Leadership and Communication Effects on It

Abstract

Effective communication has been demonstrated in all daily activities of various organizations as to how important it is to leaders. Effective communication has been seen as being one of the mechanisms that have brought many organizations to their success and this is despite the fact that the organization can be corporate, military, non-profit, non-government or even community based. The most important thing to note is that communication is not a tool by itself that can be used by the organization but it is a tool that must be used by the leaders of a particular organization to ensure that the organization is successful.

The organization can invest in state of the art communication systems but if the leaders in the organization do not use the available communication, then the organization cannot be successful on the grounds of the communication system available. In the same respect, the leaders should also the available communication to ensure that their subjects work towards ensuring that the organization is successful. The responsibility of communication in an organization rests entirely on the leaders in that organization (Charles, 2007).

Focus of the study

Purpose and Subject

The focus of this study is to highlight the effects that communication has on leadership. Communication has been noted to play a very instrumental role in the way leaders have exercised their leadership over various subjects. This is why the study will focus on the role of communication in good leadership as well how communication can affect leadership.

Justification

The subject that this study will focus on is effective communication. It is relevant for this study because leaders who do not use effective communication in their leadership roles ends up having difficulties in achieving the objectives of any organization. This is why communication is viewed as an integral part of a good leader.

Literature Review

Communication is an integral part of leadership and leaders should incorporate effective communication in their leadership roles (Farmer, 1998). This can be attributed to the fact that the leaders are the only people in the organization who have the ability and are in a good position to use the existing communication systems in an organization to ensure that their followers act in the interest of ensuring that the organization is able to meet its objectives (Douglas, 1999).

This can be attributed to the fact that the leaders of an organization are the one who inform their followers of what is expected of them and without communication; the information is hindered from flowing either horizontally or diagonally through the various channels in an organization (Kezar, 2008).

It is important to note that many organizations were based on a relationship that had a master-slave outlook. This is referred to as a dehumanized climate in an organization (Dan, 1996). This aspect is mainly concerned with the fact that the subordinates are considered to be lazy and irresponsible unless a leader is there to ensure that the subordinates are responsible, have the ability and desires to achieve some positive results, show ability to control their behavior and show interest in the organizational needs (Charles, 2007).

The subordinates also shy away from making any decisions and hence the leaders in many cases the management and the supervisors have to use communication to send information to the subordinates in telling the subordinates on what to do and how to do it although the leaders withhold a lot of information from the subordinate because some of the crucial information cannot be safe with the subordinates (Hopkins, 1998).

In this scenario, when a subordinate communicates an idea and the idea appeals to the leaders, the leaders will use this communication to the advantage of the organization on their own means and disregarding the subordinate who came up with the idea; and if the idea is seemed to be not helpful, the leaders crash it (Farmer, 1998). This form of scenario also helps the leaders to create a rapport with the subordinates and hence the leaders will be seen in constant communication with the subordinates although either individually or in a group (Flauto, 1999).

This is how leaders use communication to compete for favor from the subordinates through appearing to be more unified with the subordinates while at the same time, the leaders exploit the subordinates by ensuring that their positive ideas are exploited while their negative ideas are crashed (Kezar, 2008).

This type of communication has an effect in the subordinates’ communication. It is important to note that this communication behavior on the part of the leaders ensures that information is not shared within the organization and hence this precipitates the subordinates becoming overly ingenious in giving out secrets especially to the leaders (Douglas, 1999). To this effect, a secret can play a very important part in the success of the organization but unless it is shared within an organization, it plays absolutely no role in the success of the organization (Farmer, 1998).

Leaks can be rooted to this kind of scenario (Frederick, 1998). Since there is no confidence on the part of the supervisors or leaders, the workers reciprocate this by showing no confidence on themselves and hence they shy away from showing initiatives of taking up new tasks within the organization (Hopkins, 1998).

This form of communication also hinders the subordinates from learning anything from the organization because the leaders are only involved in getting information from the subordinates but do not share the information. This also leads to the subordinates not being motivated to come up with new ideas as they are always squashed or used to the advantage of the supervisors or leaders (Huber, 2005).

It is important to note that human relationships have been deemed to be more important than the overall organizational needs (Chester, 2001). Hence, the leaders should use information to reduce such things as conflicts and tensions which should be lessened using all the resources that are available to be used. This is referred to as over-humanized approach of communication and leadership (Huber, 2005). This approach also states that the motivation of the subordinates should be a priority of the leaders in any organization and the motivation should be intrinsic and directed by self (Flauto, 1999).

The decision making should involve every body in the organization. The leaders who apply this approach communicate themselves by disregarding the organization needs and emphasizing on the individual needs of the subordinates (Hopkins, 1998). In various instances, this approach is very productive and also has some very positive results but there are times when the results are very undesirable. Subordinates will mostly react to this approach against the interests of the organization (Farmer, 1998).

This has brought about the fact that since the leaders communicates in a manner that suggest that the individual needs and welfare are more important than the objectives of the organization (Frederick, 1998). This can lead to the destruction of the entire organization. It is also important to note that since the aspect of conflict and tension are eliminated from the organization, the subordinates will tend to settle their conflicts from their organization socially or with their families which is eventually more destructive to the workforce rather than when these conflicts were manifested in the organization (Flauto, 1999).

Research Summary

This research has come to the conclusion that the communication that the leaders subject their subordinates to is very instrumental in ensuring that the organization as a whole is successful or whether it is a failure. Communication has adverse effects on leadership and can negatively or positively impact the workers of an organization. One of the most important aspects of leadership is effective communication and this is expressed by the fact that the communication that the leaders subject to the subordinates is very crucial to the success of the organization as a whole.

Research Question

How does effective communication on the part of the leaders contribute to the success of an organization?

This is because effective communication has been deemed to be very important for the success of any organization and this can only be used by the supervisors and the leaders who are delegated to lead the subordinates and the workers of that organization.

References

Charles, W. R. & George A. S. (2007) Business and Industrial Communication: A Source Book New York: Harper and Row, 29.

Chester B. (2001). The Function of the Executive Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Dan B. C. & Jerry L. W. & Ron S. (1996) The Ideal Entry-Level and Management Profile. Central Missouri State University Research 21-25.

Douglas M. M. (1999). The Human Side of Enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.

Farmer, B.A., Slater, J.W., & Wright, K.S. (1998). The role of communication in achieving shared vision under new organizational leadership. Journal of Public Relations Research, 10 (4), 219-235.

Flauto, F.J. (1999). Walking the Talk: The Relationship Between Leadership and Communication Competence. Journal of Leadership Studies, 86.

Frederick W. T. (1998). Principles of Scientific Management New York: Harper and Brothers.

Hopkins, W.E. & Hopkins, S.A. (1998). Diversity Leadership: A Mandate for the 21st Century Workforce. Journal of Leadership Studies, 5(3), 129.

Huber, J. & Boyle, P. (2005). Roche’s holistic approach to leadership communication. Strategic Communication Management, 9 (6), 18-21.

Kezar, A. (2008). Understanding leadership strategies for addressing the politics of diversity. The Journal of Higher Education, 79 (4), 406-441.

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