Theory Comm Exam 2
CH.6 What is Culture?
One’s identification with and acceptance into a group that shares symbols, meanings, experiences, and behavior.
CH.6 What is Cross-Cultural Communication?
Comparison of two or more cultural communities and tries to identify cultural differences; for example, comparing conflict styles of U.S. managers with those of Korean managers.
CH.6 What is Intercultural Communication?
The actual interaction between members of different cultures; for instance, examining what happens when a German executive reprimands a Chinese subordinate.
CH.6 What is Hofstede's Cultural Dimension #1?
Individualism vs. Collectivism; How people define themselves and their relationship with others.
CH.6 What is Individualism?
(1) Consider the individual to be the most important entity in any social setting. Ex: “What’s in it for me? Or I was putting more into it than I was getting out of it.” (2) Stress independence rather than dependence. There is a cultural preference to be free from imposition, which is in essence a desire to be independent. (3) Reward individual achievements. Competition is viewed as a good thing. (4) Value each individual’s uniqueness, standing out from the crowd is highly valued. Ex: France, Italy, Poland, U.S., Australia, New Zealand.
CH.6 What is Collectivism?
Refers to a social system based on in-groups and out-groups. Groups (relatives, clans, organizations) are the central way of understanding relations between people; identity is understood solely through group membership. (1) The views, needs, and goals of the group are more important than those of individuals. Ex: Dying for the good of a group makes sense. (2) Obligation to the group is the norm. Behavior is guided by duty, not by individual pleasure or rewards. Ex: Acceptance of the potential mate by the family is of central importance. (3) Self is defined in relation to others, not as distinct from others. Ex: Asking a person who they know rather than what they do for a living. (4) Focus on collaboration rather than competition. Ex: Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru.
CH.6 What is High Context Communication?
Privileges relational harmony over clarity or directness; messages tend to be indirect, circular, or unspoken so as not to offend. It is assumed that the receiver will actively seek to understand what is really meant.
CH.6 What is Low Context Communication?
Characteristics of individualistic cultures, values direct, explicit expression of ideas. The meaning is the message, and sometimes “the truth hurts”.
CH.6 What is Hofstede's Cultural Dimension #2?
Uncertainty Avoidance; Refers to the extent to which people within a culture are made nervous by situations which they perceive as unstructured, unclear or unpredictable.
CH.6 What is High Uncertainty Avoidance Culture?
Those who seek to avoid ambiguity. Strict codes of behavior and support a belief in absolute truths. Ex: When the workplace is typified by rules, precision, and punctuality. The preference for a business meeting would be a structured agenda, which would be rigidly followed. Ex: Guatemala, Mexico, France, Portugal, and Greece.
CH.6 What is Low Uncertainty Avoidance Culture?
Tend to accept ambiguity and lack of structure more easily. More likely to take risks, innovate, and value thinking outside of the box. Ex: In this workplace, people tend to work hard only when needed. Rules are often rejected or ignored, and punctuality has to be taught and reinforced. Ex: U.S., Singapore, Ireland, UK.
CH.6 What is Hofsteded’s Cultural Dimensions #3?
Power Distance; The extent to which people with little power in society consider inequality normal and acceptable.
CH.6 What is High Power Distance?
Accept power as a scarce resource; Power differences are natural and inevitable. Greater centralization of power and importance placed on status and rank. Tend to have a large number of supervisors, a rigid system that classifies each job along a hierarchy, and decision making only among those at the high end of the hierarchy. Wide salary gap between those high and low in the hierarchy. Ex: Malaysia, Philippines, China, Guatemala and Mexico
CH.6 What is Low Power Distance?
Values the minimization of power differences. People higher in the hierarchy are not assumed to be superior; people at all levels reach out to people at all other levels. People lower in power believe that through motivation and hard work, they could achieve power. Ex: In the workplace, people view shared decision making with subordinates as empowering. Ex: Austria, Denmark, U.S. and Germany.
CH.6 What is Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions #4?
Masculinity vs. Femininity; The relationship between biological sex and what is considered sex-appropriate behavior.
CH.6 What is a Masculine Culture?
Use the reality of biological sex in the creation of distinct roles for men and women. Traditional gender roles. Men are expected to be assertive, ambitious, and competitive. Women are expected to be supportive, nurturing, and deferential. Ex: Believe managers are supposed to be decisive and assertive. Women have a difficult time achieving workplace equality; they are given lower wages, less stable work, and few opportunities to advance. Ex: Arab countries, Italy, Japan, Mexico, U.S. and Venezuela.
CH.6 What is a Feminine Culture?
Have fewer rigid roles of behavior based on biological sex. Men and women are equally permitted to be assertive or deferent, competitive or nurturing. Focused on the facilitation of interpersonal relationships and concern for the weak. Ex: In the workplace, consensus seeking and a preference for quality of life over material success. Ex: South Korea and Sweden.
CH.6 What is Hofestede’s Cultural Dimensions #5?
Long-Term vs. Short-Term Orientation.
CH.6 What is Long-Term Orientation?
Associated with thrift, savings, perseverance, and the willingness to subordinate one’s self to achieve a goal. Employees typically have a strong work ethic and keep their eyes toward the achievement of distant goals. Ex: Japan, South Korea, and Sweden.
CH.6 What is Short-Term Orientation?
Centers on the desire for immediate gratification. Individuals in these cultures tend to spend money to “keep up with the Joneses” and prefer quick results to long-term gain. Employees seek immediate pay and benefits and are less willing to sacrifice in the short run to achieve in the long run. Ex: Italy, U.S., Sweden.
CH.6 What is Communication Accommodation Theory #1?
CAT; Explains how we adapt our communication when we interact with others. In-Groups vs. Out-groups.
CH.6 What are In-Groups?
Social affiliations to which an individual feels he or she belongs. Ex: (wearing a tamu t-shirt at tamu).
CH.6 What are Out-Groups?
Those social affiliations to which a person feels he or she does not belong. Ex: (wearing a tamu t-shirt at TU) or in the workplace, you may go to happy hour with members from your team or department but would feel out of place socializing with members of another department.
CH.6 What is Communication Accommodation Theory #2?
Accommodation through Convergence and Divergence.
CH.6 What is Convergence?
Change the way you talk to match the other person. Speech includes word choice, pronunciation, pitch, rate, and even gestures such as smiling and gaze. The more a person is likable, charismatic, and socially skilled, the more likely you are to try to match his or her communication patterns. Ex: Talking to children or talking to someone from another country.
CH.6 What is Divergence?
You emphasize and increase your difference from the other person. In addition to expressing disagreement or rejection of a speaker, divergence also illustrates one’s cultural identity or differences in one’s status. Ex: Still talk regularly for the children, just to show you are different.
CH.6 What is Communication Accommodation Theory #3?
Consequences of accommodation.
CH.6 What is Convergence in Theory #3?
Increased attraction; social approval; increased persuasion. Incorrect stereotype of outgroup; perceived condescension; loss of personal identity.
CH.6 What is Maintenance in Theory #3?
Upholds personal identity. Apparent lack of interest or effort; perceived as overly rigid.
CH.6 What is Divergence in theory #3?
Asserts power difference; increased sympathy. Perceived distain for out-group; increased psychological distance.
CH.6 What is Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX) #1?
Leadership consists of an interpersonal relationship between a superior and a subordinate and that not all relationships are created equally; within organizations there are also in-groups and out-groups. Leadership-Member Exchange, Middle-Group Relationship and Supervisory Exchange.
CH.6 What is Leader-Member Exchange?
In-group relationships are characterized by mutual trust, social support, and liking. There is much more interaction between organizational members in an LMX relationship than in other types. Associated with higher employee job satisfaction, greater satisfaction with the manager, and higher organizational commitment. Evidence of more innovative behaviors and greater organizational citizenship. Ex: Helping others with heavy workloads, providing assistance without being asked, listening to the problems of others, and going out of their way to assist new employees.
CH.6 What is Middle-Group Relationship?
Involve elements of both LMX and SX relationships. Often impersonal, but there are occasional provisions and of social support. Moderate amounts of trust and liking occur between the supervisor and the subordinate. Often aware they are not in the in-group. Report lower job satisfaction, less satisfaction with their managers, and decreased organizational commitment, and they engage in more nonconforming behavior. Ex: All you talk about is your job. Taking undeserved breaks, being absent without notifying others, spending time on personal conversations, violating company rules, and complaining.
CH.6 What is Supervisory Exchange?
Interaction between the supervisor and subordinate is defined entirely by the roles they perform and the contractual obligations provided by the organization. Out-group relationships; they are impersonal, with little superior-subordinate interaction taking place.
CH.6 What is Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX) #2?
Practical Implications. Liking and Perfomance.
CH.6 What is Liking?
Associated with perceived similarity; the more perceived similarity between the manager and the employee, the more likely an LMX relationship. Attitudes about family, money, career, strategies, goals and education are beneficial to LMX relationships. Ex: When you work with someone and you like them more because you have similarities.
CH.6 What is Performance?
It is likely that high-performing individuals will receive more trust and respect from their supervisor, but it is also true that people given trust and respect might perform at higher levels. Certain contingencies, such as intrinsic task satisfaction, high task ambiguity and low conflict, improve the LMX/performance link. You like them more because they are a high performer.
CH.7 What is Persuasion?
Human communication that is designed to influence others by modifying their beliefs, values, or attitudes.
CH.7 What is Attitude?
Relatively enduring predisposition to respond favorably or unfavorably toward something. We have an attitude toward people, places, events, products, policies, ideas, and so forth.
CH.7 What is Elaboration Likelihood Model #1?
Slow and Steady: The central route to persuasion; include a wealth of information, rational arguments, and evidence to support a particular conclusion. For example, during election season, political hopefuls engage in speeches, debates, and roundtable discussions; each message is filled with elaborated and presumably rational information regarding the candidate’s viewpoint platform, and political history.
CH.7 What is Elaborated Arguement?
It isn’t enough to view your audience as motivated and able when considering the central route of persuasion. You must also consider how the audience members will likely react to the quality and arrangement of the arguments presented. Can be measured as strong, neutral, or weak.
CH.7 What are Strong Arguements?
Creates a positive cognitive repsonse in the minds of recievers while also positively aligning recievers' beliefs with those views of the persuader. Most likely to create long-term attitude change that leads to predictable behavior.
CH.7 What are Neutral Arguments?
Generate a nonommittal cognitive repsonse from the reciever. No attitude change occurs, and the ambivalent reciever mey instead turn to peripheral cues, or shortcuts, to persuasion.
CH.7 What are Weak Arguments?
Produce a negative cognitive response to the persuasive message. Will prevent attitude change and reverse or boomerang effect, reinforce the opposing point of view.
CH.7 What is Elaboration Likelihood Model #2?
Taking a shortcut: The peripheral route to persuasion.
CH.7 What is Peripheral Route?
Rely on audience’s emotional involvement and persuade through more superficial means. Leads to short-term change, if any change at all.
CH.7 Types of Peripheral Cues?
Authority, Commitment, Contrast, Reciprocity, Liking, Scarcity, and Social Proof.
CH.7 What is Authority?
Use figures of authority as your spokesperson. E.g. doctors.
CH.7 What is Commitment?
Emphasize a person’s dedication to a product, social cause, group affiliation, and political party. For example, when people attend rallies, run for office, or wear pins, hats, and other logos that symbolize affiliation. Or stays private with their affiliation. Foot-in-the-door-tactic; to convince you to agree to a small, seemingly innocuous request first. Once you agree and commit yourself to the campaign, it becomes harder to refuse larger requests because there is a threat of appearing inconsistent with your commitment.
CH.7 What is Contrast?
Set up uneven points of comparison. Ask for a “giant favor” and actually all you need is a small favor.
CH.7 What is Reciprocity?
If you give me something, I will give you something. Ex: Thank you gifts.
CH.7 What is Liking?
Stress affinity toward a place, person or object. (Favored celebrity spokesperson).
CH.7 What is Scarcity?
Preys on people’s worry of missing out on something. Limited time only, first 100 callers only.
CH.7 What is Social Proof?
Peer pressure. “Everybody else is doing it, you should do it too!”
CH.7 What is Elaboration Likelihood #3?
Types of peripheral messages: Positive, Neutral, and Negative.
CH.7 What is Peripheral Postive Message?
Perceived favorably by the audience and creates a positive affective state. Have a chance at yielding weak, positive changes in attitude. For example, you may believe voting is an essential civic duty for American citizens, yet you may not vote in your local primary election because you don’t think you are knowledgeable of the candidates.
CH.7 What is Peripheral Neutral Message?
Leave receivers feeling emotionally ambivalent; they really don’t know or care about the cue used to capture their interest.
CH.7 What is Peripheral Negative Message?
Produce negative or disapproving emotional responses within the receiver. Left with a negative impression.
CH.7 What is Theory of Reasoned Action?
Our attitudes are made up of two components: our evaluation of the object and our belief strength. Includes attitude toward act of behavior, Subjective norm, Behavioral intention, and Behavior.
CH.7 What is Attitude Toward act of Behavior?
Deal with positive or negative attitude.
CH.7 What is Subjective Norm?
What other people in your social network expect you to do.
CH.7 What is Behavioral Intention?
You plan to act a particular way. Not formed by beliefs about all others in our social network but only our valued others.
CH.7 What is Planned Behavior Theory?
Explanation for why campaigns that focus on only providing information are unlikely to have any behavioral effect. Includes Attitude, Normative belief, and Percieved behavioral control.
CH.7 What is Attitude?
Positive or negative attitude toward the behavior. Sum of beliefs about something.
CH.7 What is Normative Belief?
(same as subjective norm) Your perceptions about what others in your social network expect you to do.
CH.7 What is Percieved Behavioral Control?
He/She can actually perform the behavior. (Self-efficacy) The belief that things are out of their control. (Controllability).
CH.7 What is Innoculation Theory?
Persuade someone not to be persuaded by a weaker form of a contrary argument. Includes Threat and Refutational Preemption.
CH.7 What is Threat?
Seeing who is against. Involves a forewarning of a potential persuasive attack on beliefs, making sure that the target of the persuasive effort is aware of his or her susceptibility to the attack.
CH.7 What is Refutational Preemption?
Attacking the other side of the argument.
CH.7 Example of Ennoculation Message?
Threat: Some politicians still don't think we can choose what's best for our families without new laws, regulations, or taxes telling us what to buy.
Refutational Preemption: Getting serious about obesity starts with education, not laws and regulations. Look around your gorcery store lately? There are more choices and more information than ever before. New kinds of beverages. Different portion sizes. Calories right up front.
Conclusion: The fact is, it's not the government's job to grocery shop for my family. It's mine.
CH.8 What is Aggregate?
A set number of individuals.
CH.8 What is a Group?
Three or more individuals focused on achieving a common purpose and influencing each other. Ex: People working towards a goal whose work is coordinated by someone else for them.
CH.8 What is a Team?
Ongoing, coordinated group of people working together. Ex: People working towards a common goal who coordinate their work amongst themselves. More demanding, because you are more responsible for each other.
CH.8 What is Task Communication?
Focused on achieving the instrumental goals of the group.
CH.8 What is Socioemotional Communication?
Focused on developing, maintaining, and repairing the relationships between group members.
CH.8 What is Functional Group Decision Making #1?
Central Purpose of a group is decision making. Function refers to what communication does.
CH.8 What is Functional Group Decision Making #2?
Includes Problem Analysis, Goal Setting, Identity Alternatives, and Evaluate and Select.
CH.8 Problem Analysis?
This means the group must take a realistic look at the nature, extent, and likely causes of the problem. Involves information gathering.
CH.8 What is Goal Setting?
When the group identifies what the solution is.
CH.8 What is Identity Alternatives?
Brainstorming.
CH.8 What is Evaluate and Select?
Evaluate each alternative using the established goals and select based on evaluation of alternatives, group members select the “best” alternative, the alternative that best fulfills the characteristics and criteria established.
CH.8 What is Functional Group Decision Making #3?
Making rational decisions by going through the steps. Includes Promotive, Disruptive, and Counteractive.
CH.8 What is Promotive?
Tries to fulfill one of the communication functions.
CH.8 What is Disruptive?
Disrupts the group when trying to fulfill one of the communication functions.
CH.8 What is Counteractive?
Messages that turn a disruptive group back to the appropriate conversation.
CH.8 What is Groupthink?
Groupthink is dysfunctional group decision making in which “unanimity overrides their motivation to assess all available plans of action” They make bad decisions because they want to make the same decision instead of exploring other options.
CH.8 What are Antecedent Conditions of Groupthink?
Cohesion, Structural Flaws, and Situational Characteristics.
CH.8 What is Cohesion?
Degree of connection, sense of solidarity. People get along with each other and don’t want to upset each other.
CH.8 What are Structural Flaws?
Group Insulation: When a group is cut off from other people outside the group. Having very limited information, disagreeing with group members and making mistakes.
Biased Leadership: Leaders with hidden agendas or personal stakes in the decision making will force people to agree with each other.
Lack of Procedural Norms: A procedural norm is that the group needs to have established rules when making decisions. Can’t jump at a decision, need to discuss and vote.
Homogeneity: When group members are very similar to each other like socioeconomic status, educational background, and how they think. Less likely to challenge each other.
CH.8 What are Situational Characteristics?
Groupthink is most likely to occur with external pressure. Being forced to agree on something.
CH.8 What are Syptoms of Groupthink?
Overestimation of the Group, Closed-Mindedness, and Pressure Toward Uniformity.
CH.8 What is Overestimation of the Group?
Over inflated view of the groups ability.
Illusion of invulnerability: Belief that they cannot fail or are not wrong.
Inherent Morality: Disbelief that since the group is good, the decision will be good.
CH.8 What is Closed-Mindedness?
Demonstrates polarized thinking, looking at the world in extremes.
Stereotyping: Thinking they know what's going on and others don’t.
Collective Rationalization: Talking themselves into agreeing with the decision.
CH.8 What is Pressure Toward Uniformity?
Self-Censorship: Even though they disagree, they don’t say anything.
Illusion of Unanimity: Everyone agrees and you don’t agree but you aren’t going to say anything.
Self-Appointed Mindguards: Protect ideas that the group comes up with. Prevent the dissenting voice from expressing the opinion.
CH.8 Ways to Prevent Groupthink?
Encourage Critical Evaluation: Encourage people to think critically about the decision.
Avoid Leader Stating a Preference: Avoid letting people know what your preference is.
Set up Independent Subgroups: Making larger groups into smaller groups for more organized communication.
Discuss the Group with Outsiders: No matter how smart, always get outside opinions.
Invite Outsiders into the Group:
Assign a Devil’s Advocate: Not easy, but helps because their job is to disagree.
Monitor the Group for Symptoms: Checking to make sure the group is exhibiting any groupthink symptoms.
Take time between Decision/Implementation: Give time so you can sleep on it.
CH.8 What is Symbolic Convergence Theory #1?
Group members cooperatively create and sustain shared consciousness, including shared meaning, through interaction.
CH.8 What is Symbolic Convergence Theory #2?
Fantasy is creative understanding of events that fulfills a psychological or rhetorical need.
Process of symbolic convergence affects decision making.
CH.8 What is Symbolic Convergence Theory #3?
How you build a team.