Deck 13: Business

Question 1

As of 2009, the current unemployment rate in the United States is

A) 10%
B) 4%
C) 8%
D) 2%

Answer 1

10%

Question 2

Gender effects on ratings of job applicants seem to decrease when

A) applicants are around the same age.
B) decisions are based only on written materials.
C) the employer and the job applicant are of the same gender.
D) greater amounts of information about the applicants are available.

Answer 2

greater amounts of information about the applicants are available.

Question 3

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.

Answer 3

perceptions of both female and male applicants.

Question 4

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 and unexpectedly outperformed workers in the special test room.
C) neither group of workers showed an increase in productivity.
D) both groups of workers showed an increase in productivity.

Question 5

The tendency of students in working groups to exert more effort on their project when their teacher is standing within earshot is an example of

A) social comparison
B) the Hawthorne effect
C) counterfactual thinking
D) self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 6

The Hawthorne effect

A) describes the relationship between working conditions and job satisfaction.
B) refers to the tendency for observation of employees to increase productivity.
C) suggests that employees become so engaged in their work that they are immune to environmental manipulations.
D) is the tendency for bright levels of illumination to decrease worker productivity.

Question 7

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 8

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 9

Which of the following questions 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 10

Which of the following 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 11

The Hawthorne effect is named after

A) a social psychologist.
B) an industrial/organizational psychologist.
C) a factory.
D) a city in Illinois.

Question 12

Lorissa, a teacher, is attempting to improve the performance of her students by making the classroom more learning-friendly. She rearranges the desks, purchases lighter window shades, and adds more color to the bulletin boards. Her students do in fact improve. If this improvement stemmed from a Hawthorne effect, then it can be best attributed to

A) the students' knowledge that she was attempting to improve their performance.
B) the students' feeling that their classroom is better than those of friends in other classes.
C) Lorissa's positive attitude toward education.
D) the effect of physical setting on academic performance.

Question 13

Hal has narrowed the field of potential job applicants down to just two people, a man and a woman with very similar résumés. Research suggests that he is more likely to hire

A) the woman.
B) the man.
C) whichever applicant is younger.
D) whichever applicant is older.

Question 14

Face-to-face interviews are believed to reduce all of the following types of bias except

A) preference for male candidates.
B) preference for White candidates.
C) preference for physically attractive candidates.
D) preference for young candidates.

Question 15

Cathy applied for a job as a mechanical engineer. In addition to being evaluated based on her résumé and other written materials, Cathy participated in a live, face-to-face interview during which she was asked a set of standardized questions put to all the candidates for this job. This interview most likely

A) decreased the chances that she would be hired.
B) diminished the likelihood that stereotyped judgments would be made of her.
C) produced the Hawthorne effect in the interviewer's behavior.
D) elicited responses from Cathy concerning her leadership skills.

Question 16

Amanda is trying to get hired by the Up and Coming Company. All of the following will help her cause except

A) being physically attractive.
B) securing a personal interview.
C) engaging in self-promotion.
D) an interviewer who has low expectations of her.

Question 17

Dr. Price is a psychologist who studies practical issues concerning job interviewing, leadership, and employee motivation. She is most likely a(n)

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

Question 18

When Americans were asked what they would do if they won a state lottery, most

A) say they would still work.
B) say they would quit their jobs immediately and never work again.
C) men say they would continue to work, whereas most women say they would never work again.
D) people in high-status jobs say they would continue to work, whereas most in low-status jobs say they would never work again.

Question 19

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 20

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 21

The three general types of standardized written tests in the employee selection process include all of the following except tests that measure

A) cognitive abilities.
B) personality traits related to work-related outcomes.
C) a potential employee's integrity.
D) an employee's overall level of mental health.

Question 22

Murphy's (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 difficult to measure with standardized tests.
D) believed that integrity tests were more important than standardized tests of intelligence.

Question 23

Melanie completed an integrity test and was told that she scored the highest of all the applicants who took the test. Melanie should feel good about her results because

A) the test proves she is a good person.
B) according to the research, integrity is the most important attribute of an employee.
C) scores on integrity scales are predictive of job performance.
D) integrity is not at all related to job performance.

Question 24

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 25

Phyllis, based upon her written application materials, 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 26

Which of the following 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 27

When Kinard applied for a job at a new firm, they gave him a paper-and-pencil questionnaire that asked questions about whether or not he had been involved in any of several transgressions, such as illegal drug use and shoplifting. Kinard took a(n)

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

Question 28

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 29

Research that examines workers' personality characteristics has concluded that

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

Question 30

Darlene is in charge of hiring new police officers. Which of the following is true ?

A) It would be legal for her to use a polygraph during the hiring process.
B) Her expectations about particular candidates will not influence her hiring decisions.
C) A graphology assessment would yield useful information.
D) If she has lots of experience at her job, then she will be biased to hire physically attractive applicants over unattractive ones.

Question 31

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 32

The concern about a self-fulfilling prophecy with regard to the interview process is that

A) interviewers may tend to discount information learned in an interview if it is counter to the interviewer's expectations.
B) interviewers will be predisposed to like applicants who are similar to themselves, regardless of the applicant's credentials.
C) interviewers who are trying to promote the company to an applicant will evaluate that particular candidate with more scrutiny.
D) interviewers will be predisposed to evaluate less attractive candidates more favorably.

Question 33

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 34

Lenny 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, Lenny would probably be most successful as

A) an accountant.
B) a librarian.
C) a salesperson.
D) a medical records clerk.

Question 35

Cecil is competing with Pete for the same position. Cecil is concerned because Pete is perceived as more attractive than he. To minimize the effect of attractiveness on ratings of applicants, Cecil should hope that

A) the interviewer is female.
B) Pete is interviewed by someone of the same gender.
C) the interviewer is very experienced.
D) his interviewer is a transactional leader.

Question 36

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

A) overt integrity test.
B) covert integrity test.
C) standardized test.
D) None of these.

Question 37

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 38

Which of the following behaviors did college students in the Levashina and Campion (2007) study exhibit as forms of "faking" in job interviews?

A) ingratiation
B) exaggeration
C) outright lying
D) All of these

Question 39

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) All of these.

Question 40

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 41

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 42

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 gender.

Question 43

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 towards globalization.
C) an increase in the number of workplace discrimination lawsuits and a worldwide trend towards globalization.
D) the U.S. Civil Rights movement and an increase in the number of workplace discrimination lawsuits.

Question 44

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 more supportive of it than Whites.
D) divided on the issue, with men more supportive of it than women.

Question 45

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

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

Question 46

Plaut and colleagues (2009) found that companies with White supervisors who endorsed a multicultural perspective on diversity

A) employed more minority employees.
B) employed minority employees who reported being more engaged in their work.
C) paid their minority employees more money than did other companies.
D) reported lower earnings than did other companies.

Question 47

Heilman 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 48

Chapter 13 reviews studies which suggest that preferential-selection processes (often referred to as affirmative action) can undermine the performance of those individuals they are supposed to benefit. What is the applicability of this conclusion to college and university admissions policies?

A) It would only be relevant if colleges and universities admitted students based on race without considering other merit-based factors.
B) It would only be relevant if colleges and universities considered race but not gender in their admissions practices.
C) It would only be applicable if students were able to find out whether they were admitted due to affirmative action considerations.
D) It is not applicable to college and university admissions because the studies on which these conclusions are based are only correlational in nature.

Question 49

Compared to an in-person interview, interviews done via teleconferencing or computer 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 50

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 issues are considered more important than individual issues.
C) policy is determined out in the open rather than behind closed doors.
D) minorities are hired based on their merits.

Question 51

A company's attempt to conduct targeted employment recruitment in neighborhoods in 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 52

An optimistic take on the effects of diversity for an organization's performance would suggest that diversity

A) leads to stronger ingroup/outgroup categorization processes.
B) increases the breadth of perspectives and skills made available for solving any particular problem.
C) renders unnecessary the continued use of affirmative action in the business world.
D) eliminates the problems posed by superordinate identities.

Question 53

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

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

Question 54

Which of the following employees of Corporation X is most likely to believe that their company is very supportive of affirmative action policies?

A) A White female employee
B) A White male employee
C) An African-American male employee
D) A Hispanic female employee

Question 55

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

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

Question 56

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 57

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 58

An employer, in implementing an affirmative action policy, 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 in certain cases is justifiable.
D) provide the target applicant and co-workers with feedback about the target's qualifications.

Question 59

Which of the following would be 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) Outreach programs intended to recruit applicants from underrepresented groups
D) A firm quota that stated that 50% of all new employees at a firm must be female

Question 60

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) psychographic criteria.
B) preferential absolute criteria.
C) objective performance criteria.
D) subjective performance criteria.

Question 61

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 62

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 63

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 64

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 65

Linda wants her managers to be better evaluators of her employees. Towards this end, she can do all of the following except

A) rely on one evaluator who is shown to be objective for all her employees.
B) reward her managers for being accurate in their evaluations.
C) provide her managers with training to improve their evaluation skills.
D) minimize the time between employee performance and performance evaluation.

Question 66

Izzy is a surgical resident. The hospital wants to conduct a 360-degree appraisal of her performance, which required obtaining evaluations from

A) patients.
B) her fellow residents.
C) the chief resident and supervising attending physicians.
D) All of these.

Question 67

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 68

Jane, an accountant, is evaluated based primarily on the number of errors she makes while doing her job. According to the relevant research, these ratings are likely to be

A) less accurate than ratings based on subjective criteria.
B) influenced less by Jane's dependability than by her friendliness.
C) limited by their failure to take into account the quality of her work.
D) particularly susceptible to social perception biases.

Question 69

Derek is a fantastic baseball player. A variety of scouts come to watch him play and evaluate him on three separate occasions. He plays great in the first two games they see, but his performance in the third game is fairly unremarkable. If the scouts fall victim to a contrast effect, they will rate Derek's performance in the third game

A) as being better than it actually was.
B) as being worse than it actually was.
C) differently in public than they will in private.
D) more quickly than they did his performance in the first two games.

Question 70

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 71

Mara performs very well at her job. All other things being equal, it is likely that Mara will be appraised positively by all of the following evaluators except one who

A) is in a position of power.
B) exhibits a restriction of range problem.
C) uses objective rather than subjective criteria.
D) shows halo effects when rating others.

Question 72

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 73

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) masculine employees.
D) feminine employees.

Question 74

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 75

Jacques is required to evaluate several of his employees this year. To avoid problems associated with the halo effect, he should

A) make sure he is familiar with each of his employees.
B) request that he evaluate only workers he has not evaluated before.
C) make sure his ratings are not uniform.
D) try to use both subjective and objective criteria in his evaluations.

Question 76

Supervisor appraisals of an employee seem to be least influenced by

A) technical proficiency.
B) friendliness.
C) job knowledge.
D) dependability.

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

Angus is accused of having a restriction of range problem in his evaluations of co-workers. 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 a negative performance more negatively after a succession of positive performances.
D) He probably fails to make adequate distinctions among subordinates.

Question 79

Performance standards based on the perceptions of employees reported by their supervisors, co-workers, or clients are considered

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

Question 80

Jerry is a comedian, who is scheduled to appear after a set by his friend Larry. Larry has a great set and receives roars of approval and laughter from the audience. Based upon the contrast effect, Jerry should

A) be concerned that the audience will be less impressed with his performance than if Larry had not been so funny.
B) feel confident that the audience will respond positively to his act because they are already in a good mood.
C) be concerned that the audience will be too distracted by the previous performance to pay much attention to his jokes.
D) increase his credibility by pointing out to the audience just how funny Larry was.