Try 10 focused APM PMQ questions on People and Behaviours, with answers and explanations, then continue with PM Mastery.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Exam route | APM PMQ |
| Topic area | People and Behaviours |
| Blueprint weight | 30% |
| Page purpose | Focused sample questions before returning to mixed practice |
Use this page to isolate People and Behaviours for APM PMQ. Work through the 10 questions first, then review the explanations and return to mixed practice in PM Mastery.
| Pass | What to do | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| First attempt | Answer without checking the explanation first. | The fact, rule, calculation, or judgment point that controlled your answer. |
| Review | Read the explanation even when you were correct. | Why the best answer is stronger than the closest distractor. |
| Repair | Repeat only missed or uncertain items after a short break. | The pattern behind misses, not the answer letter. |
| Transfer | Return to mixed practice once the topic feels stable. | Whether the same skill holds up when the topic is no longer obvious. |
Blueprint context: 30% of the practice outline. A focused topic score can overstate readiness if you recognize the pattern too quickly, so use it as repair work before timed mixed sets.
These questions are original PM Mastery practice items aligned to this topic area. They are designed for self-assessment and are not official exam questions.
Topic: People and Behaviours
A business-change project is introducing a new operating process. In a review meeting, team members become defensive, operational managers say their concerns are not being heard, and the sponsor worries that commitment is weakening. Which response would best explain the role of emotional intelligence in project leadership in this situation?
Best answer: D
What this tests: People and Behaviours
Explanation: Emotional intelligence supports project leadership by helping leaders recognise and manage emotions in themselves and others. In a tense change situation, that enables better communication, empathy, trust, and collaboration rather than defensiveness or disengagement.
The key role of emotional intelligence in project leadership is to help the leader understand emotional responses, regulate their own behaviour, and respond appropriately to others. In this scenario, the project is facing resistance and weakening commitment, so the issue is not just planning or authority. A leader with emotional intelligence can listen to concerns, show empathy, avoid reacting defensively, and adapt communication to rebuild trust and maintain cooperation.
The closest distractor is the idea of staying detached, but emotional intelligence is not about ignoring emotions; it is about managing them effectively.
This best explains emotional intelligence as managing emotions constructively to sustain trust, collaboration, and commitment during pressure and change.
Topic: People and Behaviours
An experienced cross-functional team on a digital service project says motivation is falling because the project manager assigns every task and overturns minor decisions. Which explanation best differentiates motivating leadership from simple control in this situation? Select ONE.
Best answer: B
What this tests: People and Behaviours
Explanation: Leadership motivates project teams by creating purpose, trust, and empowerment. Here, the team’s disengagement comes from over-control, so the best explanation is the one showing that autonomy and ownership increase commitment for an experienced team.
Leadership impacts team motivation by shaping how people feel about the work, not just what tasks they are told to do. In this scenario, the team is experienced but becoming demotivated because the project manager is micromanaging routine activity and removing local decision-making. A motivating leadership approach would give clear purpose and appropriate autonomy, helping team members feel trusted, involved, and accountable for outcomes.
That combination increases ownership and commitment, which are strong drivers of motivation in project teams. By contrast, centralising decisions may increase control, line authority may increase compliance, and financial incentives may increase short-term effort, but none of these directly address the team’s need for trust and empowerment. The key distinction is that leadership inspires and enables people, whereas simple control mainly directs and checks them.
Motivating leadership works here by creating purpose and autonomy, which restores trust and ownership for an experienced team.
Topic: People and Behaviours
A project manager wants to improve team performance now and build capability for future work. Why are coaching and mentoring leadership styles important?
Best answer: B
What this tests: People and Behaviours
Explanation: Coaching and mentoring leadership styles are important because they help people learn, build confidence, and take more responsibility. In projects, this improves current performance and strengthens longer-term capability across the team.
The core purpose of coaching and mentoring is development. Coaching helps individuals improve performance through support, questioning, feedback, and reflection. Mentoring draws on experience to guide longer-term growth and judgement. In a project environment, these styles matter because they increase capability, confidence, and ownership, which supports better delivery and resilience when work becomes more complex.
They do not remove the need for clear roles, objectives, or feedback, and they are not mainly about centralising control or enforcing governance. Those ideas relate more to directive control or compliance mechanisms than to developmental leadership. The key takeaway is that coaching and mentoring strengthen both present performance and future potential.
Coaching and mentoring are important because they build competence and confidence while encouraging greater ownership of work.
Topic: People and Behaviours
A project manager is leading a hybrid project to launch a customer portal. During system testing, defects are rising, team members wait for routine approvals, and several say they do not raise concerns because priorities change in meetings. Which response would best explain how leadership is impacting team performance?
Best answer: C
What this tests: People and Behaviours
Explanation: Leadership affects team performance through direction, influence, and the environment created for the team. Here, unclear priorities, approval bottlenecks, and reluctance to speak up show that performance is being shaped by leadership behaviours, not just by process control.
In APM terms, leadership is about influencing people to achieve objectives. In this scenario, the team is showing three performance symptoms: unclear direction, low confidence in raising concerns, and dependence on the project manager for routine decisions. Effective leadership improves team performance by setting clear priorities, modelling openness, and empowering people to act within agreed boundaries.
These behaviours improve coordination, motivation, and problem resolution. Tighter reporting may help control, but it does not address the underlying leadership effect on how the team behaves.
It links leadership to clear direction, openness, and empowerment, which directly improve team ownership, collaboration, and problem resolution.
Topic: People and Behaviours
A project manager on a digital service project uses Belbin’s team roles model when a newly formed team is struggling to collaborate. What is the main purpose of using this model?
Best answer: C
What this tests: People and Behaviours
Explanation: Belbin’s model is used to understand how individuals contribute to team working, not to measure technical skill or set governance. It gives the project manager another lens for interpreting team behaviour and improving team development.
Other team models can complement stage-based views of team development by showing different aspects of how a team functions. Belbin’s team roles model focuses on behavioural contributions people tend to make in a team, such as generating ideas, coordinating effort, or checking detail. Used well, it helps a project manager spot imbalances, missing contributions, or overused behaviours that may be affecting collaboration.
This supports practical team development actions, such as clarifying responsibilities, balancing working styles, or adjusting how people work together. It does not set hierarchy, assess formal competence, or predict exactly when a team will move to a later development stage. The key point is that the model is a lens for understanding team dynamics and improving team effectiveness.
Belbin provides a lens on how people tend to contribute in teams, helping the project manager improve team balance and effectiveness.
Topic: People and Behaviours
A project manager openly says only office-based staff will attend requirements workshops because remote workers are “less committed”, even though remote staff hold important user knowledge. Which PMQ concept best matches this influence on project action?
Best answer: A
What this tests: People and Behaviours
Explanation: This is conscious bias because the project manager is aware of the belief and deliberately uses it to decide who may participate. Conscious bias can affect project actions by restricting contribution, reducing fairness, and weakening decision quality.
Conscious bias is a deliberate preference, assumption, or prejudice that a person knowingly applies when making decisions. In projects, it can shape actions such as allocating work, selecting participants, listening to ideas, or deciding who gets development opportunities. Here, the manager openly states a negative belief about remote workers and uses it to exclude them from requirements workshops, despite their relevant knowledge. That creates an inclusion problem and can also damage project outcomes because important perspectives are filtered out before decisions are made. Unconscious bias would be automatic and unintended rather than openly chosen. The key distinction is that the decision-maker knows the assumption and still acts on it.
The manager knowingly applies a stereotype to a project decision, so this is conscious bias affecting who can contribute.
Topic: People and Behaviours
A project manager is updating the communication plan for a digital permitting project.
Exhibit: Stakeholder note
Planning managers: high influence, low availability,
need to discuss process impacts before approving design.
Front-line officers: medium influence,
need rollout updates and training dates.
Regulator: high influence,
requires formal evidence at scheduled assurance points.
Which communication approach is most suitable for the planning managers?
Best answer: A
What this tests: People and Behaviours
Explanation: Planning managers are high-influence stakeholders who need to discuss process impacts before approving design. A short interactive meeting is most suitable because it supports two-way communication and decision-making, not just one-way updates or formal reporting.
Communication management should be tailored to stakeholder influence, information needs and the level of interaction required. In this case, the planning managers are not just being informed; they need to explore process impacts and give approval. That makes a richer, two-way approach appropriate. Short interactive meetings allow questions, challenge, clarification and timely feedback while still respecting their limited availability.
The key distinction is whether the stakeholder needs dialogue or simply information.
Short interactive meetings provide the two-way discussion needed for high-influence stakeholders to test impacts before approving design.
Topic: People and Behaviours
A project manager leading an organisational change project has already improved laptops, workspace, and expense claims. Even so, team members say the work feels routine and unnoticed. Using Herzberg’s model, which TWO actions are most likely to increase motivation? Select TWO.
Correct answers: A, C
What this tests: People and Behaviours
Explanation: Herzberg distinguishes between hygiene factors and motivators. In this scenario, hygiene concerns have largely been addressed, so the stronger leadership response is to increase recognition and responsibility.
Herzberg’s two-factor model says hygiene factors such as working conditions, pay, policies, and supervision help prevent dissatisfaction, but they do not usually create lasting motivation. Here, the project manager has already improved basic conditions, yet the team still feels the work is routine and unnoticed. That points to missing motivators rather than unresolved hygiene factors.
So the best actions are the ones that enrich the work and acknowledge contribution. Improvements to desks, allowances, procedures, or supervision may still be useful, but they mainly maintain acceptable conditions rather than increase motivation.
Extra authority increases responsibility, which Herzberg identifies as a motivator.
Visible recognition is a Herzberg motivator that can increase motivation and commitment.
Topic: People and Behaviours
A project manager is planning a workplace relocation that includes building alterations and staff data transfers. What is the main purpose of seeking health and safety, legal and data protection advice?
Best answer: B
What this tests: People and Behaviours
Explanation: Specialist advice is sought so the project can interpret and apply requirements it may not be competent to judge alone. In areas such as health and safety, legal compliance and data protection, the aim is compliant, professional decision-making.
Seeking specialist advice is a core professionalism and compliance principle. When project work affects areas such as health and safety, legal matters or data protection, the project team may not have enough expertise to interpret all external regulations, internal policies and relevant standards correctly. Using competent specialist advice helps the project make informed decisions and follow the requirements that apply.
The advice supports decision-making by those accountable for the project. It does not hand over accountability, replace governance, or justify bypassing policy because delivery is urgent. A good practical test is whether the decision touches a regulated area or goes beyond the team’s competence; if it does, specialist advice should be used.
The closest distractor is the idea of transferring accountability, but advisers inform decisions rather than own them.
Specialist advisers help interpret requirements beyond the team’s competence so decisions remain compliant and professional.
Topic: People and Behaviours
A project manager is mobilising a refurbishment project in a regulated public building. The work will use night shifts, several subcontractors and access to occupied areas. The sponsor asks which factors in the legal and regulatory landscape are most likely to affect the team’s working conditions. Select TWO options.
Correct answers: B, E
What this tests: People and Behaviours
Explanation: The legal and regulatory landscape affects how project work is carried out, not just what is delivered. In this scenario, it is most clearly reflected in working-time constraints and in the safety, induction and competence controls needed for night work in occupied areas.
Legal and regulatory requirements shape the conditions under which people can work on a project. For a refurbishment project using night shifts, subcontractors and occupied spaces, the strongest effects are on working-time arrangements and on mandatory safety controls. Employment-related rules may limit hours, breaks and fatigue exposure, while health and safety requirements may require inductions, competence checks, safe systems of work and supervision before work can proceed.
A close distractor is the idea that compliance removes the need for engagement, but legal duties still need practical, workable arrangements with the people affected.
Working-time law can directly constrain hours, breaks and roster design for project staff and contractors.
Health and safety regulation can determine the controls, training and competence needed before work starts.
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