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Chapter 11 Communication Page
Questions for Review
11-1. What are the functions and process of communication?
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 channels are established by the organization
and transmit messages that are related to the professional activities of members.
Informal channels are used to transmit personal or social messages in the
organization. These informal channels are spontaneous and emerge as a response
to individual choices.
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?
Formal organizational networks can be complicated, including hundreds of people
all-channel network. (Exhibit 11-2)
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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
managers a feel for the morale of their organization, identifies issues employees
consider important, and helps tap into employee anxieties. The grapevine also
serves employees’ needs: small talk creates a sense of closeness and friendship
among those who share information, although research suggests it often does so at
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?
a. Oral Communication
i. Advantages: Speed and feedback
ii. Disadvantage: Distortion of the message
b. Written Communication
i. Advantages: Tangible and verifiable
ii. Disadvantages: Time-consuming and lacks feedback
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c. Nonverbal Communication
i. Advantages: Supports other communications and provides
observable expression of emotions and feelings.
influence receiver’s interpretation of message.
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?
factors.
Learning Objective: 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
11-5. What is the difference between automatic and controlled processing of persuasive
messages?
disadvantage is that it lets us be easily fooled by a variety of tricks, like a cute
jingle or glamorous photo. You do independent research among experts who know
energy, but it’s harder to fool someone who has taken the time and effort to
engage in it.
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:
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communication, written communication, or both.
g. Gender Differences: men tend to talk to emphasize status while women
talk to create connections.
11-7. How do you overcome potential problems of cross-cultural communication?
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
Conveying Tone Through E-mail
This exercise contributes to:
effective communication
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Written and oral communication; Reflective thinking
Pair off with someone you have not worked with before. In this exercise, you will pretend
that you work for a small air conditioning company. Occasionally one of your coworkers,
the following e-mail.
Subject: Issue with Phillips Park Animal Kennel Air Conditioning
Good afternoon,
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Dan
You’re already behind on your work, but you also know Daniel needs your help. Take
five minutes, and each write out a one sentence reply to Daniel telling him whether or not
you will go to the kennel before lunch. You must pick one of three tones to use in the
e-mail: angry, sarcastic, apologetic, sympathetic, enthusiastic, or neutral. Trade your
11-8. Did you guess correctly? Why or why not?
11-9. Have your partner read their e-mail to you in their own voice, then read the
same e-mail in your voice. Did the tone change depending on who read the
e-mail aloud? Why or why not?
a. Rewrite your e-mails to be three sentences long. Is the tone clearer in these
e-mails? Why or why not?
Ethical Dilemma
BYOD
This exercise contributes 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
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
opportunities for people to send classified work information anywhere, anytime.
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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
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
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
11-12. Cocalis likes the two-phone lifestyle and says his boss has his personal phone
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
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.
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Case Incident 1
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
communication barriers.
When Boston Consulting Group tried to discover why their female employees
were less satisfied with their male employees, the answer seemed to be different
communication styles. Many women felt that, in order to fit into the predominantly male
culture, they had to adopt a more masculine communication style. Carol Kinsey Goman,
Males are encouraged to be authoritative by taking up space, be quick and concise, and to
emphasize power. Yet the stereotypical male communication style also has many
weaknesses. Sometimes, by emphasizing conciseness, masculine communication may
seem too blunt, insensitive, and overly confident. So, is one communication style more
their intended audience.
Following this advice, Boston Consulting Group launched a training program to
teach upper management how to use both communication styles. While going through the
training program, many senior partners realized that they had been encouraging their
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2016/03/31/is-your-communication-style-dictated-by-your-gender/2/#6832ffe555b9,
accessed April 13, 2017; and A. Elejalde-Ruiz, “To Retain Women, Consulting Firms Target Gender Communication Differences,”
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The Chicago Tribune, September, 2016,
Questions
11-14. What are some other situations where having a male communication style may be
may be more advantageous?
Answer: This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in MyLab
Management. Student responses will vary.
11-15. How might male and female communication styles differ across cultures?
Management. Student responses will vary.
11-16. Do you feel like your communication style corresponds with your gender? Why
or why not?
Answer:
Case Incident 2
Trying to Cut the Grapevine
This exercise contributes to:
effective communication
Learning Outcome: Describe the factors influencing effective communication in organizations
AACSB: Written and oral communication; Reflective thinking
Whether or not gossip benefits organizations has become a gray area. Gossip, in some
contexts, may be good. Some leaders, such as Aviva Leebow Wolmer (CEO of
gained the ability to gossip through evolution. Gossip allowed our tribal ancestors to form
bonds, while also learning who to avoid. According to recent research, negative gossip
may have been used to identify individuals who had broken norms (see Chapter 9) about
sharing with tribe. By ostracizing the individual who did not act in the best interest of the
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gossip may serve to exclude others. And unlike our tribal ancestors, gossip is often not
directed towards employees who have acted against a group. Instead, gossip about a
behaviors, gossip is often meant to harm the target emotionally. When the gossiper
realizes that they aren’t achieving this goal, they will sometimes stop.
Gossip can also harm individuals besides the target. Gossip that targets an individual may
splinter an office as people “take sides.” This can lead to low job satisfaction, lower trust,
workplace gossip.
Sources: M. Schwantes, “Head Off Harmful Office Gossip,” Chicago Tribune, January 30, 2017,
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/success/inc/tca-head-off-harmful-office-gossip-20170130-story.html, accessed April 14,
2017; A. L. Wolmer, “Five Ways to Transform Work Gossip into Positive Communication,” Entrepreneur, April 7, 2017,
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/290522, accessed April 14, 2017; L. Dodgson, “Four Ways to Deal With a Coworker Who’s
Spreading Gossip About You,” Business Insider, March 22, 2017,
14, 2016...
Questions
11-17. What are some tactics employees can use to avoid being the target of office
gossip?
Management. Student responses will vary.
11-18. As discussed in the chapter, there are positive benefits to gossip. How can
Management. Student responses will vary.
11-19. As stated above, gossip was originally a way to help group members identify an
individual who did not act in the best interests of the group. Can gossip ever serve
Discussion Question in MyLab Management. Student responses will vary.
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MyLab Management
as the following Assisted-graded writing questions:
11-20. Based on Case Incident 1 and your chapter reading, how do you think gender
differences in communication styles will impact diversity in the workplace? What
are some of the consequences of this?
11-21. Based on the experiential exercise and your reading of the chapter material, what
in-person?
11-22. MyLab Management 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
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
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
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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.
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
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
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:
1. Listening requires more than a physical presence—it requires a mental presence
listed in the article.
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2. Are there dos and don’ts for e-mail? Learn more by doing a search on
netiquette guidelines.
3. Organizational communication has been drastically changed by the introduction
http://www.databasesystemscorp.com/psccproducts.htm and explore one vendor’s
4. Learn more about effective cross-cultural communication. Go to:
Forbes, “Desmond Morris On Cross-Cultural Communication”
http://www.forbes.com/2005/10/19/morris-desmond-cross-culture-comm05-cx
_lr_1024morriscross.html
Forbes, “How Culture Controls Communication”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2011/11/28/how-culture-contr
ols-communication/
America”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2013/07/26/getting-here-working-here
-an-expats-experience-in-corporate-america/
Language”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2013/09/13/working-abroad-how-to-gi
ve-a-presentation-in-the-local-language/
5. Open-Book Management has worked for many companies. To learn more, go to
page summary on what you learned.
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 Lifewire, “What Are
Intranets and Extranets in Corporate Portals”
effectiveness through communication.
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