the topic selected for investigation
Interview with Business Leader from a 21st Century Organisation
In today's complicated corporate climate, a new approach to leadership is required. This strategy must be centered on co-creating significant value with and for all stakeholders, including customers, workers, partners, and society as a whole. Everyone must win in an open system. The purpose of this study is to explore the role of communication in guaranteeing good leadership in the twenty-first century workplace. The notion of leadership is frequently intertwined, resulting in several aspects that make it difficult to describe leadership that incorporates all characteristics. In addition, this study was expanded beyond leadership concepts and terminology to leadership communication. Leaders must be adept and compelling speakers in order to thrive effectively. Leaders and whole groups should learn how to connect effectively since it will assist not only the team in completing tasks, but also the organization's success and development. Communication allows them to share what they have as well as what they expect from others. As a result, effective leadership is dependent on efficient communication. In today's companies, the diversity of employees and their leaders is rising. In this work, we utilize interviews to demonstrate the importance of efficient communication. The goal of this study is to comprehend the importance of good communication in today's globalized business environment. As organizations increasingly function in a changing environment in the twenty-first century, great communication is necessary when managing an organization or a team. Because I'll be interviewing ABC, a senior executive assistant at Feeding America, I'll be able to gain a better knowledge of how leaders communicate effectively.
Table of Contents
Connecting paper with the learnings 8
The topic selected for investigation
In this paper, interviewing a key informant who is an expert source of information via qualitative in-depth interviews to collect information from the person who have first-hand knowledge. The purpose of this interview is to learn more about the link between communication and team success on a worldwide level. Interviews were undertaken to get insight into this, which were recorded and transcribed in order to determine the pattern of communication needs. Leadership is viewed as one of the most critical components in ensuring the success and relevance of any organization's operation. The organization's goals may be realized through leadership and supervision since it provides the ability to establish structure and clear instructions for subordinates to complete their jobs which directly entails effective communication. It also implies that conveying direction is equally vital since both impacts the organization's ability to achieve its goals to varying degrees of success. Communication models help in the guidance of effective communication. Even though most research focused on organizational outputs, strong directive leadership was found to create a better leadership style of communication, a significant element determining the team's performance. In the twenty-first Century, excellent communication is required while managing an organization or a team, as organizations increasingly work in a changing situation. I will be interviewing Suzette Martika, who works as a Sr. Executive Assistant at Feeding America, to expand my understanding of successful communication in leaders.
Overview of Informant’s Background
ABC is working as a senior executive assistant at feeding America. For 40 years, Feeding America has worked together to respond to the hunger crisis faced by Americans. The organization provides food to the people through its nationwide networks of food banks (Feeding America, 2022). The organization is one of the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organizations. The organization aims to address food insecurity by meeting the needs of the people. ABC has been working in feeding America for the past 2.9 years; her role includes working with the chief communication officer, supply chain officer, and direct marketing team. She has vast corporate and volunteer experience. According to (Patrick & Kumar, 2012) collaborating with different everyone else to achieve common goals was deemed the most successful technique for creating connections with varied others, followed by motivating others to be transparent and good supportive relationships with various others which shows that ABC gets engaged with different people in their entire work defines this statement valid as collaborating with different people to achieve the common goals is the most successful technique to build effective relationship to others.
Relating open-ended questions to research questions
How does effective communication work successfully in a 21st-century company vs a 20th-century organization?
How can effective communication aid in the resolving of workplace disputes?
What impact did one-way communication have in the twentieth century?
What effect does effective communication have on organization productivity?
Rationale of Questions
Connecting paper with the learnings
The interview aims to cover BUS 8100 course learning as it focuses on and emphasizes how to lead the 21st-century organization. Some of the major themes that will be covered through this interview are how leadership has evolved in the 21st Century and 20th Century, The Role of leaders in managing the globalized organization, evaluating the new approaches and practices that can lead to the success of the globalized organization.
Three main themes arise from this analysis which includes becoming, identity and misunderstandings and misinterpretations. These themes are briefly discussed below.
Becoming
ABC further believes that there is a significant change in how 21st organizations operate. For example: she has stated that
“When we talk about the twentieth Century, management and organizations are initially concerned with producing money for the company and its shareholders. However, in the twenty-first Century, the firm's aim in twenty-first management shows a transition from producing money for the company to obsessing about creating value for the client”.
From these themes and findings, it has been clear that the effective communication is the need of today’s organization. She showed her human relational skills which includes the emotional aspects with building relationships with their customers to serve them in effective way. From the findings, it has been showing that she has the understanding of the art of influence and persuasion. Secondly it has been shown that first-hand knowledge of her up to the most beneficial phase in the growth of an executive working in a global environment educates people how to think globally. The global leader of the twenty-first century lives and works in a more complicated, faster paced, and culturally varied corporate environment. Leaders with the open-mined attribute are eager to embrace new ideas and gain further information from their followers through group learning. Communication also aids followers in understanding the company's overall business strategy and how it may assist in achieving critical business objectives. It also distributes information relating to strategic business goals. As a result, communication encompasses the exchange of information and the expression of emotion, transmitting a vision and influencing the conduct of followers. Vision cannot be passed on to followers without communication. In BUS8100, we have learned the importance of effective communication, the role of leadership, how to manage workplace diversity, destructive leaders, and leadership in addressing the high-performance team. These learnings align with the ABC response, as she has highlighted the importance of communication and emphasized the role of leaders in managing virtual and global teams.
Conclusion
References
Feeding America. (2022). Feeding America® Leadership & Board of Directors | Feeding America. Feedingamerica.org. Retrieved January 29, 2022, from https://www.feedingamerica.org/about-us/leadership.
Hughes, L., & Avey, J. (2009). Transforming with levity: humor, leadership, and follower attitudes. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 30(6), 540-562. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730910981926
Appendix
| Questions | Response |
|---|---|
| 1. What are the essential elements in the organization when dealing with the globalized team? | The most crucial element in the organization when dealing with the globalized team is communication. As in my understanding, the most critical aspect of cooperation is effective communication, which entails keeping everyone up to date and never presuming that everyone has the same knowledge. Being an effective communicator also entails being an effective listener. I may demonstrate respect to my co-workers by listening to them, vital for establishing trust. Encouraging team members goes a long way toward getting the best out of them. Collaboration and openness to new ideas are necessary aspects for a successful team. |
| 2. How does effective communication work successfully in a 21st-century company vs a 20th-century organization? | I feel that there is a change in how the organization operates in the 21st Century compared to the 20th Century. When we talk about the twentieth Century, management and organizations are initially concerned with producing money for the company and its shareholders. However, in the twenty-first Century, the firm's aim in twenty-first management shows a transition from making money for the company to obsessing about creating value for the client. A corporation exists for only one reason: to produce a consumer. Every employee in the company is focused on providing value to the consumer. This is a managerial paradigm change. |
| 3. How can effective communication aid in the resolving of workplace disputes? | When a problem emerges among the team members, swift action should be taken to settle it. Rather than ignoring or avoiding conflict, embrace it and seek to resolve it as soon as possible. Workplaces should promote honest engagement and open debate throughout these topics. When it comes to dispute resolution, communication is crucial. Poor communication, it has been noticed, invariably leads to misunderstandings and, finally, disputes. |
| 4. How important is communication in your organization? | Our organization's work on hunger-related donations and initiatives necessitates worldwide connection, as we worked with and communicated with many people to donate their meals to others who were hungry. As a result, disseminating these details necessitates a presence on social media and other platforms; therefore, communication is essential in all of my everyday jobs and responsibilities. If the message is not delivered to the people and end-users, then the motive of our organization will not be get fulfilled. So, it's impossible to raise awareness about various initiatives without communicating our goals and objectives while also dealing with other departments. |
| 5. What communication approaches should be used while working with globally diverse team members? | Yes, while dealing with culturally diverse team members, there should be a need to modify the communication approach. Communication is a well-known phenomenon involving exchanging ideas to express sentiments. We communicate via words, photos, and visualizations in this new world. With the advancement of technology, digital spaces have grown more interactive; users now expect to speak, confer, and debate on any topic of interest. The sharing of thoughts and sentiments can help to strengthen and improve relationships. Any organization that wants to enhance profits needs this talent. |
| 6. From the perspective of communication, what are the significant differences you have noticed when working on local and international assignments over the years? | The significant difference I have noticed when working on local and international assignments over the years was a lack of face-to-face communication during working on international projects. As we have a variety of projects, such as the Mobile Pantry Program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the organization has food network banks in other areas, and all operations are completed from both ends, we cannot communicate face. Teleconferencing was preferred as communication means due to its ease of use and accessibility to all members. It was critical to communicate regularly and organize meetings on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. However, all communication, including face-to-face communication, is completed locally at the local shipping and on the local network. Misunderstandings and misinterpretations were common, but a mixed techniques approach to communication helped overcome this. The most successful projects started with a face-to-face meeting and were followed up with frequent face-to-face meetings and regular teleconferences. However, it was felt that while this may not affect the ultimate achievement of the goal, it does result in a higher-quality delivery that is more likely to be sustainable. There was more trust and cooperation within the global virtual divisional team than the co-located site management team. Communication concerns arose in the co-located site management team due to opposing functional objectives and activities, which were easily resolved because it was suitable to connect face-to-face when other concerns could be discussed. |
| 7. Based on your experience, what would you suggest to next-generation leaders for effective communication with their subordinates? | I will suggest the next generation leaders develop communication traits, emotional intelligence, and open-minded traits so that the next generation would benefit from adopting different leadership styles according to the situation and not prefer any particular leadership styles. Leaders with the open-mined attribute are eager to embrace new ideas and gain further information from their followers through group learning. Communication also aids followers in understanding the company's overall business strategy and how it may assist in achieving critical business objectives. |
| 8. What impact did one-way communication have in the twentieth century? | This approach is not beneficial for the 21st Century, as communication is at the heart of 21st-century leadership. It proposes innovative methods for bringing about change and achieving achievements while maintaining regard for other people's progress. A leader must be able to motivate and encourage others to make changes. Effective leaders must connect with their peers in various ways, including speaking and listening. Communication is the most crucial and effective instrument for this. |
| 9. What effect does effective communication have on organization productivity? | If effective communication is happening in the organization, then the utilization of time and other resources will be done efficiently, which directly increases the organization's productivity. It also improves employee morale, contentment, and engagement, allowing employees to comprehend better their job terms and circumstances and their dedication and loyalty. All the employees within the organization will feel motivated and complete the projects and daily activities. |
| 10. If you were a business school professor, what advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs? |
