Communication and Team Effectiveness in a Public Sector Organization: Evidence from Tanzania Investment Bank

Abstract

In today's competitive world, there has been a lot of focus placed on the pride of a team and individual accomplishments, with managers and staff seemingly overlooking the importance of teamwork as a performance tool. This is more so with public institutions where organizational performance is a function of delivering a mandate and service delivery rather than a clear objective of improving the bottom line, market share, shareholder value growth, and business expansion, etc., or else becoming uncompetitive and/or becoming a failure.  There could be many reasons attributed to organizational performance; however, this study focused on an internal aspect – teamwork – that is important for organizational effectiveness, specifically, communication within teams in the organization utilizing Belbin’s Team Role Theory and the Tuckman Theory of Team Development.  The specific objectives of this study were to identify individual and team behaviors for effective communication among employees at Tanzania Investment Bank TIB; to examine the role of leadership within teams in promoting supportive communication among team members; and to identify and assess factors that inhibit effective communication and team performance within teams. This is a case study of a single public sector organization. The study population included managers, human resource personnel, and ordinary employees of TIB. Simple random sampling techniques were applied to select the employees, while purposive sampling techniques were used to select targeted employees, particularly managers and human resource staff from different departments. In total, 58 TIB employees were involved in the study, from a population of 138. The study used a self-structured questionnaire, open-ended interview questions, and observations for data collection. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics and the adoption of appropriate themes to guide the analysis. The study findings reveal that certain individual and team behaviors support effective communication and teamwork, such as the use of proper channels of communication, transparency in group relationships, and participation in team activities; the study also revealed that leadership and organizational processes support effective communication and teamwork, such as frequent organizational-wide communications on changes and feedback, and interdepartmental communications. Some factors affecting relationships and communication within teams were also identified, including conflict, mistrust, individualism, and irresponsible behavior. It is concluded that the basic tenets of effective communication and team relationships exist, though factors affecting teamwork and communication are to be addressed. It is recommended that public organizations, among others, regularly assess relationships within teams, build staff capacity to effectively communicate, and attract staff with the right aptitude for teamwork.