Test Bank Chapter 9 Communicating Difference At Work

CHAPTER NINE: COMMUNICATING DIFFERENCE AT WORK

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. Amanda is white and attends a multiracial church. When pointing out people to others, she used to describe white people by their hair color and their clothing (e.g., “The blonde woman in the blue button-down.”), and people of color by their clothing and their race or ethnic group (e.g., “The black woman wearing the green dress and turquoise jewelry.”). She was not trying to be racist at all, but felt as though those that heard her variance in descriptions marked difference between people of different races more than she intended. Which of the following markers of difference best applies to this situation?
   1. Difference is connected to power – those in power construct differences.
   2. All differences are not created equal – binary systems of difference are characterized by dominant poles.
   3. Difference contrasts with and complements what is defined as “normal.”
   4. Difference is communicatively constructed.

Answer Location: Defining Differences at Work

1. Steven noticed that the phrase “non-white” was sometimes used as a “politically correct” way of describing persons of color. This started to bug him, because it seemed like what mattered was that the people weren’t white, rather than anything in particular about their racial or ethnic group. (And, there are myriad “non-white” races and ethnic groups – it seemed so strange to lump them all into one category.) Which of the following markers of difference best applies to this situation?
   1. Difference is connected to power – those in power construct differences.
   2. All differences are not created equal – binary systems of difference are characterized by dominant poles.
   3. Difference contrasts with and complements what is defined as “normal.”
   4. Difference is communicatively constructed.

Answer Location: Defining Differences at Work

1. Which of the following best exemplifies the meaning of the phrase, “differences that make a difference”?
   1. The biological differences between men and women, and people with black and white skin are where we derive the significance of gender, sexuality, and race.
   2. The distinctions between sexual preferences and partners are where we derive the significance of sexuality and interactions that sometimes lead to sexual harassment.
   3. Differences between people are natural, and we blow them out of proportion by talking about them too much or with too much significance.
   4. Some differences are structured into society as important, while others are overlooked and thought unimportant.

Answer Location: Defining Differences at Work

1. Ford’s Sociological Department and its emphasis on “clean living” (and careful elimination of jazz music among the employees it checked up on) is an example of the organization of race because ______.
   1. many of the Ford workers came from the South, and northern employees were skeptical of Southerners’ habits of cleanliness and morality (questioning the politics and influences of the Civil War)
   2. Henry Ford was deeply religious and thought that jazz music corroded the souls of the workers who listened to it (encouraging workers to adopt white Protestantism)
   3. jazz music was long associated with slave traditions and African-American musical roots, and seen as threatening (perceiving a threat to the white social order through widespread jazz)
   4. Henry Ford was concerned with making sure that members of the immigrant population would be in line with the corporate, political, also social values of the time (a form of systematic control)

Answer Location: Putting Race and Organization in Historical Context

1. Which of the following can best help us to understand why some white-skinned ethnic groups where categorized as “non-white”?
   1. The ways that some races typically find success in particular political, economic, and historical contexts.
   2. Paying attention to natural divisions among racial groups helps us to understand the ways in which race has significance in different contexts.
   3. The construction of racial categories is based on political, economic, and historical contexts.
   4. Noticing inherent biological distinctions is what helps us distinguished among racial groups.

Answer Location: Putting Race and Organization in Historical Context

1. Managing diversity most often refers to ______.
   1. the process of making sure organizational diversity does not distract from work
   2. effectively implementing affirmative action
   3. building workplaces that reflect the demography of the population
   4. studying the links between power, management, and race

Answer Location: Race and the Contemporary Workplace

1. Which of the following terms best describes the argument that organizations ultimately hurt their bottom line if they are not drawing upon the full set of skills offered them by the working population?
   1. homosocial reproduction
   2. managing diversity
   3. business case for diversity
   4. affirmative action

Answer Location: Race and the Contemporary Workplace

1. Which of Jablin’s stages of socialization best describes the stage in which workers adjusts her expectations, resolves organizational conflicts, and develops her own individual job role?
   1. anticipatory socialization
   2. assimilation
   3. exit
   4. metamorphosis

Answer Location: Race and the Contemporary Workplace

1. Whose standpoint does Jablin’s stages of socialization most frequently represent?
   1. women of color
   2. white men
   3. white women
   4. men of color

Answer Location: Race and the Contemporary Workplace

1. Much of the critique of the research done on race and organization focuses on the fact that the research ______.
   1. tended to normalize a white worldview
   2. posited that blackness normalized over time
   3. focused on workers of color in “dirty work” jobs
   4. looked at meaningful ways to normalize race and cultural differences

Answer Location: Race and the Contemporary Workplace

1. Brenda is moving to another state to start a new job as the director of finance at a public university. She reaches out to several friends who work at colleges in her hometown and she also gets some advice about working for a state intuition from other friends. Lastly, she does some research about college financial aid officers. Which of Jablin’s stages of socialization has Brenda engaged?
   1. stage 1, gathering information
   2. stage 2, assimilation
   3. stage 3, group metamorphosis
   4. stage 4, social adopting

Answer Location: Race and the Contemporary Workplace

1. The study of whiteness is best described as ______.
   1. understanding better the views of white people who are relatively uneducated and express racist views toward persons of color
   2. interrogating the intersections of power and privilege that mark whiteness as a “norm” in organizations and culture
   3. explaining the ways in which affirmative action has harmed white privilege
   4. studying all that is usually lumped under the category of queer

Answer Location: Interrogating Whiteness and Organizational Communication

1. A small non-profit educational enrichment program encourages dating among its staff. The hours are long and the work is exhausting – many of the senior staff (with non-colleague partners) have relationship troubles during the busy summer season because their partners “just don’t understand.” If the staff dates, the senior staff assumes, they’ll be happier at work and will experience less work-related relationship conflict. Which of the following best describes the senior staff’s views?
   1. instrumental sexuality
   2. sexual harassment
   3. emancipatory sexuality
   4. sexual harnessing

Answer Location: Instrumental Use of the Body and Sexuality

1. Jake identifies as a gay male, however when he is at work he engages in water cooler talk about sports, provides little information about himself, and avoids conversations that may reveal personal information. Jake is deploying which of the strategies that gay professionals use when negotiating their workplace identity?
   1. avoidance
   2. integration
   3. counterfeiting
   4. passing

Answer Location: Gay Workers and Heteronormativity

1. Which of the following describes an approach to sexuality through which workers might use their sexuality to resist organizational control?
   1. instrumental sexuality
   2. sexual harassment
   3. emancipatory sexuality
   4. identity sexuality

Answer Location: Instrumental Use of the Body and Sexuality

1. Which of the following is a communicative element of “passing”?
   1. hyper-attentive listening
   2. controlling conversations
   3. disclosure
   4. acceptable expression

Answer Location: Gay Workers and Heteronormativity

1. TD is a middle school teacher, one of the few men in the building. He is also in a long-term committed relationship with a man (they are not permitted to marry in the state where they live, otherwise, they would have been married long ago). Five years into his teaching career, he finally shares this information with one trusted colleague, who is surprised to learn this information. Upon further reflection, however, this colleague realizes that TD has long deflected questions about himself and his home life when they touch base on Monday mornings, allowing her to speak and bombarding her with more questions. Of the following passing strategies, which best describes TD’s behavior?
   1. denial
   2. dissociating
   3. dodging
   4. deceiving

Answer Location: Gay Workers and Heteronormativity

1. When TD reveals his sexuality to his colleague, she suggests that he speak to Linda, another teacher in the building who is also gay. Though TD likes Linda, he refuses to talk to her about anything not strictly curricula- or student-related. Which passing strategy best describes TD’s behavior?
   1. denial
   2. dissociating
   3. dodging
   4. deceiving

Answer Location: Gay Workers and Heteronormativity

1. Eventually, TD and his partner decide that they will attend a school picnic together, essentially “outing” themselves to the staff and the students and families all at once. Everything goes pretty well. Over the next several weeks, however, TD notices that his female colleagues who used to leave him in relative peace are approaching him to ask questions about fashion and to inquire into his sex life. How could we best describe what’s happening?
   1. The teachers are punishing TD for being gay by expecting him to act in certain ways.
   2. The teachers are policing his behavior because they think that he is probably distracted because of his sexuality.
   3. The teachers in are worried about hearing too many details of TD’s home life, so they distract him by talking about theirs.
   4. The teachers view TD as exotic and a token and project their stereotypes of gay men onto him now that they know he is gay.

Answer Location: Gay Workers and Heteronormativity

1. Why would “professionalism” be a particular concern for homosexual workers, homosexual men, in particular?
   1. Gay males do not want to be impacted by the glass ceiling in the same way that women have been impacted.
   2. Many gay men perceive being too “camp” in the workplace “reads” as unprofessional.
   3. Gay males want to downplay stereotypes of the gay community that may be distracting in the workplace.
   4. Many gay men believe that professionalism is viewed from a male perspective.

Answer Location: Gay Workers and Heteronormativity

True/False

1. Differences such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and the meanings attributed to these differences are naturally occurring and easily maintained.

Answer Location: Introduction

1. A critical perspective on “difference” tends to look at difference as sets of individual characteristics and as something that exists “within” organizations.

Answer Location: Race and the Contemporary Workplace

1. The primary way in which organizations deal with (or need to deal with) race is by thinking about it as an everyday feature of organizational life.

Answer Location: Race and the Contemporary Workplace

1. As long as an organization deals with any instances of overt racism, issues of race in organizations become relatively invisible.

Answer Location: Race and the Contemporary Workplace

1. Organizational communication research that focuses primarily on corporate settings has overlooked many of the nuances and experiences of the ways in which race and organizing intersect.

Answer Location: Introduction

1. When we look at binary differences there are two equal elements.

Answer Location: Defining Differences at Work

1. Organizations often institutionalize and normalize a white world view in a manner that is often covert and can be perceived as racist.

Answer Location: Race and the Contemporary Workplace

1. Whiteness is defined as race and “being white” is defined as institutionalized practices and ideas.

Answer Location: Interrogating Whiteness and Organizational Communication

1. We associate the concept of the invisible knapsack with a set of privileges that protect minorities from discrimination.

Answer Location: Interrogating Whiteness and Organizational Communication

1. Once an organization becomes “gay friendly,” all forms of sexuality-based discrimination will disappear.

Answer Location: Sexuality and Organizational Communication

Fill-in-the-Blank

1. White-skinned immigrants from Ireland and Italy were once considered ______.

Answer Location: Putting Race and Organizational in Historical Context

1. ______, once a derogatory term used to describe gay people, is now constructive in that it helps to show how normalization marginalizes people.

Answer Location: Defining Differences at Work

1. One important way of addressing race as an everyday, routine feature of organizational life is to look at ______.

Answer Location: Interrogating Whiteness and Organizational Communication

1. Studying whiteness enables us to see the ways in which whiteness is the often unspoken ______ of organizational life.

Answer Location: Interrogating Whiteness and Organizational Communication

1. Organizations try to exploit human sexuality or harness it as a ______.

Answer Location: Instrumental Use of the Body and Sexuality

1. Larry identifies as a gay male, however at work he is not comfortable and therefore manages his identity at work. Often, Larry ______ himself from certain conversations as to avoid from having to divulge personal information.

Answer Location: Gay Workers and Heteronormativity

1. ______ describes the set of communicative strategies that a person may use to be identified as a straight woman at work, despite her homosexuality.

Answer Location: Gay Workers and Heteronormativity

1. ______ is the term used to describe the implicit assumption that heterosexuality is the ideal or standard against which other forms of sexuality are measured.

Answer Location: Gay Workers and Heteronormativity

1. The modern workplace is no longer a ______ environment that ostracizes gay and lesbian employees.

Answer Location: Sexuality and Organizational Communication

1. From the 1950s to the 1980s, corporations and organizations were relatively ______ about sexual expression.

Answer Location: Sexuality and Organizational Communication