Deck 1: Communicating in the Workplace

Question 1

The ability of people to quickly assess the emotions of those around them and adapt their words, tone, and gestures accordingly is known as social intelligence.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The formal network refers to the main lines of operational communication in a business.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Interpreting a message is more than just extracting information from a message.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Bypassing is a communication problem that occurs when a sender and receiver attach completely different meanings to the same words.

Question 5

The official culture and the actual culture in a company are exactly the same.

Question 6

It is now more important for employees to have visual literacy than verbal literacy.

Question 7

When two employees of a business communicate in order to complete a project, they are engaging in internal-operational communication.

Question 8

No two people have identical contexts or mental "filters."

Question 9

The grapevine, or the informal network of communication within an organization, typically carries much less information than the formal communication network.

Question 10

Solving a communication problem is typically a linear process.

Question 11

The larger context for communication includes the moment in time in which the communication is taking place; the customs, values, and language or the surrounding culture; and the general business-economic climate.

Question 12

Sensing a need for communication typically occurs at the recipient's end in the business communication process.

Question 13

Communication ranks at or near the top of the business skills needed for success.

Question 14

The widespread use of the Internet has increased companies' attention to social responsibility.

Question 15

The kind of communicating a business does is independent of the nature of the business.

Question 16

Internal audiences as well as external ones can occupy different professional roles and therefore favor different kinds of content and language.

Question 17

The ability to interact with data, see patterns in data, make data-based decisions, and use data to design for desired outcomes is known as visual literacy.

Question 18

Personal communication interferes with good business relationships and should be prohibited in the workplace.

Question 19

The importance of communication skills is the same at all levels of an organization.

Question 20

Poor communication negatively affects big businesses, but not small businesses.

Question 21

Which of the following statements about email is true?

A) Email came into existence during the 1950s.
B) Email has entirely replaced the need for phone conversations.
C) Email is the primary form of oral communication.
D) Email allows a communicator to reach out to only one person at a time.
E) Email revolutionized business communication.

Question 22

The automation of tasks by smart machines

A) improves the average social intelligence of employees.
B) enables employees to spend more time on tasks that require strong interpretive skills.
C) offers employees the opportunity to develop visual literacy and ethical reasoning.
D) develops a high level of information literacy in employees.
E) improves the technological competence of employees.

Question 23

Social intelligence is best defined as the ability to

A) choose the right format for a given document.
B) quickly assess the emotions of those around them and adapt their words, tone, and gestures accordingly.
C) interact with data, see patterns in data, make data-based decisions, and use data to design for desired outcomes.
D) determine the deeper meaning or significance of data.
E) observe proper business etiquette.

Question 24

Identify the impact of new media on communication.

A) New media have increased rigidity in thinking and reduced people's problem-solving skills.
B) New media have decreased the average social intelligence of people at work.
C) New media have made it easier to tap the intelligence of people outside an organization.
D) New media have reduced the need for cross-cultural competency.
E) New media have lowered the quality of communication in the workplace.

Question 25

When interacting in social situations, an employee is expected to follow a set of behaviors known as

A) business etiquette.
B) formal communication.
C) heuristics.
D) cross-cultural competency.
E) interpretive skills.

Question 26

Baby Boomers refer to those people who

A) have more than three children.
B) were born after the year 1979.
C) were brought up in multi-cultural societies.
D) oppose population-control strategies.
E) were born soon after World War II.

Question 27

The ability to meaningfully, accurately, and efficiently create and interpret pictures and other graphics is known as

A) cross-cultural competency.
B) social intelligence.
C) computational thinking.
D) ethical reasoning.
E) visual literacy.

Question 28

Part of having ______ means understanding that businesspeople from other countries may have very different attitudes about punctuality and efficiency.

A) social intelligence
B) interpretive skill
C) cross-cultural competency
D) computational thinking

Question 29

The advent of new media has

A) increased the need for employees who have social intelligence.
B) eliminated the need for traditional modes of communication such as face-to-face conversations.
C) limited the demand for digital networking and virtual collaboration.
D) increased the hierarchical nature of organizational setups.
E) reduced the decision-making power of front-line employees.

Question 30

Which of the following constitutes an internal audience for a business?

A) the company's competitors
B) the company's customers
C) the company's employees
D) the company's suppliers
E) government officials

Question 31

Cross-cultural competency is best defined as the ability to

A) understand and adapt to the preference for individualism or collectivism, religious beliefs, political environment, and ideas about social hierarchy of different countries.
B) interact with data, see patterns in data, make data-based decisions, and use data to design for desired outcomes.
C) determine the deeper, underlying meaning or significance of messages.
D) manipulate people into accepting one's viewpoint regarding religion.
E) create and interpret graphics.

Question 32

Which of the following is an example of internal-operational communication?

A) a letter written by a consumer to the customer care service
B) an advertisement put on a company's website for the general public
C) an order form submitted to an organization's supplier for raw materials
D) a businessperson's posts on her personal Twitter feed
E) a memo from the company president to her subordinates regarding sales targets

Question 33

Heidi is an energy drink salesperson. When selling her firm's drinks in the United States, she emphasizes how they will give consumers them the extra edge they need to get ahead in life. However, when selling them in China, she instead emphasizes how consumers will be better able to meet their family and work responsibilities. By doing this, Heidi demonstrates

A) cross-cultural competency.
B) ethical reasoning.
C) computational thinking.
D) visual literacy.
E) corporate social responsibility.

Question 34

The head of the marketing department at Plural Publishing sends an email to the company's three project managers, asking them to send the back cover copy for each book being published in the spring. This is an example of

A) internal-operational communication.
B) external-operational communication.
C) personal communication.
D) grapevine communication.
E) internal-external communication.

Question 35

Computational thinking is best defined as the ability to

A) interact with data, see patterns in data, make data-based decisions, and use data to design for desired outcomes.
B) understand and adapt to other people's preference for individualism or collectivism, political environment and ideas about social hierarchy of different countries.
C) quickly assess the emotions of those around you and adapt one's words, tone, and gestures accordingly.
D) create visuals and determine the deeper, underlying meaning or significance of messages.
E) manipulate people into accepting one's viewpoint regarding ethics and social responsibility.

Question 36

The widespread use of the Internet has

A) forced companies into focusing harder on developing a socially responsible image.
B) restricted negative information from spreading quickly and widely.
C) reduced the likelihood of culturally diverse people working together on a global team.
D) made organizations less accountable to society and removed them from public scrutiny.
E) reduced the amount of time employees can spend on tasks that require deeper interpretation.

Question 37

Which of the following statements is true about increasing gender, age, and ethnic diversity in the workplace?

A) It has had little effect on communication in the workplace.
B) Communication in businesses decreases as diversity increases.
C) The requirement for cultural agility in workplace communication has increased significantly.
D) All people within a business share standardized notions of business and communication.
E) Workplace diversity decreases the need for social intelligence.

Question 38

Mira reviews user information collected by her company's website and uses it to create targeted marketing materials. Mira is using

A) computational thinking.
B) visual literacy.
C) cultural awareness.
D) data agility.
E) corporate social responsibility.

Question 39

Which of the following is a current challenge for business communicators?

A) increased popularity of hierarchical structures in organizations
B) decreased diversity of employees at the workplace
C) increased focus on corporate social responsibility
D) increased rejection of new media in family-owned businesses
E) decreased usage of electronic correspondence by business writers

Question 40

Which of the following is true about internal-operational communication?

A) It includes a business's communication with its customers.
B) It includes a business's communication with its suppliers.
C) It includes the orders and instructions that supervisors give to their employees.
D) It includes the instructions that the supervisors of a business give to its vendors.
E) It includes a business's communication with government agencies.

Question 41

Which of the following is true about external-operational communication?

A) It includes the ongoing discussions that the senior management undertakes to determine the goals and processes of the business.
B) It includes all of the business's efforts at selling, from sales letters and emails to ads, tradeshow displays, and customer visits.
C) It includes the orders and instructions that supervisors give employees, as well as written and oral exchanges among employees about work matters.
D) It includes company reports that employees prepare concerning sales, production, inventories, finance, maintenance, and so on.
E) It includes the messages that employees write and speak in carrying out their assignments and contributing their ideas to the business.

Question 42

Which of the following is a form of external-operational communication?

A) discussions among the board members to decide the future course of the organization
B) coffee break conversations between employees regarding the progress of their respective projects
C) monthly sales reports created by an automated software
D) meetings that executives hold with leaders of community organizations
E) messages that employees write to their team members regarding project-related issues

Question 43

Which of the following is an example of external-operational communication?

A) a training session conducted by a member of the information technology team to show employees how to use the new database
B) a discussion between members of a project team during which they determine the next step they need to take
C) a television advertisement for business Internet services
D) a report provided to senior management by the sales manager
E) a memo from human resources to employees reminding them that cultural sensitivity training will be held next week

Question 44

A _____ refers to the major, well-established channels for information exchange within an organization.

A) personal communication network
B) formal network
C) supply chain
D) regulatory network
E) grapevine

Question 45

Which of the following statements is true about organizational culture?

A) The concept of organizational or corporate culture was popularized in the early 1930s.
B) A company's organizational culture is determined by management.
C) The focus on organizational culture by management consultants and theorists has drastically decreased over time.
D) The official organizational culture of a company is exactly the same as its actual organizational culture.
E) Organizational culture refers to an organization's customary, but often unstated, ways of perceiving and doing things.

Question 46

Which of the following is an example of something that would be part of the larger context affecting an attempt to communicate?

A) the fact that the communicators have known each other for five years
B) the communicator's job in accounting
C) the communicator's MBA
D) changes to financial oversight laws
E) the organization represented by the communicators

Question 47

Which of the following statements is true about ill-defined problems?

A) Ill-defined problems can be solved by using a set formula.
B) There are few ill-defined problems in a well-run business.
C) Ill-defined problems are always negative.
D) Solving ill-defined problems requires analytical skill and good judgment.
E) Ill-defined problems have unique and perfect solutions.

Question 48

The social media manager for a small start up firm posts a link to the company's Facebook page describing an upcoming customer appreciation event. This form of communication can be categorized as

A) internal-operational communication.
B) external-operational communication.
C) personal communication.
D) verbal communication.
E) grapevine communication.

Question 49

Which of the following statements is true about the actual organizational culture of a company?

A) It is invariably the same as the organizational culture promoted by the leaders at the top.
B) It is a dynamic, living realm of meaning constructed through communications at the topmost level of the company.
C) It is always reflected in the company's mission statement.
D) It is announced through formal communications by the management of the company.
E) It is the medium of preferred values and practices in which the company's members do their work.

Question 50

Which of the following statements is true about personal communication?

A) Personal communication is an official part of a business's operations.
B) Personal communication should be avoided as it is often counter-productive to the organization's goals.
C) Personal communication is regulated by the formal network.
D) Communication with external parties may include elements of personal communication.
E) The attitudes of the employees and those with whom they communicate are not influenced by personal communication.

Question 51

Which of the following is true about the formal network of an organization?

A) The formal network does not include the upward and lateral movement of information in an organization.
B) The formal communication network never includes external audiences.
C) The formal network is the only important communication network in an organization.
D) The formal network is unrelated to an organization's business plan.
E) The formal network constitutes the main lines through which the bulk of operational communication flows.

Question 52

Which of the following approaches will be most effective for solving business communication problems?

A) Use trial and error.
B) Consider your options and try the easiest idea.
C) Use what has worked for other companies.
D) Consider the likely effects of a number of different solutions and choose the solution with the best likely effect.
E) Use a formula that works for solving well-defined problems

Question 53

Which of the following best exemplifies personal communication?

A) a team discussion of how to improve work performance
B) an acknowledgement that an order has been received
C) a note to a supplier thanking him for the Christmas card he sent
D) a business proposal written to the general manager of a company
E) a team meeting to discuss the progress of an ongoing project

Question 54

Which of the following is true about the informal network of an organization?

A) The informal network consists of organized, well-established channels for information exchange.
B) The informal network can be controlled by the manager's network.
C) The informal network carries insignificant information.
D) Use of the informal network should be discouraged.
E) The informal network follows no set pattern and is usually a complex relationship of smaller networks.

Question 55

A company requires the heads of its five departments to send a project update email to the company vice president each Friday afternoon. This is an example of a stable form of communication referred to as

A) an informal network.
B) a genre.
C) heuristics.
D) a grapevine.
E) a literacy.

Question 56

Which of the following statements is true about business communication within an organization?

A) An organization's communication patterns are independent of the industry in which it operates.
B) How structured an organization is can determine who specific employees may communicate with.
C) Simpler organizations typically require more communication than complex organizations.
D) The geographic dispersion of an organization tends to have an adverse impact on its external communication.
E) The communication of a homogeneous organization requires more adaptation to participants' values than that of a multicultural organization.

Question 57

Which of the following is true about contexts for communication?

A) Communication can be influenced by the communicators' professional roles.
B) The communicators' personal contexts do not influence their communication.
C) The largest context in which business communication takes place is the organizational context.
D) The organizational context does not influence either external communication or the grapevine.
E) Customs and cultures have no effect on business communication.

Question 58

The grapevine of an organization is best defined as

A) a network that follows a set pattern of communication within the organization.
B) a network that is highly dependent on the computational skills of the organization's employees.
C) a collection of the simple, well-defined communication streams within an organization.
D) the informal network used by employees within an organization.
E) the network used by an organization to communicate with its core business partners.

Question 59

Skillful managers will most likely deal with their organization's grapevine by

A) controlling it with rules and regulations.
B) establishing communication procedures to monitor it.
C) recognizing its presence and understanding its influence on the organization.
D) ignoring its existence.
E) deregulating the use of social media during work hours.

Question 60

Communication with an external audience should be undertaken with careful attention to both content and tone because

A) front-line employees now have a higher level of decision-making power.
B) new media are increasing the need for employees with social intelligence.
C) external audiences tend to have low literacy.
D) such messages can be regarded as public-relations messages, conveying a certain image of the company.
E) communicating with external audiences is far more important than communicating with internal audiences.

Question 61

Selina has just been hired by a small law firm in a rural town and is told that the dress code is business casual. She shows up to her first day of work wearing a striped dress and a cardigan, but discovers that everyone else is in jeans and button-down shirts. This problem in communication is an example of

A) masking.
B) bypassing.
C) exaggeration.
D) heckling.
E) brainstorming.

Question 62

Explain why solving a communication problem is often a recursive process.

Question 63

The first step in the communication process is to

A) compose a message.
B) interpret the message.
C) sense the need for communication.
D) select a course of action.
E) decide on a response.

Question 64

In the process of communication, once the primary sender of a message has defined the situation, the next step is to

A) consider possible communication strategies.
B) interpret the message.
C) compose the message.
D) send the message.
E) extract information from the message.

Question 65

Which of the following is most likely to be true of a situation that heavily involves the audience in the communication process?

A) The communicator will not be able to develop a well-informed sense of the situation.
B) The communicator will have to adapt his or her course of action while in the midst of communicating.
C) The communicator will have trouble achieving his/her goals.
D) Choosing an appropriate medium for the message becomes a challenge.
E) Composing the message requires less consideration.

Question 66

Discuss the term "new media."

Question 67

Discuss the effects of the grapevine on an organization. How do skillful managers take advantage of this network?

Question 68

Which of the following best exemplifies a communicator's professional context influencing communication?

A) As the public relations manager, Trina is the only employee at Gila Construction authorized to talk to the press.
B) Jose, an optimistic person, likes to put an inspirational quote at the end of his email messages.
C) Morgan, an architect, prefers to communicate ideas visually.
D) Melissa refuses to apologize to her subordinate after yelling at the subordinate in public.
E) Trevor often uses social media sites at work because his company's products are marketed to young adults.

Question 69

The communication problem that arises when two people using the same word think that they agree on its meaning but actually do not is referred to as

A) groupthink.
B) brainstorming.
C) masking.
D) bypassing.
E) heckling.

Question 70

Miguel grew up in a large family in a rural area of Texas, while Marissa is an only child who grew up in New York City. This information details Miguel and Marissa's ______ contexts.

A) organizational
B) formal
C) informal
D) personal
E) professional

Question 71

Briefly define the formal network of an organization.

Question 72

Which of the following best exemplifies a personal context influencing communication?

A) Because of Medpace Inc.'s hierarchical structure, employees are expected to use a formal style when communicating with high-ranking executives.
B) Jose, a freelance software trainer, prefers to use technical jargon when communicating with vendors.
C) Paula, a fashion designer, writes a fashion blog.
D) Jason, upset because he recently broke up with his girlfriend, writes a rude email to a coworker.
E) Gemini Inc.'s employees use social media in their communication at work.

Question 73

Create a business scenario involving communicators from two different countries and give a brief account of the different contexts that would need to be considered for effective communication to occur.

Question 74

What is the goal of business communication?

Question 75

Describe the various factors that affect the types and amount of communicating that a business does.

Question 76

Pedro, a sales manager, asks Rafael, one of his new recruits, to send him a sales report by EOD (end of day). Rafael intends on creating the report after returning home and sending it to Pedro by midnight. While Rafael is on his way out after finishing his work for the day, Pedro spots him and asks him for the report. It is only then that Rafael realizes that Pedro expected him to finish the report before leaving. This scenario exemplifies

A) groupthink.
B) heckling.
C) masking.
D) brainstorming.
E) bypassing.

Question 77

If you have decided to deliver you message verbally, during the ______ stage in the process of communication, you will make notes and design any visuals you might need.

A) composing the message
B) sending the message
C) selecting a course of action
D) receiving the message
E) interpreting the message

Question 78

Define computational thinking and create a brief scenario in which an employee might need and use this skill.

Question 79

How does a communicator's particular contexts influence the act of communication?

Question 80

Explain the main categories of business communication.