PY 326 - I/O Psychology Test 2

The methods used in training programs could lead to employment discrimination

True

HOW: What can rating forms look like?

Various types of items and response options -Behavior checklist -Critical incidents -Graphic rating scales -Behaviorally anchored response scales (BARS) -Behavioral observation scales (BOS)

When a boss think back and remembers the behaviors an employee, displayed when she first started on the job, the boss will probably commit a

primacy error

Task Performance

the tasks required in the job examples: typing, greeting customers; taking inventory of stock

Historical Measurement of Performance

-Average Performance -Maximal vs. Typical Performance -Sackett et. al (1988) -Types of Performance -Task, Overall, OCB, CWB -Often concern has been distinguishing between (potential) employees

Rater Bias and Error

-Common Errors- 1. Memory biases (Recency, Primacy, Novelty) 2. Halo Errors 3. Leniency/Severity Errors 4. Central Tendency Errors -Controlling Rater Errors- 1. Error-resistant forms 2. rater training 3. frame-of-reference training

How does this affect our employment process?

-If we know something is necessary for the job, but isn't trainable... we need to select on it -If something is trainable, it may be possible to select people who don't have the K or S yet, but we believe will be successful at learning

Social Learning

-Learn by watching others (imitation) -Vicarious rewards/punishment -Necessary conditions -Attention -Retention of information -Practice -Motivation Workplace Examples: learning how to cut vegetables; how to respond to a customer

Objective Measures from Company Records

-Objective Measures- 1. Complaints 2. Sales volume 3. Productivity -Personnel Measures- 1. Absenteeism 2. Lateness 3. Accidents 4. Disciplinary Actions

Personnel Measures

-absenteeism -lateness -accidents -disciplinary actions

Objective Measures

-complaints -sales volume -productivity

Need theories of motivation specify that...

people have individual differences in the extent they need different things

Encoding

1. Depth of Processing- -the more elaborately or deeply something is processed, the better it will be remembered -simply rehearsing will NOT process information deeply 2. Spaced learning better than massed learning

Why evaluate performance?

1. Employee development and identification of training needs -Very specific constructive feedback, written feedback, avoid overall assessments 2. "High stakes" decision-making (e.g. promotions, pay increases, reassignment) -Fairness, accuracy, transparency, motivations of rater and rate 3. Research purposes (including validation studies) -concern with construct validity and reliability

Operant Conditioning: Things to Consider

1. Immediate feedback 2. Difficulties with Punishment -Not understanding what is being punished -CC developing a negative response to the trainer -May not undo existing rewards (e.g., free time or less work) 3. Schedules of Reinforcement -Continuous reinforcement -Intermittent reinforcement (fixed or variable) *Variable: strongest/most resistant to unleashing

Four Basic Types of Motivation

1. Person-based theories (need theories) -individual differences in how much people or need different things in the job 2. Job design theories -characteristics about the job 3. Behavior-based theories -responses to behavior (extrinsic-rewards/punishment, or intrinsic rewards) 4. Cognitive theories -how a person thinks about things, etc. (values, expectancies, equity)

Two Major Training Problems

1. Trainees not being ready -Lack of motivation, or -Lack of KSAs to build upon, "scaffolding" 2. Poor transfer of training (generalization)

Steps in Motivation Intervention

1. We try something based on a theory 2. We see if it works (measure it) 3. If it doesn't, we try a new thing 4. What is different about this than just trying things? -Our guesses are educated based on what we know about human behavior via theories

What are Attitudes?

Attitude: An evaluative judgement we make about some target Two main work attitudes: -Job satisfaction -Organizational commitment

After presenting the training he designed, Will follows the behavior of the trainees in their jobs to see if they are engaging in the new behaviors in their jobs. He has collected data on ____ criteria for evaluating the training.

Behavior

In Campbell's model of performance, what are the three determinants of performance?

Declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge and motivation

How can management motivate 'constant learning'?

Four basic types of theories of motivation 1. person-based theories 2. job design theories 3. behavior-based theories 4. cognitive theories

Global vs. Facet Approaches

Global approach -Faces scale (global) -Job in general scale (global) Facet approach -job descriptive index (5 facets) -minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (20 facets)

A performance evaluation that asks: "On a 0-10 scale (0=extremely poorly, 10=extremely well), how well has this employee communicated with subordinates?" is considered a_______

Graphic rating scale

The Job Characteristics Model suggests that employees will work harder and with more effort if Gia, the manager, increases the different skills needed for each employee's job, let's them see the complete product they are working on, and connects their work to how consumers use the product. However, this will only happen for some people, particularly those who are high in _________________ .

Growth Need Strength

Which of the following is NOT a measure of motivation?

How happy Sally is working on the crossword puzzle

Employment Process

Job---> Applicants--->Selection---> Enter: Training, Socialization---> In Job: Performance, Work Groups, Work Environment, Individual Reactions, Development---> Leave Job: Reasons, Coworker Reactions, Related behaviors

Which of the following will be easiest to train?

Knowledge and skills

Underlying Psychology of Training

Learning Theories: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, social learning Learning physical tasks: motor memory Cognition: memory, encoding, retrieval

4 Levels of Training Effectiveness (Kirkpatrick, 1959-1960)

Level 1: Reaction -Impressions of the trainees Level 2: Learning -A test of what has been learned and retained Level 3: Behavior -The use of the new behavior on the job Level 4: Results -Impact on organizational outcomes

What is Motivation?

Motivation is a force that initiates, directs and influences effort and persistence of a behavior 1. what behavior is chosen 2. the strength of the behavior 3. how long the behavior continues

Campbell's Predictors of Performance

Performance= DK + PK + M -Declarative Knowledge (DK) ------- memory -Procedural Knowledge (PK) ------- skill building - practice -Motivation (M) ------- create an environment for performance behaviors (rewards/punishment, imitation)

Program Implementation

Needs assessment---> Clear Objectives ---> Program Development and Testing---> Implementation---> Evaluation

Of the following, which is the best evaluation design for a training program?

Nonequivalent Control Groups Quasi-experiment

Measurement of Motivation

Observations of behavior: 1. initiation/display of a behavior 2. amount of effort expended 3. persistence (how long) 1. Does a person pick up a coin and ask others if it belongs to them? 2. How much force (muscle strength) is used to pull a rope when others are also pulling on it? 3. How long does a person work on an unsolvable puzzle? Ask people about their motivations: 1. Desire/intentions to engage in certain behaviors 2. Why a person would engage in certain behaviors 1. Do you expect to be working for this company in 6 months? 2. Why have you chosen to leave this organization?

Behavior-based theories

Pay= External Rewards (reinforcement theory)

Variability Information

Peak/Maximal -Number of peaks or percent of time spent above (below) given point (e.g. 1 SD from mean) Typical Trend -Overall change in performance moving upward, downward, maintaining level Variability -Standard deviation

Peer ratings of performance appraisal are

Potential sources of conflict between coworkers

A common source of criterion contamination is

Rater biases

WHO: Judgmental Measure Sources

Raters- 1. Supervisors 2. Peers 3. Self 4. Subordinates 5. Customers 6. 360-degree

Adam had determined that Will should be his unofficial mentor at his new workplace. Will is about 10 years older, but like Adam is African American and came from a similar family background. Adam watches what Will does and sees how people respond to him. Adam is learning from

Social learning

Trainability

Some things are more teachable than others -Knowledge and skills Some things are less teachable -abilities and personality

Determining What Job Performance is?

Some things to consider in thinking about performance: 1. actions or behaviors 2. relevant to the organization's goals 3. what employees are hired to do 4. the action or behavior itself vs. the consequences of action

Transfer of training refers to

Taking what is learned in formal training and applying it in the actual job

Organizational Commitment

The desire to maintain a relationship with the organization 3 types of commitment- 1. affective: want to stay 2. normative: ought to stay 3. continuance: need to stay

Training vs. Development

Training- teaching an employee knowledge or skills needed to do the job Development- expanding individual employee's KSAO's and helping guide the employee in long-range career planning

How Do We Measure Performance Validity?

Where to get performance information: -Objective performance data -Retrospective subjective reports (self, other) -Performance Distribution Assessment (Deadrick and Gardner, 1997) -Experimental sampling (self, other) -Take samples in "real time" throughout a day

Which of the following strategies would best be referred to as job enlargement?

adding varied work tasks to the job

Kylie enjoys her job and where she works, so she wants to stay in her current job. She is staying in her job because of ____ commitment.

affective

work engagement

also heavy involvement with work, but a fulfilling, positive immersion in work; high effort with positive affect

workaholism

an obsession with work and urge to always be working; high effort with negative effort

When asked about her level of job satisfaction on a 1-7 scale, Jodie thinks about several things (including her behavior and thoughts) to determine her level of satisfaction with her job tasks, environment, the people she works with, etc. Because of this, job satisfaction is believed to be a(n) __________ rather than a(n) ___________.

attitude...emotion

Legal issues

challenges to performance-based employee actions (Werner and Bolino-1997) -Analyzed 295 court cases to determine what systems were most defensible -based on job analysis -gave written instructions to raters -offered employees opportunity to have input -used multiple raters

Sally responds by feeling sick when she opens the breakroom fridge and smells the rotten food which is often labeled with Carl's name. After a year of this, she starts to feel sick when she sees Carl's name... even if it's on an employee report or his office door. Sally has developed negative responses to Carl (or at least his name) through

classical conditioning

A nurse's job at Southside Medical Associates is to care for medical patients including analyzing patient histories, consulting with and educating patients in healthcare, referring patients to specialists, and keeping accurate medical records. The performance evaluation form currently being used at Southside Medical Associates measures all of these things, but also includes how smoothly the scheduling system works which is not under their control. Because of this oversight, the performance evaluation is

contaminated

Ana Lisa is required to use a forced distribution in scoring the performance of her employees. This method is useful to

distinguish employees who should be given a raise

Sam chooses to ask his professor when he doesn't understand something because he knows the effort he puts in to understanding the material will show up in a better understanding of the exam questions, which will lead to a better grade on the test which is important to him. According to Vroom's (1964) Expectancy Theory, believing asking the professor for an explanation will lead to a better understanding of exam questions is _____________, while feeling the exam is important is ___________.

expectancy...valence

Job design theories suggest if Kristen provides less autonomy for how employees do their work, their job satisfaction will increase.

false

Research has shown that a happy worker is always a productive worker.

false

Which of the following would NOT be a measure of motivation...

feeling good

Employees who are paid on an hourly basis are being reinforced using a

fixed interval schedule

The Faces Scale that uses the instructions below is a ______ measure of job satisfaction. How do you feel about your job in general?

global

Worker well-being that focuses on making sure employees are happy and having fun by putting swings and slides in the common area is focusing on___ well-being.

hedonic

Performance variability refers to

how much an employee's performance jumps up and down

A Performance Distribution Assessment (PDA) measures performance by asking raters to...

indicate the percentage of time an employee spent in each level of performance

Criterion deficiency is when a performance evaluation...

is missing part of what a worker does on the job

When Larry was given the task of developing a training program for his unit, he completed the recommended first step in program implementation, which involved

looking at the performance ratings of the employees to determine what weaknesses there were

The Herzberg's (1966) Two-Factor Theory is a job design theory suggesting that employees are motivated by certain aspects of the job. Two examples of these motivators' are...

responsibility and recognition

According to the Goal-setting theory, goals will be more effective in increasing performance if they are...

specific and challenging

Contextual Performance

supports the organizational, social and psychological environment in which the job tasks are performed common to most jobs Not part of the job description; helps organization run smoothly examples: having enthusiasm, volunteering, helping and cooperating with others, supporting organizational objectives

Based on what we know from the research and from your book, which of the following hypotheses would most likely be supportive if we tested it?

there is negative correlation between job satisfaction and turnover

One disadvantage of on-the-job training is

trainers may not be motivated to train the new worker

According to the equity theory, workers who perceive themselves as overpaid may work harder to justify the overpayment

true

Brodie has heard that people in his company aren't happy, though he doesn't know the root of it since he is rarely on site. If he would like to get a sense of what's going on and try to improve the satisfaction level of employees, he should survey employees using a facet measure of job satisfaction.

true

Performance appraisal data can be used in determining the training needs of an organization

true

TopChem's plan to take part of the original base pay and make it based on team performance will likely be seen as a punishment

true

The Criterion Problem

trying to define and measure the illusive "performance"

Which of the following seems to have the weakest relationship with job satisfaction?

workaholism