In any countries, there are various types of organizations created to achieve certain goals.
These organizations can be private or public in nature. Both of these organizations vary
However, for public organizations, the main administrators are the government of the
specific country.
support the development vision of the nation in various sectors. In Malaysia, there are
numerous public organizations such as the Armed Forces, the Legal and Judiciary
Services, the Police Forces, the Railway Authority, Allied Public Service, State Public
Public organizations are formed to manage resources such as physical, financial, human
developmental goals and take care of the peace and prosperity of the country. In other
words, the public organizations are the right hand of the government as they administer
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the journey of the nation towards Vision 2020 through the nation’s developmental
policies such as National Vision Policy and the Ninth Malaysian Plan.
through the Public Service Department and adhering to the Federal Constitution. These
organizations have a major role as they ensure that the legislative, judiciary and executive
powers of the country is exercised efficiently, effectively and according to the national
development blueprint.
The organizational structure of the public organizations implies the line and level of
authority, the chain of order and work relations between one member of the organization
and the others (Abdul Mua’ti Ahmad, 2003). The organization is formed to play specific
There are factors – external and internal – that influence the efficiency and
form part of the organizational culture that colors the administrative engine of the
organization.
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It is without doubt that public organizations are important as the main thrust of the
a tool to achieve specific objectives. This necessitates the deployment of staffs in certain
down management system, starting from the headquarters in Kuala Lumpur (or Putra
the decision-making process has to undergo various procedures which is time consuming
structure is also a top-down process. It implies that external and internal communication
within the public organizations needs to be innovated. This is because the success of an
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The organizational communication structure is important as it ensures information
dissemination necessary to carry out roles and responsibilities in an effective and efficient
manner. Besides, it ensures that there is communicative relationship between the staffs
changing with time. Thus, organizational communication must be effective to address the
changes in the environment (Kitchen and Daly, 2002). In fact, Matheson and Matheson
(1998) noticed in their study on effective organization that secrecy and ineffective
For the public organization, the communication structure is rigid, with formal
upper management to lower staffs is normally executed by circulating memos which are
published their web sites or on other information boards. Communication from the lower
staffs to the top management is normally done by memo signed by the Department Head
or assigned executives.
policies and procedures. The organization’s representative such as the department head,
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District Officer and the Director, in some organizations, the Corporate Communication
However, government staffs are not allowed to enclose any information that does not
abide the Official Secret Acts. It seems to point out that the process of communication
within the public organization is heavily constrained by rigid structures which lead to
ineffective and inefficient organizational communication. The high bureaucracy rate due
to the mechanistic organizational structure and the close communication structure might
Definition
The ‘open door’ concept in the organization is a communication practice that encourages
the process of communication from bottom to top of the organization (Missouri Small
Business Development Centers, 2006). It ensures that the staffs know what is expected of
them and the time frame they should complete a certain task. This open door practice is
able to increase the level of trust in the organization and address the issue of office
politics in an open and honest manner. In general, this practice provides more rooms and
opportunity to the lower level staffs in decision-making process resulting from work
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The open door practice ensures that communication in the organization is not top-
communication structure gives a more flexible communication process that lessens the
strict administrative structures and ensures decision-making process is fast. Thus, work
process is efficient.
The open door concept means the communication ‘door’ in the organization is wide open
that information dissemination in the organization is transparent and fast. This practice
increases the confidence and trust of the upper management on the capability of lower
staffs in performing their tasks in an effective and efficient manner. Thus, work is
One of the main characteristics of the open door concept is the significant
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channel and relations among individuals in the organization can be further enhanced. The
final product is work accomplished fast, efficient and accurately, which directly increase
Open door policy adheres to the total quality management (TQM) which focuses
on management aspect that improve the system capability status and not the process. In
TQM, the organizational structure is somewhat lower, wider and less hierarchical.
Relationship between the top and bottom staffs is characterized by co-independence, co-
The open door policy ensures a decrease in bureaucracy so that the basis of
decision-making is on facts and systems and not subject to the whims of the upper
management. Decision-making process can be done by the lower staffs because open
door policy provides a way for important information channel from top to bottom, vice
versa.
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Benefits of Open Door Practice
Work environment now has become more dynamic, forever changing due to external and
internal factors. The effects of political, social and economic changes in and out of the
country have subjected the mechanistic type of organizational structure no longer suitable
in our country’s public organizations. A radical change that targets on higher level of
organizational communication should be given emphasis. Berger (1987) states that the
Malik (1995) agreed as the need for information is more prominent when there is a high
degree of uncertainty.
time about important issues can minimize such uncertainty. Quirke (1995) stated some
depends on the communication process that encourages openness, dialogues and honesty.
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Francis (1989) stresses on two main goals of the organizational communication, which
are: (i) to inform all staffs about their work and policies as well as issues in the
organization.
should have the following characteristics: top management as the information sender and
the lower staffs as the information receiver. Based on this context, total communication
which includes the sender, information, channel, receiver and noise cannot be applied.
So, the open door practice ensures that communication is not focused on one way
communication – top bottom only but also enhance two ways communication that
• Ensures that top management understand the problems faced by staffs in doing their
• Open up opportunities for staffs at lower level to voice out their opinions and ideas to
• Ensure information channeling that is needed to make effective, efficient and accurate
delegation and empowerment to lower staffs can ensure that it is done with minimal
supervision
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• Creates an organizational culture that is highly resilient to aggressive and dynamic
environmental changes
Open door practice creates a communication process whereby the manager understands
what is going on in the organization. Through open door policy, the head of department
can evaluate the work spirit among staffs in terms of motivational level. Also, open door
practice provides a channel for proposal to improve work process, work procedures and
the lower bottom of the organization whereby the management can tell whether work
order has been received, understood and executed by the workers. Thus, open door policy
identifies any ambiguity in work order and improves the communication gap before it
several ways to improve communication to the top. These include: management getting
middle managers through short and frequent discussions (Abdul Mua’ti Ahmad, 2003).
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When organizational communication has been enhanced by open door policy,
bureaucracy. Trusting one another and a high degree of transparency in the organization
will make the decision-making process based on evidence of facts and concrete system.
This will directly reduce bureaucracy in the public organization. This means that
decision-making process need not necessarily be referred to top management who might
be out of the state (or country) but can be done by staffs at their own level.
information technology to support the open door policy. Work processes which deal with
fulfilling public demand as customers to these public organizations can be done at a faster
rate. For example, identity card processing, myKad no longer requires months to
complete but can be done within a week or two due to the reduced level of bureaucracy.
Conclusion
communication channel to use, the information content and communication rules as well
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will then standardize all functions in the organization and channel values into the
based on total quality management concept through open door policy so that public
organizations are able to carry out their functions to realize national developmental goals.
in the organization and thus, increases the organizational cultural values based on
honesty, leadership, cooperation, tolerance, sincerity and trusting each other. So, as
indicated in the workers motivational theory based on X-Y theories, the public
sturdy human resource that are highly competitive, resilient and highly competence
asset, whereby work capability, creativity and innovation are taken into consideration as
information from top to bottom and bottom to top happen spontaneously, transparent,
accurate, fast and effective. Bureaucracy basically only lengthens the time of work
process which can be minimized so that decision-making is fast and timely to fulfill the
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References
Abdul Mua’ti Ahmad (2003). Komunikasi di Tempat Kerja. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan
Bahasa dan Pustaka
Matheson, I. dan Matheson, J. (1998). The Smart Organization. Boston MA: Harvard
Business School Press
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