Chapter 5

Which of the following statements about communication in the workplace is most accurate?

• Today's workplaces are nearly all paperless; employees conduct business with digital media and communicate only with electronic messages.

• Most employees exchange documents and complete projects on the Web, but only management creates content, reviews products, or edits projects.

• More data are stored on and accessed from PDAs and individual computers rather than on the Internet or a network.

• Although today's workplaces are still far from paperless, increasingly information is exchanged electronically and on the go.

Business are storing and accessing ever more data along with software in remote network clusters. This process of remote storage is called

• community sourcing.

• networking.

• cloud computing.

• data dumps.

Web 2.0

• allows users to create content, review products, and edit and share information.

• is a software editing package that finds and corrects all grammar and spelling errors in business documents.

• has replaced the need for paper copies of business documents.

• is a Web site that contains journals on a variety of topics usually written by one person.

How are businesses using VPNs (virtual private networks) today?

• Businesses use VPNs to send confidential e-mails on their intranets.

• Small businesses share VPNs instead of developing their own Web sites.

• VPNs offer businesses secure access to company information from any worldwide location that provides an Internet connection.

• VPNs are the primary host site of corporate blogs used to promote new products.

The technological revolution of the last 25 years has resulted in

• shortened workweeks for lucky i-workers (information workers).

• amazing productivity gains.

• fewer workers telecommuting than expected.

• increasing worker freedom from workplace communications.

You must communicate up-to-date information immediately to customers who are digitally connected. Which of these is the best communication channel to offer you this always-on connectedness for your business message?

• E-mail

• Twitter

• Podcast

• Blog

You are delivering your salary and benefits proposals for employees in your department to your supervisor. What is the best communication channel to deliver this confidential information?

• E-mail

• Podcast

• Interoffice memo

• All are appropriate channels to deliver confidential information.

Which of the following messages is appropriate to send via e-mail?

• An announcement of a major benefit reduction for all employees

• An announcement of a change in a meeting date

• A quarterly performance appraisal of an employee

• Notification of company layoff plans for the next quarter

Jackson is sending an e-mail message about an important upcoming meeting. Which of the following represents the most effective subject line?

• Urgent!

• Our next staff meeting will be held on the 15th of August.

• Please Attend Staff Meeting August 15

• Please Read NOW

Most e-mail messages and memos

• have nonsensitive topics and begin directly.

• require persuasion.

• are indirect and begin with an explanation.

• need not be carefully organized because they are informal.