Pass the WGU Courses and Certificates Organizational-Behavior Questions and answers with CertsForce

Performance evaluations serve several vital functions within an organization's management system. The primary purpose isto assist management in making human resource decisions. These decisions include identifying who should receive promotions, who is eligible for salary increases, and who might need to be transferred or even terminated.

Beyond administrative decisions, evaluations provide essential feedback to employees about how the organization views their performance. This feedback acts as a basis for personal development and career planning. Furthermore, evaluations help identify training and development needs by pinpointing specific skill deficiencies that an employee may have. They also provide a criterion against which the organization can validate its selection and development programs; for instance, if employees who scored high on a hiring test perform poorly on their evaluations, the hiring process may need to be adjusted. Therefore, rather than being a psychological diagnostic tool (Option B) or a pre-hiring screen (Option C), the performance evaluation is a retrospective and developmental tool used to manage the existing workforce effectively.

Charismatic Leadership Theory suggests that followers make attributions of heroic or extraordinary leadership abilities when they observe certain behaviors. The most fundamental way a charismatic leader increases performance is byarticulating an appealing vision. This vision serves as a long-term strategy for attaining a goal by making the future better than the status quo.

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A charismatic leader does not just set goals; they provide a "vision statement"—a formal proclamation of an organization's mission—that they use to imprint on followers an overarching goal and purpose. They then communicate high-performance expectations and express confidence that followers can attain them, which enhances follower self-esteem. Unlike transactional leaders who rely on rewards or directive approaches, charismatic leaders use emotional appeal and personal risk-taking to inspire followers to go beyond their self-interest for the sake of the organization. This articulation of a "better future" is the primary engine of motivation in charismatic leadership.

While a strong culture can be a significant asset by improving employee commitment and reducing ambiguity, it can also become aliabilityunder certain conditions. One of the most critical liabilities occurswhen a strong organizational culture limits diversity within the organization. Because a strong culture pressures employees to conform to accepted values and behaviors, it can create a "mismatch" for people who bring different perspectives or backgrounds.

Strong cultures often act as a barrier to change because they lead to institutionalization, where behaviors are followed blindly without question. This can be particularly damaging during mergers or acquisitions, where two conflicting strong cultures may fail to integrate. Furthermore, when the shared values do not align with the organization's effectiveness in a changing environment, the culture becomes a "barrier to diversity" and a "barrier to change". Management must therefore balance the benefits of a cohesive culture with the need for diverse viewpoints that prevent "groupthink" and allow the organization to remain adaptable.

A self-managed work team is characterized by its high level of autonomy and collective responsibility. To improve synergy and success, these teams must move beyond simply sharing information (which is characteristic of a work group) and engage in collective actions. One of the primary hallmarks of a successful self-managed team is the ability toexercise collective control over the pace of work.

In a traditional assembly line, the pace is dictated by the machinery or a supervisor. In a self-managed team, members decide how to schedule work, assign tasks, and monitor their own progress. This collective control fosters a sense of ownership and accountability. Options A and C describe traditional "work group" behaviors rather than team behaviors; teams require mutual accountability rather than just individual roles. By controlling their own pace and methods, team members can synchronize their efforts more effectively, leading to the positive synergy where the team's output is greater than the sum of individual inputs.

Group Cohesivenessis the degree to which members are attracted to each other and motivated to stay in the group. When a group is "working in different directions," it lacks the unity and shared purpose characteristic of cohesive teams. To increase cohesiveness, Organizational Behavior literature suggests several specific strategies.

One effective method is toPhysically isolate the group. By providing the group with its own workspace or isolating them from other units, the members are forced to interact more frequently with one another rather than with outsiders. This increased interaction often leads to a stronger shared identity and a "we-feeling" that helps align their efforts. Other common ways to increase cohesiveness include making the group smaller (not larger, which refutes option C), increasing the time members spend together, and increasing the status of the group or the difficulty of gaining admission. While option A (increasing difficulty of membership) is a valid way to increase cohesiveness, the provided source materials and the context of members "working in different directions" prioritize physical isolation as a primary structural intervention to foster unity. Creating more rigid roles (Option D) might help with clarity but does not necessarily increase the emotional and social attraction (cohesion) between members.

In Organizational Behavior, values are often classified using the Rokeach Value Survey, which distinguishes betweenTerminal ValuesandInstrumental Values. Terminal values represent the ultimate goals or "end-states" an individual hopes to achieve, such as prosperity (economic success), well-being, and world peace. These are the destinations toward which a person works. In contrast, instrumental values are the "modes of conduct" or the means by which one achieves those terminal goals.

In this specific scenario, "autonomy and self-reliance" are categorized as instrumental values because they describe the behavioral methods an employee uses to navigate the workplace and eventually reach their terminal goals, such as economic success or personal well-being. For example, an employee might use autonomy (an instrumental value) as a tool to gain the efficiency required to achieve prosperity (a terminal value). Understanding this distinction is vital for managers because while terminal values tell us what the employee wants to achieve, instrumental values tell us how they prefer to behave in order to get there. Autonomy and self-reliance are practical approaches to work life rather than the final life-goals themselves, thus fitting the definition of instrumental values perfectly.

Social loafingis a phenomenon in group dynamics defined as the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually. This concept challenges the common assumption that the "spirit of the group" always increases individual motivation. It was famously illustrated by the Ringelmann effect, where research showed that individuals pulled less hard on a rope when they were part of a group than when they were alone.

Social loafing typically occurs because of a dispersion of responsibility; when individuals believe their contribution cannot be measured separately from the group's total output, they may feel less "accountable" and decrease their effort. It can also stem from a "sucker effect," where individuals reduce their effort because they perceive others in the group are not doing their fair share. To counter social loafing, managers are encouraged to use individual performance evaluations, provide group rewards based on individual contributions, and keep group sizes small enough that individual efforts are visible.

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All groups have establishedNorms, which are defined as acceptable standards of behavior shared by the group’s members that tell them what they ought and ought not to do under certain circumstances. Norms are powerful because they act as a means of influencing the behavior of group members with a minimum of external controls. Common organizational norms include performance norms (how hard to work), appearance norms (dress codes), and social arrangement norms (whom to eat lunch with).

Norms are distinct fromGroup Roles, which are specific behaviors expected of a person in a specific position. While roles might differ from member to member (e.g., a leader vs. a scribe), norms are generally shared by the entire collective.Group Statusrefers to a socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by others, andConformityis the act of adjusting one's behavior to align with the norms of the group. Therefore, the "standards of behavior" themselves are the norms. When an individual violates these shared standards, they often face social pressure or sanctions from the group, which reinforces the importance of norms in maintaining group stability and predictability.

Organizational culture is defined as aunique system of shared meaningheld by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations. This system of shared meaning is a set of key characteristics that the organization values. It represents the "common perception" held by the organization's members; even though individuals may have different backgrounds or occupy different levels in the hierarchy, they tend to describe the organization's culture in similar terms.

Culture is the social glue that helps hold the organization together by providing appropriate standards for what employees should say and do. It acts as a boundary-defining element, creates a sense of identity for employees, facilitates commitment to something larger than individual self-interest, and enhances the stability of the social system. While physical parameters (Option A) or HR programs (Option B) may reflect or support the culture, the culture itself is the underlying shared cognitive framework—the "way we do things around here"—that guides employee behavior and shapes their organizational experience.

In the context of global operations, teams are often physically dispersed across different time zones and geographic locations. To maximize participation, organizations rely onvirtual teamtechnologies. Usingonline computer technologies and/or phone communication(such as video conferencing, instant messaging, and collaborative platforms) allows for real-time or near-real-time interaction that bridges the physical distance. These technologies enable members to share ideas, provide immediate feedback, and engage in the "give-and-take" necessary for effective decision-making.

While unilateral messaging (Option C) or physical mail (Option D) might transmit information, they lack the interactive richness required to sustain high levels of participation and engagement. Effective global leadership involves selecting the communication channel that best balances the need for speed with the need for social presence. By utilizing synchronous online tools, global teams can simulate the "face-to-face" experience, which helps in building the rapport and trust that are often difficult to establish in a virtual environment. This approach ensures that all members, regardless of their location, have an equal platform to contribute to the team's objectives.