Organizational Commitment and Communication

The American Red Cross is an organization that helps prevent human suffering during events that leads the human society while in emergency crisis. The American Red Cross has the ability to mobilize the power of volunteers as well as the generosity of donors. The reader will be given a brief description on how different leadership styles affects the group communication within the American Red Cross. The reader will also be given an analysis of the different sources of power found in the organization and how will these affect the organization communication.

It is imperative that the reader also understands how the American Red Cross identifies the motivational theories that will be most effective in different cultures. Finally, a description of the commitment of the workforce to the organization and their relationship to the organizations communication will be provided. Leadership Styles and Effects At the American Red Cross there are several leadership styles that are being used. "Leader's establish direction by developing a vision of the future; then they align people by communicating this vision and inspiring them to overcome hurdles" (Robbins & Judge, 2011. Some of the main leadership styles that affects the American Red Cross are the transactional, charismatic, and transformational. The transformational leadership is the most common style for The American Red Cross. “Transformational leaders inspire followers to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the organization and are capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on their followers” (Robbins & Judge, 2011. ) Transformational leaders tend to have more passion in everything that they do.

The first step as a leader is to have a mission and a vision. Transformational leaders motivate the performance of the followers as well as understanding their strengths and weaknesses so that the leader may align the followers with tasks that will boost their performance. It is important to be a role model to the followers as this action will inspire them and make them more interested while challenging them to take a greater ownership for their work.

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A charismatic leader will ensure to pay attention to every person making that person feel important. At this time they are scanning the individuals to pick up their moods and their concerns. At this time the charismatic leader will be able to improve their actions and words to suit the situation. Finally, the transactional leadership plays the role in The American Red Cross as the supervisor of the organization. Every organization has to have a chain of command as well as motivation through rewards and punishments.

The transactional leader is the leader that holds the followers to rules, procedures, and standards. Sources of Power There are different types of power within The American Red Cross organization. Power is seen as the ability to implementing control over an individual or a group. While everyone has power, each individual possess and utilize power in a way that it will benefit their organization’s needs. Coercive power is the power that is able to punish those who do not follow orders as requested by the leader.

On the other hand using coercive power may also be used to influence the decision of that is being made by taking something away as a punishment if he or she does not follow a request that has been made. The American Red Cross uses the coercive power to ensure that their followers follow their rules and guidelines that they have in place. Expert power is the power that shows the person’s knowledge or specialized skills. Individuals will gain more power by showing a greater knowledge of the task that will be performed.

The expertise power is a power that should be taken care of to make sure that the leader maintains its credibility. Also it is important to avoid any threatening of the self-esteem of subordinates to ensure any dislikes from team members against the leader creating unhappy team members. Legitimate power is the power that the leader will have when the employees believe that any orders coming from the leader is because of the leader’s position within the organization and they should be followed as requested. This power is developed through time.

Communication in Relation to Motivational Theory At the American Red Cross, there are two types of motivational theories which are applied to the organization. The motivational theories are the expectancy theory and the cognitive evaluation theory. The expectancy is the proposal to a person to behave in a certain way by persuading them to select a specific behavior over others to ensure the expected results. On the other hand cognitive evaluation theory is a theory that is designed to clarify the effects of consequences.

These are ways that are used to persuade individuals through awards to control desirable behavior. Workforce Commitment The American Red Cross and commitment goes hand in hand. As commitment to the individuals that they help is one of the most powerful ways that they can use to motivate the volunteer helpers to accomplish their tasks and reach the designated goal. It is imperative to at least give a pat on the back to let the individuals know that they are doing a good job and motivating them to continue to work.

Being positive and providing the employees or volunteers with positive feedback can help the organization go along ways? As the mission statement of the American Red Cross states, “The American Red Cross empowers ordinary people to perform extraordinary acts of service. ” (American National Red Cross, 2013) The American Red Cross has been a successful organization that will use the power of volunteers to help those that are in need. The transactional, charismatic, and transformational leadership’s styles have an effect on the group communication of the American Red Cross.

The leadership styles and the sources of power work hand in hand to ensure that the organization is meeting all of their goals as well as ensuring that the volunteers are on tasks and in a good working environment. The motivational theories are just a way to ensure that the volunteers and employees are committed to the workforce. The American Red Cross is a well-established organization and as long as they follow all of the above this organization will continue to be very successful in anything that they set their minds to do.

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