Deck 7: Evaluating Employee Performance

Question 1

When would the use of subordinate ratings of a supervisor be least desirable?

A) There are only 1 or 2 subordinates
B) The ratings are anonymous
C) The ratings will not affect raises
D) The job is in the public sector

Answer 1

A

Question 2

According to your text, a performance appraisal instrument focuses on many areas. Which of the following is NOT one of the areas listed in your text?

A) Traits
B) Competencies
C) Tasks
D) Cognition

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which of the following performance appraisal approaches focus on employees' attributes such as their dependability, assertiveness, and friendliness?

A) Competency focus
B) Goal focus
C) Task focus
D) Trait focus

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Promoting employees until they reach their highest level of incompetence is called the:

A) Anderson criteria
B) paradoxical shift
C) attribution error
D) Peter Principal

Question 5

Whereas supervisors see the _______ of an employees effort, peers often see the _______.

A) actual behavior / end result
B) end result / actual behavior
C) physical part / mental part
D) mental part / physical part

Question 6

_____ ratings have been successful in predicting future success of promoted employees but/and are _____ in organizations.

A) Customer and subordinate / seldom used
B) Peer / seldom used
C) Self-appraisal / seldom used
D) self-appraisal / often used

Question 7

Self-appraisals of performance appear to be most accurate when the purpose of the self-appraisal is for:

A) salary increases
B) promotions
C) administrative purposes
D) research

Question 8

Which of the following is true about evaluating employee performance?

A) Most performance appraisal systems are successful
B) Most organizations have specific goals for their appraisal systems
C) 360-degree feedback is best used for developmental purposes
D) All three are true

Question 9

Which of the following ratings would not be used in a 360-degree feedback system?

A) Supervisor ratings
B) Peer ratings
C) Self-ratings
D) All three of these would be used

Question 10

Agreement in performance ratings is highest between:

A) two supervisors
B) two peers
C) two subordinates
D) peers and subordinates

Question 11

Which of the following performance appraisal evaluators is not common or well regarded by managers?

A) Supervisor
B) Peer
C) Subordinate
D) Customer

Question 12

Which of the following is the most important use of performance evaluation results?

A) Employee compensation
B) Employee promotion
C) Employee training and feedback
D) Personnel research

Question 13

The statement "It's not fair to pay a bad employee the same amount of money as an excellent employee" exemplifies the need for accurate performance appraisals in:

A) determining salary increases
B) making promotion decisions
C) employee training and feedback
D) training needs assessment

Question 14

Which of the following performance appraisal approaches would have dimensions such as "prevent crimes from occurring" and "minimize citizen complaints"?

A) Competency focus
B) Goal focus
C) Task focus
D) Trait focus

Question 15

According to most research, subordinate feedback results in:

A) higher supervisor turnover
B) bad feelings among employees
C) increased supervisor performance
D) subordinates being fired

Question 16

To get better customer feedback on employee performance, _______ are used.

A) secret shoppers
B) consultants
C) peer ratings
D) employee comparisons

Question 17

Which of the following performance appraisal dimensions focuses on what an employee accomplishes?

A) Traits
B) Behaviors
C) Goals
D) Cognition

Question 18

Which of the following is an area of potential use for performance appraisals?

A) Validation of employment testing
B) Training needs assessment
C) Employee training and feedback
D) All of these

Question 19

When peer ratings are used, research has found that high performers evaluate their peers _______ low performers.

A) the same as
B) more strictly than
C) more leniently than
D) none of these would be true

Question 20

Though commonly used, trait-focused performance appraisal instruments are not a good idea for several reasons. Which of the following is the main reason outlined in your text?

A) They are hard to construct
B) They provide poor feedback
C) Employees hate them
D) All of these are major problems

Question 21

The most common method of employee comparison is the _______ method.

A) paired comparison
B) forced distribution
C) rank order
D) behavioral anchored rating scale

Question 22

Documentation helps reduce the effects of all the following except ______.

A) first impressions
B) recent behaviors
C) leniency
D) extreme behaviors

Question 23

What type of rating scale is depicted below?
Job knowledge: Poor 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Excellent.
Dependability: Poor 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Excellent.

A) Behaviorally anchored rating scale
B) Behavioral observation scale
C) Graphic rating scale
D) Mixed standard scale

Question 24

If a supervisor had 10 employees, how many paired comparisons would she have to make for each performance dimension?

A) 10
B) 25
C) 45
D) 90

Question 25

If an employee was to produce a work product of a quality level above the organization's standards, it technically would be called _______.

A) an error
B) good worker output
C) self initiative
D) none of these

Question 26

A problem with _____performance statements is that an employee can do everything asked of him by an organization and still not get the desired results due to factors outside his control.

A) results-focused
B) trait-focused
C) behavior-focused
D) emotion-focused

Question 27

Meta-analysis results indicate that objective and subjective measures of performance:

A) are slightly correlated (r = .39)
B) are highly correlated (r = .80)
C) are not correlated (r = .02)
D) can never be correlated

Question 28

The most common type of rating scale is the _______scale.

A) behavioral anchored rating
B) behavioral observation
C) graphic rating
D) forced choice rating

Question 29

Perhaps the best rater training program is ________.

A) the Cronbach method
B) frame-of-reference training
C) BARS training
D) no rater training program is effective

Question 30

Which of the following rating scales have been most criticized because of their susceptibility to rating errors such as halo and leniency?

A) Behavioral anchored rating scale
B) Behavioral observation scale
C) Graphic rating scale
D) Forced choice rating scale

Question 31

A rating scale that uses anchors such as always, often, and seldom is an example of which type of rating scale?

A) Employee comparison
B) Frequency
C) Expectations
D) Goal

Question 32

In performance appraisal, critical incidents are an important part of the _____ process.

A) documentation
B) evaluation
C) political
D) political

Question 33

With the _______ method, a predetermined percentage of employees are placed into one of five categories.

A) paired comparison
B) forced distribution
C) rank order
D) behavioral anchored rating scale

Question 34

An employee's attendance can be separated into several different criteria. According to your text, which of the following is NOT a criteria used to measure attendance?

A) Absenteeism
B) Resignations
C) Tardiness
D) Tenure

Question 35

According to your text, the greatest problem with all of the employee comparison methods is that they do not provide information about _______.

A) the employee's motivation
B) how well an employee is actually doing
C) work related behaviors
D) there are no problems with this method

Question 36

Which of the following methods is an employee comparison method?

A) Rank order
B) Paired-comparison
C) Forced distribution
D) All of these methods

Question 37

Quality of work is usually measured in terms of _______, which are defined as deviations froma standard.

A) errors
B) relevant job behaviors
C) attendance
D) all of these

Question 38

Which of the following is NOT true about rater training?

A) Most organizations spend considerable time training supervisors how to rate performance
B) Frame-of-reference training is an effective form of rater training
C) Training increases employee satisfaction with ratings
D) All three are true

Question 39

Which of the following criteria is a subjective measure of performance for a waitress?

A) Number of positive comments received
B) Average amount of money spent on a meal
C) Number of days absent from work
D) A supervisor's rating of dependability

Question 40

Which performance appraisal method assumes that employee performance is normally distributed?

A) Rank order
B) Paired comparison
C) Forced distribution
D) Forced choice rating

Question 41

A _______ error occurs when a rater allows either a single attribute or an overall impression to affect their ratings.

A) leniency
B) proximity
C) strictness
D) halo

Question 42

If an employee is to be terminated, when is the best time to inform the employee?

A) Monday afternoon
B) Friday morning
C) Friday afternoon
D) The day doesn't really matter

Question 43

What are the common errors that occur with performance ratings?

Question 44

Janet is perceived by her dining room manager, Sarah, as the best waitress who ever worked for her. Naturally, Janet's ratings on her performance appraisal are all high. Tom, on the other hand, is an average waiter; yet, after evaluating Janet, Sarah's ratings of Tom are below average. This type of rating error is referred to as:

A) contrast error
B) halo error
C) proximity error
D) preference error

Question 45

An employee's ratings on the dimension of initiative are highly correlated with all of the other performance appraisal dimensions (e.g., cooperation, job accomplishment, job knowledge). Which type of rating error may be occurring?

A) Central tendency error
B) Strictness error
C) Halo error
D) Proximity error

Question 46

The ____ affects the quality of ratings provided by raters.

A) amount of stress in the rater's environment
B) the feelings the rater has toward the ratee
C) the race of the rater and the ratee
D) all of these are factors

Question 47

Progressive discipline is especially important if a ______ employee violates a company rule.

A) senior
B) new
C) private sector
D) poor performing

Question 48

Which of the following is NOT a limitation to employment-at-will?

A) Public policy
B) Implied contracts
C) Covenants of good faith
D) All of these are limitations

Question 49

A performance appraisal instrument would be most useful in terminating an employee due to:

A) a violation of company rules
B) a layoff
C) an inability to perform
D) employment-at-will

Question 50

A type of distribution error in which a rater tends to rate every employee at the upper end of the scale is called _______ error.

A) leniency
B) central tendency
C) strictness
D) halo

Question 51

What are three employee comparison methods?

Question 52

A type of distribution error in which a rater tends to rate every employee in the middle of the scale is called _______.

A) leniency
B) central tendency
C) strictness
D) halo

Question 53

Documenting employee performance:

A) increases employee anxiety
B) decreases rating accuracy
C) reduces legal liability
D) increases recency errors

Question 54

What are the three main distribution errors in performance ratings?

Question 55

Observation and cognitive processing of behavior occurs during the:

A) performance appraisal review
B) actual performance appraisal evaluation
C) selection of the performance criteria
D) instrument development stage

Question 56

In recalling employee performance, what do we typically remember?

Question 57

If managers allow their performance ratings of one employee to affect their performance ratings of another employee, they have committed a _______ error.

A) strictness
B) contrast
C) carry over
D) proximity

Question 58

Bob has been a model employee all year except for the last two to three weeks; yet, Bob's ratings on his performance appraisal reflect his performance during this last two-week to three-week period. This type of rating bias is referred to as:

A) strictness error
B) contrast error
C) the recency effect
D) infrequent observation

Question 59

What are four behavior-focused appraisal systems?

Question 60

Which type of rating error does not necessarily rate all employees similarly?

A) Strictness error
B) Leniency error
C) Central tendency error
D) Halo

Question 61

If an employee is to be terminated for violation of a company rule, what are the five things the courts will consider?

Question 62

In a non-employment-at-will state, what are the three legal reasons for terminating an employee?