Verified Test Bank Organizational Communication Ch8

CHAPTER 8

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION

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 *

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Defining Organizational Communication

1. 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

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The Organization as a System

1. ________ 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

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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.

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. 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

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. 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

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. ________ 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

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Positive and Negative Organizational Communication Traits

1. 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 *

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. 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

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. ________ 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

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. 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

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

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

a) Adding

b) Leveling

c) Sharpening *

d) Assimilation

e) Misinformation

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. The levels of power within an organization represent its ________.

a) values

b) profit motives

c) hierarchal structure *

d) culture

e) heroic figures

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages.

1. 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

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages.

1. 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

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The Organization as a System

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

Blooms: Understanding

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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 *

Bloom’s Remembering

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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 __________.
2. an open system *
3. hopelessly mired in bureaucracy
4. a closed system
5. a profit-based corporate culture
6. a victim of entropy

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: The Organization as a System

1. 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.
2. protocols
3. policies *
4. norms
5. bureaucracy
6. rule books

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The Organization as a System

1. How an organization’s predetermined guidelines are to be best met are laid out in its __________, detailed methods used in achieving those outcomes.
2. protocols *
3. policies
4. norms
5. bureaucracy
6. rule books

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: The Organization as a System

1. The larger an organization, the more complex its structure, the greater the need for more _______.
2. protocols
3. policies
4. norms
5. managers
6. bureaucracy *

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: The Organization as a System

1. Max Weber’s Theory of Bureaucracy argues that bureaucracy serves to ensure a well-functioning system through three basic principles: authority, specialization, and ____________.
2. norms
3. policies
4. rules *
5. protocols
6. rule books

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The Organization as a System

1. 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.
2. non-discrimination
3. fairness above all
4. equal treatment of all employees *
5. empowerment
6. adherence to the rule book

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: The Organization as a System

1. 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 ____________.
2. the grapevine
3. fairness above all
4. organizational sensemaking
5. adherence to the rule book
6. underlying assumptions *

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. 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.
2. empowerment
3. authority *
4. rules
5. policy
6. interaction

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: The Organization as a System

1. 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.
2. empowerment
3. authority
4. rules
5. specialization *
6. interaction

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: The Organization as a System

1. 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.
2. non-discrimination
3. fairness above all
4. equal treatment of all employees *
5. employment as career
6. interaction

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: The Organization as a System

1. 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 _______.
2. your organization is an open system
3. your organization had trouble adapting to the non-routine
4. humans are fallible *
5. morale is horrible
6. people did not consult the rule book

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: The Organization as a System

1. An organization’s members, through their interactions with their colleagues, establish a ________, how they want to be perceived by those colleagues.
2. work identity *
3. place in the hierarchy
4. role
5. self-identity
6. looking glass self

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Positive and Negative Organizational Communication Traits

1. The __________ of an organization is the product of employees’ interactions with the functioning of that organization.
2. culture
3. climate *
4. norm
5. socialization
6. rules

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. 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.
2. culture *
3. climate
4. norm
5. socialization
6. rules

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. An organization’s climate tends to be communicated ___________ the organization, whereas an organization’s culture tends____________.
2. horizontally across/to develop holistically
3. down and then throughout/to permeate all levels of the system *
4. to develop holistically/horizontally across
5. up and then throughout/to permeate all levels of the system
6. horizontally across/to develop horizontally as well

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. ________________ is the process by which individuals become integrated into the culture of an organization.
2. Organizational acclimatization
3. Organizational enculturation
4. Organizational assimilation *
5. Anticipatory socialization
6. Social assimilation

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. Among the six interrelated communication-based elements that help build strong organizational cultures is/are _________________, effective grapevine and water cooler talk.
2. a cultural network *
3. heroic figures
4. stories
5. values and beliefs
6. the rule book

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. 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.
2. whisperer
3. priest *
4. gossiper
5. whistleblower
6. barker

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. 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.
2. whisperer
3. priest
4. gossiper
5. whistleblower *
6. barker

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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.
2. water-cooler talk
3. concerted activity *
4. corporate social responsibility
5. free expression
6. part of the grapevine

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. _____________ 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.
2. An open system
3. Concerted activity
4. Corporate social responsibility *
5. Socialism
6. The cultural network

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. 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.
2. corporate social responsibility *
3. organizational culture
4. organizational climate
5. halo effect
6. hierarchy

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. 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.
2. anticipatory socialization
3. organizational entry
4. assimilation
5. social leaving
6. disengagement and exit *

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. When people enter the disengagement and exit organizational assimilation stage, they ___________.
2. talk with colleagues less frequently and less personally *
3. tend to forgive mistakes
4. seek out organizational heroes
5. attempt to mentor others
6. tend to become whisperers

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

SHORT ANSWER

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

Main theme: Communication breakdown is inevitable in organizations because they are made up of humans with different personalities, communication styles, and character traits. Negative workplace communication traits are toxic.

Answer must have: Correct list and identification of 4 negative traits: aggressiveness, superiority, secrecy, and intimidation. Answers will vary from there but must accurately fit the identified trait.

Answer may have: Mention of work identity and face.

A-head: Positive and Negative Organizational Communication Traits

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

Main theme: Communication breakdown is inevitable in organizations because they are made up of humans with different personalities, communication styles, and character traits. But positive workplace communication traits can empower others produce beneficial outcomes.

Answer must have: Correct list and identification of 4 positive traits: supportiveness, motivation, empowerment, assertiveness. Answers will vary from there but must accurately fit the identified trait.

Answer may have: Mention of work identity and face.

A-head: Positive and Negative Organizational Communication Traits

1. 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.

Main theme: The grapevine consists of messages and rumors that make their way around an organization; in the end, these may bear little resemblance to the original message, and most organizations recognize its value.

Answer must have: Accurate list and description of 4 forms of grapevine communication: single-strand, gossip, probability, and cluster. Must mention benefits of understanding how it operates and using it to complement the formal network.

Answer may have: Mention of strong organizational culture and water cooler communication.

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

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

Main theme: Organizational assimilation is the process by which individuals become integrated into the culture of an organization, and it occurs in three communication stages.

Answer must have: Accurate list and description of 3 stages: anticipatory socialization stage, organizational entry and assimilation stage, disengagement and exit stage. Examples must fit.

Answer may have: Mention of strong organizational culture and the cultural network.

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

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

Main theme: As organizations spread their reach overseas, those that can rely on a diverse, pluralistic employee base well-versed in intercultural communication can benefit in several ways.

Answer must have: Accurate listing and description of all or most of these benefits: Miscommunication is less likely; discrimination, racism, and harassment are not tolerated; all employees feel full membership; encouraging diversity inward will make the organization more effective outward.

Answer may have: Mention of strong organizational culture and beneficial workplace climate.

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

ESSAY

1. 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.

Main theme: Organizations with strong cultures experience long-term business success. Strong cultures result in greater employee satisfaction, increased productivity, greater customer satisfaction, and customer trust.

Answer must have: Accurate list and description of the 6 elements: history, values and beliefs, rituals and ceremonies, stories, heroic figures, a cultural network. Descriptions must be accurate and examples must fit those descriptions. From there, answers will vary.

Answer may have: Mention of benefits of strong organizational culture or value of upward, downward, and horizontal communication.

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture

1. 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.

Main theme: Organizations as systems communicate effectively to maximize productivity and they do this through implementation of bureaucracy. Bureaucracy, therefore, is not only positive, but necessary to a functioning system.

Answer must have: Accurate list and description of 5 elements of bureaucracy: authority, specialization, rules governing performance and the centralization of decision making, equal treatment of all employees, and a sense of employment as career.

Answer may have: Mention of systems theory, organizations as open systems, and human fallibility.

A-head: The Organization as a System

1. 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.

Main theme: Messages flowing within organizations can move in various directions. The direction of this movement is significant because it helps establish the existence of a hierarchal structure. The way employees deal with specific types of messages can differ dramatically, and so can the consequences.

Answer must have: Answer must have accurate linking of different communication forms to route traveled; (for example, downward has serial distortion and so on). Benefits and drawbacks must make sense given listed forms of communication.

Answer may have: Mention of organization culture and climate.

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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?

Main theme: Two common less structured, but quite valuable types of organizational communication are grapevine and water cooler communication.

Answer must have: Accurate descriptions of each and the various forms each can take. From there answers will vary, but benefits and drawbacks must be drawn from the chapter and be accurately applied to each form.

Answer may have: Mention of theory of bureaucracy and elements of a strong organizational culture.

A-head: Types and Movement of Organizational Messages

1. 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.

Main theme: Organizations, as systems, are only as effective as their individual parts, and those parts—the organization’s people—operate not only within the organization’s bureaucracy, but within its climate and culture. Organizational climate and culture are closely related, and both are forces that arise naturally from and shape the life of the organization.

Answer must have: Accurate distinction and description of both climate and culture. Differences and similarities must be accurately rendered. From there answers will vary.

Answer may have: Mention of theory of bureaucracy and elements of a strong organizational culture. Schein’s iceberg model of strong organizational cultures and the idea of organizational sensemaking might also make an appearance.

A-head: Organizational Climate and Culture