Exam 9: Communicating in Organizations

Emotional contagion receives relatively little attention in organizational behaviour literature (it is mostly studied by psychologists), yet it is an important part of social interaction in the workplace. Define emotional contagion and identify two benefits of this phenomenon.

Effective communication plays an important role in:

Filtering is less likely to occur when corporate leaders create a "culture of candour."

One advantage of e-mail is that it is very easy to interpret the emotional tone of the sender's message.

The sensing stage of active listening includes empathizing and organizing information.

Mimicking the sender's behaviour is a central part of emotional contagion.

A communication channel with high media richness should be used in routine situations where the sender and receiver have common understanding and expectations.

One problem in communication between men and women is that most women don't know how to engage in ''report talk''.

Research has found that women are generally more sensitive than are men to nonverbal communication.

An important factor in choosing the best communication channel is its media richness. What does this concept mean and what two conditions require a communication channel that is high in media richness?

Which of these statements about nonverbal communication is FALSE?

Flaming refers to the capacity of an organization to transmit information more quickly through computer networks than through traditional paper media.

Management by walking around potentially minimizes the problem of filtering in the communication process.

Several employees must work together to develop a new product. None of these people have worked together before and the development of this product has not been attempted previously. According to the media richness model, which of these communication channels is most appropriate in this situation?

The CEO of Bear Securities Ltd. is concerned that investment analysts and brokers at Bear Securities are using too much jargon to communicate with each other and with clients. The CEO believes that the use of jargon will result in costly communication errors and may intimidate clients. Discuss the accuracy of the CEO's concerns.

One function of communication is to change behaviour.

Spoken communication is more persuasive than e-mails and other forms of written communication.

E-mail is no longer the medium of choice in most workplaces.

A resort in New Brunswick employs people from at least eight countries with significantly different cultures. The resort's new manager is concerned that communication problems might exist among these employees, but she doesn't know what problems would occur. Identify and explain three communication barriers that might occur due to cultural differences among employees.

Which of these statements about nonverbal communication is FALSE?