Leadership, Culture, Communication, and Diversity3Chapt.docx

Leadership, Culture,
Communication, and Diversity3
Chapter 3 Outline
3.1 Leading and Influencing Organizational
Culture
Dimensions of Organizational Culture
Different Types of Cultures
3.2 Competing Values Framework:
A Cultural Perspective
Adaptive Culture
Clan Culture
Achievement Culture
Bureaucratic Culture
Leading and Shaping Culture
3.3 Leadership and Strategic Communication
The Communication Process Defined
Newer Forms of Communication
How to Use the Communication Process
3.4 Leaders as Champions of Strategic
Communication
Create an Open Climate for Dialogue
Emphasize Strategic Topics
Focus on the Customer

Share Responsibility
Give and Receive Feedback
3.5 Leadership Skills in Persuasion
Four Steps of Persuasion
Four Traps that lead to Persuasion Failure
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CHAPTER 3Leadership, Culture, Communication, and Diversity
The word culture can mean different things to different people:
Perhaps it conjures up images of fine art, museums, and
orchestras. Or perhaps it is the word you use to
describe the shared patterns, behaviors, and artifacts of a
country, region, or society. In
fact, culture does have different “layers” that interact. For
example, macrocultures include
national, religious, ethnic, and occupational cultures that exist
globally; organizational
cultures exist in private, public, nonprofit, and government
arenas; subcultures are found
in occupational groups within organizations; and microcultures
exist within occupations
inside and outside organizations (Schein, 2010).
In this chapter, we focus on organizational culture before
examining how culture more
generally—in terms of countries, nationalities, ethnicities, and
so on—can have broad
implications for leadership efficacy and success. While the first
two chapters laid the
foundation for understanding the nature of leadership, these
final three chapters show

how leaders influence and shape organizations to achieve goals
through communication,
strategy, and teamwork. We begin this discussion with
organizational culture because
it shares a mutually dependent relationship with these three
dimensions: An organiza-
tion’s culture affects how people communicate, how strategy is
developed and imple-
mented, and how people work in teams. Culture can also be
defined in terms of these
three dimensions. It is arguably the most important internal
organizational dimension.
This chapter will also cover what is perhaps the more common
usage of culture—interna-
tional cultures—and how different cultures and globalization
present opportunities and
challenges for leadership. Since organizational and national
cultures are influenced by
global trends—for example, technology innovations, mergers
and acquisitions, influx of
international workers, and a mix of diverse values—leaders and
followers must be able to
accommodate such changes in their organizations and teams.
Understanding culture has
a substantial payoff for everyone:
If we understand the dynamics of culture, we will be less likely
to be puz-
zled, irritated, and anxious when we encounter the unfamiliar
and seem-
ingly irrational behavior of people in organizations, and we will
have a
deeper understanding not only of why various groups of people
or organi-
zations can be so different but also why it is so hard to change
them. Even

3.6 Leading Cross-Cultural, Internationally
Diverse Workforces
Changing Workforce Demographics
and Perspectives
The Value of Diversity
3.7 Inclusiveness: Leaders’ Moral and Legal
Imperative
Stages of Intercultural Awareness:
Toward Inclusive Leadership
Leadership Initiatives for Achieving
Inclusiveness
3.8 Cross-Cultural Value Differences
and Diversity
Hofstede’s Five Cultural Dimensions
GLOBE Study
Cultural Intelligence and Cultural Sensitivity
Summary
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CHAPTER 3Section 3.1 Leading and Influencing Organizational
Culture
more important, if we understand culture better, we will
understand our-

selves better and recognize some of the forces acting within us
that define
who we are. We will then understand that our personality and
character
reflect the groups that socialized us and the groups with which
we iden-
tify and to which we want to belong. Culture is not only all
around us but
within us as well. (Schein, 2010)
3.1 Leading and Influencing Organizational Culture
Online shoe and apparel shop Zappos has a commitment to fun
and “a little weird-ness” that is apparent to any visitor to the
company’s several blogs (Hsieh, 2009).
Online videos cover topics that seem unrelated to apparel—how
to pitch a tent, how
to listen, and so on—and also give visitors a glimpse inside the
office: cubicles decked
out with colorful memorabilia and shiny artifacts, as well as
casually clad employees
who engage in staring contests and goofy on-camera interviews.
As the Zappos website
shows, this isn’t forced, and the company isn’t led by an
eccentric preoccupied with
making employees perform strange tasks. The idea behind
Zappos’ “family culture” is
that encouraging employees to have fun and laugh at work
allows them to enjoy their
work, be themselves, and perhaps be a little creative,
innovative, and unconventional
in the process. One of Zappos’ blogs is devoted specifically to
the company’s “family
culture,” and in one video, employees talk about their
commitment to the company’s 10
core values—one of which is “Create fun and a little

weirdness.” “At Zappos, our belief
is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff—like
great customer service, or
building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and
customers—will happen
naturally on its own,” CEO Tony Hsieh said. “We believe that
your company’s culture
and your company’s brand are really just two sides of the same
coin.” Hsieh explained
that the company actually conducts two sets of interviews
during the hiring process: the
standard interview to assess experience and ability and another
to assess the culture fit.
To be hired, candidates must demonstrate that they can commit
to Zappos’ core values,
which center on service, innovation, growth, positive
relationships, and attitude. “And
by commit, we mean that you’re willing to hire and fire based
on [these core values],”
Hsieh said (2009).
Zappos has one example of what leadership experts would call a
strong—and perhaps
unique—organizational culture. In this context, culture refers to
organizational members’
shared meaning of values, beliefs, and assumptions about how
things are done and what
behaviors are acceptable (Connors & Smith, 2000; Schein,
2010). As these individuals come
together, they learn over time what is considered acceptable and
important, how to act,
and what works best for the group as a whole—and this
becomes their collective culture.
At Zappos, for example, management and employees all value
change, growth, and learn-
ing, and they communicate that with their behavior.

In a larger sense,
Culture is both a “here and now” dynamic phenomenon and a
coercive
background structure that influences us in multiple ways.
Culture is con-
stantly reenacted and created by our interactions with others and
shaped
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Culture
by our own behavior. When we are influential in shaping the
behavior and
values of others, we think of that as “leadership” and are
creating the con-
ditions for new culture formation. At the same time, culture
implies stabil-
ity and rigidity in the sense that how we are supposed to
perceive, feel, and
act in a given society, organization, or occupation has been
taught to us by
our various socialization experiences and becomes prescribed as
a way to
maintain the “social order.” (Schein, 2010)
Culture has also been characterized as the personality and
chemistry of an organization.
You get a sense of an organization’s culture and how it feels
when you walk into a build-
ing or facility. It may feel rigid and formal or casual and

friendly. People may be approach-
able or distant with each other.
A leading scholar on culture, Edgar Schein at MIT, wrote that
culture serves two impor-
tant functions in organizations: First, culture creates internal
unity, integrating members so
they can better work together to achieve common goals. This
refers not only to how well
individuals get along with one another, but also to how in sync
their behaviors and goals
are. Culture ties things and people together through shared
values and norms. In this
sense, culture creates stability and predictability inside people’s
thinking (their shared
mind-sets) and between internal organizational systems (vision,
mission, strategy, and
values). Second, culture helps an organization adapt to and
integrate with its external environ-
ment by adopting the right values to respond to external threats
and opportunities (Schein,
2010). A strong culture, then, can make a difference in how
successful an organization
can be, and it is an effective leader who builds and promotes a
purposive, cohesive cul-
ture. Culture also holds the other critical dimensions of an
organization together—aligns
them—with the vision, mission, and values of the organization.
Creating and shaping
effective cultures is a significant leadership responsibility and
challenge, especially since
leadership values and culture predict organizational
performance (Chatman & Cha, 2003;
Rosenthal & Masarech, 2003). Organizations whose founders
and leaders conscientiously
guide and deliberately manage cultural values outperform

similar organizations that do
not (Kotter & Heskett, 1992).
DimensionsofOrganizationalCulture
To better understand organizational culture, we can compare it
to an iceberg, as shown
in Figure 3.1, with visible and invisible layers. The first visible
layer of an organization’s
culture, which Edgar Schein (2010) called cultural artifacts, are
what you physically see
and hear upon entering the headquarters of a company: the
physical layout, the ways
people dress and act, tangible symbols such as pictures on the
walls, and the interior
decoration. Visible cultural layers also include the atmosphere
the people create, which in
turn reflects the company’s values. For example, Google’s
visible culture looks and feels
like a relaxed college campus, and Google’s values include
“You can be serious without
a suit” (“Our Philosophy,” n.d.). Google employees receive 12
weeks of fully paid mater-
nity leave; gourmet chefs, who provide on-site healthy, free
lunches, snacks, and dinners;
free on-site doctors at company headquarters; and free massages
throughout the day
(“Benefits,” n.d.).
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Culture

At a deeper, invisible level are the expressed
values and beliefs of the company.
These consciously held convictions are
not readily observable but can be under-
stood when professionals and followers
describe what they do and why. For exam-
ple, evidence suggests that soldiers gen-
erally commit to the U.S. Army because
of its values—that is, loyalty, duty, and
selfless service (Crandall, 2007). While
soldiers join up for a number of reasons
(e.g., to earn money for college, change
one’s image, and so on), most do so for
intrinsic reasons—a motivation to serve,
a desire to find racially unbiased oppor-
tunities, or some ideal. Crandall wrote
that the positive association a soldier has
for the values system carries over to com-
mitment to the institution. This is consistent with business
sector findings that the con-
gruence of member values with the overall organization’s values
contributes to commit-
ment to the organization (2007). Values run deep in
organizations and can significantly
influence commitment to the organization for those members
who stay over time. Two
studies (Clugston, Howell, & Dorfman, 2000; Wasti, 1999)
showed that individual dif-
ferences in cultural values (e.g., collectivism and power
distance—discussed later in this
chapter [Hofstede, 1980]) were positively correlated with
normative commitment to the
organization; and normative commitment correlates positively
with desired outcome
Figure3.1OrganizationalCultureDimensions

Source: Based on Organizational Culture and Leadership (2nd
ed., pp. 3–27),
by Edgar Schein, 1992, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Culture that can
be seen at the
surface level
1. Artifacts: dress,
ceremonies, office
design, slogans.
Visible
Invisible
3. Underlying assumptions and
deep beliefs: “We will earn your
respect.”
2. Expressed values: “We
value customer feedback”,
“Quality is our number 1
concern.”
Deeper values
and shared
understandings
held by
organization
members
U.S. Army soldiers generally commit to the

Army because of its core values of loyalty,
duty, and selfless service. Positive associations
a soldier has for the Army’s value system car-
ries over to commitment to the institution.
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Culture
variables such as performance. More research has been called
for in this area (Clugston,
Meyer, et al., 2000).
As we will discuss in the following sections, organizational
culture can also be described
in terms of its stability, aggressiveness, team orientation,
people orientation, outcome ori-
entation, attention to detail, amount of innovation, and tendency
to take risks (Chatman
& Jehn, 1994; O’Reilly, Chatman, & Caldwell, 1991).
DifferentTypesofCultures
Not all organizational cultures are created and led equally. As
noted earlier, the quality
and the implementation of organizational culture can affect
performance. However, just
as different types of leadership can be effective in different
types of situations, different
types of organizational culture can also work well, depending
on the situational context.
We will examine what differentiates a high-performance culture
from a low-performance

culture, and we will also take a look at four different
approaches to organizational culture,
based on the Competing Values Framework discussed in
Chapter 1.
HighPerformanceVersusLowPerformance
Cultures can be characterized as either high performance or low
performance, depending
on their ability to achieve goals, grow, and bring out the best in
their members. As seen in
Table 3.1, the two can be described in opposition to each other.
Take the Lead
Leading and Influencing Organizational Culture
You’ve recently purchased a company specializing in call-
center activities. You saw a limited supply of
call centers that could deliver a quality service at a competitive
price in the marketplace and a call-
center organization that was severely mismanaged. You will
assume the role of president and CEO.
Part of the organization’s mismanagement was in their value
proposition to their clients (both current
clients as well as future prospects). In other words, they failed
to differentiate themselves from their
competitors in the value they offered prospective clients. (Why
would a client choose them versus
another call center?) Furthermore, you believe that while the
potential for success is tremendous, the
business will likely fail if you cannot align internal customers
(i.e., employees) around a central theme
of customer service.
Leading and influencing the organization’s culture is imperative
for you in this new venture. Keeping in

mind your role as a leader, consider the following:
1. As the president and CEO, how will you accurately identify
the current culture in place within the
organization?
2. Is identifying the current culture in place a worthwhile
activity?
3. What actions will you take to modify the culture?
4. Who will you look to ally with in order to effectively change
the organization’s culture?
See page 227 for possible answers.
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Culture
Table 3.1 High-Performance Versus Low-Performance Cultures
High-Performance Culture Low-Performance Culture
Clear vision, mission, and strategy (strategic systems) Unclear
vision, mission, and strategy
Strong culture, internal unity, and values based on
commitment and trust
Low cultural strength and polarized subcultures
Focus on excellence, achievement, and adaptability
to the external environment

Insular and resistant to change
Risk aware Risk averse
Free-flowing information, even with bad news Information
bottlenecks
Cross-boundary collaboration Emphasis on turf, status, and
bureaucracy
Unclear roles and responsibilities Energized roles and
accountability
Source: Based on Corporate Services Generaux. Retrieved from
http://www.scribd.com/doc/15931514/Low-vs-High-
Performance-Culture-FCC
A high-performance organizational culture possesses several
characteristics. It possesses
a clear vision, mission, and strategy; is characterized by a
strong culture and internal
unity; and focuses on excellence, achievement, and adaptability.
Clear Vision, Mission, and Strategy
Vision, mission, and strategy—and how to create them—will be
discussed in greater
detail in the next chapter, so for now, simply know that a high-
performance culture knows
exactly where it is going and how it will get there. One
empirical study showed that,
among other shared qualities, the highest-performing companies
all publicly displayed
and affirmed their missions and values statements, showing both
clarity in and commit-
ment to their aims, and their business and work processes and
procedures were consistent

with their mission and values (Fisher, 2000). Having such
clarity helps an organization
recognize external opportunities and exploit them.
A low-performance culture, on the other hand, lacks vision,
mission, and strategy. This is
evident when leaders and officers of an organization cannot
identify or agree on a clear
vision, mission, and strategy, which inevitably results in the
other symptoms of a low-
performance culture. Without consensus on these dimensions,
alignment of projects and
work tasks is haphazard and misguided.
A high-performance culture also excels in systems thinking
(Daft, 2011; Senge, 1990;
Sterman, 2001), which involves understanding the relationships
among the parts of an
organization in the larger system (the entire organization) to
determine the root cause
and effects of problems, and to discover new opportunities.
Another way of putting this
is thinking outside the box, seeing the big picture, and
understanding that the whole is
equal to and can exceed the sum of its parts. Apple founder and
CEO Steve Jobs’s visit
to the Xerox Corporation in 1979—before the development of
the Mac—illustrates this
leadership capability. On his visit, Jobs was shown an early
personal computer called
the Alto, which employed a mouse and an exciting new “graphic
interface technology
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/15931514/Low-vs-High-

Performance-Culture-FCC
Culture
software,” an application designed to make the user’s
interaction as simple and efficient
as possible (Stephanidis & Savidis, 2001). He, being the
visionary that he is, saw what few
technologists would see—an opportunity to turn an insight from
an existing technology
into a new industry. With this bigger picture in mind, Jobs raced
back to Apple and began
work on the Macintosh, which in 1984 became the first mass-
produced personal computer
that used a mouse and the type of software Jobs saw at Xerox.
Similarly, when Bill Gates
saw the Macintosh prototype operating, he, like Jobs, also saw a
bigger picture of what
that type of software on a consumer laptop could be. Gates had
his first vision of the user-
friendly Windows software operating system—now a global
standard for individuals and
corporations (Cringely, 1996).
Strong Culture and Internal Unity
High performance best exhibits how culture can function and
benefit an organization, as
identified by Edgar Stein: High-performance cultures create
internal unity and adapt well
to their external environments. Internal unity, also known as
internal behavioral consistency,
can be seen in how the airline industry responded after the
attacks of September 11, 2001.
As consumers balked at flying, profits fell, and employee

morale decreased, the airline
industry moved focus more on the customer in its marketing.
Many airlines tried to com-
municate more with customers and pay close attention to
customer satisfaction (Sorensen,
2002), opening more routes to provide more flying options.
They also worked to enhance
the morale of their staff and employees by listening and
negotiating with their needs and
demands. Leaders created an environment in which members
and teams were cohesive,
and the organization’s strategies, structure, and management
systems were well integrated.
High-performance cultures are also built on communication,
commitment, and trust.
Leaders and followers at these companies actively listen to each
other and to customers,
suppliers, and vendors (Fisher, 2000); high-performance
cultures are often grounded in
socially responsible principles that have the interests of
followers, clients, shareholders,
and stakeholders in mind. Leaders cultivate responsive and
respectful relationships with
their employees without micromanaging them. Lawler’s (2003)
specific suggestions illus-
trate the ingredients for developing commitment and trust
among followers to achieve
high-performance goals:
• Treat employees with dignity and respect.
• Grant employees enough autonomy to excel and contribute.
• Cultivate a relationship with employees based on mutual
respect and
interdependency.

• Initiate unique one-to-one relationships with top performers.
• Give increased responsibility to the best employees.
• Implement mentor programs.
• Celebrate employee achievements.
• Hold managers at every level responsible for the growth and
development of the
people who report to them.
• Use the full range of rewards and punishment to enforce high
performance
standards.
• Encourage employees to use their own initiative and creativity
in performing
their jobs.
• Set reasonable and clear performance standards for all
employees.
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Culture
Low-performance cultures have weak cultures, or low cultural
strength, meaning that
followers are not aligned with the values and ways of doing
things in their organizations.
This may result from poorly defined or communicated visions
and strategies by leaders,
or because followers have not accepted the leader ’s vision
(Lussier & Achua, 2007). As
a result, there is little commitment to or identification with the
leader ’s strategies and

plans. Followers may also show lack of concern for and even
alienation from the organi-
zation. It is not uncommon for talented performers to start
leaving companies when this
symptom persists.
Low-performance cultures are also prone to polarized
subcultures, which are divisions
within an organization that tend to form when there is
avoidance of or lack of align-
ment and consensus around a common organizational strategy.
In-groups and out-groups
form and affiliate around self-interests (Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, &
Flament, 1971). Personal
“fiefdoms” can also result at the top of the organization, where
higher-level managers
compete for power and influence. Without an overarching goal
and strategy, such groups
become politically charged and interactions result in conflict,
gossip, and misinformation.
Creating and aligning the dominant organizational culture with
subcultures is a challeng-
ing leadership responsibility that takes initiative, expertise, and
courage (David, 2005).
Leaders can take concrete actions to align subcultures with the
dominant organizational
culture by first being honest and open with teams and followers.
Secretive, noncommu-
nicative leaders create doubt in the minds of others, which often
leads to unproductive
subcultures. Second, leaders who challenge and offer creative
assignments to high per-
formers increase the likelihood of strengthening the larger
organizational culture. Third,
leaders who show interest and who value constant learning and
continuous improve-

ment through both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards encourage
effort and productivity in
followers, which in turn enhances the overall organization. At
the same time, leaders who
acknowledge quality failure (i.e., failure resulting from credible
efforts to experiment for
the benefit of the organization) encourage entrepreneurial risk
taking in both subcultures
and the larger culture. Finally, leaders with strong
organizational cultures can encourage
the development of functional subcultures whose work can
contribute to the overall per-
formance of the organization (Alexander, n.d.; Boisnier &
Chatman, 2002).
Focus on Excellence, Achievement, and Adaptability
The Apollo 13 mission exemplifies a focus on excellence and
adaptibility. The 1970 lunar
landing mission had to be aborted en route due to loss of
cryogenic oxygen in the service
module and consequent loss of capability to generate electrical
power, provide oxy-
gen, and produce water (Smithsonian, n.d.). The crew had to use
the lunar module’s
resources as a “lifeboat” during the return trip to Earth in order
to save its batteries,
and needed oxygen for the duration of the flight. In spite of
limited power, loss of cabin
heat, shortage of potable water, and the need to modify the
carbon dioxide removal
system, the crew was able to return safely to Earth (Lovell,
n.d.). “Apollo 13 has been
written into the history books as the mission that was the
‘successful failure,’” wrote
Torrance (2006). “I disagree. I think the Apollo 13 mission was
the complete opposite.

If I wrote the Apollo 13 chapter of the history book, I would
state the Apollo 13 mission
was NASA’s great ‘failed success.’”
Fisher’s study (2000) showed that high-performance cultures
value adaptability, resil-
ience, and responsiveness to productive change—what Edgar
Schein might have also
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Culture
termed adapting well to external environments. At Microsoft
and Nike, leaders work
with committed followers to consistently meet the high
volatility and changing market
demands of national and global customers. Their product lines
change, adapt, and even
create customer demand. Microsoft, for example, continues to
generate new editions of
Windows that have more versatile and updated functions. Nike
keeps introducing varia-
tions on models and styles of shoes that attract different
customers. Leaders who create
high-performance cultures emphasize and focus on excellence,
not settling for mediocrity
of product or service. Followers are trained to use “zero
defects” benchmarks (standards
that accept no errors in any product or service), enhanced
product and service quality, and
outstanding customer service (Lussier & Achua, 2007). It
should be noted that too strong

an emphasis on zero defects can lead to cover-ups of problems
in the short term that create
larger problems in the long term; rather, an error-management
approach reinforces learn-
ing from errors to prevent their recurrence. So it may be helpful
to approach product and
service creation with zero-defects foresight and error-
management patience and follow-
through (Haselton, 2006).
In contrast, low-performance cultures tend to be insular and
resistant to change. The
country-club style discussed in Chapter 1 can develop, where
leaders focus more on
interacting with colleagues than on directing strategically.
Leaders and followers also
can avoid mobilizing resources to meet external competitive
needs. This sort of com-
placent attitude and lack of responsible planning and foresight
could be seen in the
American automobile industry prior to the 1980s and into the
1990s. The cultures of
the “Big Three” (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler—now
DaimlerChrysler) seemed
like country clubs. In the 1980s, leaders refused to adapt to the
oil crisis and develop
more efficient four-cylinder cars. As a result, American car
companies lost market share
when Japanese four-cylinder cars from Toyota and Honda
arrived. In the 1990s, the Big
Three overinvested in gas-guzzling SUVs, still depending on
consumers’ consistent use
of oil (Gordon, 2005). Later, “due to a ‘perfect storm’ of poor
business decisions, rising
health-care costs and strong foreign competition” they again
lost market share, laid off

employees, and GM had to be bailed out a decade afterward”
(Gordon, 2005). A similar
phenomenon appeared to be happening in the United States in
2011 as China gained a
head-start in so-called green, or environmentally friendly,
technology research, devel-
opment, and manufacturing (Stavins, 2011). For example, one
notable research report
stated that “China is prevailing in the global race for green jobs
in sectors from solar
panels to advanced lighting, and appears to be on an
unstoppable upward path” (Feld-
man, 2010). China’s government invested over $34.6 billion in
2009 in its low-carbon
economy—double the amount spent for this type of energy by
the United States, and
more than any other country. China is now the headquarters for
six of the largest renew-
able-energy employers (Feldman, 2010). In contrast,
government leaders in the United
States were only speaking of becoming a global leader in this
industry at the time, rather
than actively investing.
Symptoms of low-performance cultures serve as indicators for
leaders and followers to
beware of cultures in trouble. However, as noted earlier,
effective leadership can make all
the difference in how organizational culture manifests itself. A
dominant characteristic
of strong, high-performance cultures is that they are created and
led by effective leaders
whose values match external environmental needs and demands.
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CHAPTER 3Section 3.2 Competing Values Framework: A
Cultural Perspective
3.2 Competing Values Framework: A Cultural Perspective
At the end of Chapter 1, we used the Competing Values
Framework (CVF) to examine how the various leadership roles
interact within the entire organization, in the con-
text of its external environment. We can use the CVF as a lens
to view organizational cul-
ture as well, for in addition to viewing cultures as high
performance or low performance,
some scholars study organizational culture as a construct in
which the leadership’s strate-
gic focus fits with the organization’s external environment
(Cameron & Quinn, Cameron,
Quinn, DeGraff, & Thakor, 2009; Kotter & Haskett, 1992).
From this perspective, types of
organizational culture can be classified according to external
and internal environmental
focus as well as their emphasis on stability versus flexibility.
Studies show that the fit is related to performance (Apfelthaler,
Muller, & Rehder, 2002):
An organization that is able to identify whether it should be
more internally or externally
focused, or more stable or more flexible, based on its external
environment is more likely
to perform more effectively. Leaders are responsible for
deciding what major values are
needed to fit with the right organizational vision, strategy, and
external environment.
These values represent what is important to the organization.
Founders are the first to

define an organization’s cultural values, which evolve over time
depending on other lead-
ers, environments they must manage, and internal teams who are
hired and integrated
into the cultures. Organizations in the same industry often share
similar values, since
they work in similar environments (Chatman & Jehn, 1994). For
example, in turbulent
and changing market-oriented environments—such as
California’s Silicon Valley, where
major global technology companies reside and compete—a more
adaptive culture will be
a better fit for matching customer demands, since creativity is a
key value (Deshpande &
Farley, 2004).
With this perspective in mind, we address the key question of
leading different cultures:
“What types of cultures and supporting organizational values
are best suited to different
environments in order to achieve high performance?” The CVF
suggests that there are
four culture types that leaders can use to align their strategies to
the environment. Figure
3.2 illustrates a model showing the four different cultural types
(Quinn, 1988; also see
Hooijberg & Petrock, 1993; McDonald & Gandz, 1992).
We focus here on two dimensions of the CVF: (1) on the
horizontal axis, the degree of
flexibility and stability required by the external environment,
and (2) on the vertical axis,
the degree to which the leader’s strategic focus is external or
internal. The four cultural
types are adaptive, achievement, clan, and bureaucratic. These
four types are not mutu-

ally exclusive; an organization can have values that fit into
more than one category, or
even in all. High-performance, strong cultures tend to fit more
in one cultural category.
Different types of cultures suit individual interests and needs.
You may find that your
interests and skills are best suited for a clan culture, which
would suggest, referring to
Figure 3.2, that a collaborative, agreeable culture, where
supervisors and managers value
fairness and cooperation and equity, would be more motivating
for you. Some human-
resources positions, depending on the organization and industry,
may be good career
or position options for those who have a clan-culture
preference. On the other hand,
wei6626X_03_c03_p089-138.indd 99 8/5/11 8:47 AM
you may prefer an achievement culture, where the supervisors
and managers value and
reward aggressive, competitive, and perfectionist behaviors. In
that case, a sales posi-
tion in a highly competitive, fast-moving organization or
industry may be a good fit. If
a bureaucratic culture is preferable, then you value efficiency,
order, formality, and rou-
tine. “Backroom” operations positions in IT or other technical
types of jobs and careers
may be more suitable for you. Opposite the values of the

bureaucratic culture are the
values of an adaptive culture. Flexibility, insight, and
innovation are values that charac-
terize adaptability cultures. You can see in Figure 3.2 the types
of values you might prefer
in that setting.
Adaptive Culture
Corporate cultures have been characterized in broader terms as
either adaptive or
unadaptive (Kotter & Heskett, 1992). Adaptive cultures, in the
upper right of Figure
3.2, are open to and embrace external change and are
characterized by flexibility. Lead-
ers and followers in adaptive cultures care about customers and
the internal alignment
of people with processes to meet external demands; they value
quick and decisive
responses, risk taking, creativity, and innovation, while keeping
the best interests and
integrity of the organization in mind. This type of culture is
also supportive of follow-
ers, and leaders tend to give followers more autonomy—and
leeway to fail—to meet
Figure 3.2 Four Cultures
Source: Based on Beyond Rational Management: Mastering the
Paradoxes and Competing Demands of High Performance,
by R. Quinn, 1998, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998; “On
Cultural Change: Using the Competing Values Framework to
Help Leaders
Execute a Transformational Strategy,” by R. Hooijberg and F.
Petrock, 1993, Human Resource Management, 32(1), 1993, pp.

29–50;
and “Getting Value from Shared Values,” by P. McDonald and
J. Gandz, 1992, Organizational Dynamics, 21(3), pp. 64–76.
The Leadership Experience (5th ed.), by R. Daft, 2011, Mason,
OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning.
Internal
Focus
Values:
Values:
Efficiency
Rationality
Order
Obedience
Formality
Bureaucratic Culture
Stability
Values:
Achievement Culture
Initiative
Aggressiveness
Diligence
Perfection
Competitiveness
External
Focus

Adaptive Culture
Values: Entrepreneurship
Risk taking
Adventure
Creativity
Responsiveness
Clan Culture
Agreeableness
Consideration
Cooperativeness
Fairness
Equality
Flexibility
wei6626X_03_c03_p089-138.indd 100 8/5/11 12:52 PM
customer needs. While there is not a best
“one size fits all” organizational culture
and leadership style that works opti-
mally in all situations, researchers agree
that adaptive organizational cultures
tend to be more effective, and most orga-
nizations are being pressured by external
forces to adopt such cultures to survive.
Leaders in unadaptive cultures are not
open to change and sometimes serve

their own self-interests; their values can,
in fact, impede true change if self-inter-
ests dominate.
In contrast, an example of an adaptive cul-
ture is the giant enterprise-software com-
pany Oracle. Vivek Marla, vice president
and leader of Oracle
Solution
Services India—a highly visible global consulting group
with the company—reflected on his 20 years at Oracle:
I like Oracle’s penchant to be in the leading edge of technology
and products.
I enjoy the dynamism that exists at Oracle. While its long-term
strategy is
very clear and strong, tactically it is very adaptable to change
based on busi-
ness needs. I thrive in this change. I also enjoy the diversity of
opportunities
that Oracle provides to its employees. Most importantly, I enjoy
the people
I work with, no matter which country I am working in.
(Sreenivasan, 2009)

ClanCulture
Clan cultures, in the upper left box of Figure 3.2, emphasize
cooperation, consideration,
fairness, and teamwork. These are internally focused cultures
that stress flexibility. Lead-
ers believe that organizational success in such environments,
given customers’ needs, is
best achieved through internal employee relationships. These
cultures respond to exter-
nally dynamic environments by emphasizing follower
empowerment, shared responsibil-
ities, and team synergy. These are by no means country-club
cultures where productivity
is ignored in favor of relationships. Instead, followers are
treated like owners and given
discretion to implement the organization’s mission and goals.
Reflecting back on the CVF
discussion, clan cultures may not work well in environments
that require aggressive, com-
petitive, external-oriented strategies.
Zappos, the company in the opening story of this chapter, is an
example of a clan culture.

The company’s website includes a “family culture” blog,
accentuating the tight-knit rela-
tionships and atmosphere valued at the company. The company
uses a model of loyalty
business and relationship marketing, which depend on emotional
connections with cus-
tomers and a cohesive culture in the company. The company’s
rapid growth is attributed
to repeat customers through word of mouth (Hsieh, 2006).
The Oracle Corporation is a good example of
an adaptive business culture. While the long
term strategy is clear it is very adaptable to
change based on business needs.
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AchievementCulture
Leaders develop achievement cultures, in the lower right box of

Figure 3.2, to respond to
stable, external environmental opportunities and threats.
Achievement cultures generally
function in mature external markets competing for market share.
Leaders take a strategic
external focus because they are alert to competitors seeking
market share and profitabil-
ity. The mature and saturated state of the consumer markets
these firms operate in makes
for very intense competition. Reflecting back on the CVF,
achievement cultures would not
necessarily work in environments that require more cohesive,
cooperative, and considerate
internal strategies, where people are not required to compete
head-to-head with one another.
The underlying values of these cultures are competitiveness,
aggressiveness, result ori-
entation, diligence, and personal initiative. Culturally speaking,
“Winning is the glue
that holds the organization together” (Hooijberg & Petrock,
1993). The opposite of clan
cultures, achievement cultures foster competition among
employees, departments, and
other work units. Companies takes a competitive as well as an

adaptive strategic and
cultural stance against other external organizations in achieving
organizational goals. For
example, GE CEO Jeff Imelt, the successor to star Jack Welch,
continued to ignite the com-
petitiveness of that company’s culture by moving people and
things around to further
advance growth and profitability. This quote explains Immelt’s
cultural leadership at GE:
So how, exactly, do you make a culture as ingrained as GE’s
sizzle with
bold thinking and creative energy? To start, you banish some
long-cher-
ished traditions and beliefs. Immelt has welcomed outsiders into
the high-
est ranks, even making one, Sir William M. Castell, a vice-
chairman. That’s
a serious break with GE’s promote-from-within past. He is
pushing hard
for a more global workforce that reflects the communities in
which GE
operates. Immelt is also encouraging his homegrown managers
to become
experts in their industries rather than just experts in managing.

Instead of
relying on execs who barely had time to position a family photo
on their
desk before moving on to the next executive assignment, he’s
diversifying
the top ranks and urging his lieutenants to stay put and make a
difference
where they are. (Brady, 2005)
BureaucraticCulture
Bureaucratic cultures, in the lower left box of Figure 3.2, have
an internal, stable focus
and are the opposite of adaptive cultures in value orientation.
Leaders in bureaucratic cul-
tures focus on internal environments and value stability, status,
order, and efficiency. They
emphasize rational and formal methods, relying on rules and
procedures in the internal cul-
ture. Employees who fit with this type of culture enjoy
predictability over change, regular-
ity over chaos, and obedience over autonomous decision
making. In the past, particularly
the 1950s, insurance companies, hospitals, banks, and the
automotive and other industries

enjoyed the safety and security of bureaucratic cultures. This
type of external environment
has given way to economic, social, and political turbulence and
radical change.
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The term bureaucracy has unfortunately taken on negative
connotations in recent times;
it has come to mean slow, stodgy, ineffective, and riddled with
red tape. However, parts
of all organizations have to be bureaucratic: They need rules,
organization, regimenta-
tion, and efficiency. Systems that deal with data, accounting,
and information processing
are in part bureaucratic. Insurance companies, hospitals,
accounting firms, and postal
services are examples of organizations that rely on accurate and
detailed business-pro-
cessing systems and methods that could be considered

bureaucratic. One employee has
described the highly successful and profitable Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company
as possessing “small company responsibilities w/big company
resources/bureaucracy”
(“MetLife,” 2011). The employee lauded the “fast-paced, big
company pockets, room for
growth, management encouragement, support for training, and
career growth, work
time flexibility, [and] benefits,” but noted that MetLife has a
“low culture,” or a lack of
team-building activities such as in-house box lunches and group
employee activities
away from work.
The effectiveness of each of the four culture types depends on
different environmental
conditions and leadership strategic orientations. The emphasis
on particular cultural val-
ues depends on an organization’s strategic focus and on the
level of environmental stabil-
ity and flexibility, its industry, and the responsibility that
strategic leaders take to ensure
that organizations balance cultural values with competitiveness.
Leaders must also create

the fit between strategy and culture and be ready, able, and
willing to change values and
cultures that may have worked in the past but are no longer
effective. In situations where
leaders find that they must change external strategies to
compete in external environ-
ments, a shift in organizational culture can be significant. In
some instances employees
may leave an organization that must, for example, shift
strategies and make an internal
change from a bureaucratic to an achievement culture. In such
instances, training, coach-
ing, and other types of reorientation programs are offered to
help employees adapt and
adjust to such cultural changes. In the last section, we will
examine what concrete actions
a leader can take to shape the culture of his or her company.
LeadingandShapingCulture
Shaping, changing, and aligning culture with strategy are, as we
have noted, among the
most challenging tasks of leaders—but also arguably among the
most important. Scholars
often point to how company founders set the tone for their

companies and how that can
affect a start-up’s success. Founders influence the formation of
the culture’s values and
beliefs by hiring and socializing (i.e., influencing, teaching)
followers who think and feel
like they do. Edgar Schein wrote that “founders not only choose
the basic mission and the
environmental context in which the new group will operate, but
they choose the group
members and bias the original responses that the group makes in
its efforts to succeed in
its environment and to integrate itself” (Schein, 2004, 226).
Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, for example, worked to create a
unique culture of equality,
encouragement, high performance, and customer service
centered on 10 rules (Abraham,
Kathawala, & Heron, 1988; Walton & Huey, 1992)
wei6626X_03_c03_p089-138.indd 103 8/5/11 8:48 AM

Sam Walton’s Ten Rules:
Rule 1: Commit to your business. “If you love your work, you
will be out there every day
trying to it the best you possibly can, and pretty soon everybody
around you
will catch the passion from you—like a fever,” Walton said.
Rule 2: Share your profits with all your associates (employees).
Walton advocated treating
his employees like partners, which he believed would increase
performance.
Rule 3: Motivate your partners (i.e., employees). Money and
ownership alone are not
enough, Walton said.
Rule 4: Communicate everything you possibly can to your
partners. “The more they know,
the more they will understand. The more they understand, the
more they will
care. Once they care, there is no stopping them,” Walton said.
Rule 5: Appreciate everything your associates do for the

business. Walton said that a pay-
check and a stock option only buys “buy one kind of loyalty.”
Rule 6: Celebrate your successes. Walton encouraged showing
enthusiasm and also find-
ing the humor in your failures.
Rule 7: Listen to everyone in your company. Walton believed
this empowered associates
and forced “good ideas to bubble up.”
Rule 8: Exceed your customers’ expectations. Walton was
adamant about the company
motto, “Satisfaction Guaranteed.” The company should put the
customer first
and avoid making excuses for mistakes.
Rule 9: Control your expenses better than your competition.
For Walton, running an effi-
cient operation could sometimes make up for mistakes made.
Rule 10: Swim upstream (be different).
Walton died in 1992, and while times have changed since he
founded Wal-Mart, his legacy

and business philosophy remain robust. The company is
adapting to the new global com-
petitive environments in which it has entered.
Southwest’s Herb Kelleher provides another example. While
Kelleher is not the original
founder of Southwest, he was the founder ’s attorney and is
credited with taking the
airline to the level it is at today. Kelleher was once asked who
comes first—customers,
shareholders, or employees? He replied, “Employees come first;
and if employees are
treated right, they treat the outside world right, the outside
world uses the company’s
product again, and that makes the shareholders happy”
(Morrison, 2003). Kelleher saw
Southwest as an upside-down pyramid: The top level managers
were at the bottom,
and employees were the heroes on the front line, since they
were “the ones that make
things happen” (Lee, 1994). Kelleher said that the company
“hired for attitude, enthu-
siasm, and sense of humor,” and that many applicants were
made to take personality
tests. When a vice president once admitted to Kelleher that she

had interviewed 34 can-
didates for a ramp-agent position, Kelleher told her to interview
134 people if that was
what it took to find the person with the right attitude (Abraham,
Kathawala, & Heron,
1988). The company continues to hold a reputation for high
spirits and hard work.
Freiberg and Freiberg noted that at “Southwest Airlines there
exists a spirit of liberty
and freedom that encourages people to use their imagination,
express their individual-
ity, and exercise leadership” (1996). This is the nature of a
high-performance clan and
achievement culture that follows the example and role model of
a transformational,
charismatic founding leader.
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So how does a leader go about creating, building,

and maintaining a high-performance culture? The
next sections identifies the primary and second-
ary actions a leader can take.
PrimaryActions
Primary leadership cultural actions (Schein,
1992) aim to build a culture from start-up time
to the next phase. Leaders seek to align the cul-
ture by identifying a vision, mission, values, and
strategy with a team or teams, and then working
with followers to plan and implement business
processes (i.e., sales, marketing, research, and
development of the organization). This requires
defining a clear vision, mission, and values state-
ments upon which strategy and structure are
based. Considerable leadership involvement,
influence, and communication are required to
ensure that an effective culture is maintained.
Leaders use their authority and charisma to influ-
ence, motivate, and direct all of these dimensions.
Most U.S. presidents and global leaders weigh in
on articulating, influencing, and directing major
international and national economic and political
policies in their administrations. They use the power of their
positions, their physical

presence and speaking at public events, and their strategic
intelligence at cabinet meet-
ings to ensure that the policy-implementation processes run as
planned.
SecondaryActions
Secondary leadership cultural actions (also called symbolic
leadership cultural actions) are
behaviors, signals, and events that leaders and organizations
create and enact to instill
and reinforce desired cultural values. Symbolic actions include
leadership role modeling,
organizational ceremonies, artifacts (tangible and intangible
symbols), and new-member
socialization processes.
The leader as cultural role model is one of the most important
symbolic influencers of cul-
ture and follower behaviors. Most people remember a coach,
teacher, or leader who influ-
enced them as a role model. Members of a top-level team and
employees learn by observ-
ing how leaders act, think, reward, and disapprove of ideas,
policies, actions, and practices.
The leader as role model follows the saying, “Action speaks

louder than words.” People
learn quickly whether or not their leaders actually follow the
values they proclaim for the
rest of the organization (Ready, 2004). Sam Walton practiced
what he preached: He made
his presence felt in the stores, using MBWA (management by
walking around). Of course
he did more than just walk around; he engaged associates and
customers, discovered what
worked and didn’t, and used that information in developing
strategy and best practices.
Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher
believes employees come first and if
they are treated right, they treat the out-
side world right. The outside world will
then use the company’s product again.
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Ceremonies, or planned activities and events, are also strong
shapers of cultures. Cer-
emonies are used to recognize, honor, and remember people in
organizations. Such
events reinforce cultural values, create an emotional bond
among people and across
formal boundaries, and communicate who and what is valued in
organizations. High
schools and colleges have meetings of national honor societies
and graduations. Mary
Kay, among the largest direct sellers of skin-care and color
cosmetics in the United States,
started a ceremony of awarding pink Cadillacs for outstanding
sales results. The pink
Cadillac became an internationally known symbol that
enshrined the memory of Mary
Kay Ash and her company.
Stories are narratives based on actual people and events that
endure and are repeatedly
told by followers. Stories are one of the oldest and most
powerful ways of instilling and
reinforcing values in organizations. While some stories are
embellished beyond facts, it
is the shared energy and enjoyment of recalling such narratives

that bonds people. Every
professional, amateur, and educational sports team perpetuates
stories of their heroes.
The famous, ongoing rivalry in the National Basketball
Association between the Boston
Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers teams is one example. Films of
the 1982–1987 champion-
ship play-offs that pitted Celtics star Larry Bird against Magic
Johnson of the Lakers still
inspire competitive memories within and between those teams
and basketball fans. Now
stories of basketball legends Kobe Bryant of the Lakers and
Dwyane Wade and LeBron
James of the Miami Heat are added to their organizational
memories and cultures.
Symbols are objects, events, or acts that represent a shared
meaning among others; they
are also important shapers of cultural values that, in turn,
influence bonding among fol-
lowers and contribute to their identification with an
organization (Ornstein, 1986). Sym-
bols can be a number of objects, events, or acts. Buildings,
trophies, company picnics,
even ceremonies are symbols. One of the more memorable,

larger cultural symbols was
the Saturn Corporation. Created by General Motors in the
1980s, the Saturn Corporation
was able to make its own success apart from its parent and
produce what became a very
popular car (the Saturn). Saturn’s slogan, “A different kind of
company, a different kind of
car,” touted its success story outside of its parent company’s
reputation and name brand
(Aaker, 1994). Both the company and the car became iconic
symbols in the auto industry
of what a stodgy parent company could produce. When the auto
market declined in the
early 2000s, GM sold the company that made the Saturn; the
car’s production was distrib-
uted across several manufacturing sites. The Saturn was
discontinued in 2010. For some,
the legend of the first Saturn is a memory.
Cultures are kept alive by methods of introducing and
indoctrinating new members into
an organization. Organizations select and adapt newcomers into
their cultures through
socialization, a process in which individuals learn the expected
values, norms, skills, and

behaviors of an organization (Van Maanen, 1976). This process
begins when the person is
selected. University and college fraternities, sororities, honor
societies, religious institu-
tions, sports teams, and other organizations also have their
methods and ceremonies of
introducing newcomers into their memberships. Zappos has a
very stringent hiring pro-
cess. As CEO Tony Hsieh stated, “We’ve actually said no to a
lot of very talented people
that we know can make an immediate impact on our top or
bottom line. But because we
felt they weren’t culture fits, we were willing to sacrifice the
short term benefits in order
to protect our culture (and therefore our brand) for the long
term” (2009). Those who are
accepted into the 4-week Zappos training program are offered
$2,000 (plus what they
earned during the 4 weeks) to quit. Hsieh said, “We want to
make sure that employees
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CHAPTER 3Section 3.3 Leadership and Strategic
Communication
are here for more than just a paycheck. We want employees that
believe in our long term
vision and want to be a part of our culture. As it turns out, on
average, less than 1% of
people end up taking the offer” (2009).
Related to the socialization process is the concept of cultural
strength, or the extent to
which followers agree on the importance of values and methods
of getting work done in
the organization (Sorensen, 2002). Organizations benefit when
members adopt and sup-
port the values of their institutions. When there is consensus
and congruence on orga-
nizational values, members are more likely to be motivated in
attaining organizational
goals. Zappos has high cultural strength. The company has a
strong set of values used for
selecting, rewarding, and retaining high performers. That
company also has high value
congruency, the fit between the organization’s and followers’
values.

Taken together, these leadership and organizational factors help
define and sustain cul-
tures and are important to the morale and performance of
organizations. Culture, as noted
earlier, is one of the most important dimensions of an
organization, since it embodies lead-
ership values and serves to align an organization with its
external environment through
specific strategies while integrating people inside the
organization. This can be done
through communication—the topic of our next section. The two
are interrelated: Com-
munication is necessary to convey culture, but it can only take
place if the culture allows
for it to occur freely and openly. Leadership communication, in
particular, is a primary
means of influencing followers and stakeholders for goal
attainment. In the next section
we present guidelines for effective communication that leaders,
followers, and anyone in
a leadership position can use.
3.3 Leadership and Strategic Communication

Communication, the process of conveying information and
meaning between a sender and receiver, is one of the most
important competencies of leaders (Brass,
Galaskiewicz, & Tsai, 2004) since it affects every aspect of
leading: influencing, motivat-
ing, envisioning, creating culture, developing strategy,
mobilizing change, and man-
aging stakeholders. All of these require that
ideas and values be communicated clearly and
accurately, and it should be no surprise that
studies have shown that effective communica-
tion is also empirically and positively related to
leadership performance (Ackoff, 2002; Lussier
& Achua, 2007). Still, good communication is
easier said than done: Research on 10,000 firms
showed that leaders were not communicat-
ing effectively (Lussier & Achua, 2007). A 2011
study commissioned by SuccessFactors, Inc. and
Accenture found that “companies today are not
effectively executing against strategy and the
business leaders know it, with 80 percent recog-
nizing that they are not doing their best to com-
municate strategy through the organization, let
alone execute against it” (SuccessFactors, 2011).

Effective communication is stating
clearly what you want and expect of
others; clearly expressing your thoughts
and ideas; and maintaining a constant
and precise flow of information.
wei6626X_03_c03_p089-138.indd 107 8/5/11 8:52 AM
Communication
The importance of communication is obviously not limited to
leaders—but note that
when a leader miscommunicates, doesn’t listen effectively, or is
inconsistent in his or her
communications, the results are amplified and consequently
potentially more harmful.
Communication occurs between any number and combination of
people, and everyone
in the organization must communicate effectively in and
between teams and with key
stakeholders in order to achieve organizational goals.

We begin by defining the communication process before
presenting methods of effec-
tive leader—and follower—communication, as well as a type of
communication called
persuasion (Conger, 1998). As you read through this section,
think of leaders for whom
you have worked. Evaluate their communication effectiveness
based on the content
here. Also, take Assessment 3.1 to see how effective a
communicator you are. Your score
and interpretation of your results can serve as indicators of how
this particular section
can be helpful.
Assessment3.1:AreYouanEffectiveListener?
Instructions: Go through the following questions, answering no
or yes next to each. Mark each as
truthfully as you can in light of your behavior in the last few
meetings or social gatherings.
No Yes
1. I give attention to nonverbal clues of others when

communicating ____ ____
2. I ask someone to explain or make clear what they are saying
if I don’t understand ____ ____
3. I try hard to understand someone’s position and opinion
when communicating ____ ____
4. Most people sense that I understand their viewpoint even if
we don’t agree ____ ____
5. I try to listen to many conversations at once instead of
focusing on one at a time ____ ____
6. I prefer individuals to share factual information with me and
let me decide ____ ____
7. I act like I am listening when I really am not ____ ____
8. I can tell what someone will say before they even say it ____
____
9. I answer right after someone finishes talking to me ____
____

10. I assess what someone is saying while they’re talking ____
____
11. I usually focus on the other person’s style while their
talking, which sometimes distracts me
from what they are saying
____ ____
12. I am thinking about how I will respond while someone is
talking with me ____ ____
ScoringandInterpretation: According to communications
experts, “No” is the correct choice to items
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; and “Yes” is the correct choice to items
1, 2, 3, 4. Use the following suggested
interpretation for self development in listening:
9-12 correct items: You evaluated yourself as an effective
listener
7-8 correct items: You have some areas that need improvement
in your listening skills
6 correct items: You need improvement in listening skills; your
followers and co-workers may observe
that you are not giving your full attention when listening to

them .
Source: Adapted from The Leadership Experience. Daft, R.
(2011). Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning.
wei6626X_03_c03_p089-138.indd 108 8/5/11 8:52 AM
Communication
TheCommunicationProcessDefined
If communication is the process of conveying information and
meaning, then effective
communication is being able to do this successfully, so that
both the sender and the
receiver of the information are on the same page. We can state
this more clearly by saying
that effective communication is stating clearly what you want
and expect from others,
clearly expressing your thoughts and ideas, and maintaining a
precise and constant flow
of information. Being able to do this well comes from

understanding and strategically
managing the communication process, or the flow of
information.
Regardless of the form or number of individuals
communicating, the classic communica-
tion process depicted in Figure 3.3 is the same, whether the
communicators are on Yam-
mer, Twitter, Skype, or instant-messaging software: A sender
has a purpose that she or he
develops into a message before sending it to a receiver, who
decodes the meaning (Berlo,
1960). The speed and form of technology, whether video with
webcams or two-way or
n-way instant messaging, allows individual communicators to
share some form of mean-
ing that is intended to be understood by someone else. It is
important to break down this
process in more detail in order to understand how to avoid
miscommunication and noise
that garble the intended message or meaning.
A sender shown in Figure 3.3 initiates a message by encoding
an idea or thought into a
physical product or audible or legible form—words, film,

photos, video, or typing. The
message can also consist of nonverbal symbols or gestures—
facial, hand, or body move-
ments. The sender decides what form, or channel, to use to send
the message. E-mail is an
example of an electronic channel, as are Skype, Yammer,
Twitter, YouTube, and instant
messaging. Channels can be electronic or face-to-face, formal
or informal, and more—we
will discuss this topic in more detail later in the chapter. The
receiver to whom the message
is directed must decode (i.e., translate and interpret) the
symbols in order to understand
the meaning. Noise represents distortions, problems, and issues
that alter the intended
Figure3.3CommunicationProcess
Perceptual
Screens
Receiver decodes
and interprets
meaning

Sender
communicates
intended meaning
Encodes Transmits Message
Responds Transmits Encodes
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Communication
meaning in the message. Noise can be perception biases or
misunderstandings, informa-
tion overload, confusion, misinterpreted word meaning,
inferences, or just cultural differ-
ences (Robbins & Judge, 2011). Getting feedback is the last part
of the loop in the communi-
cation process, in which the receiver or sender inquires to see if
the intended and received

meaning of the message were the same.
NewerFormsofCommunication
As suggested before, the communication process has undergone
some change. Social-net-
working sites like Facebook and Twitter, desktop video, mobile
phones, Skype, YouTube, and
other so-called groupware (programs that facilitate
collaboration among remote individuals)
are becoming a dominant form of communication. Businesses
are adopting these communi-
cation forms because of their popularity across marketing
segments, speed, convenience, and
effectiveness in getting and receiving quick information. In one
Skype survey, Carr reported
that 20% said they use Voice over Internet Protocol calling once
a week “and a slightly lower
number are using desktop video that often” (2011). He noted
that “less formal tools are start-
ing to reach a ‘critical mass.’ A little over 40% of respondents
use instant messaging at least
once a week, and more than 50% do work-related SMS texting
from their phones.”

In the same survey (Carr, 2011), it was found that of the video
callers queried:
• 68% said they experience richer and more productive
communication with col-
leagues, clients, and suppliers.
• 65% said they collaborate better.
• 62% said they save time.
• 56% said they save money.
• 69% wanted video to be available on a range of devices and
locations, not just
fixed systems.
At the same time, 42% of workers surveyed complained of
suffering from information
overload, and 35% blamed e-mail. Forty-eight percent preferred
a simpler, “unified
approach to managing information,” and 57% of managers
agreed with this statement
(Carr, 2011). Newer forms of communication can have their
drawbacks, and there is much
to be learned about how to use new technology most effectively
as a leader. Software

and hardware manufacturer and mailstream services provider
Pitney Bowes, for example,
turned to social networking site Yammer for its social media
needs. The platform, which
launched in 2010, allows users to connect and chat within more
private groups—offer-
ing “all the connectivity and mutual conversation of Facebook
and Twitter, but with an
explicit business focus and less risk of confidential information
escaping into the outside
world” (Forbes, 2010). At Pitney Bowes, there were 400
Yammer users in 2010—which
was 12% of their global employees. Users in the company say
Yammer is a conversation
tool that enables them to distribute and share knowledge and
best practices in a protected
way. One employee said that Yammer “is really driving
collaboration throughout the busi-
ness, breaking down silos and bringing everyone together. It’s
instilled our people with
a new sense of community, and a refreshed sense of care”
(Forbes, 2010). Pitney Bowes
offered three lessons it has learned in using new technology
(Forbes, 2010):

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Communication
1. Be patient. Community building is a process—it doesn’t
happen overnight.
2. Don’t approach community building with the idea of talking.
The most
value that you get out of it is from listening.
3. Reward your active participants—not in a monetary fashion.
Acknowl-
edge their participation, evangelize their efforts, and recognize
their
contribution through other channels.
HowtoUsetheCommunicationProcess
While leaders use contemporary forms of media, they must also
give press conferences,
deliver speeches, and give informal and formal talks with

different stakeholders and audi-
ences. But even in what may appear an informal conversation on
a mobile phone, a text
message, or a Skype conversation, leaders, managers, and
followers may be sending stra-
tegic information without realizing it. Before sending
strategically important messages,
leaders and followers can benefit from considering the
following strategies: (1) Plan the
goal and content of the message, (2) decide who should send a
particular message, (3)
identify the receiver, (4) select an appropriate communication
channel, and (5) decide on
the time for sending the message. Making the correct decisions
in these areas can deter-
mine whether the message is received as intended.
Planning the goal and content involves thoughtful consideration
of what you want to
say. Senders usually address the following questions: What is
the intended goal of the
message (Brass, Galaskiewicz, & Tsai, 2004)? Is it to inform,
persuade, express an opin-
ion, or solicit ideas? What is the intended result of the message?
What is the receiver

expected to feel, believe, react, respond, or do? Some leaders
are surprised to learn that
what they thought would be a welcome message resulted in a
highly negative reaction.
Egypt’s 2011 revolution—part of the so-called Arab Spring that
rippled through the Arab
world that year—offers an example. Before he was overthrown,
Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak attempted to appease angry rioters with what he
considered a calming mes-
sage. He appealed to the masses as “his children and family”
and tried to convince them
that he was in favor of implementing their interests. After 30
years under Mubarak’s rule,
however, Egyptians wanted concrete action and change:
solutions to the pervasive unem-
ployment, lack of a living wage, dearth of public services, and
bleak career future for stu-
dents and other young people. Protesters wanted a change in the
old guard and expected
Mubarak to announce his resignation—not patronize them.
Mubarak’s “calming” speech
served only to further inflame the crowds and hasten his
departure from office. He was
not aware of what his listeners (the audience) expected or

needed.
Deciding who should send a particular message is critical
because the receiver will
usually react differently to different people. An organization
should take into account
the content of the message, the sender ’s position in the
organization, the expertise and
knowledge of the sender, and the audience receiving the
message. If layoffs are to be
announced, a CEO may want to deliver that message personally
to show that he or
she understands that such a decision disrupts people’s lives. In
contrast, an e-mailed
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Communication
announcement of impending layoffs
would seem callous and insensitive. For
sensitive issues and during emotionally

charged crises, the CEO or president is
often the best spokesperson. When the
Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck an Alaskan
reef in 1989, spilling thousands of bar-
rels of oil, Exxon CEO Lawrence Rawl
selected a spokesperson other than him-
self to initially address and follow up
with the media—suggesting that the cri-
sis was not important to him. The event is
considered one of the worst public-rela-
tions disasters in recent history. However,
there are situations in which a message
will be most effectively received if sent by
a project manager, vice president, or team
leader—for example, when the message
relates to a specialty area requiring knowledge and expertise—
and the president or CEO
of the company should defer to one of these individuals.
Identifying the receiver involves knowing who the receiver is,
what the receiver’s needs
and interests are, and whether the receiver is the right and
relevant audience for whom
the particular message is intended. A board chairperson at a

private university announced
a meeting for the entire college a few years ago. Word spread
that something exciting
and different might be announced. Faculty, staff, and
administrators gathered in the large
auditorium waiting to hear what was thought to be institution-
wide news. The chairper-
son moved to the podium and announced that the administration
had decided to offer 30
older professors a small financial package in exchange for their
agreeing to an early retire-
ment plan. Disbelief, bewilderment, and dismay were sensed
throughout the gathering
and in hallway discussions after the meeting: wrong audience,
wrong place, and wrong
timing for that misplaced message.
Selecting the appropriate communication channel is suggested
in a study by Lengel and
Daft (1988), who showed that leaders need to match their
message with the right commu-
nication channel to be effective. Figure 3.4 illustrates the type
of communication channel
with the information richness of the message, or the amount of
information that can be

sent during a particular episode. Each channel has advantages
and disadvantages.
The richness of the channel, Lengel and Daft stated, is
influenced by the ability of the
receiver to understand many cues simultaneously, handle two-
way rapid communication,
and establish a personal focus in the communication exchange.
Face-to-face is the rich-
est type of communication channel. When a message is complex
with emotional content,
a richer channel (face-to-face) may be more appropriate.
Layoffs, firings, and rightsiz-
ing are examples of when face-to-face communication may be
more appropriate than a
more formal, distant type of communication. If the receivers are
dispersed geographically,
then electronic communication or conference calling may be
appropriate. If the message
In March of 1989 Exxon-Mobil CEO Lawrence
Rawl decided to use a spokesperson to address
and inform the media. If he would have been the
spokesperson the worst public relations disaster
in recent history might have been avoided.

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Communication
is a routine, straightforward report for which no immediate
feedback is required, then a
memo, text message, or e-mail will work.
Since electronic communication is increasingly replacing the
print medium, it is easier
to confuse matching communication channels with particular
messages. Blogs, instant
messaging, and Twitter are becoming preferred forms of
communicating faster and more
inexpensively (Nasaw, 2003). Facebook is also developing into
a connected platform of
communication that companies are starting to use for
nonconfidential information. The
point here is that leaders’ communication effectiveness depends
in large part on match-
ing the type of channel (formal report, memo, e-mail, phone,

face-to-face) with the type of
message (low richness and emotional content with high richness
and emotional content).
Finally, selecting the right time to send messages matters.
Messages that carry highly emo-
tional, sensitive content should not only be delivered through
the right communication
channel but should be timed so that receivers can understand
and discuss or respond.
For example, it is not recommended that layoffs be delivered
through e-mail, Twitter,
or instant messaging, or at times that are inconvenient for
people to receive such news.
While layoffs may be necessary for the survival of a business
unit or organization, how,
when, and by whom the news is delivered sometimes has as
much impact as the content.
Consideration for the receiver is an important element with all
types of communication.
Leadership communication affects not only those who are laid
off but those who stay.
Figure3.4CommunicationChannels

Source: Based on Leadership Experience (5th ed., p. 279), by R.
Daft, 2011, Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning.
Note: As technology continues to evolve, different types of
channels will need to be added to a figure like this.
More research on these newer forms of communication (i.e.
Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.)
will allow for better and more accurate placement along the
channel-richness continuum.
Memos, letters
Skype
Telephone
Disadvantages
Impersonal
One-way
Slow feedback
Advantages
Provides record
Premeditated
Easily disseminated

Low channel
richness
Disadvantages
No record
Spontaneous
Dissemination hard
Advantages
Personal
Two-way
Fast feedback
High channel
richness
Formal report
Blogs
Email, text
messaging, internet
Twitter

Face to face
verbal
Face to face
verbal
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CHAPTER 3Section 3.4 Leaders as Champions of Strategic
Communication
3.4 Leaders as Champions of Strategic Communication
Leaders are the face, voice, and role models of their companies.
What they say, to whom, and how is important, and their ability
to change organizations and cultures, particu-
larly during times of crisis and uncertainty, is significant. They
are and must be, in effect,
champions of strategic communication. As strategic
communicators (Clampitt, Berk & Wil-
liams, 2002), leaders must communicate from a “big picture,”
systems perspective (as dis-
cussed in the first part of this chapter): They must always be

conscious of upholding and
maintaining the vision, mission, values, and strategy of the
entire organization when they
communicate. They must also look to inspire, build trust, unite,
and mobilize followers
around a common identity and purpose of the organization.
Tactical communicators, on the other hand, are more concerned
with transactional types
of exchanges that involve implementation and hands-on details
and tactics. For exam-
ple, managers, as tactical communicators, spend over 80% of
each day communicating
as “information processors” (Mintzberg, 1973). As transactional
managers, they control,
schedule, correct, and direct daily processes, procedures, and
people around specific
tasks, projects, and programs. They spend 48 minutes of every
hour on the phone, in
meetings, and communicating with teams, suppliers, and
vendors to implement details
of organizational objectives. Of course, both strategic and
tactical communication are nec-
essary for organizational goal attainment. It is important here,
however, to distinguish

between these types, since strategic leadership communication
sets the overall tone and
context for organizational exchanges.
Strategic leadership conversations differ from transactional,
tactical discussions. They cre-
ate an open climate for dialogue, emphasize strategic topics to
provide clarity, focus on
the customer’s needs and wants, share responsibility with
followers, and involve constant
and consistent feedback (Young & Post, 1993).
Create an Open Climate for Dialogue
Leaders engage in strategic conversations by creating an open
climate that is two-way,
not top-down: Communication flows and is not constrained by
status of position titles. By
asking the right questions, leaders discover what people feel
and think about issues and
opportunities. There are two types of questions leaders can ask:
leader centered and fol-
lower centered (Spitzer & Evans, 1997). Leader-centered
questions seek to gain follower
knowledge and expertise as well as feelings and thoughts about

different topics relevant
to the goals, strategies, and initiatives of the organization.
Leaders also build trust and
confidence in followers by asking these types of questions with
authenticity, concern, and
interest (Newberry, 2003). Follower-centered questions focus on
developing new ideas,
expanding awareness, and stimulating critical thinking.
Similarly, with these types of
questions, leaders ask in ways that show interest in followers’
ideas and opinions.
Active listening is another classic communication technique that
strategic leaders use to
gain knowledge and build relationships with followers. In active
listening, the listener’s
focus and attention is on understanding, interpreting, assessing,
and showing the sender
that what was said is understood. This sounds easier in theory
than in practice. Active
listening is not passive; after absorbing what the speaker is
saying without interrupting,
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Communication
distracting, or indicating disinterest, the listener asks questions
for clarification if neces-
sary. Eye contact and nonverbal body language show that the
listener is fully engaged and
interested in the messenger as well as the message. Poor
listeners, on the other hand, do
not show interest through eye contact and attentive body
language, listen for facts and not
emotion, and usually daydream, interrupt, and respond with
judgmental or argumenta-
tive opinions (Morgan & Baker, 1985; Okum, 1975). Poor
listening and communication
habits foster closed cultural climates and emotional
disconnection between leaders and
followers. Strategic conversations cannot thrive without active
listening skills.
EmphasizeStrategicTopics
Effective leaders use strategic conversations and dialogue to

understand issues that
followers and stakeholders have about certain strategic topics
and to gain acceptance
on these topics. Leaders rely on discussion to clarify
controversial topics and dialogue
to reach agreement and gain acceptance. In dialogue, in contrast
to discussion, people
share their positions on a topic, gain understanding of each
other and the topic, and
reach common ground. Discussion, on the other hand, involves
stating positions and
opinions based on facts, logic, and beliefs and may not lead to
agreement between two
parties. While dialogue certainly involves facts, logic, and
beliefs, it differs from discus-
sion in that “people usually hold relatively fixed positions and
argue in favour of their
views as they try to convince others to change. At best this may
produce agreement or
compromise, but it does not give rise to anything creative”
(Bohm & Peat, 1987, p. 241).
David Bohm further suggested that “the purpose of dialogue is
to reveal the incoherence
in our thought. In so doing it becomes possible to discover or
re-establish a ‘genuine

and creative collective consciousness’”(Bohm, Factor & Garrett,
1991). The process of
dialogue is a process of “awakening”; it entails a free flow of
meaning among all the
participants (Smith, 2001).
Clarification of the topic may be gained through discussion, but
mind-sets may not be
changed (Schein, 1993). Dialogue requires active listening
skills, an open mind, and the
ability to bring people of differing opinions together on
controversial topics. Leaders in
organizational cultures that are built on trust have a higher
probability of leading change
through dialogue than those in distrusting settings.
FocusontheCustomer
Clampitt et al. (2002) found that leaders and managers who
were successful in dealing
with change included the following mantra in their strategic
conversations: “Keep close
to the customer.” The researchers concluded that successful
companies’ communications
programs, in their interactions with employees who dealt

directly with customers, framed
certain types of questions:
What does the customer want to know? When do they prefer to
receive
information? In what form (at home, electronic mail, graphic
display) do
they want to receive it? We noticed that in these companies
there was a clear
trend toward insisting that employee communications staff
monitor their
customers and audiences, and understand the organizational
issues, job
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Communication
demands, and other communications efforts that affect the
customers. In the
best companies, communications programs serve the audience’s
needs and,

as a result, improve the organization’s capacity for dealing with
change.
ShareResponsibility
An underlying theme of effective strategic conversations is that
leaders share responsibility
with followers. Whether good or bad news occurs, followers
want their leaders and manag-
ers to inform them, share with them, and explain such
happenings to them. A major theme
from a study on leaders as communication champions was that
“people want to hear news
from their boss, not from their peers or from the grapevine”
(Clampitt et al., 2002).
GiveandReceiveFeedback
Leaders give and receive feedback more easily as part of a
shared communication pro-
cess in organizations where trust and an open climate are
cultural traits. Both lead-
ers and followers must give and receive feedback in their
mutual influencing process
toward organizational goal attainment. Feedback consists of

letting others know in a
straightforward manner what you think of them, how well they
have performed, and if
they have met your needs and expectations. We note that giving
and receiving construc-
tive feedback, especially if it is negative in content, is not
easy—and probably never
will be. In addition to the guidelines offered here, it is
important to separate emotions
from the message. Focusing on the goal of the feedback and
importance of communi-
cating the message involves taking an objective perspective.
Also, followers who have
less power than the leaders and supervisors to whom they report
have an added bur-
den in giving feedback—especially negative feedback. Again, in
addition to the follow-
ing guidelines, ensuring that your message is true, verifiable,
and necessary to deliver
can provide assurance that how it is delivered
is often as important as what is being delivered.
Guidelines for giving honest feedback include
the following (Bolton, 1979):
1. Check your motivations before giving

feedback. Make sure your reasons are
clear and justifiable.
2. Check your frame of mind. Being angry,
tired, or uncertain interferes with giving
objective feedback.
3. Ensure that your feedback is purposed to
help the receiver.
4. Offer feedback directly to the receiver,
with genuine feelings.
5. Be descriptive, not evaluative. Omit
words like should, must, and ought.
6. Be specific instead of general; offer clear,
recent examples.
7. Choose a time when the receiver and you
are ready.
Feedback consists of letting others
know what you think of them, how
well they have performed, and if they

have met your needs and expectations.
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CHAPTER 3Section 3.5 Leadership Skills in Persuasion
8. Check the validity of your intended feedback with others who
are reliable and
will keep your communication confidential. Be sure you are
communicating
facts, not gossip.
9. Include only areas that the recipient has control over.
10. Do not share more than the receiver can handle emotionally
or factually.
Confident leaders will often ask followers as well as peers as
part of giving feedback,
“How am I doing? What do I need to be doing differently? What
needs do you have that
aren’t being met by the organization?”
Guidelines for receiving honest feedback include the following

(Athos & Gabarro, 1978):
1. Avoid being defensive. Take a neutral, objective view that
will facilitate the
sender’s offering you unbiased information.
2. To ensure that you understand the feedback, summarize what
you heard and ask
for clarification in an understanding, nonjudgmental way.
3. Share your feelings about specific behaviors at issue in order
to validate the
information, feelings, and understanding of the subject.
4. Remember that you have the right to evaluate and validate
what you hear, to
decide what you believe about the feedback, and to decide if
you feel that it is
personally and professionally worth the effort to change.
Each of these characteristics of strategic conversations could
also be termed leadership com-
munication skills: ways that leaders can ensure they are
effectively conveying the information
they need to convey and receiving the information they need to

receive. In the last section of
this chapter, we will turn to another essential leadership
communication skill: persuasion.
3.5 Leadership Skills in Persuasion
Persuasion is commonly defined as the act of convincing
someone to believe or do something; it uses communication to
achieve a goal. Leaders use persuasion as a form
of influence to get work done through other people. Even in
high-performance cultures,
leaders still have to influence and persuade followers. It is a
fundamental leadership com-
petency. Jay Conger, an expert on leadership, wrote:
Effective persuasion is a difficult and time-consuming
proposition, but it
may also be more powerful than the command-and-control
managerial
model it succeeds. As AlliedSignal’s CEO Lawrence Bossidy
said . . . , “The
day when you could yell and scream and beat people into good
perfor-
mance is over. Today you have to appeal to them by helping
them see how

they can get from here to there, by establishing some
credibility, and by
giving them some reason and help to get there. Do all those
things, and
they’ll knock down doors.” In essence, he is describing
persuasion—now
more than ever, the language of business leadership. (Conger,
1998, p. 86)
If persuasion is the language of business leadership, as Conger
put it, then it is critical that
leaders know how to perform it effectively. We will examine
the four steps of persuasion
before examining the common pitfalls.
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FourStepsofPersuasion
The four steps of persuasion are (1) establishing credibility, (2)
building goals from a com-

mon frame, (3) presenting a compelling position, and (4)
connecting emotionally (Conger,
1998). Establishing credibility involves expertise and
relationships: The leader—or who-
ever is doing the persuading—must possess the relevant
knowledge as well as a trust-
ing relationship with whomever he or she is trying to persuade.
For example, suppose
you wanted an honest assessment of your health. You would
more likely be inclined to
believe a longtime family doctor than some stranger at the
ballpark. In taking the first
steps to establish their credibility, leaders must make an honest
assessment of how oth-
ers perceive their knowledge and of the strength of their
relationships with those whom
they will try to persuade. Leaders can also ask to what extent
their audience will perceive
them as trustworthy and helpful.
However, credibility is not enough to persuade others. Leaders
also need to build goals from
a common ground, or find an area that those being persuaded
can agree on. People need to
know and be shown how they will personally benefit from the

offer to be made. Knowing
their audience will help leaders find common ground on the
proposal that is the subject of
persuasion. To do this, leaders need to talk with the people
whom they will engage—test
the waters—and find out what they are thinking and what they
want. If leaders cannot
see, feel, or experience any common ground, they should revisit
their proposal.
Leaders who can present a compelling position after they have
established credibility and
framed a common ground have a higher probability of
succeeding. Winning others over
involves the use of lively metaphors, stories, numbers, and
analogies that paint a vivid
picture and pave the way for a compelling, tangible description
of the persuader’s offer.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech painted
lively and compelling
images of what life would be like after segregation.
Finally, effective leaders connect emotionally with their
followers or others whom they are
persuading. They have to show their emotional commitment to

their position in a reason-
able and clearheaded way. People are persuaded not only in
their heads but also in their
hearts, especially if leaders are asking for significant time,
energy, or effort from those who
are being persuaded.
FourTrapsThatLeadtoPersuasionFailure
Leaders fail at effective persuasion when they too often fall into
one or more of the fall-
ing traps. First, leaders who try to make their case with a hard,
upfront sell more often
than not fail, according to Conger (1998), because they show
their logic and tactics at the
outset, thus giving their potential opponents reasons to attack. It
is more effective to start
a dialogue or conversation before trying to convince the person
to be persuaded or back
the person into a corner.
Second, leaders who resist compromise at the outset and see it
as a weakness usually com-
municate inflexibility and stubbornness. Persuasion is often a
two-way path that involves

some give and take, listening, and accepting parts of what
others have to offer into the
proposed perspective.
wei6626X_03_c03_p089-138.indd 118 8/5/11 8:53 AM
Third, some leaders believe that their arguments and ideas are
the greatest and that the
secret of persuasion lies in sharing these ideas with others.
Arguments are important, but
they are, as Conger noted, only part of the equation; persuasion
also depends on the four
steps mentioned before.
Finally, when leaders assume that they have one-shot at getting
others to buy into a
proposition, they are again wrong. Persuasion, said Conger, is a
process. It can take time.
Difficulties are experienced. Listening is required. Developing
and redeveloping a posi-
tion that is tested and compromised before being accepted is to

be expected. Through the
process, the results may be worth the time
and energy given.
Successful persuasion, then, involves all
of the skills and competencies required for
effective communication. Leaders must
plan their messages, know their audi-
ences, actively listen, give and receive
feedback, have strategic conversations,
create an open environment for dialogue,
use the right communication channels for
the type of messages they convey, and
establish credibility with those whom
they are persuading. Effective communi-
cation is an integral part of who leaders
are and what they do: that is, as we dis-
cussed in the Chapter 1, influencing fol-
lowers to achieve common goals through
shared purposes.
The four traps that lead to persuasion failure
are the hard, upfront sell, resisting compro-
mise, failing to present a compelling position,

and failing to connect emotionally.
Take the Lead
Leadership and Strategic Communication
You’ve just been recruited to lead an organization’s sales and
marketing department. You are leaving
behind your old company, where you became famous for
elevating their brand to new heights in your
15-year career. However, leadership did not support the
challenge you desired in new product devel-
opment, so you determined your best next career move would be
outside the organization.
You arrive at your new organization and find the sales and
marketing department runs like a well-oiled
machine. Instead of being broken, as at your prior organization,
this new organization has a much bet-
ter structure, processes for performing business, and what
appears to be a highly qualified and eager
staff ready and willing to forge ahead.
Considering your leadership and strategic communication, how
will you:

1. Immediately develop ties with your new sales and marketing
community?
2. Disseminate your thoughts within the department?
3. Identify the best forum for communicating effectively?
4. Ensure that members of the department are being heard?
See page 228 for possible answers.
wei6626X_03_c03_p089-138.indd 119 8/5/11 8:54 AM
CHAPTER 3Section 3.6 Leading Cross-Cultural, Internationally
Diverse Workforces
3.6 Leading Cross-Cultural, Internationally Diverse Workforces
In addition to developing organizational culture and
communicating strategically, leaders in public and private
sector organizations must also ensure that organization
members from different cultures, backgrounds, races, and
experiences work cohesively
together to achieve organizational goals. This requires that
leaders understand what
makes individuals different from one another and how those

differences become relevant
in the workplace. Leadership skills and experience in managing
various types of people
and operations are particularly in demand today (Pitts, 2007),
due to changing demo-
graphics and perspectives as well as the rise of globalization.
Leaders are now often called
to actively promote workforce diversity, which refers to the
variety of people within an
employee base and can include background, education, language
skills, personality, sex-
ual orientation, and work roles, among other characteristics.
For organizational leaders, diversity—once implying
separateness—now intentionally
emphasizes inclusion. The United States has traditionally been
considered a “melting
pot,” in which a multitude of cultures meld together to create
one. However, one of the
implications of a melting pot is the suggestion that to get ahead
in America, individuals
from different cultures have to lose or disguise their identities,
accents, traditions, and
values in order to assimilate, or integrate, into mainstream
American culture (Lussier &

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