Question

charismatic people attract us with their charm and demeanor. We find people credible if they display a blend of enthusiasm, trustworthiness, competence, and power as well as forms of communication (upward, downward, outward )

Provide an example of a communication strategy where charisma is leveraged by upper-management to influence employee buy-in toward downsizing of an organization.

Answer 1

An example of the communication strategy

A popular CEO (Chief Executive Officer) in the company holding a meeting with employees and explaining the benefits to be gained by downsizing the organization.

Explanation:

The upper management is leveraging charisma, as the popular CEO is charismatic. The CEO have referent power since he/she is loved and respected thus the employees will be influenced to buy into downsizing. Moreover, the CEO has legitimate power, which means employee are bound to follow the CEO command. Finally, by promise of benefits to be gained the upper management is applying reward power, as employee are promise of benefits due to downsizing. The upper management applies downward communication strategy where the CEO the top official communicate the message directly to employees.