Internal communication at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF): Successes, gaps and failures

Abstract

This study explores internal communication at the World Agroforestry Centre and examines the success, gaps and failures of communication strategies employed at the Centre. Special emphasis has been put on electronic communication and its impacts on internal communication since this is, by far, the most prevalent medium for information sharing at the Centre. The paper seeks to answer the question whether this much lauded post-modern multi usage medium is deserving of all the praise it gets, or whether it has cast shadows in some areas where the more output-limited traditional media had shed light. This question is examined within the conceptual framework of three theories of communication gatekeeping theory, spiral of silence theory and information theory. In view of the emphasis on electronic communication, commensurate emphasis has also been given to the gatekeeping theory in discussing the results. The findings show that electronic communication has had both positive and negative impacts on internal communication and that the need for an ethical informed information gatekeeper is even more crucial in an electronic online communication world.