Communicative Barriers in Practices of Providing Public Services to Citizens

Communicative Barriers in Practices of Providing Public Services to Citizens


Vasilkova V.V.

Dr. Sci. (Philos.), Prof., Chair of Sociology of Culture and Communication, St. Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia v.vasilkova@spbu.ru

Minina V.N.

Dr. Sci. (Sociol.), Prof., Chair of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the Faculty. Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia v.minina@spbu.ru

ID of the Article: 7502

Rubric: Sociology of governance and administration

For citation:

Vasilkova V.V., Minina V.N. Communicative Barriers in Practices of Providing Public Services to Citizens. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2019. No 1. P. 75-84


 Full Text.


Abstract

The article discusses communicative barriers that arise in practices of public services providing. The ressearch conducted by the authors is based on socio-communicative approach which allowed identifying institutional and non-institutional barriers between suppliers (officials) and recipients (citizens) of public services. Institutional barriers deal with difficulties in understanding normative documents as well as with ineffective organization of public services. Non-institutional barriers relate to psycho-emotional features of interpersonal communication between officials and citizens. The authors found that there were differences in some aspects of problematic communication depending on age, gender, income level and education of respondents. Also based on the results of survey they defined the measures to overcome the barriers to optimize public services providing. These measures include online communication development and additional communication training of officials.


Keywords
public service; socio-communication approach; communication barriers; lingvosemantic barriers; organizational barriers; psycho-emotional barriers; practices of public service providing

References

Antonova V.K. (2016) Features of Professionalization of Civil Servants in the Context of Modern Russian Reforms. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological studies]. No. 2: 76–82. (In Russ.)

Bovee C.L., Thill J.V. (2005) Business Communication Today. 8th Edition. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall International Inc.

Boykov V.E. (2003) Public Service. A View from Within and Outside (Sociological Analysis). Sociologia vlasti [Sociology of Power]. No. 1: 85–90. (In Russ.)

Chamkin A.S. (2010) System-sociological View on Communication Activity: the Structure of the Process and Barriers. Systemnaya psihologia i sociologia. Nauchno­practichesyi zurnal [Systemic Psychology and Sociology. Scientific and Practical Journal]. No. 1. URL: http://systempsychology.ru/ journal/n_1_2010/9 (accessed 23.06.17). (In Russ.)

Dolgaev E.I., Krylova V.V. (2015) Population’s Claims to Power: What Remains beyond the Scope of Quantitative Measurements. Sociologia vlasti [Sociology of Power]. No. 7: 58–64. (In Russ.)

Frolova E.V. (2016) Interaction between the Population and Local Authorities: Problems and New Opportunities. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. No. 4: 59–64. (In Russ.)

Jilke S., Meuleman B., Van de Walle S. (2015) We Need to Compare, but How? Measurement Equivalence in Comparative Public Administration. Public Administration Review. Vol. 75. Iss. 1: 36–48. DOI: 10.1111/puar.12318.

Locker K.O. (2006) Business and Administrative Communication. 7th Edition. New York: Irwin/McGraw-Hill.

Lunenburg F.C. (2010) Communication: The Process, Barriers, and Improving Effectiveness. SCHOOLING. Vol. 1. No. 1: 1–11.

Klimova S.G., Klimov I.A. (2015) Interaction of Citizens with Authority: Competent Participation and the Problem of Intermediaries. Sociologia vlasti [Sociology of Power]. No. 4: 51–57. (In Russ.)

Kobozeva I.M. (2000) Linguistic Semantics. Moscow: URSS Editorial. (In Russ.)

Kostina S.N. (2014) Problems of Monitoring the Quality of Public Services. URL: http://elar.urfu.ru/ bitstream/10995/29996/1/apsmkoy_2014_04_75.pdf (accessed: 17.04.2017). (In Russ.)

Kronhaus M.A. (2005) Semantics: Textbook. Moscow: Publishing Center “Academy”. (In Russ.)

Kuldybaeva I.U. (2013) On the Essence of Public Services. Vestnik Juzno­Uralskogo GU. Seria «Pravo» [Vestnik of South Ural State University. Issue of Law]. Vol. 13. No. 2: 103–104. (In Russ.)

Leach V.V. (2013) Administrative Regulations for Providing Public Services in the System of Legal Acts. Economica, statistika i informatika [Economics, Statistics and Informatics]. No. 6: 56–59. (In Russ.)

Nedelko S.I., Murzina I.A., Egorov S.N. (2008) The Concept of Public Service as a Category of Public Administration. Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedeniy. Povolzskiy region. Obchestvenniye nauki [Izvestia of High Educational Institutions. The Volga Region. Social Sciences. Sociology]. No. 3: 3–11. (In Russ.)

Park E., Song M. (2005) Communication Barriers Perceived by Older Patients and Nurses. International Journal of Nursing Studies. Vol. 42 (2). Feb 1: 159–166. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2004.06.006.

Reshetnikova D.S. (2016) Factors of Public Assessment of Civil Servants’ Performance in Providing Civil Services. Voprocy gosudarstvennogo i municipalnogo upravleniya [Public Administration Issues]. No. 2: 131–164. (In Russ.)

Shingler J., Van Loon M.E., Alter T.R., Bridger J.C. (2008) The Importance of Subjective Data for Public Agency Performance Evaluation. Public Administration Review. Vol. 68. Iss. 6, P. 1101–1111. DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2008.00958.x.

Zinchenko G.P. (2016) Public Service in the Field of Sociology. Sociologia vlasti [Sociology of Power]. No. 2: 70–75. (In Russ.)

Yuzhakov V.N., Boykov V.E., Pokida A.N., Zybunovskaya N.V., Dobrolyubova E.I. (2014) Public Services: the Nature and Quality of the Provision. Vlast′ [Power]. No. 6: 128–136. (In Russ.)

Content No 1, 2019