Deck 4: Organizations As Communication Systems

Question 1

Before she started teaching critical organizational communication, Jesica taught middle school. Now, she jokes that middle schools are the perfect examples of entropy in systems. Which of the following statements could illustrate her point?

A) Keeping middle schoolers' attention for a few moments in class is best done by giving them small group tasks.
B) Without loud bells and hall monitors, passing periods quickly get out of control.
C) Early-teenage hormones and learning self-control make for social interactions that is team-oriented and organic.
D) Middle school is a transactional environment where group think can flourish.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Critics of Karl Weick would argue that ______.

A) his perspective places emphasis on groups making sense rather than individuals
B) his perspective uses mechanical principles to reduce equivocality
C) his perspective tells stories that represent solid ideas and connect to common sense views
D) his perspective overemphasizes the nonrational features of organizational life

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Lamar thinks that "30 Rock" and old episodes of "Saturday Night Live" are hilarious, but has met Tina Fey and a couple of the writers in person and didn't think they were very funny. From a systems perspective, we might best explain this discrepancy through the principal of ______.

A) nonsummativity
B) equifinality
C) input-output-throughput
D) equivocality

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Understanding global climate change from a systems perspective could entail ______.

A) reducing climate change to its atmospheric effects: greenhouse gases and the depletion of the ozone layer
B) collecting evidence of climate change over time and understanding how changes are related to one another
C) pinpointing clear causes and effects between consumer waste and rising temperatures
D) doing closed laboratory studies on the impacts of rising shorelines and making clear predictions about future outcomes

Question 5

Enactment, selection, and retention are a part of the three stage model presented by ______.
a. Irving Janis
b. Robert Kahn
c. Karl Weick
d. Kenneth Boulding

Question 6

Professor Martin pairs you up with two other students and assigns a 15-page paper that analyzes organizational theory. The only requirements is that it must be in APA format, and you must include a minimum of sources. Professor Martin has ______.

A) operationalized the assignment
B) equally distributed the number of pages
C) increased the level of equivocality
D) decreased the level of equivocality

Question 7

For the first time, systems theory provides us with a complex communication model that allows us to ______.

A) focus on members' meaning and sense-making processes
B) find the best way for managers to communicate to employees
C) use communication to motivate workers in organizations
D) understand rules and types of authority that enable us to produce rules

Question 8

Many cliques function as relatively closed groups: Members do not interact much with other people, and members are encouraged to have similar thoughts. This can best be described as ______.

A) holism
B) groupthink
C) nonsummativity
D) mindguarding

Question 9

Last summer, Devonte, a high school teacher, was an adult counselor at a national high school leadership camp. His friends run the camp (and he attended as a high school student), but he was unfamiliar with how the camp had morphed in the last 10 years. When he arrived at camp, he found out that the camp directors expected him to train college students to be junior counselors. Though he had not prepared to teach a workshop, he pulled upon all of his team-building experiences, some experience working for a political campaign, his recent experiencing teaching drama, and the book The Alchemist, which he read on the plane. He delivered a meaningful training session. Now, he proudly tells his colleagues at home about his pedagogy. Which of Weick's concepts best help us to understand Devonte's process?

A) retrospective sense-making
B) double-interacts
C) selection
D) setention

Question 10

Von Bertalanffy's view of a "mechanistic world view" is that ______.

A) it has led to the growth of classical theories
B) it has been catastrophic for the human race
C) it has created a crisis of disparities between rich and poor
D) it has improved capitalism

Question 11

Micah tells Fran that he wants the report by 9
A) processes of organizing

A)m. Fran asks if he wants the final report or just a first draft. Micah responds by saying, "Just the first draft." This ______ reduces equivocality.
B) open system exchange
C) retrospective sense making
D) double-interact

Question 12

Self-organizing systems are characterized by change that is enacted in accordance with core principles that guide system behavior and ______ due to a large influx of new information.

A) a lack of adaptivity
B) a lack of equilibrium
C) rapid sense making
D) punctuated meaning

Question 13

Sia is pursuing her passion to help formerly-incarcerated women successfully rebuild their lives outside of prison. She and several community partners started a nonprofit organization that works to organize the social, material, legal, occupational, and psychological resources that might best support women's success after incarceration. The thing is, though, Sia is frustrated because everything just seems so messy. Her team is awesome and they have a great idea, but she needs encouragement and also some practical ways to make sense of how her often-improvised "mess" is actually an organization. Which of the following systems theorist might best offer her insight to her processes of organizing?
a. Ludwig von Bertalanffy
b. Irving Janis
c. Karl Weick
d. Kenneth Boulding

Question 14

The dot-com bust of the late 1990's/early 2000's and the financial meltdown of 2008 are both examples of which process gone "awry" in a system?

A) deviation-counteracting feedback that prevented growth in both the Internet and financial sectors so that both remained at homeostasis
B) deviation-counteracting feedback that shrunk both the Internet and financial sectors until they were too small, and therefore collapsed
C) deviation-amplifying feedback that created growth in both the Internet and financial sectors so that both remained at homeostasis
D) deviation-amplifying feedback that created growth in both the Internet and financial sectors until they were too big, and therefore collapsed

Question 15

Which best characterizes how Weick explains the relationship between rules and equivocality?

A) Rules are the cause of equivocality.
B) Rules are best used in highly equivocal contexts, because no precedent exists.
C) Rules are often used in less equivocal contexts, because a precedent exists.
D) Rules bring back memories of equivocality.

Question 16

Two presidential candidates decided to take different approaches to "getting out the vote." One political campaign went the social media route, Tweeting, Facebooking, and mobilizing voters online. The other political campaign went the face-to-face route, knocking on doors and holding rallies. On election day, both campaigns were surprised to see that each had mobilized a great number of voters - voter turnout was unprecedented for both candidates. This best illustrates ______.

A) multifinality
B) entropy
C) equifinality
D) holism

Question 17

Which of the following influenced the development of systems theory/systems thinking in organizations?

A) industrial psychology
B) social protectionism
C) theory of relativity
D) social darwinism

Question 18

Alyssa recently opened a small business selling hand-made necklaces. She's a marketing whiz, and her brand was immediately picked up by a few popular blogs. She worked feverishly to produce a big inventory to keep up with the sales. After the first six months, her sales evened out, so she reduced her inventory. Now, she knows how much inventory to keep to match her sales and her budget. Which of the following processes from systems theory explains this sequence?

A) positive feedback - negative feedback - homeostasis
B) input - throughput - output
C) enactment - selection - retention
D) systematic - amplifying- deviation

Question 19

Which of the following is a critique of systems theory?

A) Systems theory does not provide us a clear way to study organizations empirically.
B) Systems theory does not look at our organizational experiences holistically.
C) Systems theory complicates communication and organizing too much.
D) Systems theory places too much emphasis on power and its influence in organizing.

Question 20

Constructing rational accounts after an organizing process that is ambiguous is the role of ______.

A) homeostasis
B) deviation-amplifying
C) new systems thinking
D) retrospective sense making

Question 21

Systems theory is a natural perspective for empirical researchers to apply to scientific studies, because it helps them reduce the complicated nature of organizing.

Question 22

Because open systems are more open to the environment than closed systems, they are more likely to experience entropy than closed systems.

Question 23

______ describes the various levels within a system that function dynamically.

Question 24

One of the most important tasks of a system is determining what belongs in the system and what belongs outside of the system.

Question 25

Open systems exchange information and ______.

Question 26

Weick says that "organizing is like jazz" because organizing, like jazz, requires both a structure and ______.

Question 27

Groupthink is a negative effect of ______.

Question 28

Systems theory is another attempt to control, predict, and conquer nature.

Question 29

According to Kenneth Boulding, a system is anything that is not in ______.

Question 30

When your world is relatively predictable, you are probably in a high equivocality context.

Question 31

According to systems theory, a change in a subsystem of university (a classroom) creates a change in the suprasystem of the university (the university as a whole).

Question 32

With systems theory, we see a shift in the dominant ______ for talking about the natural and social world.

Question 33

In a system, feedback that corrects a deviation from the norm (error-activated) is called ______.

Question 34

Companies like Amazon tend to reject equilibrium and welcome constant change and innovation from workers.

Question 35

According to Weick's requisite variety, it is best to respond to complex systems with complex solutions.

Question 36

______ is the term that describes what happens when various approaches all ultimately yield the same result.

Question 37

A system grows as a result of deviation-amplifying feedback.

Question 38

Organizations can often have multiple and competing ______.

Question 39

Reducing work in organizations into their smallest known components is a key feature - and goal - of systems theory.

Question 40

Systems theory shifts our attention from "independent parts" to "______ parts."