Date

11-13-2024

Department

Helms School of Government

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Public Administration (PhD)

Chair

Abiodun Oguntuase

Keywords

Communication

Disciplines

Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration

Abstract

Practicing communication with the process of reflecting thinking can help improve public servants’ communication and create positive interactions. Reflective thinking transpires when individuals think about past experiences and events, then analyze and recapture them to enhance future experiences and skills. In other words, reflection thinking is a manifestation of reflection, which is a purposeful and recursive contemplation of one’s practice experiences. However, public servants may lose the confidence to express themselves with effective communication abilities which prevail over the standard of expectation that has been rooted in public trust within the field of public administration. The study is a quasi-experimental design that determined the effects of reflective thinking strategies among public servants’ communication abilities. The study also expanded the knowledge using reflective thinking theories. The study was carried out with 39 public servant participants who were employees and leaders at the City of Tampa, a local city municipal government agency located in Florida. The public servant participants were assessed using three distinct phases (pre-test/post-test) and an intervention instructional program. The results of the study revealed that the effects of reflective thinking strategies improved with a high impact for public servants’ communication efficacy and communication confidence. Oral and written communication were not found to be significantly different from one another, though oral communication was affected more than written communication as a result of public servants using reflective thinking strategies in public administration.

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