Addis Ababa University

School of Journalism and Communication

Organizational Reform and the Location of Public

Relations in the Federal Executive Organs in
Ethiopia: Challenges and Prospects

A Research Submitted to Addis Ababa University School of

Journalism and Communication
in Partial Fulfilment of Master of Arts Degree

By
Mengistu Lamaro

Advisor
…….
May 2021
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Organizational Reform and the Location of Public
Relations in the Federal Executive Organs in
Ethiopia: Challenges and Prospects

A Thesis Submitted to

Addis Ababa University School of Journalism and

Communication

Presented in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the

Degree of Master of Arts (Public Relations and Strategic
Communication)

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 Addis Ababa University

School of Graduate Studies

This is to certify that the thesis prepared by Mengistu Lamaro, entitled: Organizational Reform and
the Place of Public Relations in the Federal Executive Organs in Ethiopia: Challenges and
Prospects and submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts
(Public Relations and Strategic Communication) complies with the regulations of the University
and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality.

Signed by Examining Committee:

Examiner Signature Date

Examiner Signature Date

Advisor Signature Date

Chair of Department or Graduate Program Coordinator

3
 Table of Contents

Contents Pages

List of Figures

List of Tables
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms

Chapter One...........................................................................................................................4

Introduction...........................................................................................................................4

1.1. Background of the Study............................................................................................4

1.2. Problem Statement......................................................................................................8

1.3. Objectives of the Study............................................................................................10

1.3.1. General Objective..............................................................................................10

1.3.2. Specific Objectives............................................................................................10

1.4. Scope of the Study................................................................................................12

1.5. Significance..............................................................................................................12

1.6. Limitations of the Study...........................................................................................13

1.7. Definition of Operational Terms..............................................................................13

Chapter Two........................................................................................................................14

Review of Related Literature...............................................................................................14

Chapter Three......................................................................................................................15

Research Methodology........................................................................................................15

3.1. Study Setting............................................................................................................15

3.2. Research Design [or Approach?]..............................................................................15

3.3. Population, sampling and sample size......................................................................16

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 3.4. Method and procedure of data collection.................................................................17

3.5. Method of Data Analysis..........................................................................................19

3.6. Validity and reliability..............................................................................................19

3.7. Ethical considerations...............................................................................................20

Chapter Four........................................................................................................................21

Data Presentation and Analysis...........................................................................................21

References...........................................................................................................................22

5
Table of Figures

6
List of Tables

7
 List of Abbreviations and Acronyms

EPRDF

Fig.
GCAO

HEIs

JEG
No.

PM

PP

PRs

PS

PSD

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 Chapter One

Introduction

1.1. Background of the Study

As the old saying goes, there is nothing so constant as change. Indeed, the constancy of change
becomes more and more apparent as we move further into this new millennium, and the rate of
change seems to increase on a daily basis. Zorn, et al. (2000) have argued that organizational
practitioners today are “Nuts about Change,” as the mantra chanted both within the organization
and from management gurus is that organizations must “organize for continuous change, to
become a flexible organization that can adapt quickly to environmental changes” (pp. 516). Zorn et
al. (2000) believe that we should perhaps question the wisdom of this mantra, but the fact remains
that in terms of rhetoric and action, change is likely to remain a central concern in organizational
life. Although change is an enduring feature of organizational life, the degree and impact of that
change can vary substantial. Sometimes, the change is huge and life-altering, as in the case when
an organization merges with another organization, possibly forcing layoffs, job redefinitions, and
massive shifts in the organization’s mission and processes (Miller, 2012).

In Ethiopia, Public Relations as a distinct business process came into existence in very recent
time. Unlike media and other related fields of study, the emergence and development of Public
Relations has not been a topic of debate and deliberations as it was in other nations where it
emerged earlier. Some of the most available scholar works, for instance, relate it to the t itles
bestowed by the crown, namely “Minister of the Pen”- the Emperor’s spokesman and speechwriter
in 1940s to 1950s (Tamrat, 2012).

However, recent researches trace the history of Public Relations to the Dergue regime in Ethiopia
(Zemedkun, 2014; add other recent references). These publications underline Ethiopia has had an
elaborate government public relations set up with the establishment of Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting immediately after the coming into power of the Dergue regime in 1974.

Following the downfall of the Dergue regime, the Federal Democratic Republic government is
established in Ethiopia with the main political paradigm emphasizing on “developmental” policies.
With the essence of promoting this paradigm shift and new policy direction, relatively better
emphasis has been given to the Public Relations activities in all government agencies. The
establishment of Government Communication Affairs Office (GCAO) laid a foundation stone for
the development of Public Relations both as a public organization as well as a career and

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discipline. Following this, all public service organizations (recently known as the civil service
organizations?) of the federal and regional state governments have established their own PRs set
ups though some add suffixes like “information” and “communications” to their naming.
Following this, development of the discipline and regulation of the practices through different
policy statements and legal frameworks came as an agenda of practitioners and policy makers.
In the mean time, the discipline is welcomed by academicians as a field of study and research.
While the PRs set up was operational at different administrative tiers from the federal to
woredas/districts, and even kebels in some cases, it went through changes in naming, size, roles
and responsibilities, and structure, among others.

Most recently, a new function, named as the “Press Secretariat” was established at the office of the
current Ethiopian Prime Minister in November 2018, and this brought GCAO- a big organization
with multiple functions, powers and duties that stabilized through time in more than a decade’s
time- into an end.

Organizations go into change so as to survive. Such changes, as XX (xxxx) states, are initiated by
the organizations themselves (by management)...

On the other hand, some of forms of changes are introduced by external forces/parties. In cases
when an external governing party, policy maker, financing body or such entity diffuses the change
idea and thus an oganization do not have the right to accept/reject the proposal, it is called a forced
change (source,xxxx). Each of these initiatives has its own advantages and disadvantages yet the
change is inevitable and might be considered as acceptable as far as the advantage overweighs.
Nevertheless, the way it is handled, and perhaps it is planned to introduce the change with due
consideration of minimizing the risk, matters most (source)

Change, both planned and unplanned, has many consequences- some intended, other unintended.
Jian (2007:p) defines such unintended consequences as “organizational crisis” that because the
senior managers who initiate the change might have very different ideas about the change than the
employees who implement the change and thus such changes result in ...... Given the complicated
nature of communication within each of these groups and sometimes limited interaction between
top management and employees, even a meticulously planned change can have unanticipated
outcomes.
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Coombs (1999:2) defines organizational crisis as “an event that is an unpredictable, major threat
that can have a negative effect on the organization, industry, or stakeholders if handled
improperly.” In other words, crisis is unplanned change that can rock an organization and all the
people associated with it.

Public relations and communication has major roles to play beyond a single organization.

Nowadays, organizations are under turbulent situation, with multifaceted factors affecting their
life/presence and operation. Internally, employees need information for cohesion and cooperation
to work with .....

Externally, the public (media, stakeholders, shareholders, ....)

Moreover, the organization itself needs to ensure its presence in the community and address the
need of the community.....

XX argues one role of PRs/communication is pushing the boundary ...

As factors contributing to, and multifaceting, globally, the growing social media and activism,
emerging international companies........

Besides, the conscience of the public/citizens is improving and so their need is changing in such a
way the state itself cannot govern them without appropriate communication that creates consensus
on national issues .....

This implies how crucial the PRs is in today’s turbulent world.

Any form of change organizations introduce (measures they take) affects the life of organizations
besides the specific PRs department. This is because the department and where it is located

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determines the roles it can play in making internal communication cohesive and external boundary
pinning efficient.

In this research, the reforms that took place to the department, causes of the change and outcomes
are assessed. An excellence theory was used as a tool...

1.2. Problem Statement

Governments were among the first to recognize the need to practice public relations, as we observe
when we study history. However, the term public relations was not used until the beginning of the
twentieth century (Zemedkun 2014). With the evolution of the concept of democracy and
democratization, as democratic governments by definition should reflect public opinion and work
best when the citizens are well informed, government and public entities went into executing the
Public Relations as a main duty (Shrivastava, 2007 1). Governments have also felt the need to
public relations outside their geographical boundaries to project their image. The spread of
libraries and cultural centres during the Cold War, and opening of embassies all have been serving
this purpose (Jethwaney, 2009).

As Seitel (2004:88) points out, public relations in many corporate organisations has suffered the
impact of downsizing and decentralization in recent times. Both these in turn lead to the shrinkage
of once-large operations to the formation of smaller departments. This further poses the question
whether the Public Relations departments in various organizations are affected in similar manner
despite what the best way to organise for public relations in an organisation is still debatable.
Moreover, the fact the recent organizational reform was initiated because “such government
organization is essential for the success, sustainability and institutionalization of the reform
underway in Ethiopia” (Proclamation No.1097/2018, preamble), among others, implies those
dissolved organizations were assumed to be less important, if not totally unimportant. This in turn
poses the questions as such what new paradigms/models and principles does the reform of
government bring, because, in different regimes, the public relation practices changed, perhaps not
only in Ethiopia but also globally.

1
Shrivastava, K.M. (2007). Public Relations in the Digital Era. Pilgrims Publishing: Laipur, Varanasi.
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Perhaps, organizations are not permanent entities. It is common everywhere in the globes that
change in government result in change of policies, laws, organizational structures and the like in
government units. Following this, business processes in the organizations also change. The Public
Relations is one of the businesses organizations carry out and thus be affected following the
changes that take place through time. What is more important in organizational study is, the
importance of follow up and documenting what is going on and what impact it has on the
scholarship of a discipline.

In about more than half a century in Ethiopian, the Public Relations is still less stabilized, less
professionalized. Following the education and training of this profession as a distinct field of study
appeared in higher education institutions even most recently, the true nature of public relations in
different regimes has not been well studied and documented though the discourses have been
examining PRs in the general communications framework following the development of media,
which in a country is relatively more advanced (source). The existing works also have limitations
in depicting the current status quo, particularly at the federal level. After an extensive quantitative
and qualitative data analysis, for instance, Zemedkun 2 (2014) assessed the practice and challenges of public

relations in Ethiopian federal government offices. He concluded that the PR practices at the offices was still
limited to trivial activities like organizing meetings, looking after travelling process of officials
and writing minutes that impede public relations to move forward and contribute to mutual
intelligibility between the government and the public. The study also added lack of standard and
professional leadership from the central government and lack of in the sector. Yet the study found
out the sector, unlike the past regimes in Ethiopia, transformed through creation of distinct
departments in almost all organizations at the federal and regional levels, because GCAO
implemented various initiatives to transform government public relations in Ethiopia. It is about
four years later that another structural reform took place in the organizations he studied their cases,
and so the study cannot reflect the current situation.

In the case study that explored the practice of government PRs in Office of the Prime Minister,
Zewudu3 (2019) concluded the office practices a Public Information Model that mainly focuses on
one way communication. Moreover, the study found out the Press Secretariat, to which the
responsibility of leading the national government communications through presses as well as PRs,

2
ZEMDEKUN TEKLE. (2014). THE PRACTICE AND CHALLENGES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS IN ETHIOPIAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OFFICES,
an unpublished thesis submitted to the School of Journalism and Communication of Addis Ababa University. Available at..... [Accessed
from .....]
3
Zewdu Alemnew. (2019). Exploring the Practice of Government Public Relations: The Case of FDRE Prime Minister’s Office Press
Secretariat, an unpublished thesis submitted to the School of Journalism and Communication of Addis Ababa University. Available
at..... [Accessed from .....]
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still sees the challenges such as “the political appointment of managers and practitioners, negative
image of the public towards government communication, limited communication and flow of
information with regional states and other stakeholders, and lack of professionalism” (p.VI),
implies the PR profession in Ethiopia lags far behind when one sees in lens of contemporary
theories and models in the field. Moreover, the fact that the organization in charge of overseeing
and improving professionalism the PR practices in other organizations has not yet got rid of
multiple challenges leaves professionalism of the career in other organizations under question.

Public Relations, as Miller (2012) defined, is a blood for organizational existence and efficiency.
Since the function facilitates the flow of information among employees as well as other function
internally, and between the organization and the public externally, it is a crucial component of an
organization. However,

 Scholars show the nature and scope of this profession has not yet gained maturity status in
different nations
 States give little attention to its development
 Its location vary among organizations with in a nation
 There are still debates about where it should be placed/located and what its roles/functions
should be
 The recent developments in media landscape has shaped it differently
 In developing nations in particular, the function is most ignored
 the position/location of this function as distinct department in Public Sector organizations
during the structural changes the organizations went through is not well documented.

Newsom Turk and Kruckeberg (2010)4 acknowledge the role of the environment in shaping the
nature of PR practices in global communications when they note that, “you cannot make the
assumption that all news media and PR operate in a ‘free’ environment. A change of government
or even change of leadership in a democracy can make the word free a relative term” (ibid.p.344)

4
Nassanga, G. L. and Tayeebwa, W. (2005). Media coverage of environmental issues in the Lake Victoria basin: A
baseline study report submitted by the regional coordination office for the training programme in environmental
journalism and communication within Eastern Africa. Department of Mass Communication, Makerere University,
Kampala, Uganda.
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Tracing back in history to the main structural reforms in public sector organizations to use as a
spring board, therefore, this study examined the reforms the federal executive organs went through
and impacts these reforms brought to the practices of the public relations practices.

1.3. Objectives of the Study

1.3.1. General Objective

General objective of this study was to examine the impacts of organizational reform on the PRs
process and functions in the federal executive organs of Ethiopia.

1.4. Scope of the Study

The scope of this study was limited to the public relations function /department/process at the
federal government executive organs. Based on the nation-wide organizational reform that re-
defined the powers and duties of the executive organs in 2018, the changes that took place in terms
placement of the public relations and/or communication department and any other issues that
might have affected the practices of this were assessed in line to the contemporary theories and
models applicable in the field.

Proclamation No.1097/2018, which defined the powers and duties of FDRE executive organs, was
used as a basis to embark in the study, because it was the most recent legal framework that also
affected the PRs function. Besides the change in accountability through transfer of rights and
obligations from the former GCAO to the newly established Press Secretariat in the office of PM,
the proclamation also defined the number of executive organs in which the public relations and/or
communication department functions. Therefore, this study was delimited to the FDRE executive
organs whose powers and duties were defined in Proclamation No.1097/2018 in November 2018.
However, few of these 168 organs are headquartered out of Addis Ababa while most are located in
the capital city, Addis Ababa. Moreover, as the mandate, accountability and structure of the
Federal Government institutions subject to changed at any time when the federal Civil Service
Commission recommends based on research, new organs are made since then. Due to time and
financial limitations, however, the federal government executive organs that are established by
Proclamation No.1097/2018 and headquartered in Addis Ababa city are included in the study.
Besides the organs who are established after this proclamation, and those headquartered out of
Addis Ababa, some FDRE organs do not have a distinct public relations department. And more,
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public universities are such federal organs but their powers and duties are defined in legal
frameworks other than Proclamation No.1097/2018. Thus, these organs are not included in this
study.

Besides the federal executive organs in which public relations function, which this research
focuses, is a common function, the Press Secretariat in the Office of PM to whom the rights and
obligations of the former Government Communication Affairs Office (GCAO) was transferred,
and the FDRE Civil Service Commission that recommended the reform are included in this study.

With regards to time, the study traces the status of the public relations function in the federal
executive organs since the powers and duties of the organs was redefined by proclamation in 2018,
and extends to evaluating the status quo to date.

1.5. Significance of the study

This study examines the status and role of public relations and/or communication function within
the re-defined powers and duties of the federal government executive organs. Therefore, the study
will:

 Help the Public Relations practitioners and prospects by providing overall information
about the environment in which the PRs operate;

 sector’s structure in the federal government organizations;

 Provide information about the challenges and prospects of the public relations and/or
communications) business process in the public sector organizations at the federal level;

 Add knowledge to the existing body of knowledge about the Public Relations industry in
Ethiopia and the roles it is playing then and now;

 Assist the decision makers in the Federal Executive Organs to maximize the roles of the
PRs functions as an integral part of the whole system; and,

 Equip the current practitioners and prospects with up-to-date body of knowledge as well as
practical functions of the business unit so that they can successfully play their roles for the
overall interest and success of their respective organisations.

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1.6. Limitations of the Study
The current research work has a few limitations. Federal government organs located out of
Addis Ababa, newly established organs and universities were not included in the sample.
As the thesis focuses only on the Federal Executive Organs in Addis Ababa, the results
cannot be generalized to the other organizations at the lower administrative tiers. As
Cheney and Christensen (2001) underlined, this study was based on self-reports by
participants and should therefore be treated with caution. In this dissertation, key
participants opinion of the HEIs, particularly the PRs and Strategic Department was not
included as proposed because of the restrictions on contact with people due to coronavirus.
Including more organizations and employees might in the future lead to better results.
Therefore, future researchers can include more issues and include participants from all
interest groups.

1.7. Definition of Operational Terms

 [Organizational] reform- change that takes to organization or part of it (such as
departments, processes, mission, vision, existence as a separate entity or
merge/split)...
 PRs refers to the government information communication organs, whether
individuals, teams or departments, that operated in federal government
organizations in Ethiopia, at different times
 Federal Executive Organs are the organizations who are established by the council
of ministers’ proclamation and financed by the federal government.
 PRs refers to the department (or process) in charge of executing government-
public relations and communication undertakings in the Federal Executive Organs
 [Business] Process- is the department sometimes referred to us a business unit or
department, of an organization in which related functions are grouped into and
being executed.

 Civil Service Commission- is a federal government organization who is in charge of

managing organizational reform at the national level.
 The Press Secretariat Department- is a newly established department in the office of
FDRE Prime Minister (PM) Office, which also replaced the former GCAO.

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1.8. Organization of the Study
The report of this study is compiled in six chapters. Chapter one dealt with the problem
and its approach whereby background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives,
significance, delimitation, limitation and organization of the study were presented. In
chapter two, reviews of the related literatures and studies were treated. Chapter three dealt
with the research design and methodology. Data analysis and presentation of the findings
were presented in chapter four. Finally, in chapter five, summary of the findings,
conclusions and recommendations were presented. Later on, lists of reference materials
used during the study and appendices were attached to the report.

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