Quintanilla, Business and Professional Communication: KEYS for Workplace Excellence 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
4. Bias involves discriminating against someone based on your knowledge of their race,
ethnicity, beliefs, and so forth.
5. Bias applies to both individuals and groups.
6. Evaluating the information being sent is known as informational listening.
7. Listening with empathy is the basis for a host of important workplace skills and strategies.
8. Asking questions does not provide support to a speaker.
9. Action-oriented listeners prefer brief communication.
10. In the HURIER model, evaluating involves making sense of verbal and nonverbal codes to
assign meaning to the information received.
11. Being an effective listener is a prerequisite to achieving professional excellence.
12. By asking questions, you can develop a better understanding of the speaker’s message and
provide support to the speaker.
13. Professor Potter has been asked to sit in as three candidates present their applications for a
new position as Lecturer in Communication at the college. Professor Potter will use
informational listening and critical listening in this context.
14. At the coffee store where Bruce is the assistant manager, a customer is complaining about
the quality of the pastry she bought to go with her coffee drink. Bruce knows that the usual
quality is good, so he feels that he can cut her off mid-sentence and defend the quality of all the
Quintanilla, Business and Professional Communication: KEYS for Workplace Excellence 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
products his store sells, suggesting that the woman has no idea what she is talking about. Bruce
is putting empathetic listening to good use.
15. Twila’s new job requires her to attend an all-day orientation before she can actually start
doing her job. Twila assumes that the orientation is very important or it would not take all day.
Twila should prepare herself to use her critical listening skills.
16. Ron is the new employee at his friend’s wizard want manufacturing company and has been
assigned to follow and learn from Harry. In this context of one-to-one training, Ron should be
using his informational listening capabilities.
17. Paul has submitted his application to a technology company hundreds of miles from his
home. To make sure there may be a good fit between Paul and the company, the company
interviewer is talking to Paul by telephone before inviting him for a face-to-face interview. The
interviewer asks questions, Paul answers, then the cycle continues. This is an example of
conversational listening.
18. When considering presentational listening, the listening environment is based on the
following conditions: mode (conversational or presentational), environment (formal or
informal), and relationship (social or business).
19. Understanding a message requires that we first hear the message, but it also includes being
able to understand the speaker’s use of language and the basic context of the information.
20. Ethically interpreting a message means you are intentionally letting your own bias or beliefs
interfere with your interpretation.
21. Learning to evaluate a message without bias, distractions, apprehension, or gender/cultural
differences takes time and patience.
22. Brittani is initially having difficulty understanding what it is that her international student
friend is saying at times. This is most likely because understanding includes being able to
understand the speaker’s use of language and the basic context of the information.
23. Communication would not be collaboration if not for hearing.
24. Rodrigo believes that it is a good practice to use nonverbal cues such as head nods,
emotional expressions, or verbal utterances to show you are listening. Rodrigo is correct.
25. A person is likely to retain 75% of a conversation.
26. Creating awareness of the importance of effective listening to personal and professional
success is one of the four major objectives that Gibbs, Hewing, Hulbert, Ramsey, and Smith
(1985) assert that listening awareness and instruction can accomplish.
27. Increasing understanding of the nature of listening and its importance in the total
communication process is one of the four major objectives that Gibbs, Hewing, Hulbert,
Ramsey, and Smith (1985) assert that listening awareness and instruction can accomplish.
28. Diagnosing listening abilities and practices is one of the four major objectives that Gibbs,
Hewing, Hulbert, Ramsey, and Smith (1985) assert that listening awareness and instruction can
accomplish.
29. Ethically interpreting a message means you are not intentionally letting your own bias or
beliefs interfere with your interpretation.
30. Thad is interested in increasing his understanding of the nature of listening and its
importance in the total communication process. It would be a good idea for Thad to seek out
listening instruction and to improve his listening awareness.
31. Aldous has decided to take a personal inventory of his communications skills and better
understand his own contributions to effective professional communication. In this case, Aldous
is applying the first step of the KEYS process by knowing himself.
32. Listening involves just verbal communication.
33. After Bob and Steve were able to adjust how their team communicates with customers,
vendors, and employees, they needed to determine if the changes they made to try to become
more successful were actually working. By stepping back and reflecting, Bob and Steve applied
the final step of the KEYS process.
34. Jim-Bob is a midlevel manager at a growing technology company and is always working to
find out how things are going with the technicians and what materials, supplies, and other
support they need to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. What Jim-Bob does not like are
indirect and error-filled communication. Jim-Bob is an action-oriented listener.
Short Answer
1. Technical words used by specialized groups are known as ______.
2. ______ listening asks you to evaluate the information being sent.
3. ______ listening is listening to understand the speaker’s point of view without judgment.
4. ______ listening occurs when you focus on the content of the message to acquire
knowledge.
5. Seamus has been listening to an unhappy client and is attempting to understand the problem
from his perspective, without countering, criticizing, or judging. Seamus is employing ______
listening.
6. ______ has changed not only the tools we use to listen but also when and where we use
them, and even what we think about as we listen.
7. As a ______ listener, you will simply receive a message and make sense out of that message
without feedback or verification.
8. ______ is any assumption we make or attitude we have about a person, an issue, or a topic
before we have heard all the facts.
9. ______ can have the same impact as jargon.
10. Jason has been sitting through a presentation on the ways in which space exploration has
developed from the 1950s to today. The presentation is filled with graphs, photos, and charts
which are explained in great detail, making it difficult for Jason to keep up with the message
being delivered. Jason is experiencing ______.
11. Abbie woke up feeling anxiety about her presentation later that day to the large
pharmaceutical company board of directions. She is worried that her presentation is not
prepared well enough and that her delivery may not be up to her usual standard. Abbie is
contending with ______ noise.
12. At times, it appears as though ______ listeners are looking under a microscope and
dissecting information.
1. Explain the difference between active listening and passive listening. Give one example each
of when it is appropriate to use those styles.
2. Think about the last presentation you experienced and apply all steps of the HURIER model
to the presentation.
3. Identify your preferred listening style and explain why you prefer it over the other styles.
4. Discuss whether or not you think new and emerging media causes message overload. Give
several examples to back up your position.
5. Think of several types of jargon you use in your everyday life. Explain how you would
describe your jargon to a person who is not familiar with it.
6. Identify your greatest cause of internal noise. Discuss several different ways of reducing your
internal noise.
7. Think of a time when you found yourself hearing a message but not listening to the speaker.
Using the concepts presented in this text, explain what strategies might have helped you listen
better in that situation.
8. Imagine that you are in charge of making sure everyone on your team understands the new
payroll structure that is being implemented at your organization. Based on what you’ve read in
this chapter, what steps might you take to help ensure everyone is able to listen well to your
message?
9. You are at the company holiday party and all employees and management will be in
attendance. Should you anticipate conversation listening or presentational listening to be the
primary type of listening at the party? Why?
10. In a conversation with the head of marketing for your company, you determine that she is a
time-oriented listener. Discuss how you would determine this listening style.