https://doi.org/0.37955/cs.v8i1.338
Received March 10, 2023/ Approved July, 11, 2023 Pages 64-89
eISSN: 2600-5743
Management and internal
communication in the management
of the GADM of Salinas, pre - post
pandemic Covid 19
La gestión y la comunicación interna en la dirección del
GADM de Salinas, pre – post pandemia Covid 19
Viviana Lourdes Cevallos Palma
Marketing Engineer graduated from Peninsula St. Helena State University, Master in
Public Administration from Peninsula St. Helena State University,
viviana.cevallos@upse.edu.ec https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4632-2422
Imelda Parra Pino
Commercial Engineer and Master in Business Management, with 14 years of experience in
Human Talent Management in Public Administration, Peninsula St. Helena State
University https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1207-0964, imelda.parrap@upse.edu.ec.
ABSTRACT
The research focuses on internal communication in public
organizations, with the Autonomous Decentralized Municipal
Government of Canton Salinas as the object of study. Internal
communication management was examined with a comparative
analysis before and after the Covid-19 pandemic. This study is framed
within a descriptive and correlational approach, using tools such as
surveys to the institution's collaborators, interviews to the highest
authority, to the director of the communication area and to
professionals with experience in the subject. The analyses carried out
evaluated different aspects, such as the impact on functions
performed, measures adopted, difficulties during the pandemic, and
actions implemented both before and after the pandemic.
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Consequently, the research proposes the MGCSPR 2023 model, an
acronym that corresponds to the Sustainable Communication
Management Model by Results, developed in 2023. This model seeks
to strengthen the public management of the entity through strategies
focused on key areas such as human talent management,
organizational management, citizen participation, and supervision
and control.
RESUMEN
La investigación se centra en la comunicación interna de las
organizaciones públicas, con el Gobierno Autónomo Descentralizado
Municipal del Cantón Salinas como objeto de estudio. Se examinó la
gestión comunicacional interna con un análisis comparativo antes y
después de la pandemia por Covid-19. Este estudio se enmarca en un
enfoque descriptivo y correlacional, utilizando herramientas como
encuestas a los colaboradores de la institución, entrevistas a la máxima
autoridad, al director del área de comunicación y a profesionales con
experiencia en el tema. Los análisis realizados evaluaron distintos
aspectos, como la afectación en funciones ejecutadas, medidas
adoptadas, dificultades durante la pandemia, y acciones
implementadas tanto antes como después de esta. En consecuencia, la
investigación propone el modelo MGCSPR 2023, un acrónimo que
corresponde al Modelo de Gestión de Comunicación Sostenible por
Resultados, desarrollado en 2023. Este modelo busca fortalecer la
gestión pública de la entidad a través de estrategias enfocadas en áreas
fundamentales como la gestión de talento humano, la gestión
organizacional, la participación ciudadana, y la supervisión y control.
Keywords / Palabras clave
Organizational Communication, Internal Communication, COVID-19,
Public Management, Strategic Management
Comunicación Organizacional, Comunicación Interna, COVID-19,
Gestión Pública, Gestión Estratégica
Introduction
Currently, the Ecuadorian State is made up of various organizations,
such as: Ministries, Secretariats, Agencies, GADS (Autonomous
decentralized provincial, municipal and parish governments),
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Technical Secretariats, Foundations, among others, whose mission is
to strengthen the fulfillment of the conditions of Good Living and new
levels of development of the Ecuadorian population. The objective is
to solve the different particular needs of the Ecuadorian population
according to their sector; therefore, communication plays a very
important role, allowing the adequate management of information.
According to Acosta & Torres, (2020) for both public and private
organizations, communication should be considered a key factor for
the fulfillment of strategic planning, which can be achieved through
the department of communication or public relations, in order to
determine appropriate communication strategies and channels that
meet the objective of positioning the institutional image within society.
The corporate image is the letter of introduction, which should reflect
the background, development, and current vision of the institution,
with the ultimate goal of creating a positive institutional image of the
company for external agents.
Proper strategic communication must establish a participatory
process, based on the institution's mission and vision, and requires a
situational analysis and concrete planning that effectively transmits
the programmed activities that achieve the fulfillment of its objectives.
When the parameters of strategic communication planning are not
well established, the fulfillment of institutional objectives is affected.
In the case of organizations that provide services to citizens, such as
the Autonomous Decentralized Municipal Government of Canton
Salinas, the communicated projects will not have the required impact
on the community.
According to Ansede, (2018) as part of the communicational strategic
planning, the necessary diagnostics should be performed, in turn
determine the indicators that should be evaluated in the
communicational management; a policy should be created that
establishes the channels, the message and the necessary actions. The
internal control of this management to its officials, does not solve the
problem, the follow-up must be done to the users of the services of an
organization; therefore, the internal communication of the institution
must be considered, because it stimulates the participation of the
officials, allows to coordinate and foments the changes of attitude that
benefit the productivity, which in turn improve the institutional image.
According to the author Torres, (2020) communication is a key area of
companies to respond to crises, and since 2019 officials belonging to
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this area have contributed more in the creation of business strategies;
adequate internal communication contribute in the continuous
improvement of business operation, fulfillment of goals, and
contributes to create a strong institutional culture, and strengthen the
institutional image.
Arias & Velasteguí, (2019) mentions that internal communication is
important, because it improves productivity and transmits the
institutional identity and image, actions that generate impact on staff
and customers, unlike internal members, organizations focus more on
the external public, making relevant the creation of an internal
organizational communication strategy. On the other hand, external
communication plays an important role in reaching the target
audience and making them aware of the activities carried out by public
and private entities.
Communication seeks through internal communication that
collaborators have an active participation, make changes in their
attitude and improve their productivity, the results of these processes
will be reflected positively in the institutional image; that is why it can
be said that internal communication is strategic and that it responds
to the crises that arise and must be strengthened constantly so that its
process is continuous and not traditional as it was before 2019.
To improve the level of business management and meet the needs of
external and internal users of the organization; internal
communication is the means and its results will be reflected in the
institutional image, which will affect the perception that customers
and employees will have; however, companies tend to improve
communication channels with their customers and to neglect
communication with their employees, which is why it is recommended
to implement strategies aimed at improving internal communication,
in order not to neglect the human resource (Ansede, 2018).
According to Olmedo, (2021) the human being is a social being, in
which communication is a daily activity, hence its importance; it
allows people to create relationships in different areas, such as:
personal, family, work, common interests, etc., most people manage to
strengthen ties and create commitments through communication.
Starting from the etymology, the word communication comes from the
Latin "communicare", which is "to transmit", based on the above, to
communicate is the act or process of transmitting information,
concepts or truths of something or someone to a person or group in
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specific; for what must be used languages, signs or signals that are
interpretable.
For the authors Arias & Velasteguí, (2019) communication is
understood as the act of generating information and compression
using messages that are transferred to others; the communication
process is divided into two types:
Interpersonal communication, where the process of transferring
knowledge, ideas and understanding takes place between two people
or more, depending on the number of people involved in the
communication.
Communication in organizations is the process where the sender
shares information in a systematic way to the members of their
organizations, but also to agents or institutions that are somehow
related to the sender organization.
According to Charry, (2018) organizational communication is the
process where information and messages are created and exchanged
within a group depending on each of its members to achieve changes
or face different situations. According to, Ardaya, (2021) mention that
organizational communication is seen as a program with tools used in
public relations that are carried out with internal, governmental and
financing agents of the organizations. On the other hand, Orriaga,
(2021) assures that organizational communication is a mechanism for
receiving and sending messages in formal and informal ways present
in an organization.
The author Egas & Yance, (2018) perceives organizational
communication as an internal behavior of the organization and the
personnel that compose it, where they perform information transfer,
with the intention of creating an efficient flow of information, to create
systems or direct communication networks. For Montecé Moreno,
(2020) the concept of organizational communication goes further than
that of the other authors, since he conceives it as a communication
strategy that has a previous planning, in which it involves the
institution's close community and seeks the fulfillment of proposed
objectives. In turn, communication provokes an interaction between
the members of the organization and organizational leaders.
According to Orriaga, (2021), successful organizational
communication is one in which the leader or managers manage to
transmit institutional values to the personnel, create a good working
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environment, and ensure that the message is clear and direct. It is
important to know the benefits of effective organizational
communication, among which are the following:
• Each member of the organization understands his or her
position and role.
• Strengthens staff relations with the organization's
management.
• Contributes to the achievement of organizational goals.
• Knowledge of the duties and obligations of organizational
leaders and staff, which promotes production and efficiency.
According to Rizo, (2020) internal communication contemplates
several actions with the purpose of transmitting the daily information
that is generated within the company, promoting teamwork for
adverse times, and the achievement of the objectives set. The author
Montecé Moreno, (2020), mentions that it is a key element for the
strengthening and development of organizations in Ecuador;
companies have had a better development from considering people
and information as an important part in the creation of a
communication strategy for commercial purposes.
According to Loza, (2018) mentions that state institutions that apply
internal communication strategies have determined the importance of
this, and add it to their management model; in this way it ceases to be
a tool and becomes a policy within these state organizations. For
internal communication are actions made by the organization in order
to create good relationships among its members, through
communication channels that meet the objective of: inform, connect,
align and contribute to the achievement of goals.
Aguilar, Salguero, & Barriga, (2018) mention that external
communication fulfills the process of transmitting the company's
information towards external agents that are somehow related to the
business activity, to forward messages that seek to create a nexus or
bring the target audience of the business closer to the actions, such as:
perceiving a good corporate image and the need to buy the goods or
services. One of the purposes is to transmit the message to consumers,
suppliers, partners, competitors, control institutions, press, sectorial
groups, and any individual linked to the business activity.
It is important to mention that external communication depends on a
good management of internal communication, because if employees
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and managers do not know their products, services, values, policies
and other intangibles, they cannot be well transmitted to the external
public. For Pineda, (2020) the effectiveness of internal and external
communication forms a good corporate image, which is defined as the
mental structure perceived by internal and external agents as a result
of the relevant information transmitted by the organization.
According to Ardaya, (2021) the changes that arose as a result of the
Covid-19 pandemic in all aspects of society had a significant influence
on the way companies and organizations worked, especially those that
worked with internal and external users through a structural,
economic, social and political network. Both the ways and places of
work changed immediately taking into account the restrictions of
mobility and confinements imposed by the authorities, so that the
schedules of attention and service had to be adjusted to the emerging
norms established by the governments, which influenced the
relationship with suppliers and customers who also maintained their
own times of availability of attention in accordance with the
restrictions.
This new environment demanded new communication strategies
appropriate to the new changes, with the expectation that these
changes would be received in a good way, for which the
communication message was key in its formulation at the time of being
selected and disseminated, where it was also analyzed under which
media it would be issued and the credibility of the institutional
spokesperson and that it was not seen as an imposition but rather a
response to the needs of the common good of the moment.
However, the pandemic accelerated the process and required
specialists in the field, who were in charge of reducing physical
interactions with people and collaborators within the organizations,
excluding face-to-face meetings in order to avoid contagion and
continue communicating in a new way.
The new challenges on the part of the organizations made the way of
communication change both with their internal and external users,
where they paid more attention and interest in aspects that previously
had little interest; such as the protection of brands or institutional
image, the permanence in the market, the reputation of the companies,
the avoidance of unnecessary conflicts that demanded time and
economic resources, therefore they became more demanding and
perfectionist before the new forms of coexistence, therefore the
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business management returned to have an important attention from
the leaders and managers of the organizations.
In this context, the human image of local governments stood out;
demonstrating empathy and solidarity, generating positive feelings
and hope, which resulted in a greater compliance with the provisions
of the restrictions, which gives an opportunity in the future for local
governments to establish more direct, open and human
communication processes with their citizens, where the interaction
that generates positive impacts contributes to the institutional image,
reputation and legitimacy of governments and governors.
Currently, public management is defined by the administrative
structure of the company, the tools and inputs of a public nature used
for its management. Torres, (2020) mentions that the new public
management focuses on several aspects such as: management by
results, customer orientation, citizen participation, autonomy,
decentralization and strategic management. On the other hand
Salinas, (2020) indicates that public management can be oriented in
that results are one of the most important reforms within the public
sector, due to its high impact and complexity of application; this new
form of public administration emphasizes obtaining results through
administrative processes carried out under criteria of efficiency and
effectiveness. For this reason, results-based management is not only a
theoretical change, but also a practical and evaluative one, since it also
points out the reasons why and why not the objectives were achieved.
Maldonado, (2020), indicates that strategic planning should focus on
satisfying the user in any process, based on the demands, interests and
priorities of the user, so that they can be actors in the decision-making
process; this process should consider all social groups, from children,
vulnerable groups, priority care groups, among others. In the same
way, it is important to improve current processes in order to avoid
business mistakes, strengthen legal areas, ensure that policies are
better received and that the transmission of knowledge is ideal, so that
the members of the institutions can respond efficiently and quickly to
the needs of the population served. This makes it necessary to simplify
and speed up administrative procedures, delegate specific
responsibilities to specific personnel, eliminate unnecessary
hierarchical levels, establish schedules in accordance with the time of
users, and implement transparency criteria, (Moreta , 2022).
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According to Ardaya, (2021) a contract is a written agreement between
two parties on the results to be achieved within a defined period, with
a fixed budget; a new guideline that contributes to the management of
services in the public sector is the focus on competition, which should
not be the end when providing the service, but a tool to provide it in a
better, more efficient and better way. Although this approach
generates a continuity of processes, it can also generate conflict of
interest by prioritizing certain problems or users.
According to Maldonado, (2020) strategic management is a process
based on the search for absolute quality, where the ultimate goal is a
constant improvement in the quality of the services provided; strategic
management is a long-term approach, so it must correct short-term
reforms and limited actions. Therefore, it is important to provide
feedback on the processes, bearing in mind the objectives set, since the
modernization of administrative processes brings about notorious
changes in the public and political sector.
The success of strategic modernization lies in the ability to interact
with external actors to solve problems that, if not for them, the
structure would not be able to solve them at any time. (Olmedo, 2021).
For strategic modernization to be successful, it is important that
institutions interact with agents external to them, and that they
provide other perspectives in the search for problem solving,
otherwise, existing problems cannot be corrected, (Sixto, López, &
Fuente, 2021)..
On the other hand, for (Fernández, 2021) strategic management is the
process that seeks cultural change in the provision of services and their
constant improvement, and that by means of the instrument of
feedback of the objectives set is intended to solve the problem of failed
short-term policies that have a limited scope, which is why the
objective of modernization is to make tangible changes in the political
dimension in order to promote the continuity of the processes to avoid
stagnation of the same.
Modernization in the municipalities is centered on the opening that
these have when integrating into regional institutions for the scope of
large-scale economy in the services of transportation, energy, water
and solid waste with the intention that the resources are not centered
in a single point, but that they are distributed and used in a better way.
The decision making process is related to the mental process delimited
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by limited rationality, for which it is necessary to have the appropriate
information, which will then become important information.
Within the modernization of municipal administrations, one element
that characterizes it are the policies that promote the strengthening of
institutions at the regional level; the Decentralized Autonomous
Governments integrate regional groups with the aim of obtaining
knowledge and experience in economies of scale for the provision of
services, such as: transportation, energy, water resources and waste
management. In this sense, decentralization helps to ensure that
resources and responsibilities are not managed by a single institution,
but are redistributed according to competencies, (Rizo, 2020).
According to Suárez, (2021) it is necessary to guarantee the public
interest, due to the fact that these competencies are assigned by
another public institution, in addition to the fact that they are
established in the law through the constitution; where communication
is a recognized right and has specific functions, so public entities are
obliged to comply with this constitutional mandate, unlike other types
of companies that although they also have obligations before the law
such as social responsibility, they do not have assigned functions to
comply with regarding the right of communication.
Currently, the public communication of the GADM has become a
changing activity, it cannot be limited or pigeonholed within a
homogeneous scheme, this activity includes other areas such as
political information, public relations, administrative services,
interpersonal dialogues, institutional advertising, among others
according to each situation. There are fundamental aspects within the
communication between the administration and the citizens, such as:
the right to information, the typology of the users, the nature of the
messages, the information and communication technologies or the
structures of the different administrative competency levels that
provide services to the citizen, which serve to design the public
communication processes between the two actors.
The objective of the municipalities is to ensure and guarantee the
fulfillment of their competencies generating a social benefit to their
citizens, the GADM of the Salinas canton must generate actions,
projects and agreements in various areas, in addition to the services
that by law it is responsible for providing, according to its capacity and
size. The municipalities are the baseline reference to have a clearer
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idea of local management, since everything that concerns its operation
is directly related to the political-administrative entity.
The representation of local identity and the satisfaction of community
needs should be objectives of the municipal administration, which are
variable for each municipality, due to the territorial factor, the
community, and the partisan biases of the authorities in office.
Therefore, the execution of plans and projects that benefit the
community depend on the vision of each new municipal government;
it is through different communication tools and processes that the
communication and public relations departments of the municipalities
are able to connect, transmit the message and information of the
administration to the citizens.
According to (Charry, 2019) internal communication has become for
companies a useful tool for their internal functioning and relations
with their customers and other external users; therefore, it plays a very
important role, it has been given little importance especially in public
institutions where their rules and regulations on many occasions are
very strict and obsolete in terms of their internal communication
policies. (Barra, Ampuero, & López, 2020) In recent years significant
progress has been made regarding internal communication in the
private sector, while in the public sector there has been little progress,
due to adjustment measures in the public sector such as staff reduction
or little innovation and updating of internal procedures, ignoring what
many authors state: that communication is a key factor for routine
work because the flow of information is direct and transparent;
therefore this makes the staff stay aligned to organizational objectives.
On the other hand, (Ardaya, 2021) the research conducted, called
"internal communication and its impact on the development of digital
transformation companies Webdit in Ecuador" shows that
communication in Ecuadorian companies, presents problems in terms
of poor information and limited communication that exists at all
hierarchical levels of the organization due to the weak internal
channels implemented; which negatively affects the time to report on
administrative and social issues to employees.
The problem of this research arises due to the different types of
internal communication that exist in the Autonomous Decentralized
Municipal Government of Canton Salinas, referring to what the author
Orriaga mentions, (2021) the new ways of communicating to different
audiences that arose from the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on
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mobility and the relationship of institutions with their internal users.
This has generated the existence of double information channels that
in turn duplicate the work in the different areas, in the same way the
distortion of the information by not respecting the necessary channels
to transmit the information; it affects the personnel with managerial
level and the subordinate collaborators because it generates conflicts
and inadequate labor climate.
In the daily routines of the work of the collaborators there are
problems about the activities performed by the staff, because although
in some areas there are collaborators who perform the same activities
but they interpret and execute them in different ways which makes the
managers of the areas make wrong decisions because there is not the
same criteria or results, therefore there is not enough training about
the activities, functions and clear responsibilities of the staff and the
lack of commitment and motivation, these are the factors that are
affecting the quality of work and institutional image of the
Municipality of Canton Salinas.
Materials and Methods
The current research focuses on a descriptive approach that has
allowed a detailed understanding of the object of study through the
theoretical breakdown of the relevant variables. A situational analysis
of internal communication and public management in the Municipal
Autonomous Decentralized Government (GAD) of Salinas Canton was
carried out. In addition, a communication model has been designed
with the purpose of strengthening public management, seeking to
improve both the internal and external communication of this
institution. Likewise, this study has a correlational approach since it
establishes relationships between the variables and the results
obtained from the surveys used to determine the level of public
management. Through this process, the critical factors present in the
public management of the institution were identified, which were
derived from the diagnostic analysis carried out in the initial stage of
the research. The variables evaluated focused on public management
and internal communication.
The design of this research is given by the inductive method, to know
the situational reality of the object of study, in order to strengthen the
organizational communication management of the Municipal
Government of Salinas Canton, through the techniques of direct
observation, interviews and surveys conducted to its management
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staff. On the other hand, the deductive method was used to identify the
critical factors associated with public management, in order to design
a communication model to strengthen the organizational performance
of the GADM of Canton Salinas; surveys were conducted to the staff of
the GADM of Canton Salinas, this instrument was designed by 4
identification questions and 11 research questions related to human
talent management, organizational management, management of
citizen participation, management of supervision and control.
This study considered a population of 652 public servants of the GAD
Municipal del Cantón Salinas, in order to identify the critical factors
associated with pre and post pandemic communication and its impact
on public management in order to design a communication model to
strengthen organizational performance. The following are the
numbers of public servants of the GAD Municipal del Cantón Salinas.
Table 1 Public servants of the GADM of Salinas Canton
Officials
Quantity
Legislative level
7
Executive level
6
Advisor level
26
Support level
126
Operational level
487
Total
652
Source: Directorate of TTHH, GAD Municipal del Cantón Salinas-
2023
Prepared by: author a
The sample was made by applying the following formula:
Where:
Table 2 Sample calculation for study
N = Population size
652
Z = Confidence margin
Z = 0.95 (95%)
P = Probability of success
P = 50 % = 0.50
qpZNe
NqpZ
n
××+-×
××
=
22
2
)1(
.
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E = Sampling error
E = 5 % = 0.05
q= Possibility of not being
fulfilled
Q = 1- P = 0.50
n =?
Sample size
! "
#
$%&'
(
!
#
)%*
(#
)%*
(
#'*+(
#
)%)*
(
!
#
'*+ , $
(
-
#
$%&'
(
!"
#)%*(#)%*(
! "
'+'%$.).
+%*./&
0 "
! " +1+
The sample size is 242 people to be surveyed to learn about the subject
of the study, with a confidence level of 95%, a margin of error of 5%,
with a 50% probability of being fulfilled, and with a population of 652
public servants of the GADM of Canton Salinas; probabilistic sampling
was used, through systematic sampling.
For the development of the research topic, several sources were used
to obtain the necessary information for the design of the sustainable
communication model of the GADM of Cantón Salinas, which are
detailed below:
Primary sources: Field information was obtained through the
application of data collection techniques, where interviews were
conducted with experts to learn about the object of study, on the other
hand, observation was used to identify factors associated with public
management and internal communication, and surveys were
conducted to public servants of the GADM of Canton Salinas to learn
about the situational reality.
Secondary sources: We resorted to secondary source information in
order to have the theoretical and reference argumentation related to
the topic of study and the proposal designed, for which we used the
documentary and virtual review of books, scientific articles, and theses
related to this research.
Results
In March 2020 was imposed throughout Ecuador the use of masks in
people as a preventive measure of contagion of COVID-19 and its
obligatory nature in public institutions, one of them the GADM of
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Canton Salinas, where the institutions questioned their actions before
the decisions to take and that would impact in the short, medium and
long term, medium and long term and that in order to fulfill their
functions, they had to respond to the communicational demands of the
moment and at the same time to take actions that allowed to adapt to
the new modality of teleworking during the pandemic,
It was determined through the surveys conducted SEE TABLE NO.-3
that 38.84% of the Salinas Canton GADM officials had a 50% increase
in work during the pandemic because they had to carry out other
processes in order to fulfill their functions, while 4.96% indicated that
post-pandemic their work increased by 50%, that is, there was a
33.88% decrease; on the other hand, 5.79% had a 25% reduction in
work during the pandemic due to the change in functions; however,
38.02% post-pandemic had a 25% reduction in work due to the change
in functions, however, 38.02% post-pandemic had a 25% reduction in
work due to the fact that during the pandemic they were assigned other
functions due to additional activities that had to be carried out by the
GADMs due to the additional activities that had to be carried out.02%
post-pandemic had a 25% reduction in work due to the fact that during
the pandemic they were assigned other functions due to the additional
activities that the GADMs were required to perform by the National
COE and Cantonal COE, such as: control of food prices, disinfection
processes, control of the license plate and license plate, and
supervision of established norms. On the other hand, 10.74%
indicated that an inadequate work environment was generated, due to
the lack of relationships and protection norms by the COVID, while
POST pandemic 6.20% considered that there was an inadequate work
environment, this component had a decrease of 4.55% due to weak
interpersonal relationships that did not contribute to the fulfillment of
organizational objectives.
Table 3. Impact of COVID's performance of its functions 19
Affectation in
the execution
of functions
PANDEMIA
POST
PANDEMIC
Variation
DETAIL
F
%
F
%
Work
reduction 25%.
14
5.79%
92
38.02%
32.23%
50% reduction
of work
5
2.07%
34
14.05%
11.98%
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Labor
reduction 75%.
0
0.00%
0
0.00%
0.00%
Work increase
25%.
18
7.44%
42
17.36%
9.92%
50% increase
in work
94
38.84%
12
4.96%
-33.88%
Increase in
work 75%.
53
21.90%
26
10.74%
-11.16%
Inadequate
working
environment
26
10.74%
15
6.20%
-4.55%
Stress and
demotivation
32
13.22%
21
8.68%
-4.55%
TOTAL
242
100.00
%
242
100.00
%
Source: Surveys conducted
Prepared by: Author
This period of time has been chosen because it was the peak period of
the Covid-19 pandemic, a period in which organizations implemented
internal communication strategies to communicate effectively and
efficiently with the stakeholders of the entity, therefore, this research
aims to answer the following question: How does internal
communication affect the management of the Municipal Decentralized
Autonomous Government of Canton Salinas? The new management of
public entities seeks to achieve an administration that meets the real
needs of citizens at the lowest possible cost, reflected in quality
services through transparency processes that encourage citizen
participation. According to the surveys conducted, it was determined
that 38.85% of those surveyed were teleworking, while 25.54% took
vacations due to the high probability of contagion, and part of this
group was infected while performing their duties, therefore they took
vacations due to illness; on the other hand, 21.94% of the officials had
a change of duties, because they could not perform their work activities
due to the high probability of contagion, and finally 13.67% had a
change of schedule in order to perform activities in compliance with
the provisions of the National COE and Cantonal COE.
Based on the research conducted through the evaluation of four
components: human talent management, organizational
management, citizen participation management, supervision and
control management. It was determined that public management in
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pre-pandemic was 88%, while in pandemic was 82%, and post-
pandemic was 89%, due to the critical factors that affect the municipal
communication structure, which affects organizational performance.
The new approaches generated during the pandemic, such as the use
of tools and the application of strategies for the execution of functions,
have led to the creation of new options to comply with administrative
activities, which are aimed at the creation and execution of new
communication strategies directed to citizens, and which are based on
the goals of each new government team. In this way, the
communication departments and teams of the GADM of Canton
Salinas established municipal strategic actions for the fulfillment of
their functions.
According to the surveys conducted, it was determined that 43% used
platforms for the execution of activities, which generated
inconveniences as they did not know about technological tools, while
19% indicated that due to the regulations established by teleworking,
it generated workload at home, and 17% mentioned that there was a
lack of equipment when having to develop their functions from home.
In the GADM of Cantón Salinas, the organization's new
communication strategies should be oriented towards making citizens
feel that they are part of the projects contemplated in the Land
Management Plan, and that through the different mechanisms of
citizen participation they contribute to the design of projects and
public policies that benefit the community in general.
According to the surveys conducted, 25.21% indicated that there were
changes of processes as an action to strengthen the telework system in
pandemic Covid 19, while 29.75% considered that post pandemic again
used changes of processes to adapt to new ways of working; on the
other hand, 33.38% mentioned that trainings were developed during
the pandemic so that people can adapt to new ways of working, and
31.40% indicated that trainings were developed to be prepared for the
new challenges of today's society. Finally, 16.12% indicated that
functions were modified for workers during the pandemic, who were
unable to perform their jobs due to COE regulations, and after the
pandemic they returned to normal, and some employees even returned
to their jobs due to the analysis of functions that was developed after
the pandemic.
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Table 4. Actions implemented by the Municipal Government of
Canton Salinas
Actions
Implemented
Pandemic
Post
Pandemic
Variation
DETAIL
F
%
F
%
Training
82
33.88%
76
31.40%
-2.48%
Modification of
functions
39
16.12%
41
16.94%
0.83%
Flexibility of
schedules
52
21.49%
43
17.77%
3.72%
Changes in
care processes
61
25.21%
72
29.75%
4.55%
No action
8
3.31%
10
4.13%
0.83%
TOTAL
242
100.00%
242
100.00%
3.5. Challenges of sustainable communication and its impact on the
management of the Municipal Government of Salinas Canton after the
COVID 19 pandemic.
For most state institutions, the communication department is
essential, so they apply strategies that provide greater relevance to the
daily work performed, with a better quality of work and corporate
image, which should promote intercommunication between citizens
and the institution. Within the administration of the Municipal
Government of Salinas canton, communication management is a key
tool for achieving development, for which communication strategies
should be designed to include effective participation and achievement
of goals, to engage all agents of change, the commitment shown by
workers depends directly on the level of participation that is given to
each one.
The new ideas and communication strategies proposed should be
planned based on the local environment and the objectives established
to ensure the execution of the projects; through strategic
communication planning, it is expected that the GAD Municipal del
Cantón Salinas will strengthen the leadership image of the
organization and determine how to improve the attention to its
external public, taking into account the demands posed by the
environment and the type of difficulties and obstacles that may hinder
the organization's response capacity.
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The relationship between collaborators and citizens is so important
that internal communication must be constantly evaluated and
monitored in order to improve as the case may be; another aspect to
be monitored is the fulfillment of municipal objectives, which through
adequate internal communication can be known from different
perspectives, criteria and opinions of both members and leaders of the
organization regarding the fulfillment of the same; This information
becomes a valuable input of analysis for the rethinking of objectives
and for decision making; consequently, this research showed that
although internal users recognize that there is not an adequate process
of internal communication, there is freedom of opinion, but it is not
clear what the objectives of the institution are.
Communication in the GAD Municipal del Cantón Salinas is essential
to strengthen public management, both for the achievement of goals
and the attainment of business objectives; it depends not only on the
quality of service provided to its users, but the image that reflects and
impacts them through the correct use of communication channels.
Likewise, the strategic actions oriented to its collaborators will have a
positive impact on the execution of their functions; on the other hand,
the motivation factor plays an important role so that the employees
perform their tasks with responsibility and sense of belonging.
The proposed model MGCSPR 2023, is a metamodel named by its
acronym identified as: sustainable communication model by result
developed in the year 2023, aims to strengthen public management
and organizational performance; it is designed in relation to the
established criteria, thus allowing to improve the negative factors
identified in the research.
For most state institutions, the communication department is
essential, so they apply strategies that provide greater relevance to the
daily work performed, with a better quality of work and corporate
image, which should promote intercommunication between citizens
and the institution. Within the municipal administration of the Gad of
Canton Salinas, communication management is a key tool to achieve
development, for which it must design communication strategies that
include effective participation and achievement of goals, to engage all
agents of change, the commitment shown by workers depends directly
on the level of participation that is given to each one.
The new ideas and communication strategies proposed should be
planned based on the local environment and the objectives established
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to ensure the execution of the projects; through strategic
communication planning, it is expected that the GADM of Canton
Salinas will strengthen the leadership image of the organization and
determine how to improve the attention to its external public, taking
into account the demands posed by the environment and the type of
difficulties and obstacles that may hinder the organization's ability to
respond.
The results of this research concluded that there is a lack of
communication among the members of the Autonomous
Decentralized Municipal Government of Canton Salinas, so this
problem has a negative impact on the efforts that the GADM intends
to make and significantly affects its employees because in the absence
of an adequate communication strategy they do not grasp the ideas
and objectives of the programs and projects of the entity, which affects
the proper execution of their functions, lack of institutional identity
and little sense of belonging to the organization.
Within the communication management of the GADM of Canton
Salinas, internal communication of the institution should be
considered, because it stimulates the participation of officials, allows
coordinating and promoting attitude changes that benefit
productivity, which in turn improve the institutional image. Therefore,
internal communication is key to the communication strategy, which
has been used as a mechanism in response to crises, and its use has
been further strengthened after 2019; it becomes a strategic tool to
generate greater commitment, collaboration, productivity and
compliance by the members of the company where they belong.
As part of this model, a previous analysis and diagnosis of the existing
municipal communications structure should be carried out to
determine the effectiveness of the sub areas of the communications
department, a correct distribution of roles and functions to the
personnel, and processes that are formally established. The main
objective of this proposal is to strengthen the public management of
the Salinas canton government, for which it is necessary to establish
strategic actions oriented to the following components: human talent
management, organizational management, citizen participation
management, and supervision and control management.
The relationship between employees and citizens is so important that
internal communication must be constantly evaluated and monitored
in order to improve as appropriate.
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Another aspect to be monitored is the fulfillment of the municipal
objectives, which through adequate internal communication it is
possible to know different perspectives, criteria and opinions of both
members and leaders of the organization regarding the fulfillment of
the same; such information becomes a valuable input for analysis to
rethink objectives and for decision making; consequently, this
research showed the result that although internal users recognize that
there is no adequate internal communication process, there is freedom
of opinion, but it is not clear what the objectives of the institution are.
According to the author Thomas, (2021) it is important that the leaders
of public entities know well the theory of organizational
communication and that they can put it into practice; however, this
research determined that the work experience of half of the managers
comes from the private sector; This could have an impact on the
inadequate internal communication of the Municipal Government,
since it is a public institution. Likewise, more than half of the
collaborators recognized that their departmental leaders do not
establish clear objectives for the department, which would reflect a
weak leadership on the part of the officials who are in charge of the
directorates and who could have no knowledge of the municipal
objectives, which could affect their fulfillment.
According to Derr, (2019) internal communication has become an
important tool to establish commitments and cooperation in workers,
thus making them understand the importance of their role and impact
that their actions will have being part of an organization.
In the research it was determined that internal communication is an
integral part of all the strategies that companies have been adopting as
responses to the crises presented in comparison to what was
previously done in 2019, within this process those responsible for
carrying it out will be the officials who establish the business strategies
for the company and that if they work continuously and in the long
term, the achievement of business objectives will be achieved, thus
strengthening the corporate image.
One of the skills to have in the working world is to communicate
effectively, because a direct, clear, precise and timely communication
helps to the correct transmission of the message, greater productivity
of workers and a good perception of the institutional image. As
indicated by the author Ree, (2021) when the communication actions
executed have not been planned correctly, there is a risk of not meeting
the objectives, therefore it is essential that these actions have a
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planning focused on the goals and that they contribute to the effective
communication development of the organization.
Heer, (2021) good communication within an organization is an
indicator of success; that is why the goals are not only obtained from a
good service, but also depends on good communication channels and
tools. In turn, the author Jeee, (2018) indicates that companies must
provide all the resources for employees to execute their jobs effectively,
here motivation is important as it develops levels of commitment and
belonging to the institution. Currently, communication has undergone
postmodern changes, so it makes use of all its resources and tools such
as: audiovisual equipment, telephones, mobile devices, everything
used in the knowledge society, through wireless networks by cyber
culture, cyber citizenship, neurosciences, telematics, among others.
The author Wogeschaffen, (2020) indicates that it is pertinent to
evaluate the situation of the communication unit, but also that of the
institution in general, it is necessary to have a knowledge of the
punctualized history and another generalized one that provides
greater clarity as to why the situation prior to the approach.
Conclusions
A lack of optimization in the institutional results has been identified
due to the absence of a strengthening in the performance based on the
management carried out; this lack has a direct impact on the
development of staff competencies, the lack of an internal
communication strategy hinders the efficient achievement of
organizational objectives. 25.21% of respondents experienced specific
process changes during the pandemic to strengthen the telework
system; this indicates an agile response to the circumstances imposed
by the health crisis, which led to adjustments in the ways of working
to maintain operational continuity.
29.75% of respondents indicated that process changes were
implemented after the pandemic to adapt to new ways of working; this
suggests that the transformations brought about by the pandemic are
not considered only temporary, but have led to long-term
modifications in work processes. It was concluded that there is a trend
towards continuous adaptation, both during and after the pandemic,
as well as a recognition of the importance of training and skills
development to meet the changing challenges of the current work and
social environment; since 31.40% indicated that training was offered
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to prepare for the new challenges of today's society, these actions are
oriented to the need to continue to promote flexibility, training and
preparation for future changes in the world of work and society in
general.
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