American Red Cross

American Red Cross: Organizational Commitment and Communication

The American Red Cross (ARC) has been in operation for 130 years. Each year, the ARC has aided in the relief of Americans suffering from more than 70,000 disasters. The ARC workforce is composed of more than one million people with the majority (97%) being volunteers. Volunteers are the strength of this organization. The ARC employees and volunteers work hand-in-hand to help save lives and makes lives better every day. Over the years, organizational commitment has been established. Organizational commitment and communication are affected by several key factors. These are leadership styles, sources of power, motivational theories, and workforce commitment.

Leadership is the ability to influence a group of people toward the achievement of a vision or a set of goals. Group communication in the ARC is affected depending on the leadership style in place. Transactional and transformational leadership are two styles of leadership that can change the outcome of group communication. Transactional leadership is based upon punishment and rewards. There is definitely a chain of command in this style of leadership. In transactional leadership, the leader defines what is expected and required of the group. Then the group is required to finish the task. The group will receive reward or punishment depending on whether the task gets finished on time. In the ARC, there are leaders and volunteers that follow a set mission. This style of leadership would not allow for there to be much communication between the volunteers and leaders. The leaders are not involved in the task. Also, rewards and punishment do not apply in this organization. Volunteers help the ARC because they want to help people, not because they want to be rewarded. Transformational leadership leans more toward inspiring people to use their own self-interests to help the organization. Transformational leaders behave in a way that...