Reuben Williams, the marketing manager for F&B Industries, is frustrated. He feels that the production division repeatedly lets his division down

Although the latest marketing strategy announced that a new product would be available in the market by July, the production division was unable to complete the production of the first batch till August. The production manager claims that manpower is short and the targets placed on the production division are unreasonably high. To resolve this deadlock, they will be meeting soon. This meeting is an example of ________ communication.
A) lateral
B) grapevine
C) diagonal
D) upward
E) downward

A
Explanation: A) When communication takes place among members of the same work group, members of work groups at the same level, managers at the same level, or any other horizontally equivalent workers, it is described as lateral communication. The marketing manager and the production manager belong to the same hierarchical level but represent different divisions; their communication is an example of lateral communication.