Engaging the Workforce:: the Role of Senior Managers in Internal Communication and Employee Engagement a Case Study of a South African University

The rationale that effective communication plays a crucial role in aligning employees to organizational goals, and in so doing, inculcate employee engagement and help an organization to succeed, is remodeling internal communication management within organizations. At the core of the preceding rationale lies the fundamental realization and acknowledgement that effective internal communication is not the function of the communication department, but in effect a basic prerequisite that must be understood, embraced and practiced by all levels of management. Managers without effective internal communication and employee engagement cannot execute the responsibility of strategic alignment. The challenge is now to ensure that the internal communication process is approached as a properly structured and efficiently managed system rather than a collection of fragmented messages that often cause confusion among employees and compel disengagement. This book explores to what extent the senior managers at North-West University in South Africa understand their fundamental role in facilitating effective internal communication and employee engagement.