Organizational Psychology Flashcards
One of the questions included in a survey asks employees to rate the degree to which the processes used by the company to make decisions about employee raises, bonuses, and promotions are fair. This question assesses employees’ perceptions about which of the following?
A. distributive justice
B. procedural justice
C. normative justice
D. interactional justice
Answer B is correct. A distinction is made between three types of organizational justice: distributive, procedural, and interactional. Procedural justice refers to the fairness of the procedures and processes used to determine outcomes.
The Position Analysis Questionnaire is:
A. a structured questionnaire that provides the information needed to compare worker activities for different jobs.
B. a structured questionnaire that provides the information needed to identify worker behaviors associated with very successful and very unsuccessful performance for a particular job.
C. an open-ended questionnaire that provides the information needed to compare worker activities for different jobs.
D. an open-ended questionnaire that provides the information needed to identify worker behaviors associated with very successful and very unsuccessful performance for a particular job.
Answer A is correct. The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) is a structured worker-oriented job analysis questionnaire that addresses six categories of work activity: information input, mental processes, work output, relationships with other people, job context, and other characteristics. Because these activities are general, the PAQ can be used for a variety of jobs, and it allows an employer to compare activities across different jobs.
According to Janis (1982) groupthink is least likely to occur when the group leader:
A. offers his/her opinion about the best solution to the problem at the beginning of the group meeting.
B. encourages each group member to express his/her opinion during group meetings.
C. fosters and supports a high degree of group cohesiveness when the group is first formed.
D. assigns the role of facilitator to the most experienced group member.
Answer B is correct. Janis proposes that group leaders can reduce the risk for groupthink by remaining neutral in the beginning of a discussion, encouraging members to express their opinions, appointing a member to play devil’s advocate, and bringing in outside opinions.
An essential focus of total quality management (TQM) is on:
A. employee involvement.
B. leadership effectiveness.
C. return on investment.
D. organizational structure.
Answer A is correct. The primary emphases of TQM are continuous improvement, total employee involvement, customer satisfaction, and data-driven decision-making.
The main goal of frame-of-reference training is to:
A. train raters how to develop and evaluate employee performance measures.
B. train raters how to use a new rating scale to rate employee performance.
C. help raters identify rater biases and errors that affect their employee performance ratings.
D. help raters distinguish between different levels of employee performance.
Answer D is correct. As its name suggests, frame-of-reference (FOR) training is used to help raters adopt a common frame of reference when rating employee performance. This involves ensuring that trainees understand the multidimensional nature of job performance and can distinguish between different levels of performance. Frame-of-reference training has been found to be more effective than training that focuses on rater biases.
As described by Simon (1957) managers often “satisfice” rather than “optimize” or “maximize” due to:
A. skepticism about the abilities of subordinates.
B. a desire to avoid challenging the status quo.
C. time constraints and limited cognitive abilities.
D. an unwillingness to compromise.
Answer C is correct.
Simon’s bounded rationality model proposes that rational decision-making is limited by time restrictions, insufficient information, and the cognitive limitations of the decision maker. As a result, decision makers often satisfice – i.e., consider alternatives only until a “good enough” alternative is found rather than identify and consider all possible alternatives before choosing one.
To determine if “test unfairness” is the reason why a selection test is having an adverse impact on older job applicants, you would:
A. compare the validity coefficients of the test for older and younger workers in the validation sample.
B. compare the selection test and job performance scores obtained by older and younger workers in the validation sample.
C. determine if the job performance scores obtained by older workers in the validation sample were affected by criterion contamination.
D. determine if the selection test scores obtained by older and younger workers in the validation sample were affected by rater biases.
Answer B is correct. As defined by the EEOC, “test unfairness” occurs when members of one group consistently obtain lower scores on a selection test or other employment procedure but the score difference is not reflected in differences in scores obtained by different groups on a measure of job performance.
Marcia’s (1966) identity development model identifies four identity statuses that differ with regard to:
A. ego identity and strength.
B. crisis and maturity.
C. knowledge and ability.
D. crisis and choice.
Answer D is correct.
Marcia identified four identity statuses (diffusion, moratorium, foreclosure, and achievement) that describe identity development in adolescence, with a person’s status being determined by whether or not the person has experienced an identity crisis and made choices with regard to his/her identity (e.g., has chosen a career).
Which of the following is most useful for identifying the behavioral anchors that are incorporated into behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS)?
A. needs analysis
B. organizational analysis
C. paired comparison technique
D. critical incident technique
Answer D is correct. Knowing that behavioral anchors are descriptions of specific job behaviors that represent good, average, and poor performance would have helped you identify the critical incident technique as being most useful for developing BARS. Note that, while the critical incident technique is ordinarily used to identify extreme behaviors (i.e., very successful and very unsuccessful behaviors), the terms “critical incident” and “critical incident technique” are sometimes used more generally to refer to descriptions of specific job-related behaviors.
According to Kirkpatrick’s (1998) evaluation model, ___________ criteria provide the least valuable information about the effects of a training program.
A. results
B. behavior
C. reaction
D. learning
Answer C is correct.
Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model distinguishes between four levels of training program evaluation that can be arranged in order from least to most informative: reaction criteria, learning criteria, behavior criteria, and results criteria.
Overlearning is most useful for:
A. skills and knowledge that will be used frequently on-the-job.
B. skills and knowledge that will be used infrequently on-the-job.
C. teaching tasks that can be divided into subtasks.
D. teaching tasks that must be completed in a particular sequence.
Answer B is correct. Overlearning refers to learning or practicing beyond the point of mastery and results in automaticity, which occurs when information is recalled or a behavior is performed with little conscious effort or awareness. Automaticity is especially important for tasks that are performed relatively infrequently and when correct performance is essential because errors can have serious negative consequences.
The predictions made by McGregor (1960) about Theory X and Theory Y managers is most consistent with which of the following?
A. self-fulfilling prophecy effect
B. Hawthorne effect
C. self-serving bias
D. ultimate attribution error
Answer A is correct.
According to McGregor, a supervisor’s beliefs about subordinates’ work-related attitudes and behaviors determine how the supervisor acts toward subordinates which, in turn, affects how subordinates behave. In other words, the supervisor’s beliefs about subordinates have a self-fulfilling prophecy effect on their job performance.
