Organisational Communication In The Field Of Child Protection. Passing From Fatalism To Organisational Democracy In The Romanian Public Space

Abstract

Considered a fundamental element of human existence, communication has been used since ancient times for the purpose of “transmitting something to the others also”. Although the term of “communication” has Latin origin, the first practical preoccupations for this issue are found in the Ancient Greeks’ works and were related to oratory which, in its turn, was promoted as “art of the word”. Even if in the literature the notion of “communication” was defined in a complex manner, being assigned numerous valences. Theoreticians found that, on the level of human communication, two common elements clearly appear for each of the meanings of this term. Thus, on the one hand, communication is perceived as a true process of information transmission, and on the other hand no human action, irrespective of the level of its realisation, can be conceived outside this process. Beyond the completion of the main theoretical models for the phenomena of organisational communication, the present article attempts to forward the author's personal diagnosis of a child protection institution, more precisely the General Division for Social Work/Assistance and Child Protection Caraş-Severin (DGASPC), valuing a wide-range methodology (analysis of social documents, interview, and structured observation). Thus, by combining the quantitative endeavour with the qualitative one, we highlighted the existence of a formal ascendant vertical communication, opposed or complementary to the descendant vertical one characterising most of Romanian organisational practices. The special institutional specificity of DGASPC turns this organisational territory into a possible model of interpersonal relationing, different from the general specificity existing in Romanian public institutions where the boss dictates.