Communication Studies 344, Spring 2023: Exam One
This exam consists of writing 3 informal essays that respond directly to 3 of the prompts below. Be sure to read both the overall exam instructions and each prompt carefully. Your discussions must incorporate and apply concepts and terms included in lectures, slides, discussions, and/or text chapters to your own observations, experiences, and/or to a case study. Thus, your essays need to articulate and integrate concepts covered in class with your own analysis and insights. And since writing a more impersonal academic essay is not the purpose of this exam, it is not necessary to draw on sources other than our course lectures, slides, and text.
Note that at least 2 of your informal essays must draw upon content from different text chapters or modules. In other words, your whole exam cannot focus on only one chapter/module. For each essay, be sure to indicate which prompt you are responding to. Your responses should be expressed in clear, generally correct writing, and while they don’t have to be polished, formal essays, they should be more than rough drafts. Responses that are confusing, difficult to follow, or filled with errors will lose points for lack of clarity.
Each of your 3 responses should be approximately 1/2 single-spaced typed page long. Thus, your whole exam (consisting of all 3 discussions) should be approximately 1 ½ single-spaced typed pages.
Write 3 discussion responses to 3 out of the 10 different prompts below.
Use course concepts to construct an analysis of one of the following case studies (at the end of the respective chapter):
Ch. 2, “The Creamy Creations Takeover”;
Ch. 3 “Teamwork at Marshall’s Processing Plant”;
Ch. 4, “The Cultural Tale of Two Shuttles”; or
Or if you prefer, you can analyze a case study at the end of another text chapter, using concepts in Ch. 1 – 4 that you think are applicable to the case study.
Summarize the case study and identify and explain the concepts/issues it incorporates from the chapter, as well perhaps as any concepts from other chapters you perceive relevant to the case study. Integrate relevant concepts as you analyze the issues and develop your own point of view about possible outcomes, recommendations, etc. If you wish, you can use questions at the end of the case study to help your thought process, but do not simply write answer to those questions. Instead, construct your own analysis and develop your own point of view.
Module #1 includes introductory overview information on defining characteristics of an organization and some contemporary features of today’s world of work, as well as the four major challenges discussed in Ch. 1 that face 21st century organizations and that are continually changing the way they function and communicate. In addition, most organizations have changed due to the terror of a global pandemic. Integrate some of the Introductory and Ch. 1 concepts with your own observations as you describe and analyze how an organization you’re familiar with has changed how it functions and communicates in response to one or more of these contemporary challenges or characteristics. Be specific and give examples of changes you have observed. Discuss what you think the long term impacts of these changes may be on the organization’s functioning and culture.
What kind of organization do you want to spend most of your career working in? Considering the different theories and concepts in Chapters 2, 3, and/or 4, how would you identify and explain the characteristics of the kind of organization you want to work in? Explain and apply theories/concepts from one or more of the chapters to describe features of a workplace where you would like to invest time and energy. What are your communication expectations for your future workplace? How do your communication preferences relate to concepts you identify as important?
The “machine metaphor” is not appealing to many workers today, yet some workers still need and/or value considerable structure in their work environments. In addition, the idea of an organization “running like a well-oiled machine” still exists and has value in some work settings. Identify and explain a few concepts in Ch. 2, Classical Approaches, that you find relevant and important. Discuss, using details/examples to illustrate, how those characteristics might look in a work setting you want to be a part of.
Fayol articulated important components of Management, Structure, Power, Reward, and Attitude for organizations to be effective. Selecting one of these areas, explain and discuss specific aspects Fayol advocated as essential components of management. Based on your own experience and understanding, discuss how relevant and adequate Fayol’s concepts are for today’s organizations and which aspect(s) for today’s organizations are missing from Fayol’s theory.
Explaining Weber’s Three Types of Authority as they relate to work environments. Discuss the type(s) of authority you would like your future supervisor/manager to exert and why. If/when you become a manager/leader yourself, which type(s) of authority would you like to exert and why? Discuss what your preferred type(s) authority may look like within an organizational environment.
Five years from now you’re working in a fairly large organization and you just learned the new manager of your division is a strong proponent of the Human Relations/Resources Approaches. Which of the major theories in Ch. 3 would you want your new manager to have been influenced by, and why? Identify and explain the specific theory. Discuss the expectations you have for your future work environment based on the concepts of the theory, including the type of communication you hope to experience with your new manager and your co-workers.
For an organization you are familiar with, describe and discuss how some of the typical communication practices within the organization reflect either the values of the mechanistic Classical Approaches in Ch. 2 and/or the more humanistic “family” values of the Human Relations/Resources Approaches in Ch. 3. Include details and examples that illustrate how the underlying values within the organization influence its communication practices and interactions among employees.
Using Schein’s “Onion Model” (Ch. 4) as a cultural approach to understanding an organization, develop a “cultural profile” of an organization you’re familiar with. Comment on to what extent the culture of the organization has been “engineered” by its leadership and/or to what extent it has developed naturally through the interactions of its members? Identify some of the “Artifacts” — behaviors, practices, jargon, language, ways of communicating, rituals, heroes, stories, symbols, slogans, style of dress, physical features, buildings, furniture, equipment, décor, etc. — that reflect the organization’s culture? How do these Artifacts reveal or contradict the Values the organization articulates? Are there underlying and unspoken core assumptions that you perceive really drive the organization? If so, are they in sync with the Values or do they show that something else is really more important to the organization’s leadership?
UMKC’s designated Key Values are Learning, Diversity, Integrity, Accountability, Respect, and Collaboration. Select a couple of these values that UMKC has identified as key components of its institutional culture. Explain what these values mean within the context of a college/university, and discuss how the values are evident, or not, within the UMKC environment. Be specific and give examples of how the values may be reflected in various aspects of UMKC’s environment and practices. To what degree are the values real and lived out vs. sounding good, but just lip service? For instance, any educational institution is, by definition, about learning, but if you select Learning, you could discuss how and to what extent UMKC really demonstrates that it places a high value on equipping students to learn.
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