Midcourse Exam Flashcards
The senior human resource officer in an organization is typically
an HR Generalist.
When HR managers are called upon to guide an organizational development intervention, they filling the role of
change agent.
Being a successful human resource generalist requires
a broad comprehensive knowledge of all human resource functions.
A company generally needs a separate staff position to handle HR functions when it reaches what size?
100 Employees
Which of the following is not typically considered an HR function?
Line management
What is a company’s legal responsibility regarding policy manuals and employee handbooks?
The company has an obligation to follow their written policies.
Which of the following statements is NOT true regarding employee handbooks?
An employee handbook should include a statement indicating that it is a legal binding document.
When the human resource department conducts employee orientation training for new employees, it is filling its
service role.
Which of the following is the best advice for companies regarding employees’ personal blogs?
Employers should read and respond to their employees’ personal blogs regarding work-place issues.
Staffing involves which three major activities?
HR planning, recruiting, and selection
If an organization was experiencing a short-term labor surplus, which of the following would be the BEST method for reducing the size of the workforce?
Reduced hours
Which of the following most accurately describes the relationship between business planning and HR planning?
Business plans and HR plans should be developed simultaneously.
A forecasting method that uses turnover and transfer data from a previous period to predict future movement is called
Markov analysis
In a turnover analysis, HR managers should be MOST concerned about turnover caused by
discharge or layoffs.
Human resource plans are MOST useful when they identify the anticipated employment needs for
job categories of jobs with similar skill, responsibility, and education.
The long-range forecasting method that is based on an aggregate of the estimates of each division manager is called
unit demand.
An essential step in implementing a new HRIS is
parallel testing to detect inconsistencies in the installation of the new system.
A short-term forecasting method called work-load analysis consists of
using rations of output per employee hour to know how many employees will be needed.
What is the BEST response to the criticism that highly unstable environments produce uncertain forecasts?
Uncertain forecasts are still useful since they identify the variables that influence the forecasts and more accurate estimates can be made as the time frame becomes shorter.
The chief advantage of employee leasing is that it
relieves the company of the burden of administering HR services and record keeping.
Which of the following is the most important consideration in evaluating the effectiveness of a recruitment program?
Yield ratio
The three major elements of a job description include identification, job summary, and
Duties and responsibilities.
The concept that describes what a company has to offer relative to what is offered by other places of employment is
employment value proposition.
Which of the following statements BEST describes how private employment agencies operate?
The fees may be charged to either the employer or the employee.
True or False: The EEOC guidelines require employers to prepare written job descriptions of the essential functions of each job.
FALSE
The greatest disadvantage of relying on observations when conducting a job analysis is
Many vital job functions are not visible on some jobs.
A policy of promoting people from within the company does all but which of the following?
Contributes greater insight and fresh ideas
Employee requisitions are normally prepared by
supervisors, who see that they need more people to fill their human resource needs.
The problem of nepotism in recruiting refers to
showing favoritism by hiring friends or family members of present employees.
A yield ratio of 12:1 for recruiting college engineering graduates means that
to replace five retiring engineers will require 60 job interviews with graduating engineering students.
What happens when a hiring specialist makes a false positive error in making a selection decision?
An applicant is hired who will not be successful.
The BEST predictor of how people will perform in the future is
how they have performed in the past.
A chart showing the probability that an individual will be a successful performer given different scores on a test is called
an individual expectancy chart.
A reliable selection procedure is one that
produces a repeatable result.
According to the EEOC guidelines, which would be a legal and appropriate hiring question?
Do you have a legal right to work in this country?
The EEOC recommends that employers use Criterion-related validity studies which refer to
predictive and concurrent validity.
To avoid charges of negligent hiring, employers should
carefully check an applicant’s employment background and criminal record.
The type of interview that requires the LEAST amount of training for effective use is the
structured interview.
Which of the following has shown to be the MOST effective method of managerial selection?
assessment center.
The employment interview is
one of the least valid and least reliable commonly used selection procedures.
Under USERRA, an employer is exempt from the requirement to re-employ an individual returning after uniformed service under all EXCEPT the following circumstance
Employee was injured during service and can no longer perform duties
Executive Order 11246, or Order Number 4, created ______ to monitor compliance with the anti-discrimination provisions of the order.
OFCCP
Which of these is NOT a protected classification in Title VII?
Age
Which of the following is a legal question under the Americans with Disabilities act?
Do you currently use any illegal drugs?
Workers are protected against age discrimination after they reach age
40
Which of these characteristics does not qualify as a bona fide occupational qualification?
Race
Which of the following, by itself, would satisfy the verification requirement for an I9 form?
a U.S. Passport
If a recruitment selection procedure tends to significantly reduce the number of minorities or females who are accepted for employment, the procedure
is said to have a disparate impact.
A selection procedure is said to violate the four-fifths rule if
the selection rate for a protected class is less than four-fifths of the rate of the group with the highest selection rate.
If an employee requests time off for a special religious holiday, the employer should
Grant it if it does not interfere with the operations of the business.
The BEST reason for presenting a training program is because
it contributes to the organization’s goals and objectives.
From which of the following training techniques would you expect to have the highest transfer of training?
Apprenticeships
Which explanation for forgetting suggests that new learning interferes with the retention of old learning?
Retroactive inhibition
According to the systems model of training, criteria for evaluating a training program should be developed
After the training objectives have been established but before the training method is selected.
Trainees typically learn better if a training program involves
distributed practice.
The process of combining a series of stimulus response associations into a complex response pattern is called
chaining.
The BEST method for conducting a training needs analysis when data needs to be obtained from a large number of employees is
questionnaires.
Difficult tasks that are hard to comprehend usually produce what sort of learning curve?
Positively accelerating
Memorizing the Declaration of Independence would involve which type of learning?
Rote learning
The MAJOR difference between training and education is that
training narrows the range of responses while education broadens the range.
A major benefit of off-the-job training is that
job-related distractions are minimized.
Which training method has limited usefulness because it does not provide for active participation of the learners, and there is no practice, no feedback, no knowledge of results, and limited transfer of training?
Lecture
The practice of pausing a role-play episode and asking participants to critique what is happening is called
freeze framing.
Where does vestibule training take place?
at a separate location such as a training center.
An arrangement where students work for a company for a period of time as part of their educational experience is called
an internship.
An important advantage of on-the-job training is that it
provides immediate transfer of training.
Complete the following statement with the BEST example of a good behavioral objective. After training, you should:
be able to describe the procedure for ordering supplies.
What are the normal effects of job rotation on training?
It improves training by providing a broader perspective of the company and new job skills.
The training technique that applies the principles of operant conditioning is
programmed instruction.
The two major processes that contribute to value internalization are:
induction and modeling.
Which of the following illustrates using results as a criteria for evaluating a supervisory training program?
measures of turnover, productivity improvement, and grievances in each supervisor’s department.
Upon completing a three-day seminar, supervisors were asked to evaluate whether they felt the training was useful, whether they learned from it, and whether they thought it would have a positive impact on the organization. Which type of criteria are the evaluators using?
Reactions.
Of the following, which research design is a quasi-experimental design?
time-series design.
Which of the following is an example of the Hawthorn Effect?
Employees work faster because they know that researchers are watching them.
Tests would most likely be used for evaluating the results of training program when which criterion is utilized?
Learning.
What is the major shortcoming of the case study experimental design?
It provides no measure with which to compare performance.
Internal referencing strategy improves the usefulness of the pretest-posttest design by including both relevant and irrelevant questions.
including both relevant and irrelevant questions.
Which of the following is the BEST research design for evaluating a training program?
Solomon four-group design.
Which of the following is the BEST example of an unobtrusive measure?
Evaluators analyze six months’ worth of performance data.
Which of the following research designs is MOST susceptible to sensitizing effects of the pretest?
pretest-posttest comparison.
During the establishment career stage, employees strive to
create a permanent position within their chosen occupation.
Which statement in an orientation session would MOST LIKELY help a new employee be an outstanding performer?
“We have high expectations that you’ll be an outstanding employee.”
Technical knowledge and an understanding of the rules and procedures for getting work done is especially important for
supervisors.
Which of the following is NOT typically a result of under-socialization?
Dogmatic thinking.
A dual-career ladder refers to what?
An employee pursues both a managerial career track and a technical career track.
A training program that focuses on changing a manager’s assumptions about the value of openness and feedback and making the manager’s behavior congruent with how they think they behave is known as
double-loop learning.
The “mommy track” is defined as
A career path for women who are willing to sacrifice promotions for flexible jobs with less travel so they can be more involved in raising their children.
When new employees expect a company to have a warm, nurturing workplace, but find that they are expected to function in a combative, highly competitive environment, they often experience
reality shock.
The main reason many expatriate managers fail in their overseas assignments is that
the managers and their families fail to adjust to a different culture.
In the role transition process of organizational socialization, separation refers to
psychologically abandoning a former role.
For peer evaluations to occur successfully, peers must be able to observe each others’ performance, and there must be
high levels of trust.
The factors on which an employee is evaluated is called
The criteria of performance.
In selecting the appropriate criteria for performance evaluation, freedom from contamination refers to
eliminating the effects of extraneous factors that are beyond the control of the employee.
Which of the following procedures is least subject to the problems of central tendency and leniency-strictness?
ranking.
When developing a graphic rating scale, the best method for selecting the appropriate characteristic is
the critical incidents method.
When two evaluators observing the same behavior give different ratings, it is an example of
low inter-rater reliability.
The major difference between a behaviorally-anchored rating scale and a behavioral observation scale is that
with BOS, the evaluator simply records the frequency of the behavior without evaluating it.
When an organization does not have a formal evaluation program, what is likely to occur?
Informal evaluations will continue to occur.
When on characteristic about a person–positive or negative–strongly influences all other attitudes about the person, this is called the
halo/horn effect.
Using the paired comparison procedures is a method of
ranking.
