Quintanilla, Business and Professional Communication: KEYS for Workplace Excellence 4e
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d. charismatic
46. With the ______ style, the team makes the decisions with little input from the leader.
a. laissez-faire
b. authoritative
c. democratic
d. charismatic
47. The ______ has a low concern for both people and task.
a. authoritative manager
b. impoverished manager
c. middle-of-the-road manager
d. enriched manager
48. The ______has a moderate level of concern for both people and task, while the team
manager has a high concern for both people and task.
a. middle-of-the-road manager
b. authoritative manager
c. country club manager
d. impoverished manager
49. According to ______, there’s no best way for managers to lead.
a. Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory
b. Fiedler’s Contingency Theory
c. Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid
d. Conan’s Barbarian Leadership Grid
50. ______ leaders are leaders who articulate a goal or vision to an organization and then
inspire followers to make that vision a reality, requiring them to transcend their own personal
interests for the good of the organization.
a. Situational
b. Transformational
c. Country club
d. Transcontinental
True/False
1. Although administrative assistants may not have a manager title, they still retain power in an
organization.
2. Being well connected in the business world gives you a type of power known as connection
power.
3. In the laissez-faire leadership style, leaders make decisions based on the will of the people.
4. McGregor’s Theory X managers utilize a top-down approach to communication.
5. Part of the role of a manager is to make sure vacant positions are filled as quickly as possible.
6. Skipping over underprepared employees during meetings is the best way to maximize
everyone’s time.
7. Leaders should publicly and privately give team members credit for successes.
8. Performance evaluations should occur more often than once a year.
9. One of the most effective ways to motivate employees is to develop shared goals.
10. Job title equals leadership.
11. A sociopath means that the person has no conscience or feelings of guilt, shame, or
remorse.
12. Based on the descriptors of difficult employees, it is clear that every difficult employee on a
team is a sociopath.
13. For the benefit of the other team members, it is sometime necessary to fire a bad apple.
14. Katie has realized that her employee, Meghan, is not working out and will need to be fired.
If it isn’t that Meghan is a sociopath, it may be that she is simply in the wrong job.
15. All performance improvement plans should be vague so that the employee can have room
to grow professionally.
16. A performance improvement plan is part of the feedback provided to an employee.
17. Face-saving behavior is both verbal and nonverbal communication that honors and
maintains the other person’s sense of self-respect in a given situation.
18. Lance generally nods his head in approval at the work accomplished by Tim. He thinks that
he need not say anything because the nonverbal gestures alone are face-saving themselves.
Quintanilla, Business and Professional Communication: KEYS for Workplace Excellence 4e
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19. George always makes sure that he provides feedback to his staff members. When it comes
to shortcomings or weaknesses, he makes sure he engages with the employee in a one-on-one
conversation is a private setting because it increases the chances that the message is heard.
This is generally an effective strategy.
20. By discussing improvement plans with her employee, Mercedes is a much more effective
leader than she would be by simply telling employees what to do.
21. The two-way communication flow when discussing improvement plans will allow for
improvements for the leader and for individual differences among team members.
22. According to Goal Setting Theory, goals are not merely assigned, but the leader and the
team member develop the goal(s) together.
23. According to Goal Setting Theory, goals must be clear and specific, allowing both parties to
have shared expectations.
24. According to Goal Setting Theory, goals should be very easily attainable.
25. According to Goal Setting Theory, feedback must be given only after the team members
have achieved their goals.
26. When Pablo is discussing an area that needs improvement with an employee, the number
of follow-up meetings must be determined on a case-by-case basis, but Pablo should call for
additional meetings immediately if any signs of poor performance return.
27. Discussing an area that needs improvement or defining a goal should mark the end of the
communication on that subject.
28. Dylan is having to deal with a number of difficult people in his organization. While he has
provided feedback to each employee during their annual evaluation, he has not followed up on
many of the things that were discussed. This issue for Dylan is that he has failed to hold people
accountable.
29. Rose is a very good leader. She does not like having to give someone negative feedback and
she is uncomfortable holding her employees accountable, but she does so. Rose understands
that excellence in leadership is realizing that such feedback is necessary in the workplace.
30. Without honest feedback, employees cannot improve.
31. Scripting is the process of mentally rehearsing what you will say during the discussion.
32. When providing negative feedback and holding a person accountable, the ultimate goal is to
get that person to quit the job before you have to fire him or her.
33. When needing to fire Bruce, Sebastian needs to keep in mind that it was Bruce’s choice not
to live up to the clearly defined expectations and Bruce’s choice to face the consequences.
34. Jarvis needs to make sure that he documents the reprimands and employee evaluations for
employee, just in case any one of them decides not to improve and needs to be fired. This is
because in most organizations, you must have documentation in order to fire an employee.
35. During meetings, it would be wise for Alexi to avoid topics that will “set off” the
bully/sniper.
36. The way to ensure that Tom’s public image is the image of an excellent leader that he wants
to be presenting is accomplished through impression management.
37. The old saying that “clothes make the man” is especially true for both men and women as
clothing in and of itself makes a leader.
38. Impression management is not about creating a false impression, but rather it’s about
monitoring your communication so that you can present a truthful and professional image.
39. Leaders often have multiple types of power, with referent power likely in the mix.
40. Bruno has made it clear to Sandra that if she does not work this coming Saturday, he will
cancel her scheduled vacation time next month. Bruno is using coercive power.
Short Answer
1. ______ power is based on one’s superior expertise in a specific field.
2. ______ functions include important duties such as being in charge of and responsible for
various goals and functions in an organization.
3. Extending from the leadership-as-traits approach is the notion that charisma or ______
equals leadership.
Essay
1. Describe Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid, its two dimensions, and five styles that are
included.
2. How should a leader make criticism constructive? List and describe at least five strategies.
3. List and describe at least five types of “difficult people” you may encounter in the workplace.
Give an example from your own experience in which you encountered one or more of these
types of individuals.
Quintanilla, Business and Professional Communication: KEYS for Workplace Excellence 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Ans: The answer should include at least five of the following:
Bully: has a bad temper, uses aggression to get her or his way
Sniper: uses mean or nasty comments and masks them with humor
4. Define and discuss charisma.
5. Provide the definition of “leadership” provided in the course materials and discuss
leadership.
6. Define and discuss the concept of status.
7. While we generally think of transformational leaders as doing good things within the context
of their leadership, Adolf Hitler was also a transformational leader because he possessed the
attributes and communicated as a transformational leader. Define and discuss transformational
leadership.