Chapter 10: Organizational Changes and Leadership Processes

Organisational Change

From the lecture, I was particularly interested in the ‘Unplanned Change’ that explore the communication strategies throughout a crisis. Unplanned changed range from ‘natural disasters, ethical issues, to financial losses and severe human errors’ Miller (2008, p.187) This form of random change can be ‘reaction to unseen or unanticipated influences’ Strategic Leadership and Decision Making (2009)

In the pre-crisis stage the organisation must anticipate and ‘prevent possible problems’ Miller (2008, p.187). At the crisis stage, the massive uncertainties will require the organisation to work collectively to make sense of the crisis at hand. Finally, at the post-crisis stage, communication procsess are geared towards determining who is responsible or apologizing for mistakes made. These communication strategies will guide organisations in coping with unplanned change and circumstances.

Leadership Process

Owing to my deep passion for this topic, I based my research paper (Assignment 1 & 2) upon leadership communication strategies. In order to fulfill better assignment quality standards, I enrolled myself into a 3 month intensive leadership program, LEAD @ Taylor’s to gain better insight and first hand experience in effective leadership processes.

After discussing the journal article ‘The Relative Importance of Leadership in Virtual and Face-to-Face Communication Settings’ (Zimmerman et al, 2008) with my group mates; I presented the research findings to the class.

My Presentation on Leadership 

The aim of the study was to analyse the importance of task oriented or/and relationship leadership behaviours in virtual settings (CMC) as compared to face to face communication. The researchers used the quantitative study on a random sample of 1500 employees at Shell GSI; out of which 412 responded. The respondents’ were technical experts based in across the globe and of diverse ethnicities. Using the Likert Scale measurement, both task oriented communication was preferred in a virtual setting where as relationship oriented communication was preferred in a face-to-face setting.

The discussion revealed several pros and cons of both settings. Virtual settings allow easier access of information but lacked emotion as well as visual and auditory cues; this may result in the misinterpretation of messages. Although face-to-face communication settings enables rapport building among individuals in the organisation; would not very suitable to the global nature of this organisation. For instance, meetings are not cost effective. In conclusion, virtual setting is future of organisational communication hence, leaders need to alter their leadership styles to the changing settings.

References:

Miller, K 2008, Organizational Communication: approaches and processes, 5th edn, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Boston, MA.

Strategic Leadership and Decision Making 2009, National Defense University, viewed 10 November 2011, <http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ndu/strat-ldr-dm/pt4ch19.html>

Zimmerman, P, Wit, A & Gill, R 2008,‘The Relative Importance of Leadership Behaviours in Virtual and Face-to-Face Communication Settings’, Leadership, vol 4, no. 3, pp. 321–337