Strategic importance of internal communication in Nigerian fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies management

Resumen

Communication in organisations has changed recently and continues to change. This is the aftermath of the socio-political and environmental, as well as generational and technological changes. To mitigate these factors that lead to change, especially the undesirable ones, organisations have to become adept in the way they communicate with their employees. Internal communication has to be directed towards the proper establishment of mutual lines of communication, understanding, acceptance, and cooperation between organisations and their employees. The internal communication is therefore studied for the Nigerian Fast Moving Consumer Goods companies (FMCGs) to determine where the function is situated on the organisational structure, where it is domiciled, the roles the practitioners play, the channels used and the channel preferences of employees. Using a mixed research method, seventeen of the Nigerian FMCGs were selected by non-probability convenience sampling. The most senior communication practitioners in these organisations were interviewed to answer the first three research questions while 359 employees from the same organisations were surveyed using a questionnaire. The study is hinged on both the Media Richness and the Medium Theories. It was found that while the practitioners understand the impact of good internal communication, and are strategically positioned on the organisational structure, variations trail the way it is practiced. Many of the functions are domiciled in the human resources department; thus, its practices are skewed more towards employment issues. The main channels used by the practitioners are the email, face-to-face in different formats, and town-hall meetings. While the use of WhatsApp is growing, the use of the intranet and the social media channels are low. It was also found that while CEO communication is low, the employee voice is muffled in many instances. The Nigerian FMCGs need to be more conscious of the impact of culture on their internal communication efforts.