Deck 11: Communicating Effectively Within Diverse Organizations

Question 1

Communication is the process managers use to interact with subordinates, peers, supervisors, customers, suppliers, owners and the general public.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Communication is a dynamic yet rather straightforward process.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The ability to communicate effectively is the characteristic managers consider most critical in determining managerial success.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Communication is a process in which sender, messages, channels, and receivers remain constant or static.

Question 5

Traditional communication activities tend to become more complicated with the integration of technology.

Question 6

The authors define communication as a process in which one person or group evokes an identical meaning in a second person or group.

Question 7

The term communication comes from a Latin word meaning "to make important."

Question 8

The basic elements of the communication process include the sender, the channel, the message, the receiver, feedback, and noise.

Question 9

The setting in which communication takes place is called decoding.

Question 10

Translating the sender's ideas into a systematic set of symbols or a language expressing the communicator's purpose is referred to as decoding.

Question 11

The function of decoding is to provide a forum in which ideas and purposes can be expressed as a message.

Question 12

The channel is the carrier of the message or the means by which the message is sent.

Question 13

Medium are tangible forms of coded symbols that are intended to give a particular meaning to the data.

Question 14

Messages are the thoughts and feelings that the communicator is attempting to elicit in the receiver.

Question 15

If the message is encoded properly, there will be no noise in the communication process.

Question 16

Encoding is the translation of received messages into interpreted meanings.

Question 17

Decoding involves the translation of received messages into interpreted meanings.

Question 18

Decoding is the process of verifying messages and the receiver's attempts to ensure that the message decoded is what the sender meant to convey.

Question 19

Any internal or external interference or distraction with the intended message that can cause distortion in the sending and receiving of messages is called noise.

Question 20

Decoding is the process of verifying messages from the sender.

Question 21

Interpersonal communication can be broken down into four categories: oral, written, nonverbal, and technological.

Question 22

Research indicates that mangers prefer written communication to face-to-face communication because written communication provides a reference for future use.

Question 23

Nonverbal communication consists of all forms of spoken information and is by far the most preferred type of communication used by managers.

Question 24

Examples of written communication are letters, memos, policy manuals, and reports.

Question 25

Managers use written communication more often than oral.

Question 26

Writing down a message and sending it as a letter or memo enables a precise statement to be made.

Question 27

Nonverbal communication involves all messages that are nonlanguage responses.

Question 28

Nonverbal communication includes kinesic behavior or body motion such as gestures, facial expressions, eye behavior, touching, and any other movement of the body.

Question 29

Technological communication is a broad category of communication components that are rapidly influencing how managers communicate.

Question 30

Paralanguage refers to body motions, such as gestures, facial expressions, or any other movement of the body.

Question 31

The way people use and perceive space during communication is referred to as proxemics.

Question 32

Time related behavior, such as being late or early, or keeping people waiting is considered a form of paralanguage.

Question 33

While initially a fast growing field, the extent of telecommuting has actually declined because research shows that people tend to favor face to face communication.

Question 34

The terms "telecommuting"and "telework" refer to the practice of working at a remote site by using a computer linked to a central office or other employment location.

Question 35

Telecommuting, once primarily the domain of lower-level and technical employees, increasingly is moving into the senior management ranks.

Question 36

Two of the advantages of telecommuting are cost efficiencies and low employee turnover rates.

Question 37

The disadvantages in the use of e-mail identified by the authors are the possibility of e-mail overloads and the loss of personal interactions that may be needed for better communications in some situations.

Question 38

In some situations, more information may encourage managers to make decisions too quickly.

Question 39

The practice of working at home or at a remote site by using a computer linked to a central office or other employment location is referred to as distance commuting.

Question 40

Videoconferencing is an umbrella term referring to the technologies that use live video to unite widely dispersed company operations.

Question 41

The motivational function of communication satisfies social needs while the informational function of communication was intended to coordinate and integrate work efforts.

Question 42

A common problem in cross-cultural communications is ethnocentrism, which is the tendency to consider one's own culture as being inferior to others.

Question 43

Studies show that the greater the differences between the sender's and receiver's cultures, the greater the chance for miscommunication.

Question 44

When senders and receivers come from different cultural backgrounds, breakdowns in the communication process are more likely.

Question 45

Ethnocentrism is a valuable asset to managers for it allows them to see the various cultures of the world "through the eyes of native members of those foreign countries.

Question 46

Gender differences can result in communication breakdowns and lead to distorted communication and misunderstandings between men and women.

Question 47

Men are more likely than women to use qualifiers such as "I think or "It seems to me."

Question 48

Information overload occurs whenever the capacity of a communication medium to process information is exceeded.

Question 49

Horizontal communication flows from individuals in higher levels of an organization to those in lower levels.

Question 50

Upward communication typically provides information to subordinates from their managers.

Question 51

Upward communication is the horizontal information flow that occurs both within and between departments.

Question 52

Spontaneous channels of communication are casual, opportunistic, and informal paths that arise from the social relationships that evolve in an organization.

Question 53

Formal communication channels arise from the social relationships that evolve in an organization.

Question 54

The grapevine is the informal flow of messages throughout an organization.

Question 55

Feedback should be general rather than specific.

Question 56

Feedback can include very personal feelings.

Question 57

Many people tend to protect themselves from getting hurt, and therefore do little to encourage or cultivate useful feedback.

Question 58

In his best-selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey suggests that the key to effective listening is to seek first to understand, then to be understood.

Question 59

Listening when emotions are high is even more important than listening in team situations.

Question 60

Extreme emotions, such as anger, resentment and excitement, warrant attention from a personal and business standpoint.

Question 61

Distractions can exist in nonverbal communications as well as in verbal communications.

Question 62

Studies show that managers spend from __________ percent of their time communicating with supervisors, subordinates, peers, and outside constituents.

A) 10 to 24
B) 25 to 45
C) 46 to 65
D) 66 to 90
E) 85 to 98

Question 63

Which of the following statements about communication is inaccurate?

A) Communication is a process in which sender, messages, channels, and receivers do not remain constant or static.
B) Communication is simple.
C) Communication can be symbolic.
D) The object of communicating is to create some degree of accurate understanding among the participants.
E) Communication skills are essential for managerial success.

Question 64

A process in which a person or group evokes a shared or common meaning to another person or group is called

A) transference.
B) communication.
C) planning.
D) organizing.
E) information transfer.

Question 65

Mr. Kevin Rollins spends the majority of his managerial day reading, listening, managing and interpreting information, servicing clients, writing, speech-making and using symbolic gestures. Broadly interpreted, this process is referred to as

A) transference.
B) directing.
C) planning.
D) organizing.
E) communication.

Question 66

Which of the following statements is not an accurate characterization of the communication process?

A) Communication is complicated.
B) Communication is dynamic.
C) Communication is largely symbolic.
D) Communication is straightforward.
E) Communication is complex.

Question 67

Which of the following statements about communication is inaccurate?

A) Communication is complicated.
B) Communication is difficult.
C) Managers agree that the ability to communicate effectively is crucial to enhancing career success.
D) More than ever before, an individual's ability to communicate will affect his or her capacity to do well.
E) Straightforward exchanges of factual information are not subject to distortion and miscommunication.

Question 68

Which of the following choices correctly identifies the basic components of the communication process?

A) sender, channel, message, receiver, feedback, noise
B) delineator, facilitator, processor, decoder, end-user
C) originator, facilitator, encoder, decoder, end-user
D) sender, facilitator, medium, processor, receiver
E) designer, encoder, decoder, facilitator, receiver

Question 69

There is great disparity in the types of conversations that take place in an office and those that take place in a company's cafeteria. The office and cafeteria represent two distinct

A) associational settings.
B) social contexts.
C) telecommuting settings.
D) communication media.
E) ethnocentric contexts.

Question 70

Suppose that you meet with your supervisor in her office. The setting of your supervisor's office is known as which element of the communication process?

A) associational setting
B) public context
C) social environment
D) communication forum
E) social context

Question 71

Suppose your manager wanted to talk to you about applying for a promotion, but instead of inviting you to his office, he asked you to meet with him at a quiet restaurant, so you could talk privately and avoid the distractions of the office. By selecting the restaurant instead of his office, your manager was changing the __________ of the communication process.

A) encoding
B) decoding
C) social setting
D) receiving
E) sending

Question 72

Up until recently, the members of your work group had met two mornings a week to discuss production plans and troubleshoot problems. However, since your firm went "on-line, you have replaced the face-to-face meeting with e-mail exchanges. In this illustration, the __________ of the communication process has changed.

A) encoding
B) decoding
C) psychological makeup
D) organizational pretense
E) social context

Question 73

Rather than speaking with each employee face-to-face, Greta Sharp e-mailed each employee a copy of the memo regarding the new vacation policy. The e-mail itself is an example of the __________ in the communication model.

A) social context
B) channel
C) encoding
D) message decoding
E) feedback

Question 74

The __________ process translates the sender's ideas into a systematic set of symbols or a language expressing the communicator's purpose.

A) transcribing
B) decoding
C) receiving
D) encoding
E) sending

Question 75

People who write computer code do so in a way that other programmers and computers can read it, but the code is impossible for the average person to interpret. Writing computer code, however, is an example of __________, which is the process of translating a sender's ideas into a systematic set of symbols expressing the communicator's purpose.

A) decoding
B) transcribing
C) sending
D) encoding
E) receiving

Question 76

Mr. Peter Higgins encodes his thoughts and creates a tangible form that is intended to give a particular meaning to his thoughts and data. This tangible form of encoded symbols is contained in which element of the communication process?

A) social context
B) sender and message encoding
C) message and channel
D) receiver and message decoding
E) feedback

Question 77

The tangible forms of coded symbols that are intended to give a particular meaning to data are referred to as

A) encoding.
B) channels.
C) dispatches.
D) knowledge.
E) messages.

Question 78

The result of encoding is the

A) answer.
B) code.
C) message.
D) indicator.
E) directive.

Question 79

Amy Williams must translate a message received from her boss into a meaningful interpretation. This translation process is contained in which element of the communication process?

A) social context
B) sender and message encoding
C) message and medium
D) receiver and message decoding
E) feedback

Question 80

Before sending an e-mail message to an important employee, Laurence Tisch, the CEO, is careful to make sure that the __________, or the thoughts and feelings that he is attempting to elicit in the receiver of the e-mail, is carefully considered.

A) message
B) directive
C) medium
D) script
E) code