Theories of Organizational Behavior Mid-Term

(a) affect (feeling); (b) cognition (thought); (c) conation (intention, or the readiness to act on one's perception).

Attitudes have three components:

caring

Below the core mission statement, the Sorrell College of Business lists specific ways to achieve it. One of them is as follows. Fill in the blank: "Grow and enhance the longstanding culture of ______ for our traditional, nontraditional, military, and international students."

high achievers

Burnout occurs most frequently among

In escalation of commitment

a decision maker begins to make excuses for sticking to a plan for which objective data suggest abandonment as the most logical alternative.

feedback

ability to judge one's own work to confirm that one has performed it adequately

interactivity

active feedback

Flextime

allows employees to choose the specific hours of their work each day, within limits.

terminal values

are descriptions of idealized end-states of existence (noun phrases, such as true friendship, family security, and social power).

instrumental values

are descriptions of idealized modes of behavior (adjectives, such as ambitious, responsible, and logical),

Nonprogrammed decisions

are infrequent and present unique challenges, so they demand more thought and some creativity.

Programmed decisions

are routine and repetitive. They demand little thought, and a person can usually apply straightforward decision rules to them.

Needs

are the starting point of motivation. They occupy a relatively deep, enduring part of the human mind.

Overload

can cause tension and anxiety

Satisfaction-progression

concept suggests that, after satisfying one category of needs, a person progresses to the next level

Individual-organization value

conflict refers to the opposition between the individual's values (what the individual deems important in life)

Groupthink

consists of a general pattern of group members' ceasing to think critically about a proposition.

Active listening

consists of a set of optimal practices to focus attention on the other party's intent and meaning to ensure full comprehension.

organizational barriers

constraints that limit who may send messages to whom and how

task identity

degree to which the task appears to produce an easily recognized, whole piece of work

Low task

demands can result in boredom and apathy

cultural barriers

differences in the usage of certain symbols due to differences in national culture

Semantics

differences in translation of a given set of symbols

The piecework system

encourages quantity rather than quality of production.

misperception

erroneous decoding

Performance appraisals

exist to provide job performance feedback. They serve as an opportunity for the supervisor and subordinate to learn more about one another

Prospect theory

explains why people tend to react more strongly to the threat of loss than to the possibility of gain.

personal focus

expression of emotions and social cues

Quality circles

give employees more autonomy in making decisions. Therefore, they constitute an example of employee empowerment

Extrinsic work values

guide behavior by pointing everyone in the same performance-related direction.

Perquisites (informally called "perks")

have high symbolic value but often low monetary value. They usually consist of special privileges, such as a preferred parking space, access to a special lunchroom, or a name plate on one's office door.

filtering

intentional withholding or distortion

Management by objectives (MBO)

is a performance management system for people in complex (e.g., high-level staff) or managerial positions. The supervisor and subordinate jointly agree on goals for the upcoming performance period.

Insight

is a spontaneous breakthrough, or epiphany, in which the creative person achieves a new understanding of some problem or situation, usually after having abandoned an active search for an answer for the time being.

Videoconferencing

is closest in richness to live, face-to-face communication, in that the parties can usually (depending on the adequacy of the technological connection) interact as though they were physically in one another's presence.

The contrast effect

occurs when we compare someone against a recently encountered exemplar rather than against people in general, resulting in a skewed appraisal of the person.

360-degree feedback

often focuses on such criteria as interpersonal relations and style.

sequential interdependence

or baseball team structure (higher need for communication to ensure adequate coordination)

reciprocal interdependence

or basketball team structure (where there is a need for a high level of communication to permit constant mutual adjustment)

pooled interdependence

or bowling team structure; low need for communication

In a low-context culture

people communicate directly, through more of the literal meaning of the selected words. Top five low-context cultures: German Switzerland, Germany, Flemish Belgium, Scandinavian countries, and the United States.

high-context culture

people communicate indirectly and through situational cues. Top five high-context cultures: Japan, China, India, Russia, and Arab countries.

task significance

perceived importance of the task

loss of transmission

physical or electronic failure to transmit the message

Human-relations approach

posited that the mere illusion of self-direction was sufficient to induce workers to try harder.

intuitive people

prefer patterns

language variety

range of available concepts or ideas

skill variety

range of knowledge, skills, and abilities demanded by the task

Distributive fairness

referring to the equitable allocation of the rewards themselves

Procedural fairness

referring to the equitable application of the rules

risk

refers to a probabilistic outcome of some kind, whether potentially positive or potentially negative.

Engagement

refers to an employee's strong interaction with the work or workplace, implying a belief in its virtues and faith that one's own efforts are worthwhile.

Intuition

refers to an unconscious mode of thought; that is, it refers to using one's ability to feel the appropriateness or character of a choice instead of consciously thinking about it to render a judgment about it.

Upward communication

refers to any situation in which the encoder of the message is at a lower hierarchical level than the decoder. Thus, it occurs when lower-level employees communicate with people in the company at higher levels in the organizational hierarchy.

Planning for contingencies

refers to considering what will happen if the chosen course of action proves infeasible due to deviations between the assumptions and the unfolding of reality.

Self-efficacy

refers to how confident a person is in being able to accomplish a given task. The strength of one's self-efficacy is the usual measure of that level of confidence.

Self-efficacy

refers to how much confidence one has in one's own abilities.

Suboptimizing

refers to knowingly accepting an outcome that may fall short of the best possible outcome, such as for the sake of expediency. Suboptimizing may entail satisficing, meaning that the decision maker has made an acceptable choice, despite falling short of the best one.

Specific self-efficacy

refers to one's confidence in being able to accomplish a specific task, as opposed to any other task. (Some people perceive themselves to be good at math and bad at English, or vice versa.)

General self-efficacy

refers to one's confidence in being able to perform most kinds of tasks. (James Bond has high general self-efficacy, as he gleefully attempts new feats all the time.)

stress

refers to the combination of stressors and mental strain.

Ethics

refers to the system of rules that a person follows to make decisions, outside any explicit structure of rules. People use ethical decision making to try to make decisions in line with right behavior, to benefit as many stakeholders as possible, rather than taking advantage of a lack of explicit rules to engage in self-serving or manipulative behavior.

Risk propensity

reflects a person's inclination to take chances in the pursuit of success.

selective perception

seeing only those parts of a message that fit one's expectations or beliefs

Job specialization

simply refers to narrowing the range of an employee's tasks to try to simplify and routinize a job, thereby making it easier to train and, in fact, cheaper in economic terms, as the employer could thus more easily find people to fill it

self-efficacy

John strongly believes that he can achieve his goal of selling 10 cars each month. This belief reflects John's

job specialization

Original model, in modern times, of how to design individual work:

Motivation

Set of forces that causes people to engage in one behavior rather than some alternative behavior

Organization's values

(as expressed in the organizational culture)

service organization

A form of business that transforms resources into an intangible output and creates time or place utility for its customers

separate the people from the problem

A fundamental principle of integrative negotiation

compensation that is equivalent to that available to management

A knowledge worker's career path may run parallel to a manager's career path. The benefit of this path for the worker is

stimulate energy and motivation

A moderate degree of workload-related stress can

ethics

A person's approach to making decisions based on conceptions of right versus wrong behavior:

risk propensity

A supervisor who experiments with new ideas, takes a chance with new products, and leads the department in new directions has high

cultural competence

Ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures

affiliation

According to David McClelland, the desire for acceptance by other human beings is consistent with the need for

formal rewards are more impactful than informal rewards are

According to equity theory, how do people perceive formal versus informal organizational rewards when formulating equity perceptions?

are sensitive to fair versus unfair treatment

According to equity theory, people

inputs : outcomes

According to equity theory, what ratio do people consider when assessing the equitability of their treatment in the workplace?

the threat of losing a benefit

According to prospect theory, people experience the strongest motivation by...

greater self-direction in their work

According to the human-resource approach, the best way to enhance motivation in the workplace is to find ways to offer employees

a. conveying evidence of listening b. refraining from interrupting c. verifying meaning to resolve semantic conflicts d. focusing on intent rather than literal words e. acknowledging the speaker's message

Active listening consists of:

low performance

After categorizing a person in our minds as a high performer, we tend to disregard any details of the person that have to do with

the contrast effect

After encountering an exceptionally good cashier, we might evaluate an average cashier as below average. This reaction is an example of

engage

After the core mission statement, the Sorrell College of Business lists specific ways to achieve it. One of them is as follows. Fill in the blank: "Serve the university and ______ with business and professional communities in our primary service area through individual involvement and our centers for research and outreach."

a. jargon b. semantics c. ambiguity d. loss of transmission

Some commonly encountered types of noise in communication include:

risk

An HR manager takes time to estimate the probability that a given percentage of employees will take advantage of a proposed benefit plan. This manager is operating under a condition of

orientation to authority

Another term for power distance

assertiveness

As a cultural dimension, masculinity emphasizes

interactivity

Aspect of a communication medium that reflects the speed with which the receiver can provide feedback:

motivators

Aspects of the experience of one's work that make a person want to work harder

goals systematically cascade down through the organization

Assumption behind the MBO model of goal-setting:

the nonprofit sector

Based on its mission statement, one of the strategic constituencies of the Sorrell College of Business is

the US military

Based on its mission statement, one of the strategic constituencies of the Sorrell College of Business is

set of decision rules

Basis for making programmed decisions:

general mental ability

Capacity to acquire, process, and apply information rapidly and fluidly:

decreased cycle time

Car makers design and produce new-model cars much more quickly now than they did in the past. This change is an example of...

extinction

Ceasing to laugh at a coworker's inappropriate jokes as a way to discourage the coworker from persisting in that undesirable practice is an application of the principle of

language variety

Characteristic of a communication medium that allows the speaker to convey a broad set of concepts and ideas:

avoiding

Conflict management style that is appropriate under conditions of insufficient information or when addressing the conflict has the potential to create more problems

insulation from expert opinions

Contributing factor to groupthink:

suboptimizing

Decision maker's knowing acceptance of less than the best possible outcome:

social process that involves information exchange

Definition of communication:

task identity

Degree to which a job requires completion of a whole, identifiable piece of work:

sensing

Detail-oriented and fact-seeking

strength

Dimension of self-efficacy that refers to how confident the person is in accomplishing the task:

groupthink

Discussing group deliberations with an expert outsider and reporting the findings to the group is a way to minimize

high-context

In what type of culture is a manager likely to communicate denial of an employee's request for a raise by answering indirectly, such as by saying simply, "That could be difficult"?

perceived threat of loss

Employees who feel the need to protect their own career prospects by impeding the prospects of others are experiencing

psychological contract

Employer and employee expectations of the employment relationship, which operate over and above the formal contract of employment

valuing harmony more highly than honesty

Example of low individualism

normative commitment

Feeling obliged to stay with an organization for moral or ethical reasons:

gives employees more personal control over their daily work hours

Flextime is a work schedule arrangement that...

attach the same meaning to the symbols used in the message

For effective communication to take place, both parties must

overstated the importance of money

The most significant shortcoming of the scientific-management approach was that it

The Sorrell College vision statement reveals the meaning of the acronym, but the elements appear in the mission statement:

G - globally aware E - engaged with the business community E - ethical decision makers K - knowledgeable to compete S - successful

Intrapersonal

Gardner intelligence category that refers to self-awareness:

job satisfaction was the product of external inducements alone

Herzberg's dual-structure theory was a response to the prevailing thinking, at the time, that

flextime

If an individual reports to work early every day of the week to be able to end the workday shortly after lunch on Friday, the individual's work schedule is most likely an example of...

intrinsic virtues

If your roommate is a C-student, you will tend to attribute a recent high grade earned by that student to

cultural

In much of the world, the thumbs-up sign indicates affirmation or acceptance. However, in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Iran, and parts of Italy and Greece, it is an obscene insult and carries the same meaning as the middle finger in the United States. This difference is an example of which type of communication barrier?

successful

In the GEEKS acronym in the mission and vision statements of the Sorrell College of Business, to what does the letter S refer?

ethical decision makers

In the GEEKS acronym in the mission and vision statements of the Sorrell College of Business, to what does the second letter E refer?

one believes one can accomplish a goal

In the context of goal-setting, self-efficacy is the extent to which

valence

In the expectancy model of motivation, which term refers to the perceived value of a given reward or outcome?

deeplevel diversity

Individual differences that are visually imperceptible, hence only indirectly inferable, including goals, values, personalities, decision-making styles, knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes

Ombudsman

Individual who investigates complaints and mediates fair settlements between aggrieved parties

sender

Individual, group, or organization that initiates a communication to another party:

an employee's values conflict with the values of the organization

Individual-organization value conflict occurs when

conscientiousness

Individuals tend to take their jobs seriously and act responsibly at work if they score high in

receiver responds to message

Initiation of the feedback phase of the communication process:

intuition

Innate belief about a proposition without conscious consideration:

active listening

Involving oneself in the process of attending closely to what someone is saying, while diligently seeking clarification of selected elements of the message:

psychological

Issues involving perceptions of fairness, trust, or interest in participating, which may contribute to interest-based conflict:

substantive

Issues involving time, money, or physical resources, which may contribute to interest-based conflict:

managing emotions

Jim has the ability to balance anxiety, fear, and anger while successfully attending to work tasks. Within the model of emotional intelligence, Jim is adept at

planning for contingencies

Jim is using the rational decision-making process to decide a course of action for the marketing department. As Jim and a coworker analyze the problem, the coworker asks, "What if something unexpected happens during the implementation of the alternative we have selected?" This type of question is an example of

satisfaction-progression

John has satisfied his basic needs and has many friends. He is now trying to learn new skills and advance his career. According to Alderfer, which component of ERG theory explains John's activities?

(a) concrete versus abstract; (b) active experimentation versus reflective observation.

Kolb presented four dominant learning styles based on two axes:

it gives managers a much wider range of feedback than traditional performance appraisals do

Main reason for which 360-degree feedback is beneficial to managers:

have a lower risk propensity than other managers

Managers who are cautious and try to adhere to the rational decision-making model

prejudice

Marcos believes that men make better managers than women do. The attitude that Marcos displays is an example of

Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement

Meaning of the acronym BATNA:

needs

Motivated behavior begins with one or more

the top level of the organization

Nonprogrammed decisions are most common at

gender

One of the largest employment discrimination lawsuits ended in a settlement of more than $11.7 million. It involved Walmart and allegations of discrimination based on

once a year

Organizations most often conduct performance appraisals...

successful, ethical, and engaged business professionals with the knowledge to compete in the global business environment

Our mission statement: The Sorrell College of Business prepares a diverse student body, drawn primarily from Alabama and surrounding states, to become

authoritarian

People who accept orders from a supervisor based solely on the latter's position are highly

significant interpersonal contact

People with a strong need for affiliation tend to gravitate toward jobs with

escalation of commitment

Persisting in a failing course of action:

Type B

Personality characterized by a relaxed, easy-going demeanor:

conscientiousness

Personality dimension associated with thoroughness, organization, persistence, a strong sense of responsibility, and a hardworking, achievement-oriented attitude:

choice of career

Personality most strongly affects

contrast effect

Phenomenon of evaluating a person's characteristics through comparisons with other people that one has recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics:

thinking

Preferring quick decisions:

to provide job performance feedback

Primary use of performance appraisal information:

conciliation

Process in which a third party builds a positive relationship between two parties, improves their communication, and facilitates their discussion:

arbitration

Process in which a third party participates in conflict resolution with the power to issue a binding settlement:

selective perception

Process of screening out information with which we are uncomfortable or that contradicts our beliefs

nature versus nurture

Psychologists' term for the extent to which personality attributes come from one's parents or instead from environmental forces:

empowerment

Quality circles are an example of organizational attempts at

senior employees with diverse junior employees

Reciprocal mentoring may match

negative reinforcement

Removal of current or prospective unpleasant consequences, to increase the likelihood that someone will repeat a behavior:

workplace bullying

Repeated mistreatment of another employee through verbal abuse, threatening behavior, humiliation, intimidation, or sabotage:

disengaged workers

Some workers perform at a significantly lower level than their potential capability, because they lack the emotional and motivational connections to their employer that would normally drive discretionary effort. Such people fall into the category of

continuance commitment

Staying with an organization because of the perceived high cost of leaving:

induce mental strain

Stressors are situations or events that

ethnicity

Surface-level diversity may include

negative affectivity

Tammi generally is pessimistic and usually sees situations and events in a negative light. Tammi has a relatively high degree of

questionnaires

The Delphi technique uses which of the following tools to gather opinions from experts?

diverse

The Sorrell College of Business prepares a ______ student body

manage emotions

The ability to ________ ______ refers to how well one keeps adverse feelings from overwhelming one's senses.

a. selective perception b. misperception c. filtering d. information overload e. organizational barriers f. cultural barriers

The basic barriers to communication consist of:

top management

The case was EEOC v. Walmart (2010). The settlement was a consent decree between the EEOC and Walmart, wherein the latter agreed to pay $11.7 million in back wages.

1. encoding by the sender 2. transmission through the channel 3. decoding by the receiver 4. feedback from receiver back to sender 5. possible distortions caused by noise in any element of the process.

The core elements of the complete communication process include:

different wages for doing the same work

The defining characteristic of a tiered workforce is that different employees earn

ensure decisions by senior managers are in the best interests of the shareholders

The duty of the board of directors of a public corporation is to

conscientiousness

The essence of ____________ is heightened sensitivity to the effects of one's actions on other people, one's immediate environment, or one's own situation.

1. task demands 2. physical demands 3. role demands 4. interpersonal demands

The four categories of organizational stressors are

a. interactivity b. multiple simultaneous cues c. language variety d. personal focus

The four common factors that define the relative richness of a communication medium consist of:

a. separate the people from the problem b. focus on interests instead of the parties' individual positions c. invent options for mutual gain d. insist on objective fairness criteria.

The four fundamental principles of integrative (win-win) negotiation are:

process conflict

The management department plans to grow based on several agreed-upon goals, but department members are unable to agree on how to achieve those goals. The management department is experiencing

first-generation students

The mission statement of the Sorrell College of Business includes a key observation about the unique nature of many of our students. It is as follows (complete the sentence): "A substantial portion of the university's domestic and international enrollment consists of..."

divergers (concrete) and assimilators (abstract).

The model produces two types of reflective observers:

accommodators (concrete) and convergers (abstract).

The model produces two types of active experimenters:

Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA).

The point of this concept is that no one should reach the end of any negotiation with a worse settlement than what would have been the case without negotiating at all. Therefore, one should define one's desired status quo in advance, with the knowledge that, if the negotiation fails, the status quo will prevail.

a. pooled interdependence b. sequential interdependence c. reciprocal interdependence

The three primary types of task interdependence consist of:

- Distributive fairness - Procedural fairness

The two most basic types of fairness are:

1. programmed decisions 2. nonprogrammed decisions

The two principal types of decisions are

divergers

These people are imaginative and adept at generating alternative hypotheses and ideas, and they tend to prefer interacting with people than working alone:

accommodators

These people interact easily with people and specialize in action-oriented jobs, such as marketing and sales:

assimilators

These people tend to focus on the logical soundness and preciseness of ideas rather than the practical value of those ideas, and they tend to work in research and planning units.

1. cohesiveness; 2. the leader's promotion of a preferred solution; 3. insulation of the group from any experts' opinions.

Three primary conditions foster the emergence of groupthink:

- integrative (win-win) - distributive (win-lose).

Two contrasting types of negotiation consist of:

process conflict

Type of conflict that consists of a disagreement about how to accomplish a task

values-based conflict

Type of conflict that occurs due to perceived or actual incompatibilities in beliefs about what is right or wrong

low-context

Type of culture in which people rely on the words themselves to carry all essential meaning:

top managers

Understanding and addressing the environment of a business has traditionally been the purview of

managers

Upward communication usually provides feedback to

a. expectancy (can I do it?); b. instrumentality (if I succeed, will I then obtain the reward?); c. valence (how much do I want that reward?)

Vroom's (1964) expectancy theory depicts motivation as the product of a chain of three mental calculations:

values related to the outcomes of the work

What are extrinsic work values?

positive and negative

What are the two types of affectivity?

collaborating

What conflict resolution strategy embodies the mindset that both parties can win?

an elevated sense of status in the organization

What is the likely impact of perquisites on the employees who receive them?

it represents the key elements of the Sorrell College mission statement

What is the purpose of the GEEKS acronym in the Sorrell College of Business?

fewer than 5%

What percentage of business schools around the world have AACSB accreditation?

it officially earned AACSB accreditation

What significant event in the history of the Sorrell College of Business occurred on November 21, 2018?

procedural fairness

What term refers to the perceived fairness in the manner of determining an outcome?

symbolic value

When a few employees receive a small reward as a demonstration of appreciation, the reward carries...

affect

Which component of an attitude is a function of feelings that an individual has about a person or situation?

interests instead of positions

Which conflict resolution behavior reflects the expectation that focusing on the outcome will let the parties more easily address the root cause?

avoiding

Which conflict resolution strategy entails ignoring the conflict, perhaps due to an insufficiency of the information needed to address it?

distributive negotiation

Which conflict resolution strategy entails ignoring the conflict, perhaps due to an insufficiency of the information needed to address it?

collaborating

Which conflict resolution strategy reflects a desire to figure out how to give both parties what they want?

participative pay system

Which of the following best describes a reward system that involves employees in its design and administration?

videoconferencing

Which of the following communication media has the highest richness?

relationship conflict

Which of the following dynamics occurs due to interpersonal issues?

filtering

Which of the following dynamics occurs when the receiver obtains less than the full amount of information needed for understanding a message, due to intentional withholding, ignoring, or distortion?

physical demands

Which of the following is a common cause of stress in organizations?

boredom

Which of the following is the primary problem associated with the specialization of jobs?

piecework program

Which of the following programs ties a worker's earnings to the number of units produced?

positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement

Which two types of response to a person's actions serve as legitimate means for increasing the frequency of desired behavior?

instrumental

Which type of human value reflects how we want to accomplish what we want to accomplish?

distributive negotiation

Which type of negotiation occurs when any gain to one party entails an equivalent loss to the other?

jargon

Which type of noise occurs when overly technical language prevents the receiver from understanding the message?

loss of transmission

Which type of noise refers to the total failure of the communication medium, such as a dropped phone call or disconnected internet connection?

pooled

Which type of task interdependence occurs when employees work independently to produce the total group output?

reciprocal

Which type of task interdependence requires constant communication and mutual adjustment for task completion?

insight

While driving home from a difficult day at work, the solution to the problem that Susan had been having with a certain customer has just occurred to her. Susan has just reached which stage of the creative process?

Face-to-face communication

is highest in richness, because it permits visual cues simultaneously with audial cues.

A participative pay system

is one in which employees have worked with supervisors to tailor the compensation package to their needs.

Moderate degree of workload-related stress

is optimal, because it leads to high levels of energy and motivation.

One advantage of job specialization

is that it can increase productivity (per dollar spent).

One disadvantage of job specialization

is that it can make the work incredibly monotonous.

The stressor

is the cause.

The mental strain

is the effect

Authoritarianism

is the extent to which a person respects and acts on differences in power and status.

General mental ability

is the same concept as general intelligence (IQ).

Symbolic value

is the subjective and personal meaning of a reward.

Workplace bullying

is usually a manifestation of a strong need for personalized power, in terms of McClelland's model.

multiple simultaneous cues

levels of meaning, like words, vocal inflection, or body language

sensing people

love facts

Weak self-efficacy

makes a person want to avoid even trying to perform the task

Empowerment

means being able to make more decisions by oneself rather than having to secure approval from higher authorities in the organization

The 360-degree feedback

method consists of having multiple raters, in different positions relative to the rated employee, contribute observations about the employee's performance.

Ambiguity

missing information or conflicting cues within a given message

Strong self-efficacy

motivates the person to try

autonomy

sufficient to match the worker's experience and maturity

Type A

the ______ _ personality is the workaholic

a. skill variety b. task significance c. task identity d. autonomy e. feedback

the five core job characteristics consist of:

As extrinsic values,

they are visible to all and unambiguous. They are values (rather than rules or guidelines) because they describe desired rather than required behavior.

information overload

too much information to process

Jargon

unfamiliar or incorrectly used specialized terminology

relationships, and a holistic

view of situations

Negative affect

which comprises emotions like fear, worry, and distress

negative affect

which comprises emotions like fear, worry, and distress

Positive affect

which reflects a combination of high energy and positive evaluation characterized by emotions like elation and lightheartedness

positive affect

which reflects a combination of high energy and positive evaluation characterized by emotions like elation and lightheartedness

An ombudsman

works inside an organization and serves as a mediator to help resolve conflicts of all kinds between individuals. The ombudsman operates outside the hierarchical structure of the organization and therefore has the freedom to talk to all possible parties, with equal access.