ARTICLE
What is communication miscalibration?
A. When employees misunderstand each other’s cultural background
B. When leaders misjudge how much information followers want to receive
C. When organizations communicate too frequently with employees
D. When digital communication replaces face-to-face interaction
B
--> Communication miscalibration describes the gap between how much leaders think they communicate and how much information followers actually want.
Which communication channel allows the highest level of immediate feedback and nonverbal cues?
A. Text message
B. Email
C. Written report
D. Face-to-face communication
D
--> Face-to-face communication is the richest medium because it includes tone, body language, facial expressions, and immediate feedback.
Which term describes the psychological discomfort felt when an individual's behavior is inconsistent with their stated attitudes?
A.Cognitive dissonance
B.Job involvement
C.Psychological empowerment
D.Organizational identification
A
--> Individuals seek consistency and feel tension, or dissonance, when their actions and beliefs do not align.
According to the article, leaders often worry about which communication mistake more than employees do?
A. Under-communicating important information
B. Communicating too frequently with employees
C. Over-communicating and overwhelming employees
D. Communicating through the wrong digital channels
C
--> Leaders tend to fear over-communication, while employees typically worry more about receiving too little information.
Which communication barrier occurs when employees receive more messages and information than they can effectively process?
A. Communication apprehension
B. Message distortion
C. Information overload
D. Selective perception
--> Information overload occurs when the volume of communication exceeds an individual’s ability to process it.
Which term describes the tendency for most individuals to experience a mildly positive mood when nothing in particular is going on?
A.Cognitive reappraisal
B.Affective intensity
C.Positivity offset
D.Emotional contagion
C
--> At 0 input, research finds that most people experience a mildly positive mood
When leaders provide little explanation for their decisions, employees are most likely to interpret this as:
A. Efficient decision making
B. Lack of competence or empathy
C. Respect for employee autonomy
D. Confidence in the team’s abilities
B
--> Under-communication can signal low transparency, lack of empathy, or poor leadership, even when the decision itself is reasonable.
Which type of communication relies heavily on context, relationships, and implicit meaning rather than explicit verbal messages?
A. Low-context communication
B. Formal communication
C. High-context communication
D. Directive communication
C
-->
C
High-context cultures rely more on nonverbal signals, relationships, and shared understanding.
Which theoretical perspective explains why employees might rationalize or accept their own experiences with inequality, even when it contradicts their own best interests?
A.Social Dominance Theory
B.System Justification Theory
C.Intersectionality
D.Social Categorization Theory
B
--> This theory suggests individuals may legitimate inequality to reduce the psychological discomfort of inconsistency or to maintain a belief in a fair world.
Which psychological mechanism helps explain why leaders underestimate followers’ information needs?
A. Loss aversion
B. The curse of knowledge
C. Social loafing
D. Groupthink
B
--> Because leaders already understand their reasoning, they assume others also understand it — a classic curse of knowledge bias.
In a multicultural team meeting, a manager interprets a colleague’s silence as agreement with a proposed plan. Later, the colleague privately expresses strong disagreement.
Which communication concept best explains this misunderstanding?
A. Information overload
B. High-context communication norms
C. Media richness mismatch
D. Communication apprehension
B
In high-context cultures, silence can signal disagreement, reflection, or politeness, rather than agreement. Misinterpreting silence is a common cross-cultural communication problem.
According to Social Categorization Theory, why can diversity sometimes create challenges in teams?
A. Because diverse teams tend to have lower individual competence
B. Because people may divide into ingroups and outgroups based on perceived similarities
C. Because cultural values prevent collaboration
D. Because organizations typically prioritize homogeneity in decision making
B
Social categorization leads individuals to classify others into “us” and “them” groups, which can increase bias, reduce trust, and fragment teams.
According to Flynn & Lide (2023), why is under-communication often judged more negatively than over-communication?
A. Because employees find long explanations inefficient
B. Because silence is interpreted as a signal about the leader’s intentions and character
C. Because organizations reward concise communication
D. Because employees rarely need explanations for decisions
B
--> When leaders communicate too little, followers infer negative traits about the leader (e.g., lack of transparency, empathy, or competence), which damages leadership evaluations.
Which communication challenge becomes more likely in virtual or social media communication because written messages lack tone, facial expressions, and immediate clarification?
A. Selective perception
B. Message ambiguity
C. Communication apprehension
D. Information overload
B
--> In digital communication, the absence of nonverbal cues and immediate feedback increases the risk that messages will be interpreted in multiple ways, leading to message ambiguity and misunderstanding.
A staff member remarks, "I believe my supervisor is biased in her performance reviews," and later adds, "I feel quite upset by this treatment." Which two components of an attitude are represented here?
A.Cognitive and behavioral
B.Affective and behavioral.
C.Social and normative
D.Cognitive and affective
D
--> The belief about the bias is a cognitive evaluation, while the feeling of being upset represents the affective component.