CHAPTER 11 ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION Flashcards
Communication within an organization in which the direction of communication is from employees up to management.
Upward communication
Communication passed consecutively from one person to another.
Serial communication
The idea that people prefer not to pass on unpleasant information, with the result that important information is not always communicated.
MUM (minimize unpleasant messages) effect
The medium by which a communication is transmitted.
Communication channel
Physical distance between people.
Proximity
A form of upward communication in which a survey is conducted to determine employee attitudes about an organization
Attitude survey
A form of upward communication in which a survey is conducted to determine employee attitudes about an organization.
Attitude survey
A form of upward communication in which employees are asked to place their suggestions in a box.
Suggestion box
A form of upward communication in which employees are asked to place their complaints in a box.
Complaint box
A person who acts as an intermediary between employees and management, or the type of employee who both sends and receives most grapevine information.
Liaison
A person who investigates employees’ complaints and solves problems.
neutral and works for a solution that is acceptable to both employees and management.
Ombudsperson
An employee who serves as a liaison between unionized employees and management.
Union steward
Communication within an organization in which the direction of communication is from management to employees.
Downward communication
A method of downward communication in which informal or relatively unimportant written information is posted in a public place.
Their main use, however, is to communicate non-work-related opportunities suchasscholarships,optionalmeetings,anditemsforsale.
Bulletin board
A formal method of downward communication in which an organization’s rules and procedures are placed in a manual; legally binding by courts of law.
Policy manual
policy manuals should contain the following six disclaimers:
- Employment with the organization is at-will (refer to Chapter 7 for a discussion of employment-at-will).
- The handbook does not create either an expressed or an implied contract.
- The handbook is a set of guidelines and should not be considered allinclusive.
- The material in the present handbook supersedes material in previous handbooks.
- The handbook can be changed only in writing by the president of the organization, and it can be changed unilaterally at any time.
- Employees are subject to provisions of any amendments, deletions, and changes in the handbook.
very specific and lengthy, containing all of the rules and policies under which the organization operates
policy manual
much shorter and contains only the most essential policies and rules, as well as general summaries of less important rules.
employee handbook
A method of downward communication typically used to communicate organizational feedback and celebrate employee success.
Newsletters
A computer-based employee communication network used exclusively by one organization.
Intranet
forms of downward communication
Bulletin boards, Policy Manuals, newsletter and Intranets
the transmission of business-related information among employees, management, and customers.
Business Communication
Business communication methods include…
memos, telephone calls, email, and voice mail, business meeting, Office Design,
Communication among employees in an organization that is not directly related to the completion of an organizational task.
Informal communication
An unofficial, informal communication network.
Grapevine
A pattern of grapevine communication in which a message is passed in a chain-like fashion from one person to the next until the chain is broken.
Single-strand grapevine
A pattern of grapevine communication in which a message is passed to only a select group of individuals.
Gossip grapevine
A pattern of grapevine communication in which a message is passed randomly among all employees.
Probability grapevine
A pattern of grapevine communication in which a message is passed to a select group of people who each in turn pass the message to a few select others.
Cluster grapevine
An employee who receives less than half of all grapevine information
Isolate
Employees who receive much grapevine information but who seldom pass it on to others.
Dead-enders
Poorly substantiated information and insignificant information that is primarily about individuals.
primarily about individuals and the content of the message lacks significance to the people gossiping.
Gossip
Poorly substantiated information that is passed along the grapevine.
contains information that is significant to the lives of those communicating the message and can be about individuals or other topics
Rumor
Communication between two individuals.
Interpersonal communication
Any variable concerning or affecting the channel that interferes with the proper reception of a message.
Noise
A distance zone within 18 inches of a person, where only people with a close relationship to the person are allowed to enter.
Intimacy zone
A distance zone from 18 inches to 4 feet from a person that is usually reserved for friends and acquaintances.
Personal distance zone
An interpersonal distance from 4 to 12 feet from a person that is typically used for business and for interacting with strangers.
Social distance zone
Distance greater than 12 feet from a person that is typical of the interpersonal space allowed for social interactions such as large group lectures.
Public distance zone
Communication inferred from the tone, tempo, volume, and rate of speech.
involves the way we say things and consists of variables such as tone, tempo, volume, number and duration of pauses, and rate of speech.
Paralanguage
The things people surround themselves with (clothes, jewelry, office decorations, cars, etc.) that communicate information about the person.
Artifacts
An office arranged so that a visitor can sit adjacent to rather than across from the person behind the desk.
Open desk arrangement
An office arranged so that a visitor must sit across from the person behind the desk.
Closed desk arrangement
Describes a message from which unimportant informational details have been removed before the message is passed from one person to another.
Leveled
Describes a message in which interesting and unusual information has been kept in the message when it is passed from one person to another; see Leveled.
Sharpened
A description of a message in which the information has been modified to fit the existing beliefs and knowledge of the person sending the message before it is passed on to another person.
Assimilated
A response to communication overload that involves the conscious decision not to process certain types of information.
Omission
Deviation from a standard of quality; also a type of response to communication overload that involves processing all information but processing some of it incorrectly.
Error
A method of coping with communication overload that involves organizing work into an order in which it will be handled.
Queuing
A response to communication overload in which the employee leaves the organization to reduce the stress.
Escape
A person who screens potential communication for someone else and allows only the most important information to pass through.
Gatekeeper
A strategy for coping with communication overload in which an organization reduces the amount of communication going to one person by directing some of it to another person.
Multiple channels
A test developed by Geier and Downey that measures individual listening styles.
Attitudinal Listening Profile
The listening style of a person who cares about only interesting information.
Leisure listening
The listening style of a person who cares about only the main points of a communication.
Inclusive listening
The listening style of a person who pays attention mainly to the way in which words are spoken.
Stylistic listening
The listening style of a person who cares about only facts and details.
Technical listening
The listening style of a person who cares primarily about the feelings of the speaker.
Empathic listening
The listening style of a person who cares about only information that is consistent with his or her way of thinking.
Nonconforming listening
A method of determining the readability level of written material by analyzing sentence length and the average number of syllables per word.
Fry Readability Graph
A method of determining the readability level of written material by analyzing average sentence length and the number of syllables per 100 words.
Flesch Index
A method of determining the readability level of written material by analyzing sentence length and the number of three-syllable words. (The term is interpreted as either the measure of the “fog” a reader may be in or as the acronym FOG, for “frequency of gobbledygook.”)
FOG Index
A method of determining the readability level of written material by looking at the number of commonly known words used in the document.
Dale-Chall Index
