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Changing Organizational Behavior: A Theory of Transformational Vocabulary

Nate Boyer

University of Phoenix

Dr. Amy Hakim

Changing Organizational Behavior: A Theory of Transformational Vocabulary

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In the contemporary organization behaviors do not change until employees first

think about or visualize a need to change, share thoughts verbally with others, write down

thoughts for future reference, modification and or archiving, and have a reason to take

action. The sequence or existence of the last three components of this process may vary

and the result is an increased potential for organizational miscommunications. When

misunderstandings occur in organizations there is increased potential for task, goal and

ultimately organization cessation. A theory is “a set of systematically interrelated

concepts, definitions, and hypotheses advanced to explain and predict phenomena

(Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, 2008, p. 24).

Background

This paper attempts to construct a theory of transformational vocabulary where

empowering and positive words are used to influence the favorable outcome of

organization’s future. The paper consists of sections closely following University of

Phoenix doctoral program research handbook guidelines including a problem and purpose

statements adhering to American Psychological Association style. These sections

integrate theories, paradigms, and concepts discussed and used in ORG/721(University of

Phoenix, 2009, Syllabus). Using the theory of transformational vocabulary this paper

attempts to provide ideas on how to implement rapid, ongoing, and long-term

organizational change using the psychological power of positive words in a systematic

fashion.

Problem Statement

The general problem is global businesses must constantly seek the best way to

adapt organizational cultures to rapidly changing operating environments as failure to do

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so could result in business cessation. From Frederick Taylor and Henry Gannt’s

(Darmody, 2007) work in developing the scientific management school of thought, to

James MacGregor Burns’ (1978) original work in the development of transformational

leadership theory, to Warren Bennis’ (2004) more contemporary leadership research,

organizations have sought to find the ideal strategy to manage organizational behavior.

The need to find the optimal organizational behavior change strategy cuts across all types

of organizations, is addressed in many scholarly peer-reviewed journals, and impacts all

aspects of effectively leading and managing an organization.

The specific problem is U.S. business organizations are facing rapidly changing

operating environments requiring constantly revised strategies to increase their likelihood

of success on a global scale. Many leadership experts and scholars suggest organizations

planning to survive in the future must embrace a number of critical leadership skills

including participative management, relationship building, and change management

(Hesselbein, F., & Goldsmith, M. (2006). All of these leadership skills require leaders be

able to effectively communicate in order to integrate these skills into a strategy will work.

With rapid changes to organizations and their operating environments today’s leaders

must be able to effectively address a variety of issues. Leaders must be equipped to

address ethnocentrism, parochialism, and ethical behavior by using effective

communications skills to listen, speak, question, and use a variety of feedback strategies

to change behaviors. All of these issues and skill sets have the potential to be positively

influenced by the adoption of a transformational vocabulary strategy.

Purpose Statement
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The purpose of this theory of transformative vocabulary is the assertion a

systematic and ongoing use of empowering and positive words can influence the

favorable outcome of an organization’s future (i.e. create positive behavior change). The

theory of transformational vocabulary was created using a qualitative methodology.

Qualitative research is a “means for exploring and understanding the meaning individuals

or groups assign to a social or human problem” (Creswell, 2009, p. 4). According to

Neuman (2006) theories contain built in assumptions and or statements about the nature

of things not observable or testable. Selecting a qualitative methodology was appropriate

for this theory building effort as this research relies on the views of participants, asks

general questions, collects data made up of mostly words or text, describes and analyzes

words for embedded themes, and executes the research in a subject and biased manner

(Creswell, 2008). While this theory’s research could take place anywhere, for practical

purposes it is focused on the central upstate New York metropolitan area of Syracuse.

The general population for this study is business organization employees.

Significance of the Study

Assuming the refinement an acceptance of the theory of transformational

vocabulary, business leaders and followers could benefit significantly from an increased

ability to change behaviors. Using a systematic approach to the theory additional benefits

of speed, sustainability, and extent of change might be enhanced. This research does not

attempt to measure any phenomena rather it seeks to understand and explore how

speaking, hearing, and writing words influence organizational behavior and change.

Understanding how verbal and text-based messages influence organization members can

be useful in crafting cross-cultural communications strategies for the organization (Xie,

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Rau, Tseng, Su, & Zhao, 2009). A useable theory of transformational vocabulary would

give leaders a relatively low cost, highly flexible, portable tool to use in their efforts to

implement organizational behavior change. As there is no direct scholarly literature on

the subject of transformational vocabulary this effort would open a new field of research.

Nature of the Study

Creswell (1998) defines a phenomenological study as one describing the meaning of the

lived experiences for individuals about a specific concept or phenomena. This study focuses on

the phenomena of a transformed vocabulary’s ability to change individual and organizational

behavior. A qualitative phenomenological design approach was selected to understand the social

significance of how words might influence organization member’s ability to change their

behavior. This research focuses on what processes occur when people hear, see, speak, and or

write empowering and positive words. Use of a phenomenological approach will allow research

into the lived experiences of organizational member’s exposure to words and how these words

influence member’s behavior. This method was appropriate due to focus on the lived experiences

of business organization employees. The exploratory nature of phenomenological research made

it appropriate to accomplish goals of the study.

Hypotheses/Research Questions

Several questions are relevant to this research and include understanding why

certain words and text have the potential to affect change more than other words. Another

critical research question is exploring what the optimum structure of a transformational

vocabulary strategy might consist of in order to ensure acceptance and internalization of

changed behavior. For the theory to be meaningful it should provide an understanding of

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who are the key internal and external individuals a leader should enlist to design,

implement, and manage a transformational vocabulary strategy. A final issue to be

addressed is how positive and empowering words and text help leaders and followers to

become more motivated to change. Thoroughly addressing these issues might help

organizational behavior practitioners better understand the notion of transformational

vocabulary and its potential impact on an organization’s ability to change unethical

behavior, parochialism, and negative politics.

Conceptual or Theoretical Framework

This research is based on several change and behavior theories including Lewin’s change

theory (Reed, & Vakola, 2006), Schein’s change theory (2002), and Ajzen’s theory of reasoned

action and planned behavior (Kritsonis, 2004). Transformational, visionary, cultural leadership

theories are used to help readers understand how leaders and followers use words in the

motivation process. Warren Bennis’ (1985) theory of leadership, James MacGregor Burn’s

(1982) and Edgar Schein’s (2004) model of organizational culture and leadership were also used

to explore transformational leadership’s role in the formation of the theory of transformational

vocabulary. In a recent study Salem (2008) listed insufficient communications, local

identification, global distrust, lack of productive humor, poor interpersonal communications

skills, conflict avoidance, and an inappropriate mix of loose and tight coupling as reasons why

organizations do not change. These reasons highlight the potential role effective use of

appropriate and positive words play in changing organizational behavior.

Definitions

For the purposes of this research effort, transformational vocabulary theory is

defined as the belief positive and empowering words can motivate organizational
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members to make positive behavioral changes. In this research transformational

leadership is defined as the ability of leaders to inspire followers by articulating vision,

providing individualized support and consideration, setting high performance standards,

and creating intellectual stimulation (Gooty, Gavin, Johnson, Frazier, & Snow, 2009).

Adopting a transformational vocabulary requires visionary leaders to create,

communicate, and implement a vision of a highly desirable and vivid future

organizational state that motivates followers (D'Intino, Boyles, Neck, & Hall, 2008).

Assumptions

This study assumes all participants are citizens of the United States, live in central

upstate New York and are employed by a business organization. The study also assumes

all participants speak English, are at least 25 years old, and have a college degree.

Participants in this study are assumed to have some kind of reporting relationship where

they answer to another individual or they report to a supervisor, manager, leader, board of

directors or some other hierarchical structure. All participants included in this research

are assumed to have worked for their employer for at least 3 years.

Scope, Limitations, and Delimitations

The focus of this study is only on full-time employees and not volunteers,

advisors, and or part-time employees. This study does not look at non-profit, government,

single self-employed individuals, or volunteers. Participants in this study must come from

organizations with at least 100 employees and there is no upper limit on an organization’s

number of employees. Minimum income for participants in this study is at least $25K

with and upper limit of $100K.

Literature Review
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There is a substantial amount of scholarly peer-reviewed literature available to

build a foundation for the theory of transformational vocabulary. The definitions

associated with transformational leadership theory support the potential for a

transformative theory of vocabulary as there are frequent references to the use of

communications, articulation, vocalizing, and verbalizing an inspiring followers. Raiola

(1995) states one of the most critical characteristics of the transformational leader is their

ability to construct relationships by utilizing positive and effective communications. A

transformational leader must deliver a set of guidelines supporting and nourish group

members, initiating a pace for the group, modeling communications behaviors, use of

voice patterns, active listening, reflective communication (paraphrasing), and use of

clarification techniques such as questioning and summarizing. Rafferty and Griffin

(2004) argue when leaders communicate positive and encouraging messages, there is an

increased likelihood individuals will feel increasingly capable of carrying a range of

proactive tasks that go beyond the basics. Communications and verbal communications

specifically are even more important to the success of transformational leadership efforts

when they occur in online environments (Purvanova, & Bono, 2009). In the virtual

communications environment it is even more important to have clear communications

from leaders due to noise in the communications channel. For example it can take at least

four times as long to type a communication than to speak it (Hancock, 2004).

Organizational change is the process an organization uses to move from its

current state to a desired future state in order to increase the organization’s effectiveness

(Jones, 2004). Lewin’s model of change uses multiple phases including diagnosis,

unfreezing, movement, refreezing, and renewal stages (Francesco, & Gold, 2005). In
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global organizations a number of key change agents include strategists, implementers and

recipients must be engaged in order to increase the likelihood of sustained change

(Bowditch, Buono, & Stewart, 2008). To modify organizational behavior a leader must

be able effectively communicate ideas that help people recognize the need for and logic

of a specific change (Kotter, & Schlesinger, 1979). Of the 13 principles for managing

people offered by Pfeffer (2005) several including information sharing, participation and

empowerment, training and skill development, cross- utilization and cross-training,

embody communications as a critical factor in effectively managing people.

Research Method and Design Appropriateness

The purpose of this theory of transformative vocabulary is the assertion a

systematic and ongoing use of empowering and positive words can influence favorable

outcomes of an organization’s future. A qualitative approach was selected over a

quantitative one as the study will attempt to explore and understand how transformational

vocabulary might influence the decision of organizational participants to change their

behavior. This research does not seek to measure observable quantifiable data rather it

has a general and broad focus attempting to understand participants lived experiences

within organizations as they relate to transforming experiences. Data for the development

of this theory will be collected using words and text derived from conversations held

during formal interviews.

Population, Sampling, and Data Collection Procedures and Rationale

The population identified for this research is employees of business organizations

located in the United States. The sample will consist of participants from business

organizations located in the metropolitan area of central upstate New York city of
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Syracuse. Data will be collected using pre-scheduled, onsite, face-to-face, semi-

structured, digitally recorded critical incident technique (CIT) interviews transcribed into

an electronic format usable with textual analysis software. Most people have “Ah Ha

moments” where they are suddenly compelled to make a decision that changes their lives.

CIT is widely used in business literature and can be described as interacting events which

the interviewee perceives or remembers as significantly positive or negative when

interviewed about them and which are later retold as stories (Fillis, 2006). Use of a CIT

interviewing technique is complementary to the exploratory focus of this inquiry which

seeks to understand the experience of being motivated to change one’s behavior. The

instrument of data collection will be an interview of each participant conducted via face-

to-face, onsite, using semi-structured open-ended questions to elicit participants’

perceptions (Creswell, 2009). The approximate number of participants selected for this

research 25-30 organizational members.

Audio, video, and textual data acquired from participant interviews will be ingested into

digital analysis software. Qualitative audio, video, and textual analysis software will be used

because of the large volume of transcripts expected from the open ended participant interviews.

Using documents found during the literature review, key themes will be identified from the

digital analysis software. Examples of themes might include change processes, behavior

attributes, and transformation processes. NVivo qualitative software will be used because of its

ability to ingest, query, produce charts, compare, contrast, manage, and map a variety of multi-

media files (Johnson, Buehring, Cassell, & Symon, 2007).

Conclusion
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Using a qualitative phenomenological approach this paper proposed a theory of

transformational vocabulary to address the problem of increased potential for business

failures due to rapidly changing operating environments. This paper suggested a

systematic and ongoing use of empowering and positive words can influence the

advantageous outcome of an organization’s future by creating positive behavior change.

This paper advances the use of a systematic approach to the theory and suggests benefits

of speed, sustainability, and depth of change might be the end result of such an effort.

The study focuses on the phenomena of a transformed vocabulary’s ability to change

individual and organizational behavior. A transformational vocabulary theory has the

potential to give leaders a new tool for changing domestic and global organizational

behavior.

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