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Abstract

The thesis outlines the importance of information in local authority planning and proposes that for local authorities the intra-organisational communication of planning information is problematic, in that individual planners may not possess information which they require although relevant data exists in the organisation.

Through an examination of the concepts "communication", "information" and "data" a situation “communication failure" is defined (the sets defining communication failure also defining an 'organisation data gap' and a situation where information is perceived as possessed but not required).

In view of the range of information pertinent to the planner's task a category, 'direct' information describing the situation within the community, is selected with which to study the extent of the communication failure and associated circumstances.

The relevant literature of information science and organisational communication is examined. A methodology is devised to discover the extent of the “communication failure", specifically for housing planners and planners for the elderly and more generally as a methodology that may be adapted to identify communication failure in any organisation. The methodology also measures the extent of the organisation's data gap and possession of non-required information.

Following an extensive review of the literature a large number of possible associated variables are identified, certain of which are included in the field work (including relevance, propinquity, ease of use, planner's characteristics, departmental divisions). ‘The methodology is applied to officers with planning responsibilities in six local authorities. The sample consisted of a total of four housing planners and three architects (in three local authorities) and five planners for the elderly (in the other three local authorities).

The research finds that communication failure in this particular sample is highest for the architects and lowest for the planners for the elderly [average values for communication failure, architects 34.48%, housing planners 16.47%, planners for the elderly 6.78%; where communication failure is expressed as:-

number of items of information perceived by the planner (or architect) as required for his work which are available within the Authority in a form that he would regard as satisfactory but are not perceived as possessed by him

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number of items of information perceived by the planner (or architect) as required for his work which are available within the authority in a form that he would regard as satisfactory]

Within each of these groups there is considerable variation.

A considerable proportion of the information which is perceived by the planners (or architects) as required for their work does not exist in the Authority. This is referred to as the organisation's data gap. The average values for the organisation's data gap are generally higher than those for communication failure [architects 33.33%, housing planners 34.87%, planners for the elderly 44.083; where the organisation's data gap is expressed as:-

number of items of information perceived by the planner (or architect) as required for his work which are not available within the Authority in a form that he would regard as satisfactory

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the total number of items of information perceived by: the planner (or architect) as required for his work].

The research also finds extensive possession of information that is not perceived as required and brings into question the problematic nature of inter-departmental communication.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications J Political Science > JS Local government Municipal government
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Bayes Business School Doctoral Theses Doctoral Theses

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