Exam 14: Communication, Meaningful Work, and Personal Identity

Jane Doe works for Amazon as a warehouse fulfillment associate. She logs long hours and has told friends that the only reason she stays there is the fact that she gets paid weekly. Mary Poe works for Amazon as the director of marketing. She works from home several days a week and has a team of six employees that come up with creative campaigns, manage the social media for the company, and try new products. Which of the following statements is true?

______ selves are those who engage in communicative performances aimed at enabling them to survive and prosper in the workplace.

Brian wanted a career in medicine and scored off-the-charts on his boards. Despite having the option to specialize in a high-profile area like plastic surgery, cardio-thoracic surgery, or neurosurgery, he opted for emergency medicine. Emergency medicine is scheduled shift-work, which allows him time to volunteer at his kids' schools and play baseball with them, and to continue training vigorously for the triathlons and wilderness races he so enjoys. Given the characteristics of meaningful work, how could we best explain Brian's choice?

Which of the following orientations to time are surgeons, cabinet makers, artists, and graphic designers most likely to share, given the nature of their work?

A very successful CEO gave a commencement speech at a prestigious university, telling the young graduates that in order to be successful in the business world (to follow in his footsteps), they needed to view their professional identities that needed to be constantly maintained and improved, working constantly on their individual "brand" and professional image. Using the language of identity-work, the kind of "self" that most aligns with his advice is ______.

A sense of agency at work is achievable only in professional, white-collar work.

The short-term thinking and constant change that pervade modern capitalism bring about what Richard Sennett (1998) calls a ______ of character.

During times of ______ stability-maintaining structures of class, family, and industrial forms of productions wane, forcing people to create their own stability-creating structures.

"Creative class" workers are frequently more interested in the quality of the places they live instead of specific jobs.

Stone enjoys working for Anderson and Associates, a tech firm in the Midwest, however, his new manager has imposed a number of rules that Stone (and other employees) don't agree with, including a new dress code and a decrease in hours that employees can work from home. Stone often sits in his office and works on freelance graph design projects, sending the appearance that he is doing work for Anderson and Associates clients. Which of the following is 'selves' does Stone exhibits at work?

Louisa is a high school English teacher in a high-income, well-paying school district in the wealthy commuter suburbs of Chicago. Most of her students are kids of CEOS and VPs of corporations, and both the parents and children themselves hope that the kids will someday following in their powerful parents' footsteps. Students like Louisa, and she is able to have free reign over her curricula to put her master's of English Literature to good and interesting use as an excellent teacher, yet none of her students would ever consider becoming a teacher - they see teachers as a sub-par way to impact the business world, even though teachers teach all future business leaders. Louisa feels somewhat unsatisfied with her work, despite the seemingly-great circumstances. Which of the following elements of meaningful work is likely missing from her job?

Elsa is an elementary school teacher in a rural school district where resources and budgets are always tight. On nights and weekends, she works at the local bar in order to supplement her income. Her school has a warm and cohesive culture where teachers, administrators, students, and families all pitch in and help out in the project of education. She has been able, recently, to use her significant skill as an artist to develop a new arts curricula for the 3rd-5th grade math classes. The community holds teachers and her, in particular, in very high regard because she is excellent at what she does. Still, she feels somewhat unsatisfied by this work arrangement. Which of the following elements of meaningful work is likely missing from her job?

Since Scientific Management's heyday, corporations have found value in acknowledging the hopes, fears, and aspirations of employees. This shift represents a focus on workers' ______.

When Richard Florida discussed the concept of the "creative class," he concludes that factors such as technology, talent, and tolerance are significant as people considered ______.

When workers think of themselves as "family members," "teammates," or "associates" rather than "employees," we can say that the corporation has successfully persuaded workers to ______.

The short-term thinking and constant change that characterizes modern capitalism means that corporations are constantly expanding and contracting, making employees much more expendable (rather than highly valuable resources with whom deep relationships of loyalty and trust are built). Which of the following terms best describes this new work arrangement's impact on workers and organizations?

Which of the following scenarios best illustration what we mean when we say that "the self is the last frontier of control"?

Our sense that work is connected to our identity and living a meaningful life emerged with the onset of industrialization.

Companies can create situations where work feels meaningful even if it's not inherently meaningful if the company enhances workers' sense of belonging or depth of relationships with coworkers.

There is often a correlation between the management of time and sense of agency. Based on what you know about a worker's sense of agency and the management of time, which of the following rings truest?