Organizational Comm. Test 2
What type of goals do most people focus on in conflict first?
Task goals. Comes from a difference of opinion in how they should be done
Can dialogue help make teams more trusting of each other and more productive?
Yes, dialogue can help foster trust in teams
Does microresistance benefit the oppressed?
Yes. It gives them a way to vent their frustrations and create solidarity.
What does it mean to say that clarifying goals can produce not just a solution but an even more satisfactory solution?
You are able to shift away from feelings and emotions and can get down to the root of the problem
What is the dialectic of control?
You are caught up in the systems where you perpetuate your own control by participating in that system.
Explain the different roles that can be played by a third-party in conflict?
A friend or coworker brought in to help settle the conflict or provide additional support can provide valuable insights. A supervisor or manager can address a dispute by: Establishing rules or dictating a specific solution Reward or punish subordinates to facilitate a solution Work to change the organization to keep similar problems from occurring in the future Can assist in settling disputes by working as an arbitrator or mediator Mediator: attempts to help the parties facilitate the dispute but holds no decision power Arbitrator: Makes binding decisions based on the proposals and arguments of the parties involved in the conflict.
What are the conflict management styles?
Avoidance Accomodation Compromise Collaboration Competition
How does each of the styles balance a concern for others and a concern for self?
Avoidance: low concern for others and low concern for self Accomodation: high concern for others and low concern for self Compromise: Average concern for others and average concern for self Competition: Low concern for others and high concern for self Collaboration: High concern for others and high concern for self
Debate
Convergent thinking, advocacy and individual meaning focus
Dialogue
Divergent thinking, inquiry and shared meaning focus
Polite discussion
Mostly convergent thinking, mostly advocacy and mostly individual meaning focus
Skillful discussion
Mostly divergent thinking, mostly inquiry and mostly shared meaning focus
Are avoidance and accommodation strategies always ineffective?
Not always. Never always in communication
Is dialogue always the most appropriate way to engage in group interaction?
Very rarely in communication is there an always. No.
3 levels of culture
1. Artifacts: visible evidence of the culture (furniture, dress, technology) 2. Espoused values: how things ought to be done in the organization (safety, diversity, hard work) 3. Basic assumptions: shared among members. Unspoken beliefs.
Explain how cultural performances are interactional, contextual, episodic, and improvisational.
- Interactional- require the participation of multiple organizational members - Contextual- they are embedded in organizational situations and organizational history - Episodic- they are distinct events in organizational life - Improvisational- there are no scripts that guide organizational members
What is culture?
- Rituals/ceremonies - Metaphors - Stories - Values - Artifacts
What are the principal criticisms of thinking of organizational culture as something an organization has?
- Treats culture as concrete and designed - Suggests that culture is easy to change - Obscures useful ideas about culture - Organizational climate
What are Peters and Waterman's characteristics of an "excellent culture?"
1. A bias for action 2. Close relations to the customer 3. Autonomy and entrepreneurship 4. Productivity through people 5. Hands-on and value driven 6. Stick to the knitting 7. Simple form, lean staff 8. Simultaneous loose-tight properties
What is dialogue?
A form of interaction that seeks shared understanding through inquiry and divergence in ideas
Explain Schein's model of culture
A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaption and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid
What is organizational culture?
A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaption and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid
Are organizational members equally aware of all three levels in the model?
No, because cultures are symbolically constituted, complicated and fragmented most of the awareness happens below the surface
According to the critical approach, does an organization always have just one goal?
No, there are always multiple goals in an organization whether you are talking about individuals or hierarchies. Goals are not always aligned.
If you feel flooded, should you immediately stop talking and move away?
No, you should ask to take a break
What is deconstruction?
Breaking down the ideologies that exist
What is the core principle we highlighted in our definition of conflict?
Conflict centers on perceived incompatibility between goals and how you manage them. They have to be expressed, people have to be interdependent and conflict occurs at multiple levels
Interactive in conflict
Conflict is inherently interactive. Doesn't become conflict until it is expressed.
Explain the spiral of negativity in conflict (hint: criticism, contempt, defensiveness, withdrawing).
Criticism -> contempt -> defensiveness -> withdrawing
In what sense are organizational communication and culture intertwined? Provide examples.
Culture enables and constrains organizational communication
Identity goals
Goals about our fundamental need for independence and acceptance.
Interdependence in conflict
Goals are interdependent because people work together within an organization.
Multilevel in conflict
Goals come from lots of different levels of analysis. There are interpersonal goals and group goals. They can also come from outside of the organizations: interorganizational goals.
Unitary frame of reference
Emphasis is placed on common organizational goals. Conflict is seen as rare and negative. Power is the natural preference of management.
Why does the model use the term "espoused" values and beliefs?
Espoused- to adopt or support (a cause, belief, or way of life). The beliefs/values are adopted over time as individuals observe how others interact within the organization. We don't always act in accordance with our values.
What are the sources of power for those without formal organizational power?
Expertise in a particular area, knowing people in higher positions, understanding the company's culture
List and explain the differences between feminine and masculine styles of work?
Feminine: cooperative effort, integrative/holistic analysis, group work, fluid boundaries between personal and work life, leadership as a web of connections Masculine: cooperative effort, cause-effect analysis, autonomy, strict boundaries between personal and work life, leadership as a hierarchy of control
What is flooding?
Fight or flight response when in an argument
What are the primary emphases of critical approaches?
Finding imbalances in organizations and letting them know so that they can facilitate change
What is resistance?
Finding your power in knowing/understanding. Fighting back against the status quo of the organization
What is microresistance?
Flight attendants who wear the standard uniform but only where supervisors are. Resistance in cartoons that people decorate their offices with. Gives individuals a sense of power that they otherwise wouldn't have had.
What alternative view of power do critical scholars suggest?
Ideology
What does it mean to say that it's possible to see culture as something an organization has versus something an organization is?
If you try to objectify, simplify and formalize culture, you might see it as something an organization has, rather than something an organization is.
How could clarifying goals while highlighting interdependence assist in managing conflict?
It makes it more likely that you will find a solution
How are these emphases captured in Marx's quote, "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it."
It's about changing the status quo
What are the different approaches to studying feminist activism we discussed in class?
Liberal, radical, standpoint and postmodern
What is goal-shifting?
Moving from one goal to another during discussion
Standpoint feminist approach
Recognize and enhance marginalized voices
How do the "intraprenuership," IBM, and flair (Office Space) stories illustrate the concepts of ideology and power?
Security guard at IBM refused to let the CEO by without his ID. Representation that nobody is above the rules. Wouldn't have been a story if the CEO wasn't above the rules. Flair clip between Jennifer Aniston and that she should want to put on more. Looking for her to identify with the culture.
What are the implications of treating culture as constituted symbolically (e.g., culture as complicated, fragmented, and emergent)?
Seeing cultures in this way takes into account the complexity of organizational culture. They are not planned, they are not unitary, they are often ambiguous. Looks at communication interaction as what the organization is.
Simple misunderstanding
Sexual harassment accepted or justified as "mere flirting"
Reification
Sexual harassment accepted or justified as "the way things are"
Accepting dominant interests
Sexual harassment accepted or justified as a less important problem
Trivialization
Sexual harassment accepted or justifies as "a harmless joke"
Public/private expression- public/private domain
Sexual harassment described as part of private, rather than public
Denotative theory
Sexually harassing encounter not defined by the term sexual harassment
How does the Apple case in the film, In Search of Excellence, illustrate these principles?
Steve Jobs helped facilitate an environment that prescribed to all of Peters and Waterman's Themes for Excellent Organizations. There was free/open communication and collaboration, the employees got along, he encouraged innovation, there was little to no hierarchy, they jumped in on projects and did hands-on work instead of writing and planning everything out, etc.
Explain Clair's study of the framing of sexual harassment.
The frames used by women often served to reinforce the dominant ideology. Were ways to normalize and support the patriarchal systems of the workplace
What is emancipation?
The liberation of people from unnecessary hegemony.
Which is consistent with prescriptive approaches to culture?
These approaches use "Value engineering" because it espouses the belief that "effective cultural leaders could create 'strong' cultures, built around their own values".
How is the work of Dean and Kennedy similar to Peters and Waterman's work?
They are both trying to identify the characteristics, or find a formula, for developing a secure organizational structure.
How have these forms developed over time?
They evolve as technology evolves. As organizations become more complex, so do the forms of power
What nonverbal expressions are especially relevant in conflict situations? Why?
Tone of voice, posture, anger isn't bad, but disgust is really bad and a dangerous emotion. They are relevant in conflict because you can tell how a person really feels from their nonverbal expressions
Task goals
Typically what people fight about. Some task isn't getting done or isn't getting done right
What does the cultural emphasis focus our attention on in the study of organizations?
Understanding organizations as sites of interlinked beliefs, values, behaviors and artifacts
When can goal shifting occur?
Occurs during discussions of conflict
Concertive control
Occurs through identification and discipline. If someone identifies as part of a group, it allows the group to discipline them.
How does the dialect of control suggest the potential for resistance?
Once you recognize the part that you play in the system you then have the ability to change it
What is a cultural performance?
Organizational culture should concentrate on the communication process through which culture is created. These processes can be conceptualized as "performances" that are interactional, contextual, episodic, and improvisational.
What is the underlying assumption in feminist approaches to organizational communication?
Organizations are constituted in the patriarchy
Why is goal-shifting important in managing conflict?
When you recognize that a person is shifting goals, it allows you to understand what is actually the problem.
Relationship goals
Who are we to each other? Should be the goal that people have in common.
Liberal feminist approach
Work within the system with the goal of ordaining their fair share of control in the workplace
Are such expressions of power seen as possessed by individuals?
Yes
Can dialogue help foster alignment in teams and organizations?
Yes
Can thinking about the conflict during a break prolong flooding?
Yes
Are such expressions of power about relationships between individuals?
Yes, if I have referent power it exists in me as an individual. Not a complete picture of the power that exists within an organization
Referent power
Person A has power over person B because person B wants to be like person A (mentors, charismatic leaders)
Coercive power
Person A has power over person B because they can punish them in some way (poor work assignments, relocation, demotion)
Reward power
Person A has power over person B because they give them some reward (pay, status, award)
Explain the four functions of ideology?
1. Represents the interests of a few as the interests of all 2. Denies system contradictions 3. Naturalizes the current state as fixed (Says that how things are, are the way they ought to be) 4. Controls as hegemony (works as a source of control)
What are the research-based recommendations for managing conflict?
1. To clarify goals 2. to highlight interdependence 3. to help others manage their identity 4. to give appropriate feedback 5. to use empathic listening skills 6. monitor your own nonverbal expressions 7. to overlearn conflict management skills 8. when necessary involve facilitator
What are the components of Dean and Kennedy's "strong cultures?"
1. Values are the beliefs and visions that members hold for an organization 2. Heroes are the individuals who come to exemplify an organization's values. These heroes become known through the stories and myths of an organization. 3. Rites and rituals are the ceremonies through which an organization celebrates its values. 4. The cultural network is the communication system through which cultural values are instituted and reinforced. The cultural network can consist of both formal organizational channels and the informal interaction of employees.
How are managing acceptance and independence goals useful for managing conflict?
Acceptance and independence goals are almost always present in conflict and gives you shared goals
What makes the critical approach distinct from the other approaches to studying organizations?
Adopts a radical frame. Focuses on organizations as sites of domination.
Why is such a conception of power incomplete?
Because there are many different types
How are these work styles problematic?
Because they are overly simplified and stereotypical
How does the theory of concertive control further illustrate the concepts of ideology and hegemony?
Case with Sharon. Management didn't have to come down to solve it- she was disciplined by her team
Technological control
Control is in tools and machines that organizational members use to do their job. Management is still in control, but instead of direct supervision by managers, control shifts to the machines
Bureaucratic control
Control through the rules. Large service and info-processing organizations
Postmodern feminist approach
Deconstruct male-dominated meaning systems and highlight women's perspectives
How does the Disneyland case illustrate the dialectic of control and sources of power for the powerless?
Different perceptions between managers and workers. Workers felt that Disneyland was a family and managers treated them as employees. Workers saw that they had power in stopping the show.
Simple control
Direct exercise of power with direct supervision. Surveillance of employee behavior.
Radical feminist approach
Emancipation of total separation
How is it that concertive control operates through identification and discipline?
Identification: Coming to hold the organization's values as your own values Discipline: carried out by the individuals being controlled. Individuals are self-disciplining
Legitimate power
Person A has power over person B because of an organizational structure like a hierarchy
Why is managing conflict in organizations important?
Managing it makes for a healthy organization and healthy workers. Essential for individual success.
Expert power
Person A has power over person B because person A has some expertise that the other person needs but doesn't have (tech support, technical professionals)
Define acceptance and independence identity goals and provide examples.
People want to be liked but also want to be perceived as autonomous
What does it mean to say that an organization is a power struggle?
People within the organization, management levels that dominate over the other groups. Not everyone in an organization is on the same footing.
Why does it matter that incompatibility between goals is perceived incompatibility?
Perception is not reality so just because we perceive our goals as incompatible doesn't mean they really are
What types of identity goals are common in most conflict?
Relationship goals
What does it mean to say that artifacts are hard to decipher?
The difficulty is in figuring out what they mean, how they relate and what deeper pattern they reflect
Pluralist frame of reference
The organization consists of many groups with divergent interests. Conflict is seen positively
Radical frame of reference
The organization is viewed as the battleground where rival forces (management and unions) strive for the achievement of incompatible goals.
What is hegemony?
The process in which a dominant group leads another group into accepting subordination as the norm
What is ideology?
The taken for granted assumptions about reality that influence perceptions of situations and events
How long does it typically take to return to a calm state after flooding?
Wait 20 minutes before you re-engage with the person
