Organizational Comms

Countercultures

A resistance tactic created by employees who choose not to accept the organizational culture or values that are articulated by management.

Which of the following is a basic principle of scientific management?

Equal division of work between management and workers

For a researcher taking a purist approach to organizational culture, it becomes very important to maintain distance and separation from those who she researches.

False

Hierarchical structures emphasize shared power and democratic decision-making.

False

Researchers in the Frankfurt School take popular culture as a serious object of study, examining the complex ways in which it structures social reality.

False

Rhonda's organization emphasizes social groups that foster a connection. The relationships formed in social groups lead to more communication and connect workers together. Which theory does this best represent?

Human Relations Theory

The process of making a McDonald's cheeseburger has been "perfected" over time to be extremely efficient. In fact, there's a 700-page manual that explains how this is done. What concept best identifies this process?

Taylor's Principles of Scientific Management

Organizational Control

The dynamic communication process through which organizational stakeholders struggle to maximize their stake in an organization

Communication

The dynamic, ongoing process of creating and negotiating meanings through interactional symbolic practices, including conversation, metaphors, rituals, stories, dress, and space

Goal orientation, as an essential feature of an organization, is complex because organizations often have multiple and competing goals.

True

Humans create the complex system of meaning called organizations.

True

Organizational life is made up of a set of ongoing practices that members must engage in to accomplish organizing.

True

Organizations are communicative phenoma that exist only because their members engage in complex patterns of communication behavior.

True

Tensions between the goals, beliefs, and desires of individual organization members and those of the larger organization are usually resolved by subordinating the goals and beliefs of individuals to those of the organization.

True

'No collar' work is grounded in creativity but is also characterized by ________.

a demanding work schedule

The spread of corporate ideologies and discourses to every aspect of our lives, including who we are as human beings, has been labeled ______.

corporate colonization

Members of the Frankfurt School were interested in what they termed the _______: the mass production of popular culture, administered from above, that creates needs in people that they would not otherwise have.

culture industry

The dot-com bust of the late 1990's/early 2000's and the financial meltdown of 2008 are both examples of which process gone "awry" in a system?

deviation-amplifying feedback that created growth in both the Internet and financial sectors until they were too big, and therefore collapsed

On a recent flight, two people, who had consumed too much alcohol at the airport bar, began acting increasingly loudly and rudely on the airplane. The airline attendant went to them and told them to stay in their seats and be quiet. The attendant also said they would not be served anything alcoholic. Which form of control best describes this situation?

direct

Micah tells Fran that he wants the report by 9 a.m. Fran asks if he wants the final report or just a first draft. Micah responds by saying, "Just the first draft." This ____ reduces equivocality.

double-interact

Which of the following is an example of scientific management in today's workplace?

employees follow a script when they are conducting telephone sales calls

_____ research is the term that organizational scholars use to describe the kinds of research they engage when studying culture.

field

organizations can often have multiple and competing _____.

goals

Critics of Karl Weick would argue that _______.

his perspective overemphasizes the nonrational features of organizational life

Professor Hemphill pairs you up with another student and assigns a 15-page paper that analyzes organizational theory. The only requirement is that it must be in APA format, and you must include a minimum of sources. Professor Hemphill has _____.

increased the level of equivocality

According to the critical perspective, organizations are _______.

institutions that are key in the development of our identities

When your grandparents ask you what you are going to major in and if you think you will graduate from college and get a well-paying job, your grandparents are in essence applying a _______ logic in terms of how well your college education will translate into financial stability.

market

exploitative-authoritative

motivating workers through fear and threats

Cultural studies of organizations offered managers exciting ways to motivate employees and to reinvigorate ______.

productivity

From a ____ perspective of organizational culture, organizations only exist insofar as organization members engage in communication activities.

purist

Where Andrew works, the organizational rules and regulations are clearly defined in its governing documents, and organizational members are treated impartially. According to Weber's perspective, which type of authority best characterizes this organization?

rational-legal

emotional labor

requiring workers to always have a smile and positive demeanor, even when customers are demanding or rude

Constructing rational accounts after an organizing process that is ambiguous is the role of _____.

retrospective sense-making

Sue is taking an online class. When it is time for the mid-term exam, she is told that it is open-note and open-book. However, she has a strict time limit of 90 minutes to complete it. As she finishes each answer she must click "submit" before she can move on to the next question. She moves quickly through the multiple choice questions at the beginning. The essays, however, take her more time to complete. She finishes her second, and the final, essay at 91 minutes. She clicks "submit" but the answer is not accepted since it is beyond the time limit, and she automatically loses 20 points from her grade. This situation illustrates which type of control?

technological

At Danielle's undergraduate university, there was a gazebo on campus where, the story went, if a couple kissed, they would become engaged before they graduated from college. Danielle was secretly delighted when she and her partner kissed in the gazebo one afternoon; they became engaged right before graduation. To Danielle's surprise, when they moved across the country to pursue graduate work, the university that they attended had a similar story - except the "kissing" spot was on the seal of the university. Which of the following might describe this "strange" occurrence?

the "uniqueness paradox" of organizational stories

Theory X

the belief that employees inherently dislike work and prefer being directed

Stacey drives for a popular rideshare company, has a jewelry store on Instagram, and does web design. Stacey makes her living as a member of ______.

the gig economy

Organizational Communication

the process of creating and negotiating collective, coordinated systems of meaning through symbolic practices oriented toward the achievement of organizational goals

Fordism was focused on the product and post-Fordist organizations were focused on ______.

the process of production

Equifinality

the term that describes what happens when various approaches all ultimately yield the same result

Companies like Coca-Cola, Green Peace, and Amazon are considered political sites because _______.

they consist of different underlying vested interests with different consequences

A system grows as a result of deviation-amplifying feedback.

true

Advertising as a means of selling goods and services emerged during the Fordist period.

true

At a university, a classroom is a sub-system and the university as a whole is a supra-system. According to the systems theory, a change in a sub-system creates a change in the supra-system.

true

Forms of control in the Fordist work place included moving assembly lines and careful monitoring

true

In post-Fordist, postmodern organizations, work teams are seen as the ideal decision-making structure.

true

One of the most important tasks of a system is determining what belongs inside the system and what belongs outside the system.

true

One of the sociopolitical issues of the time was addressing the disparities between rich and poor that grew out of capitalism.

true

Teamwork can increase the surveillance and stress that workers encounter in the workplace.

true

The central element of immaterial labor is communication.

true

A pragmatic view of organizational culture treats culture as a ____ that can be manipulated to generate particular outcomes

variable

Companies like Airbnb, Uber, and Etsy are attractive because they offer employees ________.

work-life balance

In Taylor's system of scientific management, the primary place where managers located control of the labor process was in the _____.

worker's body

Systematic Soldiering

workers' deliberate and coordinated efforts to restrict output by limiting the speed at which they work

negative feedback

In a system, feedback that corrects a deviation from the norm (error-activated) is called ____.

When studying organizational culture, we might call the "social knowledge" held by organizational members that enable them to successfully navigate the culture _____.

facts

Systems theory is another attempt to control, predict, and conquer nature.

false

Common sense thinking can often reflect ________.

tradition and reproduction of the status quo

The separation of work and life was reconsidered by leaders during the Fordist Era because there was a belief that employees worked better when they could focus on both areas.

true

Hippies, flower-power, and the Woodstock generation believed that meaningful work was just as important as intrinsic rewards.

False

In an organizational setting, the desire for autonomy and the need to coordinate the behaviors of organizational members serve as complementary functions in the modern workplace.

False

The development of less explicit and coercive forms of control means that control is no longer an important issue in daily organizational life.

False

Many cliques function as relatively closed groups: Members do not interact much with other people, and members are encouraged to have similar thoughts. This can best be described as ______.

groupthink (groupthink is a negative quality of holism)

Joie's room overlooks a city park where local guys gather every evening to play pick-up basketball. Most afternoons, he watches the guys negotiate who gets to play, the rules of the game, and their rituals of picking team members, celebrating wins, and the occasional fight. Eventually, Joie starts to play with the guys. Now, he is able to pick out who the "new" guys are because they don't seem to know the rules or rituals, or "how things work." Over time, the new guys learn the rules and bring new things to the court. Which of the following best describes how Joie has come to understand this culture?

Culture is semiotic - shares rituals create meanings and social reality

The leadership team of a small non-profit organization has a team-building and goal-setting retreat each time a person joins or leaves the team, because the director of the non-profit believes that every time a person joins or leaves, they have an entirely new team. His approach most readily reflects which of the following ideas about organizational culture?

Organizational culture emerges from the participation of the people present

The management at the restaurant where Robin works has long used the phrase "team" in order to describe how everyone at the restaurant needed to pull his or her weight for a collective success. Instead of "shift managers," there were "shift coaches," and instead of "good employees," there were "team players." Recently, a new manager came in to the restaurant and is referring herself as the "director" and all of the staff as "cast members." After two weeks, tensions between staff and management reached a boiling point. How might we best describe what is going on?

The new manager is using a different root metaphor to understand how the staff works with management and each other.

Interdependence

The web of communication activities. Also: The extent to which members of an organization are affected by others.

The transformation of society and work habits was deeply rooted in the use of time, which included the concepts of task time and clock time. What was the main difference between the two?

Time was viewed as a form of currency

For the most part, organizations do not exercise power coercively but engage in unobtrusive control.

True

In capitalist systems, workers must sell their labor power in order to survive, alienating workers from themselves and their own labor.

True

Organizational scholars studying organizational culture pay a lot of attention to cultural expressions; purists tend to see culture expressions as the means by which culture is made, whereas pragmatists tend to see cultural expressions as outward evidence of an objective and quantifiable culture.

True

The work of Karl Marx is a common thread that runs through all the variations of the critical approach.

True

Nancy was awarded a 'day off' voucher for having a strong sales quarter at Alebac Sports. She decides to go skiing in the Pocono Mountains for the day. She takes pictures and uploaded them to the company's Instagram page. Nancy's day off represents ______.

a company marketing opportunity and value creation

Self-organizing systems are characterized by change that is enacted in accordance with core principles that guide system behavior and ______ due to a large influx of new information.

a lack of equilibrium

As one form of organizational control proved to be inadequate in terms of combatting the demand for employee autonomy in the workplace, other forms of control were created. The form that is most holistic in that it considers the life of the employee is _____.

biocratic

In Fran's company, if a project is expected to take longer than three weeks to complete, a project plan detailing the objectives, plan of action, and timeline must be written and approved. This practice represents most closely a form of _______ control.

bureaucratic

According to Weber's perspective, industry leaders such as John D. Rockefeller and Steve Jobs exhibited which type of authority?

charismatic

Nintendogs is a Nintendo game in which you take care of, train, and bond with an adorable (virtual) puppy. The availability of everything, including virtual puppy ownership, to be bought and sold is a property of capitalism called _______.

commodification

In the book Let My People Go Surfing, CEO of the adventure equipment company Patagonia Yvon Chouinard (2005) writes that the company takes a very slow approach to hiring because they want to ensure that any new organizational members embody the same philosophical beliefs of the organization. By taking their time to hire people who "truly believe" in the philosophy of the company, Patagonia reduces turnover and internal conflict. Which of the following functions of pragmatist approaches to culture best describe their hiring policy/practice?

creating a shared identity among organizational members

The ability to question common sense assumptions about the world is done through the development of ______.

critical communication capacities

The term used to describe a great deal of neo-Marxist theory and research based on the ideas of the Frankfurt School is ________.

critical theory

The idea that the nature of society is casually determined by its economic foundation is called ________.

economic determinism

open systems exchange information and ______.

energy

When Mary Kay consultants earn pink Cadillacs for reaching certain sales goals, they go through a rite of ______.

enhancement

Two presidential candidates decided to take different approaches to "getting out the vote." One political campaign went the social media route, Tweeting, Facebooking, and mobilizing voters online. The other political campaign went the face-to-face route, knocking on doors and holding rallies. On election day, both campaigns were surprised to see that each had mobilized a great number of voters- voter turnout was unprecedented for both candidates. This best illustrates ______.

equifinality

Because open systems are more open to the environment than closed systems, they are more likely to experience entropy than closed systems.

false

Because teamwork fosters consensus decision-making and hierarchical power-sharing, teamwork is an ideal way for organizations to ensure that prejudice and abuses of power do not become issues.

false

Creative knowledge-workers have the most security and the biggest boundaries between life and work in our postmodern economy.

false

Workers' attempts to get better pay and safer working conditions helped to strengthen capitalism in the United States.

false

A group maintains ______ when it is able to cre3ate a worldview that other people and groups actively support, even though that worldview may not be in their interests.

hegemony

Lee's father worked for MOT Insurance for over two decades as a claims adjuster. Lee worked for the same insurance company, however in the span of two years, Lee was moved from a claims adjuster, to dispatcher, and then laid off. A few weeks later Lee was rehired as a contractor. Lee experienced ________.

identity insecurity

In order for employees to work in the best interest of an organization, they must be acclimated to the system of beliefs and values. This socialization is a form of ______ control.

ideological

The existence of "culture boot camps" or intensive "cultural training" programs at workplaces attempt to ensure that a workplace has a single, unitary culture. Which form(s) of control are we most likely to see in this approach to organizing?

ideological

_________ is a system of attitudes, beliefs, ideas, perceptions, and values that structure reality.

ideology

Weick says that "organizing is like jazz" because organizing, like jazz, requires both a structure and _____.

improvisation

division of labor

maximizing output by having each worker complete a single repetitive task

Jobs in media design, advertising, and PR are considered to be part of the _____.

new culture industries

For 10 years, Leslie worked for Narf Shoes, a family-owned startup company. As a new hire, Leslie thought the corporate values were in line with their personal philosophy of giving back to the community. Narf was bought out by a large shoe retailer, and for years, the organizational mission was in flux. After surviving two rounds of layoffs, Leslie began to reconsider working for the company. Leslie quit their job, became a Lyft driver, listed their home with Airbnb, and volunteered at the local foodbank twice a week. This scenario is a characteristic of employees who ________.

no longer find work meaningful

Kelly and her 30-something friends occasionally use the phrase, "That's so college." Typically, they use this phrase to refer to something that only occurred during their four years at university: partying late into the evening, cramming all night for exams, stressing about grade point averages, and painting their faces and screaming obnoxiously at every home football game. Which of the following symbolic forms best refers to their sense that these things are "so college" and not a regular part of the culture of their post-college adult lives?

relevant constructs

Early theories of management and organizational communication are connected to the ______ tension society was experiencing in the 20th century.

social and political