Private organizations should embrace unionism – Abiru

This quarter’s lecture titled, ‘The Roles of Communication in Institutional Management,’ was delivered by the Director of Publication of the Assembly,Mr. Festus Otabor.

Fielding questions from newsmen, Abiru noted that, “some organizations have outlawed unionism but in public organizations we have them. We don’t harmstrung unionism.

According to him, unionism is another good means by which management of any organization could engender effective communication with the workers in the overall interest of the organization.

“Unions of today are not combatants, they are partners in progress, they represent the interest of the people and also the mouthpiece of any organization,” Abiru said.

While reiterating the need for effective communication, the Clerk explained that “the work of a legislator is to talk and if you don’t know how to effectively communicate, you cannot effectively discharge as a legislator and bearing in mind that the Hansard which is the verbatim report of all events of the House any officer saddled with the responsibility must have good communication skill, so what we are doing today is to address the issue of communication as it affects the Lagos State House of Assembly.

“Communication is key in any given institution and it must be unambiguous, succinct and clear so as not to give room for misinterpretation, barrier is a problem that confronts communication as it whittles down the quality of communication,” he said.

He also explained that in the area of Public Hearings that involve the members of the public in the activities of the House was another means of engagement and eliciting feedback from the public.

Commenting on the importance of free flow of information in organizations, Abiru said, “the issue of rumour and grapevine need be taken seriously as highlighted in the lecture and if you have a free flow of information, there will be no room for rumour mongering and even if grapevine exists, it won’t be to the extent that it would affect deleteriously the institutional fabric,” he stressed.

The presenter, Otabor enjoined the legislators to make use of Hansard of the House, adding that that would give way to feedback and ultimately enhance effective communication.

While commending the leadership of the House over the recently conducted Town Hall Meetings in all the 40 constituencies in the State, Otabor said “is one sure way of using communication as a tool for effective governance.”

Otabor highlighted the role played by effective communication in any given institution,citing the need to make communication symbiotic and mutual before it could be said to be effective.

“Many institutions are having it rough not only due to paucity of funds or academic incompetence of their managers but failure to establish an effective communication system that allows free flow of information within and outside their institution”. Otabor noted