Exploring the use of internal communication channels in the South African Police Service (SAPS): Inanda police station post covid-19

Abstract

The study investigated the use of internal communication channels within the South African Police Services (SAPS) at Inanda Police Station post-COVID-19, to highlight the potential for successful use and identify the particular fault lines within these channels, specifically the use of excessive number of internal communication channels that are unproductive resulting in wasteful expenditure, insufficient information sharing, inadequate feedback mechanisms and communication barriers between different levels of authority, which can result in clutter, delays, unproductivity, and unsuccessful service delivery. A paucity of studies exist focusing on internal communication channels in government institutions, including SAPS – Inanda Police Station. Thus, the overall aim of the study was to investigate the use of internal communication channels by the SAPS – Inanda Police Station to facilitate internal communication within the context of the government institutions. The study was conducted at the SAPS – Inanda Police Station, M25 Curnick Ndlovu Highway, Amatikwe, Inanda 4309. The study population comprised the management and subordinate employees. Quantitative methodology was used for the study, with a survey questionnaire as the method of data collection, administered to 197 respondents. In this regard, a random stratified probability sampling was used. Of the 197 administered survey questionnaires, only 141 (72%) were returned, of which five (3%) usable responses were discarded, which resulted in 136 (69%) valid questionnaires that were analysed. A 69% response satisfies the recommendations of several scholars, despite the fact that there is no mutual consensus regarding the minimum response rate. The study deployed quantitative analysis. The collected data were entered into an SPSS data matrix to be quantified. After data were completely quantified and entered into an SPSS program, data analysis commenced in the form of univariate analysis. Frequency distributions (tables and graphs) were used to summarise and make sense of the data. The findings of the study provided a better understanding of the use of internal communication channels in the context of the government institutions and contributed to the identification and development of the most successful ways of using internal communication channels to enhance internal communication. Among the main findings emanating from the study were that the SAPS – Inanda Police Station were using several internal communication channels, 10 in total that were not productive, only to realise that employees preferred five channels: face-to-face meetings, organisational email, telephone, social media – WhatsApp, and noticeboards. Despite the majority of employees showing a positive response regarding the functions of internal communication channels at the organisation some varied perceptions were also identified. The findings also indicated that there were different perceptions regarding the flow of information in the organisation. At some level, the overall findings support the notion held by many scholars that government institutions are lagging behind with respect to investing resources in internal communication.