Establishing Internal Communication Channels Preferred by the Employees of Public Universities in Western Kenya during Unrest

Abstract

Public universities in Kenya have experienced recurrent employees unrest which could be as a result of ineffective internal communication between the university and its employees. During crisis, effective internal communication is vital as it is the only way the organization and employees can dialogue and stop the crisis. Despite vast research on organizational internal communication literature on employees preferred internal communication channels in Kenyan public universities during unrest is lacking. Data was collected by means of questionnaires and FGDs among 374 employees and 114 union officials respectively. The findings revealed that most preferred mode of communication by the employees was staff WhatsApp platform (51.7%). The study recommended that the management of public universities should integrate existing internal communication channels with staff WhatsApp.