Public Relations as Tool for Resolving Communal Dispute in Kwara State, A Case Study of Offa Local Government Council Area

Public Relations as Tool for Resolving Communal Dispute in Kwara State, A Case Study of Offa Local Government Council Area

Chapter One

Objectives of study

General Objective

Specific Objectives

To investigate the sources of communal dispute between local government and elders inOffa, Kwara State,
To explore how dispute between the local government council and elders is communicated in Offa, Kwara State,
To determine the effect of using public relations to address dispute between the local government council and elders in Offa, Kwara State,
To establish the challenges of using public relations to address dispute between local government and elders in Offa, Kwara State

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Theoretical Framework

This study was guided by the Human Relations Theory and the Cultural Organisational Theory. The human relations theory stemmed from developments in the decade between 1930 and 1940 following the great depression in America. It is in this era that people started paying more attention to social factors that affected employees in their work in organizations after years of applying Fredrick Taylors’ scientific management, which viewed people as parts of a machine. According to the theory, departmental level group dynamics need to be informed by healthy leadership (Markert, 2008). The theory focuses on keeping channels of communication in an organisation open and ensuring that communication between elders and their juniors flows continually, with a premise that information motivates as an informed employee is more involved and therefore more productive (Markert, 2008). The Human Relations Theory operates on the belief that the central problem in all organisations is in developing and maintaining dynamic and harmonious relationships (Okumbe, 2007).

The Cultural Organisational Theory is a product of works by Clifford Geertz and Michael Pacanowsky. According to this theory, culture is like a web and for culture to thrive, shared meaning, understanding and sense of making must be present (Griffin 2012). He adds that culture means using the same language and partaking in the same traditions. According to Griffin (2012) it is Michael Pacanowsky that applied Geertz insights into the context of organisations. Pacanowsky, Griffin (2012) says, believed that organisations create their own webs and the process of making the web is communication. What this then means is that as staff of an organization communicate with each other, they create shared meanings and as such create a culture. The meanings are shared through stories that can be categorized into three: corporate stories, which may entail information which the management wants to share with employees, personal stories, stories about employees shared with each other about themselves and collegial stories, which employees tell about each other (Galvan 2014). The latter stories can either be positive or negative.

The two theories were appropriate for this study because community are organisations composed of individuals that need to work together as a team to achieve their organizational goals. To achieve a community’s set objectives and mitigate conflicts in the community setting, there needs to be open communication between the local government council and the elders.

This study sought to investigate if effective communication occurs between local government and the elders to address conflict, which is bound to arise where there is interaction of people. To achieve this, employees, in this case local government, need to be made to feel important to the achievement of all the goals of an organisation through communication, thus the use of the Human Relations Theory. This is because the theory encourages two-way communication between workers and their seniors which can be used by the management to win cooperation from their juniors (Lardbucket, 2012).

The Cultural Organisational Theory on the other hand allows the researcher to understand who people are, what traditions they have, and why they celebrate the traditions, and to get every side of the story (Galvan 2014). For example, from the stories, a researcher would find out the value that an organization attaches to communication and how conflict with employees is handled through communication. The researcher as well set out to explore how employees, in this case local government, feel about communication and how conflict is handled in their organization (community), through use of this theory. In basic terms, the theories enabled the researcher to link local government’ values, norms and those of the elders, to how they handle communication and in particular communication in relation to conflict resolution.

Conceptual Review

Public Relations

Public Relations have been as old as man. But modern Public Relations as a distinct discipline and management form is relatively new and often misunderstood as a result, there are many definitions of the discipline by many definers (Nwosu, 2001). Black (1990) defined Public Relations as the art and science of achieving harmony with the environments through mutual understanding based on truth and full information. This goes to show that you cannot have true and full information without regular and efficient two-way communication between the organization and its public. This is why public relations have been sometime described, as a corporate management.

Nwaizugbo (2004) in his own definition sees Public Relations as a marketing function that is an extension of the societal marketing concept which focuses every marketing decision, on customer satisfaction and welfare of the firm’s larger public. The British Institute of Public Relations (1906) also defined Public Relations as the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain understanding between organizations. This definition has been expanded as the management functions that marries or reconciles public opinion and interest with corporate interest and policies for their mutual acceptance and mutual benefits (Nwosu, 1992).

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design

Since the interest of this study was the effectiveness of public relations as a tool for resolving communal dispute between the local government council in Offa and elders in Offa Local government council area in Kwara, Nigeria, focus for sampling was on local government and elders of the community. But because it was not possible to do a census, the researcher did a survey and sampled 10 percent of the 629 Local government in Offa. Mugenda (2003) says that 10 percent of the accessible population is enough for a descriptive study.

This study adopted a descriptive survey design because the design enabled the researcher to capture information from the targeted respondents confidentially. The design is appropriate as it enables the researcher to generate statistical information on aspects of education that interest policy makers on communication of communal dispute, sources of communal dispute, use of communication to address conflict and challenges of using public relations to address dispute between the local government council and elders in Offa Local government council area.

Target Population

This study targeted the local government council in Offa Local government council area of Kwara State. This is because even though there is village council, local government council is the most stable in terms of availability as their population is not likely to fluctuate unpredictably as the other two categories.

Sampling Techniques and Sample Size

Sample Size

Sixty-two registered local government, were sampled for this study. The sample represented 10 per cent of the 629 of registered local government in Offa.

Mugenda (2003) says that 10 percent of the accessible population is enough for a descriptive study, which this study was. And though 10 percent of 629 would be 62.9, 62 local government council members were selected as human beings can only be represented by whole numbers.

Sampling Techniques

Because the interest of this study was the effectiveness of public relations as a tool for resolving communal dispute between local government and elders in Offa Local government council area of Kwara State, Nigeria, focus for sampling was on local government and elders of the community in the locality. But since it was not possible to do a census, the researcher did a survey and sampled 10 per cent of the 629 registered local government council members in Offa Local government area.

By use of stratified random sampling, the researcher was able to obtain samples from the different levels that exist in community’ organizational structure. Stratified random sampling helps the researcher to segregate a homogenous group for study (Mbwesa, 2006). The stratified random sampling was followed by random selection of subjects from each stratum, to give each member of the population equal opportunity to participate in the study.

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSIS, PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION

Demographic Information of Respondents

Gender of the Respondents

Table.4.1 Distribution of Respondents by Gender

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of the Study

The general objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of public relations as a tool for resolving communal dispute between local government and elders in Offa Local government council area in Kwara State, Nigeria. The study was guided by four objectives as follows: to investigate sources of communal dispute between the local government council and elders, how dispute between the local government council and elders is communicated, the effect of using public relations to address dispute between the local government council and elders and the challenges of using public relations to address dispute between local government and elders in Offa Local government council area in Kwara State, Nigeria.

To achieve the objectives, the study adopted the descriptive survey design. This enabled the researcher to obtain data from the respondents confidentially. Because the researcher could not reach the entire population of 629 local government, a sample of 62 respondents was used for generalization of the findings of the study to the entire population. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to obtain data from local government.

However, the interview schedules were only used to obtain additional data from key informants as they were few and required more time to conduct. Validity and reliability of the instruments was obtained through piloting. The data obtained for the study was anlaysed descriptively using SPSS and thematically.

The first objective was to investigate the sources of communal dispute between local government and elders in Offa Local government council area, in Kwara State, Nigeria. Under this objective, the study sought to find out first if conflict was experienced in the community. The finding was that majority of the respondents said dispute between local government and their elders usually occurred in their community. Majority of the respondents also said they had experienced conflict with the elders. Asked about what caused dispute in their community, majority of the respondents listed communication as one of the major contributors of communal dispute even though other reasons contributing to conflict were given. The other causes of communal dispute given included competition, resources, the person conveying a message, negligence of duty, distribution of workload and the time table.

On the effect of communal dispute between local government and elders, respondents felt conflict leads to poor performance of duty due to demoralization. They also said conflict led to wastage of time, loss of self-esteem, reduced teamwork and if unchecked, it resulted to poor student performance and indiscipline. Apparently, only respondent viewed conflict positively.

About how local government council members were treated when conflict arose between them and elders, majority of the respondents said dialogue between them and the elders was used to sort out issues. This means communication also played a role in pursuit of reconciliation. Other respondents said warning letters were sent to local government that were in dispute with the elders and in the worst case scenario; local government council members were transferred or asked for transfer.

This latter assertion was however disputed by the elders who were interviewed as they said they did not keep records of staff they had differed with as doing so would mar the local government’ reputation with their employer, yet they (the elders) viewed them as colleagues who needed to be treated humanely.

The second objective was to explore how dispute between the local government council and elders is communicated in Offa Local government council area in Kwara State, Nigeria. Respondents were asked how dispute between local government and their elders was communicated and majority said the concerned parties held private meetings to sort matters out. However, other local government learnt of the conflict through grapevine which means though attempts are made to keep an individual’s conflict private, matters still leak to other staff who were not involved in a conflict. Some respondents however expressed concern that sometimes, matters to do with them that the elders had not communicated reached them through grapevine meaning grapevine is seen as a major source of information in a community situation.

On whether local government council members were given opportunity to express themselves, majority of the respondents said they expressed themselves in meetings. Some also said they sent their heads of departments to the senior elders if they had issues they needed attended to. Others said they generated gossip with the hope that those considered close to the elders would take the cue and pass the message on to the intended persons. However, there are those who said they keep quiet. They said they used silence when they felt their opinions would be ignored or that they would be victimized.

One interviewee said they used silence to induce self-correction and when they felt that they would be misunderstood or unnecessarily criticized. Some local government council members were also noted to be naturally private, preferring to keep quiet unless they were prodded to express themselves. Others resorted to going slow on their duties to prompt elders to address their concerns.

Conclusion

From the study, the following conclusions were reached: Dispute between local government and elders are normal as in any other community in the society and communication plays a major role in triggering conflict, escalating it and deescalating it but in an attempt to address conflict, there are challenges that dog the process of communication like personal attitude and channel used to communicate. It is also important to treat people one is in dispute with, with respect if a conflict is to be amicably resolved as people like to be treated with respect. There is also need to increase the frequency of interaction between elders and their staff to build staff morale. The interactions should allow parties to openly express themselves. It was also clear that it is not always that people speak their minds out and the silence does have meaning. When dealing with others especially in situations of communal dispute, it is important to be objective and to listen to the parties involved with an open mind. There is also need to send clear messages to reduce misunderstandings.

Recommendations

Recommendations on Policy

The following are recommendations for policy. First, there is need to address conflict with the parties involved in a conflict before tabling the same before people that were not involved in the conflict. There is also need to offer training to local government and elders on effective communication so as to mitigate dispute in community and enhance teamwork and performance of duties in community. Additionally, it is important to employ a variety of means of communication instead of solely relying on meetings and whatever means of public relations is used to communicate between local government and their elders, the same should encourage feedback to communication made. Lastly, there is need to treat local government with respect when communicating with them or handling a conflict concerning them.

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