192:357 Organizational Communication Exam 1 Exam Preparation Information

Exam date: Wednesday, March 5

Format: multiple choice; about 50 questions; closed book
Supplies needed: ID, pencil, eraser
Materials covered: Chs 1-4, 6; pp 106-115 (in ch5); lectures, in-class exercises.
Review sessions: Mon 3/3: SC&I Room 323; Tues, 3/4: Huntington House conference room. Both 6:30-7:30pm
Prioritize where lectures and the book overlap, followed by unique information in class that was not in the book (e.g.,
network concepts), then followed by, where the book discusses core concepts or underlying assumptions that I take for
granted in my lectures as something you have been exposed to. The following list captures the main points from lectures.
Introductory Matter
Critical Cultural Views and Control (myths; organizational cultures; Democracy and freedom; Ideology)
Defining Communication: Information centered views, Meaning centered views, Communication constitutes
organizations (CCO); (Sense-making, constitutive, transactional views of communication)
Defining organizations & organizing
Tensions and Organizing (Micro-macro forces/Structures-agency; Critical thinking--normative forces; Individual
Goals organizational goals; Rationality emotionality; Plans Emergence)
Assumptions about Working Relationships (Two-dimensional; Reification/ reifying structures; Fundamental
Paradox: Individual Organizational control)
Organization as process not place; reification
Chain of command; Informal networks
Traditional forms of organizing
Efficiency and productivity; organizational designs to coordinate and control; Scientific experimentation
Taylor; the Gilbreths; systematic management; One best way; strict division of labor; time-motion studies;
Systematic soldiering
Specialization; Hierarchies; Centralization; Legal Authority; Hierarchical order
Bureaucracy & Max Weber (leadership types- Traditional, Charismatic, Rational/legal)
Weber, Taylor; orgs as authority structures; Hierarchy; Top-down comm; info transfer; closed systems;
communication as control; scientific and bureaucratic orientations to communication
Human Relations/Human Resources
Forms of organizing and orientations towards conflict; forms of control
Types of resistance
Hawthorne Studies; Hawthorne effect
Groups; group norms; decisions influenced by emotions; cooperation in organizations; new role of management
Follett: Circular response; Pragmatics
Relational Strategies and: organizational design; motivation, control, surveillance; superior-subordinate relationships;
leadership; conflict; communication as a tool
Maslows Hierarchy of Needs; Herbergs hygiene theory; McGregors Theories X and Y; Likert
Organizational communication & Content; Direction; Channel; Style
Participative Decision making (PDM): Decentralization; democracy, leadership
Networked Forms/Systems theory
Networked forms, leadership, and different communication skills
Post-bureaucratic qualities (Hales, 2002): Multi-functional teams; collective responsibility, accountability; lateral and
market based; dialogue and persuasion; trust
Networks as systems: Interdependence; sequential work/pooled systems; tight/loose coupling; holism; components
and environments; homeostasis; equifinality, multifinality
Systems defined through comm events
Networks and relationships: Strong ties; weak ties; multiplex ties; uniplex ties
Networks and communication: Consultative, supportive, advisory, coaching, development oriented, inspiring
Networks and roles: liaisons/bridges, group members, isolates; boundary spanners/opinion leaders
Cultural forms of organizing
Culture and: definition; purist and pragmatist views; communication; power/persuasion; context; unobtrusive control;
facts, symbols; metaphors; stories; semiotics
Hofstedes Cultural Onion
Issues with Cultural Strategies
Identification & Identity; underlying assumptions about socialization & myths