Leading and communication

Contents
Concept and qualities of leadership
Transformational and transactional leadership
Leadership styles: Autocratic, democratic and participative
Concept of managerial ethics
Motivation: Concept, importance and techniques
Communication: Meaning, process and networks
Types of communication
Barriers to effective communication
 Leadership
Leadership is the heart of an organization. Only assigning works to the employees is not enough. Someone has
to direct, lead, supervise and motivate them to work. So, leadership involves determining the course, giving
orders and instructions and providing supervision. According to Keith Davis, “leadership is the ability to
persuade others to seek defined objectives enthusiastically.
Leadership can be taken as a
• Process: It is used to direct, motivate and coordinate the employees
• Property: It involves traits of a leader and how he uses his traits to motivate the employees
• Power: Power of getting things done.
 Qualities
Leadership is a process of influencing and inspiring the behavior of others. Leadership qualities are of two types
as follows:
Physical qualities:
 Physical fitness: Leader must have a good physical outlook. He must be impressive and healthy.
 Self-confidence: The leader must be very confident on his work. He must have the knowledge of the
possible outcomes and he must be able to guide and lead the employees.
 Intelligence: Intelligence is taken as a mental quality of a leader. He should not be confused in any situation
and he must be able to deal with any situation in a logical and confident manner.
 Vision and foresight: Leader should be able to make plans, policies and strategies in a systematic manner.
He should have a good vision and he should be able to lead his employees accordingly.
 Sense of responsibility: Leader should always have a sense of responsibility toward his work. He should not
take credit for the good works and put blames on others.
 Human character: A leader must be honest, loyal, self-disciplined and devoted to his work. He should set an
ideal example in front of the employees.
 Flexible attitude: A leader must be flexible and dynamic. He should adjust himself with the external
changes. He should be able to modify his decisions as per the situation.
 Cont…
Managerial qualities:
 Technical knowledge: The leader must have a basic technical knowledge. He should be able to guide the
employees for the most economic completion of work.
 Moderate state of mind: Leader must be able to maintain patience while taking any types of decision. He
should take rational decisions that are free from biasness and emotions.
 Organizing ability: A leader must be able to divide his works in best manner. He must be able to match the
activities and resources together. Besides, he should also maintain proper coordination among the
employees.
 Human relation expert: Leader must be able to deal with the visitors, subordinates, suppliers, shareholders
etc. He should be polite and friendly.
 Wide perspective: A leader must have wide vision. He should be able to carry out the organizational
activities according to the plan and system.
 Transformational leadership
Transformational leadership is a leadership theory which was first introduced by Dowton in 1973. According to
Northouse (2016), transformational leadership "is the process whereby a person engages with others and creates
a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower".
Expanding upon Dowton’s theory, James Burns added to the transformational leadership theory by proposing
that leaders are successful because they are good at recruiting good employees and recognizing skills and talents
in each employee and using that to help the organization reach its goals (Northouse, 2016). Burns argued that
transformational leaders are attentive to their teams’ needs and their motivations and that helping employees
reach their full potential is beneficial to not only the employee and the leader, but the organization.
It’s important for a leader to recognize that each employee is different and that they bring a different skill set.
When leaders recognize that they can transform their team using emotions, ethics, goals, and values, they can,
in fact, begin to create a strong team. The transformational leadership theory focuses on treating employees as
human beings rather than just numbers. The theory requires that the leader be charismatic and able to see
success in the future and how to obtain it.
Northouse describes four factors of transformational leadership. The first is idealized influence, in which a
leader is seen as role model and followers want to imitate that behavior. The second is inspirational
motivation, in which leaders set and communicate high expectations for their followers. This leader inspires
his/her followers using motivation to get them on board with the organization’s mission and vision. The third is
called intellectual stimulation, which describes a leader who encourages followers to seek out creativity and
innovation. Finally, the last factor is called individualized consideration, which refers to leaders who take the
time to talk to and listen to each of their followers and treats them with respect and dignity. It can be explained
with a figure as follows:
Cont…
 Transactional leadership
The transactional style of leadership was first described by Max Weber in 1947 and then by Bernard Bass in
1981. This style is most often used by the managers. It focuses on the basic management process of controlling,
organizing, and short-term planning.
The power of transactional leaders comes from their formal authority and responsibility in the organization. The
main goal of the follower is to obey the instructions of the leader. The leader believes in motivating through a
system of rewards and punishment. If a subordinate does what is desired, a reward will follow, and if he does
not go as per the wishes of the leader, a punishment will follow. This exchange has four dimensions as follows:
• Contingent Rewards: Transactional leaders link the goal to rewards, clarify expectations, provide necessary
resources, set mutually agreed upon goals, and provide various kinds of rewards for successful performance.
They set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely) goals for their subordinates.
• Active Management by Exception: Transactional leaders actively monitor the work of their subordinates,
watch for deviations from rules and standards and taking corrective action to prevent mistakes.
• Passive Management by Exception: Transactional leaders intervene only when standards are not met or
when the performance is not as per the expectations. They may even use punishment as a response to
unacceptable performance.
• Laissez-faire: The leader provides an environment where the subordinates get many opportunities to make
decisions. The leader himself abdicates responsibilities and avoids making decisions and therefore the group
often lacks direction.
 Cont…
Assumptions of Transactional Theory
• Employees are motivated by reward and punishment.
• The subordinates have to obey the orders of the superior.
• The subordinates are not self-motivated. They have to be closely monitored and controlled to get the work
done from them.
Problems
• The transactional leaders overemphasize detailed and short-term goals, and standard rules and procedures.
• They do not make an effort to enhance followers’ creativity and generation of new ideas.
• This kind of a leadership style may work well where the organizational problems are simple and clearly
defined.
• Such leaders tend to not reward or ignore ideas that do not fit with existing plans and goals.
Advantages
• The transactional leaders are found to be quite effective in guiding efficiency decisions which are aimed at
cutting costs and improving productivity.
• The transactional leaders tend to be highly directive and action oriented and their relationship with the
followers are not based on emotional bonds.
 Differences
Transactional leadership Transformational Leadership

Leadership is responsive Leadership is proactive

Works within the organizational culture Work to change the organizational culture by
implementing new ideas

Transactional leaders make employees achieve Transformational leaders motivate and empower
organizational objectives through rewards and employees to achieve company’s objectives by
punishment appealing to higher ideals and moral values

Motivates followers by appealing to their own self- Motivates followers by encouraging them to transcend
interest their own interests for those of the group or unit
 Leadership styles
Leadership style varies from one organization to another. It totally depends on the philosophy, attitude,
personality and experience of individual leader. It also depends on the nature of the organization and the duties
to be performed in it. There are basically four different types of leadership styles as follows:
1. Authoritarian style (leader centered): This is also called dictorial or autocratic style. The leader has the
unlimited authority and he uses fear, threat, authority and strength of their authority to get the things done.
They don’t care about the employees feelings and use them for the goal accomplishment. They mainly take
credit for the goal achievements and blame others for the failures. They make all the planning and decisions
by themselves. They don’t provide any feedback for the work and thus misunderstanding always happens in
the organization.
2. Paternalistic style (leader centered): This is also called benevolent autocratic style. The leader is the main
person to make decisions but treat, guide and protect his subordinates as children. They deal kindly with
their subordinates and allow them some flexibility in work. There is little trust between the leader and
subordinates. So, there is little feedback and poor upward communication. Subordinates cannot participate
in decisions and they should do what they are told but they can also be creative sometimes.
 Cont…
3. Participative style (Group centered): This is also called democratic or consultative style. The leaders
always try to persuade the subordinates for the work rather than forcing them. They encourage the
employees for participative decision making and understand their feelings, and opinions. Since, the
subordinates are involved in planning and decision making, they are highly motivated to work. They feel
important and like to work more. The leaders share the information with the subordinates and guide them for
the work. They focus on providing rewards than punishments. There is a process of two way communication
in this style of leadership and it helps people to grow and take work initiatives. Since, the employees are
highly motivated, the productivity is also higher. The basic problem in this style is time consumption for
decision making and this style is not applicable when decisions are be given immediately.
4. Laissez-faire style (individual centered): It is also called free rein style. In this style, subordinates have
complete freedom of choice and can do as they like. Leaders don’t get involved in the decision making and
allow subordinates to make decisions. The group run the work themselves. The subordinates make their
goals. The leaders encourage the subordinates to operate freely and don’t guide them unless the subordinates
request them for help. This style creates more anxiety and tension to the subordinates. This style is not
suitable for those conditions when the subordinates are not skilled and qualified to perform the duties
themselves.
 Which style is the best?????????????
The choice of the leadership style always depends on two factors as job factors (kind of job to be done) and personal factors (kind
of people to be led). The job factors include

 Complexity of jobs
 Difficulty of jobs
 Need for quick decisions
 Need for consistent results
 Need for creative work etc.

Personal factors include

 Skill, reliability and experience of those who do the work and

 Their willingness to accept responsibility and to make decisions.
•A democratic style is most suitable for such works that needs creativity. Such style always requires highly competent and
experienced people that are reliable. Besides, such style should be used only when people are willing to take responsibility and
making decisions.
• Authoritarian style is preferred for such tasks that demand coordination and consistency. For example, dealing with large
number of people. Besides, it is handy in such situation when task completion should be governed with strict policies or when
immediate action is needed. The leaders also rely on this style when the employees have little understanding of the organization
goals and they are incompetent, unskilled, inexperienced and unreliable. Thus, we cannot say which style is the best and which
one is the worst. But we can say that the use of leadership style must be situational.
 Ethics
Ethics is an individual’s personal belief about whether a behavior, action or decision is right or wrong.
Ethics is reflected in an individual’s behavior and ethical behavior differs from person to person. Ethical
behavior conforms to generally accepted social norms and unethical behavior doesn’t confirm to generally
accepted social norms.
Sources of business ethics: There are mainly three different sources of business ethics described as follows:
• Societal ethics: The unwritten values and norms of the society that govern how members of a society deal
with each other in matters involving issues such as fairness, justice and rights of the individual.
• Professional ethics: These are the standards that govern how members of a profession like managers make
decisions. Violation of such ethical standards is penalized. There are different professional rules and norms
that how employees make decisions or act in certain situations.
• Individual ethics: Individual ethics are personal standards and values that govern how individuals interact
with one another. Such ethics are formed due to the influence of family, friends and relatives. The individual
ethics of managers shape the organization’s code of ethics.
 Cont…
Ethical standards: Ethical standards are the formal standards and rules, based on beliefs
about right or wrong that managers can use to help themselves and make appropriate
decisions. There can be different ethical standards for an organization and the ethical
standards differ from one organization to another organization. Some of the ethical
standards are as follows:
• Treat all the employees and clients with respect and fairness.
• Provide a fair wage to the employees for their work
• Offer promotional opportunities for the minorities and women
• Give a portion of profits back to the community in the form of scholarships and charitable
ventures
• Do not share customer’s private information with anyone outside the company
 Managerial ethics
Management ethics: Managerial ethics is the standard of behavior that guides individual managers in their
work. It is the moral principles and rules of conduct that is applied in the business.
Significance:
 Promotes goodwill and image: If an organization is ethical, it can supply quality products to the consumers
and avoid artificial shortage, black marketing etc. This helps the organization in the promotion of goodwill
and good image.
 Helps to maintain better relation with stakeholders: Ethical behavior helps to maintain good relation with
employees, customers, suppliers, lenders, government etc. Ethical managers work for the welfare of his
stakeholders and this maintains good relation with them.
 Less interference from the government
 Promotes fair competition
 Promotes social responsibility
 Improves working environment: There will always be an environment of justice, equality, freedom,
belongingness etc. in the ethical organizations. The managers will treat everyone in a similar manner. Such
practices improve the working environment.
 Helps to increase the market share: Ethical organizations don’t only work for their own sake but they also
work for the sake of the people. They will work in a fair manner and even promote social responsibility.
 Motivation: Concept, importance and techniques

Motivation: Motivation is a process of inspiring others to devote maximum effort for the achievement of
objectives. According to William G. Scott, “Motivation means a process of stimulating people to action to
achieve desired goals.”
Features
 Psychological process
 Continuous process
 Persuasive action
 Influences the behavior
 Complex and unpredictable
 Positive or negative
 Dynamic
 Importance of motivation
 High productivity
 Effective use of human resources
 Employee satisfaction
 Work force stability
 Less conflicts
 Goal achievement
 Profitable operation
 Change management
Techniques of employee motivation: There are a number of financial and non-financial techniques of
motivating people at work. However, the important techniques are as follows:
1. Financial incentives: Providing financial incentives to the employees in the form of pay raises, bonus,
salary, leave with pay etc. satisfies their financial needs and motivates them to perform better.
2. Delegation of authority: Delegation of authority is a process of providing decision making authority to the
subordinates for a short period of time. Employees feel that their power is increased inside the organization.
They can even get different works than their regular works after authority delegation. This motivates them to
perform better.
 Cont…
3. Job security: Organization can make job security to the employees by providing pension, making their life
insurance, providing assurance of job continuity, etc. When the employees feel that their job is secured and
they will not be removed from the job then they will work better. They will be highly motivated.
4. Job enlargement: Job enlargement is a process of increasing complexity in jobs. Employees always seem
to be bored due to their regular monotonous and repetitive works. Due to job enlargement, they can gain
different and harder works. They mostly like to work on such tasks with a sense of responsibility.
5. Job enrichment: Job enrichment is a process of adding planning and evaluating responsibilities to the job.
It is simply a process of making the same job more interesting and enriched. When the employees will have
more critical responsibilities from the same job, they will be highly motivated.
6. Job rotation: Job rotation is a process of switching the employees in different job in a certain period of
time. Due to job rotation the employees will gain more skills and knowledge about different departments in
the organization. The job rotation will also cause employee motivation.
7. Competition: This is a process of making competition among the employees. Competition can be made in
sales, production, safety measures etc. The competition can be done by providing awards, rewards, bonus
etc. to the best performer in the year, month, week etc. This will make the employees competitive and highly
motivated.
 Communication: Meaning, process and networks
Communication means the transmission of any piece of information or understanding from a sender to receiver.
It may be oral, in writing or through signs or gestures. In an organizational set up, communication is the means
by which people are linked together for a common purpose, to establish a common interest or mutual
understanding.
Nature/characteristics of communication
 Minimum two persons
 Verbal or non-verbal
 Formal or informal
 Persuasive action
 Generally a two way process
 Continuous process
Purposes of communication
 Information sharing
 Expression of feelings and emotions
 Achieve coordination
 Ensure employee motivation
 Process of communication
Communication always takes place in a process. The process of communication is describes as follows
1. Sender: Sender is the person who initiates the message. He translates his thoughts, feelings into a code that
is understood by other. He then transmits the message from different medium as oral, written and symbolic.
For example, Maayos transmitted a message that it has decreased the price by Rs. 1. The Maayos
organization is the sender in this case.
2. Encoding: The sender will translate his thoughts, feelings into a code that can be easily understood by
others. This process is called encoding.
3. Message: The facts, opinions, ideas, request, suggestions etc. that is used by a sender to transmit to the
receiver constitutes a message. The message can be in the form of oral, written or symbolic form.
4. Medium: The channel that is used by a sender to transmit the message to the receiver is called a medium.
The oral medium can contain telephone, group discussion, brain storming etc. Written medium can contain
reports, tippani, memo etc. Symbolic medium can contain use of hand signs, gestures etc.
 Cont…
5. Decoding: Decoding is a process of translating the message into some meaningful information. This is a
process that is done by the receiver. Decoding is done as per the intention of the sender.
6. Receiver: The person that receives the message that is sent by the sender is called a receiver. Receiver is
actually the intended person for the message. For example, the general public who receive the message that
is given by the Maayos organization were the receiver.
7. Feedback: Feedback is the process of proving response by the receiver to the sender. The response can be
positive or negative. For example, in the above example, public increased the sales of the Maayos. This
shows a positive response to the sender.
8. Noise: Noise refers to all those barriers as physical, semantic, psychological etc. that affect the
communication process. The presence of noise makes the communication process ineffective.
Cont…
 Forms/Types of organizational communication

Based on means/methods used

• Oral communication
• By face to face conversation
• Through mechanical devices
• Written communication
• Through letters, memos, formal reports, circulars, bulletins, policy
guidelines etc.
• Non-verbal communication
• Through facial expressions, gestures (signal), postures etc.
Based on direction (Communication flow)
• Vertical (Downward, upward and two way)
• Horizontal (Interdepartmental)
• Diagonal
 Cont…
Based on the nature of relationships
Formal communication
• Communication which is officially determined, regulated, and controlled
• Examples: communication through official letters, notices, staff meetings etc.
Informal communication
• Communication through social interaction of people rather than scalar chain of organization
• It may be through grapevine (single stand chain, gossip chain, probability chain and cluster chain)
or rumors.
 Formal communication network/structure
Communication structure is a pattern through which the members of a group of organization
communicate with each other. It is also known as communication network or communication
channel. The major types of communication structure or network are as follows:
Types of Communication Networks
 Cont…
Wheel network: This structure is wheel shaped. Under this, all communication is done
through one central person- a manager or a group leader. This is the most centralized
structure because one person receives and disseminates all information.
Y network: This structure is Y shaped. Under this, two supervisors communicate with
the single subordinate. Here 1 has two supervisors as 4 and 5 whom he has to report.
Chain network: Chain network is the vertical form of communication in which a
person can communicate only with his immediate superior or subordinate. Thus it
rigidly follows the formal organization structure and the chain of command.
Circle network: Circle network is the horizontal form of communication in which a
person can communicate only to the persons next to his/her right or left. In meetings
this form of communication generally exists.
All channel networks: This communication is free from all restrictions and thus there
is free flow of communication. This form of communication structure generally
exists in informal groups.
Informal communication
 Forms of informal communication

Grapevine: Grapevine is the social network of informal communication. Grapevine cuts

across the formal channels of communication. Hence, this is a good source of
communication. John Newstrom and Keith Davis (1993) have identified four possible
types of grapevine chains:
1. Single stand chain: Person A tells something to person B, who tells it to person C and so
on down the line. In this chain, each person tells to the one next to him or her.
2. Gossip chain: One person seeks out and tells everyone the information of an interesting,
but non-job-related nature. In this chain, one person tells the information to all.
3. Probability chain: Individuals offer information to others indifferently. In this chain, one
person randomly tells the information to others.
4. Cluster chain: Person A conveys the information to a few selected individuals, some of
whom then inform a few selected others. In this chain, the person tells the information to
the selected ones.
The rumors: Rumors are the stories based on very little that are verifiable. A rumor is a
widely spread opinion without authority for its truth. They are spread throughout the
organization. A rumor has three components.
• The target is the object of rumor. For example real juice contains germs
• The allegation is the rumor’s point about the target
• The rumor has a source, the communicator of rumor.
 Barriers to effective communication
Communication is an integral part of management process. But, there are a number of barriers that
hinder effective communication. Different writers have classified the barriers in their own ways.
According to S. Robbins and S. Sanghi, the important barriers that retard or distort effective
communication are- filtering, selective perception, information overload, emotions,
communication apprehension, and the semantic problems. Likewise, Kreitner has discussed
communication barriers under four broad categories, namely, process barriers, physical barriers,
semantic barriers and psychological barriers. But, for our purpose, the barriers to effective
communication can broadly be discussed under the following headings:
 Cont…
Process barriers
• Defects in encoding and decoding
• Filtering of information by sender
• Conflicting signals
• Fear and mistrust between manager and subordinate
• Noise
• Poor listening skills
Physical barriers
• Physical distance as organization departments are separated by various districts, cities, and places
• Hierarchical structure: In the case of taller organization structure the communication is ineffective. There is
closed door policy and employees don’t have courage to talk to high level employees
• Office design: If the office of high level employees are fenced or closed
• Large number of hand changes can cause distortion
 Cont…
Semantic barriers
• Words can mean different to different people
• Long and complex sentence structure
• Use of jargons (difficult technical words)
Psychological factors
• Lack of interest of receiver
• Reference groups
• Perception
Technological factors
• Information overloads
• Poor timing
• Omission
• Slow or busy communication channels
Overcoming the barriers to communication/enhancing communication effectiveness/Improving communication
Describe it on the basis of barriers as I have told in the class