Test 3

Question 0

What are advantages and disadvantages to the prescriptive approach?

Answer 0

• Advantages:
o Assumes management can fix things easily
o Assumes can control
o Assumes one culture, no subcultures
• Disadvantages:
o Assumes that members don’t create their own culture
o Assumes all cultures are the same
o Oversimplifies organizational life

Question 1

What are differences between the descriptive approach and the prescriptive approach?

Answer 1

• Descriptive – an organization is culture, want to understand what is going on
• Prescriptive – culture is something an organization has, it can be controlled

Question 2

What are underlying assumptions of the descriptive approach?

Answer 2

1. Cultures are complicated
2. Cultures are emergent
3. Cultures aren’t unitary or unified
4. Culture is often ambiguous

Question 3

Understand Schein’s model of culture—what’s in each level and how to observe each level.

Answer 3

1. Artifacts and creations
2. Values
3. Basic assumptions

Question 4

What is conflict?

Answer 4

• The interaction of interdependent people who perceive opposition of goals, aims, and values, and who see the other party as potentially interfering with the realization of these goals.

Question 5

What are conflict styles?

Answer 5

• Avoidance – don’t address issues, show little concern for self or others
o Ex: when it’s not worth it
• Accommodating – high concern for other, low concern for self
o Ex: Doing it because of the relationship
• Competition – Argue with the other person and try to get your way. Privileges the self and low concern for others
o I need to win, relationship is important so its worth it
• Compromise – no one is privileged, both tend to lose
• Collaboration – both win, most productive and time consuming. Try to think of a solution that benefits both parties

Question 6

What are some problems with conflict styles?

Answer 6

• Looked at one particular instance and only standpoint from one person
• Time might be important, relevance of issue, consequences of issue
• Model privileges verbal communication, but many times in conflict we rely on nonverbal messages

Question 7

How are managers often called to be 3rd parties in conflicts (i.e., mediators/arbitrators)?

Answer 7

• Mediator – doesn’t make decision but helps

* Arbitrator – listens to both sides, but one is right

Question 8

What does it mean to go below the line?

Answer 8

• Positions – what we want
• Interests – why we want them
• FOCUS ON INTERESTS, NOT POSITIONS

Question 9

What are the four steps of Principled Negotiation?

Answer 9

1. Separate people from the problem
2. Focus on shared interest
3. Generate creative options
4. Use objective criteria

Question 10

What types of goals do people have in a conflict?

Answer 10

• Topic – the substance of the disagreement
• Relationships – how do we relate to each other
• Identity – face-saving (don’t want to look bad)
• Process – how do we argue (public or private)

Question 11

Know the difference between rationality, bounded rationality, and bounded emotionality.

Answer 11

• Rationality – think optimizing
• Bounded rationality – satisficing/analogizing
• Bounded emotionally – within organizational research

Question 12

What is emotional labor?

Answer 12

• Have to be friendly, fake towards customer

Question 13

Know the difference between surface acting and deep acting

Answer 13

• Surface acting – displaying the required emotions even if you don’t feel them (faking it)
• Deep acting – working to make yourself feel a required emotion (don’t feel it, but convince yourself that you do)

Question 14

Other than emotional labor, how can emotion be part of the workplace (emotional work, emotion with work, emotion at work)?

Answer 14

• Emotional work – hospice, real towards customer
• Emotion with work – I hate my boss, supervisors, task, etc.
• Emotion at work – my roommate is sick, happens outside but is expressed at work

Question 15

What can lead to stress and burnout?

Answer 15

• Workload – having too much work to do and having work that is too difficult
o Communication load: rate and complexity of information received by an individual
• Role conflict – having 2 or more role requirements that clash with each other
• Role ambiguity – when there is uncertainty about role requirements

Question 16

Know the dimensions of burnout

Answer 16

• Emotional exhaustion – feeling fatigued, frustrated, unable to face another work day
• Lack of personal accomplishment – when we see ourselves as failures, as not being able to accomplish job requirements
• Depersonalization – workers who communicate interpersonally with others (clients, social workers)

Question 17

How can communication cause burnout?

Answer 17

• Organization communication contributes to burnout through stressors
• Communication between employees and clients involve some emotional labor

Question 18

Know burnout coping stuff.

Answer 18

• Problem focused – dealing directly with the cause of burnout (the most enduring and satisfying strategy to reduce burnout long term)
• Appraisal focused – changing the way we think about stressful situations
• Emotion centered – dealing with negative affective (emotional) outcomes of burnout

Question 19

What types of support help reduce burnout?

Answer 19

• Flexibility – schedule/career
• Social support – including EAP’s
• Socialization – orientation and beyond
• Workload management – clear tasks and expectations

Question 20

What is the media richness model?

Answer 20

• How do managers choose one medium over another?
• Information carrying capacity of the media
1. Availability of instant feedback
2. Use of multiple cues
3. Use of natural language
4. Personal focus of the medium

Question 21

Know the differences between rich and lean media and when each is appropriate

Answer 21

• Rich media = has all 4 characters
o Low ambiguity: message potentially over kill
o High ambiguity: potentially effective communication
• Lean media = has little to no characters
o Low ambiguity: efficient communication
o High ambiguity: high chance of miscommunication

Question 22

What is the social information processing model?

Answer 22

.
• Communication with co-workers and supervisor has an influence on media usage
• Social information can impact perceived media characteristics task requirements
• Can also influence attitude with communication media and media use behavior

Question 23

What is the dual capacity model?

Answer 23

• Extends richness model

* Explores multiple purposes fulfilled by technology

Question 24

What is the difference between data-carrying capacity and symbolic-carrying capacity?

Answer 24

• Data-carrying capacity – analogous to media richness

* Symbolic-carrying capacity – involves additional meaning an individual might have for a particular medium

Question 25

How is communication content affected by tech.?

Answer 25

• Debated whether emotion and social cues are left out of certain techs
o Task content is prevalent

Question 26

How is communication structure affected by tech.?

Answer 26

• Central office – people in the same time and the same place
• Telecommuting – work accomplished at same time in a different place
• Flextime – work done at the place and different time
• Virtual office – work done at different times and different places through the use of multiple information and computer techs

Question 27

Know the different types of organizations such as multinational, international, etc.

Answer 27

• Domestic – identifies with a single country and predominant culture
o Ex: Brownbag
• Multicultural – primarily identifies with one country, but recognizes the need for a culturally diverse workforce
o Ex: Dutch’s
• Multinational – identifies with one country primarily, but operates in several countries
o Ex. Wal-Mart
• International – identifies with two or more countries with distinct cultural qualities
o Ex. Toyota
• Global – identifies with the global system rather than countries
o Ex. Coca-Cola

Question 28

Know the effects of globalization (time/space compression, disembeddeness, convergence/divergence)

Answer 28

• Time/space compression – allows global to be local and vice versa
• Global consciousness/reflexivity – expands considerations of more areas
• Disembeddeness – creates disconnects to the local
• Divergence/convergence – homogenization (similar) and polarization (different)
• Added layers of accountability – or capacity to escape accountability

Question 30

What are contingent workers?

Answer 30

• Individuals without a permanent and full-time connection to an organization

Question 31

Approaches to the Conflict Management Process

Answer 31

• Classical- Conflict is a breakdown of communication. Conflict is managed (often by third parties) to the extent that existence of conflict detracts from organizational efficiency.
• Human Relations- Conflict is viewed negatively, as evidence of faulty relationships among organizational members. Conflicting parties are encouraged to avoid conflicts or compromise in order to return to harmonious work relations.
• Human Resources- Conflict is viewed as a possible means for growth and development in the organization. Conflicting parties are encouraged to collaborate on solutions that will satisfy both parties to contribute to better future organizational functioning.
• Systems- Conflict is conceptualized as cycles of activities that can escalate and de-escalate. Possibility for conflict varies with the interdependencies created through communication network structures.
• Cultural- Conflict stems form and can be revealed through differential metaphors and value systems of individuals and groups. Organizational cultures vary in terms of their level of conflict.
• Critical- Superficial organizational conflicts reveal deeper imbalances of power based on class- structure, economics, or gender and are revealed and sustained through organizational discourse.

Question 32

Approaches to emotion

Answer 32

• Classical- Emotions are not seen as an issue except to the extent that they lower worker productivity. Working conditions of classical organizations are likely to cause burnout, but burned-out employees will be replaced quickly.
• Human Relations- The only emotions considered is job satisfaction. Stress and burnout are likely to be dealt with through the provision of emotional support or other means of boosting employee self-esteem.
• Human Resources- Emotions are rarely considered while rationally designing the organization. Stress and burnout are likely to be dealt with through participative decision making or structural changes designed to enhance employee control.
• Systems- Emotions are seen as sense making opportunities. Stress scholars might consider the impact of combination network participation on stress and cybernetic models of burnout control in the workplace.
• Critical- Emotions are seen as one indicator of strain in the relationship between employees and owners in the organizational context. A goal of the critical researcher is to educate workers to resist acceptance of conditions that create stress and burnout.

Question 33

Approaches to Media Richness

Answer 33

• Classical- Organizational communication technology is seen as a tool that can be used to enhance the efficiency of organizations by supplementing or replacing efforts of human workers. Little concern is paid to other effects of technology.
• Human Relations- Organizational communication technology is seen as a tool that can free workers from mundane tasks and allow them to engage in activities that satisfy higher-order needs. Emphasis is placed on technological impacts on worker attitudes.
  Human Resources- Organizational communication technology is seen as a tool that could enhance organizational effectiveness when used in combination with human workers; Decision- making technologies are particularly relevant to the extent that they maximize the knowledge potential of employees.
• Systems- Organizational communication technology is seen as a way to link organizational subsystems and to link the organization with the environment. Special attention is paid to the impact of technologies on communication networks and on the unintended effects of technologies.
• Cultural- Organizational communication technology is seen as a symbolic manifestation of organizational culture and as a medium through which cultural values are developed and communicated.
• Critical- Organizational communication technology is seen as a means fee repressing workers through de-skilling of jobs and control of information. Alternatively, technologies could serve as channels for democratization by allowing more open communication.