LATEST HRM 701 Chapter 8 Practice Test Questions And Answers

What are performance appraisals most often used for? - ANSWER- making compensation decisions Which of the following is NOT a developmental purpose of performance appraisal? - ANSWER- validating selection procedures Why is performance appraisal important? - ANSWER- because the success of the entire HR program depends on knowing how the performance of employees compares with the goals established for them Which of the following are the two primary purposes of performance appraisals? - ANSWER- administrative and developmental purposes Which of the following is a typical reason that performance appraisal programs fail? - ANSWER- Managers often lack adequate appraisal skills. In developing a new performance appraisal system, Organization C made an appraisal plan, decided who would be doing the appraising, how it would be done, and even included appraisal training. Which one of the following is an important step that Organization C missed? - ANSWER- examining the performance standards through job analysis Which of the following represents why employees are concerned with the fairness of the performance appraisal system? - ANSWER- The process is central to many HRM decisions Which of the following is exemplified by a manager rating an employee higher than he or she deserves in order to look good as a manager in the eyes of the manager's own superiors? - ANSWER- organizational politics How does the strategic relevance of performance appraisal impact HR managers? - ANSWER- It allows them to more clearly justify training expenses. The strategic relevance of performance appraisals refers to which of the following? - ANSWER- the extent to which standards relate to the overall objectives of the organization If a performance standard is found to be stable or consistent over time, it is said to be which of the following? - ANSWER- reliable A waitress's performance is appraised on the basis of the quality of the food she delivers to the table. What is this an example of? - ANSWER- criterion contamination Suppose the performance appraisals that salespeople receive are based solely on sales revenue to the exclusion of other important factors. Which of the following would these performance evaluations suffer from? - ANSWER- criterion deficiency Suppose the performance evaluations that delivery drivers receive are partially influenced by the fact that some drivers operate in areas where there are major traffic problems while others operate in areas with few traffic problems. Which of the following would these performance evaluations suffer from? - ANSWER- criterion contamination How is reliability in performance appraisal measured? - ANSWER- by correlating ratings made by different raters Which of the following has been shown to be true in court? - ANSWER- Organizations should have carefully defined and measurable performance standards. Jay is a polite, helpful, conscientious employee who often helps his fellow auto sales representatives make sales and is popular with customers due to his customer service orientation. Based on his performance appraisal, which is focused on sales, Jay is being fired because he has not sold enough cars this month. Which of the following problems is at the root of his poor performance appraisal? - ANSWER- criterion deficiency In most instances, who is in the best position to perform the function of appraising an employee's performance? - ANSWER- the employee's supervisor Self-appraisals are best for which of the following? - ANSWER- developmental purposes Which of the following appraisal sources is most useful when the manager and the employee jointly establish future performance goals for each employee? - ANSWER- self appraisal Which of the following processes would be most helpful to an organization that was suffering from lack of inter-rater reliability in appraising employee performance? - ANSWER- calibration TQM concerns have led to the increased use of which of the following? - ANSWER- team and customer performance appraisals What is the most important thing an organization can do to ensure that a performance appraisal process can withstand legal scrutiny? - ANSWER- Base the standards on a sound job analysis and make sure all involved know what the standards are. Some organizations ask managers to place a percentage of their employees in the bottom performance category, which in some cases may mean they are fired, on every performance evaluation exercise. This is an example of which type of performance appraisal method? - ANSWER- forced-distribution system What advantage do peer appraisals have over other types of appraisals? - ANSWER- Peers may have a more intimate view of the performance of fellow employees. Which of the following is an important weakness of 360 feedback? - ANSWER- It is hard to know what to conclude if the appraisal results in conflicting opinions Jane is manager to 10 direct reports. She is currently concerned that she is perceived as a softy and so she has decided not to give out very many high ratings on this years performance appraisal exercise. However, she doesn't want anyone to be fired either, so she has decided not to give out any very low ratings either. Which of the following will Jane's ratings suffer from? - ANSWER- central tendency error Performance appraisal methods can be broadly classified as which of the following approaches? - ANSWER- trait, behavioural, and results Which of the following rating formats uses three specific behavioural descriptions relevant to each trait and then asks supervisors to evaluate whether an employee's behaviour is better than, equal to, or worse than the standard for each behaviour? - ANSWER- mixed standard scale Every time Sandy makes a mistake at work, her manager writes it down in detail in her employee record. Sandy thinks this is a form of harassment. More likely, what is the manager trying to do? - ANSWER- collect critical incidents Which of the following is the primary limitation of the forced-choice method of appraisal? - ANSWER- It is expensive to establish and maintain its validity. Which of the following is a major weakness of the behaviourally anchored rating scale (BARS)? - ANSWER- It takes a long time and a lot of effort to develop. If your primary objective for a performance appraisal is to give employees developmental feedback, which of the following appraisal methods should you use? - ANSWER- behavioural methods Which of the following appraisal methods helps guard against recency error? - ANSWER- critical incident method Which of the following types of scale uses critical incidents as examples of different points along the scale? - ANSWER- the behaviourally anchored rating scale