Strategic Communication Competence and Organizational Performance: The Moderating Role of Financial Resource Management in a Tanzanian Local Government Authority
Abstract
This study investigates whether Strategic Communication Competence (SCC) predicts Organizational Performance (OP) among employees of Mbeya City Council (MCC), a Tanzanian local government authority, and whether Financial Resource Management (FRM) independently predicts OP and moderates the SCC–OP relationship. Grounded in Communication Accommodation Theory and the Resource-Based View, a structured questionnaire was administered to 501 MCC employees, of whom 471 provided valid and fully completed responses, yielding a 94.0% response rate. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling. The findings indicate that SCC emerged as the strongest predictor of OP, while FRM also significantly and independently predicted OP (β = 0.243, p < .001). However, FRM did not significantly moderate the SCC–OP relationship, suggesting that, within Mbeya City Council, the two capabilities function as parallel and independently associated predictors of organizational performance rather than as interacting capabilities. Collectively, SCC and FRM explained 58.3% of the variance in OP, while the measurement model demonstrated sound reliability and validity. Given the cross-sectional and single-site design, these findings should be interpreted as evidence of significant associations and predictive relationships rather than causal effects. Based on these findings, recommendations are offered primarily for MCC and, more cautiously, for similarly structured Tanzanian local government authorities pending multi-site replication. In particular, MCC should prioritize strategic communication capability-building through feedback systems, information-sharing routines, and communication training, given SCC’s comparatively greater contribution to the explained variance in organizational performance. At the same time, financial resource governance should be maintained as an independently justified budgetary priority rather than being contingent upon communication outcomes.