Leader/Follower Relationships at the Charlotte Observer’s Magazine Department

As I mentioned in my Organizational Culture response, there are no distinct leader-follower relationships within the organization, as we operate as a team and as an entire unit when contributing to the organization. All of our positions are seen as equally important in order for success with the magazine or digital production. Our boss, Caroline, is the director of the Charlotte Observer Content Studio, meaning she manages the entire team, consisting of two magazine editors (the editor of Caroline Bride, and Caroline herself, as she is the editor of SouthPark Magazine), the senior graphic designer (who designs for both magazines), the editor of CharlotteFive (the digital publication I wrote for last year), the two interns for CharlotteFive, the sales representative and marketing coordinator (this is one position, who sells advertisements for CharlotteFive and both magazines), and me (she is my direct supervisor since I am the magazine intern, but mostly work on SouthPark since it is a monthly publication while Carolina Bride is quarterly). Because Caroline is the only “leader” at the organization, it is easy to observe her leadership style. She is very laid-back, giving her followers the freedom and opportunity to tests their strengths and weaknesses, and explore their field of work in any style they please. So although the decision-making is centralized, there is a lot of freedom that goes along with the job. For example, Caroline gives the senior graphic designer the freedom to design the pages however she would like, but prefers to see the page designs before they go to print. But if there is any slight disagreement in the office, like I mentioned in my Theories in Action response last week with a member of the team abusing her freedom and angering Caroline, Caroline will publicly show she’s upset or annoyed, but will not make a huge deal out of anything. I’ve overheard other coworkers refer to her as a “peacemaker.” I feel as though her kindness, her ability to be a peacemaker, and willingness to give everyone the freedom they have influences everyone in the office to treat Caroline with the utmost respect, so there would never be anything more than a small dispute in the office, and it would be over something such as differing opinions or approaches to something.

Although employees in the magazine department are autonomous, the work they are completing has structure. CharlotteFive has more freedom to experiment with article ideas and headlines, because they have a more laid-back audience (millennials) who wouldn’t get angry over a dumb headline, and there is no limit to how many articles they can post online. However, the editor of CharlotteFive always runs tomorrow’s headlines by the whole group for feedback. I’ve noticed that whenever Caroline suggests tweaking a headline, the CharlotteFive editor always makes that change. Still, Caroline always makes it clear that her suggestion is just that — a suggestion. Perhaps the CharlotteFive editor feels compelled to make the change. Because magazines have limited page space, with half of the magazine dedicated to advertisements, we can only write a certain number of articles per issue. We also find structure in writing headlines, making sure they are tasteful, since the magazine serves as Charlotte’s premier luxury lifestyle magazine.