Managerial communication: the link between frontline leadership and organizational performance.

Ahmed, Zia ; Shields, Frank ; White, Rayondraous 等

INTRODUCTION

Employees make significant contributions to the overall success of an organization, and their contributions are valuable in both public and private entities. Research shows that organizational performance markedly improves when communication is permitted to flow uninterrupted and employees are empowered, provided incentives, and given the necessary resources to perform at an optimal level. Managers at the technical core of an organization are obligated to develop good working relations with their staff by providing them with a comfortable work environment and swiftly resolving issues that could possible hinder performance. In addition, FMs play a pivotal role in inspiring their subordinates to maximize efficiency and enhance productivity. The spirit of teamwork among employees correlates with the inspirational leadership role of management. FMs should lead and motivate their staff to perform at a level that inspires them to achieve the goals and objectives set forth by the organization. A general definition of leadership is the ability to motivate subordinates to do their jobs willingly, without coercion or harm to themselves or to others. The practice of effective communication is a leadership attribute that facilitates FMs in becoming the prospective leaders of their organizations. In this paper, we view communication from a transmission perspective--meaning, communication can be seen as a linear relationship between a source and a receiver.

Bell and Martin (2008, p. 130) define managerial communication as "the downward, horizontal, or upward exchange of information and transmission of meaning through informal or formal channels that enables managers to achieve their goals." The performance of visionary organizations is linked to their FMs' efficient and effective use of communication, which inculcates confidence in employees. It is imperative that FMs in organizations, both large and small, understand the significance of establishing meaningful relationships with their employees. Moreover, beneficial relationships can be established through achieving organizational goals, providing performance feedback, and engaging in formal and informal communication networks. Non-supervisory employees are the face of modern organizations; therefore, involving them in the decision making process is one form of empowerment that is both motivating and inclusive. Offering incentives and adhering to a fair reward system positively contribute to an increase in employee morale and to the organization's bottom line. Our research is focused on the role of communication as an energetic process used to motivate and engage employees in the workplace environment. We explore frontline leadership through the communication process.

FMs (persons of influential status operating at the technical core of organizational subsystems) seek this type of knowledge. FMs, both in the public and private sectors, will find this essay beneficial if their goal is to establish for a culture conducive to achieving both long-term as well as short-term objectives. The importance of the FM's role has to be valued by top management in order for organizations to create and maintain a competitive advantage in this global business landscape. They play a pivotal role in motivating employees through the effective use of leadership and managerial communication. The top echelons of any organization should bestow confidence in their FMs by clearly communicating the vision, core ideology, and giving them leeway to affect change. The challenge in many companies is that top management often fail to provide FMs with advanced training needed to perfect their leadership and interpersonal skills. The consequence of failing to do so is that the cycle inadequate leadership and ineffective communication is repeated when FMs are given the opportunity to lead their organizations.

PROBLEMS IN PRACTICE

Leading and motivating employees to perform at a level that achieves organizational objectives is primarily tied to MC. Many leaders/managers are not successful due to their authoritative leadership styles, resulting in increased communication gap with their employees. Such leaders are unable to earn the respect and loyalty of their employees, who simply follow their orders because of their authority. Accordingly, there is a greater possibility of turnover and absenteeism by the valuable workforce.

Barnard (1968) explained that the decision as to whether an order has authority or not lies with the person to whom it is addressed, and does not reside in the persons of authority. In order to arrest this trend, managers should change their authoritative mindsets and make a commitment to build strong working relationships with employees by bridging the communication gap and building an environment of trust. This is accomplished by devising clear and concise communication policies, strategies, and processes, as evident in the literature.

RELATED LITERATURE

The effective use of MC within organizational subsystems is a fundamental component that must be present in order for an organization to create and sustain a competitive advantage. Success, irrespective of an organization's size or the products/ services it provides, is intangible when FMs and employees fail to work collaboratively. Not for profit organizations are just as, if not more committed than for profit organizations, to ensuring that the mission and objectives set forth are carried out. Brewer's (2005) research proves that in federal agencies FMs' supervisors are more optimistic and positive than non-supervisors. A lack of optimism amongst employees in nonsupervisory positions can have detrimental effects on an organization's performance, and can ultimately lead to its demise. Although managers significantly influence organizational performance, Bal (2008) believes that performance improvements are accomplished by the efforts of the team itself and have very little to do with the management team's efforts. In other words, employees are the major players in many facets of organizational success; therefore, the solicitation of their knowledge and feedback is essential when evaluating the successes, failures, and future aspirations of the organization.

The flow of smooth information without barriers is a critical element of effective MC. High-performing, well-respected organizations are built on the principle of sharing information freely and timely. Beslin and Reddin (2004) shared some of the best practices from CEOs and senior HR executives, which included building trust among employees and managers within all tiers of the organizational structure. Trust can only be established and sustained if information is permitted to flow uninterrupted, regardless of the chosen channel. Employees that have a positive relationship with their supervisors feel obligated to reciprocate hard work and dedication to their respective organizations. As a result, employees have a high regard for the organization and its stakeholders, which is evident in the quality of their work and their overall commitment.

THE KEY ROLES OF LEADERSHIP

Leadership quality is one of the greatest virtues of management. Managers create the vision for their organizations and are responsible for implementing strategies to ensure that targets and objectives are met. A successful organization values the affirmative roles of its leaders and provides a work environment, where leaders can perfect their leadership skills. Leadership demands a lot of hard work, effort, training, education, willpower, integrity, persistence, responsibility, decisiveness, and above all, effective communication skills. When you lead a corporation, you accept all the implications of that trust (Hindery, 2005); therefore, the organizations should focus on leadership development through such techniques as on the job training, mentoring, teaching, and so forth.

Education, offered by colleges and universities, provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in their careers. Such formal education, in its current form, is not enough to provide the skills, attitudes, and behaviors considered to be essential for the leaders of the twenty-first century. The organization needs to devise a unique and focused training program for employees, keeping in view its current and future requirements (Mathews & Edwards, 2005). Such endeavors facilitate in developing visionary leaders.

Leaders have distinct visions, values, and standards, which allow them to manage their organization with a great level of comfort and confidence. It is not only obligatory for an organization to have a realistic vision, but it must be communicated effectively to all employees for purposes of achieving growth and profitability. A clear and well-defined vision gives employees confidence, by improving their perceptions of the organization. Cornelius (2004) described that vision as one that could help employees to feel better and stay well informed by keeping their eyes on bigger picture. Vividness and clarity of vision help leaders to modify the behaviors of their staff. One purpose of leadership is to influence the attitudes of employees by setting good examples demonstrated by their own actions. Most leaders are high achievers and they invariably set their targets high, and optimistically expect the best from themselves and their subordinates. In addition, leaders empower others to achieve their desired expectation levels by inculcating trust while simultaneously exuding firmness when enforcing rules and regulations.

Leaders are required to ensure that proper protocols are followed and they must evaluate the performance of employees against clearly defined expectations. In addition, leaders must provide their employees with immediate assistance when requested. Therefore, communication must be permitted to flow freely, absent of interruption. The success or failure of transforming the attitudes of employees is determined to be a byproduct of the leadership's style to gain support of the change from their employees (Appelbaum, Berke, Taylor, & Vazquez, 2008). Leadership style is the way to coach or work with the employees. Leaders employ various leadership styles such as directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. The directing style of leadership provides specific direction with a close monitoring of the task accomplishment. Whereas, coaching continues to direct, closely monitor task accomplishments, and also explain decisions. Similarly, the supporting leadership style facilitates and supports people's efforts toward task accomplishment and shares responsibility for decision-making. Finally, the delegating style delegates responsibility for decision-making and problem solving to the employees. The leadership styles appropriate for various development levels (an adaptation of the Blanchard, Zigarmi, and Zigarmi model, 1985) are shown in Table 1 below:

Table 1: Leadership Styles Appropriate For Various Development Levels

DEVELOPMENT LEVEL                APPROPRIATE LEADERSHIP STYLE

DIRECTOR                         DIRECTING
Some too Low Competence and      High Directive and Low
High Commitment                  Supportive Behavior
                                 Structure, organize, teach, and
                                   supervise

COACH                            COACHING
Some too Low Competence and      High Directive and High
Low Commitment                   Supportive Behavior
                                 Direct and support

SUPPORTOR                        SUPPORTING
Moderate to High Competence and  High Supportive and Low
Variable Commitment              Directive Behavior
                                 Praise, listen, and ask

DELEGATOR                        DELEGATING
High Competence and              Low Supportive and Low Directive
                                   Behavior,
High Commitment                  Turn over responsibility for
                                   day-to-day operation

These four styles consist of different combinations of two basic leadership behaviors that a manager could use while influencing others, that is, directive and supportive behavior. Blanchard, Zigarmi, and Zigarmi (1985) mentioned words like structure, organize, teach, and supervise to define directive behavior and praise, listen, ask, explain, and facilitate for supportive behavior, as mentioned in Table 1.

DISCUSSION ON COMMUNICATION IN PRACTICE

Communication from a managerial perspective can be defined as the downward (top management to bottom workforce), horizontal (among peers/ colleagues), or upward (bottom to top echelons of management) exchange of information and perception of the meaning through informal and formal modes/ channels that enable the FMs to accomplish the organizational objectives. FMs should deliver clear, concise, and brief instructions to their subordinates in order for the accomplishment of tasks to the expected level of performance. Successful delivery of the manager's message is determined by the perception and interpretation by the employee (Hynes, 2008). Messages should be decoded by the FMs and encoded by the employees in a context of shared experiences without any interference. It is the recipient, who accepts the message as communication and not the sender. Therefore, FMs should provide employees with succinct and precise information to avoid noise and any distractions that could potentially hinder the communication process.

Information and communication are two distinct but interdependent entities. The selective and apposite flow of information is desirable for an effective communique. The overflow of information results in an increased communication gap between the management and employees (Katz & Kahn, 1966). This in turn enhances the autistic hostility leading to the distortion of the communication process (Newcomb, 1947). FMs can bridge the gap by polishing communication skills and adopting better techniques. There should be greater focus on the objectivity, content, and brevity of messages, which assists in the building of trust and respect between FMs and their employees.

Communication is an effective weapon in building trust and confidence between FMs and their staff. Leaders can develop good relations with the employees by creating an environment of free, fair, and informal communication networks. These networks encourage and motivate employees to speak out and adopt a participative approach, which helps to develop a profitable organization. Beslin and Reddin (2004) conducted a study of best practices used by executives in order to establish trust with employees and stakeholders. It may be mentioned that trust needs to be earned and sustained, which is reflected in the systems of developed and respected entrepreneurs. The mutual dialogues within an organization facilitate in building the edifice of shared values and trust. FMs should employ interactive communication channels with employees. These channels consist of both formal and informal meetings, such as group discussions in boardrooms, meetings over coffee, or huddle room gatherings, and the like. FMs should engage their employees in an effective dialogue process to resolve their issues by selecting the most appropriate communicative channels.

There are four communication methods, that is, oral methods (the spoken word), written methods, visual methods, and audio or sound methods (Smithson, 1984). Messages can be passed through a variety of media, for example, circulars, memoranda, policy letters, notices, forms, reports, emails, telephone, fax, paging, face-to-face interaction, interviews, power point presentation, pictures, and more; each one of these has merits and demerits. FMs should identify and select the most appropriate channel to communicate with their employees, taking into consideration both social and cultural barriers that may exist. Alleviating these barriers, improves the flow of communication, which in turn has a positive impact on the growth and profitability of an organization.

Communication should be used as a strategy to achieve organizational goals. FMs ought to be the strategic communicators to influence the employees. The plethora of communication does not give any guarantee to meet target FMs' accomplishments relative to the proper translation of messages, implementation of strategies, and provoking dialogues with the employees to attain the corporate objectives. FMs should understand the cultural contexts and field of experiences of their employees in order to craft a comprehensive strategy for organizational growth. They are required to prioritize various actions systematically and use relevant information to influence their employees. Through eloquence and articulacy, FMs are able to identify key persons among employees who act as opinion makers. They arrange meetings with such opinion makers and hold discussions on their thoughts terminating cliches and subtly modify their visions for the betterment of the organization. So, they need to analyze the context, visualize a strategy, act like an elite commando to implement strategy, and agitate like a talk-show host to provoke dialogue (Clampitt, Brek, & Williams, 2002). FMs, in their supervisory positions, have a pivotal role in their respective organizations to ponder the concerns and issues of the staff and offer mutually acceptable solutions.

IMPORTANCE OF FRONTLINE MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

FMs significantly contribute to the growth and development of public sector organizations. They are required to bridge the disconnect between the top management and frontline employees. FMs send messages and receive feedback regarding the organizational performance. They are responsible for the growth of federal agencies by ensuring that clients of these agencies receive satisfactory services. There is no doubt that FMs are important assets in public offices. The organizations, which fail to appreciate their vital roles, face threatening consequences in the form of poor performance and high turnover of talented public servants. Brewer (2005) opined that FMs play a key role in organizational performance and effectiveness, and supervisory management was an important determinant of high performance in federal agencies. These organizations cannot afford to surrender their precious workforce, so they tend to have skillful FMs, who empower the employees by enabling them to realize their important contributions.

It is difficult to terminate poor performing employees. There are certain procedures and protocols that must be followed before proceeding with termination. In the private sector, the hiring and firing of staff is based on the draconian management philosophy; good workers are rewarded, but insubordinate workers are released. Motivation is directly linked to better communication networks with the employees, professional training, good salary, incentives, and a pleasant work environment. Riccucci (2005) mentioned that good policy and law would certainly incentivize workers to achieve the desired goals and objectives of any organization. Further, the optimistic approach of supervising helps in energizing employees by following an open communication policy and being abreast of laws that affect the way in which leaders supervise their staff.

The introduction of the 'Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act' has changed the attitudes of welfare personnel in such a way that they not only perform their jobs diligently, but also go a step further in solving problems for their clients. Good public management policy, in conjunction with open communication, motivates employees to do their best to achieve the goals of the organization. Management should subsume the FMs' role in influencing workers' attitudes and behaviors to encourage exemplary performance for the benefit and satisfaction of customers.

Government organizations have to rely on experienced FMs to be the prospective executives due to a rapidly aging population. Emphasis should be placed on the significance of MC as an important tool to establish upward, downward, and horizontal linkages with top managements, peers, and operational level workers respectively. FMs of public sectors should be entrusted with necessary authority, responsibility, and proper training due to their optimistic and constructive roles to monitor the non-supervisors in federal agencies. Moreover, they are required to develop a willingness among the employees to work for the organizational growth of the company.

FMs should appreciate the fact that the matter of authority is indirectly rested with the perception of the employees (Drucker, 1974). They hold de facto power but the employees have de jure power. The sagacious use of authority is required to win the confidence of the employees instead of pressurizing them. It is desirable that employees should be delegated necessary power and authority to get prepared for their potential roles in higher management. In this way, employees contribute to enhancing the performance of their respective organizations.

ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

The 21st century business landscape can be characterized as complex, dynamic, and rapidly changing. Successful companies, in their respective industries, are able to adapt internally to their external environment with the assistance of effective MC. The use of MC is a tangible tool organizations can use in order to gain a competitive advantage in this new age of innovation. Arguably, frontline organizational subsystems benefit significantly from the utilization of effective MC.

Katz and Kahn (1966) viewed communication as a social process of the broadest relevance in the functioning of any group, organization, or society. Simply interpreted, without effective MC, an organization can neither function nor attempt to create and maintain a competitive advantage. FMs and their subordinates play an essential role in the success of an organization; therefore, the way in which they interact with one another is a key determinant of organizational success. Establishing trust between employees and FMs is one of the first steps towards improving organizational performance.

Employees must have confidence in their managers in order to achieve organizational success. Trust is established when employees feel that their managers are both considerate and competent. Consideration includes understanding an individual's competency level and his/her ability to perceive the communication. A person's ability to perceive and understand a message is based on experience; and communication without perception is just noise (Drucker, 1974). Employees consider their managers as competent if the communicated message can be understood without any aberration. In the grand scheme of organizational performance, managers on the frontlines are just figureheads, tasked with encoding and decoding messages within the frontline organizational subsystem. Whether or not a task gets accomplished, is determined by employees' trust in their managers, and a manager's ability to convince their subordinates to accept communication as authority.

Authority is the character of a communication (order) in a formal organization by virtue of which it is accepted by a contributor to, or member of, the organization as governing the action he contributes (Barnard, 1968). Simply stated, authority lies with the individual in which the communication is directed. It is important for managers operating within all tiers of an organization to understand Barnard's definition of authority, because clearly defined roles within the frontlines of an organization is an essential element in accepting communication as authority. For frontline individuals, changes can occur day-to-day, or hour-to-hour, depending on the operating environment. Organizations, despite their size, must be well equipped internally to handle these changes as ambiguity gives rise to confusion and chaos. As an example, let us imagine an officer of a platoon not having a clear understanding of his role in the heat of battle.

The outcome could possibly be the loss of many lives due to his inability to effectively communicate and failure to gain authority. Similarly, disjointed organizations would lose valuable customers. Not accepting communication as authority can be a major obstacle to the improvement of organizational performance, innovation, and change efforts (Longenecker & Fink, 2001). In addition to establishing authority amongst employees and manager, managers on the frontlines can seek the assistance of other organizational subsystems in order to improve organizational performance.

A manager working with human resource professionals to create ways to boost morale is an example of how employees can benefit from relationships across organizational subsystems. Human resource professionals are equipped with the training materials and other tools that can assist managers with improving organizational performance through the use of communication. In addition to the obvious benefits a human resource department can provide, such as benefit explanation and verification, they can also serve as a mediator between FMs and employees. Although authority ultimately rests with an employee perceiving and accepting communication, there are times when an employee feels uncomfortable with expressing his/her feelings to a manager. A third party entity, such as a human resource associate, can be enormously effective in serving as a mediator and taking into consideration the best interest of the manager, employee, and organization. The ability to listen is an essential attribute a manager must possess and human resource professionals can assist managers with developing this essential skill.

One of the most important determinants of organizational performance is a manager's ability to listen and respond to feedback. Top management, including the board of directors of a company, should implement a forum in which the solicitation of feedback from employees is both warranted and encouraged. Organizational strategy is only successful if feedback is actively encouraged from those who are directly responsible for implementing the strategy.

INSPIRATIONAL LEADERSHIP

One of the most important measures of a leader's success is determined by their employees' commitment to the organization. Successful leaders focus on managing in a way that builds employee trust, loyalty, and commitment. Worker commitment reaps benefits far beyond improved organizational performance. In addition, high levels of employee loyalty have been linked to an estimated 11% boost in productivity (Mayfield, 2002). Employees that are happy and satisfied with their jobs and leadership team, tend to put forth extra effort to achieve goals and meet expectations. Trust and loyalty come as a result of managers treating employees as people rather than working machines only onboard to get a job done. Teams respond and perform much better for leaders who take interest in getting to know them and understand what motivates them. The valuable benefits of employee loyalty and commitment can only be achieved through high levels of effective MC (Mayfield, 2002).

Employees behave according to what they see and hear from their leaders. Performance problems normally arise when mixed messages are prevalent in the communication channel leaders saying one thing and doing another. In order to earn the trust of employees, it is important that leaders walk the talk and instill confidence in their employees. Leaders must stay true to their words and do what they say they will do. Trust is something that must be earned and leaders should not take for granted the trust of their employees. The corporate function for building trust in organizations is communication. Companies can build a culture of trust by sharing information quickly and freely, and building relationships with employees and their stakeholders that enable their organizations to succeed (Beslin & Reddin, 2004). Employees are more motivated to perform for an organization when they are familiar with and understand the strategic direction of the company and how their contributions impact the organization's bottom line. It is important to develop the trust of the workers as people have a propensity not to follow leaders they don't trust; hence, productivity starts to decline. Trust is essential in building loyalty and credibility.

Measuring progress and seeking feedback on how well organizations have done at building trust are key to understanding what works. Formal measurements tend to require more planning and execution, but are well worth the effort of obtaining the opinions of the staff. Interviews, focus groups, and employee surveys are used as formal means of measurement to determine how satisfied employees are with the communication efforts of their leaders. It is believed, however, that informal ways of seeking feedback provide more specific and more frequent assessments in order for leadership to respond and make any necessary adjustments to the way in which the organization is functioning. Allowing employees to provide input gives them the impression that their opinions matter, giving an unquestioned belief that the leadership of the company actually has their best interests at heart. This contributes to the building of trust, and creates strong working relationships between the leaders and the employees, resulting in improved employee satisfaction.

To build strong relationships with employees and stakeholders, good leaders demonstrate the soft skills or social intelligence to engage with the employees on a personal level, showing genuine concern for them as humans rather than working machines only important for getting the job done. Social intelligence is a set of interpersonal competencies that inspire people to be effective (Goleman & Boyatzis, 2008). Many smart, knowledgeable, and experienced leaders have not been successful, not because they were not smart in the field they were responsible for leading, but because of their inability to get along socially on the job. Goleman and Boyatzis (2008, p. 138) provide six social qualities that exist in some of the top performing leaders of corporations which include:

Table 2: The Goleman and Boyatzis Social Qualities Imperatives With
Best Communication Channel

1. Empathy: Knowing what motivates other people, even those from
different backgrounds and having sensitivity to other's needs--Use
a Face-to-Face Channel.

2. Attunement: Listening attentively, thinking about how others
might feel, and being attuned with the moods of others--Use a
Face-to-Face Channel.

3. Organizational Awareness: Appreciating the culture and values of
the group or organization and understanding the social
networks--Use newsletters, flyers, and emails.

4. Influence: Having the ability to persuade others by engaging
them in discussions and appealing to their self-interests or
gaining the support of key people--Use Small Groups, Meetings, and
the Telephone.

5. Developing Others: Investing time and energy in coaching,
mentoring, and developing the skills of others and providing
feedback that is helpful to their professional development--Use a
Face-to-Face Channel.

6. Inspiration: Articulating a compelling vision to build group
pride, foster a positive emotional tone, bringing out the best in
people, soliciting input from everyone on the team, supporting all
team members, and encouraging cooperation--Use all channels.

Managers must have a mind-set to think beyond their job titles and focus more on developing and inspiring employees to accomplish organizational goals. In the future, managers will understand that performance improvements have little to do with them and everything to do with their team and how well they can get them to work at full power. Bal (2008, p. 250) lists seven important points on how not to manage a team:

Table 3: The Bal Imperatives On Mismanaged Communication Corrective
Communication Channels

1. Managers should stop being too busy to spend time motivating and
energizing the people that work for them.

2. Managers should stop trying to have all of the answers and allow
employees to think for themselves. The beauty of diverse views is
the opportunity to allow creativity. Be aware that people will make
mistakes but be willing to coach them to improving in areas needing
development.

3. Managers should think beyond their job title and start actively
developing their people.

4. Eliminate poor communication so the team does not have to
survive on rumors

5. Don't make targets the only priority of performance as it
initiates a competitive environment among the team.

6. Don't allow performance to be driven solely from instructions
because it causes the team to stop thinking.

7. Don't set unrealistic goals that will bring about disengagement
among the employees.

All of these points are important for managers to consider when inspiring a team to perform. Particular ways in which managers can inspire are by delegating more, trusting more, and giving their subordinates more responsibility. If managers relinquish some responsibility, stop trying to do everything themselves, and empower their employees to make decisions, the expectation is that employees will be more motivated to perform at an optimal level.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To assist FMs in crafting healthier relationships and improving organizational performance, we make the following recommendations:

* To be a great leader, one must have the ability to motivate. FMs should work diligently to keep their employees motivated and focused on achieving the goals and objectives of the organization.

* Frontline Managers should to work craft good relations with their employees by establishing an environment of trust through fair, free, and informal communication networks. In addition, FMs should act as strategic communicators to provide relevant and valuable information to the employees for an objective communique.

* Empowerment involves inculcating confidence in and recognizing the contributions of employees. FM in both public and private organizations should seek the assistance of other organizational subsystems in order to gain access to the tools needed to empower employees and to enhance managerial communication on the frontlines.

* Lastly, FMs should establish both formal and informal communication channels in order to solicit feedback from their employees. We recommend that formal employee satisfaction surveys be conducted every 2 years to solicit feedback from employees about the workplace environment. Survey findings should be shared with the entire staff. Similarly, interactive employee meetings with management should be arranged to compare business results and the performance of the organization against company goals and objectives.

CONCLUSION

The goal of this research is to outline how effective methods/approaches of managerial communication can assist with cultivating an environment of high productivity. Ineffective communication or a breakdown in the delivery of information often translates into a negative relationship between the supervisor and employee, which in turn, leads to a possible loss of profits and/or the stagnation of growth. What we have found is that through the use of effective communication, particularly, imparting the use of interpersonal skills and in understanding social networks, FMs have the ability to successfully influence their employees and provide better service to their customers. The exchange of information and selection of communication channels should be a priority of FMs, which according to Beslin & Reddin (2004) will ultimately strengthen their leadership role within the organization. The ultimate goal of an organization is to maximize shareholders' value and profitability, which is accomplished by integrating strong leadership with formal and informal communication networks. Moreover, frontline managers that stay abreast of and utilize the most effective forms of communication will find their employees responding positively to direction and performing in a way that is most beneficial for their customers/clients, for themselves, and for the organization.

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Zia Ahmed, Consulate of Pakistan Houston

Frank Shields, Lockheed Martin Mission Services

Rayondraous White, Shell Oil Products

Jessica Wilbert, US Army