MAN4320 - Ch. 8

A statement that identifies the rights than an employer wishes to maintain for itself that often accompanies initial employment assessments is called a ____.

B. disclaimer

Within the context of the selection process, the "logic of prediction" means that:

B. indicators of a person's degree of success in past situations should be predictive of future job success

The highest estimate of validity coefficients of unweighted applicant banks as predictors of job performance are _________.

C. .20.

Which of the following methods is the most valid predictor of performance?

C. Biodata

Which of the following is true regarding genetic screening?

C. It helps to screen out people who are susceptible to certain diseases.

Which of the following is true regarding pre-employment inquiries (PI)?

C. It is critical for employers to understand the laws and regulations regarding PIs.

The most accurate description of the basic purpose of a selection plan is ______________.

C. a selection plan describes predictors to be used to assess KSAOs required to perform the job

Employers protect themselves in the initial stages of contact with job applicants through the use of _______.

C. disclaimers

The most common person to be contacted in a reference check is the applicant's __________.

C. former supervisor

Which of the following is(are) initial assessment methods?

D. All of the above (A. Résumés and cover letters, B. Application blanks, C. Biographical information)

Which of the following is a typical justification of a BFOQ involving sex that employers use?

D. All of the above are potential justifications. (A. One sex has an inability to perform the work, B. Personal contact with others requires same sex.,C. Customers have a preference for dealing with one sex.)

The principal assumption behind the use of biodata is the axiom, ________.

D. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior

The information collected for an accomplishments record includes ______.

D. all of the above (A. a written statement of the accomplishment, B. when the accomplishment took place, C. any recognition for the accomplishment)

Which of the following are common sources of résumé fraud?

D. all of the above (A. inflated titles, B. inflated education or "purchased" degrees, C. inaccurate dates to cover up job hopping or unemployment)

Background testing is concerned with the __________ of an applicant.

D. all of the above (A. integrity, B. reliability, C. personal adjustments)

Examples of initial assessment methods that have moderate degrees of adverse impact against women and/or minorities include ______.

D. all of the above are correct (A. education level, B. quality of school, C. training and experience)

Biographical information is like application blanks, except _______.

D. biographical data can be more fruitfully used for substantive selection decisions

Letters of recommendation are an excellent way to help organizations separate highly qualified from moderately qualified applicants.

FALSE

Most organizations use only weighted application blanks for initial screening decisions.

FALSE

Occupational certifications are nearly all regulated by the Department of Labor to ensure that they accurately reflect job knowledge.

FALSE

Organizations are increasingly finding that the costs of developing a selection plan outweigh the benefits.

FALSE

Research has found that level of education is moderately related to job performance.

FALSE

Research shows that applicants have a favorable attitude toward biodata inventories.

FALSE

Research suggests that biodata does not provide incremental validity over personality and cognitive ability.

FALSE

Scored evaluations of unweighted application blanks are good predictors of job performance.

FALSE

Surveys suggest that only 3 out of 10 organizations conduct reference checks.

FALSE

The initial interview is the least expensive method of initial assessment.

FALSE

The laws in most states provide employers with little protection if they provide any information in a reference check that might damage an applicant's chances of getting a job.

FALSE

The most common person to be contacted in a reference check is the applicant's former colleagues who worked in the same position.

FALSE

The process of translating the results of a job analysis into actual predictors to be used for selection is known as a discriminant validity study.

FALSE

Video résumés have become a major component of selection in most large organizations.

FALSE

Many organizations are reluctant to give out detailed reference information regarding their former employees because they are afraid of being sued.

TRUE

Most initial assessment methods have moderate to low validity.

TRUE

Occupational certification helps guard against the misuse of job titles in human resource selection.

TRUE

One study that showed there was a stronger correlation between two letters written by one person for two different applicants than between two different people writing letters for the same person.

TRUE

Research on the reliability and validity of biodata has been quite positive.

TRUE

Research suggests that the quality of the school a person graduates from makes a difference in the labor market.

TRUE

Résumé scanning software tends to look for nouns more than action verbs.

TRUE

The Americans with Disabilities Act states that employers may not ask disability-related questions and may not conduct medical examinations until after it makes a conditional job offer to a person.

TRUE

The burden of proof is on employers to defend BFOQ claims.

TRUE

The first step in developing a selection plan is to list relevant KSAOs associated with a job.

TRUE

The logic of prediction indicates that a point-to-point comparison needs to be made between requirements of the job to be filled and the qualifications of the job applicants.

TRUE

The most frequently used methods of initial assessment are education level, training and experience, reference checks, and initial interview.

TRUE

The principal assumption behind the use of biodata in selection processes is the axiom, "the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior."

TRUE

The proportion of organizations that conduct pre-hire background checks to determine if employees have criminal records or inaccurate reporting on résumés, has risen dramatically in recent years.

TRUE

The purpose of the initial interview is to screen out the most obvious cases of person/job mismatches.

TRUE

The validity evidence for weighted application blanks is better than that for unweighted application blanks.

TRUE

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act explicitly permits discrimination on the basis of sex, religion, or national origin if it can be shown to be a bona fide occupational qualification.

TRUE

To protect an employer from charges of unfair discrimination, it is best to only include information related to KSAOs demonstrated as important to the job on an application blank.

TRUE

College grades are more valid predictors of job performance than high school grades.

FALSE

Cost should not be used to guide the choice of initial assessment methods.

FALSE

Genetic screening is becoming a valuable component of many organizations' selection systems.

FALSE

Level of education requirements have little adverse impact against minority applicants.

TRUE

Bona fide occupational qualification claims made on the basis of customer preferences are typically upheld by the courts.

FALSE

Bona fide occupational qualifications are not of relevance to the initial assessment phase.

FALSE

According to ADA, it is not permissible for employers to do which of the following at the pre-offer stage of assessment process?

A. Ask if the applicant has any disabilities.

Which of the following is true regarding biodata and background tests?

A. Background information is obtained through interviews and conversations with references.

Which of the following statements regarding the use of grade point averages as a predictor is true?

A. GPA may be influenced by many factors in addition to the applicant's KSAOs and motivation.

Which of the following statements regarding the development of a selection plan is false?

A. The list of KSAOs used in the selection plan are derived from the job requirements matrix B. The process of developing a selection plan is usually straightforward and can be done quickly, C. One reason KSAOs may be deemed unimportant for selection is because they will be learned on the job D. Possible methods for assessing every identified job-relevant KSAO need to be developed

One guideline for improving the effectiveness of initial interviews is to ____.

A. ask questions which assess the most basic KSAOs

Asking applicants to complete a supplemental application in which they describe their most significant accomplishments relative to a list of job behaviors is known as the _______.

A. behavioral consistency method

Most initial assessment methods have _________ validity.

A. moderate to low

In using educational level as an initial selection criterion, which of the following statements is false?

B. A GED is a high school equivalency degree and is about as good as a conventional high school diploma in predicting job performance.

_________ refers to the possibility that a disproportionate number of protected-class members may be rejected using this predictor.

B. Adverse impact

Which of the following is the law that governs the collection of background check information for employment purposes?

B. Fair Credit Reporting Act

Which of the following statements regarding résumés is true?

B. Most surveys suggest that around half of all résumés have substantial inaccuracies or distortions

One major problem with letters of recommendation is that they _________.

B. are not structured or standardized

An example of an assessment method which has relatively low reliability is ________.

B. initial interviews

Research has indicated that job applicants generally have a __________ view of biodata inventories.

B. negative

One of the major disadvantages of using handwriting analysis as an assessment method is that it is ______.

B. not related to job performance

Which of the following is necessary for the logic of prediction to work in practice for selecting employees?

B. qualifications carry over from one job to another

Research on application blanks has suggested that the most common questions that are misinterpreted include _________.

B. reasons for leaving previous jobs

The issue of consistency of measurement with assessment methods is called ______.

B. reliability

The strength of the relationship between a predictor and performance is called ________.

B. validity

Essay tests are best used to assess ___________ skills.

B. written communication

The problem with using _____ for hiring purposes is that only very poor applicants cannot obtain these, and the format is unstandardized.

C. letters of recommendation

Which of the following is a criterion on which biodata items can be classified?

C. objective vs. subjective

If the correctness of a response is essential for a job, then a(n) ________ test should be used.

C. power

When considering the use of extracurricular activities as a job performance predictor, one should _________.

D. use extracurricular activities when they correlate with KSAOs required by the job

A finalist is someone who has not yet received an offer, but who possesses the minimum qualifications to be considered for further assessment.

FALSE

A power test is used when the speed of work is an important part of the job.

FALSE

Although employers can outsource résumé collection to résumé-tracking services, in practice this type of outsourcing is too inefficient to be worth the cost.

FALSE

Biodata items are generally the same, regardless of the job being staffed.

FALSE

Biodata refers to medical or physiological tests of applicants prior to hiring.

FALSE

Biographical information tends to have low reliability.

FALSE

A major problem with resumes and cover letters is lying.

TRUE

Adverse impact refers to the possibility that a disproportionate number of protect class members may be rejected using a given predictor.

TRUE

Although arrest information may be gathered in the process of doing a background check, it cannot be used in staffing decisions.

TRUE

Biodata is like a background check in many ways, but background checks tend to focus on external references rather than applicant surveys.

TRUE

Contingent methods mean that the job offer is subject to certain qualifications, such as the offer receiver passing a medical exam or a drug test.

TRUE

Disclaimers are used as a means of protecting employer rights.

TRUE

Employers are advised to let applicants know in advance that they reserve the right to not hire, terminate, or discipline prospective employee for providing false information during the selection process.

TRUE

External selection refers to the assessment and evaluation of external job applicants.

TRUE

Failure to conduct a reference check opens an organization to the possibility of a negligent hiring suit.

TRUE

Initial interviews can be made more useful by asking the same questions of all job applicants.

TRUE

It is illegal to use pre-employment inquiry information that has a disparate impact on the basis of a protected characteristic, unless such disparate impact can be shown to be job-related and consistent with business necessity.

TRUE

Job analysis sometimes finds that seemingly unrelated jobs may have more in common than would be expected by relying just on job titles.

TRUE