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.