its practice
22 PRs is independent from any other influence in our
organization
23 PRs have professional training in different times &levels
24 PRs share experience with different internal and external
publics

XI
Part IV: please give short and brief answer for the following explanation questions.
1. What are your organizational objective, mission and vision?
Objective________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Mission_________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Vission________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
2. Please list the practices of PRs in your organization?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
3. To what extent do you think the public relations practice is independent from any external
involvement?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
4. What type of internal communication strategies does your organization employ? Which do
you prefer more?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
5. Which communication type is used frequently? Formal or informal? Why?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
5. What is your perspective towards internal communication channels and public relations
practices of ESC?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
6. What should be done for improving
A. Internal communication and
B. Public relations practices of Ethiopian Sugar Corporation?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

Thanks again for your genuine response!

XII
 Appendix Two

Interview guide for the Semi-Structured Interview

(For public relation practitioners)

A. The researcher introduced himself and told the interviewee the aim of the interview.
B. Let the interviewee to introduce his name, education level, year of experience, position
C. The researcher explained the purpose of the interview; about what is the interview, and thanks the
interviewee‟s cooperation for the interview

1. Are the PR practitioners professional in the organization?

2. Does the corporation prepare in and out trainings and experience sharing that helps internal
communication and practice of public relations?
3. What type of internal communication strategies do you use to communicate with your
employees? (In relation to two-way symmetric communication)
4. In what way PRs is practiced in ESC?
5. How do you solve communication problems in your organization? E.g. Grapevine /Gossips?
6. In what way do you use and manage the new media?
7. What tools, channels of PRs do you use in the corporation to communicate (each other)?
8. How do you update employees about news of the Corporation? Formally or informally? Why?
9. What are the major practices of PRs in your organization?
10. How do you explain the interaction between the employees and PRs?
11. How do you fill the communication gap between the employees and ESC?
12. How employees and ESC officials view the significance of internal communication strategies
and PRs practices?

Thank you in advance for your co-operation!

XIII