Communications in Society Essay

MGMT 351 Exam 1 Directions: Respond to five of the following questions. Responding to more than five will not earn extra credit. If you decide not to follow this direction, the five lowest scoring answers will constitute the grade for this test. There are some important considerations for successful completion of the text: 1. Accurate information is important, and it must directly address the question. 2. Use all terms appropriately. 3. Several questions have more than one part. Complete and accurate answers will earn maximum credit. Make sure that all of the requested information is provided. 4. Each complete and accurate answer is worth 20% of the grade for this exam. 5. Assignments are automatically sent through Turnitin to check for appropriate use of material (e.g. paraphrasing, citations). Make sure that your work follows all the guidelines for academic honesty. 6. Use the numbers as here listed. Do not renumber. 7. Watch the deadline. Late exams will not receive credit. 8. Answers must reflect college level writing skills, i.e. clear sentence construction and correct spelling, grammar and use of punctuation. Deductions from the test score will be made for failure to meet this standard. 9. If anything is unclear, ask rather than assume it doesn’t make a difference. To complete this exam, follow these steps: 1. Download this exam and save it as a MSWord document. 2. Read through all the questions and choose those you will attempt to answer. 3. Provide complete and accurate answers to those five questions. 4. Save. 5. Post your saved response to the exam under the Assignment by the deadline for this assignment. Questions: 1. Effective organizational communication is truly an interactive process. The people taking part in the communication exchange must listen carefully and respond accurately to the other interactants. There are ten elements that contribute to interactive communication (see Figure 1.2 on page 5 of your text). Using an example from your own experience, identify how these ten elements impacted the communication process, making sure to accurately label all ten. 2. Organizational philosophy has significant influence on management practice and communication in an organization. Briefly distinguish between classical, humanistic and systems theories. Now describe possible impact of each of these perspectives on the writing of job descriptions. Be specific. 3. Strategic communication relies on effective tactics in four areas. Name them and define them. Now consider this situation and apply what you know about these four areas to this situation: Next week, Clark will be giving a very important budget proposal presentation. This could be a boost to his career, or a bust. If he hopes to have his proposal accepted, he needs to be strategic in the plan and delivery for this presentation. How should he use the four areas of strategic communication to accomplish his goals? 4. What is communication anxiety, what role does it play in communication, and what are the causes? Choose five of these causes and offer suggestions for effectively managing anxiety resulting from each of these causes. 5. What is organizational culture and how does it determine standards for communication, both internally and externally? Next, as an advisor to someone considering joining an organization, direct your advisee to some avenues to explore to discover what is the culture of an organization in order to determine if this is the right organization for your advisee to join. Lastly, how important is cultural match? 6. The American culture is certainly not uniform. There are considerable differences in how members view the world (e.g. values, beliefs, opinions, etc.). Not using national origin/heritage (e.g. Italian-American), choose three subcultures present in the American workforce and explain how the values and beliefs of each subcultures impact how those employees behave at work. 7. Communication competence is based on interactive listening. Questioning techniques improve listening by making the speaker more efficient, and they facilitate goal accomplishment. Imagine that you are a manager who has been approached by a subordinate who manages others, i.e. you are the manager’s manager. One of the manager’s subordinates, who up until recently has been a good performer, has been making significant mistakes lately. Using all of the five types of questions, help the manager design his/her own set of questions to get to the issues behind this dwindling performance. Make sure to accurately label each type of question used. Lastly, explain how this strategy is likely to help the manager correctly identify the performance issues involved. 8. Name and define each of the three D’s. Then list two consequences and two strategies for overcoming each of these problems. 9. Put yourself in a work environment. List all, naming at least five, of the nonverbal messages you notice, making sure to accurately label each. Now summarize the impact of this combination of nonverbal messages on the people working there. Is it a positive impact? Lastly, if you could change any of these messages by instituting a new personnel policy, what would you do and what would the policy look like? 10. Does gender make a difference in how employees communicate in the workplace? Using specific examples, support your conclusion. Now think of a time when communication was effective during communication involving coworkers of the opposite sex. Lastly, describe a time when communication between members of both sexes was not effective. What could have been done differently? Be specific. 11. Leaders step up when needed. Will you recognize when you should rise to a leadership position? First, write down the names of leaders (at least 3) that you admire or seek to emulate. Explain what you find admirable in their leadership styles. Now, choose at least one, of these leaders and note a situation in which he or she acted as a leader. Be prepared to discuss what elements of the situation combined with elements of the leader’s ability to lead resulted in an effective combination. Do you have any of the same leadership characteristics in common with their chosen leader or any of the other leaders? How will you recognize the right combination of situation and style for you to be a leader? 12. Managing change is something good leaders expect and have developed the skills necessary to be successful. Imagine yourself as a leader of the following organization: You are the CEO of a playing card company that has existed since 1889. Your company began producing its first electronic playing cards game in 1970 and has been highly successful. Now in the electronic age, it is important to acknowledge the lack of hand-held playing cards and embrace the video game era. You want to eliminate all hand-held playing cards from the company plan but the employees who have been around for a while wish to keep the cards around. How can you manage this change and the anxiety that it produces in your employees? General answers are not enough to earn points on this question. Identify specific steps you will take to achieve desired outcomes.