EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION MECHANISMS AND FINAL RESULTS AT UNIVERSITY EDUCATION CONTEXT

An effective communication at the University educational context produces better results in terms of different stakeholders’ satisfaction and quality in the teaching and learning processes (De Pablos et al., 2014). Researches in the education field have shown that final performance does not just depend on the quality of technology, but also on the quality of communication and interaction (Anderson, 2003; Lee et al., 2010), time management (Soong et al, 2004; Lee, 2010) and conflict resolution (Liaw et al., 2007; Sung and Mayer, 2012). Therefore, the improvement of communication mechanisms at firms should be based in the development of a corporate strategy that focus in the main four attributes that characterize a good communication. Frequent, accurate, timely and problem solving communication.

To this respect, De Pablos et al. (2013, 2014) indicate that different practices developed in the University organizational systems can determine the success of a good communication policy.

Some organizational models, as the relational coordination one (Gittell, 2009), affirm that a coordination of quality is produced by providing mechanisms that allow the sharing of goals and knowledge and mutual respect, supported by frequent, timely and problem solving communication.
The importance of organizational routines makes the researchers to pose the following research question, which internal factors influence the implementation of organizational routines oriented to an effective communication?

The first objective of this research is to explore the organizational factors that influence the implementation of effective communication mechanisms at Educational contexts. In order to specify the organizational factors that can influence the implementation of these mechanisms, the researchers focus on the factors which have been emphasized in literature review.

Second objective of this research is to test empirically the relationship between the putting into practice of effective communication mechanisms at educational organizations and the achievement of the desired results.

In order to meet the objectives of this research, the researchers have designed an empirical analysis at the UTEQ University at Equator (Universidad Técnica Estatal de Quevedo). Representative samples of students and lecturers have been analyzed by making use of a questionnaire where both profiles are asked about the effectiveness of University communication mechanisms in terms of frequency, time, accurate and problem solving. A SEM (Structural Equation Model) analysis has been used to process the information and the fitting of the proposed model. This is a following step derived from a previous communication presented at INTED 2014 where the whole relational coordination model was applied to proof excellence in the University Educational Systems.