Chapter 12 Topics for Discussion

  1. Discuss the four criteria suggested at the beginning of this chapter for managing public interactions. What criteria would you add or delete from the list? Do your classmates agree? Discuss any differences of opinion.
  2. Review the definition of playacting. Identify as many ways as you can that strangers playact in public. Do you think that playacting is healthy, damaging, or simply a waste of time? Ask several classmates to react to the claim that "most people today don"t know how to interact with strangers, so they just ignore them."
  3. Think about the presence or absence of "third places" in your community. Visit one or more places that you think might fit some of the 8 characteristics. To what extent do you think such places are essential in creating a sense of community for those who live nearby? What other forms of experiencing community do people have available to them?
  4. Based on whatever work experience you have, what organizational stories do employees frequently tell each other and how do these influence their understanding of the organization? What metaphors are repeatedly used in the vocabularies to talk about the organization or the work that people perform?
  5. What advice would you give someone who asked you if they should develop a close friendship or romantic relationship with someone at work? Why would you give that particular advice? If you were a researcher, what questions would you want to ask or what observations of relationship interaction would you want to make to further study the issues of friendship or romance in the workplace?
  6. Research indicates that the grapevine is the least trusted but most utilized communication network in most organizations. What do you think should be done, if anything, to change the influence of the grapevine on campus or at work?
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