Deck 14: Communication, Meaningful Work, and Personal Identity

Question 1

Tomi best describes his job as a "content designer;" he works on a freelance basis for companies around the world who need to outsource writing to someone who can write persuasive advertising content for their websites. As such, Tomi works from home and his work-life is constantly shifting. Tomi loves what he does but struggles with the precarity of his work. In the last three months, he has joined a church, a community organization, and has become involved in local politics. He is considering moving closer to his family. What might we say that Tomi is searching for?

A) reflexive modernity
B) ontological security
C) vigorous capitalism
D) reengineering

Answer 1

B

Question 2

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 ______.

A) adopt managerial discourse into their everyday narratives of self-identity
B) create meaningful relationships with their co-workers that replace employees' needs for their outside of work relationships
C) foster bigger realms of influence so that they can significantly impact their co-workers (or "teammates" and "family members")
D) avoid having an identity crisis at work, thus leading to more worker productivity

Answer 2

A

Question 3

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?

A) sense of agency
B) enhances belonging or relationships
C) permits use and development of talents
D) provides income adequate for a decent living

Answer 3

D

Question 4

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?

A) ontological security
B) corrosion of character
C) vigorous capitalism
D) identity management

Question 5

Sue is an inspector on an assembly line at a cupcake plant, tasked to reject defective packaging. She embraces the opportunity to ensure that the company's product meets its high standards, rejecting packaging for any imperfection she notices. She soon punished by the management for rejecting too many. Realizing that she is not going to be single-handedly able to increase the standards of her company's product, she randomly starts two cupcakes a minute instead of carefully analyzing the ones that pass. Which principle of meaningful work did management violate when they punished her for, essentially, doing a good job?

A) sense of agency
B) enhances belonging or relationships
C) creates opportunities for influence
D) offers a sense of contribution to a greater good

Question 6

In the book Raising the Bar, Clif Bar CEO Gary Erickson spends a great deal of time writing about his company's mission to make the best energy bars, as well as the extensive human relations orientation of his company: as a company, they go on bike rides, sponsor athletic teams, have breakfasts every Thursday morning, and play a lot. What element of "meaningful work" best describes these non?-work elements of "working" at Clif Bar?

A) sense of agency
B) enhances belonging or relationships
C) creates opportunities for influence
D) offers a sense of contribution to a greater good

Question 7

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

A) Armond completed his MBA at Harvard at the top of his class, 27 years after his dad did the same thing; he is being groomed to take over the family business.
B) Lucille comes from a working-class background and finds her first post-college job as a supervisor at a manufacturing facility; she joins same union as her dad.
C) James successfully hides his working-class Appalachian accent when he attends Northwestern University, and after graduation lands a finance job in Manhattan.
D) Sarah, graduated with a master's degree in Historical Preservation and was recently hired at the same museum where her mother worked as a curator almost two decades ago.

Question 8

Drake is a blue-collar worker who has his weekends off and is only required to do overtime during the holiday season. Drake most likely experiences ______.

A) more leisure time than a highly paid CEO
B) challenges at work because there is competition for overtime hours
C) taking work home because of his set schedule and often does that work without pay
D) never taking vacation because he has weekends off

Question 9

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?

A) Brian believes that working as an emergency room doctor will enable him to develop and practice his skills as a doctor more than other specialties.
B) Brian believes that clock-time is more prestigious than task-time, which makes him feel as though his work is more meaningful.
C) Brian prefers a less prestigious career that provides him the time and income necessary to live comfortably.
D) Brian believes that if he proves himself as an emergency room physician that he will be promoted to one of the more high-profile careers.

Question 10

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' ______.

A) bodies
B) communities
C) movement
D) souls

Question 11

Which of the following terms is used to describe the condition in which traditional stability-maintaining structures of class, family, and industrial forms have waned, and, as a result, people experience greater pressure to create their own sense of stability?

A) reflexive modernity
B) ontological security
C) vigorous capitalism
D) reengineering

Question 12

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) clock time
B) task time
C) outsourced time
D) comp time

Question 13

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?

A) The more one's work is dictated by clock time, the less sense of agency one experiences.
B) The more one's work is dictated by task time, the less sense of agency one experiences.
C) Neither task-time nor clock-time have any great degree of bearing on one's sense of agency.
D) Whether task-time or clock-time have an impact on one's sense of agency depends on what the person prefers.

Question 14

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 ______.

A) employers who offer flexible schedules technology
B) whether to be a blue-collar or no-collar worker
C) proximity to home and transportation
D) high quality living and working

Question 15

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?

A) Mary Poe's work life is fulfilling because of other people around her.
B) Jane Doe's life will be more fulfilling when she is promoted at Amazon.
C) Jane Doe experiences a high degree of agency while Mary Poe's work is less meaningful
D) Mary Poe experiences a high degree of agency while Jane Doe's work is less meaningful.

Question 16

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) conformist
B) dramaturgical
C) resistant
D) disidentified

Question 17

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?

A) sense of agency
B) permits use and development of talents
C) offers a sense of contribution to a greater good
D) provides income adequate for a decent living

Question 18

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?

A) resistant
B) conformist
C) dramaturgical
D) disidentifed

Question 19

Which of the following terms best describes the phenomenon when workers frequently make lateral job-changes?

A) horizontal hypermobility
B) creative class
C) ontological security
D) the precariat

Question 20

Contrasting the social, political, and economic conditions that characterize life today with the social, political, and economic conditions that characterized life during the Fordist period, we could say ______.

A) we experience a light modernity today, compared to the heavy modernity of the past
B) we experience the same amount of modernity but work is enhanced by technology
C) we experience a solid modernity today, compared to the light modernity of the past
D) we experience both a solid modernity and a light modernity today, in a precarious combination

Question 21

______ selves are those who engage with the organizational meaning system that undergirds corporate efforts to control employee identity.

Question 22

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

Question 23

Identity is viewed as a ______ in which people make sense of who they are and how they communicate that.

Question 24

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

Question 25

One could argue that the postmodern organizational form favors disloyalty, immediate gratification, and irresponsibility.

Question 26

Many no-collar workers experience ______, the sense that they never have enough time.

Question 27

"Light modernity" is an era of disengagement and elusiveness, where people are able to move around without notice.

Question 28

Pre-capitalist societies and even 20th-century class structures tended to assign or ascribe selves. In a postmodern work structure, on the other hand, we (have the idea, at least) that selves can be ______.

Question 29

______ selves are those who portray themselves as valued organizational objects in the eyes of those in authority.

Question 30

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

Question 31

Horizontal hypermobility is a term used to describe workers who buzz around their workplaces chatting with people who occupy similar roles, because they have meaningful relationships with their co-workers.

Question 32

Identity involves struggle, is social, and is never fixed.

Question 33

Because of their proximity to the means of production, ______-collar workers might have a greater sense of agency than ______-collar workers.

Question 34

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

Question 35

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.

Question 36

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

Question 37

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

Question 38

The global political and economic environment have challenged ______ security and make long-term thinking and planning virtually impossible.

Question 39

"Meaningful work" doesn't refer to a job, necessarily, but instead refers to a set of social norms.

Question 40

In our postmodern climate, long-term stability influences decision-making more than short-term returns.