WGU Organizational-Behavior - WGU Organizational Behavior (GTO1, C715)

In Organizational Behavior, a critical distinction is made between a "work group" and a "work team". A work group is a collection of individuals who interact primarily to share information and make decisions to help each member perform within his or her area of responsibility. In a work group, there is no particular need or opportunity for collective work that requires joint effort; therefore, their performance is merely the summation of each group member’s individual contribution.

A work team, however, is a group whose individual efforts result in performance that is greater than the sum of those individual inputs. The fundamental goal of a work team iscollective performance. While work groups focus on individual accountability and sharing information to assist individual tasks, work teams focus on mutual accountability and synergy. This synergy allows the team to achieve a level of output that exceeds what the members could accomplish alone. For a team to be effective, it requires a mix of complementary skills—technical, problem-solving, and interpersonal—directed toward a common purpose and specific performance goals. Managers transition from groups to teams when the task at hand is complex enough that it requires the coordinated, collective effort of multiple people rather than just a series of independent tasks. Therefore, the shift from "sharing information" (group) to "collective performance" (team) represents a significant increase in the interdependence of the members.

In the study of Organizational Behavior, the "nature vs. nurture" debate examines how much of an individual's personality is inherited (heredity) versus influenced by their surroundings (environment). While heredity sets the outer parameters or "potential" of an individual's personality, environmental factors—such as culture, family, and social groups—dictate how that potential is realized or constrained. This specific individual exhibits traits like competitiveness and independence, which are often reinforced by a business environment that rewards such behaviors.

However, personality is not a static result of environment alone (refuting option A and D), nor is the environment irrelevant to personality development (refuting option C). Instead, the interactionist perspective suggests that behavior is a function of the person and their environment. The "potential" of a person's personality traits is often activated or suppressed by environmental demands. For example, a person with a natural inclination for leadership may only see that trait flourish if the environment provides opportunities and requirements for leadership. Consequently, the individual’s success is a result of how effectively they adjust their internal traits to meet external environmental requirements. This adjustment process is a key component of "person-environment fit," where high levels of fit lead to better performance and job satisfaction.