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International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 9 • No. 2 • February 2019 doi:10.30845/ijhss.v9n2p18 Evaluating the Dialogic Potential of Websites of Universities in Ghana Rhodalene Amartey Final Year Doctoral Student (PhD) Business Administration Accra Institute of Technology Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine the dialogic communications potential of websites of universities in Ghana. The study employed a quantitative content analysis of universities websites in Ghana drawing upon Kent and Taylor’s (1998) dialogic communications framework. The results show that many of the websites do not have dialogic principles. Many of the websites do not contain relevant information. Besides, many of the information are dated. The websites do not have features that conserve visitors and many also do not have dialogic loop features. From the findings, the researcher proposes that interaction between websites and users must be considered when websites are being developed Keywords: Ghana, University, Dialogic Communication Theory and Dialogic Principles Introduction: The emergence of the Internet has transformed how organizations communicate with their stakeholders. Communication practices do not evolve as quickly as technology does. This is especially true for educational institutions. The internet therefore offers the potential for educational institutions to share their mission statement and vision to any potential student around the world who may be interested in any of their programmes. However, these educational institutions must be ready to explore the advantages of the interactive sources a website brings to an organization. According to some studies (Waters and Tindall 2010; Kent & Taylor, 1998), there are specific elements of dialogic communication that organizations can take advantage of to make their websites more useful in cultivating relationships with their target groups. Kent & Taylor (1998) for example identified the following as elements of a dialogic website: ease of navigation, the provision of usefulness information, the ability to communicate with an organization, the ability to communicate with an organization via the website and the encouragement of future visits to the websites. Once all five criteria are employed, organizations websites are able to spread information and activities of an organization quickly. Waters and Tindall (2010) replicated the earlier rule of Kent and Taylor (1998) by identifying the five criteria – ease of navigation, usefulness of information, the dialogic loop, the generation of return visits, and the rule of conservation of visitors. Studies employing Kent and Taylor‟s dialogic principles to evaluate websites are in abundance. Many of these studies have focused on corporate organizations‟ websites with a few focusing on non- corporate institutions websites. De Oliveria and Huertas (2015) for example studied dialogic communication in Brazilian websites from a longitudinal perspective. The objective of the study was to analyze the use of dialogic tools on Brazilian websites in two periods 2010 and 2011. Similarly, Okoe and Boateng (2016) evaluated the dialogic nature of banks operating in Ghana. They noted that ease of interface, usefulness of information and conservation of visitors‟ features were principles that featured in all the websites studied. Boateng, Agyemang and Dzandu (2015) on the other hand employed content analysis to assess the universities in Ghana libraries‟ websites. They noted that there are scanty and dated information on the universities libraries‟ websites. Again, it was clear that the libraries‟ websites do not contain information that are of importance to the users of the library. The study called for the need for researchers to study the universities websites themselves to ascertain their dialogical potentials since there is paucity of studies on academic institutions‟ websites. In response to this call, the study evaluates the presence or otherwise of Kent and Taylor (1998)‟s dialogic principles on the websites of Universities operating in Ghana. This study contributes to the extant literature by offering the dialogic state of the websites of non-corporate organization, specifically universities. This study will assist universities to develop interactive websites to enable them communicate and build a mutual relationship with their stakeholders. The rest of the study is divided as follows; Part one captures the theoretical background while part two concentrates on the literature review. Part three contains the conceptual framework used for the study while part four focuses on the methodology. Findings and discussions are presented in part five while conclusions and implications of the study are captured in part six. 144 ISSN 2220-8488 (Print), 2221-0989 (Online) ©Center for Promoting Ideas, USA www.ijhssnet.com Theoretical Background: Dialogic Communication Theory According to Kent and Taylor, (1998) the use of technology should not create a gap between an organization and its stakeholders. Rather, it should embrace personal touch which will result in effective communication. With the help of the internet, an opportunity is provided for organizations to target stakeholders otherwise considered as isolated to be contacted by the World Wide Web if the dialogic communication and dialogic capacity of the web are clearly understood. Kent and Taylor (1998) define dialogic communication as “any negotiated exchange of ideas and opinions”. Based on their definition, it is evident that dialogue should be seen as a two way communication relationship based on two principles. Firstly, in a dialogue, parties must be ready to settle at agreed positions but not necessarily agree. Secondly, dialogue is not based on subjectivity or objectivity but rather open discussions. Since the focus of dialogic communication is on negotiated communication, it means engaging in public dialogue in an ethical manner. There is adequate evidence to indicate that the internet can be used as a tool to disseminate information (Waters and Tindall 2010). Dialogic communication is important in building relationships because it brings about a decision from a managerial approach to a public relationships approach where relationships are sustained and managed. Previous studies have shown how websites can be used to build relationships using a content analysis approach. Scholars such as Madiche and Hinson (2014) used content analysis to examine the dialogic potential of organizations websites. Other scholars who have also used content analysis to conduct studies include Ibrahim (2015) and Ibrahim, Adam and De Heer (2015). The study concluded that universities should avoid copying other websites blindly without considering the specific needs of the users as well as other stakeholders. Observations made by Sommerfeldt et al. (2012) indicate that the dialogic principles developed by Kent and Taylor (1998) provided firms with guidelines as to how their websites can serve as two way communication media. However, many organizations have relied heavily on the dialogic principles to design their websites in order to create a mutual relationship with their clients (Waters and Jamal, 2011). Kent and Taylor‟s (1998) seminal work on dialogic communications have received a lot of attention from public relations and marketing scholars.A study conducted by Cha et al (2014) examined the dialogic potential of websites of embassies in Korea. They adopted Kent and Taylor‟s framework usingconceptual lens. They emphasized on the corporate and blog sites of the embassies of UK, USA, Canada, Australia and Israel which were very active in their blogs. The study did not indicate why it limited itself to corporate websites and blogs of embassies. However, it is clear that other embassies are very active on other platforms. Since organization‟s choice of social media platform is partly dependent on their target group (Wong 2012) compared to the official name page, the US embassy blog better satisfied the dialogic principles (Soon and Soh, 2014; Capriotti and Kuklinsi, 2012). Findings from the study showed that the US embassy blog served low in “Usefulness of information and high in “Conservation of visitors”. On the contrary, its corporate website scored high in usefulness of information and low in conservation of visitors. According to Madiche and Hinson (2014) most police websites in sub Saharan Africa do not provide useful information to their audience. Besides, they do not have the capacity for conservation of visitors and return visits. It is clear that organizations have failed to engage their clients on the corporate websites. The building blocks of relationships between NGOs and news media were assessed by Ting Lee and HemantDesai (2014). The study observed that organizations that have adopted dialogic principles in their communication build stronger relationships with the media. This buttresses the fact that adopting dialogic principles facilitates strong relationships with clients. Similarly, a not for profit health organization was explored to identify how its uses social media to communicate with its stakeholders. Findings from the study showed that the organization uses both mono-dialogue and dialogic principles. The objective of this study is to critically examine the dialogic nature of university websites as defined by Kent and Taylor (1998) and Waters and Tindall (2010) using content analysis. The contribution of this study is the application of quantitative content analysis to determine