Corporate Communication and Governance in Public Enterprises in Africa, A case of Uganda in the 21st Century:

Abstract

This paper gives an exploration and examination of corporate communication, Governance and leadership challenges of public enterprises in Africa, looking at Uganda as a case study in the 21st century. The study adopted a simple survey design taking cross sectional case studies of two public enterprises with a sample of 85 respondents in total. These included one public university and one public health center IV. In many countries in Africa, Uganda inclusive, corporate communication is meant to facilitate governance and leadership cultures which can be thought of, as the voice of an organization. It speaks internally, to employees, as well as externally, to suppliers, vendors, media, investors and other stakeholders. However, this has remained as one of the major challenges in many African countries. Corporate communication and governance in leadership vary from country to country, from small public enterprises, to larger enterprises and multinationals whose number is increasing. Uganda has the basic infrastructure required for leadership and governance in the health sector but has weak and under resourced structures. One of the major causes of weakness includes lack of proper coordination of donor aid and poor leadership among leaders at district level. Other weaknesses include poor governance in public institutions, government and regional bodies. This has subsequently crippled the culture of corporate governance in many countries. Corporate governance and leadership are meant to promote and portray transparency, accountability and disclosure as a governance tool. This to a number of public institutions and organizations, has remained a challenge despite the different technological and institutional advocates, changes and reforms, support from the international communities, regional governments and institutional synergies. This is explained by the ways institutions, leaders and governing bodies have facilitated leadership. This can be observed through management and governance styles as well as end results of performances of institutions and organizations as far as total quality management indicators reveal.