Communication 3nineToo Chapter 6 Communicating and Leading Change Mass Media in a Global Environment

Communicating and Leading Change in Organizations   Christina M. Bates

This case study examines the issue of leadership communication in an organization that is moving from a bureaucratic, traditional structure to a participative, human-resources, team-based structure.

Kathy Fuller is the manager of a check-processing site within Third Bank, a large, financial institution. As part of its efforts to become a participative organization, Kathy was recently transferred to a Third Bank site located in Carson, Texas, that experienced significant difficulties with adopting a participative form of management and organizational culture. The frontline teams at the Carson site are disillusioned, and morale is low. The previous management team adhered to the classical/bureaucratic style of management and did not support the frontline team’s efforts to implement daily operational change and be involved in the decision-making processes. It is now up to Kathy and her new management team to transform the culture at the Carson site to a participative organization.

This case illustrates the challenges, particularly the communicative ones, associated with communicating and leading change in an organization. This includes building and sustaining employee morale, empowering and encouraging employees, and involving them in day-to-day problem solving and decision making.

This case illuminates some of the communicative challenges that management must address and overcome when communicating and leading change in an organization that is experiencing a shift in structure from a bureaucratic/classical to a participative form of organizing.

Authoritarian/Autocratic Leadership—a non-democratic leadership style.

Classical Organization—an organization consisting of the classical structure, including a well defined division of labor and a strict hierarchy. Communication in the classical organization is typically top-down, written, highly formal, and task-related.

Democratic Leadership—an input- and advice-seeking leadership style that emphasizes and values the input, concerns, and advice of group members regarding decision making.

Fayol’s Theory of Classical Management—a theory that supports the idea that managing should consist of the elements of planning, commanding, coordinating, controlling, and organizing.

Human Relations Movement—a movement popular in the mid-twentieth century that supported a shift from the classical management approach by emphasizing human needs, job satisfaction, and managerial assumptions about employees’ motivations and needs. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Theory (Maslow 1943), Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory (Herzberg 1968), and McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y (McGregor 1957) formed the theoretical basis of the Human Relations Movement.

Human Resources Movement—a movement beginning in the 1960s that extends the focus beyond the satisfaction of employee needs to include an emphasis on leadership styles and organizational forms in order to further employee satisfaction while also achieving organizational needs.

Laissez-faire Leadership—a "hands-off" leadership style that acknowledges and values the capability of the group to run itself; the opposite of the authoritarian style of leadership. A laissez-faire leader believes that guidance is unnecessary and can even be counterproductive.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory—a theory that proposes that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy, ranging from physiological needs to the need for self-actualization.

McGregor’s Theory X—a theory that proposes that a strong and forceful hand is necessary for harnessing and driving the efforts of otherwise unmotivated employees.

McGregor’s Theory Y—a theory that proposes that workers are highly motivated to satisfy achievement and self-actualization needs. Therefore, a Theory Y manager would strive to bring out these natural tendencies.

Ouchi’s Theory Z—a theory based on Japanese theories of management that emphasizes the importance of developing the human resources of an organization with training and development primarily through collective decision making.

Participative Organization—an organization in which members play a larger role in its day-to-day operations, such as a team of employees who manage themselves and make day-to-day business decisions in lieu of a supervisor. Communication in the participative organization is typically broad (including task-related, social, and innovation topics), flows in a several and various directions, emphasizes team-based interaction, and is relatively informal.

Quality Team—a type of team, popularized in the Japanese manufacturing industry (see Ouchi’s Theory Z), that typically consists of a cross-functional group of self-directed frontline employees whose primary goal is to identify opportunities for quality improvements and to develop and/or improve processes to address those opportunities.

Self-directed Team—a type of team that typically makes many decisions in regards to work needed to be done, scheduling, and problem solving on its own and without managerial interference. Such teams are most often found in participative organizations.

Weber’s Theory of Bureaucracy—a theory that builds upon Fayol’s Theory of Classical Management and emphasizes the closed nature of bureaucracy and the importance of organizational rules and regulations.

Discussion Questions

1. What are the benefits of being a member of a participative organization?

2. What are the leadership challenges associated with managing in a participative organization, as opposed to a classical/bureaucratic organization?

3. How do leadership styles differ between classically structured/bureaucratic and participative organizations?

4. How does the nature of communication differ between classically structured/bureaucratic and participative organizations?

5. Think of a time when you were asked to assume a leadership role. What leadership style would you adopt and why would you adopt that style?

6. How does your leadership style influence the manner in which you communicate with those whom you are leading?

7. Define "self-directed teams" and discuss the role of these teams in participative organizations.

8. Think of an interaction that you have had with a manager or boss in a present or past job. How would you characterize your manager’s leadership style based upon that interaction? If you were to advise this manager regarding his or her leadership style, what advice would you offer and why?

9. What role do you think communication plays in a participative organization, as opposed to a classical/bureaucratic organizations? decisions to help them develop practical solutions based on existing theory and scholarship. (See

Increasingly, organizations are undergoing cultural change from the bureaucratic, classical structure of organizing to the participative form. Although the classical/bureaucratic organization emphasizes and values a well-defined division of labor, a strict hierarchy, and top-down, written, highly formal, and task-related communication, the participative form of organizing emphasizes and values deep, extensive member involvement in the day-to-day operations of the organization, such as a team of employees managing themselves and making day-to-day business decisions in lieu of a supervisor. Reflecting this environment, the communication in the participative organization is typically expansive (including task-related, social, and innovation topics), flows in several and varied directions, emphasizes team-based interaction, and is relatively informal.

Participative organizations epitomize several of the attributes emphasized in the human relations and resources movements in regards to employee empowerment, motivation, needs (including physiological needs), job satisfaction, and rewards. Although the authoritarian/autocratic leadership style is common in classical/bureaucratic organizations, the democratic leadership style is prevalent in the participative organization, since the democratic leader’s decisions are not made without considering the input, concerns, and advice of group members. This type of leadership style enables the development of an environment that fosters employee involvement, empowerment, and satisfaction.

Transactional leadership is also common in participative organizations. This leadership style emphasizes the development of particular types of supervisor-subordinate relationships. The primary assumption underlying this leadership style is that interpersonal relationships between leaders and subordinates develop because of the mutual exchanges that occur between them.

According to this type of leadership, therefore, leaders must legitimate their position (which in the organizational hierarchy is not sufficient) vis-à-vis their subordinates. The transactional leader may engage in communication that serves to legitimate their position, while acknowledging and legitimizing the positions of others within the organization. In addition to democratic and transactional leadership styles, transformational leadership style is also very common in participative organizations. This type of leadership focuses on the charisma of the leader. Transformational leaders derive their authority from such charisma (as opposed to organizational rank, for example). At the heart of the transformational leadership style is the leader’s ability to create a vision for the organization and outline how it would achieve these goals. Although these leaders transform their subordinates’ ideas to further the organizational goals, they do not take ownership for these ideas; rather, they involve their subordinates in the development of ideas. Thus, this type of leadership style complements and fosters a participative environment.

Leader communication plays a significant role in the success or failure of the transformation from a classical/bureaucratic organization to a participative organization. Leaders must lead efforts for change through communication that simultaneously evokes trust and openness, while promoting this change. According to McGregor’s Theory Y, employees are highly motivated to satisfy achievement and self-actualization needs. Therefore, a leader in an organization that is transforming to a participative form of organizing should seek to bring out these natural tendencies and discuss how the impending changes complement and satisfy them.

Discussion Questions

1. What are some of the communicative challenges within a classically structured organization?

2. What are the characteristics of a participative organization?

3. Define "self-directed teams" and discuss their relation to a participative organization.

4. CEO Hauss refers to Third Bank as "the big, lumbering, bureaucratic giant." What does he mean by this? (Students will need to conduct outside research to fully answer this question.)

5. What did Third Bank hope to gain by becoming a participative organization?

6. What are the characteristics of the "troubled teams"?

7. What are the characteristics of Kathy’s effective Chicago teams? with your management team. The PowerPoint presentation should include: