Influencing Group Communication
William Frainier
BCOM/230
September 8, 2013
Jamie Barmach
Leadership and power often go hand in hand, but their definitions do have differences. Power is the ability of a person or organization to influence the behavior of another individual or organization. Leadership is being able to meet goals (Beebe & Masterson, 2006), and power is one way of achieving those goals (Judge & Robbins, 2009). Power relies on dependency. The greater someone depends on someone else, the more power is given to the other. Children are dependent on their parents for most necessities in life; therefore the parents have the power over them. Employees may be dependent on their manager for career advancement
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My company spent years trying to educate the employees on the importance of safety in the workplace. The first attempts were ineffective. Hanging signs and sporadically talking about safety had little effect. The second attempt was reward based. If employees remained accident free for a two-week period, there would be a raffle by department for a cash prize. Although this worked for a period of time, it was realized that employees weren’t reporting accidents and were pressuring each other not to speak up so the raffles could continue. Rewards like bonuses and prizes can influence some people to cheat the system. Finally, we decided to really educate the employees on the effects of workplace safety violations. We spoke to people in small groups and walked them through the causes of injuries and accidents. We explained how working unsafely costs the company, and ultimately them, financially. This method proved to be the most effective as employees began to fully understand the logic. It empowered them to embrace our safety culture.
The final formal base of power is legitimate power. This is based upon an individual’s structural position (Judge & Robbins, 2009). Positions of authority represent the control and use of the organization’s resources (Beebe & Masterson, 2006). Although elements of
According to healthcare management (shortell&kaluzny, 2012) Power is the notion of one stakeholder’s ability to exert influence other in ways that, among other thing, influences them to do things they normal would not do. Power comes in many different forms, and as a supper visor we need to learn how to handle each type. According to business insider three major sources of power within an organization or company are structure, cultural, and knowledge based. There are different types of power, such as Legitimate Power is where a person in a higher position has control over people in a lower position the company. This is the power were people give to you, so you cannot abuse it. Coercive Power is where a person leads threats and force. It is
What is groupthink? There is a simple definition for it, but is it truly that simple? The term groupthink refers to the inclination of group members to have the same opinions and beliefs; it frequently leads to mistakes. It often occurs without an individual being aware of it. Conflict is considered to be a harmful element when related to groups, but conflict is good when considering groupthink because it helps to eliminate the existence of a groupthink. The explanation sounds simple enough, but it is more complex than the description given.
Next, the barriers that exist in group communication are premature evaluation of ideas, poor physical surroundings, too many people, poor timing, and stinking thinking. The different ideas made from the group need an evaluation at a certain time; this is done only after all the ideas have been made from the group. Poor physical surroundings can be a problem for group disruption in communication. In some cases the room could be too hot, too cold, too noisy, not adequate enough seating and lack of technological needs for the group to function. If the group is too large then the communication can be lost and equal participation will not occur (Beebe &Masterson, 2006). Poor timing also can be a hindrance to the group by not
Stephen King was quoted as saying, “The scariest moment is always just before you start.” A plane crash is bad enough; throw into the mix that the plane crash landed in a vast desert far away from anyone and anything. The team showed great cohesiveness in its ability to get through the groupthink and group shift behaviors. In this paper, groupthink and group shift behaviors will be discussed. This paper will cover points to show how through both behaviors the group will remain cohesive and put aside any individual needs and focus more on the needs of the group. Even though the situation will be tough, the team will plan, find harmony and put their brains together to find ways to survive.
I. Identify the current formal and informal power structures in the organization. How might the power and political structure of the
by encouraging employers and employees in their efforts to reduce the number of occupational safety and health hazards at their places [4].
This stage sees group members begin to confront each other as they begin to vie for roles within the group that will help them to belong and to feel valued. Thus as members begin to assert their individual personalities, the comfort of the forming stage begins to come under siege. Members experience personal, intra and inter group conflicts. Aggression and resentment may manifest in this stage and thus if strong personalities emerge and leadership is unresponsive to group and individual needs, the situation may become destructive to the
In the world we live in today the roles of power and leadership are often confused. Although they have similar meanings, they can be distinctly defined between the latter. The key difference between the two is the term of effect. Power is the exercise of leadership, and leadership is only defined if you have power. Leadership always involves attempts on a leader to affect behavior or a follower in a situation, whereas power is not equivalent with influence on another person’s behavior. Although power and leadership have similar meanings, they are certain differences that can point out what makes
In addition to power established because of organizational hierarchy or role, power is also established based on the level of influence or status one holds in an organization (Anichich, Fast, Halevy, Galinsky, 2016). “Status is the outcome of an evaluation of attributes that produce differences in respect and prominence” (Ketner et al, 2003 p. 266) They co-exists but are not co-dependent on each other. It’s possible to have status without power and power without status (Ketner et al, 2003). Whether one’s control comes through status or positional power, lauding control or significant influence over another inevitably leads to conflict.
There are five recorded sources of power which is influenced within organizations legitimate, coercive, reward, expert, and referent power. Authority is a position within an organization that is bestow to a person, and is not obtained from a form of leadership. Every organization has a leader throughout their corporation that controls some form of power within the business, yet the inspiration is produce through some form of respect.
It is important for managers to understand the sources of power and influence as they must rely upon the cooperation of subordinates in order to be successful. Strong managers rely upon more than just authority they also use leadership skills and power to obtain the most productivity from their staff. According to French and Raven (1959) there are five sources of power. Referent power seems to be the most influential and the least affected by change. To quote Paul Argenti,
The concept of power is an applicable leadership concept. Leaders use power to decipher whether they have the ability to acquire the commitment or obedience from their workers/officers. Leaders that are educated or trained under the old-paradigm, have low levels of expectations of others around them, and tend to use
Effective group communications come in forms of verbal and non-verbal techniques. Essential parts of the entire group’s contribution are that the group contains full participating members, the group is diverse, and that the diversity is recognized and respected (Hartley, 1997). In the videos viewed, three were evaluated on the effective and ineffective communication skills of the participants and suggestions made on how they could improve. The videos are titled, “Planning a Playground”, “Helping Annie”, and "The Politics of Sociology.
The management can use this power to demote, transfer, fire or deny raises to their employees. The third power base of Position is legitimate power. This power stems from the level of hierarchy in which the subordinates report directly to the authority over them for decisions. Process Power controls the input and output of organizations to make sure that the processes are carried out efficiently and effectively within. Information power is the control of information or access to it within an organization. Information can be controlled to a ?need to know? basis and/or just limited to the upper management. This type of power compliments the legitimate power. Finally, there is Representative power in which an organization uses an individual to be there spokesperson both within the organization and when dealing with people outside of the organization.
The five types of power are identified as Legitimate power, Power of reward, Coercive power, Referent power and Expert power