Deck 13: Business

Question 1

The Hawthorne effect refers to

A)the relationship between working conditions and job satisfaction.
B)the finding that workers who were given special attention increased their productivity regardless of what actual changes were made in the work setting.
C)the fact that employees become so engaged in their work that they are immune to environmental manipulations.
D)the tendency for bright levels of illumination to decrease worker productivity.

Answer 1

the finding that workers who were given special attention increased their productivity regardless of what actual changes were made in the work setting.

Question 2

Which characteristic is not one of the forms of faking documented by Levashina and Campion (2007)?

A)ingratiation
B)outright lying
C)image protection
D)charisma

Answer 2

charisma

Question 3

What sort of business was at the center of what became known as the "Hawthorne effect?"

A)a construction company that built private and public housing
B)a hospital where patients were waiting a long time to get medical care
C)a plant that manufactured telephones and central office equipment
D)a factory that was among the earliest to employ the assembly line

Answer 3

a plant that manufactured telephones and central office equipment

Question 4

The study of human behavior in the workplace defines the field of

A)clinical psychology.
B)experimental psychology.
C)economic/applied psychology.
D)industrial/organizational psychology.

Question 5

The original intent of the managers at the Hawthorne plant was to see if they could make their factory workers more productive by changing light levels in the factory.To do this,they increased the lighting for one group of workers in a special test room and kept the lights the same in the control room.They found that

A)workers in the special test room came to outperform workers in the control room.
B)workers in the control room actually outperformed workers in the test room.
C)neither group of workers showed an increase in productivity.
D)both groups of workers showed an increase in productivity.

Question 6

Lindy is a college professor who is attempting to improve the performance of her students by making the course materials more learning-friendly.She rearranges the room,purchases lamps,and develops a new set of readings.Her students do,in fact,improve.If this improvement stemmed from a Hawthorne effect,then it can be best attributed to

A)the students' perception that they were receiving special treatment.
B)the students' feeling that Lindy's class is better than other classes.
C)Lindy's positive attitude toward education.
D)the effect of physical setting on academic performance.

Question 7

The discovery of the Hawthorne effect laid the foundation for industrial/organizational psychology because it illustrated the role of

A)social influences in the workplace.
B)job interviewing techniques in the creation of a homogenous workforce.
C)equity motivation in worker loyalty.
D)personality variables in economic decision making.

Question 8

Which question would an industrial/organizational psychologist be least likely to study?

A)Do employer expectations influence job performance?
B)What personality characteristics are associated with effective leaders?
C)Are people more or less satisfied with their current romantic partner?
D)How do financial incentives affect worker motivation?

Question 9

Research on physical attractiveness and job hiring suggests that attractiveness influences

A)perceptions of female applicants,but not perceptions of male applicants.
B)perceptions of both female and male applicants.
C)evaluations made by male interviewers,but not female interviewers.
D)evaluations made by both male and female interviewers.

Question 10

Marilyn is the director of human resources for a small financial services company.The CEO of the company,Phil,asks her to interview three candidates for an open position in the billing department.Phil is particularly excited about candidate A,and tells Marilyn this.Research suggests that when interviewing candidate A,Marilyn will

A)be somewhat more outgoing and cheerful than when she interviews the other candidates.
B)scrutinize every response more carefully in the effort to disconfirm Phil's expectations.
C)engage in self-promotion.
D)hold off on making any judgments about the candidate until she completes the other two interviews as well.

Question 11

Josiah is trying to get hired by the New Directions Company.All of the following will help his cause except

A)being physically attractive.
B)securing a face-to-face interview.
C)engaging in self-effacement when being asked about his qualifications.
D)an interviewer who has high expectations of him.

Question 12

Research suggests that face-to-face interviews

A)increase the probability of stereotyped judgments.
B)exacerbate gender preferences in hiring decisions.
C)reduce,but do not eliminate,racial preferences in hiring decisions.
D)produce hiring decisions that are perceived to be more open-minded,but are no different from decisions based on evaluations of written materials.

Question 13

Because applicants try to present themselves in the best light,traditional employment interviews often lack

A)reliability.
B)predictive validity.
C)construct validity.
D)standardization.

Question 14

Chantal is interviewing for a job,and the interviewer cracks a joke.Chantal does not find it particularly funny,but she laughs anyway.Which faking strategy is Chantal using?

A)exaggeration
B)ingratiation
C)outright lying
D)image protection

Question 15

Marlowe and others (1996)found that 62% of hiring managers studied selected a candidate who was

A)physically attractive.
B)a college graduate.
C)male.
D)white.

Question 16

In the course of an interview,Maury is asked about work at a preceding job he held.At that job,he actually had quite a bit of trouble getting along with the boss and had fairly low-level responsibilities.But in his response to the interviewer's question,Maury does not mention the trouble getting along with his supervisor and talks about how significant his responsibilities were to the organization's success.Which faking strategy (or strategies)is Maury using?

A)ingratiation and exaggeration
B)exaggeration only
C)image protection only
D)exaggeration and image protection

Question 17

Dr.Henry is a psychologist who studies practical issues concerning personnel selection,performance appraisals,and group leadership.She is probably a(n)______________psychologist.

A)clinical
B)experimental
C)economic/applied
D)industrial/organizational

Question 18

Which finding has been demonstrated in research on traditional employment interviews?

A)Interviews tend to be very high in predictive validity.
B)Applicants who exhibit the least amount of self-promotion are likely to be hired.
C)Interviews eliminate biases toward physically attractive applicants.
D)An employer's expectations can distort the interview process.

Question 19

As of 2015,the unemployment rate in the United States was______________percent.

A)10
B)8
C)5
D)2

Question 20

Barney,an admissions officer,is interviewing a college applicant about whom he has very high positive expectations.Barney is outgoing and cheerful during the interview,spends considerable time recruiting the applicant,and asks the applicant questions that solicit positive information.As a result,Barney is pleased with the applicant's performance______________and admits her to the school.This interview process demonstrates an example of

A)the Hawthorne effect.
B)a self-fulfilling prophecy.
C)a contrast effect.
D)entrapment.

Question 21

Leonard is viewed as outgoing by his many friends,and he is often the center of attention because of his talkativeness.Based on research on personality traits relevant to desired work outcomes,Leonard is probably high on______________and would probably be most successful______________as a(n)______________.

A)agreeableness;accountant
B)conscientiousness;librarian
C)extraversion;salesperson
D)emotional stability;medical records clerk

Question 22

Based upon her written application materials,Phyllis is perceived as the best candidate for a position with Conglomerate Company.It is likely that her interviewer will

A)elicit negative information from Phyllis in order to make sure that his positive expectations are not wrong.
B)hold Phyllis to a higher standard than usual in order to offset any personal bias.
C)spend more time assessing Phyllis's fitness as a worker than really getting to know her.
D)provide Phyllis with more information about the company and the job than other candidates would receive.

Question 23

Employee selection processes likely tests for all of the following except

A)intelligence.
B)personality.
C)integrity.
D)mental health.

Question 24

A structured interview is similar to a standardized test in that both

A)require applicants to first pass rigorous pre-screening procedures before they can be administered.
B)involve collecting the same information in the same way from all applicants.
C)maximize an employer's impact on potential applicants.
D)are potentially compromised by subjective judgments of the interviewer.

Question 25

A test measuring broad personality characteristics unrelated to the workplace is known as a(n)______________test.

A)overt integrity
B)covert integrity
C)standardized
D)intelligence

Question 26

Compared to a paper-and-pencil personality test,a structured interview is

A)more difficult to fake.
B)less predictive of future performance.
C)too expensive for most companies to utilize.
D)less likely to result in a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Question 27

Mandy has applied for a job at a large telecommunications company.As part of the process,she goes to the human resources department and participates in several exercises.In one exercise,she is taken to an office,seated at a desk,and asked to process the in-basket on the desk as if it were her first day on the job.Multiple evaluators rate Mandy's performance on processing the in-basket work.Next,she does another task and is again rated by many evaluators.Mandy is participating in a(n)

A)assessment center.
B)structured interview.
C)personality test.
D)intelligence test.

Question 28

Research that examines workers' personality characteristics has concluded that

A)people who score high in conscientiousness tend to be too timid to be productive workers.
B)low self-monitors are more likely to become organizational leaders.
C)extraverts are more likely than introverts to succeed as managers and salespersons.
D)self-esteem has little ability to predict job productivity or satisfaction.

Question 29

Neve will be using a structured interview to hire her new assistant.One of the applicants for the position has requested a phone interview because she lives far from the job site.Based on the existing research,Neve

A)should be concerned because structured interviews are only effective when administered in person.
B)has no reason to worry because she can focus more intently on the applicant's responses during a phone interview.
C)should feel reassured because structured phone interviews have been shown to be predictive of future productivity.
D)will have to use a written integrity test rather than a structured interview in this situation.

Question 30

When job applicants are evaluated by multiple methods and multiple evaluators,they are best described as participating in a(n)

A)assessment center.
B)contingency model.
C)structured interview.
D)polygraph.

Question 31

A controversial practice by which an employer investigates a prospective employee by getting informal,non- institutional data about that person by using the Internet is called______________.

A)web interviewing
B)cybervetting
C)integrity testing
D)360 examination

Question 32

Murphy and others' (2003)survey of over 700 professionals indicated that most

A)relied extensively on standardized tests of intelligence in personnel selection.
B)had never heard of the use of standardized tests of intelligence in personnel selection.
C)agreed that intelligence is not fully captured by standardized tests.
D)believed that integrity tests were more important intelligence tests.

Question 33

Questionnaires designed to test a job applicant's honesty and character are called______________tests.

A)personality
B)intelligence
C)integrity
D)job-specific

Question 34

All of the following personnel selection procedures are used legally by employers regardless of profession except

A)polygraph testing.
B)integrity tests.
C)assessment centers.
D)personality tests.

Question 35

Which finding has been demonstrated in research on integrity tests?

A)Such tests are predictive of job performance and behaviors such as theft or disciplinary problems.
B)Both overt and covert integrity tests can be easily faked by motivated or knowledgeable test-takers.
C)While covert tests can be easily faked,overt tests are too obvious to fake.
D)Such tests are no more predictive of job performance than the flip of a coin.

Question 36

The advantage of structured rather than traditional interviews when screening applicants is that an employer

A)can avoid conducting biased interviews.
B)can use integrity tests and/or polygraph tests as part of the interview procedure.
C)can get a better implicit understanding of each applicant.
D)has more flexibility to pursue interesting lines of questioning in the interview.

Question 37

Rika has applied for a job at an investment firm.Before interviewing her,the hiring manager does an Internet search of Rika's name,and then look for any information she can find about Rika on Face Book.After seeing a picture of Rika holding an alcoholic beverage while in a bathing suit on a beach,the hiring manager decides that Rika is not______________ right for the position and declines to offer her an interview.Rika has lost this job opportunity because of a practice called______________.

A)cybervetting
B)web sniffing
C)due process
D)personal referencing

Question 38

Although the structured interview helps to reduce the bias often present in a conventional interview,it does not do so completely because

A)most interviewers do not stick to the structured protocol.
B)of the power of first impressions in a pre-interview.
C)most job applicants do not like the structure.
D)people take a very long time to size up a job applicant.

Question 39

A major concern when it comes to the effort to assess a future employee's character is that applicants tend to present themselves in overly positive ways.One form of assessment that avoids this problem is

A)face-to-face interviews.
B)overt integrity tests.
C)covert integrity tests.
D)non-structured interviews.

Question 40

When Kinnaird applies for a job at a new firm,they give him a paper-and-pencil questionnaire that asked questions about whether or not he has been involved in any of several transgressions,such as illegal drug use and shoplifting.Kinnaird is taking a(n)test.

A)situational judgment
B)polygraph
C)integrity
D)personality

Question 41

Hellman et al.(1998)had pairs of men and women work on two-person tasks in which the woman was always assigned a leadership role.The women in the study were

A)more confident in their leadership ability when they felt they had,at least in part,earned the position on merit than when they were assigned to it based on their gender.
B)less satisfied with their performance on the task when they felt they had been appointed leader based on merit than when they were assigned to it based on gender.
C)more negative in their appraisals of their performance than their male partners when gender was in any way part of the decisional process for assigning leaders.
D)likely to perceive the leadership selection process as unfair to the extent that their gender contributed in any way to their leadership position.

Question 42

Chao and Moon (2005)refer to the idea that every worker has a multidimensional identity in constituting an organizational

A)melting pot.
B)cultural mosaic.
C)quilt of demography.
D)diversity profile.

Question 43

Compared to an in-person interview,interviews done via telephone or videoconferencing tend to be

A)more predictive of future employee performance.
B)less susceptible to self-fulfilling prophecy.
C)viewed as less fair by applicants.
D)harder for applicants to "fake."

Question 44

Madeline,Joe,and Ian have all applied for the same promotion.Madeline is chosen but may be particularly likely to devalue the promotion if she believes that

A)it was based on equity considerations.
B)the decision was made on the basis of an assessment center.
C)her intrinsic motivation,not her ability,determined the decision.
D)she got it because of her sex and not her qualifications.

Question 45

In research examining different types of interviews,some students were interviewed in person while others were given a telephone or video interview.Which outcome was found?

A)Students who were given a telephone interview were more likely to rate the process favorably.
B)Students who were given an in-person interview were more likely to accept a job offer.
C)Those students who had an interview via videoconference rated the process as being the fairest.
D)There were no significant differences between in-person,video,and telephone interviews.

Question 46

Genie is considering using various evaluation techniques to help her hire a new employee.In trying to choose between general assessments of attributes versus job-specific tests,she should be aware that

A)general assessments are more effective predictors of future work success.
B)job-specific tests lack the predictive validity of other instruments.
C)that potential applicants see job-specific tests as most fair.
D)each assessment has significant weaknesses.

Question 47

Concerning the issue of affirmative action,surveys tend to show that Americans are

A)strongly in favor of it,regardless of their race or sex.
B)strongly opposed to it,regardless of their race or sex.
C)divided on the issue,with African Americans and Hispanic Americans more supportive of it than Caucasians.
D)divided on the issue,with men more supportive of it than women.

Question 48

What is not a reason for why preferential selection policies have negative effects?

A)People perceive focus on group membership in the decision process as unjust.
B)The beneficiaries of the policies do not attribute their success on the job to their own skill and performance.
C)Preferential selection leads beneficiaries of it to feel stigmatized at work.
D)Preferential selection increases diversity in the workforce.

Question 49

Nacoste (1996)argues that affirmative action affects everyone involved in the hiring and promotion process and that procedural reverberations within the system are likely to occur when

A)all interested parties have a chance to express their views.
B)group membership is considered more important than individual contributions.
C)policy is determined out in the open rather than behind closed doors.
D)minorities are hired based on their merits.

Question 50

Fegapessa is required to evaluate all of her employees and then communicate the results of these evaluations to the employees.Fegapessa is conducting

A)performance appraisals.
B)integrity tests.
C)participative decision making.
D)preferential selection.

Question 51

Assessment centers' multidimensional approach to making hiring decisions is

A)good at predicting who will make a good employee.
B)very inexpensive compared to traditional methods
C)assumed to be less effective than traditional interviews.
D)more prone to applicant attempts to manipulate the interview process.

Question 52

When Purdie-Vaughns and others (2008)presented African-American corporate professionals with a brochure for a fictitious management consulting firm,they found that

A)if the brochure depicted a low level of minority representation,they were uncomfortable with the idea that the firm was colorblind.
B)if the brochure depicted a low level of minority representation,they were comfortable with the idea that the firm was colorblind.
C)if the brochure depicted a high level of minority representation,they were uncomfortable with the idea that the firm was colorblind.
D)the professionals were uncomfortable with the colorblind firm regardless of what was depicted in the brochure.

Question 53

Research by Bobcat and others (1998)showed that opposition to affirmative action is associated with

A)conscious prejudice.
B)unconscious prejudice.
C)strong belief in the principle of merit.
D)strong belief in the principle of equality.

Question 54

Which is an example of a "soft" form of affirmative action?

A)giving preference to job applicants of color,but not considering gender in evaluating applications
B)taking into consideration the socioeconomic status of college applicants,but not their racial background
C)providing outreach programs intended to recruit applicants from underrepresented groups
D)establishing a firm quota stating that 50 percent of all new employees at a firm must be female

Question 55

Sanchez and Chavez (2010)presented participants with a Latino candidate's resume for a selective minority internship.The candidate's background was strong,and half the time,the candidate was presented as bilingual (English/Spanish)and half the time not (English speaking only).They found that the language manipulation

A)made no difference in how participants rated the candidate.
B)affected how Caucasians,but not Latinos,rated the candidate.
C)affected how Latinos,but not Caucasians,rated the candidate.
D)influenced both Caucasians' and Latinos' ratings of the candidate.

Question 56

In a study of over 500 business,Cedric Herring (2009)found that those companies that______________had higher profits and earned greater revenue than companies that did not.

A)used 360 assessments
B)cybervetted job applicants
C)employed transactional leadership styles
D)had greater racial and gender diversity

Question 57

Plant and colleagues (2009)found that the more multicultural the dominant white employees were in their diversity beliefs,

A)the more minority employees were employed.
B)the more minority employees reported being engaged in their work.
C)the less minority employees were paid.
D)the lower the overall earnings of the company.

Question 58

A company's attempt to conduct targeted employment recruitment with underrepresented groups from which they haven't successfully recruited employees before is known as a______________form of affirmative action.

A)blind
B)hard
C)soft
D)loose

Question 59

In implementing an affirmative action policy,an employer should do all of the following except

A)set and communicate clear and explicit qualifications criteria.
B)emphasize the target applicant's unique contributions to the organization.
C)clearly inform employees that the use of a quota is,in certain cases,justifiable.
D)provide the target applicant and coworkers with specific feedback about the target's qualifications.

Question 60

Two changes in the world that have led organizational psychologists to begin to consider cultural issues in the workplace are

A)the U.S Civil Rights movement and affirmative action.
B)affirmative action and a worldwide trend toward globalization.
C)an increase in the number of workplace discrimination lawsuits and a worldwide trend toward globalization.
D)the U.S.Civil Rights movement and an increase in the number of workplace discrimination lawsuits.

Question 61

To increase the accuracy of performance appraisals,it is recommended that managers

A)maintain at least a two-week delay between performance and evaluations.
B)use a single rater rather than multiple raters so as to avoid discrepancies.
C)educate evaluators about the biases of social perception.
D)train evaluators to focus their ratings on the middle of rating scales.

Question 62

Dwight is a salesman for a paper company.His performance is assessed by determining how many boxes of paper he sells each month,which means that he is being appraised in terms of a(n)______________criterion.

A)psychographic and abstract
B)preferential absolute.
C)objective and quantifiable performance
D)subjective performance

Question 63

As managers,Homer is viewed as easygoing and agreeable,while Marge is seen as very conscientious.Which of the following is most likely to occur?

A)Homer will be more lenient than Marge in evaluating employees.
B)Homer will be harsher than Marge in evaluating employees.
C)Marge will be more likely than Homer to use objective measures of appraisal.
D)Marge will be more likely than Homer to use subjective measures of appraisal.

Question 64

Tyler is a company supervisor who oversees more than 35 employees.Halo effects are likely to be most pronounced in his performance appraisals of

A)employees he knows very well.
B)employees he does not know well.
C)male employees.
D)female employees.

Question 65

Research on how people react to pay cuts/raises,layoffs,promotions,and affirmative action policies shows that

A)how the decision was made is more important than what decision was made.
B)what decision was made is more important than how the decision was made.
C)both how the decision was made and what the decision was are important.
D)neither how the decision was made nor what the decision was are important.

Question 66

Ken wants his managers to be better evaluators of his employees.Toward this end,he can do all of the following except

A)rely on one evaluator who is shown to be objective for all employees.
B)train his managers to sharpen their memory skills.
C)teach managers to focus attention on job-relevant behaviors.
D)minimize the time between employee performance and performance evaluation.

Question 67

Anson asks an industrial/organizational psychologist for advice concerning whether he should ask his employees to complete self-evaluations.Which of the following is the psychologist least likely to indicate?

A)Self-evaluations tend to be more positive than supervisor evaluations.
B)Self-evaluations tend to be less predictive of job performance than supervisor evaluations.
C)Individuals who have more power in the company will give themselves more positive evaluations than those who have less power.
D)Female employees will give more positive evaluations of themselves than will male employees.

Question 68

Vito,the owner of a new company,believes that all appraisals in his company should be based on evidence of job performance rather than other considerations.In order for Vito to operate according to the due process model of appraisal,he must also

A)make his performance standards clear and encourage workers to evaluate themselves.
B)give employees useful and timely feedback,and make sure they are rated several times by one supervisor.
C)make his performance standards clear,and give employees timely feedback and an opportunity to present their own case.
D)encourage workers to evaluate themselves,and make sure they are rated several times by one supervisor.

Question 69

Supervisor appraisals of an employee seem to be least influenced by

A)ability.
B)friendliness.
C)on-the-job knowledge.
D)dependability.

Question 70

Gretel wants to be as accurate and fair as she can when evaluating her subordinates.Which of the following would help her be both accurate and fair in her evaluations?

A)Gretel has her employees evaluate themselves and then observes them on repeated occasions,rating their performance on a numerical scale.
B)Gretel receives training on the biases of social perception and gives her subordinates clear performance standards.
C)Gretel remains detached from her employees and is the sole evaluator.
D)Gretel has several raters assess her subordinates and then gives the employees feedback without using due process in her appraisal.

Question 71

Halo effects are most likely to be caused by

A)reliance on implicit personality theories.
B)the tendency to perceive women as having a nurturing role.
C)biases in the graphology process.
D)the use of structured interviews in personnel selection.

Question 72

Compared to supervisor ratings,self-evaluations are likely to be

A)more positive and more predictive of job performance.
B)more positive but less predictive of job performance.
C)more negative and more predictive of job performance.
D)more negative and less predictive of job performance.

Question 73

Angus is accused of having a restriction of range problem in his evaluations of coworkers.What is most likely to be true about Angus?

A)His ratings fluctuate dramatically over time.
B)He tends to believe that friendly subordinates are also competent.
C)He rates people he doesn't know well inaccurately.
D)He probably fails to make adequate distinctions among those he evaluates.

Question 74

All of the following are aspects of the due process model of performance appraisal except

A)adequate notice.
B)fair hearing.
C)integrity tests.
D)evidence of job performance.

Question 75

Michael,the regional manager of his company,believes that Jim is a personable and productive individual.When asked to rate Jim's leadership skills,Michael does not have much to go on and therefore assumes he is also a good leader.This is an example of a(n)

A)contrast effect.
B)halo effect.
C)escalation effect.
D)Hawthorne effect.

Question 76

The principle of the due process model that dictates that employees have the right to be evaluated by a supervisor familiar with their work as well as receive timely feedback about their evaluation and the opportunity to present their own case is called

A)adequate notice.
B)procedural fairness.
C)fair hearing.
D)situational control.

Question 77

Aloysius,a cashier in a department store,has been asked by store management to evaluate his shift supervisor. Aloysius is being asked to provide

A)situational judgments.
B)upward feedback.
C)preferential absolute information.
D)due process.

Question 78

Bobby,Peter,Greg,and Mike are all very effective leaders.Although their leadership styles vary,they are particularly likely to have in common

A)an emphasis on smoothing over potentially tense relationships.
B)the ability to negotiate deals efficiently and to their own advantage.
C)an engaging way of speaking.
D)the ability to use social influence effectively.

Question 79

The practice of obtaining multiple evaluations of an individual worker from supervisors,peers,and subordinates is known as a______________appraisal.

A)circular
B)360-degree
C)multidirectional
D)recombinant

Question 80

Performance standards based on the perceptions of employees reported by their supervisors,coworkers,or the employees themselves are considered

A)concrete appraisals.
B)integrity tests.
C)quantitative criteria.
D)subjective measures.