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Questions for Review
11-1. What are the functions and process of communication?
Answer: There are four major functions.
1. Communication acts to control member behavior in several ways. When work groups tease or
2. Communication fosters motivation by clarifying to employees what is to be done, how well
they are doing, and what can be done to improve performance. The formation of specific
3. Communication provides a release for the emotional expression of feelings and for fulfillment
4. Communication facilitates decision making. It provides the information.
The communication process is listed in Exhibit 11-1. The key parts are: the sender, encoding, the
message, the channel, decoding, the receiver, noise, and feedback. Formal communication
Learning Objective: Describe the function and processes of communication
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Written and oral communication; Reflective thinking
11-2. What are the communication differences between downward, upward, and lateral communication
sent through small group networks and the grapevine?
Answer: Communication can flow upward, downward, or laterally. Vertical communication can
be either downward or upward. Downward communication flows from one level of a group or
organization to a lower level. It is used by managers to assign goals, provide job instructions,
Formal organizational networks can be complicated, including hundreds of people and a
a. The chain rigidly follows the formal chain of command; this network approximates the
b. The wheel relies on a central figure to act as the conduit for all group communication; it
c. The all-channel network permits group members to actively communicate with each
The effectiveness of each network depends on the dependent variable that concerns you. The
structure of the wheel facilitates the emergence of a leader, the all-channel network is best if you
desire high member satisfaction, and the chain is best if accuracy is most important. Exhibit 11-3
leads us to the conclusion that no single network will be best for all occasions. The informal
Learning Objective: Contrast downward, upward, and lateral communication through
small-group networks and the grapevine
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Written and oral communication; Reflective thinking
11-3. What are the methods of oral communication, written communication, and nonverbal
communication?
Answer: Nonverbal communication involves body language, and describes the nonverbal aspects
of communication that encompass tone of voice, pacing, pitch, and similar aspects that go beyond
a. Oral Communication
i. Advantages: Speed and feedback
b. Written Communication
i. Advantages: Tangible and verifiable
c. Nonverbal Communication
i. Advantages: Supports other communications and provides observable
ii. Disadvantage: Misperception of body language or gestures can influence
Learning Objective: Contrast oral, written, and nonverbal communication
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Written and oral communication; Reflective thinking
11-4. How does channel richness underlie the choice of communication method?
Answer: Channels differ in their capacity to convey information. Some are rich in that they can
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Written and oral communication; Reflective thinking
11-5. What is the difference between automatic and controlled processing of persuasive messages?
Answer: We often rely on automatic processing, a relatively superficial consideration of evidence
and information making use of heuristics. Automatic processing takes little time and low effort, so
it makes sense to use it for processing persuasive messages related to topics you don’t care much
Learning Objective: Differentiate between automatic and controlled processing of persuasive
messages
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Written and oral communication; Reflective thinking
11-6. What are some common barriers to effective communication?
Answer:
a. Filtering: a sender’s manipulation of information so that it will be seen more favorably by
b. Selective Perception: people selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their
c. Information Overload: a condition in which information inflow exceeds an individual’s
d. Emotions: how a receiver feels at the time a message is received will influence how the
e. Language: words have different meanings to different people.
f. Communication Apprehension: undue tension and anxiety about oral communication,
g. Gender Differences: men tend to talk to emphasize status while women talk to create
Learning Objective: Identify common barriers to effective communication
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Written and oral communication; Reflective thinking
11-7. How do you overcome potential problems of cross-cultural communication?
Answer: Cross-cultural factors increase communication difficulties. There are a number of
problems:
a. Cultural Barriers:
i. Semantics: some words aren’t translatable.
ii. Word Connotations: some words imply multiple meanings beyond their
b. Cultural Context:
i. The importance of social context to meaning.
Learning Objective: Discuss how to overcome the potential problems in cross-cultural
communication
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Diverse and multicultural work environments; Written and oral communication;
Reflective thinking
Experiential Exercise
An Absence of Nonverbal Communication
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objectives: Contrast oral, written, and nonverbal communication; Identify common barriers to
effective communication
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Written and oral communication; Reflective thinking
This exercise will help you to see the value of nonverbal communication to interpersonal relations.
First, the class is to split up into pairs (Party A and Party B).
11-8. Party A is to select a topic from the following list:
a. Managing in the Middle East is significantly different from managing in North America.
b. Employee turnover in an organization can be functional.
c. Some conflict in an organization is good.
d. Whistle-blowers do more harm than good for an organization.
e. An employer has a responsibility to provide every employee with an interesting and
challenging job.
f. Everyone should register to vote.
g. Organizations should require all employees to undergo regular drug tests.
h. Individuals who have majored in business or economics make better employees than
those who have majored in history or English.
i. The place where you get your college degree is more important in determining your
career success than what you learn while you’re there.
j. It’s unethical for a manager to purposely distort communications to get a favorable
outcome.
11-9. Party B is to choose a position on this topic (for example, arguing against the view “some
conflict in an organization is good”). Party A now must automatically take the opposite
position. The two parties have 10 minutes in which to debate their topic. The catch is that the
individuals can only communicate verbally. They may not use gestures, facial movements,
body movements, or any other nonverbal communication. It may help for each party to sit on
his or her hands to remind them of their restrictions and to maintain an expressionless look.
11-10. After the debate is over, form groups of six to eight and spend 15 minutes discussing the
following:
a. How effective was communication during these debates?
b. What barriers to communication existed?
c. What purposes does nonverbal communication serve?
d. Relate the lessons learned in this exercise to problems that might occur when
communicating on the telephone or through e-mail.
Ethical Dilemma
BYOD
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objectives: Contrast oral, written, and nonverbal communication; Identify common barriers to
effective communication
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Ethical understanding and reasoning; Written and oral communication; Reflective thinking
“What’s your cell phone number? Good, I’ll call you about the meeting.” If you’re like many people in the
world who have used a smartphone for years, or one of the 1.3 billion people who bought one recently,
chances are you’ve used it for work. In fact, your employer may have even invited—or asked—you to use
your smartphone, tablet, or laptop in your job. Such is the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend, which
started out of friendly convenience but now carries major ethical issues. For instance:
• Did you know your employer can wipe your personal devices clean? Remotely? With no warning? It
happens, and not just at the 21 percent of organizations that erase devices when employees are terminated.
Any time an organization has a privacy concern, it may wipe all devices clean to prevent a further breach of
its cyber-defenses. Health-care consultant Michael Irvin lost his personal e-mail accounts, apps, music,
contacts, and photos suddenly one day, leaving his multi-use iPhone “like it came straight from the
factory.” Another individual lost pictures of a relative who had died.
• Is your device part of your employment contract, either explicitly or by understanding? Who pays for the
device? Well, you did, and you continue to pay for the service. If the device breaks, then … who pays for
the replacement device? Can you lose your job if you can’t afford the device and service?
• Can you use your device for all work-related communications? The cloud has brought opportunities for
people to send classified work information anywhere, anytime. Organizations are concerned about what
social media, collaboration, and file-sharing applications are in use, which is fair, but some policies can
limit how you use your own device.
• Once you use your personal device for work, where are the boundaries between work and home life?
Research indicates that intensive smartphone users, for instance, need to disengage in their off-hours to
prevent work–home stress and burnout. Yet not everyone can do this even if they are allowed to; research
indicated a significant proportion of smartphone users felt pressured to access their devices around the
clock, whether or not that pressure was warranted.
The clear dilemma for employees is whether to acknowledge you own a smart device, and whether to offer
its use for your employer’s convenience. Put that way, it seems obvious to say no (why would you risk
possibly later losing everything to a corporate swipe?), but the convenience of carrying one phone is for
you as well. However, some people think it’s just better to carry two phones—one for work, another for
personal use. Attorney Luke Cocalis tried it and concluded, “It frankly keeps me saner.”
Sources: S. E. Ante, “Perilous Mix: Cloud, Devices from Home,” The Wall Street Journal, February 20,
2014, B4; D. Derks and A. B. Bakker, “Smartphone Use, Work-Home Interference, and Burnout: A Diary
Study on the Role of Recovery,” Applied Psychology: An International Review 63, no. 3 (2014): 411–40; L.
Duxbury, C. Higgins, R. Smart, and M. Stevenson, “Mobile Technology and Boundary Permeability,”
British Journal of Management 25 (2014): 570–88; E. Holmes, “When One Phone Isn’t Enough,” The Wall
Street Journal, April 2, 2014, D1, D2; C. Mims, “2014: The Year of Living Vulnerably,” The Wall Street
Journal, December 22, 2014, B1, B2; L. Weber, “Leaving a Job? Better Watch Your Cellphone,” The Wall
Street Journal, January 22, 2014; and E. Yost, “Can an Employer Remotely Wipe an Employee’s
Cellphone?” HR Magazine, July 2014, 19.
Questions
11-11. Do you use your smartphone or other personal devices for work? If so, do you think this adds to
your stress level or helps you by providing convenience?
11-12. Cocalis likes the two-phone lifestyle and says his boss has his personal phone number only for
emergencies. But assistant talent manager Chloe Ifshin reports it doesn’t work so well in practice.
“I have friends who are clients and clients who are friends,” she says, so work contacts end up on
her personal phone and friends call her work phone. How does this consideration affect your
thinking about BYOD?
11-13. Organizations are taking steps to protect themselves from what employees might be doing on their
BYOD devices through allowing only approved computer programs and stricter policies, but no
federal regulations protect employees from these. What ethical initiatives might organizations
adopt to make this situation fair for everyone?
Class Exercise
1. Ask the students to defend their opinions on each of the items.
2. Ask students to analyze their answers using ethical criteria.
3. Discuss student responses and invite students to comment and ask questions.
Case Incident 1
Organizational Leveraging of Social Media
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objectives: Describe the functions and process of communication; Describe the
function and processes of communication
; Contrast oral, written, and nonverbal communication; Describe how channel richness underlies the
choice of communication channel
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Written and oral communication; Reflective thinking
As you know, social media have transformed the way we interact. The transparent, rapid-fire
communication they make possible means people can spread information about companies more rapidly
than ever.
Do organizations understand yet how to use social media effectively? Perhaps not. Recent findings
indicated that only three out of ten CEOs in the Fortune 500 have any presence on national social media
sites. Many executives are wary of these new technologies because they cannot always control the
outcomes of their communications. However, whether they are directly involved with social media or not,
companies should recognize that these messages are out there, so it behooves them to make their voices
heard. Some experts say social media tools improve productivity because they keep employees connected
to their companies during non-office hours. And social media can be an important way to learn about
emerging trends. André Schneider, chief operating officer of the World Climate Ltd, uses feedback from
LinkedIn discussion groups and Facebook friends to discover emerging trends and issues worldwide.
Padmasree Warrior, chief technology officer of Cisco, has used social media to refine her presentations
before a “test” audience.
The first step in developing a social media strategy is establishing a brand for your communications—
define what you want your social media presence to express. Experts recommend that companies begin
their social media strategy by leveraging their internal corporate networks to test their strategy in a medium
that’s easier to control. Most companies already have the technology to use social media through their
corporate websites. Begin by using these platforms for communicating with employees and facilitating
social networks for general information sharing. As social networking expert Soumitra Dutta from Insead
notes, “My advice is to build your audience slowly and be selective about your contacts.”
Despite the potential advantages, companies also need to be aware of significant drawbacks to social
media. First, it’s very difficult to control social media communications. Microsoft found this out when the
professional blogger it hired spent more time promoting himself than getting positive information out about
the company. Second, important intellectual capital might leak out. Companies need to establish very clear
policies and procedures to ensure that sensitive information about ongoing corporate strategies is not
disseminated via social media. Finally, managers should maintain motivation and interest beyond their
initial forays into social media. A site that’s rarely updated can send a very negative message about the
organization’s level of engagement with the world.
Sources: B. Acohido, “Social-Media Tools Boost Productivity,” USA Today, August 13, 2012, 1B; H.
Annabi and S. T. McGann, “Social Media as the Missing Links: Connecting Communities of Practice to
Business Strategy,” Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce 23, no. 1-2 (2013):
56–83; S. Dutta, “What’s Your Personal Social Media Strategy,” Harvard Business Review, November
2010, 127–30; and G. Connors, “10 Social Media Commandments for Employers,” Workforce
Management Online, February 2010, www.workforce.com; and L. Kwoh and M. Korn, “140 Characters of
Risk: CEOs on Twitter,” The Wall Street Journal, September 26, 2012, B1, B8.
Questions
11-14. Are the drawbacks of the corporate leveraging of social media sufficient to make you think it’s
better for them to avoid certain media? If so, which media?
Answer: The student’s answer to this question will depend on his or her personal viewpoint. In
general, most students will see the social networks as indispensible to personal communication.
11-15. What features would you look for in a social media outlet? What types of information would you
avoid making part of your social media strategy?
Answer: This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in MyManagementLab. Student
11-16. What do you think is the future direction of social media in business? How might emerging
technologies change your forecast?
Answer: This will be an opinion response from students. If students are familiar with emerging
Case Incident 2
PowerPoint Purgatory
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objectives: Contrast oral, written, and nonverbal communication; Identify common barriers to
effective communication
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Written and oral communication; Reflective thinking
We’ve all been there, done that: 10 minutes, 20 PowerPoint slides. Whether you’ve been the harried
presenter racing through the slides or the hapless listener choosing between reading the slides or listening
to the talk, it’s miserable. Three hundred and fifty PowerPoint presentations are given per second
worldwide, and the program commands 95 percent of the presentation software market. Why do we do this
to ourselves?
The short answer seems to be because we know how, or at least we think we do. Joel Ingersoll of Lorton
Data, a Minneapolis database company, said, “You say to yourself, ‘I’ll start vomiting information I found
on my hard drive until I hit, oh, about 20 slides, and then I’ll wing the talking-to-people part.’” Bombarding
audiences with stark phrases is only possible pitfall, says Rick Altman, author of Why Most PowerPoint
Presentations Suck. Another is to over-design your presentation. Most of us spend 36 percent of our prep
time on design, according to a recent study, yet we fail to remember that “less is more.” The poor choices
that sometimes result (such as using cartoonish typefaces for a serious presentation) can undermine your
intended message. Altman cautions against using layer after layer of bullet points to write out what you
should say instead, and he recommends making sparing use of holograms, 3D, and live Twitter feeds that
only detract from your message.
Successful talks are about a story and an interaction. “Even if you’re a middle manager delivering
financials to your department in slides, you’re telling a story. A manager is constantly trying to persuade,”
said Nancy Duarte, owner of a presentation design company. Equally important is the audience. “Everyone
is sick of the one-way diatribe,” Duarte observed, and Altman recommends engaging people “as if they’re
in preschool waiting to get picked up by their parents.” According to Keith Yamashita, founder of
SYPartners communications, this may mean ditching PowerPoint altogether. “There are endless techniques
that are more appropriate than PowerPoint,” he contends. Like what?
Experts suggest fewer visual aids and more live interaction with the audience. High tech does not guarantee
better storytelling. “Pin up butcher paper on the walls, draw a map of your thinking, and hand that out,”
Yamashita says, or use a white board. The results can amaze you. When sales engineer Jason Jones had
trouble launching his 2-hour slide presentation to a dozen clients, buddy Dave Eagle stepped in. “All right,
I got two presentations for y’all,” Eagle told the dozen clients, one where the presentation was “on the
wall” with slides, and the other just spoken. The clients chose the latter, and they won the account.
Sources: A. A. Buchko, K. J. Buchko, and J. M Meyer, “Is There Power in PowerPoint? A Field Test of the
Efficacy of PowerPoint on Memory and Recall of Religious Sermons,” Computers in Human Behavior
(March 2012), pp. 688–-695; “Full Text of Iran's Proposals to Six World Powers in Moscow,” FARS News
Agency (Tehran), http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9103085486; and B. Parks, “Death to
PowerPoint,” Bloomberg BusinessWeek (September 3–-September 9, 2012), pp. 83–-85.
Questions
11-17. What are some of the ways people misuse PowerPoint? What are the potential consequences?
Answer: Responses to this question will vary by student, but many will probably suggest that
11-18. Have you used PowerPoint in your school projects or at work? In what presentations did you find
PowerPoint most effective in communicating your message? In what presentations did PowerPoint
hinder your successful communication?
Answer: This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in MyManagementLab. Student
11-19. List the pros and cons you see for managers avoiding PowerPoint as a mode of communication.
Answer: Again, responses to this question will vary by student, however the general theme is
My Management Lab
Go to mymanagementlab.com for Auto-graded writing questions as well as the following Assisted-graded
writing questions:
11-20. Based on Case Incident 1 and your chapter reading, how do you think social media might be used
in business 5 years from now? Do you see the usage as growing or lessening, and why?
11-21. Considering Case Incident 2 and the chapter material, what are the positive aspects of PowerPoint
as a communication method? One study found no difference in memory recall of listeners after
presentations with (a) PowerPoint words only, (b) visual-only slides, (c) words and visual aids,
and (d) no slides. How does this change your view of the usefulness of PowerPoint as a
communication tool?
11-22. MyManagementLab Only – comprehensive writing assignment for this chapter.
Instructor’s Choice
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objectives: Identify common barriers to effective communication; Describe how channel
richness underlies the choice of communication channel
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Written and oral communication; Reflective thinking
Where is the hottest market for business today? If you answered the 60 million Americans born between
1979 and 1994, you just won the prize. These Generation Y or Digital Generation kids will be a sizable
market force in the years to come. Though this generation and its vast spending power are enough to whet
marketers’ appetites, there may be problems on the horizon for organizations that are banking on attracting
this dynamic market.
First, this market is highly tech-savvy and expects communication from marketers to be just as savvy. Text
messages via cell phones, high-speed links (broadband) with music and video venues, and instant
messaging are but a few of the communication channels that this generation expects marketers to master if
consumption dollars are to flow their way.
Second, this generation wants to use communication to link itself with organizations as well as other
members of the generation. The popularity of video games that allow for multiple players in different parts
of the country and the usage of cell-phone text messages to participate or vote in television reality shows,
such as American Idol, show the degree of commitment to new communication forms.
Finally, this generation is also the Zap Generation, where TiVo and other devices allow viewers to bypass
traditional communication formats and get right to the programming. To effectively communicate with this
generation, organizations will have to try new communication venues such as product placement in visual
programs and digital billboards in such places as stadiums and shopping malls.
Using a search engine of your own choosing, investigate product placement. Write a short
paper that describes how the process works and why it can be a lucrative channel of
communication for a marketer.
Using a search engine of your own choosing, investigate digital billboards and other
visual presentation formats that seem to be preferred by this generation. Comment of the perceived
effectiveness of such formats.
Lastly, list three other communication techniques that might be used to stimulate
attention and response from this generation. Explain your rationale in making the suggestions that
you made.
Instructor Discussion
To assist the instructor in the preparation of this activity, read “Channeling the Future,” by Stephen Baker,
BusinessWeek, July 12, 2004, pp. 70–72. Author Don Tapscott has produced several books that also address
the subject of appealing and communicating with the Digital Generation. Since the majority of the students
in the class are members of this generation, the subject of communication with this generation should be an
easy one to discuss. For example, students can be asked what their favorite communication venues are.
Next, ask them what the favorite venues of their parents are. Note differences in the preferences. Lastly, ask
the students how an organization should communicate with them. Have students understand that
communication for purposes of consumption might be very different from communication that might prove
to be effective in the workplace. Have students discuss what these differences might be.
Exploring OB Topics on the Web
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objectives: Identify common barriers to effective communication; Describe how channel
richness underlies the choice of communication channel
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Written and oral communication; Reflective thinking
1. Listening requires more than a physical presence—it requires a mental presence too! Learn more
about how to develop your skills as an empathetic listener at:
http://crs.uvm.edu/gopher/nerl/personal/comm/e.html. Write a short journal entry describing how you
plan to further develop one technique listed in the article.
2. Are there dos and don’ts for e-mail? Learn more by doing a search on “netiquette,” which are the
courtesy guidelines of e-mail. Print one of the better pages and bring to class along with an e-mail you have
sent or received recently. Take off the names of the parties in the e-mail. In class, we will edit these e-mails
for breeches of netiquette guidelines.
3. Organizational communication has been drastically changed by the introduction of modern
technologies just in the last 10 years. However, it does not just happen. There must be support personnel
and products to assist users with communication via technology. Go to
http://www.databasesystemscorp.com/psccproducts.htm and explore one vendor’s products and services to
support organizational communication. Write a short journal entry about what you learn from this website.
4. Learn more about effective cross-cultural communication. Go to:
http://www.forbes.com/2005/10/19/morris-desmond-cross-culture-comm05-cx_lr_1024morris
cross.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2011/11/28/how-culture-controls-communicat
ion/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2013/07/26/getting-here-working-here-an-expats-expe
rience-in-corporate-america/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2013/09/13/working-abroad-how-to-give-a-presentati
on-in-the-local-language/
Write a paragraph or two about what you learned.
5. Open-Book Management has worked for many companies. To learn more, go to Inc. Magazine’s
website and key in “pen book management” using the search feature. A number of articles are available for
review. Additionally, the following websites also have more information. Write a one page summary on
what you learned.
http://www.nceo.org/library/obm_poolcovers.html
http://www.nceo.org/library/obm_nceostudy.html
6. What is an intranet and how does it work? Chances are if you have not been on one here at school
or at work, you will be in the future. Go to
http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/intranets/g/bldef_intranet.htm for a comprehensive look at intranets
and organizations that have put them to work to increase organizational effectiveness through
communication.
