Free Practice Questions for WGU Principles-of-Management Exam

A clear and concise statement of the basic purpose of an organization is its mission. A mission statement provides a broad description of how the organization intends to achieve its vision. It specifies the organization's reason for being and answers the question, "What business(es) should we undertake?"​​.

In the textbook "Principles of Management," a mission statement is defined as a broad description of how a firm will try to make its vision a reality, often describing the products and services the company plans to offer and the customers it plans to serve​​. This differentiates it from a vision statement, which is more general and focuses on what the business aspires to become in the future.

The type of cross-cultural communication barrier experienced by the executive who did not understand the meaning of "lift" is a barrier caused by semantics. Semantics barriers arise from differences in the meaning of words and phrases used in different cultures or regions. In this case, "lift" is a British English term for what is known as an "elevator" in American English, leading to confusion​​.

A feature of a bureaucracy (vertical) organization is that formal position authority is generally the primary means of running the organization. This means that decisions and directives come from a hierarchical chain of command, and roles, responsibilities, and processes are clearly defined and standardized.

Formal Position Authority(Answer B): Bureaucratic organizations rely on a clear hierarchy where authority and decision-making processes are well-defined and based on formal positions​​.

Decentralized Decision Making(Answer A),Collaboration Across Departments(Answer C), andAnswering to Multiple Bosses(Answer D): These features are more characteristic of organic or matrix organizations rather than traditional bureaucracies.

When a company does something especially well in comparison to its competitors, this is evident through its core capabilities. Core capabilities refer to a firm's resources and skills that are fundamental to its business and competitive advantage. These capabilities enable the firm to differentiate itself from competitors, achieve better performance, and maintain a strong market position​​.