COM 380 FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026
Systems Metaphor - Answers "living growing organism"
- understanding of organization as complex organisms that must interact with their environment to
survive.
Hierarchal Ordering - Answers System components are arranged in highly complex ways that involve
subsystems and super systems
Interdependence - Answers The need of system components to rely on other components in order to
function.
Permeability - Answers "Permeable boundaries"
The ability of systems components to allow information materials to flow in and out
Deviation - Answers Reducing feedback "response" that serves to keep organizational functioning on a
steady course
Deviation - Answers "Amplifying Feedback" Responses that serves to change system functioning
through growth and development
Holism - Answers system property that suggests that a system is more than the sum of its parts
Equifinality - Answers The idea that a system can reach the same final state from differing initial
conditions and by a variety of paths; and a variety of paths from the same initial path
Negative Entropy - Answers The ability of systems to sustain themselves and grow
Requisite variety - Answers The need for organizations and groups to be as complicated as the
problems that confront them.
Equivocality - Answers The unpredictability inherent in the information environment of an
organization
Sense making - Answers the cycles in which organizational members introduce and react to ideas that
help to make sense of the equivocal information environment
unitary frame of reference - Answers emphasis is placed on common organizational goals. Conflict is
seen as rare and negative, and power is the natural prerogative of management.
pluralist frame of reference - Answers the organization consists of many groups with divergent
interests. Conflict is seen positively as, "an inherent and ineradicable characteristic of organizational
affairs".
radical frame of reference - Answers the organization is viewed as a battleground where rival forces
strive for the achievement of largely incompatible ends
traditional approach - Answers considers power to be a relatively stable entity that people or groups
possess
symbolical approach - Answers views power as a product of communicative interactions and
relationships
radical-critical approach - Answers The theorist is concerned with the "deep structures" that produce
and reproduce relationships in organizational life.
Their role is to explore the ways in which economic, social, and communicative relationships produce
and maintain organizational power relationships.
modes and means of production - Answers according to Marxist theory, modes of production are the
economic conditions that underlie the production process and the means of production are the actual
work process involved in production.
ideology - Answers the taken-for-granted assumptions about reality that influence perceptions of
situations and events.
hegemony - Answers refers to a process in which a dominant group leads another group to accept
subordination as the norm ---- ______ control is typically accomplished by shaping ideology in such a
way that the controlled group accepts ad actively participates in the control process
emancipation - Answers the liberation of people from unnecessarily restrictive traditions, ideologies,
assumptions, power relations, identity formations, and so forth, that inhibit or distort opportunities
for autonomy, clarification of genuine needs and wants, and thus grater and lasting satisfaction.
most see emancipation as a process of emerging awareness and communicative action on the part of
the oppressed.
resistance - Answers considers how workers can exert counter-pressure on this exercise of power and
control.
Systems Metaphor - Answers "living growing organism"
- understanding of organization as complex organisms that must interact with their environment to
survive.
Hierarchal Ordering - Answers System components are arranged in highly complex ways that involve
subsystems and super systems
Interdependence - Answers The need of system components to rely on other components in order to
function.
Permeability - Answers "Permeable boundaries"
The ability of systems components to allow information materials to flow in and out
Deviation - Answers Reducing feedback "response" that serves to keep organizational functioning on a
steady course
Deviation - Answers "Amplifying Feedback" Responses that serves to change system functioning
through growth and development
Holism - Answers system property that suggests that a system is more than the sum of its parts
Equifinality - Answers The idea that a system can reach the same final state from differing initial
conditions and by a variety of paths; and a variety of paths from the same initial path
Negative Entropy - Answers The ability of systems to sustain themselves and grow
Requisite variety - Answers The need for organizations and groups to be as complicated as the
problems that confront them.
Equivocality - Answers The unpredictability inherent in the information environment of an
organization
Sense making - Answers the cycles in which organizational members introduce and react to ideas that
help to make sense of the equivocal information environment
unitary frame of reference - Answers emphasis is placed on common organizational goals. Conflict is
seen as rare and negative, and power is the natural prerogative of management.
pluralist frame of reference - Answers the organization consists of many groups with divergent
interests. Conflict is seen positively as, "an inherent and ineradicable characteristic of organizational
affairs".
radical frame of reference - Answers the organization is viewed as a battleground where rival forces
strive for the achievement of largely incompatible ends
traditional approach - Answers considers power to be a relatively stable entity that people or groups
possess
symbolical approach - Answers views power as a product of communicative interactions and
relationships
radical-critical approach - Answers The theorist is concerned with the "deep structures" that produce
and reproduce relationships in organizational life.
Their role is to explore the ways in which economic, social, and communicative relationships produce
and maintain organizational power relationships.
modes and means of production - Answers according to Marxist theory, modes of production are the
economic conditions that underlie the production process and the means of production are the actual
work process involved in production.
ideology - Answers the taken-for-granted assumptions about reality that influence perceptions of
situations and events.
hegemony - Answers refers to a process in which a dominant group leads another group to accept
subordination as the norm ---- ______ control is typically accomplished by shaping ideology in such a
way that the controlled group accepts ad actively participates in the control process
emancipation - Answers the liberation of people from unnecessarily restrictive traditions, ideologies,
assumptions, power relations, identity formations, and so forth, that inhibit or distort opportunities
for autonomy, clarification of genuine needs and wants, and thus grater and lasting satisfaction.
most see emancipation as a process of emerging awareness and communicative action on the part of
the oppressed.
resistance - Answers considers how workers can exert counter-pressure on this exercise of power and
control.
