Exam 5: Steps Three and Four: Consider the Context and Select a Channel of Communication

Correct Answer:

Verified

E-mail is a highly effective communication medium that is central to the way that organizations function, enabling virtual teams, working at home, and collaboration in many forms. Its benefits include knowledge sharing and communication networks. E-mail is a core communication technology for the creation, distribution, and application of knowledge in organizations. In a survey of e-mail users (Tassabehji and Vakola 2005), respondents commented that e-mail had improved teamwork and information flow and allowed information to be shared with multiple co-workers. They also found that the majority of respondents reported the net effect of e-mail is improved organizational communication. Similarly, its benefits include External communications and image. Prompt response to external e-mails and professional language are as important for maintaining external relationships as they are for intra-employee communication.
Because so much time is spent using email in an organization, it also presents challenges. These include
a. Individual e-mail efficiency - The time spent handling e-mail; time recovering from e-mail interruptions to work flow.
b. Individual e-mail pressure -- Anxiety caused by e-mail volumes; perceived need to respond to e-mails quickly.
c. Organizational e-mail effectiveness --Using e-mail to support effective decision-making and knowledge sharing; improving e-mail dependent business processes.
d. Organizational risk -- The risk of litigation resulting from unguarded comments made by an employee in an e-mail; regulatory action resulting from e-mail deletion.

Correct Answer:

Verified

Risks that the use of social media may create for organizations fall into two categories: internal and external risk. Therefore, students may discuss three of the following:
Risks From Internal Communications
.Secrets are harder to protect. Know that material information about company plans and strategies will flow down through the organization faster. Be sure that key employees know just how slippery this slope is.
.Compensation isn't confidential any more. Assume that information about employee compensation will no longer stay with the employee. Disparities in pay, benefits, and work arrangements will be rapidly exposed and compared among employees.
.Strategic actions may be signaled in advance. If employees are asked to implement strategic actions, those strategies will be almost impossible to conceal from those outside the organization. Organizations will need to anticipate leaks and be prepared for quick action if and when they occur.
.Inconsistencies within an organization may be exposed. Different departments within organizations inevitably take different positions regarding customers, employees, and regulators. The blogosphere will quickly reveal these inconsistencies for all to see. When information is flowing more freely than ever before, managers will need to take steps to ensure that all company positions are in harmony.
Risks From External Communications
.Premature release of new product information. Employees commonly leak pictures or descriptions of a new product before its official release. Even a casual tweet revealing the location of a key employee can signal new product or business development activity before it is ready for public release.
.Exposure of company problems. Employee "venting" is ubiquitous on Facebook and Twitter. In some cases, that frustration is an indictment of the company's own products, services or, perhaps most commonly, management culture.
.Harassment. Social media almost immediately gave rise to claims of workplace harassment - a superior using Facebook or another medium to make unwanted advances.

Correct Answer:

Verified

Student responses may mention the aspects of a healthy culture, which include listening well, respecting the validity of others' experience, feeling free to be assertive, having a clear sense of direction and control, getting good feedback about their performance, and feeling valued as intelligent human beings. They may also mention characteristics of an unhealthy culture, which include the following: authoritarian and detailed supervision; tasks characterized by restrictions on employees' abilities to use resources; work production systems that do not provide opportunities to contribute initiative, responsibility, or personal knowledge to the job; limited opportunities for employees to exercise influence in the planning and organizing of tasks; tasks that deprive the individual of the self-determination of work rate and methods for carrying out the work; and tasks that limit human contacts during work.
In discussing how these characteristics affect the communication climate of the organization, students might address either supportive or defensive communication characteristics. A defensive communication climate is characterized by evaluation, control, strategy, neutrality, superiority, and certainty, while a supportive communication climate can be described as problem oriented, descriptive, spontaneous, empathetic, provisional, and exhibiting equality.