Communication Abilities of Leaders in the Virtual World

Today’s electronic world offers advantages to capitalize on leadership communication. With a majority of colleges offering online classes and organizations increasingly using virtual commuting the effectiveness of leadership and communication has not been studied to a sufficient level. Such online mediums have the power to transform environments as messages spread faster and quicker than ever before. Research has highlighted how leadership communication styles and implicit language is perceived by employees and students in virtual communication. 

According to Hoyt and Blascovich (2003) transformational leadership has a significant impact on online groups. The same leadership methodology in real life applies in the virtual world as the same basic mechanics apply. Such leaders are able to encourage new ways of thinking, are able to adjust their leadership style to the situation, and can help people imagine a vision. 

No amount of communication ability can change the fundamentals of leadership. However, there does appear to be a natural connection between the transformational style and the virtual world. Such leaders are charismatic, arouse enthusiasm, loyalty, and trust (Schermerhorn, 2002). People sense their style even in the virtual world as pieces and bits of it make their way across the airwaves. 

Such leadership can be seen as the following (Avolio, Bass, & Jung (1999):

• 1.)    Idealized Influence-role models
• 2.)    Inspirational Motivation-Give meaning to others.
• 3.)    Intellectual Stimulation-Be creative and question old beliefs.
• 4.)    Individualized Consideration-Concerned with individual needs.

Virtual communication is an enhancement to previous methods of communication. The differences lay in the amount of information a person may receive over the virtual airways versus in person. Such interactive technology is a major boost over the one way communication abilities of the television. People can now respond, vote, tweet, text and use other methods of furthering the network of the messages giving greater influence to the leader.

The nature of communication and the focus of the messaging are very important in creating effective group leadership. A study of teenagers using virtual communication found that those who referred to the group goals above themselves had a greater following (Cassell, Huffaker, Tversky, & Ferriman, 2006). This helps highlight the concept that effective leadership is more about “what” versus “who”. “What” is the message and solution while “who” is the communicative ability of the individual.  

Chanel-Expansion Theory describes how leaders ability to connect with followers in ever expanding new ways that develop new methods of communicating. The messages in virtual communication create implicit coding that is picked up by followers once they have developed appropriate cognitive schemas of the speaker (Carlisle & Phillips, 1984). In other words, once the follower understands the communication style of the leader and begins to follow their messages they can tune into implicit messaging. 

A study conducted by Salter, et. al. (2010) tested the influence of follower personality on the assessment of the leader in a virtual classroom. In the study 306 participants filled out two surveys providing for 612 total responses. The first survey assessed viewer impression of a leader (Leader 1) who used transformational language while the second survey assessed viewer impression of a leader (Leader 2) who used less transformational language. 

Results: 

-Viewers depicted Leader 1 to be more transformational than Leader 2.

-There were slight differences between males and females in the assessment.

-Females found language to be less passive and more charged.

-Those with conscientious personalities may find additional transformational messages than those who were not.

Analysis for Virtual Communication:

The language used within organizations impacts the perceptions of employees. Certain types of employees will be attracted to different types of leadership styles. Once employees have some familiarity with the style of a leader they will begin to pick up on subtle cues and language uses in order to determine additional meaning. Women and sensitive types pick up on language cues much more easily and readily than many males or non-sensitive types. This may be one reason why women are more turned off by certain kinds of messages when compared to males. Virtual organizations and marketing experts should be aware of the type of language they are using so as to either improve organizational efficiency through proper communication or attract the right customers to their organization. Virtual professors should be aware of their language use so as to not thwart engagement and motivation with students.

Avolio, B. J., Bass, B. M., & Jung, D. I. (1999). Re-examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 72(4), 441–462.

Carlisle & Phillips, D. (1984). The effects of enthusiasm training on selected teacher and student behaviors in pre-service physical education teachers. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 4(1), 164–175.

Cassell, J., Huffaker, D., Tversky, D., & Ferriman, K. (2006). The language of online leadership: Gender and youth engagement on the Internet. Developmental Psychology, 42(3), 436–449.

Hoyt, C. (2003). Transformational and transactional leadership in virtual and physical environments. Small Group Research, 34 (6). 

Salter, C., Green, M., Duncan, P. Berre, A. & Torti, C. (2010). Journal of Leadership Studies, 4 (2).

Schermerhorn, J. (2002). Management. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Implementing Pay-for-Performance with Municipal Employees

Governmental agencies are often seen as ineffective in managing the human capital within their departments. As budgets become strained and tax revenue declines officials will need to find new ways of motivating and managing employees to do more with less. The development of higher employee engagement and performance often starts with the performance appraisal and the standards set within. The use of pay-for-performance can increase both the skill and standards within such agencies.

Human resource functions often set the pay and performance criteria of public service employees. In public agencies the cost of labor can be heavy and accounts for approximately 60% of municipal budgets (Chelladurai, 1999). The effective management of taxpayer dollars often rests on the proper utilization of this resource for greater public service. 

To develop stronger uses of human capital there should to be higher levels of alignment between work criteria and organizational objectives.  An important factor in creating this alignment rests on tying compensation closely to organizational service requirements to minimize human capital waste (Dyer & Reeves, 1995).  Employees need to focus on those tasks which are most important for the function of the organization.

Pay-per-performance is a method of compensating employees for the quality of work they complete. In municipal employees accustomed to universal performance appraisals and minimum performance standards there isn’t much incentive for higher levels of effort. Pay-for-performance systems have been described as one of the most effective methods of motivating and increasing performance (Levy & Williams, 2004). 

Research helps open the door to understanding how environments that may have been opposed to pay-for-performance in the past may be receptive to such measures if employee input is considered. By partnering with employees to develop higher standards the performance system creates higher levels of perceived validity and greater trust with management. Through employee engagement the organization can realign employee efforts to save taxpayer dollars. 

Research conducted by Mulvaney, McKinney, & Grodsky (2012) Study of 70 full-time and 550 part-time employees in the Elmhurst Park District of Illinois help highlight potential new performance measures for public employees. To implement an effective pay-for-performance system within municipal government required six important steps:

• 1.)    Job Analysis: Systematic method of gathering and analyzing information on the content of jobs.
• 2.)    Rating of Tasks: This includes the rating of tasks as to their importance to the success of the organization.
• 3.)    Creating of Appraisal Instrument: The development of the appraisal system based upon job tasks.
• 4.)    Identifying Raters: People who would be most accurate in assessing performance were selected to conduct the appraisals.
• 5.)    Rater Training: Each of the raters was trained to reduce bias and errors.
• 6.)    Performance Interview: Seeking and discussing potential information to include in the performance appraisal system.

The results help indicate that improvement in employee perception are beneficial results of developing employee pay-for-performance systems in which employees are participants in their development. The study was considered a pilot study that briefly tries to grasp the main concepts of transformation in government agencies. Additional research would be helpful in improving the likelihood of positive outcomes. The findings are as follows. 

-Cognitive and affective value of employees’ engagement in developing pay-for-performance evaluations.

-Additional agreement between management and employee perceptions of fairness  and accuracy with evaluations. 

-Noticeable performance improvement with employees who received feedback.

-There were higher levels of perceived procedural trust with the pay-for-performance evaluations.

Chelladurai, P. (1999). Human resource management in sport and recreation. Chicago, IL.:Human Kinetics

Dyer, L. & Reeves, T. (1995). Human resource strategies and firm performance: what do we know and where do we need to go? International Journal of Human Resource Management, 5 (3). 

Levy, P. & Williams, J. (2004). The social context of performance appraisals: a review and framework for the hitwe. Journal of Management, 20 (6).

Mulvaney, M., McKinney, W. & Grodsky, R. (2012). The development of a pay-for-performance system for municipal agencies: a case study. Public Personnel Management,  41 (3).