Superior- Subordinate Communication

Superior- Subordinate Communication at Kohl’s Department Store

·         Trust: Since I work in a department store, I have several mangers and so for this purpose I will focus on my direct manager that is a head of my department rather than my store manager. On a scale of 1 (no trust) to 10 (very trusting) of how much I trust my superior, I would have to seven.

Behaviorally Consistent: One of the main managerial behaviors I have noticed from this manager is that he is behaviorally consistent, whereas he always has a good attitude whenever he comes into the store. This manager tends to always tends to be very forthright with knowledge and shows that he remembers the issues that I have mentioned that take place within the department.

Behavioral Integrity: Out of all the managers, this one usually goes out of their way to help solve a problem if an associate has one and I know he will actually try to fix the situation. Over Christmas Holiday, I found I was not going to get my holiday pay even though I worked on Christmas Eve, however since I had to call off the day after Christmas, it canceled out my holiday pay. I went to this manager to discuss this because I thought it was not right that this could be done without informing their employees ahead of time. Even though, he could not do anything, he still tried to discuss it with the head manager.

Demonstration of Concern: I found this manager to get know the associates more than the others and asks questions to get to know them more. My father has come to the store several times and after the first meeting, he was able to remember his name and would greet him by his name anytime he came into the store. I have also seen this manager go to another associate when they were not feeling good and had no problem letting them go home early to get rest and to feel better.

·         Immediacy: While a manager is who I go to when I have issues with pay or when I need to find out which department I will be in for the day, for Immediacy purposes I work closer with my department lead then I do with my managers. On a scale of 1 (low immediacy) to 10 (high immediacy), I would put it at a seven that my lead displays in our superior-subordinate relationship.

Values subordinate input: Throughout the seasonal time, our store gets quite a lot of seasonal new-hires who are there for the season but can either decide to stay on or the head manager can hire them as a part-time associate. This decision is usually made towards the end of the season and my lead can go to the head manager to give them the candidates for who should stay on. A few times, my lead has gone to me and has asked me who I think should stay on because she knows that I work closer to them and I will be able know who would be the best fit. This example shows that she values my input.

Shows Personal Interest: There have been several times where we have both discussed personal topics in our lives and we have gotten to the point where we keep each other in the know if there has been any new developments that has taken place in our lives. She has asked about how my school has been going on and in turn, I have asked how her daughters are doing and she likes to discuss her grandchildren.

Willing to assist: There has often been times where my department becomes overwhelmed, especially during a sale and when this happens, the fitting rooms get overrun with merchandise that needs to get place back onto the floors. She has often shown willingness to assist when matters like this occur and she stops the project that she is working on, so that myself and the other associates can be able to assist customers and so our department does not become even more overwhelming.

·         Providing and Seeking Feedback

Part One: Last year I did receive negative feedback from my direct manager and it was in the form strategic ambiguity. In the fall last year, I was having a difficult time managing both school and work which resulted in me calling off a few times. My manager had told me that the store manager would want to talk to me about it. This had given me the push I needed work on it harder and to get better at time management, so I could offer a solution to fix it. I think that discussion helped improve my performance and helped me avoid worse consequences.

Part Two: There have not been many times when my manager has asked for feedback, the only times I can think of is when he first became my departments manager and he would ask if there was anything he could do help learn the department better or if I had any ideas that could improve the department. I made a few suggestions and it made me feel as though my manger valued my input.

·         Upward Influence: I have tried used upward influence in order to change a certain aspect within the department and the way I went about it was through open persuasion. I believed if we could change the way a certain department was situated, that it might make it easier for the customers to maneuver their way through racks and help associates to put products away at a faster rate. While I had expressed this to my lead, she had informed that store has to abide by how corporate wants the store to look like.

·         Upward Dissent: Within the organization, I have used both lateral dissent and displaced dissent. When I discovered my holiday was going to be cut, I wanted to make sure that I was not the only associate who did not know about that policy before I brought the issue to my supervisor. I had told my fellow associates about the situation and was surprised that none of them had known about this policy before. Once I found that there was nothing that could be done, I expressed dissent to my friends and family about this outside of work.

Reference: 

Modaff, Butler, & DeWine. (2017). Organizational Communication: Foundations, Challenges, and Misunderstandings. Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson.