Organizational Communication Management of Organizational Behavior-Leading Human Resources

Organizational Communication: Leadership Communication -- to the organization

No communication or group interaction where information is transmitted, whether via one individual to another worker, between members of a work group, or even from a founding CEO to his or her larger organization, begins with an immediate sense of trust and rapport. Rather, just as at a social party, there is an icebreaking period, followed by a heated period of involvement and then an increasing level of comfortable association. Likewise, all acts of organizational communication to some degree exhibit a tenuous staring period, a formal or informal engagement of the tasks at hand, and then finally a gradual cooling-off process. One way to think of this process is as follows: (1) forming, (2) storming, (3) norming (4) performing.

Dr Bruce Tuckman published this Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing model in 1965 (and added a fifth stage, adjourning, his 1970's revision of his theory). The Forming Storming Norming Performing theory "began as an elegant and helpful explanation of team development and behavior." (Business Balls, 2004) It has since become so popular that there is even 'tests' to self-administer to determine what stage the organization has achieved. (Clark, 1998)

Forming

During the forming process in the organization, there is a high level of dependence on an organizational leader for guidance and direction. For instance, within a work team, the team might constantly refer back to the project manager. During an organization's conception, the newly employed workers might continually seek assistance from the CEO. At this crucial formation state, as...

Since the individual's roles and responsibilities are unclear, such top-down guidance might not be such a bad thing, initially. The leader must prepared to answer many questions about the organization's purpose, objectives and external relationships in a clear fashion, with an eye upon the organization's ultimate goal, yet in such a way to ensure that the individual organizational cells gain enough understanding to establish some autonomy. The challenges of the forming period are that directives about establishing standard operational processes and procedures are often ignored. Would-be leaders might be tempted to test the tolerance of the leader and the organizational system, especially if the leader does not provide clear direction in a volatile situation. (Business Balls, 2004)
Storming

This testing of the organizational leadership in the absence of clear communication may become especially acute during the storming process of organizational formation. It is often called "chaotic." (Group Dynamics, 2004) At this time, even in the best of situations, often decisions are reached only with difficulty, as other organizational members jockey for better positions in the organization, even if this means ignoring organizational objectives. It is critical that the leader establish his or her persona as a leader in relation to other, subordinate team members. Yet the leader must also learn to begin to delegate some responsibilities to other organizational members and communicate what needs to be done, to make the other members feel included in the overall organizational process and to ensure the group will still be functional after the leader cedes some control during later…