Q&A Hero

Q: The primary audience for your message should always include A) all who receive it. B) the key decision makers in the audience. C) those people with the highest status. D) those people who represent the opinions and attitudes of the majority.

Q: The best reason to defer or cancel a message is if A) your news is bad. B) someone else wants to deliver it. C) your audience is highly receptive. D) the time is wrong.

Q: Most messages should not be sent unless they will A) bring about a change. B) increase your chances of being promoted. C) please your boss. D) do all of the above.

Q: An example of a specific purpose for a business message would be A) to impart information to the audience. B) to inform employees about the new vacation policy. C) to persuade readers to take an action. D) to obtain audience participation and collaboration.

Q: Which of the following is not a general category common to business communication? A) To inform B) To persuade C) To negotiate D) To collaborate

Q: You are pressed for time and need to send an important message to your manager. To optimize your writing time, you should devote about ________ percent of your time to planning. A) 10 B) 20 C) 50 D) 70

Q: In developing business messages, the step during which you step back to see whether you have expressed your ideas clearly is A) planning. B) writing. C) completing. D) feedback.

Q: The three primary steps involved in preparing a business message are A) planning, writing, and completing. B) informing, persuading, and collaborating. C) defining the purpose, the main idea, and the topic. D) satisfying the audience's informational, motivational, and practical needs.

Q: Cultural differences appear in a number of important areas, including A) nonverbal signals. B) gender. C) religion. D) all of the above.

Q: Ethnocentrism can be overcome in part by A) avoiding assumptions. B) judging other groups according to your own standards. C) ignoring the distinctions among cultures. D) remembering that people from other cultures communicate in ways that are inferior to your own.

Q: The practice of accepting multiple cultures on their own terms is known as A) ethnocentrism. B) cultural pluralism. C) ethnography. D) stereotyping.

Q: Xenophobia is the fear of A) crises. B) working in unfamiliar environments. C) strangers and foreigners. D) change.

Q: When you react ethnocentrically, you A) assume that your culture is superior to others. B) recognize the differences that exist between your culture and other cultures. C) focus on the possibility that your words and actions will be misunderstood. D) do all of the above.

Q: Many difficulties in intercultural communication occur because people in different cultures have different A) inborn genetic traits that define who they are and how they interact with the world. B) assumptions about how people should think, behave, and communicate. C) environments. D) media.

Q: Culture influences a person's understanding of A) words. B) nonverbal signals. C) use of time and space. D) all of the above.

Q: Applied to nonwhite U.S. residents, the term minority is A) increasingly inaccurate. B) still accurate in states such as California and Texas. C) accurate only for the female population. D) the only politcally correct option.

Q: Diversity in the workplace can be based on differences in A) ethnic heritage. B) religion. C) age or gender. D) all of the above.

Q: "All the characteristics and experiences that define each of us as individuals" is the definition of A) ethnicity. B) diversity. C) culture. D) none of the above.

Q: How can cultural differences affect communication styles? What general approach should Americans take when writing intercultural correspondence?

Q: When doing business in other cultures, what are some strategies you can use to promote effective intercultural communication?

Q: List at least three types of nonverbal differences might you encounter when working with businesspeople from other cultures. Provide at least one example of how these differences might cause misunderstandings in communication.

Q: While working in a country with a high-context culture, you schedule a meeting with a vendor who lives there. When he shows up 20 minutes after the meeting was supposed to begin, should you take it as a sign of incompetence or disrespect? Explain.

Q: Since cultures do not always share the same perspectives on ethical issues, how can you keep messages ethical when communicating interculturally?

Q: A new employee who speaks English as a second language has just joined the design team you lead. You notice that she often looks confused during conversations. Describe at least three useful strategies for this situation.

Q: Briefly describe at least three strategies for writing effective multicultural messages.

Q: Before conducting business in another country, why is it worthwhile to learn common phrases in the native language even if your clients there will speak English?

Q: List at least three areas of nonverbal communication that can differ widely among cultures.

Q: Distinguish between "formal" and "informal" cultural rules. Then briefly describe three areas in which differing informal rules can become evident during intercultural communication.

Q: Describe at least three common business activities affected by contextual differences across cultures.

Q: Explain the difference between a high-context culture and a low-context culture, and provide at least one example of each.

Q: What is ethnocentrism, and how can it be overcome?

Q: What is culture?

Q: Briefly describe at least three advantages of a diverse workforce.

Q: ________ ________ refers to any form of computerized intelligence used to translate one language to another.

Q: When preparing messages for multicultural audiences, it is best to avoid slang and ________ expressions such as "More bang for the buck."

Q: Differences in ________ ________, such as gestures and eye contact, are a major source of misunderstanding during intercultural communications.

Q: One important social difference among cultures is that of ________ orientation: some cultures emphasize planning and investing while others do not.

Q: In a ________-context culture such as exists in Germany, people rely more on verbal communication and less on circumstances and implied meaning.

Q: In ________-context cultures, people rely less on verbal communication and more on the context of nonverbal actions and environmental setting to convey meaning.

Q: Cultural ________ is the pattern of physical cues, environmental stimuli, and implicit understanding that convey meaning between two members of the same culture.

Q: ________ is a fear of strangers and foreigners.

Q: ________ is the practice of assigning a wide range of generalized attributes to an individual on the basis of membership in a particular culture or social group.

Q: ________ is the tendency to judge all other groups according to your own group's standards, behaviors, and customs.

Q: Cultural ________ is the practice of accepting multiple cultures on their own terms.

Q: ________ is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms for behavior.

Q: As businesses become more global, the workforce is increasingly ________: made up of employees with different national, religious, and ethnic backgrounds.

Q: Cultural ________ is an appreciation for cultural differences that affect communication and the ability to adjust ones communication style to ensure that efforts to send and receive messages across cultural boundaries are successful.

Q: The process of sending and receiving messages between people of different cultures is called ________ ________.

Q: Machine translation software is generally far more effective than human translators.

Q: In intercultural conversations, speaking slowly is usually regarded as a sign of disrespect.

Q: When writing to someone for whom English is a second language, you should avoid using slang and idioms.

Q: Foreign language instruction is one area where social networking technology has failed to have much of an impact.

Q: In general, when writing to someone in another country, U.S. businesspeople should be a bit more formal than they would be otherwise.

Q: Unlike most Asian professionals, French executives do not put their colleagues at ease with praise before they criticize.

Q: When conducting business with others who speak a language other than English, it is best to avoid trying to speak any words or phrases in their language.

Q: There are no differences between English as it is written in the U.S. and English as it is written in the United Kingdom.

Q: Because high-quality translation software is now widely available, the demand for multilingual communicators continues to decrease.

Q: When communicating with people from other cultures, it is best to apologize when you make a mistake.

Q: People in the United States are generally accustomed to having less privacy at work than their counterparts in other cultures.

Q: Evidence suggests that whatever the culture, men and women tend to have slightly different communication styles.

Q: When traveling to another country to conduct business, you should assume that frequent eye contact is regarded as a sign of honesty and openness in any culture.

Q: Following the "Golden Rule" is not an effective strategy for adapting to other cultures.

Q: In many Asian societies, younger employees generally avoid disagreeing with senior executives in public.

Q: Differences in nonverbal communication are often a major source of misunderstanding in intercultural communication.

Q: In general, attitudes toward work and success are consistent across the world.

Q: In every culture, it's safe to assume that people view material comforts earned by individual effort as a sign of superiority.

Q: In some cultures, planning for the future is regarded as a waste of time.

Q: In low-context cultures, businesspeople tend to focus on the results of the decisions they face.

Q: For Chinese businesspersons, the primary role of a business meeting is likely to be building relationships, not exchanging information.

Q: Members of low-context cultures place more emphasis on nonverbal communication than on verbal communication.

Q: Cultural context refers to the pattern of physical cues, environmental stimuli, and implicit understanding that conveys meaning between members of the same culture.

Q: Studies have shown that people often have cultural biases of which they're not even consciously aware.

Q: A new employee from another country has just joined your team. To avoid ethnocentrism, you should strive to ignore the differences between her culture and your own.

Q: When ethnocentric people stereotype an entire group of people, they are usually justified in doing so.

Q: Ethnocentrism is the tendency to have an equally unbiased view of all ethnic groups.

Q: Members of a well-established culture tend to view their culture as complete, which can dull or even suppress curiosity about other cultures.

Q: Culture is inborn, not learned.

Q: People within a particular culture tend to differ enormously in their basic assumptions about how people should think, behave, and communicate.

Q: Most people belong to only one culture.

Q: Although U.S. business is becoming more international and more culturally diverse, cultural diversity is still low on the list of companies' priorities.