Leader Communication

Culture is a fuzzy set of attitudes, beliefs, behavioral conventions, and basic assumptions and values that are shared by a group of people, and that influence each member's behavior and his/her interpretations of the meaning people's behavior Culture is the lens through whof other ich we see others, understand them, and their words, and interpret the meaning Zof those words and respond

Organizations are increasingly being required to transform their cultures. Leaders are regularly confronted by the need to communicate and inculcate a core set of values and associated behaviors that an organization and its executive/senior leaders aspire to. However, leaders may lack the communicative competence, tools and/or frameworks to effectively communicate an organization's core values, which results in employees not experiencing a transformed culture, in which they feel involved, respected and connected -  where the richness of ideas, backgrounds , perspectives and behaviors are not fully leveraged to create business value. The primary aim of this research was to assess the effectiveness of leaders in communicating organizational values. The research philosophy that was adopted was one of ontology, encapsulated in the theoretical perspective of epistemological interpretivism. The methodology employed was a phenomenological inductive approach. The outcome of the analysis of the data was a set of  five themes and six thought groupings that portrayed an intricate understanding of communication, ultimately yielding a two-winged communications model.

Information fatigue, analysis paralysis, communications gridlock: These and other terms entered the business lexicon with the rapid acceleration of information technology and globalization in the late 20th century. Taken together, these terms paint a picture of an increasingly complex workplace and hint at the challenges facing leaders in the 21st century. Today's leaders cannot afford to focus solely on the inspirational rhetoric that their predecessors used to build commitment. In fact, we argue that there are four significant objectives that leaders must accomplish with their language: building and breaking down commitment and building and breaking down understanding. By focusing on all four objectives, leaders engage the hearts (through commitment) and minds (through understanding) of their followers. We draw from literature in communication, management, organizational behavior, and psychology to describe and illustrate techniques and objectives with contemporary examples of executives such as Steve Jobs of Apple Computer and Gary Kelly of Southwest Airlines. By providing a thoughtful analysis of the critical language objectives and techniques in a contemporary context, we not only highlight cutting-edge work on leader communication, but also provide actionable insights for leaders, researchers, and students who want to improve their understanding and execution of the language of leadership.