2016

Journal of Education and Social Sciences, Vol. 4, (June)

ISSN 2289-9855

COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS AMONG PRINCIPAL, VICE PRINCIPALS, AND

TEACHERS IN AN INDONESIAN SECONDARY SCHOOL

Krystelia
School of Psychology, Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia
Jl. Jenderal Sudirman kav. 51,
Jakarta Selatan Indonesia
Email: [email protected]

Ignatius Darma Juwono

School of Psychology, Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia
Jl. Jenderal Sudirman kav. 51, Jakarta Selatan Indonesia
Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is identify the communication problems that occured within a secondary school organization and factors
contributing to the problem. The underlying assumption is that effective communication is one of the key driver toward the
attainment of an organization goals, vission and mission; and that not all organization, schools included, practice effective
communication within their structure. Effective communication among principal, vice principal(s), teachers, and staff was seen
as determining factor that influence, among other, job satisfaction of the teachers. Therefore understanding the problem as it
occured and factors leading to the problem might give cues to improve the organization in the long haul. Using interviews to
principal, vice principals, and teachers in a secondary school in Special District of Jakarta, this research focused on identifying
communication problems as felt by the school members in the academic year of 2012/2013. The context of principal-vice
principals, principal-teachers, vice principals-teachers, and teacher-teacher communication was selected and analyzed. Data
analysis revealed that the communication problems span from implementation of a meeting, reminder of academic calendar
program, to personal matters that occur among individuals within the school. Although majority of the communication problems
centered around one individual, a number of factor seems to be related to communication problems among the individuals.

Key words: communication problems; secondary school; organization communication; effective communication

Introduction

Effective communication is important to organization, including school. Effective communication will lead school to succesful
attainment of its desired goals, vission and mision (Gizir and Simsek,2005; Goodall, Goodall, and Schiefelbein, 2009; Ilhan,
2007; Orlagh, Dennis, and Hargie, 2000). Effective communication is a reflection of a mutual understanding among different
parties within an organization. According to De Nobile & McCormick, effective communication among school members
influence the overall wellbeing of the school community, school quality, and satisfaction among teachers and staff (2008).
Effective communication among school member also impact interpersonal relationship among members of the school, which in
turn affect the school climate (Palestini, 2011; Price, 2011). Effective communication from principal throughout the hierarchy in
a given school structure will direct teachers to put effort into desired actions. On the contrary, ineffective communication, which
was indicated by non existing mutual understanding, will influence stress that is felt by teachers/staff and could create burnout if
it keeps on occuring which can end in high level of absence and turnover among teachers and staff (Orlagh, Dennis,dan Hargie,
2000).

Although the importance of effective communication within a school organization is well documented, not all organization were
capable of praticing it daily. One of the school organization that hardly practice the effective communication was Divine School
(not the real name). Just four years ago, there was a spiking turnover of teachers, whereas many as 40% of teachers in Divine
Secondary School resigned. This, created a problem where the school principal, together with the foundation, had to recruit many
teachers at a time to ensure the teaching and learning process might not be halted. Although this turnover not solely due to
communication problems within the organization, several former teachers (in an informal meeting) stated that ineffective
communication among (former) teachers and principal played a huge role in determining their decision to resign as a teacher in
the school

Given the context of the school presented above, this study main purpose was to identify communication problems within the
secondary unit organization among principal, vice principals, and teachers. Communication among principal, vice principals, and
teachers were all crucial because an effective communication facilitates integration and coordination (Hoy and Miskel, 2001).
The identification will also be directed toward the consequences of the problems as felt by the teachers, vice principals, or
teachers. This study then try to scrutinize factors associated with the problems. Orlagh, Dennis, and Hargie in their study stated
that to identify factors associated with communication problems, one must describe the involved individuals in the problems, the
nature of stream communication, context of the problems, obstacles faced, communication skills of the individuals, and the result

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of the discourse (2000). By identifying these factors, it will enable researcher to provide feedback to the school organization on
how to improve the communication within the organization. This research is not to be generalized into different education level
(i.e. primary school or higher education) as the complexities of the organization being analyzed is unique and not representating
majority of secondary school in Indonesia.

This paper is constructed into following: 1) a literature review section to describe the importance of organizational
communication process as well as the context of the organization, 2) Research design from which the findings are gathered upon,
and 3) results and findings. The resulting communication problems that occured in the Divine Secondary School will be parted
into problems between principal and the vice principals; problems between principal and teachers; problems between vice
principals and teachers; and problems among teachers.

Literature Review

Communication Process within Organization Structure

Communication involves sharing information from a sender to a receiver (Arlestig, 2008; Hoy and Miskel, 2001; Lunenburg and
Ornstein, 2011; Nwagbara, 2011; Palestini, 2011). A sender send a message or information using symbols, signs, and cues
through a media which was later decoded by a receiver. This receiver, in turn, would react by behaving, sending a reply, which
was subsequently decoded by a sender. This process implies that a communication is not merely sending or receiving a message,
but also creating an understanding of both parties (Hoy and Miskel, 2001). Lack of understanding or expected response from any
given communication signifies the ineffective communication has occured, hence indicating a communication problem occurs. A
communication problems is an inability to create a mutual understanding which may happen due to problems in the
communcation models, flows, and the presence of communication barriers among the sender and receiver (Gizir and
Simsek,2005; Goodall, Goodall, and Schiefelbein, 2009; Ilhan, 2007; Orlagh, Dennis, and Hargie, 2000).

To deeply analyze a communication process, one can be identify the communication models, communication flows, and
communication barriers among the sender and receiver. Communication models indicate whether there is an interative responses
among the sender and receiver (Hoy and Miskel, 2011). That is, a communication can be one way communication (sender
sending a message that was decoded and received by the receiver without any feedback) or two way communication (sender
sending a message that was decoded and received by the recevier, who responded to ensure the sender that he/she understand the
message). A two way communication is always preferred, since it ensures both parties have common understanding. However, in
case where the sender is highly skilled person in communicating the message, one way communication should be sufficient in
directing, explaining, and describing the conveyed message (Clampitt in Hoy and Miskel, 2001). Within school organization,
there are three possible causes that prevent a principal to use two way communication to his/her staff and teachers, they are a)
lack of trust among principals and the teachers, b) the principal was uninterested to others’ opinion, or c) the principal simply
assumes that his/her colleague share the same goals.

Information streamed through organization structure. The communication flows identify whether the message is shared vertically
or horizontally in a structure (De Fleur, Kearny, and Plax as cited in Hoy and Miskel, 2001). In a vertical communication, an
information can be downward communication, where a message is carried from a supervisor/manager to his/her ordinates within
an organization or upward communication, where information is passed from an employee to his/her direct supervisor (Hoy and
Miskel, 2001; Lunenburg and Ornstein, 2011). A downward communication from a principal is needed to clarify the school
goals, vision and mission as this might help his/her teachers to adjust to the system as well as to provide feedback for the
teachers (Lunenburg and Ornstein, 2011). In an upward communication, an employee usually shares routine information,
problem report, suggestion of improvement, or interpersonal relation problems of coworkers (Lunenburg and Ornstesin, 2011).

In a horizontal communication, information is shared through individuals within the same level of hierarchy (Hoy and Miskel,
2001). In a school organization, communication among teachers to integrate subjects or coordinate students assignment is an
example of horizontal communication. Unlike vertical communication which tend to be formal in nature, the horizontal
communication can occur in a formal and informal setting. Informal horizontal communication can indicate the nature of
closeness among teachers which in turn lead to a positive working climate.

During the process of communication, it is often bounded by contextual factors which can be facilitating or interfering an
effective communication (Hoy and Miskel, 2001; Nwagbara, 2011). Several examples of these factors include timing,
information overload, language used, cultural differences, gender differences, stereotyping, and other psychological factors
(Okorie, 2000). To be effectively understood a message needs to be conveyed at the right time, where the receiving end is not
overloaded with information. One needs to use language that is best understood by the recipients, acknowledging that cultural
and gender factors might also played part in understanding the message. Interpersonal relationship that exist among the sender
and receiver can also facilitate or interfere the effective communication, making the the encoding of the message subject to
stereotyping. All these factors should be taken into account to understand the communication problems.

The Divine Secondary School

Divine School (not the real name). This school has its tie to a christian church. This school has primary level (from level 1-6),
junior high school (level 7-9), and senior high school (level 10-12) under the supervision of a Foundational Board. The junior
high school was founded in 1997 and in 2003 senior high school was founded. The school vision was to become a renown in
preparing future leaders that is caring. Its mission includes to catalyze the meeting academic society and Their Creator and
Savior; educate and develop students conscience according to their faith, hope, and mercy; nourish the scientific attitude; develop

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universal competence (i.e. Communication, teamwork, creativity, and leadership); and the attainment of high level of scholar
achievement.

The secondary school (junior and senior high school level) was led by a principal an assisted by two vice principals (one
responsible for academic and curriculum and one for student affairs). The three of them were responsible for the daily function of
the school in the secondary school. The current principal was the second secondary principal and has led the school for two years
when the data was gathered.

At the time of data collection, the principal also be accountable for leading the primary level unit. Given the huge responsibility
of the principal to lead all three units at the same time, the importance of effective communication between the principal and the
two vice principals become more more essential as the principal only have small amount of time to supervise each unit
accordingly. The communication among the principal and both vice principals, as well as the communication among teachers
were dependent upon effective communication.

Prior to the beginning of every academic year, the teachers, vice principals, and principal of the Divine Secondary School
gathered in an assembly. In this meeting, the vice principals present the program they had arranged for the upcoming academic
calendar as well as the evaluation of the previous program. This meeting is the followed by coordinative meeting in the
upcoming days where teachers tried to formulate their lessons planning and teaching syllabus in accordance to the program
prepared by the vice principals. When the lessons plan and syllabus were finished, it will be collected to finalize the overall
agenda in one academic year. This agenda is then socialize to the parents in the first 3 weeks after the academic year begin.
During this process, the principal is not actively involved since she wants these assignments to be done by the vice principals.
She has entrusted her vice principals to do this. However, in the midst of academic calendar year, there might be update or new
assignments that needs to be delivered. These assignments might be related to the standards asked by the foundation or the
Office of Basic Education as part of their monitoring process to each school within the districts. These assignments mostly be
announced to the teachers by the vice principal of academic and curriculum affairs.

The principal, vice principals, and teachers regularly communicate and coordinate in a morning briefing session. This activity is
done, after the morning prayer, to evaluate as well as to announce important information to the teachers. Sometime, the teachers
discuss students case and provide opinion on how to manage the case. The principal always tried to attend this 15 minutes
session. However, since she was appointed to lead the primary level unit, she also spend time to do this with the primary level.

Research Design

Research Participants
To analyze the communication problems occur in Divine School, a series of in depth interviews are being conducted. The
interviews are aimed to analyze four major context of communication: 1) the communication and delegation of responsibilities of
the principal to the vice principals; 2) the communication of the principal and teachers; 3) the communication occur between vice
principals and teachers. This study also added the fourth context, that is the communication among teachers, as they are also
integral part of the organization. Communication problems were assessed in these four context by asking participants (principal,
2 vice principals, and few teachers) about communication problems occurred in ongoing academic year. By asking the
participants to recall communication problems that happened in the academic year (persons involved, result of the problems, and
perceived factors contributing to the problem) it is hoped that the identified factors could be facilitated to enable better
communication within the school in the upcoming years.

Of the total 46 teachers employed at Divine School, 8 teachers (plus principal and vice principals) were interviewed. The eight
teachers were recruited using a judgmental sampling technique, where they were recommended by the principal and vice
principal of academic affairs as being the ones to fit to explore communication problems. These teachers were considered critical
to the leadership of the principal and often were in the opposite end in a discussion from the principal. The background
information of the participants were depicted in table 1 in the following page.

Table 1. Participants of the Study

Participants Sex Teaching Experience Ethnicity

1. Principal L Female 10 years Ambon
2. Vice Principal Female 5 years Ambon
of Academic
and
Curriculum S
3. Vice Principal Male 13 years Flores
of Student
Affairs E
4. Teacher L Male 5 years Nias
5. Teacher Y Male 7 years Chinese
6. Teacher K Male 3 years Javanese
7. Teacher R Male 7 years Chinese
8. Teacher G Female 3 years Batak
9. Teacher A Male 2 years Javanese

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10. Teacher M Female 3 years Batak

11. Teacher N Female 2 years Batak

Result and Findings

Communication Problems Among Principal and Vice Principals

Since the appointment of the principal to lead the primary level unit, she needs to delegate her assignments in leading the
secondary school to her vice principals. This was due to the upcoming accreditation process for the primary school. She had to
put more time in managing the preparation of the accreditation. This made her absent in several morning briefing session or
meeting in the secondary school. However, the principal always tried to get connected with the updates through the use of instant
messaging with the Vice Principal of Academic and Curriculum affairs. She would give the detail of instruction to the both vice
principals in advanced and tried to get updates as the briefing or meeting sessions going.

The principal, as well as both vice principals, felt that the delegation of tasks were successfully implemented. Even when they
had less time to meet in a face-to-face situation, all of the tasks needed to be completed were done. This was facilitated by the
instant messaging service so that they can still coordinate even when they were physically in different locations. Although the
instant messaging limits the communication into shorter sentences, there were little misunderstanding among them. This, was
partly due to the time they have spent working together as colleague.

Although the coordination among the principal and vice principals occurred regularly, there were differences in communication
style used by the three of them. And these differences sometime created tension among them. The principal and vice principal of
student affairs were people with more interpersonal relationship orientation whereas the vice principal of academic and
curriculum affairs tend to focus on tasks, assignments, and commitments (more task oriented). This different approach is well
recognized by vice principal of academic and curriculum affairs. She stated that she often felt frustrated by the way principal and
vice principal of student affair handle problems which she perceived as being inconsistent.

“In a retreat situation, they both let the students to stay awake until 10 PM. I told them that the
students would have wanted snack before that time. I thought, since it was retreat, the students
should not be allowed to leave the villa to buy snacks. However they both allowed the students
to go out and buy snacks. I told them ‘why did you let them go?’ In the end I told them that it
was up to them and let them be responsible for their options.” (Vice principal of academic and
curriculum affairs)

The different communication style among the vice principal of academic and curriculum affairs and the principal as well as vice
principal of student affairs was also recognized by the teachers. The tension was often evident in the midst of learning activity in
class, as one teacher recalled that the vice principal of academic affairs directly reprimand the vice principal of student affairs as
he was teaching (in front of the students). This teacher was worried that the tension was captured by the students, providing them
with inappropriate example of handling differences.

The communication among the principals and vice principals were vertical communication. Most often, the principal, as the
circumstance required her, gave instruction of what needs to be done by the vice principals. It was done using a face-to-face
meeting (morning briefing session, informal discussion) or using instant messaging services. Even though most of the
communication were formal and one way, the communication was quite effective, especially in ensuring that all assignments was
done despite the absence of the principals. There were factors that facilitated this communication. The time they have spent as
colleague and teachers made them familiar with others communication style as well as the intended action. Other factor is the
familiarity of the instruction or messages (such as the reminder to prepare a meeting or ceremony of national events). The
instructed action was not new to both vice principals, making them easy to understand and follow the instruction. The language
used by the principals in delegating the assignments were short, clear, and to the point; preventing an ambiguous interpretation.
And even if the message were not that clear, the number of involved parties were very small, making them easy to provide
feedback about clarity the messages.

Communication Problems Among Principal and Teachers

The communication problems that is most often mentioned by the participants was a meeting that was attended by principals,
vice principals, and teachers to decide whether or not all grade 10 students should continue the following academic year in grade
11. There were some students who under-perform compared to the cohort and therefore were the subject of the meeting. The
principal, vice principals, and few teachers were leaning toward all student should pass grade 10. One of the concern that was
expressed was with small number of student body, keeping students to grade 10 will have negative impact on the school in
overall. The other reason was that subjects taught in grade 10 were too many, that it might burden the students. This perspective
was also directed by the foundational board to the principal although she did not mention it in the meeting. The principal still felt
the need to listen to different arguments. Most teacher disagreed with the option of letting the students pass grade 10. They rather
had the students failed and repeat grade 10 for another year as they would be burden to the teacher teaching in the grade 11. This
meeting took long time to deliberate. And in the end, the principal decided that all students passed grade 10. This result created a
disappointment to teachers against the idea. They stated that this incident made them thinking of no longer giving opinion, as
their opinion was not considered in the final decision.

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The above communication problem, involved the principals and the teachers in a formal meeting between a supervisor and
supervisee, indicating that the vertical communication occurred. The vertical communication occurred in a mix of two-way
communication (as evident in the gathering opinion) and one way communication (when the principal decided). Even when the
principal were looking to hear each and every teacher’s argument, in the end the final decision was made by the principal. The
principal tried to look for information and opinion as a feedback for determining her decision, which was mostly one way
communication.

The problem above was then perceived differently by the teachers and the principal. The principal felt that before making up a
decision, she needed to listen for others. For the teachers opposed to the principal, the process was seen as something wasteful
for some teachers. They felt that it was pointless the principal asked for their opinion and later opt for decision contrary to what
they have said. Moreover, the time it took to come to the decision was long. And this was attributed to her lack of decisiveness.
Some attributed it to the stereotype of women being conceived as more emotional than logical.

“Before I made a decision, I would discuss it first. I would not made decision based on my own
knowledge, since it never assured the right decision.” (The Principal)

“The weakness of the principal was that she was so indecisive. She had to put everything into
meetings. She did not use her authority as a principal and in the end the principal made the final
decision which consideration we never knew. After the meeting we found that the foundation
pressed her to let all the students passed. If only she told us that, we would not have spent many
times in the meeting. ” (Teacher M)

“When it comes to decision making, she took time too much. And sometimes the decision was
not firm enough. Perhaps it was related to her gender? It made us, teachers, confused of the
decisions made.” (Teacher L)

Just like the communication among principal and her two vice principals, the communication problems between principal and the
teachers were mostly related to formal assignments. In many situation, the communication models involved were two way
communication, whereas the principal tried to have feedback from the teachers. Even when the teachers were involved in
decision making, it did not mean they were satisfied with the way the principals communicated. As the above situation, the
principal was seen as being unpractical and inefficient of using the time do discuss what is being ordered by the foundation. They
felt the energy to discuss were pointless as the decision had already been decided before the discussion. In this way, the
communication could be seen as somewhat ineffective.

Most of the teachers said that the principal often took long time to made decision. This showed how timing played a major
factor. Timing could mean two things: first the availability (or lack of availability) of the principal made her took long time to
respond or it could also mean sporadically arranging meeting that interfere the learning activity. Teachers pinpoint that,
sometime, the principal did not provide any expected response or feedback when they communicate their problems. Others than
that, teachers claimed that there were sudden meetings where it might interupt learning activity. They suggested that once a
month meeting should be planned in advanced and should cover all updates.

The personal factor of the principal also played part in the communication problems among her and teachers. The principal
herself said that being in a bigger crowd like teachers assembly was uncomfortable for her, as she enjoyed more one-to-one
communication. She admitted that she had tendency to give just pointers, unable to provide greater description to bigger crowd.
The result was that teachers got confused with the decisions or rationale behind the decision. The recurring problems created a
stereotype in the teachers about how a decision was made and for some it made them withdrew from any given discussion as
they felt it would be useless.

Communication Problems Among Vice Principals and Teachers

The vice principal of academic affairs often communicates with the teachers. Mostly it was related to curriculum development.
Problems mostly rise when vice principal announce new assignments. She normally announces this using a written
announcement in a media board placed in the teachers room and verbal explanation accompanied with deadline, in hope that all
teachers would be able to collect them in time. However when announcing these tasks, some of the teachers were absent
(whether they are in classes or they were having a day off), making them felt not being noticed of the assignments. Vice principal
sometimes skipped the detailed information needed (i.e. The structure of the report). For the teachers, all these factors, made
them felt uncomfortable. Some also felt that all she cared was that assignments were completed and never bother to ask if the
teachers needed a help. Quite often this bothered the teachers, whereas some of the tried to give constructive feedback to vice
principal and some just become disgruntled.

“I was not present when the assignment was announced. I have no idea that the deadline was
there. Had I known the deadline, I would have collected it in time.” (Teacher Y)

“Sometimes vice principal skipped the format used. Maybe she was too tired or busy (that she
had little time to explain). I did not understand. It would be nice if what was wanted had been
explained in advance where we can follow the steps. ” (Teacher A)

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“Vice principal was like this,’Fellow teachers, the deadline reminder is set here. Go and see it
yourselves and left the room the her office. ” (Teacher G)

Unlike the vice principal of academic affairs, whose office is separated from the teachers room; the vice principal of student
affairs is situated among the teachers room. This created closeness of the teachers and the vice principal. And since most of the
responsibility of student affairs not directly related to teachers main responsibility of teaching, the topic of their communication
ranged from informal topics or improvement of students being monitored by the school. Unlike the vice principal of academic
affairs, vice principal of student affairs was seen more open more communicative and caring to the teachers.

The communication used by vice principal of academic affairs were mostly one way communication. That is instruction being
communicated through written announcement and short verbal announcement. This communication entail mostly work related
assignment. As felt by the teachers, the communication used by the vice principal were mostly ineffective. She tend to ignore the
absent teacher. Although she had put written announcement, that did not guarantee teachers who were absent to read them. This
was further complicated by the position of the announcement board which was behind a sofa where teachers often sit, preventing
others to read new announcement. The other factor related to the ineffective communication was stereotype that vice principal
hold. She believed that all teachers would read the new announcement and got angry when she got a response, “Where was the
announcement put?” The language used might also worsen the relationship with the teachers. As a result, she was perceived as a
negative figure of authority

Communication Among Teachers

Whereas vertical communication (among principal and teachers, vice principal of academic affairs and teachers) tend to be
problematic, the horizontal communication among teachers in Divine secondary school was seen as positive. Teachers shared
problems of teaching together and help each other to deal with problems. This was evident in a discourse where teachers
discussed problems of certain students. The classroom teacher and subject teacher worked hand in hand to handle the matters.

The communication among teachers were mostly in an informal situation. No structure of meeting needed. Teachers just brought
up a topic and others responded freely. This informal nature of communication was seen as positive, even when the content was
reprimanding others lightly. This is the factor that made the teachers was unity. Even when they have different background of ,
experience, education; they all feel that informal communication was important in helping them do their jobs as teachers.

Conclusion
This paper, aimed to identify communication problems in a secondary school and determining factors causing it, found a number
of communication problems within the structure of Divine Secondary School. Mutual understanding; specifically among
principal, vice principal of academic affairs and teachers; were often not achieved. One factor leading to the communication
problems was tight schedule of the principal(due to her responsibility to lead three units at the same time). This situation which
requires some delegation of tasks facilitated by effective communication to her vice principals and teachers. There were times
where communication between principal and vice principal was quite effective, as the vice principals mostly were accurate to
respond to her instruction. There were some mutual understanding that was facilitated by the terms they have known each other
(the principal and both vice principals). The instructions, though short, is also clear as the vice principals were familiar with the
instructions, making them easy to at accordingly. However, in other instances, the personality difference among the three can
sometimes result in argumentation. However, since they have worked together for a long time, they can manage the conflicts
rather well.

To eradicate some of the communication problems, the principal can improve is her decision making strategy in teachers
assembly. Most teachers find that it would be better if she was open and shared all the information (including the foundation’s
direction over the operation of the school) and be more directive than trying to gather opinion, which were later rejected. In
circumstances where she was obliged by the foundation, the teachers felt it was better for her to be more directive, using one way
communication while still explaining the reasons. If she was to use two way communication, that it would be better if all the
opinions were taken into consideration in the final decision. This was consistent with previous research conducted by Zwijze-
Koning and de Jong where most teachers felt unsatisfied with the way decisions were made in their respective school (2009).
These teachers mentioned that the meeting were mostly using two way communication, where they feel their opinion matters, but
in the end the final decisions were not based on the discussion, creating withdrawal in the teachers and negative rating to the
leadership.

The vice principals mostly managed the daily operation of the secondary school and therefore communicate assignments to
teachers. The vice principal of academic and curriculum affairs was more concerned with the collection of these assignments.
She seemed to ignore that not all people were in attendance when she announced the new assignments. This task oriented
approach, made her being perceived as intolerant, not open for suggestions, and resulted in more interpersonal conflicts with the
teachers. This was worsen by lack of informal communication and separated office among the vice principal and the teachers.

Unlike the vice principal of academic affairs, the vice principal of student affairs had his room together with the teachers. The
shared facility created a climate of togetherness that enable informal communication to occur. This way, he was perceived as the
better leader than vice principal of academic affairs. Informal communication among teachers were also occurring and helping
teachers to address each others problems accordingly. A sense of togetherness were created in this informal communication.

Based on the situation above, it showed that informal communication among principal and her staff was needed. However since
she barely had time to do it (due to more assignment at the primary level), she mostly used one way communication in a very

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directive manner. This should be no problem if she shared all the information in larger crowd, such as teacher assembly.
However, in the assembly, the principal tried to look for ideas from the teachers while in the end their ideas were often not the
final decision. The result was anger and withdrawal of the teachers in next teacher assembly.

The personal communication style of vice principal of academic affairs should also be improved. She should not assume that all
new announcement will be read. Some minor adjustment in the office layout might be needed. For example, the position of
announcement board might be adjusted so that every teachers could be aware to new information. And new information might be
printed using different color papers that can draw attention. Obsolete information should also be removed and new one can have
a clear cue. Using and informal communication when talking to a teacher can also be used as a reminder or socialization of the
assignments. She also can spend a little more time to explain details of the assignments.

Whether it was vertical communication or horizontal communication, informal communication benefits seemed to be better
option in the case of Divine Secondary School. This was evident in how teachers helped each others when having problems.
They shared ideas, check the implementation that help others solve their problems. This was also consistent with previous
research conducted by Koning and de Jong (2009) which found that horizontal communication among teachers could result in
positive working climate among teachers.

The present study has its limitation. The case study approach limits its generalization into different context. The nature of
organizational instances in the selected school was so unique that it is not a representation of majority school organization in
Indonesia. Another thing to point was about the data gathering process which was a reflective in nature. Asking a participant to
describe the nature of communication problems from the past might not give a picture perfect description of the communication
problems. Future research in the area should consider to get involve more as an observant in teachers assembly or meeting that
might offer better description of the process.

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