Organizational Communication
Textbook Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Organizational Communication explores the theories, processes, and practices that shape communication within and between organizations. This course examines how information is created, shared, and interpreted among individuals and groups in professional settings. Topics include internal communication networks, leadership and management communication, conflict resolution, organizational culture, communication technologies, diversity and inclusion, and strategies for effective messaging. Through case studies and practical applications, students gain the skills to analyze and improve communication dynamics in various organizational contexts.
Recommended Textbook
Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior 6th Edition by Jennifer M. George
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18 Chapters
3054 Verified Questions
3054 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction to Organizational Behavior
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160 Verified Questions
160 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The corporate drive to cut costs is often a response to increases in the minimum wage.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) When a skilled manager moves from one company to another he will MOST LIKELY have to refine his ________ skills.
A) technical
B) conceptual
C) monitoring
D) human
Answer: A
Q3) The ethics of an organization are based on all of the following EXCEPT ________.
A) moral strategies
B) moral rules
C) beliefs
D) values
Answer: A
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Chapter 2: Individual Differences: Personality and Ability
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149 Verified Questions
149 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Neuroticism is a trait that ________.
A) is only found in neurotic individuals
B) is possessed by all normal, psychologically healthy individuals to a certain degree C) reflects people's tendency to experience positive emotional states
D) is also referred to as positive affectivity
Answer: B
Q2) Ben Schneider suggests that the attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) framework can explain how personality can determine the nature of whole organizations.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Type A employees make good team players.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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4
Chapter 3: Work Values Attitudes and Moods and Emotions
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176 Verified Questions
176 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Justice values dictate that decisions should be made that generate the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) The behavioral component of an employee's work attitude is that person's thoughts about how to behave in his or her organization.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) An employee's ability to go to work is affected by all of the following EXCEPT
A) family responsibilities
B) attendance policies
C) illness and accidents
D) transportation problems
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Perception Attribution and the Management of Diversity
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186 Verified Questions
186 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Perception is influenced by schemas, moods, and motivational states.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Attribution theory describes how people explain the causes of the behavior of themselves and others.
A)True
B)False
Q3) How can employees guard against thinking stereotypically?
Q4) People are MOST likely to use impression management tactics when interacting with perceivers ________.
A) over whom they have power
B) who have power over them
C) that they will never see again
D) with high situational salience
Q5) Fundamental attribution errors MOST LIKELY occur when one ________.
A) takes credit for successes and avoids blame for failures
B) focuses on the actor and ignores the context
C) is unaware of all of the individual factors that influence behavior
D) attributes the behavior of others to external causes
Q6) Discuss perception and its three components. Page 6
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Page 7
Chapter 5: Learning and Creativity
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Sample Questions
Q1) All of the following are examples of positive reinforcers EXCEPT ________.
A) added responsibility
B) verbal praise
C) interesting work
D) reprimands
Q2) Identify and discuss the four situational characteristics that are likely to affect creativity.
Q3) The first step in the use of reinforcement is to identify desired behaviors that the organization wants to encourage or reinforce.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Innovation is the generation of novel and useful ideas.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Rodney Lewis, a medical student, has watched over 100 hours of videotaped heart operations. As a result, he has detailed knowledge of heart surgery that he did not have before. Rodney has never performed the operation, but learning has taken place.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: The Nature of Work Motivation
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Sample Questions
Q1) Work motivation explains why employees behave the way they do.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Organizations cannot boost employees' expectancies.
A)True
B)False
Q3) ________ work behavior is performed for its own sake.
A) Intrinsically motivated
B) Extrinsically motivated
C) Functionally motivated
D) Psychologically motivated
Q4) Direction of behavior refers to how hard a person works to perform a chosen behavior.
A)True
B)False
Q5) A high level of motivation always results in a high level of performance.
A)True
B)False
Q6) How does Alderfer's ERG theory compare with Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory?
Q7) Explain the distinction between motivation and performance.
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Chapter 7: Creating a Motivating Work Setting
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to the social information processing model, the way employees view their jobs and their levels of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are NOT affected by ________.
A) the objective nature of the job
B) the social environment at work
C) their own past behaviors
D) their level of education
Q2) Task significance is the degree to which a job allows an employee freedom and independence.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Job enlargement is often referred to as ________.
A) horizontal job loading
B) vertical job loading
C) unilateral job loading
D) multidimensional job loading
Q4) Scientific management is a set of principles and practices stressing job simplification and specialization.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Pay Careers and Changing Employment Relationships
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177 Verified Questions
177 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) All of the following are determinants of psychological contracts EXCEPT ________.
A) direct communication
B) observations
C) written documents
D) education
Q2) When employees are highly interdependent and individual performance levels cannot be assessed accurately, an individual-based pay-for-performance plan is not a viable option.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A manager wants to make sure that he gives his employees feedback, but he is very limited on time. He feels it is more important to give the employees information on how they are doing quickly. Which method would be BEST for the manager to use?
A) graphic rating scale
B) BARS
C) BOS
D) Scanlon scale
Q4) Explain the difference between profit sharing and gain sharing.
Page 11
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Chapter 9: Managing Stress and Work Life Balance
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139 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Employees who are high on self-esteem are less likely to experience stress from challenging work assignments.
A)True
B)False
Q2) ________ occurs when the set of behaviors or tasks a person in an organization is expected to perform are at odds with each other.
A) Role ambiguity
B) Role conflict
C) Work-life linkage
D) Role dissension
Q3) List some of the emotion-focused coping strategies for organizations.
Q4) Define stress and briefly explain the different aspects of stress highlighted in the definition.
Q5) Employees with "Type A" personalities always experience high stress levels.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Driving to work in heavy traffic is guaranteed to be a source of stress.
A)True
B)False
Page 12
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Chapter 10: The Nature of Work Groups and Teams
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Sample Questions
Q1) The engineering staff at Ritchie & Sons Company has developed an informal rule that no one disagrees with the suggestions made by the vice president of engineering, Dan Capp. Dan has not kept up with the latest engineering technologies. In what situation would deviance be MOST acceptable to the other members of the group?
A) A new member of the staff who recently graduated from college challenges Dan.
B) A veteran engineer recently hired to join this staff challenges Dan.
C) A long time veteran of the staff who has rarely helped others challenges Dan .
D) A long time veteran of the staff who has helped other staff members challenges Dan.
Q2) When the membership in a group changes, rules help newcomers learn the right way to perform their roles.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Office furniture can be used to maximize the benefits and minimize the drawbacks of social facilitation and interaction.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Define the three mechanisms groups use to control their members' behaviors.
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Chapter 11: Effective Work Groups and Teams
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Sample Questions
Q1) An organization that is risk averse will prefer that its groups' tasks involve ________.
A) sequential task interdependence
B) creative task interdependence
C) reciprocal task interdependence
D) pooled task interdependence
Q2) Discuss how various levels of cohesiveness (low, medium, and high) affect group performance and effectiveness when group goals are aligned with organizational goals.
Q3) Which of the conditions should NOT be present if self-managed work teams are to be effective?
A) Management must be committed to using self-managed teams.
B) Team members must be carefully selected for their skills and expertise.
C) Team members must work together and want to be part of the team.
D) Team members must be expected to only complete simple projects.
Q4) As group cohesiveness increases, conformity to the group's norms tends to increase.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What is the relationship between effective work groups and organizational goals?
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Page 14
Chapter 12: Leaders and Leadership
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192 Verified Questions
192 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The ability of informal leaders to influence others MOST OFTEN stems from
A) their legal authority to do so
B) their subordinates' fear of managerial discipline
C) special skills or talents they possess
D) prior educational experiences
Q2) Describe the Ohio State University leadership study, of the leader-behavior approach.
Q3) Directive behavior is very similar to consideration.
A)True
B)False
Q4) If a manager has little control over rewards and punishments for her employees, she has low position power.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Although relationship-oriented leaders want to develop good working relationship with their followers, their first priority is task accomplishment.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: Power, Politics, Conflict, and Negotiation
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Sample Questions
Q1) The problems caused by ________ can often arise when a growing organization has not yet fully worked out relationships between different groups.
A) differentiation
B) status inconsistencies
C) overlapping authority
D) organizational behavior
Q2) Which of the following is NOT one of the tactics that managers can use to structure the negotiation and bargaining process to make compromise and collaboration more likely?
A) Emphasize common goals.
B) Focus on the people, not the problem.
C) Focus on interests, not demands.
D) Focus on what is fair.
Q3) Conflict that progresses to the manifest stage before being resolved has a greater potential to generate a negative conflict aftermath.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Identify and review three major sources of interpersonal and intergroup conflict.
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Chapter 14: Communicating Effectively in Organizations
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Sample Questions
Q1) The advice network provides paths of communication that are used on a day-to-day basis for ordinary work-related matters.
A)True
B)False
Q2) If Sarah believes that Joe is an honest, trustworthy person, she is more likely to believe that the information she is receiving is true.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Nonverbal communication is the sharing of information by all of the following means EXCEPT ________.
A) facial expressions
B) body language
C) mode of dress
D) spoken word
Q4) The use of communication to provide knowledge is not important to experienced members of an organization.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What is linguistic style?
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Chapter 15: Decision Making and Organizational Learning
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Sample Questions
Q1) What are performance programs? How do they change decisions?
Q2) A group is trying to decide how to spend government aid. The group asks outside experts to come in and give their opinion. The manager decides that she thinks the first expert had great points and she lets all group members know that she supports that option. Everyone agrees with her, but she has a sinking suspicion that this is only because she will soon be determining who is getting bonuses. She is worried that there might be flaws with the chosen option. In the future, she could BEST avoid the possibility of groupthink by ________.
A) gathering information from inside sources only
B) suggesting her subordinates be less critical of the alternatives
C) punishing any members who act like a devil's advocate
D) refraining from giving her opinion until everyone has expressed their view
Q3) The potential for conflict in group decision making LEAST LIKELY arises from
A) the differences in the knowledge, skills, and expertise of group members
B) members viewing and responding to opportunities or problems in different ways
C) group members advocating alternatives that promote their self-interests
D) similar backgrounds in education and experience shared by group members
Q4) Define the term heuristic and describe three types of heuristics.
Q5) Briefly define bounded rationality.
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Chapter 16: Organizational Design and Structure
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Sample Questions
Q1) In a matrix structure, managers group people and resources by function and by product.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Explain the three types of divisional structure.
Q3) In a ________, managers group people and resources simultaneously by function and by product.
A) hybrid structure
B) virtual structure
C) matrix structure
D) divisional structure
Q4) A divisional structure facilitates communication between functions and can improve decision making, thereby increasing performance.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Organizations using mass-production technology MOST OFTEN prefer a formal organizational structure.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 17: Organizational Culture and Ethical Behavior
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Sample Questions
Q1) Newcomers do NOT obtain information about an organization's culture by
A) observing other employees
B) working with other employees
C) participating in the organization's socialization process
D) taking additional university courses
Q2) The fact that an organization's members become similar over time and come to share the same values may hinder their abilities to respond to changes in the environment.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Ethical behavior cannot help companies develop better relationships with their customers.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Typical terminal values include quality, responsibility, innovativeness, excellence, economy, morality, and profitability.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Identify at least four of the five main factors that shape organizational culture?
Page 20
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Chapter 18: Organization Change and Development
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Sample Questions
Q1) Process consultation bears little resemblance to either counseling or sensitivity training.
A)True
B)False
Q2) When an organization wants to engage in bottom-up change, ________ becomes pivotal in determining the success of the change.
A) implementing the action
B) diagnosing the organization
C) institutionalizing action research
D) determining the desired future state
Q3) A fast food restaurant hired an outside consultant to help improve worker performance. The expert found that various managers were very condescending with employees and this negatively affected their motivation and performance. The BEST technique for the restaurant to use in order to help managers better their interaction with other employees is ________.
A) process consultation
B) team building
C) reengineering
D) restructuring
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Page 21