Week 6 Research Paper PSY-565
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Apr 3, 2024
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Enhancing Organizational Communication and Leadership in Middle Managers
Joshua N. Schreck
Grand Canyon University: College of Humanities and Social Science
PSY-565: Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Dr. Thomas King
May 1, 2024
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Abstract
This research paper empowers middle-level managers by exploring options for enhancing
organizational communication and major leadership skills in modern organizations. Based on an extensive review of scientific literature and theoretical background, this paper reveals French and Raven’s Bases of Power theory, leadership and leadership styles, Fiedler’s Contingency Theory, ways of improving organizational communication, and organizational communication patterns. French and Raven outlined five sources of power that can be harnessed to influence others. We also investigate possible leadership styles: transformational, transactional, and servant leadership, each impacting employee behavior and performance differently. Fiedler’s Contingency Theory underscores the importance of adapting the leadership style to specific situational variables. Enhancing organizational communication necessitates the establishment of open communication channels, the use of advanced technology, the encouragement of active listening, and the fostering of various signs of clarity. The findings are presented regarding organizational hierarchical, network, informal, and formal communication patterns. Middle-level managers armed with this knowledge will be capable of creating a favorable climate for cooperation, creativity, and openness among their subordinates, thereby ensuring organizational success.
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Enhancing Organizational Communication and Leadership in Middle Managers
Communication and leadership remain critical to the success of organizations operating in a fast-paced and ever-changing environment that requires key stakeholders to remain actively engaged in pursuing set strategic objectives (US Army War College, 2019). The preparation of the following complete report was geared towards ensuring that the senior managers had an excellent grasp of various organizational communication and leadership topics and developing comprehensive knowledge and skills that would significantly aid in managing teams and promoting a culture of communication in the organization. The report was to incorporate modern research and reference to topics such as French and Raven’s Bases of Power and leadership styles and utilize Fiedler’s Contingency Theory and strategies for improving organizational communication and organizational communication networks and patterns.
French and Raven’s Bases of Power
Bases of power theory formulated by French and Raven identifies five formal sources of influence that leaders may use to exert power in organizational settings. These bases include legitimate, referent, expert, reward, and coercive power. Legitimate power is granted by an individual’s formal position in an organization. Referent power is determined by other people’s admiration, respect, or identification with the leader. Expert
power comes from a person’s knowledge or skills in a certain field. Reward power is associated with a person’s ability to offer rewards or other incentives to influence others 3
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positively (University of Minnesota, 2017). Coercive power, in turn, is obtained when a person can impose punishment or negative sanctions to influence others’ actions (Hofmann et al., 2017). Other theories of power that apply to the workplace is the social exchange theory, which states that people engage in a rational calculation of the costs and
benefits of interactions with others; In the workplace, employees may view a leader’s power from the perspective of Social Exchange Theory and the leaders’ exchange in the Leader-Member Exchange serves as a resource-exchange relationship through which a leader provides rewards or resources in return for employees’ contribution or even compliance. Trait leadership theory posits that individual characteristics, traits inherent to
the leader, contribute to their influence and effectiveness (Kovach, 2020). This theory suggests that, irrespective of the context, formal or informal leaders have certain inherent traits that give them this power.
Leadership Styles and Their Effects
Leadership styles refer to the behavior patterns leaders show when interacting with their followers or subordinates (Anonymous, 2012). Different leadership styles have
been identified and are associated with distinct characteristics and outcomes related to the
behavior, performance, and satisfaction of employees. Three main leadership styles relate
to organizational measures and employees: transformational, transactional, and servant leadership. Transformational leaders encourage and enable their followers or subordinates to reach higher levels of performance by creating a vision that inspires them,
promoting creativity and individual development. Research by Jiatong et al. (2022) supports that transformational leadership is positively related to employee satisfaction, 4
engagement, and organizational commitment. Transactional leaders focus solely on setting goals, clarifying role expectations, and rewarding performance. This leadership style is valuable for goal achievement and order maintenance in contrast to promoting creativity or intrinsic motivation in the workplace. Servant leaders care about the needs and well-being of their followers and subordinates by promoting humility, empathy, and ethical behavior. Servant leadership is highly supportive of employee satisfaction and organizational performance gains due to trust, cooperation, and empowerment.
Fielder’s Contingency Theory
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory asserts that leadership effectiveness is contingent upon the appropriateness of the leader’s style of managing the situation they are placed in
(Pareto Labs, 2021). The theory is founded on the premise of whether leadership is situationally contingent on task or relationship-oriented styles. The theory’s main constructs are leader-member relations, task structure, and position power. As in other contingency theories, the main idea behind Fiedler’s theory is that leaders can be more effective if they adjust their style of leadership to counter a situational context. For example, in situations of high leader-member relations and task structure, a more relationship-oriented leadership approach may be prudent; on the contrary, when both are
low, a task-oriented approach is preferable.
Improving Organizational Communication
Effective organizational communication is essential to drive clarity, transparency, and collaboration in the workplace. Some of the ways through which leaders can improve
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organizational communication include creating open communication channels by adopting open-door policies, holding regular team meetings, and establishing effective feedback mechanisms to allow two-way communication between leaders and employees; using clear and understandable communication by being simple and short, avoiding jargon and technical terms, and providing context and background about the subject in discussion to guarantee understanding by employees; active listening by paying attention to the employees’ concerns, asking for clarification, and demonstrating understanding can
encourage employees to communicate openly and trust; and the use of technology by facilitating communication between geographically dispersed teams using technology platforms such as emails, instant messaging, and collaboration tools. (Team, 2023)
Types of Communication Patterns
Organizations use different patterns of communication to spread information, streamline operations, and promote collaboration among employees. The four main communication patterns are as follows: Fortunately, it allows direct lines of authority and
supervision to be established; however, this kind of pattern may stifle innovation and lateral communication... Unfortunately, it inhibits the flow of information and hampers collaboration between employees. It does encourage innovation and creativity while at the same time allowing for the exchange of information between knowledgeable colleagues; however, it may result in information overload and fragmentation due to a lack of structure... Since official communication is backed up by rules and standards, this is true.
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Conclusion
Power, influence, leadership, and communication are essential organizational features and factors of employee engagement, satisfaction, and performance. The middle managers will have to learn a lot in terms of the theory of power and leadership and communication models, as well as contingency models and LEADERs, and learn to recognize and incorporate a variety of research-based practice patterns in their everyday practice to be able to guide organizational and team behaviors to a culture of collaboration, innovation, and transparency. Teaching should be the primary driver of middle managers’ growth throughout their careers if they expect to guide organizational and local growth and capitalize on the expected it-oriented returns.
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References
Anonymous. (2012). Leadership, Roles, and Problem Solving in Groups
. Lardbucket.org. https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/a-primer-on-communication-studies/s14-
leadership-roles-and-problem-s.html
Hofmann, E., Hartl, B., Gangl, K., Hartner-Tiefenthaler, M., & Kirchler, E. (2017). Authorities’ Coercive and Legitimate Power: The Impact on Cognitions Underlying Cooperation. Frontiers in Psychology
, 8
(5). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00005
Jiatong, W., Wang, Z., Alam, M., Murad, M., Gul, F., & Gill, S. A. (2022). The impact of transformational leadership on affective organizational commitment and job performance: The mediating role of employee engagement. Frontiers in Psychology
, 13
. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.831060
Kovach, M. (2020). Leader Influence: a Research Review of French & Raven’s (1959) Power Dynamics. Journal of Values-Based Leadership
, 13
(2). https://doi.org/10.22543/0733.132.1312
Pareto Labs. (2021, June 17). What is Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of Leadership
. Pareto Labs. https://www.paretolabs.com/fielders-contingency-theory/
Penn LPS. (2023, August 9). Why communication is essential to effective leadership | Penn LPS Online
. Lpsonline.sas.upenn.edu. https://lpsonline.sas.upenn.edu/features/why-
communication-essential-effective-leadership
Team, W. (2023, August 25). Effective Techniques for Managing Organizational Communication
. Blog Wrike. https://www.wrike.com/blog/effective-communication-
techniques/
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University of Minnesota. (2017, January 4). 13.3 The Power to Influence
. Open.lib.umn.edu; University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing edition, 2017. This edition adapted from a work originally produced in 2010 by a publisher who has requested that it not receive attribution. https://open.lib.umn.edu/organizationalbehavior/chapter/13-3-the-power-to-
influence/
US Army War College. (2019). Strategic Leadership Primer for Senior Leaders
(pp. 2–12). Independently Published.
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