Deck 8: Organizational Communication

Question 1

The copywriters working on the new ad campaign tells their boss that they will miss their deadline by a day or two. The boss says, "Fine, we can work with that." The truth, however, is that the boss knows quite well that the order has come from above that tardiness may cost them their jobs. This is an example of ________ in downward communication.

A) adding
B) leveling
C) sharpening
D) misinformation
E) assimilation

Answer 1

E

Question 2

An organization is a social collectivity having organizational and individual goals, ________, organizational structure, and the embedding of the organization within an environment of other organizations.

A) coordinating activity
B) committed employees
C) a system of checks and balances
D) people at all skill levels
E) managers and workers

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Grapevine communication in the workplace can take the form of ______, where one person tells what he or she knows to many others.

A) gossip
B) a cluster
C) outward communication
D) a single-strand
E) misinformation

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Organizations are ________; their components interact continuously, not only with one another, but with the larger environment.

A) hierarchal systems
B) open systems
C) closed systems
D) bureaucracies
E) democracies

Question 5

________ is an example of an upward organizational message.

A) A notice of termination
B) A letter of resignation
C) A rumor spreading through the office
D) Notice of a promotion opportunity
E) A company newsletter

Question 6

You are an employee sending out an email to a staff member regarding a project update. Your tone is slightly more formal than normal, and you use sharpening and assimilation to refine your point in the message. This email is most likely being sent to your ________.

A) project teammate
B) boss
C) assistant
D) client
E) sister in receiving

Question 7

What is the difference between a "whisperer" and a "spy" in an organization?

A) Whisperers provide a safe route for others to send information to higher ups while spies report their own information to the bosses.
B) Spies provide a safe route for others to send information to higher ups while whisperers report their own information to the bosses.
C) Whisperers are the same as gossipers, while spies tell the straight truth.
D) There is no difference between whisperers and spies.
E) Whisperers tend to operate in smaller organizations, spies in larger ones.

Question 8

Globalization typically prevents ________.

A) organizational miscommunication
B) lack of organizational productivity
C) an organization closing itself off to outside ideas and technology
D) effective use of the grapevine
E) printing company documents in more than one language

Question 9

Grapevine communication in the workplace can take the form of ______, where one person tells others what he or she knows and, of those others, one tells others, and on and on.

A) gossip
B) a cluster
C) outward communication
D) a single-strand
E) misinformation

Question 10

Your company holds a monthly, Friday afternoon session at which retired company "stars" are invited to tell stories of the organization's early days and how what you and your current colleagues now find routine came about. This effort to give meaning to their collective experiences is a hall mark of ________________.

A) anticipatory socialization
B) organizational sensemaking
C) the iceberg theory
D) cultural assimilation
E) the grapevive

Question 11

________ is a negative organizational communication trait characterized by belittling colleagues, making them feel small and powerless.

A) Secrecy
B) Intimidation
C) Assertiveness
D) Superiority
E) Bossiness

Question 12

Which of these answers best represents the typical order of organizational enculturation?

A) Disengagement and exit stage, anticipatory socialization stage, and organizational entry and assimilation stage
B) Organizational entry and assimilation stage, anticipatory socialization stage, and disengagement and exit stage
C) Organizational entry and assimilation stage, disengagement and exit stage, and anticipatory socialization stage
D) Social assimilation stage, organizational entry and assimilation stage, and disengagement and exit stage
E) Anticipatory socialization stage, organizational entry and assimilation stage, and disengagement and exit stage

Question 13

An organization's ________ reveal and celebrate its values and recognize the actions of employees who best personify those values in action.

A) beliefs
B) history
C) rituals and ceremonies
D) stories
E) ledger books

Question 14

________ are the employees and managers who are most respected, best regarded, and most highly rewarded for their embodiment of the organization's values.

A) Mentors
B) Outstanding employees and managers
C) Heroic figures
D) The members of the cultural network
E) Managers

Question 15

When new employees gather information on the job they are hired to do and come to understand exactly what is expected of them they are involved in ________ socialization.

A) task
B) workgroup
C) organizational
D) cultural
E) affiliated

Question 16

________ occurs when intermediaries reduce a grapevine message to its most sensational or thematic core.

A) Adding
B) Leveling
C) Sharpening
D) Assimilation
E) Misinformation

Question 17

The levels of power within an organization represent its ________.

A) values
B) profit motives
C) hierarchal structure
D) culture
E) heroic figures

Question 18

Two of your subordinates continue to come to work late, and although you have spoken to them a number of times about it the problem continues. But when your supervisor asks you if all is well with your staff, you do not mention the difficulties you are having with the tardy duo. You are experiencing the ________.

A) grapevine effect
B) hierarchical mum effect
C) upward flow of communication
D) serial distortion
E) downward flow of communication

Question 19

The best way that an organization should deal with the grapevine is ________.

A) find its source and shut it down
B) infiltrate it with spies who can shape its messages
C) accept it and understand how it operates
D) make sure the whisperers get involved
E) use both spies and whisperers to shape its messages

Question 20

The components of a(n) ________ communicate solely with one another and it will continue to fulfill its goal as long as its components function as designed.

A) hierarchal system
B) open system
C) closed system
D) bureaucracy
E) laissez-faire organization

Question 21

William knows everything about everybody at work, especially who's seeing whom when away from work. He uses his breaks to make sure that everyone else knows, too. He is a prime practitioner of ________ water cooler communication.

A) horizontal
B) inward
C) outward
D) cluster
E) radiating

Question 22

Tracy is in the know. Her specialty is what's happening in the managers' offices. She uses breaks to keep her colleagues up to date on any shifts in how different people are compensated for different work. She is a prime practitioner of ________ water cooler communication.

A) horizontal
B) inward
C) outward
D) cluster
E) radiating

Question 23

Downward messages sometimes experience ________; that is, when intermediaries add to the original message, changing its meaning either in fact or in tone.

A) adding
B) leveling
C) sharpening
D) assimilation
E) radiation

Question 24

Downward messages sometimes experience ________; that is, when intermediaries reshape messages to be more palatable to intended recipients.

A) adding
B) leveling
C) sharpening
D) assimilation
E) radiation

Question 25

The rumors have been swirling for weeks. There will be layoffs is the sales department, but maybe they're in shipping; nobody knows for sure, but everyone has something to say. The ________ is in full force.

A) horizontal communication
B) sideways communication
C) whisperer
D) grapevine
E) water cooler

Question 26

Because they are altered and reshaped as they move through various stopping points between the original source and the intended receiver, downward organizational messages tend to suffer from the ________.

A) grapevine effect
B) hierarchical mum effect
C) upward flow of communication
D) water-cooler effect
E) serial distortion

Question 27

The bicycle manufacturer you work for employs engineers, designers, sales representatives, marketing professionals, lobbyists, and safety experts, among others. In addition to communicating internally to make sure you produce the best, most attractive, and safest bike available, these people must also have external interactions, rendering this organization __________.

A) an open system
B) hopelessly mired in bureaucracy
C) a closed system
D) a profit-based corporate culture
E) a victim of entropy

Question 28

To ensure that organizations continue to operate as intended as they deal with people and other organizations outside their own, they establish predetermined guidelines. One type, _________, are statements that provide a blueprint of how the organization operates, its goals, and its expected outcomes.

A) protocols
B) policies
C) norms
D) bureaucracy
E) rule books

Question 29

How an organization's predetermined guidelines are to be best met are laid out in its __________, detailed methods used in achieving those outcomes.

A) protocols
B) policies
C) norms
D) bureaucracy
E) rule books

Question 30

The larger an organization, the more complex its structure, the greater the need for more _______.

A) protocols
B) policies
C) norms
D) managers
E) bureaucracy

Question 31

Max Weber's Theory of Bureaucracy argues that bureaucracy serves to ensure a well-functioning system through three basic principles: authority, specialization, and ____________.

A) norms
B) policies
C) rules
D) protocols
E) rule books

Question 32

Sociologist W. Richard Scott later added two additional principles to the Theory of Bureaucracy. One, _________, is the idea that technical qualifications, not favoritism or other non-work factors, should be the main criteria of evaluation.

A) non-discrimination
B) fairness above all
C) equal treatment of all employees
D) empowerment
E) adherence to the rule book

Question 33

Edgar Schein saw an organization's culture as operating at three fundamental levels, often using an iceberg to model his idea. The top of the iceberg consists of observable artifacts, the second level, just below the water line, is espoused values, and well below the water line is ____________.

A) the grapevine
B) fairness above all
C) organizational sensemaking
D) adherence to the rule book
E) underlying assumptions

Question 34

Your company has developed a very clear organizational chart showing who reports to whom in the plant and at headquarters, demonstrating _________, one of the five principles of bureaucracy.

A) empowerment
B) authority
C) rules
D) policy
E) interaction

Question 35

You want to hang a white board in your office but your manager tells you that you cannot do it yourself; you must call the facilities department, demonstrating _________, one of the five principles of bureaucracy.

A) empowerment
B) authority
C) rules
D) specialization
E) interaction

Question 36

Your manager's nepotism drives you crazy. He's showed preference for his family members in hiring, scheduling, and even raises. This is in clear violation of __________, one of the five principles of bureaucracy.

A) non-discrimination
B) fairness above all
C) equal treatment of all employees
D) employment as career
E) interaction

Question 37

Your office has established a clear set of policies and protocols for how it should run during the summer holidays when staffing is light. But despite its clarity and fairness it hasn't worked out because Seth and Martha simply will not meet its very simple reporting requirements. This bit of bureaucratic failure happened because _______.

A) your organization is an open system
B) your organization had trouble adapting to the non-routine
C) humans are fallible
D) morale is horrible
E) people did not consult the rule book

Question 38

An organization's members, through their interactions with their colleagues, establish a ________, how they want to be perceived by those colleagues.

A) work identity
B) place in the hierarchy
C) role
D) self-identity
E) looking glass self

Question 39

The __________ of an organization is the product of employees' interactions with the functioning of that organization.

A) culture
B) climate
C) norm
D) socialization
E) rules

Question 40

The __________ of an organization is the pattern of shared basic assumptions or inferences that members learn from the organization's stories, myths, traditions, and everyday experiences and observed behaviors.

A) culture
B) climate
C) norm
D) socialization
E) rules

Question 41

An organization's climate tends to be communicated ___________ the organization, whereas an organization's culture tends____________.

A) horizontally across/to develop holistically
B) down and then throughout/to permeate all levels of the system
C) to develop holistically/horizontally across
D) up and then throughout/to permeate all levels of the system
E) horizontally across/to develop horizontally as well

Question 42

________________ is the process by which individuals become integrated into the culture of an organization.

A) Organizational acclimatization
B) Organizational enculturation
C) Organizational assimilation
D) Anticipatory socialization
E) Social assimilation

Question 43

Among the six interrelated communication-based elements that help build strong organizational cultures is/are _________________, effective grapevine and water cooler talk.

A) a cultural network
B) heroic figures
C) stories
D) values and beliefs
E) the rule book

Question 44

Jeremy has been with the company 47 years. He knows where all the skeletons are buried, what's made the company great in good times and what's brought it down in bad times. Everybody, bosses and workers, listens to him and knows that he can be trusted to call upon the business's history, values, and beliefs to make sense of any situation. Jeremy is a ____________ of his organization's cultural network.

A) whisperer
B) priest
C) gossiper
D) whistleblower
E) barker

Question 45

You know the guys in the meat department are changing the dates on expired packages of steaks to pass them off as fresh. You go to your boss with your information, but she brushes you off, suggesting to you that this is happening with management's knowledge. You don't want people getting sick, plus this is just wrong. So you, now a __________ go to the newspaper with your story.

A) whisperer
B) priest
C) gossiper
D) whistleblower
E) barker

Question 46

People can and do get fired for what they post online. There is some protection, however. If your online commentary is ____________, that is, if it is an attempt to join with colleagues in an effort to improve pay and working conditions or to fix job-related problems, then you cannot legally be fired.

A) water-cooler talk
B) concerted activity
C) corporate social responsibility
D) free expression
E) part of the grapevine

Question 47

_____________ is the integration of business operations and organizational values that shows a company's commitment to developing policies that integrate responsible practices into daily business operations.

A) An open system
B) Concerted activity
C) Corporate social responsibility
D) Socialism
E) The cultural network

Question 48

You like Pepsi and Coke equally; in fact, you could never tell the difference. But today, because the Coca-Cola Company sponsored your town's Special Olympics, you'll choose Coke rather than Pepsi, clearly a product of Coke's ____________ efforts.

A) corporate social responsibility
B) organizational culture
C) organizational climate
D) halo effect
E) hierarchy

Question 49

An often overlooked stage of organizational assimilation, the _________ stage, occurs when people leave an organization, either through movement from one part of the organization to another or by leaving altogether.

A) anticipatory socialization
B) organizational entry
C) assimilation
D) social leaving
E) disengagement and exit

Question 50

When people enter the disengagement and exit organizational assimilation stage, they ___________.

A) talk with colleagues less frequently and less personally
B) tend to forgive mistakes
C) seek out organizational heroes
D) attempt to mentor others
E) tend to become whisperers

Question 51

Identify the four primary negative workplace communication traits and, using examples, explain how they hamper productivity.

Question 52

Identify the four primary positive workplace communication traits and, using examples, explain how they improve productivity.

Question 53

Identify and describe the four ways information can travel through the grapevine and explain why this form of communication can be beneficial for an organization.

Question 54

List and describe the three communication stages of organizational assimilation and offer an example for each stage.

Question 55

Briefly explain the value of globalization and intercultural communication in the workplace. What are some of the benefits it brings to an organization?

Question 56

An organization inevitably develops its own culture. Identify and describe the six interrelated communication-based elements that help build strong organizational cultures. Using real life or fictional examples, explain how each ensures a strong work culture. Then choose the single element that you think benefits the work culture the most and explain why using your specific example.

Question 57

Max Weber, in his Theory of Bureaucracy, identified three principles of a well-functioning bureaucracy. Sociologist W. Richard Scott added two more. What are these five principles of a well-functioning bureaucracy? Describe how each contributes to the overall success of a large organization.

Question 58

Communication moves upward, downward, and horizontally through all organizations. List and describe the different forms of communication that occur as messages travel each of these routes and discuss the benefits and problems that might be encountered.

Question 59

Differentiate between grapevine communication and water cooler communication, making sure to accurately and fully describe each. How does each help, hinder, or do both in building a strong organizational culture?

Question 60

What are organizational climate and organizational culture? In what ways are they similar and in what ways are they different? Which do you believe is more important in moving an organization toward meeting its stated goal? Defend your answer.