Role Of The Leader In Organizational Communication

Communication structure

Explain Role of the leader in organizational communication.

Organizational culture is ubiquitous. It does retain its presence in every trivial operation of the firm and propelled the action of the individual who involved with that operation. It can be described as the rudiment of organization and its activities. Culture is a type of constrain that subject to evolve but not influenced by any cosmetic adaptation. These adaptations are temporal and related with situational influences regarding the climate which can be considered as a temporal catalyst in this occasion. Organizational communication is directly influenced by organizational culture. In diversified organization ethnic culture contributes in the development of organizational culture. Ethnic values and orientations of the group and individuals within the organization generate communication barrier. This scenario is plausible to Australian organizations because these organizations are diverse and multiethnic in character. Australian immigration policies are offering a chance to the foreign nationals to work in this country as skilled and unskilled worker. Involvement of these people in the organization is the root cause of multicultural atmosphere. Communication is the one of the major central means of the human activity within the organization directed to the attainment of the strategic goal (Jones et al 2004). In this context we also look at the how successful modern leadership in Australian organisations confront ethical issues in relation to managing culturally diverse workforce that requires ethical thinking to bring transparency, impartiality and also clarity of the outcomes

The pattern of communication can get defined by different graphical pattern, Chin, wheel, star, star, and all channel communication. Communication structure of the organizations is coherent with organization structure. It can exemplify by chain structure of communication. In this pattern of communication, the flow of information does follow the vertical structure of up down movement, in this structure information get strategically structured a decision making authority. In circle network all the information get shared equally among all the members of the group. In wheel structure of communication a centralized leadership works as arbiters to direct the flow of information. These models or the structure of the communication depicts the presence of strategically driven behavior behind the organizational communication. Multiple pattern of communication may get accommodated in a single organization in different level. Depend up on the culture of the organization. Culture has a major influence in the communication process, but this influence not only confine only in the existing culture of the organization rather culture of the existing ethnic group and subgroups. 

Communication process

Communication process articulates presence of two prominent bodies’ sender and receiver. Sender is the body who generates the message and sends it to the receiver. Receiver is the recipient of the message. The process of comprehension plays a cardinal role here. Sending and receiving message influenced by a dormant process of encryption and decryption. Encryption is the process of encoding the message it is the process of a basic criteria formation. it does indicate towards a specific receiver. This is a type of receiver who can decrypt of decode the message and comprehend it. This pre requisite can become more sophisticated to address more sophisticated receiver. Language is a major prerequisite of the communication. The communicator or the sender can codify the message in a certain language which comprehended by only few people In this case the sender will deliberately make interference the whole communication process. Biased communication or deliberate formation of communication gap may get occurs due to this. Noise is another factor that may generate an undesirable influence over communication ( Hiltz, et al 1986). Noise distorts the message of communication and makes the notion misleading for the receiver. Lingual, cultural and ethnic factors may turn as noise or communication barrier.

Some time non verbal communication plays a major role in interpersonal interaction with in organizational atmosphere. The communication without the mediation of verbal language can get defined as non verbal communication. Communication through gesture facial expression and even dressing is the part of non-verbal communication (Chira, D. 2014). This specific type of communication generates an intense impact over interpersonal communication within the organization. Individual and ethnic cultural influence manifests as a prominent factor behind the nonverbal manifestation of human expression. Nonverbal communication is not body language (Chira, D. 2014) but something more comprehensive than that. Perspective of an individual getting reflected in the time of communication, personal attitude belief, and ethical stand plays major role in this regard. This is the major reason behind the ethnic religious and racial influence in the communication process of the diversified work place. 

Objective driven attitude is one of the cardinal traits of leadership behavior. Leader wants to convey the message to the follower they address the mass activity through their communication (Dewan,& Myatt 2008). They want to be communicated. Generating influence is one of the sign of any successful leader. Communication is the means for that purpose. The intension of the leadership cannot be successful without the effective communication. The movement towards strategic direction will be the optimum result of this. In order to get the optimum result the leader should channelized the team towards the sated direction. Multi cultural diverse work place is a plausible challenge for the leaders in this regards.

Cultural influence over communication

 First challenge emerges as the form of communication. Leader applies direct and indirect communication according to the demand of the situation. Direct communication is the part of the western way of communication. Westerners can make an obvious expression regarding the preference and no preference. But this may not be applicable in the communication of the noon western races. Because beyond the western periphery a different process of communication does exist and this process may not acknowledge the western attributes as the means of effective communication. Contemporary manifestation of effective leadership communication is ‘discursive leadership’. Development of common commitment over the strategic issue is the central intension of leadership communication with other team members (Markoczy, 2001: 1014). The proposition from leaders end and the sanction from the subordinates cannot be the mechanical one; the response should get emerged as epitome of authentic involvement with the subject. Leader may not get the response as he expect from the person belong to western cultural background. Same expressiveness may not traceable in all the cases but the comprehension of the notion does represent the cohesiveness of the organization. The eligibility of the competent leadership got determined by that.

Lingual impediment is another plausible challenge fir the leader of a diversified multicultural work place such as many Australian companies. English is the official language and the only language of communication this country. Being a citizen of this mono lingual atmosphere one may harbor the same expectation from his work environment. A multicultural diverse atmosphere a not comply with that expectation. Workforce from out of Anglo sphere can caused discord at the time of collective learning. Worker with the vernacular accent of non English speaking country can become noticed and ostracized by the mainstream English speaking population. A sense of superiority complex may become predominating among the English speaking worker community. Leader need to address this area; because it invites a direct threat to the cohesiveness of the organization generate impact over the productivity.

Employee from different part of the world does not harbor the same attitude towards the hierarchy. According to the organization culture of different country individual differ in terms of attitude. Organization of some country replicates their social structure and maintains identical strata or layer on their structure. This trait does generate an attitude of stratified society among the workers. The worker with some specific attitude fined difficulty to adjust himself with the changed work atmosphere. It is the responsibility of the leader to turn him in a proper direction so he can make himself accustomed with this.

Challenge of communication

Organization communication in culturally diverse work place has confront another major challenge in decision making and communicating the decision if the individual. Decision making process tend to be reactive and depend up on comprehension of the situation. A person from local background comprehends the situation from a certain angle and another person from another ethnic background does it in complete different manner. There is a possibility of conflict lies here. the direction of decision making may not get match all the time and the style of comprehension may caused discord in the organization. The responsibility of the happeng and eventuality sapose to get imposes over leadership. The proof of competent leadership may get validated on the basis of reconciliation that substantiate efficacy of the governance. The process of decision making is not an isolated one rather comprehensive; it has its expansion from micro to macro level. In micro level it does influence individual and his eventuality and in macro level it address the community or organization itself. The normative movement to a prescribe direction may not represent a liberal decision. It is the challenge the leader has confronted to retain the value of cohesiveness and facilitate the organization to get evolves on that basis.   

In culturally diverse Australian organisations to confront ethical issues the Leadership have themselves to be ethical in behaviour and thereby bring transparency in work, impartiality in judgements and clarity in the outcomes. We deal with this in detail further in the assignment in diversity and challenges and also while managing diversity where Leadership and their behaviours play a vital part in confronting the ethical issues in culturally diverse workforce in the Australian organisations.     

While we live in this diverse society and the same is reflected in workplaces. Diversity is considered broader than the ethnicity, race and gender. Diversity is what that makes each other unique which includes our beliefs, personality, backgrounds and also life experiences. Therefore it is all these that make us who or what we are. It is therefore the combination of visible and the invisible differences which shape our view of this world that is our perspective and approach. Dimensions pertaining to diversity includes age, ethnicity, gender, physical abilities, ancestry, race, educational background, sexual orientation, marital status, geographic location, income, parental status, religious beliefs and work experiences etc. to name a few. In this context it is vital to know how all these dimensions affect the performance, success, motivations and his dealings with others. It is therefore that these Institutional structures and also practices that present as barriers to few dimensions of the diversity be examined, challenged, worked upon and removed. Managing diversity is referred to planning and thereby implementing these organisational systems and the practices in order to manage people in such ways that potential advantages of this diversity are truly maximised and the disadvantages are minimised. Managing diversity therefore provides the distinct advantage in this era when creativity and flexibility are vital to competitiveness. An organisation has to be adaptable and flexible in order to meet the new customer wants and needs which in turn will increase profitability. Diversity as a concept is having potential to know about international market, contribute to diverse operational related skills, represent varied customer bases and helps in the decision making and also with diverse age and the experiences that provide different perspectives (Stone2013).

Therefore managing diversity in Australian organisations is proactive recruitment and the retention of these diverse workforces in such ways that the employee differences become asset for rather than becoming liability to the organisation. It is therefore by harnessing these diverse differences helps to create productive environment where every individual feels valued, feel that their talents being utilised fully and in these also organisational goals are fulfilled (ertens, 2014). 

Therefore in organisations in Australia it is important for Leaders handle these ethical issues pertaining to the culturally diverse workforce by identifying key management and team leader competencies where they ensure these all essential motivations are fully addressed for all the employees in such culturally varied workforce (Corey et al. 2014), effective managers of such cultural diversity are required to posses number of abilities and the strategies in order to manage and work with such diverse staff and also customers as below:

• Having broader perspective and relative experience of working with such varied differences
• Are really aware of themselves pertaining to their attitudes, prejudices and also values
• Can articulate relationship in between managing diversity and the business outcomes
• Know how about diversity dimensions between their legal and the organisational framework
• Can assess and identify these positive and negative effects of such diversity on the business functions
• Can communicate relatively well and effectively across the diverse cultures
• Respond effectively with these diversity issues with the help of seeking and sharing the views and the inputs of all the team members
• Identifying management competencies that they should develop and the competencies that staff has to work in tandem or together to be effective
• Understand the very process of the designing and also implementing such diversity strategy
• Use diversity of their teams in ways to enhance the creativity and also innovation
• Demonstrate real flexibility and also openness in learning from such diverse people

Research and relative experience shows workplace teams in organisations in Australia being increasingly diverse( Benschop et al 2015).. There are several dimensions to this diversity that figure prominently among most teams which includes the gender, cultural background and also generations. Therefore due to differences among the micro, the small, the medium and the large enterprises, leaders or managers also need to look to consider each of the action areas and also recommended actions that needs to be worked in relevance to the organisation and also industry it operates.

Hence in such scenarios it is very important for leaders to confront ethical issues in such varied workforce in Australian organisations must put more emphasis on the people management (Corey, Corey, & Corey2013). It is those organisations that manages the culturally diversified workforce effectively and thereby develops cultural competence tend to gain advantages in terms of attraction and retention, teams and the teamwork and also international people management thereby making them highly competitive in labour market. Organisations that use such diversity management approaches and strategies to address the very concerns of the minority staff reduces the annual turnover of the staff, thereby saving money, retaining the skills and helps in enhancing the reputation in the industry.

Diversity Management is an effective continuing process of involving workforce recognition and the customer differentiation to all the core business functions, the processes, the communications and the services in order to develop a harmonious, relatively fair, inclusive, a more creative and also effective organisation.

The various concepts and the practices that has evolved over the years in Australia and also across developed economies having large population of immigration.

Leaders were mainly concerned with the fairness and more importantly tolerance through the compliance policies, the very control techniques and systems and also staff training. With increased competition and vastly diversified workforce there came the need for talented and trained staff in global knowledge based economy, higher work and life balance expectation among employees, better career and also learning areas with opportunities, respect, flexibility, recognition and wide consultation. The various laws regarding racial and the age discriminations. The leaders thereby became highly responsible towards minimising disadvantages while maximising advantages of the workforce that is diverse so as to ensure the social cohesion with inclusiveness to act as essential feature of organisational tool for effectiveness (havand et al. 2013).

Therefore several points be considered in this perspective

Managing and also working with the diversity happens to be generic skill

It’s fair to comprehend that most Australian organisations always managed the diversity on their terms. They dealt with the cultural differences as per need or at times avoided or ignored them (hrich et al 2015). The ones who actively managed these cultural diversities happens to be most competitive

Understanding what is that motivates and also satisfies employees, despite their circumstances or the background, is a major feature of good organisation management

With people from varied cultures along with education, age, gender etc, living and also working in Australia adds to complexity. It is observed that we human beings are more similar than we look different. These differences are result of our upbringing, learned things about seeing this world and how we do the activities. The most likely of differences are most often least visible. They are expressed in the values and the attitudes we posses (candura, 2016).

Organisational and the individual performance are linked to the diversity management strategy

Exactly understanding differences that affect relationships, actions and also the decisions in this diverse workplace and the social environments enables the leaders and managers to enhance individual and the team’s performance. 

It is thus vital for the leaders in this context to manage conflicts and other issues effectively by proper qualities and techniques that overall benefit the organisation. 

Leadership had been regarded as the inherent ability that one posses in influencing others with the help of controlling the said behaviour of all other members of that group. leadership styles has evolved with motivation and other enabling factors apart from influencing to achieve desired organisational goals. This concept brought the transformational and transactional leadership into force. But most of research equated the transactional approach to the transformational style (Banks, 2015). Here the communal characteristics along with inspirational values are described to understand this leadership. Transformational leaders characteristics lead to nurturing and also caring, their role is observed to show consideration thereby developing followers in achieving their full potential. The Leaders lead in the ways that is encouraging and also motivating as communal traits are substantially beneficial in the producing along with fostering the self worth and also confidence among the subordinates.

Therefore the development of this transactional and the transformational based leadership were on terms based on understanding of multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ). By using leader and the rater forms in the MLQ survey, the transactional and also transformational based leadership is truly measured to provide exact evaluation to the individuals to understand their leadership behaviour or the style. With flattening organisational structures and hierarchies and the rapid pace of globalisations are making leadership styles and approaches are transforming also. As per the measurement of the MLQ the transformational approach shows that benefit of relatively using communal based approach to the leadership (Mphotwana, 2014).

Therefore in pretext to Australian organisations culturally linked leadership model or style that shows the very differences between the cultures especially in view of the values, attitudes and the behaviour of the individuals and that the diversion provides the implications for the leadership in those organisations. Previous studies emphasised on leaders themselves involving their styles, the actions, the philosophies and also the acceptance and with appropriateness of the different leadership styles. These studies indicated that different behaviour and also actions of the leaders are being interpreted and also evaluated totally differently based on the cultural scenario and the same are due to the variations among the peoples image and ideas of ideal leader.

Relatively fewer studies has taken the dimension of cultural influences on the leadership styles, the different approaches of leadership practised in other countries  and the general style of leadership at that point in the place (Arends, 2014). Reality and generality is based on the very limited research that raises quite significant questions on the research that underlie in studying the differences in these leadership approaches and styles originating across cultures. Hence from managerial perspective these variations in the leadership styles offer extremely difficult challenges to the organisations, mainly during expanding their various operations globally. The Australian organisations quite often need to be contend with these diverse cultural ethoses, values, behaviours and the norms that are quite different from that of host country. It is thus critical to study the influence that arises of the culture based specific forces that apply on these differences in the leadership styles (Hislop, 2013).

Conclusion:

In this context it works a major challenge across the organisations in Australia with their leaders to understand the ethical values that brings forth the communications, the various cultural and backgrounds that underlie in the process and the diversity of these issues make the Leaders evaluate their behaviours and the leadership approaches styles. Though the study is incomplete as per research worldwide that any specific leadership style is suitable to this approach but it is conclusive to state that based on various research that culturally linked leadership approach or style is quite feasible to work and implement to understand these culturally diverse teams within the management framework. Therefore it is quite obvious that managing the diversity is the key to provide the necessary impetus to the success of these leadership styles that has to evolve in this continuing global scenario.

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