Deck 11: Performance Appraisals

Question 1

Which of the following is not one of the dimensions on which an appraisal format is evaluated?

A) Cost
B) Personnel research potential
C) Employee agreement
D) Administrative ease

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Deming's major argument regarding performance appraisals is that:

A) the work situation is the major determinant of performance.
B) performance appraisals support team work.
C) peer ratings are better than supervisor ratings.
D) lack of training makes performance appraisals redundant.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

A major criticism of standard rating scales is:

A) raters have different definitions of scale levels.
B) employees don't understand standard scales.
C) they are costly to develop.
D) they encourage halo and horns errors.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The traditional performance component of the balanced scorecard is__________

A) customer satisfaction,
B) employee internal growth and commitment,
C) operational efficiency in internal processes, and
D) financial

Question 5

A negative outcome of MBO is ________

A) managers attitudes tend to decline with continued use.
B) superior/subordinate communication becomes more challenging.
C) performance pressure and stress increases.
D) organizational performance improvements are short-lived.

Question 6

The criticism,"different raters have different ideas about what "average work" is,is associated with the ________ rating format.

A) standard rating scale
B) BARS
C) ranking
D) MBO

Question 7

_____ is one of the best appraisal formats in terms of legal defensibility.

A) BARS
B) MBO
C) Standard rating scales
D) Ranking

Question 8

In what type of system are annual goals established and passed down through the organization?

A) Performance standards review
B) Management by objectives
C) Forced distribution
D) Total Quality Management

Question 9

The best appraisal format for employee development is:

A) BARS.
B) MBO.
C) the essay method.
D) the ranking method.

Question 10

The most common form of outcomes-based appraisal is:

A) the essay method.
B) MBO.
C) the performance standards review.
D) the BARS.

Question 11

Which of the following types of rankings would be least preferred by managers of more than 10-15 employees?

A) Straight
B) Alternate
C) Paired comparisons
D) Forced distribution

Question 12

In the _____ type of performance evaluation,supervisors answer open-ended questions.

A) MBO
B) standard rating scale
C) BARS
D) essay format

Question 13

The highest level of agreement among respondents to a study of successful MBO programs was on the fact that:

A) goals and objectives should be specific.
B) objectives should be assigned a priority.
C) objectives should include a plan of action.
D) pay incentives should be attached to goals.

Question 14

Telling raters that sometimes the work environment and system affect job performance more than the individual employee's behavior:

A) helps improve inter-reliability.
B) leads to higher ratings.
C) has very little effect on ratings.
D) leads to lower ratings.

Question 15

All of the following are true findings regarding MBO except that:

A) individual performance improves.
B) organizational performance improves.
C) superior/subordinate communication improves.
D) MBO requires less documentation than other rating methods.

Question 16

In _____ ranking,raters look at a list of employees,decide who the best employee is,and cross that person's name off the list.From the remaining names,the manager decides who the worst employee is and crosses that name off the list-and so forth.

A) paired-comparison
B) straight
C) alternation
D) forced distribution

Question 17

_____ is the best appraisal format across the five criteria for evaluating rating formats.

A) Ranking
B) MBO
C) BARS
D) Standard rating scales

Question 18

The question,"Does the instrument lend itself well to validating employment tests?" applies to which criterion of appraisal formats?

A) Validity
B) Administrative
C) Cost
D) Personnel research

Question 19

The major complaint of both managers and employees regarding the appraisal process is that:

A) appraisals were not helpful in guiding improvement.
B) reviews don't differentiate between poor, average and good performance.
C) appraisals are too subjective.
D) rating forms are too complex and time consuming.

Question 20

If the work of a secretary is judged by the number of words per minute and errors per page,the measure is:

A) very reliable.
B) a fair and valid performance measure.
C) well accepted by employees and supervisors.
D) likely deficient.

Question 21

As the compensation manager for a small company,the CEO has asked you to explain why an experienced supervisor gave many employees who reported to her inaccurate performance ratings this year.Which of the following factor is not a likely cause for the behavior? The supervisor:

A) spent too much time preparing the ratings.
B) feels guilty.
C) dislikes confrontation.
D) failed to observe actual performance.

Question 22

"Rank and yank" is a _____ rating format.

A) alternation ranking
B) forced distribution ranking
C) paired-comparisons
D) BARS

Question 23

In situations in which the nature of the task is so uncertain that it may be difficult to specify expected goals,the most appropriate rating format is ______________

A) MBO
B) standard rating scale
C) BARS
D) essay

Question 24

When a job involves less routine tasks,but an outcome can be specified,an excellent rating format is:

A) BARS
B) MBO
C) standard rating scales
D) essay

Question 25

Which of the following is not a strength of supervisors as raters?

A) They are knowledgeable about subordinates' jobs.
B) Their ratings show little halo and leniency.
C) Supervisors have rating experience.
D) They assign work to subordinates.

Question 26

A study of ratings of managers found that approximately ____ percent were rated below average.

A) 30
B) 20
C) 10
D) 5

Question 27

All of the following are strengths of 360-degree feedback except that it:

A) is useful for both administrative and development purposes.
B) improves employee self-awareness.
C) promotes better performance.
D) improves communication between supervisors and staff.

Question 28

Raters who are low on conscientiousness and very agreeable tend to:

A) be very accurate raters.
B) commit central tendency error.
C) commit halo error.
D) commit leniency error.

Question 29

Subordinate ratings ___________

A) tend to be inflated if they are not anonymous.
B) are more reliable than peer ratings.
C) are more valid than self ratings.
D) are used by 70% of team-style organizations.

Question 30

The most reliable performance ratings are done by:

A) peers.
B) supervisors.
C) customers.
D) self.

Question 31

All of the following are categories of rater training except _____ training.

A) rater-error
B) performance-standard
C) behavior modeling
D) performance-dimension

Question 32

When tasks are highly uncertain and it is not clear how to define successful performance,the most appropriate rating format is:

A) BARS.
B) MBO.
C) standard rating scales.
D) ranking.

Question 33

Which of the following is not true regarding self-ratings? Self-ratings:

A) tend to be lenient.
B) are best used for development.
C) are often used as the first step in the appraisal process.
D) tend to be more reliable than peer ratings.

Question 34

Among peer raters,the most objective evaluations are given by:

A) more experienced workers.
B) workers who are not close friends with ratees.
C) high performing workers.
D) low performing workers.

Question 35

Last year your performance was not very good and your performance rating was below average,but this year you have done very well exceeding your performance goals.To your surprise,your boss gives you just an average performance rating.What error has your boss most likely committed?

A) Horn
B) Halo
C) Severity
D) Spillover

Question 36

First impression error is to _____ error as leniency error is to severity error.

A) halo
B) horn
C) recency
D) clone

Question 37

Which of the following (is)are not true regarding performance appraisals?

A) Race has no effect in layoff decisions.
B) Males are rated higher than females.
C) Raters with traditional stereotypes rate females less accurately.
D) Variation in performance affects ratings.

Question 38

Which of the following statements is not true?

A) Workers who start out high in performance and then get worse are rated lower than workers who remain consistently low.
B) Workers whose performance improves over time are seen as more motivated.
C) Workers whose performance is consistently average are rated higher than those with greater variability.
D) Workers performance that varies over time are seen as less motivated.

Question 39

When a job involves very routine,mechanistic tasks,the best appraisal format that is most appropriate is:

A) BARS.
B) MBO.
C) standard rating scales.
D) alternation ranking.

Question 40

In which of the following rating formats are leniency,severity,and central tendency errors not present?

A) Standard rating scales
B) BARS
C) MBO
D) Ranking

Question 41

The performance of hourly workers is more likely to be tied to quantifiable measures than managerial workers.

Question 42

Louie received the highest performance rating and is in the second quartile of his pay range,and received a pay increase of 8 percent.Bart also received the highest performance rating
And is in the third quartile.Given the way most merit increase grids work,what size pay increase
Would you expect Bart to receive?

A) Less than 8 percent
B) More than 8 percent
C) 8 percent
D) There is no relationship between ratings and position in pay range.

Question 43

Teaching raters what constitutes good,average,and poor performance is _____ training.

A) performance-standard
B) rater-error
C) performance-dimension
D) Six-Sigma

Question 44

Since much of performance may be explained by one performance factor,it may not be useful to rate performance on many dimensions.

Question 45

All of the following are steps to creating a good performance appraisal process except:

A) performance dimensions are linked to the strategic plan.
B) use experienced consultants to develop the rating process.
C) train raters in use of the system.
D) diagnose performance problems in advance.

Question 46

Employees who are dissatisfied with performance appraisals are less satisfied with their pay.

Question 47

In making performance appraisals,managers tend to focus on either good performance,counterproductive performance,or both.

Question 48

Some experts argue applying the principles of Total Quality Management can improve performance appraisals.

Question 49

Supervisors' ratings are less likely to terminate employees for performance when unemployment is low.

Question 50

Rankings are more popular among managers than ratings as they are less complex and uni-dimensional.

Question 51

The total quality management advocates contend that telling raters that much of performance is caused by the system rather than the individual employee makes ratings less accurate.

Question 52

Which of the following statements is true regarding rater training?

A) Training programs lasting over two hours are as effective as shorter ones.
B) Rater-error training is more effective than performance-standard or performance-dimension.
C) Lectures on how to improve ratings are ineffective.
D) Training to reduce halo and improve accuracy have been most successful.

Question 53

MBO requires more paperwork than other rating methods and increases both performance pressure and stress.

Question 54

Which of the following is most likely to motivate employees to perform better?

A) Across-the-board increases common in unionized firms
B) Raises based on demonstration of competencies
C) Raises based on the CPI
D) Seniority-based pay increases

Question 55

Which of the following statements is true regarding ways to improve rater training?

A) Use rater error training.
B) Combine performance-standard and performance-dimension training.
C) Use training programs less than 2 hours.
D) Use computer-based, individual training.

Question 56

A major difference between rankings and ratings is ratings use an absolute versus a relative scale.

Question 57

Some companies have dropped the use of "rank and yank" because _____.

A) of law suits charging age discrimination.
B) they can hurt morale.
C) they are not effective in getting rid of "deadwood."
D) managers resist this rating format.

Question 58

Halo error is when performance at the end of a rating period has a large influence on the rating for the entire period.

Question 59

Overall performance in both the standard rating scale and MBO is the weighted average of ratings on all dimensions.

Question 60

Merit guidelines allocate pay increases based upon:

A) seniority and performance.
B) performance level.
C) performance level and employee position in their pay range.
D) performance and size of merit budget.

Question 61

Performance-dimension training provides raters with a standard of comparison or frame of reference for making appraisals.

Question 62

Workers who start out as high performers but decline,are rated slightly higher than those whose performance is consistently low.

Question 63

All five dimensions of good appraisal formats are important for all organizations.

Question 64

Though raters typically store information about worker performance accurately,when they recall information,it is in terms of trait categories.

Question 65

Bosses who are in a good mood give higher performance ratings than those who are grumpy.

Question 66

A recommended practice for appraisal interviews is to have the employee complete a self-appraisal form prior to the appraisal interview.

Question 67

Since peers and co-workers have good knowledge of the work of their peers,peer ratings have become more common than ratings done by supervisors.

Question 68

Of the many factors affecting supervisors' ratings of subordinates,the major influence is actual performance.

Question 69

Subordinate ratings are more accurate when they are not anonymous.

Question 70

The most difficult rating error to eliminate is central tendency.

Question 71

In most Asian cultures,employees do not welcome performance feedback.

Question 72

When ratings will be used to determine merit increases,they are more likely to differentiate among subordinates than when the ratings will be used for other purposes.

Question 73

MBO is particularly well suited as a basis for administrative decisions such as pay raises.

Question 74

Recent research shows that performance-irrelevant factors such as political skill influence performance ratings as much as actual performance.

Question 75

The greatest amount of research on rating formats has focused on reducing error and improving accuracy.

Question 76

Surveys find 360-degree ratings are used for both development and pay decisions.

Question 77

Keeping a performance diary helps employers defend against discrimination charges stemming from performance ratings.

Question 78

360-degree feedback is used primarily with managers and other high-level employees.

Question 79

Research has shown that the BARS format has proven the best for reducing rating errors.

Question 80

Performance appraisals are more accurate when raters are required to provide feedback to subordinates.