Deck 17: Organizational Information Theory

Question 1

According to Organizational Information Theory (OIT), the cycle of communication behaviors includes three stages. Which of the following correctly lists the stages and the order in which they occur?

A) enact, select, retain
B) act, respond, adjust
C) retain, select, enact
D) adjust, respond, act

Answer 1

act, respond, adjust

Question 2

All of the following are assumptions of Organizational Information Theory EXCEPT

A) Equivocality of information is useful for assisting an organization in achieving its goals.
B) The information an organization receives differs in terms of its equivocality.
C) Human organizations exist in an information environment.
D) Human organizations engage in information processing to reduce the equivocality of information.

Answer 2

Equivocality of information is useful for assisting an organization in achieving its goals.

Question 3

The stage of reducing equivocality at which the organization makes a note of what worked or did not so that it can make a good decision in the future is

A) conclusion
B) ambivalence
C) retention
D) selection

Answer 3

retention

Question 4

Because OIT has stimulated a lot of scholarship on various organizational information issues, it is considered to have good __________ value.

A) semiotic
B) heuristic
C) consistency
D) utility

Question 5

All of the following are principles that organizations use when dealing with equivocality, according to OIT, EXCEPT

A) The organization must analyze the relationship among the equivocality of information, the rules the organization has for removing equivocality, and the cycles of communication that should be used.
B) If an organization has only a few rules to help reduce equivocality, more cycles will be needed.
C) The greater the number of cycles, the lower the amount of equivocality that remains.
D) Organizational members must assess their own abilities to make sense of equivocal information.

Question 6

The ________ environment includes the many channels that are used by an organization to send and receive a vast amount of messages.

A) technological
B) physical
C) information
D) message

Question 7

Which approach to knowing characterizes the research undertaken using OIT?

A) socio-cultural
B) positivistic/empirical
C) critical
D) interpretive

Question 8

When deciding between sending an e-mail or a physical memo to the members of the Sales Team announcing upcoming procedural changes, Tom chose e-mail because of the efficiency and timeliness with which it could be composed and distributed. Which of Weick's rules for processing equivocality is being applied?

A) duration
B) personnel
C) success
D) effort

Question 9

The meetings your boss organizes each week in order to help the employees in your department experience less ambiguity about upcoming projects is an example of a

A) response adjustment
B) act enactment
C) double interact loop
D) retention enactment

Question 10

Which of the three stages in the process of reducing equivocality requires an organization to make a decision about the rules and cycles that will be used for obtaining or understanding information?

A) selection
B) enactment
C) retention
D) identification

Question 11

Organizational Information Theory has been criticized because of its

A) inclusion of influential theories such as General Systems Theory
B) emphasis on communication
C) emphasis on rules as influencing behaviors
D) view of organizing as an interactive process, not a structural one

Question 12

Kendall's project team is reviewing the information that it received from other teams in the organization. They focus on assigning meaning and interpreting the information they have received in order to determine its level of equivocality. Which stage of the process of reducing equivocality is Kendall's team experiencing?

A) selection
B) enactment
C) retention
D) identification

Question 13

The guidelines that an organization has established for analyzing equivocality of a message, as well as for guiding responses to information are called

A) rules
B) enactments
C) reactions
D) responses

Question 14

The theory that describes the influence of information that is received from an organization's external environments, as well as the interrelationship among various units in an organization, is

A) Dialectical Theory
B) Uncertainty Reduction Theory
C) General Systems Theory
D) Theory of Evolution

Question 15

The two primary tasks that an organization must perform in order to manage multiple sources of information are

A) interpreting external information and eliminating confusing information
B) identifying potential sources of information and soliciting information from those sources
C) identifying potential sources of information and coordinating information to make it meaningful
D) interpreting external information and coordinating information to make it meaningful

Question 16

Rather than emphasizing the structure of organizations, Karl Weick highlights the _________ of organizing.

A) location
B) dynamics
C) process
D) duration

Question 17

With which communication tradition is OIT most closely associated?

A) cybernetic
B) semiotic
C) phenomenological
D) rhetorical

Question 18

When an organization chooses to employ a plan of communication that has been proven effective in the past at reducing equivocality of information, _____ is the influential rule that is being applied.

A) effort
B) duration
C) expertise
D) success

Question 19

As noted in your text, Organizational Information Theory has been invoked in research on all of the following topics EXCEPT

A) organization humor
B) corporate profitability
C) nomadic work
D) sense making

Question 20

Equivocality involves the process of engaging in complex communication behaviors in order to reduce the ambiguity of information.

Question 21

Weick proposes that members of an organization must work together in order to reduce the ambiguity of information. It is not the sole responsibility of one person.

Question 22

Effort is a rule that is applied when organizations choose to employ a plan of communication that in the past has helped to reduce the equivocality of information.

Question 23

The information environment is identical to an organization's physical environment.

Question 24

Organizing is viewed as a structural process in Organizational Information Theory.

Question 25

A response is a reaction to equivocality.

Question 26

According to Weick, organizations and their environments change so rapidly that it is unrealistic to show what they are like now, because that's not the way they're going to be later.

Question 27

According to Weick, if an organization has few rules to deal with equivocality, a greater number of cycles will be needed.

Question 28

According to Weick, the fewer cycles that are used to obtain additional information and make adjustments, the more equivocality is removed.

Question 29

Discuss the influence of General Systems Theory and Darwin's Theory of Evolution on the development of Organizational Information Theory. What other communication theory could be applied to explain how organizations reduce the ambiguity of information they receive?

Question 30

Describe the four rules that an organization might employ to reduce the equivocality of information. Provide an example of each.

Question 31

Explain the three stages in the cycle of communication behaviors to reduce equivocality of information. Provide an example of each.

Question 32

Explain the relationship between the following concepts of Organizational Information Theory: information environment, information equivocality, rules, and cycles.

Question 33

Using the standard criteria for theory evaluation, critique Organizational Information Theory.

Question 34

Suppose you had to compare the approaches of Weick and Shannon and Weaver when looking at the downsizing of a company. What sorts of discussions would ensue as a result of their interpretation(s) of organizations?

Question 35

Look at how uncertainty is viewed in Organizational Information Theory and how it is viewed in Uncertainty Reduction Theory (Berger and Calabrese). Point to any differences and/or similarities in viewpoints.

Question 36

You are interested in studying how a news organization deals with equivocal and sometimes contradictory information about events it needs to report to the public. How would you use Organizational Information Theory to study this phenomenon? Develop a hypothesis or research question, and describe your study.

Question 37

Recall a time when you received ambiguous, equivocal, or contradictory information on which you had to make a decision or act. What concepts from Organizational Information Theory could be applied to describe what you did (or what you might have done if you'd been aware of the theory)?