Communicating at Work, 12e (Adler)
Chapter 3 Listening
1) Listening skills contribute to career success in all of the following aspects EXCEPT
A) your effectiveness in an organization.
B) your upward mobility.
C) your productivity.
D) Effective listening skills contribute to all of these.
2) A survey of 1,000 executives ranked ________ as the top skill of an ideal manager.
A) listening
B) conflict resolution
C) writing
D) public speaking
3) According to Peter Drucker, a management expert, effective communication is
A) the responsibility of the receiver.
B) the responsibility of the sender.
C) a burden that is not worth your time.
D) wasted if the receiver does not listen well.
4) Active listening occurs whenever
A) you are truly interested in what someone else has to say.
B) a speaker specifically asks people to listen closely to what he or she is saying.
C) you are attentive to the verbal and nonverbal information being shared by a speaker.
D) your environment is quiet enough that you can perceive what someone is saying.
5) When Pierre doesn’t understand his supervisor’s instructions, he blames his boss for not making
the instructions clear. Pierre’s belief that effective communication is always the sender’s
responsibility is an example of which of the following barriers to effective listening?
A) physiological
B) false assumption
C) sociocultural differences
D) lack of training
6) Adam believes that he is a good listener because he does not interrupt others. However, Adam
does not paraphrase or ask clarifying questions of the speaker, and he does not attend to the
speaker’s nonverbal cues. Adam is mistakenly assuming that
A) effective communication is the listener’s responsibility.
B) listening is a passive process.
C) talking has more advantages than listening.
D) the communication model is accurate.
7) Which of the following is a common but false assumption about listening?
A) The sender and the receive share responsibility for making their communication effective.
B) Listening is an active process.
C) As a work skill, listening is just as important as talking.
D) Listening is a natural ability that almost everyone possesses.
8) Chetna’s mind wanders when her supervisor is talking to her. She does not paraphrase or ask
clarifying questions, and she does not attend to her supervisor’s nonverbal cues. Which of the
following assumptions would help Chetna improve her listening?
A) Communication is the sender’s responsibility.
B) Effective listening is an active process.
C) Talking has more advantages than listening.
D) Listening is a mindless activity.
9) Conversational partners are typically able to interpret ________ percent of each other’s remarks
accurately.
A) 25 to 50
B) 10 to 20
C) about 75
D) 50 to 70
10) Rhonda received a voice message marked “urgent,” but due to the poor quality of her phone’s
speakers, she was not able to understand the message. Which barrier to listening does this problem
represent?
A) environmental barrier
B) physiological barrier
C) message overload
D) preoccupation
11) Rafael is taking an online communication class this semester. Today, he is frustrated because
the server is down and he cannot complete the quiz on listening that is due by 5:00 P.M. Which
barrier to effective listening does this situation illustrate?
A) rapid thought
B) fear of appearing ignorant
C) message overload
D) environmental barrier
12) All of the following can help reduce environmental distractions EXCEPT
A) choosing a more reliable communication channel.
B) eliminating distractions.
C) moving to a less disruptive location.
D) focusing on annoyances.
13) Robert was listening to the instructions provided by his boss. However, it was difficult to hear
each step because Caitlin and Josh were engaged in a discussion close by. Which barrier to
effective listening was hindering Robert’s ability to listen to his boss?
A) environmental
B) attitudinal barrier
C) egocentrism
D) physiological barriers
14) Samar has been having difficulty hearing what people are saying at the opposite end of the
table, so he has decided to begin wearing a hearing aid to assist him during sales meetings. Which
of the barriers to effective listening is reflected in Samar’s need for a hearing aid?
A) physiological barrier
B) environmental barrier
C) psychological barrier
D) faulty assumption
15) Having mental “spare time” while listening is the result of
A) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
B) speech rates of 125 words per minute and thought rates of 500 words per minute.
C) our inability to process information as quickly as a speaker can talk.
D) the hectic pace of the business world today.
16) The fact that a receiver can process information faster than a sender can speak affects which of
the following barriers to effective listening?
A) attitudinal
B) sociocultural
C) physiological
D) environmental
17) Katie is a supervisor for a calling center. She is experiencing a number of problems with her
subordinates. They often bungle the instruction she provides, which results in additional work for
her. After researching this problem, Katie determined that her instructions were being
misinterpreted because she was giving instructions while the phones were ringing and the
employees were filling out their time sheets. Which barrier to effective listening is the cause of
Katie’s problem?
A) message overload
B) rapid thought
C) egocentrism
D) sociocultural differences
18) Courtney continuously checks her email and texts responses while sitting in her biology
lecture. Not surprisingly, she has trouble understanding many of the concepts she’s supposed to be
learning. Which type of barrier to effective listening does this represent?
A) physiological barrier
B) message overload
C) ethnocentrism
D) faulty assumption
19) Most people can only really pay attention to ________ at a time.
A) one complex message or two simple messages
B) one or two message
C) one message
D) up to three simple messages
20) Jim is having problems listening to Diana’s directions for operating the new computer terminal
because he is upset about his poor performance in his early morning presentation to the vice
president. Which of the following barriers to listening does this scenario illustrate?
A) message overload
B) preoccupation
C) rapid thought
D) physical barriers
21) Corey has lived in New York City all his life. His new coworker, Danielle, recently
immigrated to the United States from Mali. She speaks English with an accent. As a consequence
of this, Corey assumes that she is not very intelligent and that she does not understand him very
well when he speaks to her. Corey is demonstrating
A) ethnocentrism.
B) egocentrism.
C) preoccupation.
D) poor multicommunication.
22) Which of the following terms represents the belief that your ideas are more important than
other people’s ideas?
A) preoccupation
B) false assumption
C) egocentrism
D) ignorance
23) Self-centered listeners
A) receive low ratings for social attractiveness.
B) are usually well-liked.
C) readily learn valuable new information.
D) are more likely to be promoted.
24) Which is true about seeking clarification?
A) An effective employee should not ask questions.
B) When we ask questions, we are showing our ignorance.
C) Never ask a dumb question.
D) Asking questions to seek clarification is a strategy that can pay dividends.
25) Researchers have found that gender and nationality have which of the following impacts on
workplace listening?
A) Indians are more attentive than Americans or Malaysians.
B) Malaysian women are more attentive than American women.
C) Americans are more attentive on average than Indians.
D) Men are more likely to engage in distracted listening than women.
26) The most effective listeners are
A) flexible when it comes to their listening style.
B) analytical and task-oriented listeners.
C) those who have developed expertise in their preferred listening style.
D) relational and critical listeners.
27) Rodayne’s friends say he is an excellent communicator. His listening ability has helped him
develop and maintain a number of positive relationships, and he is extremely sensitive to the
feelings and ideas of others. Which listening style preference do Rodayne‘s actions illustrate?
A) relational
B) analytical
C) task-oriented
D) critical
28) People who use which of the following listening styles are most at risk of failing to assess the
quality of the information others are giving to them?
A) task-oriented
B) analytical
C) critical
D) relational
29) Dakota acts as the summarizer in her work team. After a proposal has been discussed for a few
minutes, she summarizes the idea and then asks if the team is ready to move forward in
implementing the proposal. She keeps the group on track, but she tends to gloss over any looks of
concern or puzzlement. Dakota’s listening behavior represents the ________ style of listening.
A) relational
B) analytical
C) task-oriented
D) critical
30) What listening style is particularly well-suited to people working in a company’s ombuds
department?
A) critical
B) task-oriented
C) analytical
D) relational
31) Hiro takes pleasure in exploring ideas during meetings. He likes to discuss an idea thoroughly,
being sure that all the pros and cons have been systematically considered. Only after much debate
is he willing to decide on a course of action. Hiro is demonstrating the ________ style of listening.
A) relational
B) analytical
C) task-oriented
D) critical
32) If you find it difficult to listen patiently when you believe that people are not efficient or are
not promptly getting to the point during conversations, which listening style preference would you
be using?
A) relational
B) analytical
C) task-oriented
D) critical
33) Monika pays especially close attention to the accuracy and consistency of people’s messages.
She tries to always consider the quality of a message before she decides if she believes it. Monika’s
primary listening style is ________ listening.
A) relational
B) critical
C) task-oriented
D) analytical
34) Mindless listening
A) should be avoided at all costs.
B) is a useful strategy when we need to tune out distractions that are not worthy of careful
attention.
C) involves attending carefully to the message.
D) takes up so much of our energy that we cannot focus on those messages that are most important
to hear.
35) When you pay careful attention to the messages you receive and respond to them in a
thoughtful way, you are engaged in ________ listening.
A) critical
B) mindful
C) active
D) analytical
36) Tyson’s instructor assigned him to listen to a political presentation on campus. In which order
should Tyson complete the necessary mental tasks?
A) listen, understand, evaluate
B) listen, evaluate
C) evaluate, formulate a response, listen
D) understand, listen, evaluate
37) Which of the following is a useful technique for improving the quality of your conversations?
A) Speak only when it is truly necessary.
B) Give advice in the form of questions.
C) Do not hesitate to evaluate what others have to say.
D) Ask original questions rather than paraphrasing what others have already said.
38) Which of the following is NOT a recommended technique for effective listening?
A) When the sender pauses, seek clarification by restating his or her ideas in your own words.
B) Be sure you understand the other person’s ideas very well before you begin to evaluate them.
C) Give the speaker advice by asking leading questions such as, “Are you sure you have really
tried every solution we talked about?”
D) When you are listening, hold back from making a wealth of comments.
39) Questions that are actually disguised forms of giving advice are called ________ questions.
A) sincere
B) counterfeit
C) unrealistic
D) demanding
40) An example of a counterfeit question is
A) “What’s your opinion?”
B) “Can you tell me more?”
C) “What do you want to do next?”
D) “When do you plan to change to a higher-paying job?”
41) Which of the following is NOT a counterfeit question?
A) “Are you telling me that you haven’t finished the report yet?”
B) “Have you tried opening the emergency valve?”
C) “What ideas do you have for improving our productivity?”
D) “Wouldn’t it have been better if you had completed the research last week instead of leaving it
until the last minute?”
42) Paraphrasing means
A) responding to a speaker nonverbally.
B) restating, in your own words, what you think the speaker just said.
C) mentally questioning the speaker’s intentions and arguments.
D) repeating back to the speaker exactly what he or she said.