Strategic Communications In Public Administration

Abstract

Problems of ineffective communication in public administration affect the quality of life of every citizen. According to the authors, the communication strategy is one of the most important elements of the mechanism for forming and implementing state economic policy. The communication strategy involves the development, implementation and updating of the system of standards that govern the interaction of authorities with the target audience. Currently the main factor ensuring the effectiveness of communications is the differentiation of communication channels, which is quite easy to implement with the development of digital technologies. At the same time, there are a large number of problems that hinder the implementation of an effective communication strategy. These problems lie both in the theoretical plane and in the practical implementation of these technologies. The authors suggest using a quantitative method of evaluating the effectiveness of the communication process, which consists in the need for any result of the communication initiative. Using this approach as an example of a documentary type of communication has led to certain conclusions that open up reserves for improving the efficiency of public administration.

Keywords: Communication effectivenessdocumentary communicationpublic administrationstrategic communications

Introduction

The mechanism for forming and implementing state socio-economic policy that ensures effective strategic planning at any level of government (Federal, regional, and municipal) should include effective tools for strategic communications in particular, or form an effective communication strategy. (Beregovaya, 2015; Krasil'nikov et al., 2014) The formation of an effective communication strategy is a complex multi-dimensional process that ensures the achievement of public policy goals by using all communication resources and organizing the communication space (Kiselitsa et al., 2017). The communication strategy involves the development, implementation and updating of a system of standards that govern the interaction of authorities with the target audience (Lenkova, 2017). The main factor that ensures the effectiveness of communications is a permanent increase in the number and differentiation of communication channels (their types and types, modes of operation, techniques, procedures and operations), as well as ways to fragment target audiences, which, in turn, is provided by the development of digital technologies (Glukhova et al., 2017; Vakhrushev et al., 2019). The synthesis of various communication tools makes it possible to contribute most to the achievement of the goals of the state socio-economic policy, since it ensures the emergence of the communication system (Bogdanov, 2017; Swiatkiewicz, 2018).

At the same time, in the world practice, there is a change in the concept of public administration from New Public Management ("new public management") to Good Governance ("decent governance"), therefore, there is a global experience of using effective tools of public administration at various levels (Sakhanova, 2004).

This means that the main indicator of the effectiveness of state structures should be client-oriented, which determines a much greater delegation of state powers from the federal level and the level of the subject to the level of local government (Begg, 1999; Yap Kioe Sheng, 2009). In addition, the world experience of public administration shows the use of tools of an even newer concept - Good Governance ("decent governance"), which allows to move away from the secondary importance of solving social problems (Atkinson & Gottlieb, 2001; UNDP, 1997). This model involves expanding the scope of public participation in government (Figure 01 ).

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Problem Statement

There are a large number of problems that hinder the implementation of an effective communication strategy. These problems lie both in the theoretical plane and in the practical implementation of these technologies. First of all, there is no generally accepted classification of communication types, which should be the basis for evaluating their differentiation. This is due to the need to change the paradigm of strategic communication from the traditional active approach to the communicative approach, as well as to the unsettled generally concept of "strategic communication". In the field of practical implementation of the communication process, the main problems are the lack of understanding of the communication importance in the process of effective public administration, and the absence of a constantly working system for monitoring the effectiveness of communications in public administration.

Research Questions

To solve the problems identified, it is necessary to study a number of issues

Purpose of the Study

Fulfillment of these tasks will lead to the achievement of the research goal - to evaluate the effectiveness of communications in the implementation of state socio-economic policies at the municipality level.

Research Methods

The easiest way to evaluate the use of strategic communications is quantitative. It allows to estimate the number of communication channels used, taking into account their differentiation by a fairly large set of characteristics (Osinovskaya & Plenkina, 2017). The classification method is the main method used in this case. In addition, within one type of communication channel, this method is also easy to use and reflects the presence of at least some response to the initiative of this communication. The easiest way to apply this method is the usage it for formal communications of the documentary type, since most of the documentation in the framework of strategic planning of the state socio-economic development must be published on the official websites of the relevant state administration structural divisions. Thus, it is possible to assess how effectively the authorities communicate, for example, within the framework of the formation and implementation of strategic documents for socio-economic development. There is a source of communication – the federal level of government, which initiates the documentary creation of strategies for socio-economic development. The response to communication is the generation and publication of these documents. The presence of such a document on the official information portal will be a quantitative indicator of effective communication in this case. This algorithm can be used for any type of communication with any target audience.

This suggests the need to change the communication model from a one-way linear model (G. Lassuel's model) to a cyclic cybernetic model with a feedback stage (N. Wiener's model) ( Cherkashchenko, 2015).

Consider the most common type in government strategic communications – the documentary type.

Findings

The formation of goals for the functioning of socio-economic systems at various levels of government takes place starting from the national level, that is, from the top to the bottom (table 1 ).

Thus, the degree of organizational and methodological elaboration of the process of forming strategic development plans at the different levels of the government has completely different scales. the federal level is represented by an extensive package of documents regulating strategic development and control over a wide range of details (from goal setting to planning). At the municipal level, documents for strategic planning of socio-economic development are not mandatory, this issue is determined by each municipality independently. In practice, it is impossible to get information about the effectiveness of strategic planning of municipalities, since the implementation of the development strategy is not evaluated.

In addition, we can talk about different target audiences in the formation and implementation of state socio-economic policy. The level of openness of communications (the transition from internal communications between public administration structures) increases to the level of the municipality (from the top to the bottom), which should be taken into account when evaluating the effectiveness of strategic communications in the public administration

Thus, within the documentary type of communications, the municipal level should be represented rather poorly, since precious few strategic planning documents are required.

Now we can evaluate the feedback-an analysis of the availability of existing socio-economic development documents for the long-term period (strategies or concepts) in municipal districts has led to the following results (Figure 02 ).

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1. Abatsky district, 2. Armizon district, 3. Aromashevsky district, 4. Berdyuzhsky district, 5. Vagaysky district, 6. Vikulovskogo district, 7. Golyshmanovsky district, 8. Zavodoukovsky district, 9. Iset district, 10. Ishim district, 11. Kazan district, 12. Nizhnetavdinsky district, 13. Omutinsky district, 14. Sladkovsky district, 15. Sorokinskiy rayon, 16. Tobolsk district, 17. Tyumen district, 18. Uvatsky district, 19. Uporovsky district, 20. Yurginsky district, 21. Yalutorovsk district, 22. Yarkovsky district

The authors assessed high security by having a strategy (concept) for socio-economic development up to 2030 and accompanying documents, while the average level was assessed by having only a strategy (or concept) for socio - economic development. Lack of strategic development documents – low availability of strategic planning documents. Thus, only 50% of municipal districts and only one city district out of four are provided with strategic development documents. We can speak about the low and average effectiveness of communications between the level of state administration of the subject of the Federation and the management of the municipality.

Lack of strategic development documents – low availability of strategic planning documents. Thus, only 50% of municipal districts and only one city district out of four are provided with strategic development documents. We can speak about the low and average effectiveness of communications between the level of state administration of the subject of the Federation and the management of the municipality.

Conclusion

The main problem in applying this method is the lack of a generally accepted classification system for communication channels that is sufficiently branched to meet the conditions for maximum diversification of communication channels. At the same time, the main block of communication technologies has been developed and can be used it as a basis. The second problem is that a large number of researchers of this problem talk about the need to change the approach to classifying communication channels based on the types of activities of specialists in public administration. The change of the communication model from a one-way linear model (G. Lasswell's model) to a cyclic cybernetic model with a feedback stage (N. Wiener's model) also determines the need to change the main block of communication technologies.

The problem of ineffective communication strategies results in the inability to fully use the mechanism for forming and implementing state socio-economic policy. The authors suggest starting the analysis of the use of strategic communications in public administration with the simplest methods of quantitative correspondence between the actions of the subject and the object of the communication process. In the future, expand this chain to a variety of communication channels that can potentially be used in the process of public administration at all its three levels (Federal, regional, and municipal). Due to its simplicity, this method has no restrictions on use and can be applied in any conditions.

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