Leadership & Organizational Behavior Flashcards

Which resistance-to-change strategy is most effective when employees lack critical information about a strategic initiative?

Answer: Education and communication

When resistance stems from misinformation or ignorance, educating and communicating openly is the most appropriate strategy.

A strategic leader wants to empower frontline employees to make customer-facing decisions without escalating every issue. This approach aligns with which concept?

Answer: Decentralization of authority

Decentralization pushes decision-making authority down to lower organizational levels to improve responsiveness.

Which type of organizational commitment reflects an employee who stays because leaving would be too costly personally?

Answer: Continuance commitment

Continuance commitment is based on the perceived costs of leaving, such as lost benefits or seniority.

A strategic manager observes that a team consistently makes riskier decisions together than any individual member would alone. This phenomenon is called:

Answer: Group polarization

Group polarization is the tendency for group discussion to amplify initial tendencies, including risk tolerance.

When designing a performance management system aligned with strategic goals, which approach ensures individual objectives cascade from organizational priorities?

Answer: Management by Objectives (MBO) with top-down goal alignment

MBO aligns individual goals to organizational objectives by cascading targets from senior leadership down through each level.

A leader who prioritizes the needs of followers above their own and builds community through service is demonstrating which leadership philosophy?

Answer: Servant leadership

Servant leadership centers on putting followers' growth and well-being first, inverting the traditional power hierarchy.

Which factor most strongly predicts whether an organizational change initiative will be sustained long-term?

Answer: Embedding the change into organizational culture and systems

Change is sustained when it is institutionalized into culture, processes, and systems rather than treated as a one-time event.