OBHR Chapter 8

Research on the use of objectives to measure performance has revealed which of the following? (Select all that apply.)

Commitment to the objectives from top management results in high productivity. Use of objectives usually increases productivity.

Which of the following factors corresponds to the consequences to be considered while analyzing poor performance?

Do work group or team norms encourage employees not to meet performance standards?

Which of the following are questions managers should ask when analyzing poor employee performance? (Select all that apply.)

Does the employee have the required skills and knowledge? Does the employee know what is expected? Does the employee have the necessary resources to succeed?

Which of the following statements about the process of performance management is true?

Effective performance management is a process.

Which of the following statements about continuous performance management is true? (Select all that apply.)

Employees want feedback, transparency, clarity, and responsibility for their work. Managers are responsible for coaching employees.

Which of the following are the first two steps in the performance management process? (Select all that apply.)

Identify the company's goals and objectives. Identify and develop performance measures for key performance dimensions.

What impact does praising effective performance have on an employee?

It adds credibility to the feedback by showing that the manager is not just identifying performance problems. It reinforces positive performance behavior. It provides accurate performance, both positive and negative.

Which of the following statements about the developmental purpose of performance management is true?

It is designed to develop employees and improve performance.

Which of the following best defines performance management?

It is the process managers go through to make sure that employees' activities and outputs are aligned with the organization's goals.

Advantages of the results approach to measuring performance include which of the following? (Select all that apply.)

It links an individual's results with the organization's strategies and goals. Managers and employees are generally accepting of the approach. The approach minimizes subjectivity and provides quantifiable indicators of performance.

Which of the following statements about the behavioral approach to measuring performance are true? (Select all that apply.)

Its results have high validity. It provides specific guidance and feedback for employees.

Which of the following statements about managers as sources of performance information are true? (Select all that apply.)

Managers know about their employees' job requirements. Managers have the ability to rate their employees.

Social performance management, which uses systems like Facebook and Yammer to allow employees to quickly communicate with one another, is particularly valued by which generations? (Select all that apply.)

Millennials Generation Z

Which of the following statements about the results approach to measuring performance is true?

Objective measurements can be contaminated and deficient.

Which of the following statements about peer evaluations is true?

Peer evaluations can be more motivating than managers' evaluations.

Which of the following statements about self-assessments is true?

Self-ratings used for administrative purposes are often inflated. Self-assessments give employees a chance to reflect on their accomplishments and weaknesses.

________ is the extent to which a performance management system elicits job performance that is aligned with an organization's goals and culture.

Strategic congruence

What may happen if a manager personalizes poor performance in an employee? (Select all that apply.)

The employee may get defensive. The employee may fail to listen to the feedback. The employee may not change their performance.

During a feedback session, the manager and the employee determine that the employee's failure to meet a sales goal is the result of lack of product knowledge. What is the next step needed to solve the issue and improve the employee's performance?

The manager and employee work together to develop a product training schedule.

Which of the following is an advantage of the attribute approach?

The methods are easy to develop.

Which of the following statements about self-ratings are true? (Select all that apply.)

The ratings should not be used as the sole source of performance information. Employees tend to inflate their ratings.

Disadvantages of the attribute approach to measuring performance include which of the following? (Select all that apply.)

The validity and reliability of the methods are generally low. Employees evaluated by these methods are generally not accepting of the feedback.

Which of the following are drawbacks of the comparative approach? (Select all that apply.)

The validity and reliability of the ratings are modest at best. The rankings provide little useful information to those being evaluated.

Which of the following are potential conditions under which appraisal politics are more likely to take place? (Select all that apply.)

There is a direct linkage between performance appraisal and highly desirable rewards. Raters are accountable in some way to the person being rated. There are competing goals.

Which of the following statements about approaches to measuring performance is true?

There is no one best approach to measuring performance.

True or false: A large number of companies are moving toward a continuous performance management process that provides conversations between management and employees and focuses on work progress.

True

True or false: Due to the importance of effective performance management systems, many companies and organizations are training managers on how to provide feedback to employees.

True

True or false: Mixed-standard scales were developed as trait-oriented scales.

True

True or false: One of the most important things a manager should avoid when giving negative feedback is to question the employee's worth as a person.

True

True or false: The quality approach uses evaluation of personal traits, such as cooperation, which is difficult to equate to actual job performance unless the organization is team based.

True

Donaldo just went through his performance evaluation. His manager gave him timely and complete feedback about areas needing improvement and training available to help him. Donaldo disagreed with his manager's assessment and decided not to make any changes to his work performance. Donaldo's reaction fits with which criterion of performance measure?

acceptability

When managers look over a list of employees, decide who is best and cross that name off the list, decide who is the worst employee and cross that name off the list, and then repeat the process, this is known as ______ ranking.

alternation

When an evaluator purposefully distorts a rating in order to achieve some company or personal goal, that rater is engaging in ______.

appraisal politics

The likely reason many managers doubt the effectiveness of performance appraisal systems is that ______.

appraisal systems are rarely modified

Which of the following is the best use of self-ratings?

as a way for the employee to prepare for a performance feedback session

Before a performance management system is implemented, an organization must first decide whom to use ______.

as the source of the performance measures

An approach to performance management that involves focusing on certain traits or characteristics possessed by individuals that are thought to be related to the company's success is known as the ______ approach.

attribute

Though paired comparison can offer managers with important insight, it can also ______.

be time-consuming

Which of the following is similar to behaviorally anchored rating scales except that it involves the manager rating the frequency that employees exhibited each behavior during the rating period?

behavioral observation scale

Managers who attempt to define which behaviors employees have to exhibit in order to effectively complete their job are using the ______ approach to performance management.

behavioral or BARS

Effective performance evaluations systems should measure ______. (Select all that apply.)

behaviors objectives

The acceptability of a performance measure is determined, in part, by the extent to which the employees ______.

believe the performance management system is fair

Though behaviorally anchored rating scales have advantages, they also have disadvantages, such as that they ______.

can bias information recall

Which of the following are among the types of distributional rater errors? (Select all that apply.)

central tendency leniency strictness

What type of approach should managers use to work with employees to solve performance problems?

collaborative or problem-solving

Tran is a manager and must measure the performance of his employees. The method he uses requires him to analyze the performance of each employee against each other. Tran is using the ______ approach.

comparative

Mao Lin is a computer engineer. She has degrees in computer science and has worked in the field for two decades. Mao Lin is personable and hard working but also extremely knowledgeable. She is capable of overseeing projects and employees, is organized, and has the technical skills to understand both the big picture and the details. This description indicates that Mao Lin has ______.

competencies

The various sets of skills, knowledge, abilities and personal characteristics associated with the successful performance of a job are known as ______.

competencies

In order to describe the competencies associated with an entire occupation, organization, job family, or a specific job, managers create _______.

competency models

Critics of forced distribution systems point to the disconnect among which of the following? (Select all that apply.)

corporate performance employee compensation employees' evaluations

Melania works for a mobile business that grooms dogs. She visits clients' homes to groom their pets and is always in the field. Which of the following would be the best source of information for her performance review?

customers

When a performance measure does not measure all aspects of performance, it is considered ______.

deficient

Which of the following steps are part of the attribute approach? (Select all that apply.)

defining a set of desired traits evaluating whether individuals posses certain desired traits

To improve poor performance in an employee, a manager must work with the employee to ______. (Select all that apply.)

determine the cause of the problem agree on how to solve the issue

When using behaviorally anchored rating scales, organizations seek to define performance dimensions by ______.

developing behavioral anchors associated with different levels of performance

Competency models can be useful for which of the following HR practices? (Select all that apply.)

development selection training recruiting

Managers are often evaluated by their employees. Employees who report to a manager are known as ______.

direct reports

When a graphic rating scale provides rankings at a number of different points, it is known as a(n) ______ scale.

discrete

When the plaintiff alleges they were unjustly treated by the performance measurement system due to their age, gender, or race, it is called a ______ suit.

discrimination

Feedback sessions should focus not only on performance problems but on ______ as well.

effective performance

The best kind of performance feedback is the kind that ______.

elicits positive behavioral responses

The top strategic purpose of a performance management system is establishing a link between ______.

employee activity and organizational goals

Specificity is relevant to which of the following aspects of performance management? (Select all that apply.)

employee development achieving strategic goals

Once behaviors have been defined, the behavioral approach requires managers to assess how well ______.

employees exhibit them

In the use of an objectives method for measuring performance, ______.

employees should set goals that are linked to organizational goals

Employees should not be surprised by a formal evaluation if they are provided with frequent ______ from their managers.

feedback

When implementing a performance management strategy, organizations develop which of the following? (Select all that apply.)

feedback systems measurements systems definitions of the expected results

Ranking employees by assigning certain percentages of them to predetermined groups (such as best workers, worst workers, and categories in between) is known as ______.

forced distribution

Performance management is crucial to ______.

gaining competitive advantage

One of the most effective motivators of performance is ______.

goal setting

The attribute approach to performance management is most frequently done with ______.

graphic rating scales

Chan has been working at Fulman & Co. for a year. His performance during the first few months at his job was very good, and he developed a very good impression with his employers. As a consequence, despite his poor performances, Peter has been receiving good performance ratings due to his overall good image. This is an example of

halo

The simplifying mechanisms we use to make judgments are known as ______.

heuristics

One developmental purpose of performance management is to ______.

identify employee weaknesses for managers to use in providing feedback and coaching

The main goal of a productivity measurement and evaluation system (ProMES) is to motivate employees to ______.

improve team or company-level productivity

Where should a manager hold a feedback session with a direct report?

in a neutral location

According to research, ProMES is effective in ______.

increasing productivity

On a balanced scorecard, the performance perspective that focuses on processes that influence customer satisfaction is known the ______.

internal or operations perspective

If two individuals give a person's job performance approximately the same evaluation, the performance measure has ______.

interrater reliability

Which of the following would be expected in a performance management system that is designed with a strong quality orientation? (Select all that apply.)

involvement of both internal and external customers to set standards and measure performance an emphasis on cooperation in performance problem solving between managers and employees use of multiple sources in the evaluation of person and system factors

One advantage of the comparative approach to measuring performance is that ______.

it effectively differentiates employee performance

Though a behavioral observation scale offers managers important insights, it can also require more information than ______.

managers can process

Natalia's role with her new team was to produce periodic reports on the team's progress. Her reports were not in the preferred format and lacked several standard components, but she was unaware she was doing anything wrong and instead thought she was doing a good job. Natalia received a poor performance evaluation as a result of her reports. Her poor performance in this case was likely due to ______.

lack of feedback

Which of the following administrative decisions are typically made with the aid of performance management information? (Select all that apply.)

layoffs promotions pay raises

Jayor is a supervisor at Millemium Management. In a bid to boost the morale of his subordinates, he gives higher performance ratings to all his subordinates regardless of their performance. This performance rating error is an example of

leniency

The behavioral approach is best suited to evaluating ______.

less complex jobs

Managers should consider if employees want to do the job they're doing and if employees feel they are being appropriately compensated when determining an employees' ______.

level of motivation

Communication, documentation, and organization maintenance are several of the basic purposes of an organization's performance ______ system.

management

Which of the following is the most frequently used source of performance information?

managers

Defining relevant performance dimensions, developing statements that represent good, average, and poor performance, and then mixing those statements with statements from other dimensions on the actual rating instrument are the steps involved in creating ______ scales.

mixed-standard

Managers should consider which of the following aspects of an employee's job when they are considering ways to improve performance? (Select all that apply.)

motivation ability

Research has shown that goal setting results in ______. (Select all that apply.)

motivation to improve performance improvement increased job satisfaction

Which of the following are components of a balanced scorecard's perspectives of performance? (Select all that apply.)

operations learning and growth customer

Comparing every employee with every other employee in their work group and assigning a score of "1" each time that employee is considered to be the better performer, subsequently adding up the points and assigning that number as the employee's performance score, is called ______.

paired comparison

Kendra is a law enforcement officer whose job often entails patrolling a neighborhood that is far from the sheriff's office. As a consequence, the sheriff rarely witnesses her work. Which of the following rater options would offer the sheriff a clear picture of Annabelle's performance as a police officer?

peers

The performance management approach that involves a preventative approach to errors, continuous improvement, and a customer orientation is known as a(n) ______ approach.

quality

Which of the approaches to performance measurement relies on a combination of the attribute and results approaches?

quality approach

Which of the following are examples of comparative approaches? (Select all that apply.)

ranking paired comparison forced distribution

Consistency in performance and being free from random error is a measure of ______.

reliability

Which of the following are important criteria for evaluating a performance management system? (Select all that apply.)

reliability acceptability specificity

Managers should work with employees to solve performance problems in an atmosphere of ______. (Select all that apply.)

respect encouragement

The ______ approach to performance management involves managing objective measures of outcomes of a job or work group.

results

Who of the following are primary sources of performance information of an employee? (Select all that apply.)

self direct reports customers

What are recommended ways of making a feedback discussion effective? (Select all that apply.)

setting up an open dialogue between a manager and his or her direct report having it serve as an opportunity to discuss the roles of the manager and the direct report holding it in a neutral location

When a manager ranks the employees within his or her department from the best to the worst performers, it is called ______.

simple ranking

Systems like Yammer that allow employees to quickly exchange information, provide coaching, and receive recognition are referred to as ______.

social performance management

To avoid personalizing poor performance in an employee, a manager should focus on which of the following during a negative feedback session? (Select all that apply.)

specific behaviors that occurred with a situation the situation the results of the behavior on peers or customers

A performance measure that does a good job of telling employees what is expected of them and how to meet those expectations is said to have a high level of ______.

specificity

Which of the following are purposes of an organization's performance management system? (Select all that apply.)

strategic administrative developmental

Job performance management systems that bring out job performance that is in line with the strategies, goals, and culture of the organization is said to have ______.

strategic congruence

Taher is a sales manager at Soundview Inc. He is known to be a taskmaster and repeatedly gives lower ratings to all his employees regardless of their performance. This performance rating error is an example of

strictness

The results approach assumes that _______ can be eliminated from the process of measuring the results of a work group.

subjectivity

Peer evaluations are particularly useful to management when ______.

supervisors are not often able to observe the employee

Performance management appraisals are sometimes not particularly useful because managers ______.

tend to fear evaluating employees negatively

Which of the following approaches to performance management has high acceptability, usually low validity, and very low specificity and yields low strategic congruence results that require the manager to make the link?

the attribute approach

Which of the following approaches to performance management has high validity results but has very low specificity if ratings are done carefully?

the comparative approach

When providing negative feedback to an employee, on what should a manager focus?

the employee's results

For feedback to be effective,

the manager should ask the employee to rate his or her performance before the session.

Asking employees to complete a self-assessment before a feedback session encourages them to ______.

think about their weaknesses think about their past performance participate fully in the feedback session

Performance appraisal is the process

through which an organization gets information on how well an employee is doing his or her job.

It is the manager's responsibility to give feedback to employees frequently, making employees aware of performance deficiencies before they ______.

turn into productivity loss

When a former employee files a suit against an employer claiming that they were fired for a reason other than that which is being claimed by the employer, it is called a(n) ______ suit.

unjust dismissal

A performance appraisal process for managers that includes direct reports' evaluations is known as ______.

upward feedback

When a performance measure assesses all relevant aspects of performance, and only the relevant aspects of performance, that measure test is considered ______.

valid

After a company has decided the kind of performance it expects from employees, it must develop ______.

ways to measure performance

When is it appropriate to use customer evaluations of employee performance? (Select all that apply.)

when the evaluations serve a strategic goal when the job involves direct service to the customer