Question 1

Which of these is a distributional error in performance appraisal?

Accepted Answer

A) inaccuracy 
B) central tendency 
C) implicit prototypes 
D) halo

Question 2

If Kirsty wants to receive a high evaluation from her supervisor, which of these actions might she take, according to research on LMX?

Accepted Answer

A) She should work to develop a good relationship with her supervisor and also communicate with her supervisor frequently. 
B) She should work to develop a good relationship with her supervisor but should avoid communicating with her supervisor. 
C) She should focus primarily on improving her contextual performance. 
D) She should focus primarily on improving her maximal performance.

Question 3

Which of these is a significant purpose of performance appraisal?

Accepted Answer

A) documenting an employee's satisfaction levels 
B) substantiating a decision about whether to give an employee a raise 
C) identifying disgruntled employees who feel they deserve a pay increase 
D) identifying an employee's interest in a training program

Question 4

Recent research on feedback environment and feedback orientation suggests that having a favorable feedback environment is:

Accepted Answer

A) helpful for all employees. 
B) helpful only if an employee doesn't value feedback. 
C) helpful only if an employee values feedback. 
D) never helpful for employees.

Question 5

Performance appraisal can be used to make important personnel decisions, such as:

Accepted Answer

A) which employees need more motivation. 
B) when an employee can be fired. 
C) which employees feel satisfied. 
D) which employees are stressed.

Question 6

A performance management system typically includes:

Accepted Answer

A) critical incidents. 
B) objective goal setting. 
C) subjective goal setting. 
D) organizational-profit forecasting.

Question 7

Which statement about performance appraisal research is true?

Accepted Answer

A) Paired comparisons are clearly superior to other rating format types. 
B) Employee comparison methods are clearly superior to other rating format types. 
C) Companies most often use checklists as their preferred rating format. 
D) Companies most often use a hybrid of a graphic rating scale and a BARS.

Question 8

The systematic review and evaluation of job performance is known as:

Accepted Answer

A) job evaluation. 
B) performance appraisal. 
C) critical evaluation. 
D) content appraisal.

Question 9

If ratings do not adequately discriminate between effective and ineffective performers:

Accepted Answer

A) there is a higher likelihood of adverse impact in the workplace. 
B) there will be a lower chance of range restriction. 
C) they will not be useful for making personnel decisions. 
D) employees will experience higher morale.

Question 10

Using a job analysis for performance appraisal is important because it:

Accepted Answer

A) allows us to fire or demote an employee more quickly. 
B) ensures that we are measuring criteria that are actually relevant to the job. 
C) allows the organization to forecast how many employees it will need to promote within the next few years. 
D) ensures that we are evaluating employees on subjective, rather than objective, job performance.

Question 11

Monique works in the HR department of an organization. She needs to implement a performance appraisal format that is easily developed and then easily used by an organization. Monique should use:

Accepted Answer

A) behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS). 
B) employee comparison procedures. 
C) critical incidents. 
D) checklists.

Question 12

Which of these is a step in the creation of a BARS scale?

Accepted Answer

A) re-sorting incidents into dimensions 
B) counting how many critical incidents fit into each dimension 
C) surveying applicants to see if they like the scale 
D) rating the social desirability of each item

Question 13

The situation of employees working from home or some other location is known as:

Accepted Answer

A) e-work. 
B) virtual work. 
C) telework. 
D) remote work.

Question 14

An I/O psychologist is hired by an organization that is planning to implement a 360-degree feedback system. Which of these should he or she recommend?

Accepted Answer

A) withholding information about how the ratings will be used 
B) being honest and letting employees know how the ratings will be used 
C) letting employees interpret survey results on their own 
D) presenting as much information about performance as possible

Question 15

Usually, Casey is very friendly with customers. Last week, however, she had a bad day, and lost her temper with a customer in front of her supervisor. If her supervisor rates her poorly on customer service, that supervisor may be making which type of error?

Accepted Answer

A) leniency 
B) severity 
C) recency 
D) primacy

Question 16

The primary disadvantages of which performance appraisal format are its lack of precision in its dimensions and its anchors?

Accepted Answer

A) employee comparison procedures 
B) checklists 
C) behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) 
D) graphic rating scales

Question 17

Research suggests that _____ is a key predictor of positive reactions to a performance appraisal system.

Accepted Answer

A) age 
B) leniency 
C) participation 
D) tenure

Question 18

When helping to develop behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS), a bank teller writes that an example of low effectiveness would be giving a customer the wrong amount of cash during a transaction. The bank teller is giving a:

Accepted Answer

A) distribution error. 
B) retranslation. 
C) critical incident. 
D) graphic account.

Question 19

Fatima, a supervisor, rarely gets to see her employees interacting with customers, and as a result has a hard time rating them on this dimension of performance. Fatima has had difficulty in the cognitive processing stage known as:

Accepted Answer

A) observation. 
B) encoding. 
C) integration. 
D) retrieval.

Question 20

Aziz is a very low-skill manager. He thinks he is actually quite a good manager. According to the Dunning-Kruger effect, what is the MOST LIKELY response Aziz will have when he receives feedback about his lack of management skills?

Accepted Answer

A) He will be embarrassed by this feedback, and will be motivated to improve. 
B) He will not be interested in this feedback, and will not work on improving. 
C) He will recognize that his evaluations have been wrong, and will ask for additional training. 
D) He will be motivated to improve, but will be unlikely to be able to change his performance.

Exam 5: Performance Appraisal