Population communication management training strategy.
Bayan Salas E · PubMed · 1985
The discussion presents some thoughts on a general training strategy in information/education/communication (IEC) management which might meet the needs of 3rd world countries. Management by objectives (MBO) has emerged as the central doctrine in management theory and practice since its initial formulation in 1954. Yet, little evidence exists to date of its successful application in IEC activities. Population IEC activities, being staff activities in a nonprofit, public sector program, are in the "twilight zone" of MBO where hasty efforts to comply with the form if not the substance of this management technique can lead to lower levels of performance and achievement than before the goal setting system was implemented. Yet, clearly, IEC managers need the benefits that management by objectives can bring if done properly. It is essential that IEC managers and workers stop looking at IEC materials as end products in themselves but rather as inputs to be combined with other inputs in realizing the desired output of voluntary behavioral change on a mass level. To overcome tendencies toward provincialism, all IEC managers should initially spend time working in other areas of the population program. The experience of using IEC materials and approaches in face-to-face transactions with potential acceptors is a prerequisite to the successful formulation of such materials and approaches. Training programs for IEC managers and supervisors should emphasize development of consensual decision making skills. The success or failure of the program depends on the ability of its workers to resolve potential conflicts between an individual's priorities and national priorities in a noncoercive manner. The social dynamics approach that seeks a conscious, voluntary, nonmanipulated shift of shared attitudes, opinions, feelings, and actions is the approach underlying the most successful population programs. All IEC managers and supervisors should be systematically trained in norm shifting approaches. A distinctive contribution to organizational development with great potential value for IEC activities is instrumental team learning. This is a methodology of guided student-center learning, which produces the benefits of a student-center approach empahsizing participation, commitment, and critical inquiry.