SIOP Organizational Behavior & Performance 5

Question 1

A company observes that high-performing teams have emerged in remote work conditions despite lower social cohesion. This BEST supports which concept?

Accepted Answer

Task cohesion can sustain performance even when social cohesion is low

Answer

Task cohesion (shared commitment to the team's goals) can maintain high performance even when social bonds are weaker, as research on virtual teams demonstrates.

Question 2

When an employee avoids speaking up about a problem because no one else seems concerned, this phenomenon is BEST explained by:

Accepted Answer

Diffusion of responsibility and pluralistic ignorance

Answer

Pluralistic ignorance occurs when individuals privately doubt but assume others' silence indicates everything is fine, leading to collective inaction despite shared private concern.

Question 3

Goal-setting theory predicts that performance is HIGHEST when goals are:

Accepted Answer

Specific and difficult, with commitment from the employee

Answer

Locke and Latham's goal-setting theory shows that specific, challenging goals (with employee commitment) produce the highest levels of performance.

Question 4

An I-O psychologist conducts an organizational diagnosis and finds high voluntary turnover concentrated in one department. The MOST appropriate first analytic step is:

Accepted Answer

Analyze whether turnover is random or patterned by tenure, role, or demographics

Answer

Identifying patterns in who is leaving (by tenure, role, demographic) helps pinpoint root causes before intervening, ensuring diagnosis precedes prescription.

Question 5

The concept of 'psychological contract breach' refers to:

Accepted Answer

An employee's perception that the organization failed to fulfill its implicit obligations

Answer

Psychological contract breach occurs when an employee perceives that the organization has failed to fulfill the unwritten, implied mutual obligations of the employment relationship.

(SIOP) Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Certification Practice Test

(SIOP) Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Certification Practice Test

SIOP Organizational Behavior & Performance 5