COM 2460 Organizational Communication Glossary

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts for the COM 2460 Fall 2026 Organizational Communication glossary test.

Agenda

The listing of topics or tasks to be discussed or completed in a meeting.

Authority-and-responsibility Principle

Authority should equal responsibility when work is delegated from supervisor to subordinate.

Behavioral function

The effect or function a member's behavior has on the group or the organization as a whole.

Closed system

A system with relatively impermeable boundaries, resulting in little interchange between the system and its environment.

Coercive power

The ability to elicit a desired response by means of potential punishment.

Cohesiveness

A group's solidarity, closeness, and ability to maintain itself over time and through crisis.

Committee

A small group of people given an assigned task or responsibility by a larger group (parent organization) or person with authority.

Ad hoc or special committee

A group that goes out of existence after its specific task has been completed.

Standing committee

A group given an area of responsibility that includes many tasks and continues indefinitely.

Conference committee

A group composed of representatives from two or more groups; members' responsibilities are to represent the interests of their constituents.

Conceptual skill

The ability to view the organization or situation as a whole and solve problems to the benefit of everyone concerned.

Contingency

An approach of modern management theory that there is no one best way to manage, and that what is best depends in any given circumstance on the nature of the situation.

Congruence

The matching of both verbal and nonverbal communication to what the communicator is thinking and feeling.

Conjunctive task

A type of group task where each member possesses information relevant to the decision, but no one member alone has all the needed information, thus requiring a high level of coordination among members.

Constructive Conflict

Conflict that is managed in a productive manner. Often results in better outcomes.

Contingency Approaches

The study of leadership that assumes the appropriate leadership style in a given situation depends on factors such as members' skills and knowledge, time available, the type of task, and so forth.

Crisis management

Use of public relations to minimize harm to the organization in emergency situations that could cause irreparable damage.

Destructive Conflict

Conflict that is managed in a harmful manner. Often results in poorer outcomes.

Door opener

Noncoercive invitations that encourage speakers to begin talking.

Environmental stress

From a systems perspective, tensions or pressures generated from outside the organization; a major source of conflict, which may exacerbate other conflict sources.

Feminist Perspectives

Theories which critique the gendered assumptions of modern organizations and call for the recognition and valuing of multiple voices and perspectives.

Functional conflict

A type of conflict that occurs when organizational functions are divided into departments that often have entirely different values or perspectives on organizational processes.

Glass ceiling

Organizational barriers that keep women (and other minorities) from advancing not because they cannot succeed at executive management but simply because they are women.

Group climate

The emotional environment of a group that affects and is affected by interaction among members.

Group norms

Unwritten behavior rules, ways of doing things, that groups develop over time. Norms reflect what groups deem desirable and can be said to be cultural beliefs about effectiveness or appropriateness.

Hawthorne studies

Studies demonstrating the social nature of workers; emphasizing the value of democratic leadership, communication, and informal networks; and forming the empirical foundation of the human relations movement.

Informal organization

The informal network, often referred to as the grapevine, through which an individual communicates with someone else with whom he or she is not connected by a formal organizational channel.

Information equivocality

Messages that are ambiguous, complex, or obscure and hence difficult for organizational members to understand.

Input

The energy an organization draws from its environment, including such resources as raw materials, buildings, and people.

Interdependence

The interrelatedness of various parts of the organization. From a systems perspective, no component of an organization, a living organism, or an economic system can be viewed in isolation; rather, it can be understood only in a dynamic, interdependent context.

Intervention

The process of entering into a system of relationships between or among persons, groups, or objects for the purpose of helping them in some way.

Job maturity

The ability or competence to carry out a task; the knowledge, experience, and skill needed to carry out work without the direction of others.

Lateral communication

Communication among persons working at the same level in the hierarchy of authority, but typically representing different departments or work units.

Legitimate power

Recognized authority, tied to the importance of the position occupied within the organizational hierarchy or the formal role played in other social situations.

Life cycle theory of leadership

Subordinates will change, grow, or mature over time and that in response to such changes, managers need to adjust their styles of leadership to meet employee needs.

Mediator

A third party who tries to facilitate communication between conflicting parties so that they can work through their problems and arrive at a decision of their own.

Mutuality of concern

The degree to which members share the same level of commitment to a group.

Open system

A system with relatively permeable boundaries, producing a high degree of interchange between the system and its environment.

Output

The yield that derives from communication, negotiation, and/or problem solving such as results, outcomes, and solutions.

Participative decision making

A decision-making process proposed by Likert in which those employees who are most affected by a decision (especially those who have to implement it) are directly involved in making it.

Public relations

Strategic organizational communication involving an organization's image, internal communication, public affairs and issues management, media relations, and crisis management.

Psychological maturity

An employee's willingness or motivation to do something constructive, a belief that responsibility is important, and the confidence to complete tasks without extensive encouragement.

Steering committees

Groups of individuals with diverse specialities and group memberships who are charged with implementing organizational plans, processes, or change.

Subsystems

Interdependent units within organizational systems.

System distortion

A type of communication distortion in which those in power create the false impression that management's interests are joined ideologically with subordinates' interests.

Thromis

A combination of threats and promises.

Traditional authority

The kind of authority that is effective in cultures where many believe that hierarchies are proper because they have always existed.

Upward distortion

A significant problem associated with superior-subordinate communication wherein those near the bottom of the organizational hierarchy are reluctant to communicate upward information that is unfavorable or that in any sense reflects on them negatively.

Utilitarian perspective

An ethical viewpoint that holds any action to be right if it produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Validating communication

Message exchange that helps others feel recognized, accepted, understood, and valued.

Values

The basis on which attitudes and personal preferences are formed; the basis for crucial decisions, life directions, and personal tastes; the foundation of ethical behavior; and an enduring and stable guide for judging one's own and others' behavior.

Whistle-blower

An individual who has decided at some point that the actions of the organization are immoral, illegal, or inefficient and acts on that belief by informing legal authorities or others outside the organization, thus putting his or her duty to the public above loyalty to the organization.

X-Y-Z formula

A way to describe feelings by saying: when you do X, in situation Y, I feel Z.