Communication and Leadership in Organizations
Communication is one of the crucial leadership theories that every organization should consider for it to achieve its goals and objectives. Every leadership should train and orient its leaders on effective communication skills for it to be effective. People communicate with each in order to functions in their day-to-day activities, including social, employment, and leisure activities. Communication entails how we share information with each other, mostly by/through language, also people can communicate in several different ways: how we chose the words we say when to say them, body language and the tone of the voice.
Issues at the City Mental Health Clinic
In the City Mental Health Clinic organization, there are multiple issues that have been ignored from both Steve "the head of City Mental Health Clinic's Initial Services "and Peter "The Director of the Mental Health" and their staff, there is no open communication, there is emotional bullying from the employee and the head of the department, there is no motivation of the employee and the employers to share issues of the organization, therefore, the workers are underrated and ignored. Two situations are reported where every person in the company believes that they are right. If the two situations are analyzed, their emails show that Steve and Peter were defending themselves and their action, while none of them frame solutions for the problems in a way that is effective to help the organization management.
Steve's Failure to Look Into Dot's Employment History
The first mistake that Steve does is failing to look deep into Dot's employment history before hiring her, though her employment history shows that she had transferred many times. Steve ignores this factor and just hires her. He does not do a thorough consultation with other stakeholders but does things by himself. This organization lacks an important element which is an open communication in order to solve all of these conflicts between the employees. There is no one to one communication, therefore, they are using the emails precisely to communicate and this depicts limited communication. Ignoring that and not encouraging employees to have a meeting and talk about organization issues shows that Steve has lack of leadership skill. The first thing he should do is have a meeting to look into the problem and came up with a solution. The meetings improve the communication between the employees and encourage them to have an open communication and establishes rapport through the management line.
Steve's Lack of Employee Satisfaction
Steve does not look for his employee's satisfaction and he thinks that they should receive his commands otherwise, they should go and look for another employment. For instance, when Steve says to Dot in the email that the worker should meet the Doctor's needs! Not the other way around, but Doctor and the clerical worker work as a team they cannot perform without one another. Dot would perform better if she felt that her need as an employee was taken seriously as Val (Doctor). As the case suggests, there is a correlation between supervisor open communication and employee satisfaction. Dot also has communication issues, she is unable to solve her issue through communication but keeps them to herself, and keeps silent to others.
Steve's Lack of Problem-Solving Skills
Steve possesses poor problem-solving skills as depicted by the case of Val and Dot. He should be able to weigh the two conflicting employees and listen to both sides before making comments. A good workplace is created where there is harmony in the way employees and employers possess. This can be reached through effective leadership, efficient communication channels and good mediation and problem-solving skills.
Questions
1. What would be the best way to solve the communication barrier in the City Mental Health Clinic?
2. Could it be possible for Steve to establish a new line management in the organization?
3. What Peter should have done before this problem become as what it is now?
4. Other than lack of open communication, what other issues that this organization has?
5. Why did Dot fail to turn up in the meeting?
