Analysis of Organizational Dialogue Research Paper

Analysis of Organizational Dialogue - Research Paper Example Employee engagement and productivity is one of the strategies that have assumed increasing significance in recent years (Rashid, Asad & Ashraf 2011, p. 98). While employee engagement as a strategy has been assuming increasing significance, its implementation has been experiencing challenges and an increasing number of organizations have significant engagement problems. According to the study by the Gallup Institute (2008, 2009), there are significant engagement problems in the Australian workforce and these results appear to reflect a broader global pattern in the developed economies (Gallup 2009). Leadership plays a major role in engaging the employees in the transformation process within the organization. In general terms, employee engagement is defined as the extent to which employees are motivated to participate and contribute to the achievement of organizational goals and objectives (Cook 2008, p. 37). Engaged employees tend to willfully highly recommend their workplace, have hi gher overall job satisfaction, and favorably rate their pride in their workplace. Leadership communication can greatly impact on employee engagement in any particular organization (Wiley 2010, p. 48). In order to have a clear understanding of how leadership communication impacts employee engagement, this paper will critically analyze the impact that leadership communication has on employee engagement based on contemporary research. The latest research indicates that organization’s leadership and leadership communication have a significant impact on the employees’ engagement levels and their overall opinion about the organization (Eisenberg, Goodall & Tretheway 2009, p. 26). The type of leadership adopted by an organization is defined by the style of leadership communication. Hackman and Johnson (2009, p. 11) define leadership as a form of human communication that transitions behaviors and attitudes to focus on collective shared needs and goals. This definition indicate s how fundamental leadership in general and leadership communication, in particular, is in employee engagement (Gerard & Ellinor 2001, p. 59). Leadership communication impacts on how employee commits themselves to their roles and to the vision, mission, goals, and objectives of their organization (Wiley 2010, p. 47). The Kenexa Research Institute (KRI) observes that their latest results on the effectiveness of leadership in an organization are 51% globally. It states that results indicate that employees in India, Brazil, and United States reported the highest ratings of leadership effectiveness, at 69%, 59% and 54% respectively (Rashid, Asad & Ashraf 2011, p. 101). Leadership effectiveness is measured by evaluating how organization leadership gains the confidence of employees through their communications, actions, and decisions, and how leadership keeps employees informed about company direction, as well as how they are seen to having the ability to deal with the organizationâ€℠¢s challenges (Cook 2008, p. 40). The research by KRI is crucial in critically analyzing the impact that leadership communication has on employee engagement. In evaluating leadership effectiveness, one of the critical aspects that are evaluated is how leadership communication impacts on the employees’ commitment towards achieving organizational goals and objectives (Dixon 1998, p. 15).