COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE OF ADMINISTRATORS: ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT FOR CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

Abstract This study looked at communication competence of administrators as in implementing change initiatives in Nigerian institutions of higher education. The study was carried out at three higher educational institutions in Ogun State. Two research hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data were collected using a questionnaire tagged Communication Competence and Change Management Questionnaire. A total of 180 employees were selected from three higher educational institutions from three political zones in Ogun State. Purposive Sampling was employed as 60 subjects were selected from academic departments/sections and non-academic department/sections in each institution to form the sample. Simple random sampling was however adopted in the selection of the subjects from the strata. Data collected were analyzed using frequency counts, simple percentage and t–test. Results revealed that communication competence of school administrators have significant effect on change initiatives and outcomes in most spheres of higher educational institutions, hence departmental/unit heads with high communication competence exhibit high effectiveness in communicating change initiatives and management change process in higher educational institutions. The result recommends, among others, that school administrators should have keen appreciation of the efficacy of communication competence in managing change in their respective departments/units and where necessary, communication competence training should be instituted with a view to initiating change and managing same within an educational institution.