Deck 29: Organizational Communication: Looking Up, Down, and Laterally

Question 1

In most organizations it is expected that information generally flows both upward and downward with equal ease.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The extent of a supervisor's span of control can have an effect on the relative efficiency of upward communication.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The attitude exhibited by a supervisor or manager can have a great deal to do with how well information flows upward.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

One of the greatest inhibitors of upward communication can be found in management's failure to respond to some earlier communication.

Question 5

While the supervisor can readily communicate outward to others, he or she has no control over communication from others.

Question 6

The situation in which the supervisor reports to more than one manager is greatly advantageous to the supervisor but not so to the multiple superiors.

Question 7

The grapevine, accurately described as the communications network of the informal organization, can be monitored but it cannot be eliminated.

Question 8

How much the supervisor may pick up from the grapevine is frequently dependent on how well the supervisor relates with peers and direct reporting employees.

Question 9

Given the choice, it is best for the individual supervisor "face upward" and in general be visible and available to higher management.

Question 10

The communications path over which the individual supervisor has the least control is that from immediate superior to supervisor.

Question 11

In dealing with communication transmitted by way of the grapevine, the first-line supervisor should:

A) Consider it the most reliable form of information transmission in the organization.
B) Take all necessary steps to prevent your employees from participating in grapevine transmissions.
C) . Tune in and listen to what the grapevine is carrying and learn from it.
D) Consider what flows along the grapevine as irrelevant to anything of importance.

Question 12

An effective way for the supervisor to stimulate upward communication from his or her employees is:

A) Place reporting requirements on the employees so they cannot avoid communicating upward.
B) Honestly and openly communicate downward with the employees in regular fashion.
C) Use the progressive disciplinary process to address obvious lapses in required reporting.
D) Be certain that every assignment of any size includes a feedback requirement.

Question 13

Considering all six of the supervisor's communication channels, the individual supervisor can control or influence:

A) Well over 50 percent of total communication going out and coming in
B) Just 50 percent of total communication, one's outgoing channels only.
C) One's outgoing channels plus the channel coming in from the employees.
D) All channels except that coming from one's organizational superior.

Question 14

In improving communication with one's organizational superior, the supervisor should consider:

A) Making certain that the boss learns of everything transpiring at the department level whether large or small.
B) Regularly supplying the boss with a written list of questions the supervisor would like to have answered.
C) On a regular basis, becoming as visible to the boss as possible.
D) Structuring communications to make it as easy as possible for the boss to respond.

Question 15

Multiple-boss arrangements work best when:

A) The parties at both levels understand the others' needs and what is expected of them individually.
B) One boss dominates and the other boss allows this by default.
C) The person who has to report to two bosses is sufficiently strong to limit excessive demands from one boss or the other.
D) The two bosses are located some distance apart, as in two separate facilities.

Question 16

Interpersonal relationships and people's regard for one another describe the __________ organization.

Question 17

Hazy and indistinct lines of authority are contrary to the basic principle of _________________ and are in fact never legitimate.

Question 18

One of the legitimate functions of a supervisor is to be a _______________ for one's immediate superior.

Question 19

Tradition, authority, and prestige are all on the side of the management hierarchy in the way they favor _____________ communication.

Question 20

The presence of fewer organizational __________ reduces the opportunity for miscommunication and also reduces resistance to the upward movement of information.