LEADERSHIP STUDIES

February 21, 2021

Modern day journalists cannot ignore the new role that social media plays when it comes to the spread of news, not just to teens through newer sites such as Instagram or Twitter, but also to adults and the older generation through sites like Facebook. The new generation of journalism through social media has its pros and cons: fake news and rumors, which spread faster than real news, as well as higher accessibility to news by marginalized groups. To fully cover the depth of this issue, I studied two articles: "The Ethical Issues of Social Media in Journalism" and "How Leaders Can Use Social Media to Communicate More Effectively," which is linked below.

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As it pertains to leadership, Brian Honigman writes that effective leaders should tap into social media as a way to communicate, both with members of the organization and members of the audience, in a way that will tie back to the organization's and leader's objectives. Communication through social media should not be haphazard and flippant. It should be planned, with every output of information (Instagram posts, tweets, story posts, etc.) striving to achieve a specific goal. Essentially, social media should be used with purpose.

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First: social media is not performance art. Leaders should attempt to create a continuous conversation with the audience. As the "host" of sorts of the conversation, a organization's leader has the ability to drive the conversation in certain directions, and control the narrative in order to portray the company/news site/organization in a positive light. Lately, many companies have been using social media to establish their brand as "socially conscious," as well as to send messages of acceptance. Mary Barra, for example, the CEO of GE Motors, uses her socials to advocate for stem education and to highlight the company's focus on sustainability.

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How does this relate to journalism?

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The most important aspect of a news site is maintaining a healthy rapport between the audience and the organization that fosters trust. Trust is the most important element, as readers trust the organization to deliver timely, relevant, and factual news. Because of this, news organizations, according to "The Ethical Issues of Social Media in Journalism," have begun to encourage their journalists to use social media both to gather information and reassure or interact with the organization's audience.

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Guidelines must be set, however, to maintain professionality and a separation between work and personal life. Before, journalists were not allowed to share political views or other strong stances on social media. Now, the lines have become blurred. Many journalists share political opinions on their twitter accounts, which can be used for both work and personal endeavors. It has become common to see the words "Tweets represent my personal opinions and are unaffiliated with [x news organization]".

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Additionally, as always, journalists must take extra care to fact check when using social media for research. Social media can be an incredible tool, but it can also be the downfall of an organizations reputation when used incorrectly.

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At the Patriot Press, staff could utilize social media to better interact with readers through polls, quizzes, and forms that could ask for readers advice. One idea would be to, on Twitter, post a short summary of and link to a recent editorial article published by the Patriot Press, and ask for student input in the comments. This would enable the staff to foster conversations with readers, as well as to drive traffic to the website. Additionally, appointing a specific staff member to maintain the Patriot Press Twitter and the Instagram would maintain a level of cohesiveness within the platforms that  is not currently a large factor (as many people post on the account).

A STUDY ON ORGANIZATION

February 5th, 2021

In the research study "Impact of organization structure on employee performance," (Kampini, 2018) author Tamika Kampini analyzes the effects of that an organization's hierarchy system an structure on employee's performance, attitudes towards the company, motivation, and more. Not surprisingly, the study found that building an effective organizational structure is key to positive employee performance. An ineffective structure, however, also has the possibility of negatively impacting employee performance. One key finding was that group decision-making when it came to what an organization's structure would look like led to the most satisfaction in the group overall.

Key Findings:

1. Organization structure should facilitate cooperation and communication between members.

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2. Studies over the years have found that there is no single best way to structure an organization. This is highly dependent on the characteristics of the groups.

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3. Centralization is how concentrated decision-making is within one party or group within the organization. Centralization is not necessarily bad. It can lead to tighter management control and more efficiency, but less flexibility as there will be less worker autonomy.

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4. Formalization is the "extent to which jobs are standardized and governed by rules and procedures." This can be seen in the US government bureaucracy--there is a smaller chance of bias from within the system; however, small tasks take a long time to accomplish as there are few shortcuts allowed.

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5. Specialization tends to grow in importance the larger an organization is, as there is less overlap between responsibilities of each member.

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As it relates to journalism and our newspaper, I believe specialization is key. In a real world newspaper, articles will be better developed if written by an expert in the subject. The process of writing and editing articles will be more efficient when organization is done in this manner as well, as it will take less time for experts in the subject to write articles on those subjects. Similarly, graphic design for headings and layouts is best left to those adept at graphic design (this will produce better results) and photography for articles is best left to career photographers. This is why many smaller news outlets, as well as some large ones, outsource their photography or get it from larger syndicates.

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A STUDY ON INNOVATION

November 20, 2020

In the article "Leadership and Innovation" in the Mckinsey Quarterly, authors discuss how organizations today view innovation, and how leaders in top organizations can succeed in implementing modern innovation tactics. Though "innovation" as a concept has swung in and out of vogue in recent years, research now shows that the innovation is now extremely important to organizations: "More than 70 percent of the senior executives in a survey we recently conducted say that innovation will be at least one of the top three drivers of growth for their companies in the next three to five years," the article says.

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I am especially interested in how the concept of innovation is changing. Rather than just apply innovation to products or services, and how those services are marketed, there has been an increased amount of attention placed on product sourcing, manufacturing, labor, management, and more. For example, following the long-running movement of reducing waste, pushed by today's young people, I've seen an incredible rise in popularity of companies striving to reduce excess plastic usage in their packaging. Starbucks, for example, designed a lid for their drinks that allows customers to drink directly from the drink without a straw, therefore reducing plastic.

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However even with these innovations in new areas, research shows that there is a gap between the importance leaders place on innovation and their confidence in actually bringing in this way of thought to their respective companies and organizations. Bulky "change programs" and group activities are not the way to go; rather, leaders should do the following:

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1. Integrate innovation into upper-level management so it can be tracked and put on the agenda

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2. Create an atmosphere that "invites innovation"

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3. Foster trust among employees (or int he case of newspaper, staff members) so they understand that their ideas are valued.

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I think these tips can definitely be implemented into a smaller organization setting, like newspaper. I especially am interested in the third point, and helping staff members understand that their ideas are valued, so that they will be more inclined to share them and add to newspaper as a whole.

A STUDY ON CULTURE

November 8, 2020

Google defines culture as "the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group." In this article, I will be discussing culture as it pertains to this definition, and more specifically as it pertains to the culture within a corporation or any type organization.

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Forbes also focuses on this type of culture in the article, "Culture, Leadership, Performance: How Are They Linked?" "Every organization has its own culture," the author writes, going on to name some of the aspects of an organization that can define its culture: beliefs, work environment and aesthetic, corporate values, goals, objectives, and attitudes towards collaboration. Though not all organizations view workplace culture as having high importance, it tends to work its way into any environment with people working together.

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I found Forbe's article interesting. It discussed how leaders today in workplaces understand that office culture can be a significant tool in increasing productivity and cooperation. However, what many leaders don't understand is that culture in an organization is not something that can easily be changed at will. A new leader coming in, trying to change it, will more often than not be met with heavy resistance from the workers used to the old culture and old values, as culture is something that is built up over time, Dr. Edgar Schein, a professor at MIT, explained. What many "turnaround" leaders ultimately end up doing in order to change a workplace culture is firing a large amount of workers of the "old culture," and hiring and re-educating new workers with the new culture.

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However, such approaches are hardly efficient. What leaders can do instead to instill new favorable values and make positive changes on workplace is to focus on what's already working, and strengthening it. Leaders can also frame a new change in technique or perspective by putting it in terms of solving a problem. "We have to better communicate so we can solve customer disputes better and get better reviews," a team leader might say during a team meeting.

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Leaders should understand that results will not come immediately, however. Change in culture happens very slowly over time. This can hold true in the journalism industry especially, as older journalists may find it difficult to adapt to a rapidly changing work atmosphere as the journalism world moves online. New (younger) journalists may find it difficult to interact and collaborate with more experienced journalists, which may create problems and a disconnect when it comes to print versus online editions of the paper. Leaders must find a way to remedy this and bridge gap between the two sides.

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A STUDY ON CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL ISSUES AND LEADERSHIP

October 18, 2020

Considering the events of this summer, what with the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movements following the death of George Floyd, I'd like to refocus this study to the Black Lives Movement, modern activism, and the surge of online activism. The events of this summer, I believe, have begun to change what it means to be a leader for the young generation.

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NBC News discusses the topic in their article, "A summer of digital protest: how 2020 became the summer of activism both online and offline." "A pandemic, the death of George Floyd and an upcoming presidential election were just a few of the things that have called Americans to action this year," the article states. Largely fueled by social media, on which students and young people (with many members of the older generations, as well) shared passionate views on the Black Lives Matter Movement and social etiquette during the pandemic, the activism spilled into real life as. Protests occurred nationwide and even internationally as young people took to the streets to speak out for equality and a fix to police brutality against African Americans.

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The movement could not have started without the initial sharing of social media posts on thousands of Instagram and Twitter accounts, spreading the news of the death of George Floyd and the unjust way it happened. Less politically active teens took cues from the leaders of the group--in this new online age, characterized by who posted first and who reposted the most. This constant posting led to an outpouring of donations for bail funds for jailed protesters and the Black Lives Matter movement alike, as well as a massive spread of awareness on the sources of systematic inequality in America.

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I've found that the movement has seen a rise in leadership among teens, whether that leadership show itself in teens taking larger steps to organize marches or protests in their towns and municipalities, simply taking the first step of speaking out on social media against perceived injustices, or taking the extra steps to put together a document of research on systematic racism in the court system (which one group of girls I follow on Instagram actually did). The definition of leadership has definitely been changing.

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By some definitions, the endeavor of journalism might by itself be seen as a level of activism, in that the spread of truth by reputable news organizations, complete with fact checking and source credibility, is a surefire way of combating misinformation. Journalists have an additional level of leadership by being able to pick and choose what topics they cover; however with the risk of ignoring important topics and over exaggerating less important ones, journalists also have an added level of responsibility with that leadership, as all leaders do.

A STUDY ON HISTORY AND POLITICS

October 2, 2020

The Churchill Archive for Schools studies the importance of history in leadership in its article, "Why History Matters: History and Informed Leadership." The writer makes the case that history is the very basis on which leaders must make their decisions, and must be studied in order to avoid repeating past mistakes. I agree: good leaders will base their leadership not just on what goals they want to meet, but also on informed studies of what has and hasn't worked in the past.

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The article makes an interesting note on informed leadership when it comes to politics, writing, "Political leaders, however, are often too eager to see only the elements of the past which suit their present day views and ignore the full and complex picture which a really good understanding of the past can provide." They provide a case study by Professor John Tosh on Tony Blair, the UK's former Prime Minister, and his decision to commit  troops to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. In making the superficial comparison of Saddam Hussein to a  modern-day Hitler in his reasoning for the decision, Tosh argues, Blair failed to consider the deeper differences across time periods, including Britain's history of occupation in Iraq and "attempt to rule the country through a puppet ruler". Had PM Tony Blair truly considered the results of this past occupation, which ended in political unrest and constant insurgency,  perhaps he would have made a different decision.

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I find this historical example incredibly interesting in that the public also played a major role. Following the tragic loss of so many lives on 9/11, emotions in the public remained high. Many were angry, and wished for justice. The United States government sought to provide this justice through the tracking of Osama bin Laden and the subsequent invasion of Iraq. Having not studied this period of history enough, I can't say for sure whether the government made the right decision with the invasion. But I can say that, especially in events as influential as this, in which the public opinion can sway government so heavily, leaders hold the serious responsibility of studying the past, and then, perhaps most essential, informing the public of any relevant information. Uninformed historical comparisons, such as the Tony Blair administration's comparison of Saddam Hussein to Hitler,  serve no one's best interest.

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Journalists, thus, have the added responsibility of becoming leaders when it comes to the dispersal of truth. Where political leaders may not share the full picture with the public in order to further their political goals, journalists and reporters must conduct their own historical studies, draw informed comparisons, and share this information with the public.

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A STUDY ON GENDER

September 18, 2020

In its article "What Makes a Good Leader, and Does Gender Matter?", the Pew Research center begins an interesting discussion on what being a leader means to the general public, and how gender plays into the equation.

In multiple polls conducted, those surveyed ranked intelligence, decisiveness, and honesty among the most essential qualities in a leader. While men and women almost equally agreed on these traits being important, women and men's opinions differed on other traits important in leaders. For example, women were more likely to name compassion as an essential leadership trait, while men were not, and were also more likely to place an importance on innovation.

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I wondered, do these splits in opinion impact men and women in leadership positions, and if they do, do they ever deter women, especially, from being seen as leaders? Signs point to yes--in polls from the Pew Research center, men tend to be viewed as more decisive than women by the general public, a perception that may bear a strong influence as who is trusted to lead.

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Another poll by the Pew Research center found, however, that a strong majority of Americans, 75%, (that's right, 25 percent of Americans actually disagree with this sentiment) say women and men make equally capable political leaders. The belief isn't reflected in Congress or DC, however, where men outnumber women in essentially every public-appointed position, and in the Executive Offices as well.

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I've noticed that while most people do believe women make capable leaders according to polls, there is a gap between what people believe and the reality of the women to men ratio in leadership positions. I attribute this to an unconscious bias in the public mind stemming from images in the media and Hollywood of men in leadership positions. In addition, I believe this could also stem from the difficulty of breaking into a male-dominated field as a woman.

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When it comes to journalism, I can definitely see gender playing into the equation. What surprises me the most to find out is that while women dominate journalism schools and journalism programs, in real newsrooms around the country, men tend to dominate, a Poynter article stated. While most professions in the US have a higher percentage of women in them every year, in journalism, the percentage of women seems to be going down. Is this because women feel less paid-attention to in a male-dominated environment, or because men in leadership positions don't view women as having "leadership potential"? Is it because women with journalism degrees are fleeing an unwelcoming field? I don't know, but the gender disparity, to me, is worrying.

A STUDY ON COMMUNICATION

September 4th, 2020

The Center for Creative Leadership writes in its article, "Why Communication is so Important for Leaders," the importance of effective communication both at the individual, community, and organizational levels. Describing communication as a "core leadership function," the article goes on to describe 5 tips for communicating more effectively, which include the following:

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1. Communicate relentlessly

2. Simplify and be direct

3. Listen and encourage input

4. Illustrate through stories

5. Affirm with actions

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While I believe all of these tips are of high importance, the article also mentions another fact about communication that I think should take a higher priority than anything else when communicating as a leader: the importance of communicating with authenticity. This is something that I think is too often overlooked, as many leaders often will act too formal and be reluctant to engage with the very people they attempt to lead. All too often, leaders make the mistake of being absent from important conversations or maintaining a certain distance from others in an organization in order to maintain a front of professionalism. However, creating a healthy rapport between a leader and other members of an organization begins with the level of trust that can only be gained with the mutual respect that comes from authenticity.

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Susan Tardanico, founder and CEO of the Authentic Leadership Alliance, wrties, "Forget about eloquence — worry about being real. People want real. People respect real. People follow real. Don’t disguise who you are. People will never willingly follow a phony.” And I agree--the steps mentioned above are vital, but can only be put into play once a leader has stripped down all the formalities from his or her communication and left authenticity and the necessities. In the beginning, connecting with other members of the organization and letting a leader's values (both for the organization and as an individual) come through communication should be the priority.

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In the realm of journalism, communicating effectively and clearly becomes an absolute necessity. When it comes to the news and current events, trust is key, because the public perception of a news organization is everything. I think this has become especially relevant in today's political climate, where misinformation spreads easily and the public is easily swayed by loud proclamations of "fake news!" by the President and several other higher ups.

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Something as small as one word could make the difference between being a trusted news entity or simply irrelevant. As such, journalists must take care with word choice and make sure to keep news articles especially easy to understand for the general public. Editors must encourage input from staff writers and must directly state what jobs or tasks need to be completed. Finally, in order to keep staff members engaged in providing the best content possible, I believe it's important to make time for discussion within the organization to provide time for questions, giving input, and receiving input.

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