Management of Public Sector Organizations

Leadership and communication are essential for an organization’s success now and even in the future. For many years, public administrations have focused on both the efficient and effective leadership and management of public sector firms. These organizations range from interest groups, profit, and nonprofit organizations, among other institutions in all government levels. Public administrators are not only tasked to serve the community but also to communicate with their political leaders. As Denhardt et al. (2014) argue, public administrators have various duties, including planning, budgeting, creating programs, and reviewing them, among many other roles. In his work, Bogle (2018) explored more on organizational leadership that public administrators can adopt. Effective communication skills, good leadership approaches, among other elements, contribute to enhanced management and corporate goal attainment. This position paper aims to outline a couple of communication practices and skills used in interpersonal and organizational leadership, organizational communication practice, and a synthesis of statesmanship, leadership, and communication. 

 Public administrators are vital in community development since they get the government’s work done. Such a role is done by coordinating the citizens’ efforts to work together towards accomplishing their goals. Public administrators’ goals include managing, supervising, and directing activities. They also hold positions as innovators in various industries, including health, education, law, social justice, and environment management. In a work that Perry & Christensen (2015) conducted, public administrators’ success can be measured through their budgeting skills, ability to satisfy citizens’ needs, their advocacy skills, and their impact on the economy, among many others. After an analysis of the above attainments, the main contributing factor is communication, how it is used, and how others perceive it. For public administrators, they should uphold the constitution, and they should also act in the capacity to benefit the subordinates. Towards attaining such a task, public administrators should possess various skills and qualities. These skills and qualities are evident in the leader’s statesmanship.

Statesmen Leadership and Their Organizational Best Practices

A definite line exists between leaders and their portrayal of leadership. Unlike many people think, holding a public organization does not always mean that a leader is offering guidance and assistance that the subordinates require. Shafritz et al. (2007) argue that leadership is an exercise of authority. In such a case, both formal and informal direction are provided in guiding others. Leaders should hold various qualities that include delegation skills, ability to influence subordinates, problem-solving skills, effective communication skills, and flexibility. Denhardt et al. (2014) note that a good organization leadership encompasses self-awareness, the capacity to motivate subordinates, group management skills, and decision-making skills.

Besides, effective leadership should incorporate the ability to manage group dynamics and effective communication skills. In organizational leadership, there is a leader who directs the group and the organization. An organization may represent a group of people. In his work, Bogle (2018) argues that leadership is a classic topic for the management field. Different organizations communicate differently. There are two types of communication, including top-down and participatory communication skills. In the top-down model of communication, organizational leaders pass information and instructions to their employees on what should happen. For example, child welfare organization staff must go through their organization before implementing any plans or changes. Most careers adopt this kind of leadership in communication. In such an organization, and implementation success majorly depends on workers’ motivation. Advantages of top-down communication approach include organizational discipline, efficiency in goals achievements, vision and goal expansion, and delegation becomes easy. Top-down communication approaches have disadvantages, including slow feedback, since the employees may not feel involved, message distortion, and interpretive issues. It may also result in lowering morale and may create conflicts between employees and administrations. Cao et al. (2016) also argue that the employees’ acceptability of innovation also contributes to an organization’s success.

Another type of communication is the participatory approach, where the subordinates or employees are involved in any decision affecting the organization. Their perspectives and views in the implementation process are considered. This approach has a couple of advantages, including the decision ownership feeling, builds a strong intervention base, and it teaches employees to be responsible. Apart from the above advantages, the participatory communication approach is time-consuming and may lead to conflicts since people have different views towards various issues. The difference between top-down and participatory approaches is that the stakeholders’ collaboration level differs (Cao et al., 2016). For instance, when the Chief administrator allows the officers in his department to participate in a questioner or survey, the officer attains a sense of control over the organizational matters. Such a move also motivates employees hence minimizing resistance. It is also known to contribute towards employee satisfaction, as Cao et al. (2016) note.

Leadership Theories

According to the early studies and trait leadership theory, leaders are born and not made. In a work that Milakovch et al. (2013) conducted, leaders have various traits that differentiate them. Such characteristics include intelligence, ambition, ego, clarity, and interpersonal skills. Fischer (2014) also adds that everyone may not have the moral aptitude and the gifts necessary for good leadership. Fischer (2014) supports the traits theory arguing that leaders have various characteristics. These traits include openness to experiences, extraversion, and conscientiousness. As a leader, one should also be open to learning. As an organization continues expanding even as information technology, among other things, change, leaders should be ready to adapt. Being stiff may adversely affect an organization in terms of productivity, communication, among other issues.

On the other hand, the behavioral approach is task and employee-oriented. In such a case, leaders have a dual role in that they get their job done and care for their subordinates. Denhardt et al. (2014) argue that leadership is based on two main behaviors, including consideration and structure initiation. Consideration refers to the extent leaders engage their subordinates in regards to mutual trust and respect. Initiating structure, on the other hand, re-counts on the way the leader offers both guidance and clarity to his/her followers (Fischer, 2014).

Contingency theory is based on the leader trying their best to adapt their actions and behaviors upon the followers’ traits and situational factors. The theories attempt to understand how leadership affects the employees’ efforts and examine the outcome. In this case, statesmanship is all about the leader’s use of power towards serving the community. Statesmanship is evident in both trait and behavioral theory. The behavioral theory emphasizes on other than themselves. According to the conventional approach, employees should care for their leaders, and leaders should also care for their employees.

On the other hand, transformational leadership encourages the employees to look beyond themselves and focus on organizational goals (Fischer, 2014). In this case, leaders inspire followers to attain goals by altering their beliefs, norms, attitudes, and values (Ritz et al., 2014). Transactional leadership is an approach where the leader recognizes the needs of their subordinates. Besides, they use incentives to motivate their employees toward attaining goals. As Asencio et al. (2016) argue, motivating employees offers them a chance to display their desired behaviors that contribute towards achieving organizational goals.

Interpersonal Leadership and Organizational Leadership Connections

Interpersonal leaders look forward to creating effective relationships with others as well as gaining employees’ trust, which is achievable through transformational leadership. This leadership approach was coined by a political scientist Burns where the leader portrays various characteristics that inspire others to attain extraordinary results (Ritz et al., 2014). Four main components define a transformational leader, including intellectual stimulation, stimulating motivation, and individualized consideration (Pratelli et al., 2018). The last component is known as the idealized influence. The above leadership behaviors influence followers’ assessment as well as intrinsic values activation. Cherry (2017) notes that flexible and effective leadership depends on leaders’ behaviors and challenging situations.

Through transformational leadership, employees are stimulated to perform beyond the level of expectations. This leadership approach is also known to reduce turnover rates. For successful interpersonal and organizational leaders, it would be a good idea for organizations to adopt the transformational type of leadership. As Ritz et al. (2014) argue, transformational leadership shapes both communal and psychological framework and serves as a catalyst for organizational task activities. With high employee motivation, turnover rates go down. Keeping employees motivated is one of the hardest tasks of leadership versus enhancing interpersonal leadership with employees. With such a leadership approach, employees can comfortably confide with the leader and understand why some organizational decisions are made.

 Ritz et al. (2014) point out that the connection between the interpersonal and organizational leadership remains the public service inspiration, commitment towards public interest and consideration, among others. In instances that employees have a high public service motivation attitude, they readily accept work-related changes. They also perform well as long as motivation remains stable.

Organizational Communication Practices

Communication remains a foundation in every institution since it assists organizations in attaining its objectives.  There are two main communication approaches, including formal and informal. Informal communication types include written policies, mission, and vision, memos, among others, are used (Tenhiala, 2018). This type of communication flows in three main ways, including a horizontal, upward, and downward manner. In goal and new procedures implementation, downward communication is primarily used. Upward communication occurs when an organization faces conflicts for personal reports, suggestions, and complaints. The last method of formal communication is the horizontal communication approach where communication occurs between peer to peer. Examples of elements shared through a horizontal type of communication include problem-solving, interagency communication, among others.

On the other hand, informal communication involves interpersonal interactions from one individual to the other (Fischer, 2014). In some instances, informal communication sometimes tends to overlap organizational levels or positions. Sharma (2019) notes that informal communication arises where employees can share issues with their colleagues on various issues. The primary purpose behind informal communication in an organization is information sharing, personal contact establishment, making friends escape in cases of monotony work, motivating others, and resolving conflicts.

Synthesis of Statesmanship, Leadership (Personal & Organizational) and Communication

According to traits theory, leaders are born and not made. However, lesson 6 showed that leaders are made. Various elements contribute to sharpening leadership skills, including proper training and encouragement. From the above exploration, statesmanship is based on morals, values, and the pursuit of what is best for employees (Nelson & Stenberg, 2017). In this case, a statesman seems to be a servant leader who should adhere to the word of God in leading people. Effective leaders, in this case, should act on behalf of followers. They should also have both ethical and moral compass in guiding their employees. Attaining what the subordinates ask for requires a couple of communication approaches.  For example, the public can communicate what they want to the public sector organization through formal communication. In case there is a challenge, the employees have to communicate with the public sector organization’s leader.

Afterward, the leader communicates with the other actors, and they craft a plan on possible changes that can be implemented. An excellent example of a statesman in the past is Nelson Mandela, who was born in 1918 and died in 2013. Despite coming from a remote village known as Mvezo, he rose to be a politician, social activist, and philanthropist. In 1994, Mandela was elected as the first black South African president and ruled up to 1999. He was a great communicator and fought for human rights, where he received a Nobel Peace Prize. Apart from his works as a president towards helping citizens, his leadership was excellent in that he even motivated many human rights activists. As Karimi (2013) argues, Mandela played a father figure. The study also argues that he was viewed by many as a global ambassador who inspired many young and old leaders. Apart from his excellent leadership, his message on forgiveness rather than vengeance inspired many leaders. He even forgave the white government, which had earlier imprisoned him. Upon his death, the former U.S. president Barrack Obama in his condolences speech, stated that the world lost one of the most influential, profoundly good, and a courageous man.  A statesman has excellent communication skills (use formal and informal communication) depending on the occurrence, motivate followers, and ensuring that all their needs are met.

From the above exploration, it is evident that an effective organization requires statesmanship, effective leadership, and effective communication channels and approaches.    Throughout various leadership approaches, effective communication and patterns and statesmanship are vital elements towards achieving organizational goals. In any organization, communication is crucial since it assists the employees, and the leaders share suggestions, work on improvements, plan, among other activities, required for the organization’s effectiveness. From work above, it is evident that communication plays a vital role in an organization’s success. The use of a poor communication method may result in a communication barrier that has detrimental impacts on an organization’s success. Leaders should know various communication barriers and how to eliminate them. Choosing the right communication to pass a message is essential since using the wrong medium can undermine it. When communication is between people from different cultural backgrounds, it is necessary to apply extra caution since different cultures have distinct norms, values, and communication challenges and approaches. All leadership approaches or even communication challenges and methods may not work in all situations. In such a case, the leaders should adopt what works in their organization or even situations to solve. Bottom-line, excellent communication is imperative for effective leadership.

References

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 BBC News, (2013). Nelson Mandela’s Life and Times. Retrieved From Https://Www.Bbc.Com/News/World-Africa-12305154

Bogle, S. (2018).  What Is Organizational Leadership? Retrieved From Https://Www.Snhu.Edu/About-Us/Newsroom/2018/07/What-Is-Organizational-Leadership

Cao, Y., Bunger, A., Hoffman, J., Robertson, H., (2016). Change Communication Strategies in Public Child Welfare Organizations: Engaging the Front Line. Liberty University Online.

Cherry, K. (2017). What Is The Contingency Theory Of Leadership? Retrieved From

Denhardt, R. B., Denhardt, J. V., & Blanc, T. A. (2014). Public Administration: An Action Orientation. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Fisher, K. (2010). A Biblical Covenantal Perspective on Organizational Behavior & Leadership. 

Https://Www.Explorepsychology.Com/Contingency-Theory-Leadership/

Karimi, F. (2013). Nelson Mandela, Anti-Apartheid Icon and Father of Modern South Africa, Dies. Retrieved From Https://Www.Cnn.Com/2013/12/05/World/Africa/Nelson-Mandela/Index.Html

Milakovich, M. E., & Gordon, G. J. (2013). Public Administration in America (11th Ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

Nelson, K., & Stenberg, C. (2017). Managing Local Government. : CQ Press, Sage Publications.