I_O Psychology 1

Question 1

What are the three areas on which job analysis focuses?

Answer 1

Job-oriented factors, worker-oriented factors, or a combination of the two.

Question 2

What is included in job-oriented factors?

Answer 2

Task requirements of a job (e.g., lifting repairing, installing).

Question 3

What is included in worker-oriented factors?

Answer 3

Knowledge, skill, ability, and personal characteristics required of a job (high school education, manual dexterity, 20/20 vision).

Question 4

What are some methods of job analysis?

Answer 4

Interviews, questionnaires, direct observation, worker diaries.

Question 5

What is performance evaluation?

Answer 5

Evaluation of an employee’s job performance. Aka performance appraisal or merit rating.

Question 6

What are criterion measures in performance evaluation?

Answer 6

Measures used to evaluate employee job performance.

Question 7

What are the two types of criterion measures in performance evaluation?

Answer 7

Objective and subjective.

Question 8

What are objective criterion measures in performance evaluation?

Answer 8

Direct, quantitative measures, such as # units sold, percentage of cases won, salary, work days missed. Limited by situational factors and may not be useful for evaluating complex jobs.

Question 9

What are subjective criterion measures in performance evaluation?

Answer 9

Those that rely on a rater, e.g., for assessment of motivation, supervision skills, problem solving skills, effectiveness with others. Subject to rater’s skills and bias.

Question 10

What are “360-degree” performance measures?

Answer 10

Those that incorporate ratings from multiple raters, including peers, subordinates, and customers, as well as supervisors.

Question 11

Name five subjective rating techniques.

Answer 11

• personnel comparison systems
• critical incidents
• behaviorally anchored rating scales
• behavioral observation scales
• force choice checklists

Question 12

What are personnel comparison systems (PCS) in performance evaluation?

Answer 12

Comparing an employee to other employees. Can be rank-order, paired, or forced-distribution. Rank-order is self-explanatory. Paired compares one employee to all others. Forced-distribution places each employee in a predetermined distribution, e.g., top 10%, next 25%, middle 30%, etc.

Question 13

What is an advantage of personnel comparison systems?

Answer 13

They can reduce some types of rater bias, e.g., central tendency, leniency, and strictness.

Question 14

What are critical incidents approaches to performance evaluation?

Answer 14

Critical incidents (CIs) are descriptions of specific job behaviors associated with very good or very poor performance. Generally identified by supervisors observing employees CIs can behaviorally anchor Likert-type scales.

Question 15

What are behaviorally anchored rating scales in performance evaluation?

Answer 15

Rating scales divided into several dimensions of job performance with critical incidents tied to individual points on a Likert-type scale, e.g., 7 “is very supportive if patient is stressed”; 1 “is often late to begin sessions with patients”; etc.

Question 16

What are some pros and cons of behaviorally anchored rating scales?

Answer 16

Because they are usually constructed collaboratively among supervisors and employees, they tend to produce useful feedback for ratees and reduce bias among raters. However, they are also time-consuming to construct and tend to be specific to the job and company for which they are developed.

Question 17

What are behavioral-observation scales in performance evaluation?

Answer 17

Similar to behaviorally anchored scales, but employees are rated on frequency of critical incident performance.

Question 18

What are forced-choice checklists in performance evaluation?

Answer 18

Items in these checklists are grouped so that their social desirability and ability to distinguish between successful and unsuccessful performance are similar. Designed to reduce rater bias.

Question 19

Name five types of performance evaluation rater bias.

Answer 19

Halo effect, central tendency, leniency, strictness, contrast effect.

Question 20

What is the halo effect?

Answer 20

Tendency to judge all aspects of an individual’s behavior based on a single characteristic, whether positive or negative.

Question 21

What are the central tendency, leniency, and strictness biases?

Answer 21

Central tendency: giving average ratings to all ratees. Leniency: giving positive ratings to all ratees. Strictness: giving negative ratings to all ratees.

Question 22

What is the contrast effect?

Answer 22

Tendency to rate persons in comparison to other ratees, e.g., after giving several poor ratings, giving the next ratee inaccurately high ratings.

Question 23

What is frame-of-reference training in performance evaluation?

Answer 23

Rater training that focuses on recognizing the multidimensional nature of job performance and conceptual consistency among raters.

Question 24

What is the acronym “KSAPs” refer to?

Answer 24

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Personal characteristics required for a given job.

Question 25

Name 9 common approaches to personnel selection.

Answer 25

• general mental ability tests (aka, cognitive ability, general intelligence)
• job knowledge tests
• work samples
• interviews
• biographical information (aka, biodata)
• assessment centers
• personality tests
• interest tests
• integrity tests

Question 26

Discuss key factors in using general mental ability tests in employee selection.

Answer 26

Probably most valid predictors of job performance across jobs and settings, increasing as complexity increases. Validity coefficients range from .51 predicting performance ratings to .75 predicting work sample performance.

Question 27

Discuss key factors in using job knowledge tests in employee selection.

Answer 27

Has good validity (~.62 in one meta-analysis); increases with job complexity and job:test similarity.

Question 28

Discuss key factors in using work samples in employee selection.

Answer 28

Good predictors of job performance, r ~ .33. Motor skills samples may be more valid than verbal skill samples. Less likely than other methods to unfairly discriminate. Can be part of a realistic job preview.

Question 29

Discuss key factors in using interviews in employee selection.

Answer 29

Most commonly used technique, but only moderately predictive, .37. Validity depends upon content, criterion, interview method, with structured board interviews using consensus ratings being highest.

Question 30

Discuss key factors in using biographical information in employee selection.

Answer 30

Can be highly predictive of job performance if data chosen have been empirically validated for a particular job, comparable to cognitive ability. Can also be useful for predicting turnover, with equal validity across race/ethnicity. Items can lack face validity.

Question 31

Discuss key factors in using assessment centers in employee selection.

Answer 31

Usually conducted in groups, include multiple methods of assessment, and examinees are rated on all dimensions. Typically high validity, but subject to criterion contamination, and can be expensive to develop and administer.

Question 32

What is criterion contamination?

Answer 32

A rater’s knowledge of an examinee’s performance on a selection instrument affects rater’s evaluation of examinee on the job.

Question 33

Discuss key factors in using personality tests in employee selection.

Answer 33

Big-Five tests indicate that conscientiousness is a good predictor of general job and training performance. Some traits are more predictive of specific jobs.

Question 34

Compare the advantages of personality testing vs. cognitive testing in job performance.

Answer 34

Personality testing may be more valid in predicting contextual performance, e.g., behaviors that contribute to working environment, while cognitive testing may be more predictive of task performance.

Question 35

Discuss key factors in using interest tests in employee selection.

Answer 35

Low validity for job success, but useful in predicting job satisfaction, persistence, and choice.

Question 36

What is the purpose of integrity tests in employee selection?

Answer 36

Used to select employees with reduced probability of counterproductive job behaviors (sabotage, theft, substance use, etc.)