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Interpersonal Communication: leadership
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Interpersonal Communication: leadership
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Coch and French (in Etzioni (1964)) seem to have demonstrated that Lewin's, Lippit's and White's findings apply equally to the adult workplace. In a study of the introduction of technological innovations in The Harwood Manufacturing Corporation, it was apparent that workers were strongly resistant to the new methods which management saw as improved production methods.
Coch and French divided a number of workers whose jobs were about to be changed into three groups. Group I were simply told by management that the change would be made. Group II were told why the changes were necessary and what would be involved and were also invited to choose representatives who would help to devise the retraining programme. Group III were told why the changes were necessary and what was involved, but, in this case, the whole group were invited to help to design and plan the new jobs and the retraining.
Groups II and III improved their production (Group III doing slightly better than Group II), whereas in Group I production declined. In Group I there was considerable turnover and a number of grievances, whilst in Groups II and III there was virtually no turnover and no grievances. In order to ensure that Group I's poor performance was not due to personality or interpersonal factors, Coch and French did a follow-up study some time later, when the workers again had to change the nature of heir jobs. This time the Group I workers were treated as those in Group III had been before. Their production and their job satisfaction increased.
Etzioni (1964) draws three important conclusions from this research:
Much the same conclusions seem to be suggested by Jay Hall's and Susan Donnell's study of more than 12 000 US managers. They found that successful (measured by the rapidity of their rise through the corporate structure) managers almost always sought the opinions of those who worked for them. Hall and Donnell reported that successful managers have great concern for achieving organizational goals and for helping their subordinates satisfy their personal needs. (Hall & Donnell (1979) in McConnell and Philipchalk (1992))
What has been covered in these brief articles on leadership seems to me to
summarize what is often covered in the pre-university textbooks on the matter,
as far as communication studies is concerned. However, you may have noticed that
many of the studies referred to are quite old. Since the 1980s in particular
there has been an explosive expansion world-wide of business schools
specializing in management theory, alongside an equally vast expansion of
international firms offering management consultancy services. There's a large
numbers of books on the subject and articles are readily accessible on the Web.
It seems, however, to have had little impact on the literature of communication
studies, despite the fact that the management of companies ought to be of
obvious relevance to the subject of group leadership. Nevertheless, I have
included a brief article on management theory. It
is brief because I know little about the subject, find the jargon of management
theorists distasteful and generally find management itself quite distasteful. If
it does spark some interest in you, you should be able to follow it up readily
on the Web and my article includes some references to what are, I think,
generally considered some of the key works.
Group communication
Management theory
McCann's Team Management Wheel
Motivation
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