Effects of Leadership on Communication as Information Transfer
Abstract
Leadership and communication are crucial to the success of any organization. If either of these two aspects is not effective, the organization is set to experience major problems. As such, it is important to investigate and find out whether these two aspects could be integrated to ensure the success of an organization. This paper seeks to find the relationship between the different styles of leadership in an organization and how they affect the nature of communication between leaders and their subordinates.
Key terms: Leadership, Communication
Introduction
Leadership is a very important aspect of any organization. This is because it determines the performance of an organization’s performance by providing them with information as well as giving them feedback (Rabbani, Imran, Shamoon & Kamal, 338). Leadership constitutes of a myriad of different things that are crucial to the success of the organization. This includes delegation of tasks and duties to the right people, deciding on how much supervision, overall decision-making on business operations, etc. On the other hand, communication is crucial in an organization since it ensures organizational effectiveness (Hargie, 17). This is because it ensures everyone understands the organization’s goals and the role they play attaining these goals. Apart from that, communication helps increase the levels of trust, engagement, and commitment among the employees. It also fosters better working relationships between fellow employees as well as with senior management. Consequently, this leads to an increase in job satisfaction and morale.
According to (Eisenberg et al, 27), communication as an information approach argues that communication is the flow of information from person to person. As such, company executives are said to communicate well when they pass information to their subordinates accurately and with little to no chance of ambiguity. This approach is used in organizations as a tool for people to accomplish their objectives (Eisenberg et al, 28). This approach is often summarized using the SMCR model where communication occurs when the sender (S) sends a message (M) via a channel (C) to a receiver (R).
Meaning-Centered Approach in Communication (MCA)
This approach helps one to easily understand communication in organizations. This is by understanding the connection between organizational reality and human interaction. In addition, a meaning-centered approach outlines communication in an organization as a process that involves decision-making, organizational culture, organizing, influence, and sense-making (Shockley-Zalabak, 35). The meaning-centered approach is explained using several characteristics. First, one should note that communication is simply organizing and decision-making. In addition, organizing and decision making also play a role in determining the culture that an organization adopts. Second, organizations are not alienable from human activity. Rather, the existence of organizations is because of human interaction.
Problem Identification
For an organization to succeed, different aspects have to work together. In this case, leadership and communication ought to work together to effectively accomplish the set goals and objectives of the organization. However, it is first important to explore the relationship that exists between leadership and communication between top executives in organizations and their subordinates.
Research Question
What is the effect of leadership on the nature of communication between top executives in organizations and their subordinates?
Analysis
This section will take an in-depth analysis of different styles of leadership that is commonly used in organizations in an effort to establish the nature of the relationship that employees have with their leaders. This will help understand the nature of communication that exists between the parties. Apart from that, the section will look at the characteristics of effective communication to try to see how top executives in organizations can apply them to increase the effectiveness of communication between them and their subordinates.
Leadership Styles
Directive Leadership
According to Bell, Dodd & Mjoli (83), this type of leadership gives an organization’s top executives complete power and control of the decision-making process. Here, the leader sees no value in having subordinate employees participate in the decision-making process. Instead, leaders who use this style of leadership expect subordinates to follow instructions given to the letter. This type of leadership has a clearly defined hierarchy with the roles of various employees in various positions clearly spelled out. There is also a great deal of control hence providing predictability within the organization. Finally, leaders use coercion and dominance to ensure employees attain their set goals and objectives.
Transformational Leadership
According to Hay (4), transformational leadership requires leaders to engage their subordinates as ‘whole’ people and not as employees. It involves a great deal of collaboration between top executives in an organization and subordinates in raising each other’s morality, achievements as well as motivations to higher levels. As such, top executives are able to cause their subordinates to respect, admire, trust, and become loyal to them. Subordinates are also motivated to go beyond their own interests and to seek to fulfill a greater purpose collectively. They become aware of the mission of the whole group and sacrifice their interests to seek the interests of the group. Ultimately, this leadership style helps change the beliefs and values of the subordinates and their leaders (Hay, 4).
Servant Leadership
According to Focht & Ponton (44), servant leadership begins with a natural desire to want to serve people. Thereafter, one then chooses to lead. In terms of power sharing, servant leadership ensures that there is an equal distribution of power among all the team members. The servant leader facilitates this. Apart from this, servant leadership also encourages collaboration among the employees hence it cultivates trust in the entire team. It is important to note that this style of leadership limits the control of leaders over their employees hence leaders have great confidence in the abilities of their subordinates. However, top executives using this leadership style still exhibit some level of leadership and control.
Participative Leadership
Bell et al (82) define participative leadership as one where the top executives in any organization jointly make decisions within the organization with their subordinates. The leaders and their subordinates in the organization, share influence when making decisions. The goal of this style of leadership is to ensure there is consensus across the whole team. It also ensures that everyone is committed to the organization’s goals since everyone had a voice or rather contributed toward making the decisions. However, it is important to note that the organization’s top executives only ask for input from their subordinates before making the final decision. The organization’s management always makes the final decision.
Authoritative Leadership
This type of leadership involves the leaders putting themselves in the shoes of the employees in various situations to try to guide them. It discourages employees from simply following the leader’s instructions (HBS online). This equips subordinates with a clear understanding of the challenges facing the organization, the goals, and objectives of the organizations, and the strategies that have been put in place to achieve them. In this type of leadership, managers are concerned with the organization’s long-term objectives. It is also important to note that although leaders using this style lead employees with a clear direction, they still engage the subordinates by considering their feedback.
Effective Communication with Employees
According to (Eisenberg et al, 262), in spite of the leadership technique an organization chooses to adopt, effective communication between top executives and employees is guaranteed by four key characteristics. These are motivation, openness, empowerment, and supportiveness.
Openness
In an open communication relationship, both the leaders and the subordinates perceive each other as willing and receptive listeners. In addition, the two parties refrain from responding to each other in ways that would be perceived as giving negative feedback. This trait works for both verbal and non-verbal dimensions. This means that an individual’s tone, facial expressions, etc. contribute to the level of openness in communication. However, it is important to note that although top executives in an organization ought to strive for openness in communication with their subordinates, it should not override other important aspects that are important in the organization when it comes to communication. This includes ethics, confidentiality, etc. On the contrary, the information should be shared with the right audience within the right context.
Supportiveness
Even more useful to top executives in a company than open communication is supportive communication. This aspect of communication puts a lot of emphasis on the top leadership in an organization listening actively to the employees as well as taking a real interest in them. However, it is important to note that it is difficult for top executives to have the same relationship with every single employee, they sub-consciously divide the employees into two; In-group and out-group relationships. In-group relationships include high-trust between the top executives and their subordinates. Apart from this, the relationship involves a high level of support and mutual influence between the two. Finally, it involves both formal and informal rewards. On the other hand, out-group relationships are strictly formal in nature even when it comes to top executives rewarding their subordinates. In addition, there is a low level of support as well as trust among the two. It is important to note that developing a positive in-group relationship is beneficial for the organization in general. This is because it enhances the employees’ feeling of being supported by the organization. This in turn strengthens their commitment to the organization hence improving their overall performance. Employee satisfaction increases among employees in the in-group relationships thus reducing the rate of employee turnover. All this is different in out-group relationships as it is generally characterized by less freedom for the subordinates.
Motivation
This can be defined as the extent to which employees are committed to accomplishing their various tasks, goals, and meeting their objectives. Top executives in organizations have the power to encourage as well as discourage employee motivation through their mode of communication. Generally, there are two ways in which communication could be used to motivate employees. First, leaders could provide information regarding the tasks, goals, and performance of employees. This would provide employees with a clear picture of their contribution to the organization and what is expected of them. Second, the leaders within an organization should be able to communicate encouragement, concern, and empathy towards their subordinates. It is important to note that in both cases, the ability of the leaders in an organization to sell the organization’s goals and aspirations through communicating with their subordinates is key in motivating subordinates. Apart from this, employees are motivated when their expectations are met by the organization, when they are treated fairly in terms of duties assigned and performance evaluations, and having challenging yet reasonable objectives and goals set for them.
Empowerment
This involves top executives in organizations sharing power as well as decision making with their subordinates. This is accomplished by delegating a considerable amount of duties to subordinates. In addition, empowering one’s subordinates can be achieved by motivating them to become more independent. This means that they do not need to ask for directions to carry out every single task given to them. Instead, they can make decisions with little or no errors on their own. Empowerment involves employees feeling capable of doing tasks independently and with confidence. Top executives in the organization can help achieve this by avoiding the close supervision of their subordinates. Instead, they should trust employees to work within given guidelines.
Findings
The analysis of leadership styles as well as factors that ensure effective communication between top executives in organizations and their subordinates revealed that leadership affects communication in an organization. The most commonly used leadership styles (authoritative leadership, directive leadership, servant leadership, transformational leadership, and participative leadership) all have different characteristics. As such, the nature of the relationship between top executives and their subordinates is different in each case. The span of control, delegation, and decision-making are the main differences in all these cases. The analysis also revealed that the characteristics of effective communication between top executives and their subordinates largely covered the same issues. Leadership styles that allowed for delegation of tasks to subordinates are more likely to experience an improvement in communication. The same goes for leadership styles that allow subordinates the freedom to make decisions on their own and have less strict control over them. These organizations are also likely to experience more effective communication between the subordinates and their superiors. Finally, organizations that adopt leadership styles that involve the subordinates in decision-making are also more likely to experience effective communication between leaders and their subordinates.
Conclusion
In summary, leadership and communication should be integrated to ensure the organization is more effective hence ultimately achieves its set goals and objectives. With many styles of leadership being adopted by different companies, it is best to adopt leadership styles that will enhance the nature of communication between the top executives in a company and their subordinates. First, it is important to note that effective communication within an organization is crucial for its success. Effective communication ensures everyone understands the organization’s goals and objectives as well as their duties and responsibilities in attaining these goals and objectives. Therefore, streamlining a style of leadership with effective communication would improve an organization’s results. The best leadership styles to adopt in order to attain effective communication between company executives and their subordinates are those that exhibit characteristics such as involving the subordinates in the decision making process of the company, allows subordinates to make decisions on their own with minimal supervision, and ensures the delegation of duties to subordinates.
Works Cited
Rabbani, Sajeela, et al. “Directive Leadership and Satisfaction: A Unique Relationship.” Advanced Science Letters, vol. 23, no. 1, 1 Jan. 2017, pp. 337–340, 10.1166/asl.2017.7178.
Bell, Clement, et al. The Effect of Participative and Directive Leadership on Team Effectiveness among Administrative Employees in a South African Tertiary Institution. Vol. 55, no. 1, 2018, pp. 81–91, 10.31901/24566756.2018/55.1-3.1716.
Hay, Lain. “Transformational Leadership: Characteristics and Criticisms.” E-Journal of Organizational Learning and Leadership, vol. 5, no. 2, 2006, pp. 1–19.
Focht, Adam, and Michael Ponton. “IDENTIFYING PRIMARY CHARACTERISTICS OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP: DELPHI STUDY.” International Journal of Leadership Studies, vol. 9, no. 1, 2015, pp. 44–61.
Harvard Business Online (HBS). 5 Pros & Cons of Authoritative Leadership| HBS Online. 12 Nov. 2019, online.hbs.edu/blog/post/authoritative-leadership-style.
Hargie, Owen. “The Importance of Communication for Organisational Effectiveness.” Psicologia Do Trabalho e Das Organizações: Contributos, 27 June 2016, pp. 17–34, 10.17990/axi/2016_9789726972556_015.
Shockley-Zalabak, Pamela. Fundamentals of Organizational Communication : Knowledge, Sensitivity, Skills, Values. Boston, Pearson, 2016.
Eisenberg, Eric M, et al. Organizational Communication : Balancing Creativity and Constraint. Boston, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010.