Organizational Communication Flashcards
To facilitate employee communication, 70% of organizations have adopted what is formally called an “open” or “landscaped” office design, and informally called a “_____”
cube farm
In a _____ design (also called a bullpen design), all desks are placed in a large area that is completely open.
freestanding
With _____, desks are placed at uniform distances and are separated by panels into cubicle areas.
uniform plans
_____ workstations use a combination of designs so that the different needs of each worker can be accommodated.
Free-form
An interesting type of organizational communication is informal communication. Often, informal information is transmitted through the grapevine, a term that can be traced back to the Civil War, when loosely hung telegraph wires resembled _____.
_____ are common because they provide employees with information, power, and entertainment.
Grapevines
_____ studied the grapevine and established the existence of four grapevine patterns: single strand, gossip, probability, and cluster.
Davis
_____ were employees who received less than half of the information.
Isolates
_____ were employees who both received most of the information and passed it on to others
Liaisons
_____ were those who heard most of the information but seldom passed it on to other employees.
Dead-enders
_____. While both _____ and rumor contain poorly substantiated information, _____ is primarily about individuals and the content of the message lacks significance to the people _____.
Gossip
_____, however, contains information that is significant to the lives of those communicating the message, and can be about individuals or other topics.
The most common topics for _____ are personnel changes, job security, and the external
reputation of the organization.
Rumor
_____ and _____ are often ways in which employees can relieve stress and anxiety, respond to perceived organizational wrongs in a nonaggressive way, maintain a sense of control, and increase their power in an organization.
Rumor and gossip
_____ involves the way we say things and consists of variables such as tone, tempo, volume, number and duration of pauses, and rate of speech. A message that is spoken quickly will be perceived differently from one
Paralanguage
Geier and Downey have developed a test, the _____, to measure an employee’s listening style. Their theory postulates six main styles of listening: leisure, inclusive, stylistic, technical, empathic, and nonconforming (LISTEN).
Attitudinal Listening Profile
_____ is practiced by “good-time” people who listen only for words that indicate pleasure. For example, a student who is a leisure listener will pay attention only when the teacher is interesting and tells jokes. As an employee, she is the last one to “hear” that employees are needed to work overtime.
Leisure listening
_____ is the style of the person who listens for the main ideas behind any communication. In an hour-long meeting full of details and facts about a decline in sales, the only information this type of listener will “hear” is the main point that sales are down and that things had better improve. This listening style can be an advantage when cutting through a jungle of detail, but it can be a disadvantage when detail is important.
Inclusive listening
_____ is practiced by the person who listens to the way the communication is presented. _____ will not listen unless the speaker’s style is appropriate, the speaker “looks the part,” or both. For example, when speaking to a stylistic listener, a lecturer on finance will find an attentive ear only if she wears a nice suit.
Stylistic listeners
_____ is the style practiced by the “Jack Webbs” of the listening world—those who want “just the facts, ma’am.” The _____ hears and retains large amounts of detail, but she does not hear the meaning of those details
technical listener
_____ tunes in to the feelings of the speaker and, of the six listening types, is the most likely to pay attention to nonverbal cues. Thus, an empathic listener will listen to an employee complain about her boss and is the only one of the six types of listeners who will not only pay attention but also understand that the employee’s complaints indicate true frustration and unhappiness
Empathic listening
_____ is practiced by the individual who attends only to information that is consistent with her way of thinking. If the nonconforming listener does not agree with a speaker, she will not listen to what the speaker says. Furthermore, the nonconforming listener will pay attention only to those people she considers to be strong or to have authority.
Nonconforming listening
