Creative Communication Problem
Although in the past I have never had a difficult communication problem at any job or in my graduate studies I am experiencing a very challenging problem at my employment. I have a position at Republic Airways and I have been very content working there. Recently a new Human Resources manager was hired. I have never had any bad performance comments in any of my employee evaluations so I have been shocked at the way the new manager treats me. I try to remain very professional and answer any question she asks me very directly. Unfortunately she is never please with what I have to say and always reacts negatively to my comments. For example when I hand her a finished report her comments are judgmental and belittling like “Oh, this is a flimsy little file,” “I wonder if you read my instructions before you did this?” or “In the time it takes you to write a report I could finish a book.”
This paper offers a literature review of several theories in order to brainstorm for a solution to the problem. It is possible that the manager has a leadership style that I do not understand or that the problem has to do with my age as I am the youngest employee in the department. The following section is the literature review I have done in order to study some of the different communication and leadership theories. Potter (1996) has explained that importance of qualitative research. He reports that although qualitative research is subjective is is an important part of research and must be done. (Potter, 1996, 11).
Literature Review
A problem in communication between employees and management can have an impact on the success or failure of an organization. In other words, poor communication between a manager and employee is an important problem to solve because as Woods (2010) pointed out “Employees estimated this resulted in up to 40 minutes of wasted time per day – the equivalent of 83 employees in a company of 1,000 doing nothing every day.” Ineffective communication has been cited often in Human Resources literature especially for the negative effect it has on productivity. (Allen, 2011; Woods, 2010)
In an article at the AJULA.edu website titled “Improving Management/Employee Communication, Part 1: Theories of Motivation” some interesting insights into what motivates people are shared. (Part 1, 2012, ajula.edu) The issue is addressed from the point of view of a manager and explains that content employees are inclined to respond positively to communication. In other words when employees feel contented at their jobs they are happier and communicate better with everyone. The Social Learning Theory also known as the Expectancy Theory is one that describes how a person behaves in relationship to a positive reward. Reviewing the principles of the theory led me to consider how this theory might apply to my situation. First here is a short version of the five main principles of Expectancy Theory. (a) People behave a certain way for a reason. (b) People behave in certain ways to be rewarded. (c) People need to believe that the reward is within their reach. (d) The environment of a job impacts the importance to a person and their expectation to succeed. (e) Manager’s can improve the environment, increase the reward and build an employee’s expectation of success. (Part 1, 2012, ajula.edu)
In the early 1960s several new theories that included the point of view of the employee were established. For example Rinses Likert built several theories which noted the importance a harmonizing relationship between reaching the goals of the organization and employees.
The leadership and other processes of the organization must be such as to ensure a maximum probability that in all interactions and all relationships with the organization each member will, in the light of his background, values, and expectations, view the experience as supportive and one which builds and maintains his sense of personal worth importance. (Likert, 1961, p. 103)
Likert (1967) research Supportive Relationships Theory about supportive relationships in which management respects an employee’s personal goals in order to keep a positive attitude for reaching the project goals in an organization. He described them as four relationship systems (a) Exploitative Authoritative when managers do not trust the employees that work under their leadership. (b) Benevolent Authoritative when there is a relationship like master has over a servant so the employee has little room to think or work on their own. (c) Consultative is when employees are given opportunities to share feedback but they feel ignored. (d) Participative Group which is what Likert called a participatory group because managers trust employees and input from employees is considered valuable.
Miner (2002) addresses the category of subcultures and how a leader can best deal with diversity including age, gender and race as well as ethnicity. He explained that the most difficult organizational culture to establish is also one which can be the most satisfying because it can “make its own diagnoses and self-manage the change process” (611). He also describes the type of leader that can manage that type of organizational development style must be a “perpetual learner” (Miner, 2002, 611).
Rooke and William (2005) have developed a “sentence-completion survey tool called the Leadership Development profile.” By completing sentences participants can describe their own world view and self perceptions to the evaluators of the surveys. The phrases encourage the participants to give whatever response they want. They gave one example of an opening phrase “A good leader” which can be answered in as many different ways as there are numbers of participants. (Rooke & William, 2005, hbr.org)
Sull and Spinzoa (2007) have written about the use of Promise-Based management which demands that a manager understand that “At its heart, every company is a dynamic set of promises. . . Promises are the strands that weave together coordinated activity in organizations.” They are not only discussing promises between managers and employees but also promises between peers and to clients. Sull and Spinoza (2007) agree with Likert that success in an organization is based on participatory management because they point out that that “a sense of ownership when coupled with wide latitude in managing the negotiations around individual promises, dramatically increase employee’s engagement and therefore boosts overall performance.”
Conclusion
After studying the literature I realize that I need an objective third party to help me solve this problem. I need to determine the leadership style of the new manager, my work style, and if there is a way to harmonize my style with the new manager. I believe I have a strong participatory style and she has a strong authoritarian style which (if that is the case) will be difficult to work out.
Recommendations
(a) Find a trusted third party who can take an objective view of the situation.
(b) Inquire about training workshops for employees to learn how to handle different leadership styles.
(c) Continue to keep a professional attitude at work. When the new manager says something that hurts your feelings do not let yourself show your feelings at that time. Act like she has said something normal and always end a conversation “Thank you for your time” or something just as polite. Stay professional.
References
Allen, L. (2011 October 2011). Poor Management Communication Leads to Low Employee Productivity. Daily Blogma. http: Dailyblogma.com
Likert, Rensis. (1961). New Patterns of Management.
Likert, Rensis. (1967). The Human Organization: Its Management and Value. McGraw Hill.
Miner, John B. (2002). Organizational Behavior: Foundations, Theories, and Analyses. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Part 1: Theories of Motivation. (2012). Improving Management/Employee Communication. American Jewish University. www.ajula.edu
Potter, W. J. (1996). An Analysis of Thinking and Research about Qualitative Methods. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Accessed from www.quetia.com
Sull, Donald N. & Spinosa, C. (2007). Promise-based management: The essence of execution. Harvard Business Review. April. Retrieved from hbr.org
Woods, D. (2010 January 15). Poor communication between managers and employees wastes times and impacts productivity. HR Magazine, www.hrmagazine.co.uk.
