Communication Theory
Question Bank
Course Introduction
Communication Theory explores the foundational models, principles, and frameworks that explain how information is created, transmitted, received, and interpreted among individuals and groups. This course examines both classic and contemporary theories, including the study of verbal and nonverbal communication, the influence of culture and context, message design, media effects, and the role of technology. Students will analyze real-world communication processes, evaluate the strengths and limitations of various theories, and apply these concepts to everyday interactions as well as professional settings. The course aims to provide a deep understanding of the complexities of human communication, fostering critical thinking and effective communication skills.
Recommended Textbook
Organizational Communication 1st Edition by Dennis K. Mumby
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14 Chapters
560 Verified Questions
560 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: Introducing Organizational Communication
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40 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Postmodernism is both a historical epoch and a way of thinking that rejects any single overarching social reality or grand narrative.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) We can define ___________ as the dynamic,ongoing process of creating and negotiating meanings through interactional symbolic practices,including conversation,metaphors,rituals,stories,dress,and space.
Answer: communication
Q3) The discourse of _____________________ refers to the feminist perspective on organizational communication.
Answer: empowerment
Q4) According to the interpretivist perspective,corporate rituals such as Christmas parties and corporate breakfasts function to subtly reassert the worldview of the management élite in the organization.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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3
Chapter 2: The Critical Approach
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is an example of what Karl Marx identified as surplus value?
A)A worker increases her rate of production but does not get a corresponding raise in pay.
B)A person works a second job because he has additional time in the evenings.
C)A company is owned by the workers who share equally in any profits the company makes.
D)An auto mechanic uses his skills in his free time to help his neighbor fix his car.
Answer: A
Q2) The approach that explores the ways in which economics,culture,and politics interact to create social reality is called Marxism.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) The work of _________________ is a common thread that runs through all the variations of the critical approach.
Answer: Karl Marx
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Chapter 3: Scientific Management, bureaucracy, and the Emergence
of the Modern Organization
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40 Verified Questions
40 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to Weber,authority based on the ability of a particular individual to exercise authority over others by virtue of their special abilities is __________________ authority.
Answer: charismatic
Q2) In the early 19th century approximately what percentage of U.S.citizens were self-employed:
A)10%
B)25%
C)60%
D)80%
Answer: D
Q3) The term "employee" was originally used exclusively to describe railroad workers.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) Marx calls the process in which workers are separated from the means by which to engage in the production of goods _______________________________.
Answer: expropriation
Page 5
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Chapter 4: The Human Relations School
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Sample Questions
Q1) In resolving conflict through ________________,the goal is to find a resolution in which each party's desires are satisfied and no one has to sacrifice anything.
Q2) Many companies hold a company picnic or "fun day" for employees and their families to thank their employees and to offer a social environment for families to interact.This practice is most closely related to which of the following theories of effective management?
A)Scientific management
B)Bureaucratic theory
C)Human relations theory
D)Family support theory
Q3) It has been argued that the ideology of the researchers associated with the Hawthorne studies is reflected in the interpretation of the data.This ideology includes the idea(s)that:
A)There is a legitimate role for conflict in the workplace
B)The average worker is able to understand the nature of working conditions objectively
C)Gender dynamics are a negligible factor in workplace attitudes
D)All of the above
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Chapter 5: Organizations As Communication Systems
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Sample Questions
Q1) _________________ is the term that describes the possibility that the same inputs can produce various different outputs.
Q2) Which best characterizes how Weick explains the relationship between rules and equivocality?
A)Rules are the cause of equivocality.
B)Rules are best used in highly equivocal contexts,because no precedent exists.
C)Rules are often used in less equivocal contexts,because a precedent exists.
D)Rules bring back memories of equivocality.
Q3) _________________ is the term that describes what happens when various approaches all ultimately yield the same result.
Q4) According to systems theory,corporations,families,non-profits,gangs,and sororities,prisons,schools,and knitting circles all have a lot in common.
A)True
B)False
Q5) According to Luhmann,systems need structure only to the extent that ongoing communication produces norms and expectations.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: Communication,culture and Organizing
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Sample Questions
Q1) Organizational life is made up of a set of ongoing practices that members must engage in to accomplish organizing.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following phrases best summarizes the shift in organizational communication research that we see with the cultural approach?
A)Scholars take seriously the idea that organizations are communicative phenomena.
B)Scholars take seriously the idea that organizations are structures of meaning.
C)Scholars take seriously the idea that organizational members construct organizations through everyday acts.
D)All of the above.
Q3) The "metaphor" for organizational culture is the organism.
A)True
B)False
Q4) White-collar work can be just as dehumanizing as ____________________ work.
Q5) Cultural studies of organizations offered managers exciting ways to motivate employees and to invigorate _________________.
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Chapter 7: Power and Resistance at Work
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Sample Questions
Q1) "Busy-ness" is a(n)_____________construct;it is not a naturally occurring,objective feature of society,but rather is a socially constructed phenomenon that gives shape and meaning to people's lives.
Q2) A person may exercise positional,coercive,and reward power simultaneously.
A)True
B)False
Q3) According to Robert Dahl and the one-dimensional model of power,the presence of overt conflict is not a condition for the exercise of power.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Because of her or his _____________ power,the chairman of the department can mediate and rule in a dispute between two faculty members.
Q5) When many people think of a nurse,they envision a woman.This assumption is an example of which aspect of ideology?
A)Ideology represents particular group interests as universal
B)Ideology obscures contradictions in society
C)Ideology naturalizes social relations through the process of reification
D)None of the above
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Sample Questions
Q1) Susan is a pediatric oncology nurse,which means that she works on both the pediatric floor of the hospital and the oncology floor of the hospital.She is on a pediatric team and an oncology team.Her pediatric team is a nightmare - the "team leader" seems totally unable to direct the team to have meaningful conversations or to make productive decisions.Susan often feels as though all of the individual members could do more work on their own than the team,as a whole,can do.The oncology team is a dream - the team leader is truly a leader and the team often feels empowered.Every member says that she (or he!)cannot believe that the team is able to accomplish so much - it feels very nonsummative.Which of the following "warnings" or "advice" about teams could best apply to this discrepancy?
A)Teams have to be implemented carefully,with input from employees.
B)Teams cannot be imposed from above;they have to have real buy-in from workers if they're going to be truly participatory.
C)Team-members need adequate training in team processes,such as decision-making and leadership skills.
D)Team-members need to understand the ways in which they can exact control one another so that they don't abuse their power.
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Communicating Gender at Work
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Sample Questions
Q1) The only reason that a woman might choose not to participate in a company sponsored parental-leave program is because she is making the choice to value her career more than her family.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Femininity is socially constructed;masculinity is natural.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Jacque has always been labeled a "dynamo." Whip-smart,a gifted leader,and a cunning businessperson,her mentors long assumed that she would soar to the top roles in the consulting firm where she worked.One of just a few women in male-dominated organizations (in a male-dominated field),Jacque has now spent ten years in mid-management in three different companies.Despite impeccable reviews and consistently high reviews from the organization's clients,she never seems to get a promotion.What term could best describe Jacque's predicament?
A)Glass elevator
B)Glass ceiling
C)Glass house
D)Glass escalator
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Page 11
Chapter 10: Communicating Difference at Work
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following best exemplifies the meaning of the phrase,"differences that make a difference?"
A)The biological differences between men and women,and people with black and white skin are where we derive the significance of gender,sexuality,and race.
B)The distinctions between sexual preferences and partners are where we derive the significance of sexuality and interactions that sometimes lead to sexual harassment.
C)Differences between people are natural,and we blow them out of proportion by talking about them too much or with too much significance.
D)Some differences are structured into society as important,while others are overlooked and thought unimportant.
Q2) People generally agree that sexual harassment in the workplace is unacceptable and have generally agreed-upon standards for what constitutes sexual harassment.
A)True B)False
Q3) White-skinned immigrants from Ireland and Italy were once considered "___________________"
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12
Chapter 11: Leadership Communication in the New Workplace
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Sample Questions
Q1) _______________________________ is an approach to leadership that distinguishes between managers and leaders - leaders promote shared meanings about the organization and how it will develop while managers concern themselves primarily with the here and now of the organization.
Q2) A _____________________ perspective on leadership is less interested in heroic leaders than the way in which leadership is distributed throughout the organization.
Q3) When women experience success in organizations and find themselves in upper rants of management,they are likely to encounter:
A)The glass ceiling
B)The glass escalator
C)The glass cliff
D)The glass elevator
Q4) Transformational leadership and neo-charismatic leadership signal the return of the heroic "great leader," but different organizational contexts.
A)True
B)False
Q5) More of us are _______________ than leaders.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Branding and Consumption
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following organizations engage in branding?
A)The Coca-Cola Company
B)Amnesty International
C)The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
D)All of the above
Q2) _________________ is a strategy that attempts to integrate brands into the expression of individual identities by blurring the distinction between marketing and everyday life and popular culture.
Q3) Mountain Dew ads imply that drinking Mountain Dew will open up a world of excitement where you can do ("dew")anything.The constructed meaning associated with this brand is an example of the:
A)Homonym effect
B)Floating signifier effect
C)Target market premise
D)Feel-good premise
Q4) In the second half of the 19th century,branding was:
A)Used to develop customer loyalty
B)A way to expand the market by creating in people new needs and desires
C)A way to distinguish one product from another
D)All of the above
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Organizational Communication,
and Democracy
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40 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In English,we use French words such as résumé and cul-de-sac.The French,however,do not commonly use these words.Our use of these words is an example of:
A)Glocalization
B)Grobalization
C)Monoculturalism
D)Cultural Hybridity
Q2) The branding of products is an attempt to deal with the problem of the "nothingness" that is a result of the global process of consumption.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Xochitl represents:
A)The feminization of migration
B)The lower circuit of global capital and work
C)The infrastructure necessary for a global economy
D)All of the above
Q4) George Ritzer has labeled the intersection of local cultures and the globalization processes,which results in "something" as ____________________.
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Chapter 14: Communication, meaningful Work, and Personal Identity
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Sample Questions
Q1) One could argue that the postmodern organizational form favors disloyalty,immediate gratification,and irresponsibility.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Sometimes when students read Raising the Bar,they decide that they would not want to work for a company life Clif Bar.Of the following,which do you imagine to be the most likely reason for their hesitance to work at Clif?
A)They do not really enjoy the outdoorsy-athletic version of "fun" that pervades Clif Bar,finding art gallery openings and craft-making more fun.
B)They prefer to spend their free time or time away from the office socializing with a well-developed network of family and friends,not with fellow employees.
C)They choose to find meaning in their lives in places removed from the workplace.
D)All of the above.
Q3) Many no-collar workers experience _____________________________________,the sense that they never have enough time.
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Page 16