Week 5 Lecture:

Leadership, Team
Effectiveness &
Workplace Change
• Organisational Communications
• MDIA 5022
• Week 5 T3-2023
• Dr Dan Andrew
This week’s lecture
• Leadership

• Team Effectiveness

• Workplace Change
Key Takeaways § Good leaders understand that not
everyone experiences the world
the same

§ Storytelling is important in
leadership and team effectiveness

§ Change is inevitable
Leadership
§ Political Economy is the “study of Political Economy
the social relations, particularly the
power relations, that mutually
constitute the production,
distribution, and consumption of
recourses, including
communication resources” (Mosco,
2009)

§ Political economists study how

economic theories such as
capitalism, socialism, and
communism work in the real world
Individualism vs. § Capitalism is typically associated
with individualism
Collectivism
§ Collectivism with socialism

§ Also associated with differences

between Eastern and Western
cultures
Basic Definitions: Definitions
A group of people who work together
in an organized way for a shared
purpose
(Cambridge Dictionary)

A group of people who form a

business, club, etc., together in order
to achieve a particular aim
(Oxford Dictionary)

An organized group of people with a

particular purpose, such as a business
or government department
(dictionary.com)
Organisational § Organisations are hierarchies

Structures § Proletariat (members of the working

class)

§ Bourgeoisie (control the means of

production)

§ Workers as another means of

production

§ Hierarchical systems imbue

authority on leaders
§ Laissez Faire – Markets free from Capitalism
regulation or intervention

§ Let the market decide

§ Originally associated with individual

right to freedom

§ If workers not paid enough or

unhappy with their working
conditions, they will leave and work
somewhere else
 Capital
Capitalism
§ The Wealth of Nations (1776) by
Adam Smith

§ Capital refers to the assets—

physical tools, plants, and
equipment—that allow for
increased work productivity

§ The responsibility of capital to lift

society
§ The importance of leadership in a Leadership
free market

§ “Leadership has been extolled as

‘the’ solution to competitive
disadvantage and the need for
further economic growth for many
years.” (Tourish, 2014)

§ As organisational ownership has

changed, so has leadership
 “When questioned about their attitudes and
behaviours, people in more individualistic, Western
societies tend to value personal success over group
achievement, which in turn is also associated with the
need for greater self-esteem and the pursuit of
personal happiness. But this thirst for self-validation
also manifests in overconfidence, with many
experiments showing that…participants are likely to
overestimate their abilities. When asked about their
competence, for instance, 94% of American
professors claimed they were “better than average”.”
How East and West think in profoundly different ways
by David Robson (2017)
Good vs. Bad § Good leaders understand that not
everyone experiences the world the
Leaders same

§ While hierarchical systems imbue

authority on leaders, it does not give
them the ability to be good leaders
Most often used by: Hierarchical
§ The Military Leadership
§ Sporting teams

§ Expects leadership to not be

questioned or challenged
 Labour is a form of Capital
The Myth of § Tension between the needs of the
Laissez Faire organisations and the needs of the
workers

§ Workers have rights

§ Power in collectivism

§ Cost to an organisation for losing

valued employees
§ Leadership based on empathy A Change in
Approaches to
§ “Some scholars, recognising the
Leadership
limitations of previous approaches,
have stressed the importance of
‘good’ followership as well as ‘good’
leadership.” (Tourish, 2014)
Team
Effectiveness
§ Leadership determines Team Team
Effectiveness
Effectiveness &
§ Team Effectiveness creates a good
organisational culture
Leadership
§ Good leadership is Storytelling

§ Great Leadership is about

communicating the objectives of the
organisation
§ Crafting the stories for different
teams
§ the organisation’s narrative
Together
Everyone
Achieves
More
§ A shared objective needs to consider A Collective of
the needs, desires, situations and
experiences of individual team Individuals
members

§ How do the stories they tell about

themselves connect to the
organisational narrative

§ Balance individualism with

collectivism

§ Still needs to be in service of the

organisational goals
Workplace Change
§ Hierarchical leadership general Good Leadership
communicates one-way
Adapts to Change
§ Misses out on the knowledge and
expertise of the workers

§ Find more effective ways (internal

change)

§ Good leaders craft the story for why

change is needed
Organisational § The context in which leadership is
practiced is critical
Leadership § It needs to be accepted that leadership is
inherently complex, contradictory, iterative,
adaptive and contested

§ There needs to be more emphasis on the

role of followership as opposed to an
infatuation with leadership

§ Leaders and non-leaders need to embrace

uncertainty and renounce their mutual
quest for discursive closure

(Tourish, 2014)
§ Complain up the ladder, not down
Basic Leadership
§ Take the blame, share the success Tips
§ Communication is key
§ Regular team meetings
§ Highlight great work/ideas

§ Let teams know everyone’s

responsibility and role, including yours

§ Balance the tension between the

individual and the collective

§ Use storytelling to guide sense making

References
• Robson, D. (2017, 20 Jan). How East and West think in profoundly different ways.
BBC.com. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170118-how-east-and-west-think-in-
profoundly-different-
ways#:~:text=When%20questioned%20about%20their%20attitudes,the%20pursuit%20of
%20personal%20happiness
• Mosco, V. (2009). The Political Economy of Communication (2nd Edition). London: Sage.
• Smith, A. (1776). The Wealth of Nations.
• Tourish, D. (2014). Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective
on the role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), 79-98.