Engineering departments may experience a barrier to free and open communication vertically upward from subordinates to managers. What is the primary reason for this barrier to communication?
• Organizational power and authority in a hierarchy • How status differences affect what subordinates feel safe saying • Difference between age/knowledge/technical skill versus formal power in causing communication barriers
• Which factor would most likely make a subordinate worry about consequences if they speak openly upward? • In real life on a ship, what is it about a chief engineer or department head that actually controls your evaluation, schedule, and career—age, knowledge, technical skill, or formal authority? • Which option describes something that exists in every rank structure, even if the manager is young or not the most technically skilled?
• Focus on what creates fear of negative consequences when speaking up the chain of command. • Ask: Which choice would still be true even if the manager were the same age and had the same technical skills as the subordinate? • Eliminate answers that are about personal characteristics (like age or skill) rather than formal position and power.
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