Deck 11: Communication in Organizations

Question 1

Which of the following scholars is primarily responsible for sense making theory?

A) Stan Deetz
B) Kenneth Burke
C) Joann Keyton
D) Karl Weick
E) Everett Rogers

Answer 1

D

Question 2

According to sense making theory, ____ can be a major resource for change and organizational growth and development.

A) Ambiguity
B) Product lines
C) Equivocality
D) All of the above
E) A and C only

Answer 2

E

Question 3

Organizational sense making theory assumes all of the following, EXCEPT:

A) Organizations exist to reduce an otherwise unequivocal world.
B) Humans organize to make complex environments meaningful.
C) The social world is enacted through equivocality-reducing communication.
D) Sense making happens retrospectively.
E) A person's interpretation of a behavior is more important than the behavior itself.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010, BP spokespersons said that while they were "totally responsible" for cleaning up the spill, they were not responsible for the accident. Which of the following theories best illuminates the use of such equivocal messages to stakeholder groups?

A) Organizational culture theory
B) Deetz's multiple stakeholder model
C) Weick's sensemaking theory
D) Burke's dramatism
E) Baxter's dialectical theory

Question 5

According to sense making theory, ____ requires us to step out of our ongoing stream of experience and focus our attention on something new.

A) Selection
B) A variation
C) Retention
D) The environment
E) Ambiguity

Question 6

Organizational sense making theory makes all of the following claims, EXCEPT:

A) Our human experience is largely equivocal.
B) Typically, we engage in meaning selection with others through communication.
C) The environment is something that exists independently of organizing.
D) Greater heed enables organizations to comprehend and respond to unexpected events in unexpected ways.
E) Organizations are brought to life through a three-stage, evolutionary process.

Question 7

In their research on firefighters' "near misses," scholars Baran and Scott identified which of the following communication strategies as part of the process of heedful interrelating?

A) Repeating directions
B) Questioning assumptions
C) Developing interpersonal trust and coordination
D) All of the above
E) A and C only

Question 8

The idea that organizational cultures are experienced differently depending upon one's position within an organization reflects which assumption of organizational culture theory?

A) Organizational cultures change over time.
B) Cultures are often fragmented.
C) Cultures carry emotionally charged meanings.
D) Members create cultures.
E) Cultures are created and recreated continuously.

Question 9

When a corrections officer walks away from a verbally abusive inmate, or a surgeon calmly answers the questions of angry family members following an unexpected set of complications in surgery, they are illustrating which of the following assumptions of organizational culture theory?

A) Culture provides boundaries for appropriate emotional expression.
B) Cultures are the sum of an organization's past and its present members' interactions.
C) Organizational cultures are dynamic and change over time.
D) Cultures are created and recreated continuously.
E) Organizational cultures are often fragmented.

Question 10

Office furniture, dress codes, surveillance cameras, and stories about organizational heroes, successes, and failures are all examples of what?

A) The narratives of an organization
B) The values of an organization
C) The assumptions of an organization
D) The beliefs of an organization
E) The artifacts of an organization

Question 11

The fact that Wal-Mart not only claims to have the lowest prices but is actually willing to follow through with price matching demonstrates which idea from organizational culture theory?

A) When espoused assumptions and enacted assumptions are aligned, the culture is likely to be stronger and more coherent.
B) When the artifacts of a company reflect the values of a company, the culture is likely to be stronger and more coherent.
C) When the stories of a company reflect the leaders and heroes of the organization, the culture is likely to be stronger and more coherent.
D) When espoused values and enacted values are aligned, the culture is likely to be stronger and more coherent.
E) When the artifacts of a company reflect the assumptions of a company, the culture is likely to be stronger and more coherent.

Question 12

Which of the following theories of organizational communication is rooted in the interpretive paradigm?

A) Weick's sense making theory
B) Organizational culture theory
C) Deetz's multiple stakeholder model
D) All of the above
E) A and B only

Question 13

Organizational culture theory makes all of the following claims, EXCEPT:

A) In some organizations, CEOs, founders, and inspirational leaders can grow a particular culture by attending to the symbolic side of organizational life.
B) Culture "emerges" through everyday interaction.
C) There is one ideal culture that organizations should strive to create and maintain.
D) The strategies to discover an organization's culture vary.
E) Culture scholars have to describe and interpret the culture of an organization in order to understand it.

Question 14

____ refer to what organizations say they ought to do, whereas ____ refer to what organizations actually do.

A) Assumptions; espoused values
B) Espoused values; enacted values
C) Espoused values; performances
D) Enacted values; performances
E) Enacted values; assumptions

Question 15

According to Deetz's multiple stakeholders model, corporations largely determine:

A) Where we work.
B) How we work.
C) How we raise our families and engage our communities.
D) All of the above.
E) A and B only.

Question 16

Deetz's multiple stakeholder model of communication addresses the often taken-for-granted ____ that organizations have to influence our lives.

A) Power
B) Assumptions
C) Tools
D) Ideologies
E) Symbols

Question 17

Deetz's multiple stakeholder model assumes all of the following, EXCEPT:

A) Diverse group participation in corporate decision-making will lead to better decisions.
B) People can make good collaborative decisions if given the chance and forum.
C) The understanding of communication that underlies most models of collaboration in organizations is useful and efficient.
D) If people are to make high-quality collaborative decisions, they will need better information and training.
E) Fundamental change is possible.

Question 18

When corporate managers rely exclusively on email memos to their employees because they believe that communication is simply an act of "expressing" what is already on one's mind, they are illustrating which assumption from the multiple stakeholders model?

A) Fundamental change is possible.
B) The understanding of communication that underlies most models of collaboration and joint decision-making is misleading and leads to shortcomings.
C) We need widespread participation because diverse group participation in corporate decision-making will lead to better decisions.
D) People need an opportunity to voice their concerns and participate in collaborative decision-making.
E) In order to make high-quality collaborative decisions, people will need better information and training.

Question 19

Consumers, workers, investors, suppliers, host communities, and society at large are all examples of:

A) Stockholders
B) Managerial constituents
C) Shareholders
D) Stakeholders
E) Organizational pawns

Question 20

To move organizations toward a multiple stakeholder model, Deetz offers all of the following strategies, EXCEPT:

A) Create a workplace in which every member thinks and acts like a subordinate.
B) Integrate the management of work with the doing of work.
C) Widely distribute quality information for decision-making.
D) Grow social structures from the bottom up rather than enforcing them from the top down.
E) Commit to stakeholder participation and take up conflicts in ethical, open, and representative ways.

Question 21

Karl Weick's sense making theory of organizing is deeply rooted in the post-positivist paradigm.

Question 22

According to Weick, equivocality is a major resource for change and organizational growth and development.

Question 23

Organizational cultures are the result of a leader's vision.

Question 24

When an organization's espoused values and enacted values are aligned, the culture is likely to be stronger and more coherent.

Question 25

According to Deetz's multiple stakeholder model, market demand is the only mechanism that determines how we reward different categories of workers and work in our culture.

Question 26

Weick emphasized process by focusing his theory on ___ rather than on ___.

Question 27

According to Weick's sense making theory, the process of organizing not only produces the entities we come to know as organizations, but it also produces the ____.

Question 28

In organizational culture theory, the tangible features of organizational experience that members can see, hear, touch, taste, smell, or otherwise encounter are referred to as ___.

Question 29

At the core of an organization's culture are the deeply entrenched, rarely examined, and taken-for-granted beliefs about the nature of reality, humanity, work, and relationships, also referred as ___.

Question 30

A person or group who has an interest in an organization's decision-making is called a ___.