An investigation on communication in the Ministry of Regional Development Warsaw, Poland

Abstract: This thesis is an investigation on the communication process within the governmental institution, in this particular case it is Ministry of Regional Development in Warsaw, Poland. The investigation is based on the interviews with sample of employees from different units such as Finance and Control of Technical Aid, Coordination of Technical Aid, Monitoring International Help and other units within the department of Aid Programs and Technical Assistance. This paper presents different schemes and paths of communication which are used in this particular case study. The main research question concerns the communication strategy and tools which can be used in order to develop better cooperation and understanding. What is more the internal (within the Department) and external communication (between the Department and County Administrative Boards) is analyzed and discussed on the basis of the findings from the interviews and theoretical concepts. The main conclusion which comes out of the research is that however internal communication is perceived as a well working systems, it occurs that external communication is still problematic and needs a lot of improvement on order to function well and improve the collaboration between CABs and the Ministry. The findings of the thesis show that administrators from CABs are not satisfied with the current situation and hope for better communication and collaboration with the Ministry in the future. The analysis section showed that there are weaknesses in the communication strategy. The research results with the conclusions that CAB often receives contradictory messages from the different Units of the Department. This situation often leads to misunderstandings, frustrations, cause chaos and delays in the projects. Distance and lack of face-to-face meetings (or limited number of those) are also barriers in the improvement of the situation. Another identified problem is that CAB has a limited authority in taking decisions and should consult most of the them with specific Units within the Department. This creates an obstacle in the cooperation and extend the time of finalizing the assignments.