Information Management and Strategic Communication for Institutional Change in Ethiopia

The growing need for institutional effectiveness and efficiency in meeting institutionally set objectives cannot be seen independent of information management and strategic communication. As a result, information management and strategic communication practices have become quite useful to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of institutions. To find out the information management and strategic communication situation in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Regional state (SNNPRs) in Ethiopia, primary data were collected from nine zonal departments in selected three most populated zones namely Sidama, Gedeo and Hadiya among the 13 zones in the regional state. The study of the information management and strategic communication activities in the three zones was believed to indicate the overall performance in the public administration practices of the region where the three zones alone comprised almost 40% from 15 million population of the regional state. As part of the study, some secondary sources were also used and relevant literature was reviewed. Then, the data were classified using sex, age, qualification and experience, and also analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean value, standard deviation, T-test and correlation analysis. Based on the analysis, it was found out that the information management and strategic communication practice was less effective due to its intuitional placement where the section was given no or little importance in the institutional administration. Besides, it was found out that most of the challenges and problems related to Business Processing and Reengineering (BPR) implementation for institutional change in the state were quite related to the marginalization of information management and communication practices along with the inadequacy of finance and office equipment, and poor office situations like in the case of Gedeo zone. Actually there was better institutional change/reform in the public administration practices of Hadiya zone than the rest two zones. There was a strong correlation among the zones in information exchange level and challenges of BPR implementation. There was, indeed, about 63% success story in reducing process time, and more than 50% in reducing cost and about 50% success in proper use of resources and creating accountability in Hadiya zone though much more is expected. Sidama and Gedeo zones seem to have by far low successes in BPR implementation.