Leader Communication and Organizational Culture: A Field Study

Corporate culture, the object of considerable media attention since 1980, has been identified as an important consideration for improving performance. While the literature points to vision as a key element for building a productive culture, it does not sufficiently address the communication process used by leaders to transmit their vision. This research looks at the leadership and communication aspects of culture, exploring the extent to which the leader\u27s ideology influences the behaviors of organization members. Conducted in a $30 million Southern California company of 225 employees, the study focuses on a female general manager who, in the founder\u27s absence, has been in charge since 1981. The study employed a dual method, three stage design. During stage one, the culture was studied ethnographically at the company site during two visits within a six month period. Observations were made of daily organizational activities, publications were evaluated, and interviews were conducted with the leader, management council and key employees from every department. In stage two, a survey instrument was developed from the data collected in the first phase. This questionnaire was designed to measure the degree to which organizational members shared the values stated by the leader, and to validate observational data. One third of the employees responded to the survey; results from this third stage were used to objectively verify the subjective material gathered by the observer. The survey demonstrated that organization members at all levels shared the ideology communicated by the leader. Both quantitative and qualitative data confirm an assumption that the leader\u27s communication profoundly influenced member behavior. Collected evidence indicates that leader controlled elements of organizational gender and demography are significant factors in the company\u27s operation and performance. Results of this study suggest that vision, effectively communicated in the form of leader ideology, affects both member behavior and organizational performance. This research, which dramatizes the relationship between a company and its general manager, has implications for those leaders of organizations who give high priority to excellence

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Entertainment Marketing and Communication Selling Branded Performance People and Places

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Campaign Planner for Promotion and IMC 2e

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Campaign Planner For Integrated Brand Communications 3e

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