Deck 2: A: Perspectives for Organizational Communication

Question 1

Communication functions described in the Functional tradition are organizing,change,and regulation.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Organizing messages define and clarify tasks,develop work instructions,and evaluate task accomplishment.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The relationship between external environment information and internal information processing is not important for organizational communication systems.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Organizing messages establish the rules and regulations of a particular environment.

Question 5

Relationship messages establish how the organization operates.

Question 6

Relationship messages establish the human interactions that make organization operations possible.

Question 7

Integrative and relationship functions of organizational communication are significantly different.

Question 8

In the Functional tradition,information processing is seen as the primary function of organizational communication systems.

Question 9

Policy manuals,employee handbooks,orientation training,newsletters,and a variety of other sources convey information about how the organization expects to work and what it requires of its members.These messages are examples of relationship messages.

Question 10

Messages to the external environment from within the organization are known as input communication.

Question 11

Relationship communication contributes to individuals' identification with an organization or to a sense of belonging in their work environment.

Question 12

The adequacy and effectiveness of organizing messages cannot be evaluated.

Question 13

Closed systems are characterized by good input communication.

Question 14

Open systems continually take in new information,transform that information,and give information back to the environment.

Question 15

The relationship function of organizational communication helps individuals define their roles and assess the compatibility of individual and organizational goals.

Question 16

The Functional tradition helps us understand organizational communication by describing what messages do and how they move through organizations.

Question 17

When information enters the organization,the communication system begins a process known as throughput,or the transforming and changing of input information for internal organizational use.

Question 18

Information in the external environment which is processed by the organization is commonly known as output communication.

Question 19

Communication structure described in the Functional tradition consists of networks,channels,direction,load,and distortion.

Question 20

Individual units within the organization or suprasystem are known as subsystems.

Question 21

Communication networks develop as a result of both formal organization and informal social contact.

Question 22

Organizing messages are characterized by rules and regulations,organizational policies,task definition,task instruction,and task evaluation.

Question 23

Face-to-face interaction has the strength of immediacy and the capacity to monitor nonverbal as well as verbal behavior.

Question 24

Power and status,work requirements,technical capability,and judgments about channel effectiveness all contribute to the channels selected for organizational communication.

Question 25

Change messages help organizations adapt what they do and how they do it.

Question 26

Communication networks represent the formal communication system.

Question 27

Channels are the means of transmission of messages.

Question 28

Communication networks develop exclusively from formal organizational structure.

Question 29

Communication networks are the formal and informal patterns of communication that link organizational members together.

Question 30

Negative messages,more than good news,are likely to be transmitted face-to-face.

Question 31

Attitudes about messages and receivers do not influence channel selection.

Question 32

Low-status organizational members can determine what channels they personally want to use and can determine what modes others must use in communicating with them.

Question 33

The ultimate effectiveness of change communication cannot be understood.

Question 34

Relationship messages are characterized by decision making,market analysis,new idea processing,environmental inputs,employee suggestions,and problem solving.

Question 35

Change messages are not essential to an open system.

Question 36

Change messages are characterized by individual role definition,individual/organizational goals,status symbols,and integration among supervisor/subordinates,and peers.

Question 37

Formal networks emerge as a result of individuals who have interpersonal relationships,who exchange valuable information across reporting chains,and who disregard status.

Question 38

Face-to-face interaction,group meetings,memos,letters,computer-mediated exchanges,web sites,presentations,and teleconferencing are commonly used communication channels in contemporary organizations.

Question 39

Change communication is the processing of new ideas and information as well as the altering of existing procedures and processes.

Question 40

Change messages help organizations establish employee commitment.

Question 41

Researchers typically describe three primary message directions in organizations: downward,upward,and horizontal communication.

Question 42

Upward communication describes message movement that begins with lower organizational levels and is transmitted to higher levels of authority.

Question 43

Organizational communication is characterized by the serial transmission of messages.

Question 44

Organizational culture reflects the shared realities in the organization and how these realities create and shape organizational events.

Question 45

Messages can be distorted by the number of people involved (the network),the channels for transmission (oral,written),and the direction of flow (vertical,horizontal,informal).

Question 46

The grapevine as an informal communication network may move both vertically and horizontally,all within the transmission of a single message.

Question 47

Downward communication describes message movement from a person in a position of authority to a subordinate or subordinate group.

Question 48

The culture of an organization describes how the organization does things and how people talk about how they do things.

Question 49

Communication climate is the objective,descriptive reaction of organization members to the organization's communication events,their reaction to organizational culture.

Question 50

Oral messages accompanied by supporting written messages have been described as the least effective method for transmitting information from management throughout the organization.

Question 51

Directives,orders,important policy changes,and the need for immediate action are best communicated orally and accompanied by written support.

Question 52

Written channels are more effective when communication requires future employee action or is of a general nature.

Question 53

Organizing and decision making are very different communication phenomena.

Question 54

Karl Weick proposed that organizations as such do not exist but are in the process of existing through ongoing human interaction.

Question 55

Horizontal communication moves laterally across the organization among individuals of approximately the same level and without distinct reporting relationships to each other.

Question 56

Most but not all ongoing human interaction is communication in one
form or another.

Question 57

Organizations exist through human interaction;structures and technologies result from the information to which individuals react.

Question 58

Equivocal messages are not susceptible to varying interpretations.

Question 59

Upward communication describes message movement from a person in a position of authority to a subordinate or subordinate group.

Question 60

Judgments about channel effectiveness should never be based on financial cost and individual skill levels.

Question 61

The organic metaphor of the dynamic system is used in the Meaning-Centered approach to understand organizational communication.

Question 62

Organizational communication is the process through which organizational influence takes place.

Question 63

The Functional tradition,in treating organizations as communication systems,describes system messages in terms of message flow and message function.

Question 64

Tactical communication rules prescribe specific behaviors as related to more general communication themes.

Question 65

Socialization refers to the active organizational attempts to help members learn appropriate behaviors,norms,and values.

Question 66

Power can be defined as attempts to influence another person's behavior to produce desired outcomes.

Question 67

The process of choosing from among numerous alternatives is the process of decision making.

Question 68

The Functional and Meaning-Centered approaches utilize similar metaphors to describe organizational communication.

Question 69

Communication rules are general prescriptions about appropriate communication behaviors.

Question 70

Organizing,decision-making,and influence processes,when taken together,help describe the culture of an organization by describing how organizations do things and how organizational members talk about how they do things.

Question 71

When culture is used as a metaphor for organizational communication,we attempt to understand communication by understanding the uniqueness or shared realities in particular organizations.

Question 72

Organizational identification refers to developing a sense of "we" or belonging with the organization.

Question 73

Active organizational attempts to help members learn appropriate behaviors,norms,and values are known as socialization attempts.

Question 74

Structuration refers to the production of social systems but not to any future reproduction.

Question 75

The Functional tradition suggests that culture as a variable can be compared and contrasted with other variables within the organization.

Question 76

The reaction to an organization's culture is the organization's communication climate.

Question 77

The Meaning-Centered perspective utilizes the cultural metaphor to understand organizational communication.

Question 78

Active organizational attempts to influence organizational members can be described as identification.

Question 79

Thematic communication rules are specific prescriptions of behavior.

Question 80

Decision making is accomplished primarily through communication.