Deck 8: The Postmodern Workplace: Teams, emotions, and No-Collar Work

Question 1

Of the following terms associated with the blurring boundaries between work and life in postmodern organizations,select the term used to describe the process by which organizations draw on workers' emotions according to emotional display rules created by the organization.

A)Emotional labor
B)Culture of fun
C)Bounded emotionality
D)Emotional dissonance

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Professor Quimble teaches a senior capstone class,and constantly warns her students that in order to be successful in this new economy,they will have to "be flexible." She most likely means that students will have to:

A)Work well with different kinds of work-arrangements,like determining their own projects,bosses,and teams.
B)Develop comfort with short-term consulting gigs or short-term project-based employment.
C)Be willing to move to wherever the best job opportunities exist,and move frequently as they develop their careers.
D)All of the above.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Though her company has a written "no-discrimination" policy,Julie notices that every time her colleagues talk about men and women in the organization,they describe them as "the men" and "the girls." Recently,Julie has noticed that the men and "the girls" both seem to think that the women in the organization need more help to accomplish projects,travel safely,and negotiate assertively.Which of the following types of power would best describe these micro-uses of gendered language and the ways that they permeate daily organizational life?

A)Concertive power
B)Technological power
C)Disciplinary power
D)Direct power

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT a typical characteristic of no-collar work?

A)No-collar workers tend to have a non-conformist relationship to work.
B)No-collar workers tend to treat work as a vehicle for creativity.
C)No-collar workers tend to separate their work-lives from their home-lives.
D)No-collar workers tend to work in flatter,less-hierarchal organizations.

Question 5

Which of the following best defines Foucault's definition of "disciplinary power"?

A)Power is a basic,constitutive force of everyday life that produces us in everyday ways.
B)Power is a basic,blunt force used by those in positions of institutional power to punish deviance.
C)Power is a basic tool that can be used productively by those who need to get workers to behave in certain ways.
D)Power is a basic,coercive force that prevents people from acting how they would rather behave.

Question 6

Susan is a pediatric oncology nurse,which means that she works on both the pediatric floor of the hospital and the oncology floor of the hospital.She is on a pediatric team and an oncology team.Her pediatric team is a nightmare - the "team leader" seems totally unable to direct the team to have meaningful conversations or to make productive decisions.Susan often feels as though all of the individual members could do more work on their own than the team,as a whole,can do.The oncology team is a dream - the team leader is truly a leader and the team often feels empowered.Every member says that she (or he!)cannot believe that the team is able to accomplish so much - it feels very nonsummative.Which of the following "warnings" or "advice" about teams could best apply to this discrepancy?

A)Teams have to be implemented carefully,with input from employees.
B)Teams cannot be imposed from above;they have to have real buy-in from workers if they're going to be truly participatory.
C)Team-members need adequate training in team processes,such as decision-making and leadership skills.
D)Team-members need to understand the ways in which they can exact control one another so that they don't abuse their power.

Question 7

Which of the following contributed to the development of postmodern,post-Fordist organizational forms?

A)More volatile and competitive economic environments.
B)Recognition that slow-to-change bureaucratic hierarchies were too clunky for continued successes.
C)Shareholders becoming more powerful in organizations,shifting attention to short-term gains vs.long-term health.
D)All of the above.

Question 8

In 1914,Henry Ford did something innovative: he introduced the $5,8-hour workday for the people who worked in his factories.This kind of rate (and limited day)was unheard-of at the time,making Ford's workers quite fortunate and relatively wealthy.Which of the following best explains why Ford would have instituted the $5 workday?

A)Ford wanted to stimulate the economy by providing his workers with enough money and leisure time to be consumers and his and other industrialists' goods.
B)Ford was an industrial democrat who believed that his workers were inherently good and therefore,would contribute significantly to culture and society if they had more time and money.
C)Ford desired to increase worker morale and therefore,efficiency and productivity in the workplace,so he increased workers' pay in order to ultimately improve efficiency.
D)Ford believed that if his workers had more disposable income and leisure time,they have more resources to form meaningful bonds with their co-workers and neighbors,strengthening the community.

Question 9

Decidedly working-class,Ed never graduated from high school and is almost ninety years old.When he returned from World War II,he got a job at a factory in the town where he grew up.Eventually he and his wife bought a tiny house down the road from the factory and raised their kids there.Thirty-five years after he was hired,he retired from the factory.He wonders why he and his kids worked so hard for so many years to help his grandkids all go to college,because all of his college-educated grandkids are struggling to find jobs.When they do,they change jobs frequently and move often.He finds this all very frustrating.Based on what you know about postmodern organizations,what could you tell Ed to help explain what's going on with his grandkids?

A)Large economies of scale that support the development of steady employment for a lifetime don't really exist in our postmodern and always-shifting economy.
B)Because knowledge-workers live in a world where their jobs are always slightly threatened,they have to be ready to jump at new and interesting opportunities as they pop up.
C)Organizations no longer honor the social contract that Fordist,modernist organizations used to honor with their employees.
D)All of the above.

Question 10

Peter runs a non-profit educational organization with a small budget and very few full-time staff members.During the bulk of their programming in the summer,their staff swells to 35 or 40 part-time,temporary teachers.During the hiring process,Peter and the full-time staff carefully review the teachers' experience (from interviews and resumes)and use that information to put teachers into teams where they each bring something unique to the table.In these teams,teachers are in charge of planning all of their own activities,units,field trips,and lessons.They have to make proposals to the full-time staff for big trips,but otherwise,this frees up the full-time staff to trouble-shoot and deal with student issues.From a management perspective,which of the following benefits of work-teams is Peter maximizing?

A)Empowerment of workers by enabling them to play a more direct in organizational decision making.
B)Development of workforce that is multiskilled rather than deskilled.
C)Development of holistic team synergies that result in innovative decision making.
D)Functional autonomy,with little need for direct supervision.

Question 11

Adam resents going to work because he feels as though management is always "breathing down his neck." After observing management's behavior over a few weeks,though,Adam is confused because management doesn't breathe down his neck - it basically leaves him and his team alone to work on their project.He realizes that he and his team members hold each other accountable for their work,simultaneously expecting high results from one another while working ever-harder to produce those results themselves.Which kind of control best describes this situation?

A)Direct control
B)Ideological control
C)Concertive control
D)Technological control

Question 12

The team-work factor that describes the ways in which teams are supervised and rewarded and/or punished for their performances are called:

A)Task design
B)Effectiveness
C)Organizational context
D)Internal processes

Question 13

Cynthia is asked to always greet customers with a smile in her voice,as if she's completely loving her job as a customer-service representative for an online shoe company."Customers will," after all,"spend more money if greeted by a smiling voice," insists the company trainers.Which of the following best describes what the company is asking Cynthia to do?

A)Emotional labor
B)Culture of fun
C)Bounded emotionality
D)Emotional dissonance

Question 14

"Team work" in organizations probably emerged:

A)In post-modern,post-Fordist organizational forms.
B)In bureaucratic,hierarchal organizational forms.
C)In hybrid,feminist organizational forms.
D)In scientifically-managed,directly-controlled organizational forms.

Question 15

Stacey works at a franchise of a large,multi-national fast-food restaurant that tightly follows Fordist principles.Which of the following is she NOT likely to encounter?

A)The flexibility to learn several positions in order to rotate among various positions at the front register,the grill,ordering,marketing,and managing.
B)A clearly-delineated chain of command,with direct processes for dealing with customer and staff complaints and concerns.
C)Standardization of the products and the service that customers receive in the their exchanges in the restaurant.
D)All of the above.

Question 16

Ed worked on the factory floor for the majority of his career.The kinds of work that his grandkids to is mostly computer-based,developing advertisement and brands for organizations.How would you characterize Ed's work and his grandkids' work,respectively?

A)White-collar / Blue-collar
B)Blue-collar / Pink-collar
C)Blue-collar / No-collar
D)No-collar / White-collar

Question 17

Another thing that bothers Ed about his grandkids' so-called "work" is that the grandkids don't seem to make anything.When Ed's kids (and his oldest grandkids)were young,he used to get a kick out of bringing them into his factory and letting them walk through pipes that were bigger than they were.Every time he asks one of his grandkids what she's "making" these days,she directs him to a website or a magazine ad,or - worse yet - tries to explain some sort of market analysis or statistic research.How could we explain this?

A)Our economy has shifted from production-based to consumption-based,so most of his grandkids are working on "brands".
B)His grandkids are probably working project-based jobs as they emerge,making their work even harder to explain because it changes all the time.
C)The shift to a consumption-based economy has eroded some of the production-based jobs that his grandkids might have otherwise gotten if they were born at another time.
D)All of the above.

Question 18

Select the least-true statement about postmodern organizations.

A)Postmodern organizations are characterized by chaos and instability.
B)Postmodern organizations are characterized by change and unpredictability.
C)Postmodern organizations are characterized by making mass quantities of goods.
D)Postmodern organizations are characterized by flattened organizational structures.

Question 19

The team-work factor that relates to a team's degree of collaboration and/or amount of conflict can be called the team's:

A)Task design
B)Effectiveness
C)Organizational context
D)Internal processes

Question 20

Of the following types of work,which are the most likely to be paid a consistent salary over a period of time?

A)White-collar and blue-collar
B)White-collar and pink-collar
C)White-collar and no-collar
D)Blue-collar and no-collar

Question 21

Foucault's studies of disciplinary power have been especially helpful to organizational scholars and practitioners because they taught managers how to better discipline their workers.

Question 22

"Work teams" and "team-based organizations" are new,postmodern phenomena;they did not exist in Fordist/modernist organizations.

Question 23

Rather than "oppressive" or "negative," Foucault suggests that we view power as _____________________.

Question 24

In our postmodern,consumption-based economy,people can be marketed in particular ways.We might,then,say that people,like products,can be _______________________.

Question 25

The postmodern organization is less about producing goods and more about ________________________________.

Question 26

Because teamwork fosters consensus-making and hierarchical power-sharing,teamwork is an ideal way for organizations to ensure that prejudice and abuses of power do not become issues.

Question 27

Emotional labor is a positive innovation of post-Fordist organizations,because it allows employees to bring their feelings to work in new and freeing ways.

Question 28

Creative knowledge-workers have the most security and the biggest boundaries between life and work in our postmodern economy.

Question 29

The growth of the "__________________" class has resulted in an influx of workers who face a great degree of job insecurity,who are less likely to make long-term investments in neighborhoods and communities.

Question 30

"Cultures of fun" and "just be yourself" cultures of postmodern workplaces provide ample opportunity for all kinds of individual and personal expressions of identity and self without corporate management or response to such expressions.

Question 31

Robert Reich (1991)calls knowledge workers who create ideas and find ways to transform them into braded,marketable products,_______________________________.

Question 32

Modern organizations are often called "_______________" organizations because of their tendency to produce people and products in mass quantities.

Question 33

Postmodern organizations do not have any definition and emerged out of nowhere;we cannot really trace their emergence to any particular set of contexts.

Question 34

Teamwork can increase the surveillance and stress that workers encounter in the workplace.

Question 35

Work teams are seen as the ideal decision-making structure in post-Fordist,postmodern organizations.

Question 36

The title,________________________________,describes the "new" American worker,who encounters great degrees of uncertainty in the workforce and is constantly under threat of losing her job or being outsourced.

Question 37

In post-Fordist organizations,realms of employees' lives formerly deemed "______________," such as emotions,can come under corporate control.

Question 38

In our postmodern economy,_____________________ work can be dull,alienating,and unpredictable and lacking in job security.

Question 39

The postmodern organization is organized around ideas such as stability,predictability,hierarchy,rules,and clear structures and functions.

Question 40

Blurring the lines between white-collar,blue-collar,and auxiliary pink-collar work (and their relationships to the labor process,postmodernism's knowledge-workers are often called ____________________________ workers.