Quiz #6 on Chapter 7

*In most U.S. organizations, an employee's performance appraisal interview and salary review are conducted in the same meeting. Research shows that tying these two events together results in:

- employees receiving lower raises than if the two events were separated. - managers taking the appraisal more seriously and providing more detailed feedback.

Which of the following is most likely a true statement about relative and absolute judgment appraisal systems?

Absolute judgments allow for equal ratings among employees, but relative judgments do not

When assessing the basis of a performance problem, managers should focus on employee ability and motivation, and largely ignore situational factors, since these are beyond the employee's control.

False

Yolanda tends to appraise all workers in her department at the high end of the measuring scale. This may be due to a severity error.

False

You are reviewing the performance appraisal conducted by your middle managers. You notice that Carrie tends to give each employee the same score across all dimensions of the evaluation. For example, Brians scores are all in the average range while Karl's all tend to be in the excellent range, even though you know that each man has done very well on some and very poorly on some of the dimensions. Brian and Karls evaluations exhibit a:

Halo error

Emma is thinking through the future evaluation of her employees. Right now she is determining what specific areas of each employee's work to examine. Emma is in the process of:

Identifying areas of job performance that should be Evaluated.

Which of the following is a comprehensive list of the functions in a performance appraisal?

Identifying, measuring, and managing

How can managers minimize the influence of "liking" on performance evaluations?

Keeping a performance diary on each employee

Managers who maintain employee performance diaries most likely benefit from:

Legal justification for the appraising process

A firm implementing a relative judgment performance appraisal system would most likely experience which of the following?

Managers grouping employees into two categories when evaluating performance

Which of the following is a "microskill" that managers should use in employee appraisal interviews?

Paraphrasing employees' responses

Which of the following is a disadvantage of an absolute judgment performance appraisal system?

Standards vary among managers

Catina is designing an assessment and performance managing program for her company's HR department. To manage employee performance most effectively, Catina should:

Stress that day-today interactions need to occur between manager and employee in addition to face-to-face interviews

Ahmad has been a line manager at a large jewelry factory for nearly 10 years. This year, the factory is letting the employees directly under him contribute to Ahmad's performance appraisal. This is an example of:

Subordinate review

Which of the following is an upward performance appraisal process?

Subordinate reviews.

Which of the following is a true comparison between the rational perspective of appraisal and the political perspective of appraisal?

The goal of appraisal from the political perspective is utility. The goal of appraisal from the rational perspective is accuracy.

Frame-of-reference training has been found to be particularly effective in eliminating:

The impact of personal bias in performance evaluations.

Which of the following is a drawback of a behavior based performance appraisal system?

Time consuming to develop

360° performance appraisal systems require careful planning and consume far more time than other appraisal systems, but putting the system online can reduce the time and costs of the process:

True

Frame-of-reference training helps managers avoid errors and bias in performance evaluations.

True

Relative ranking systems require managers to make performance distinctions among workers even if none actually exist.

True

The absolute judgment format permits comparison ratings of individual workers in different work groups by various managers.

True

The advantage of outcome-based appraisal systems is that they eliminate subjectivity and the potential for rater error.

True

The choice of which appraisal tool to use should be based on the purpose of the appraisal.

True

The performance appraisal system should praise and criticize past behavior and focus on the future in terms of how workers will achieve their potential.

True

To be the most effective, all managers in a firm should maintain comparable rating standards

True

Sudhir is evaluating Carol's performance. Sudhir has a poor opinion of Carol because she irritates him by asking questions and questioning his judgment in department meetings. When the HR director reviews Carol's performance evaluation, he notes that Sadhir has consistently rated Carol low. The HR director agrees in areas of judgment and tact but knows that Carol is considered one of the department's most effective people in other areas. What the HR director notes in Sudhir's evaluation is the rater bias called the halo effect.

True.

Employee performance on the job is primarily a function of the employee's:

ability, motivation, and situational factors

You are discussing changing your performance appraisal system with your executive management team. The VP of Operations wants the ability to compare employees working for different managers in different areas of the plant. The best appraisal system for this would be a(n):

absolute system

The tendency of managers to blame workers for poor performance and for workers to blame external factors is known as:

actor observer bias

Automotive, Inc. (A.1.) is an automotive manufacturing company that uses self-managed teams to produce large automotive parts. When performing evaluations, A.I. needs to remember to:

appraise both individual and team performance.

Job performance dimensions are:

aspects of performance that determine effective job performance.

A review of court decisions regarding performance appraisal legal issues shows that the courts tend to:

be favorably influenced by the use of job analysis

The best way for managers to encourage effective performance is to:

be specific about desired outcomes.

Shawn is reviewing a performance appraisal instrument with a scale of 1-10. Each number has a descriptive statement next to it, from 1 (rarely gives direction when assigning work) to 10 (makes expectations clear). This is an example of a(n):

behavior-based appraisal instrument.

Trait-based performance appraisal systems are most similar to:

behavioral-based performance appraisal systems

A company designs a performance evaluation process that evaluates the value of specific employee behaviors. The company is most likely using a(n):

behavioral-based system.

The most common form of behavior appraisal instrument is a:

behaviorally anchored rating scale

Most experts agree that in a team environment:

both individual and team performance should be evaluated.

You are training first-line supervisors on how to give performance appraisals. In your explanation of the halo error, you tell these managers that they can avoid this mistake if they:

consider each dimension individually.

Which of the following is NOT a common criticism of trait appraisal instruments?

costly and time consuming

Billy will be appraising employees at H.R.T., Inc. He is compiling a list of aspects by which he will measure the employees. Billy is compiling:

dimensions of job performance.

In most U.S. organizations, an employee's performance appraisal interview and salary review are conducted in the same meeting. Research shows that tying these two events together results in:

managers taking the appraisal more seriously and providing more detailed feedback.

A manager is in the process of deciding how effective or ineffective an employee's behavior has been. This manager is in the ___ stage of the performance appraisal model

measurement

When managers use performance appraisals to communicate a message to an employee rather than to measure actual performance, the performance appraisal is most likely being influenced by:

organizational politics

Sheila believes the value of her employees' performance depends on her agenda or goals, and not on any objective standard. Sheila's perspective is a(n):

political perspective

Outcome-based appraisal tools have a tendency to:

provide a distorted view of worker performance levels.

Your CEO is considering the use of a relative judgment system for your company's performance appraisal program. She asks you about the disadvantages of such a system, and it would be most appropriate for you to state that such systems:

provide unclear performance feedback to employees

Managers using a rational perspective to appraise performance believe that:

the goal of an appraisal is accuracy.

The implementation of a ___ process offers a well-rounded picture of an employee's performance.

360° feedback

A pitfall of using relative judgements for performance appraisal is that they:

Fail to clarify how great or small the performance differences are between employees.

Which of the following is NOT a situational factor in employee performance problems?

lack of motivation

Outcome-based performance appraisal systems are more likely to:

lead to a "results at any cost" mentality.

* Your text argues that the performance appraisal process in most organizations is a(n):

- Absolute process - Rational exercise - Political exercise

BREAK

BREAK

Which appraisal format has the greatest legal defensibility?

Behavior

Which of the following is an example of a situational factor affecting employee performance?

Carter receives poor supervision.

Which term refers to observable characteristics that are associated with successful job performance?

Competencies

Which of the following is true about the influence of "liking" on performance appraisals?

Correlations exist between rater liking and performance ratings.

Sam, a data analyst, has not been completing tasks as quickly as his manager, Elizabeth, would like. Elizabeth has scheduled a meeting with Sam to discuss the issue. What should Elizabeth do first at the meeting?

Define the performance problem for Sam

Colleen is appraising workers in the manufacturing department of a woodworking shop. She ranks Horace as the most skilled woodworker, Kayla as the second most skilled woodworker, and Eric as the least skilled of the three. Colleen is performing an absolute judgment appraisal.

False

In team environments, experts recommend eliminating individual performance evaluation to avoid creating rivalries within teams.

False

Liking is an emotional and conscious response on the part of employers and is established over a long period of time.

False

The "big picture" quality of the absolute rating system makes performance feedback too ambiguous to be beneficial.

False

Trait ratings evaluate worker characteristics that tend to be consistent and enduring. Consequently, like absolute systems, they eliminate all ambiguity from appraisals.

False

Which of the following is used in frame-of-reference training?

Fictitious examples of worker performance'

Which of the following best summarizes the text's explanation of the political perspective in performance appraisal?

Performance appraisals communicate approval and disapproval and manage an employee's behavior

Your text argues that the performance appraisal process in most organizations is a(n):

Political exercise

Raters who commit severity errors generally:

Restrict ratings to the low portion of the appraisal scale.

MBO performance appraisal systems focus primarily on employee:

Results

Managers who follow a rational perspective when conducting performance appraisals:

Seek to clearly define a worker's performance and the criteria to evaluate that performance.

If supervisors want to help employees gain insight into their performance problems and have input into the performance appraisal, they should most likely use:

Self reviews.

Two line managers, Cameron and Ty, are performing appraisals on their subordinates. As they discuss their findings, they realize that they have very similar views on how they rate performance. The work that Cameron rates as excellent, Ty rates as excellent. The work that Ty rates as average, Cameron rates as average. These findings most likely indicate:

a high rate of comparability.

The tendency to rate similarly across dimensions is best known as ________ error.

halo

Bob wants to focus this year's employee assessment interviews on discussing the traits each employee displays. You should most likely tell him that trait-based appraisal tools:

have a tendency to make employees defensive.

The most common use of performance appraisals is to:

make personnel administrative decisions.

When it comes to the performance appraisal process:

most firms fail to maximize its potential.

One of your managers returns from a management seminar eager to use a relative judgment system for performance appraisals. He asks you for your opinion about the value of such systems. It would be most accurate for you to state that relative judgment systems:

require supervisors to differentiate between employees

All of the following are characteristics of supervisors who manage performance effectively EXCEPT:

solving problems for employees.