Deck 14: Human Resource Policies and Practices in the Arab World

Question 1

You are involved in training and development for your division at WorldProducts, Inc. You want to target some specific organizational problems through training.

-Your organization is situated in an urban area where many students do not finish high school. You will probably first have to address the skill category termed _______.

A) interpersonal
B) problem solving
C) managerial
D) basic literacy
E) technical

Answer 1

basic literacy

Question 2

All of the following are ways to overcome problems encountered with performance evaluations except .

A) train evaluators
B) evaluate selectively
C) focus on identifiable traits
D) provide employees with due process
E) use multiple evaluators

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What is a common contingent selection method?

A) interview
B) IQ test
C) work sample test
D) interest inventory
E) drug test

Answer 3

E

Question 4

You have recently gone to work for Goodvibes, a medium-sized firm that provides temporary workers for organizations who are outsourcing such functions as accounting, marketing, and training and development. Most Goodvibes employees are highly trained and could work at almost any company of their choosing. Many employees work part-time or job share so that they can have more control over how their time is spent. Goodvibes has instituted many family-friendly programs in order to attract and keep these talented people.
Which of the following programs is Goodvibes likely to have instituted?

A) relocation assistance
B) child care
C) elder care
D) all of A, B and C
E) none of A, B or C

Question 5

You have recently gone to work for Goodvibes, a medium-sized firm that provides temporary workers for organizations who are outsourcing such functions as accounting, marketing, and training and development. Most Goodvibes employees are highly trained and could work at almost any company of their choosing. Many employees work part-time or job share so that they can have more control over how their time is spent. Goodvibes has instituted many family-friendly programs in order to attract and keep these talented people.

-A Harvard study found that 82 percent of_______ between the ages of 20 and 39 said that a "family-friendly" schedule was their most important job criterion.

A) job applicants
B) managers
C) women
D) employees
E) men

Question 6

Which of the following is not a typical written test used in organizations?

A) interest
B) work sample
C) personality
D) intelligence
E) integrity

Question 7

Which of the following is not a standard method of performance evaluation?

A) critical incidents
B) interviews
C) BARS
D) graphic rating scales
E) written essays

Question 8

You have recently gone to work for Goodvibes, a medium-sized firm that provides temporary workers for organizations who are outsourcing such functions as accounting, marketing, and training and development. Most Goodvibes employees are highly trained and could work at almost any company of their choosing. Many employees work part-time or job share so that they can have more control over how their time is spent. Goodvibes has instituted many family-friendly programs in order to attract and keep these talented people.

-To reduce the work-life conflicts faced by their employees, Goodvibes should spend less effort helping employees with _______.

A) segmenting their work and home lives
B) improving their job productivity
C) adjusting to a wide range of scheduling options
D) improving time management skills
E) integrating their work and home lives

Question 9

Recruitment is best described as_______ .

A) locating, identifying and attracting capable applicants
B) developing training and development programs for new employees
C) filtering application forms
D) publicizing job vacancies to internal and external potential candidates
E) using a wide range of selection practices to fill all vacant roles

Question 10

You are involved in training and development for your division at WorldProducts, Inc. You want to target some specific organizational problems through training.

-Your organization has reduced layers, flattening the organization. Your employees now need to perform a wider variety of tasks. As a result, you need to provide employees with training to help develop their_______ skills.

A) interpersonal
B) problem solving
C) technical
D) basic literacy
E) none of the above

Question 11

The results of which of the following tend to have a disproportionate amount of influence on employee selection decisions?

A) written tests
B) personality tests
C) interviews
D) work sampling methods
E) performance simulation tests

Question 12

Which approach to performance evaluation rank-orders employees from best to worst?

A) straight ranking
B) paired comparison
C) group order ranking
D) comparison ranking
E) individual ranking

Question 13

Which of the following is true regarding behavioral structured interviews?

A) They increase the effectiveness of the interview technique.
B) They are most useful when interviewing high-performing workers.
C) They are useful only for interviewing non-skilled workers.
D) They are conducted in a similar manner as audition-type interviews.
E) They decrease an interviewer's reliance on his or her "gut feelings."

Question 14

Work sample tests are widely used in hiring_______ .

A) professional workers
B) managers
C) unskilled labor
D) skilled workers
E) knowledge workers

Question 15

The approach to evaluation that uses feedback from those who have daily contact with an employee (everyone from mailroom personnel to customers to bosses to peers) is termed _______.

A) BARS
B) MBWA
C) multiperson comparisons
D) critical incidents
E) 360-degree evaluation

Question 16

Examples of on-the-job training include all of the following except .

A) apprenticeship
B) job rotation
C) formal mentoring programs
D) simulation centers
E) understudy assignments

Question 17

Omar has received authorization to add an assistant manager to his department. This person will be working closely with Omar and must have excellent interpersonal as well as technical skills. Omar wants to make certain that he maximizes the chance of choosing the correct individual and is trying to decide on the most appropriate selection device.

-The best means of evaluating the management skills of the applicants would be achieved through _______.

A) written basic literacy tests
B) written personality tests
C) verifying the applicants' job histories
D) work sampling
E) use of an assessment center

Question 18

The variability in interview results across an applicant pool is reduced by using a standardized_______ .

A) time frame for scheduling interviews
B) set of interview questions
C) pool of applicants
D) approach for recruiting applicants
E) none of the above

Question 19

Which of the following statements is true concerning international selection practices?

A) Groups are typically much more effective at selecting candidates in individualistic cultures.
B) Policies and practices do not require modification from one country to the next.
C) Structured interviews are popular in all countries.
D) Beliefs about how one should conduct an interpersonal interview are consistent across countries.
E) The use of educational qualifications in screening candidates seems to be a universal practice.

Question 20

One reason to consider graphic rating scales is_______ .

A) the quality of their results
B) their accuracy
C) their breadth of information
D) their usability in quantitative analysis
E) their reliability

Question 21

Applicants describe how they handled problems and situations in previous jobs in a(n)_______ interview.

A) audition-type
B) problem-solving
C) behavioral structured
D) reflection
E) performance-simulation

Question 22

You are involved in training and development for your division at WorldProducts, Inc. You want to target some specific organizational problems through training.

-You are implementing self-managed teams and quality-management programs. It would be important to conduct training in_______.

A) interpersonal skills
B) interdependence
C) technical skills
D) problem solving skills
E) basic literacy

Question 23

Which of the following is the least predictive set of criteria used to evaluate employees?

A) task outcomes
B) mood
C) behaviors
D) personality
E) traits

Question 24

Which type of skill training has become increasingly important in organizations?

A) problem solving
B) financial
C) technical
D) interpersonal
E) social

Question 25

Training employees on how to be better listeners falls under which of the following training categories?

A) cultural skills
B) interpersonal skills
C) problem-solving skills
D) technical skills
E) ethical skills

Question 26

The company that Mahir works for is expanding. They have traditionally operated in North America and are now expanding to some markets on the west coast of Africa. Mahir has been asked to head up the human resources team that will be hiring the first employees and setting up the practices and procedures.
Mahir and his team need to decide what kind of performance evaluations to use. They will need to evaluate the culture in terms of all of the following dimensions except .

A) language dominance
B) individualism/collectivism
C) personal relationships to the environment
D) time orientation
E) focus of responsibility

Question 27

The company that Mahir works for is expanding. They have traditionally operated in North America and are now expanding to some markets on the west coast of Africa. Mahir has been asked to head up the human resources team that will be hiring the first employees and setting up the practices and procedures.

-As Mahir begins to evaluate the appropriate selection process, the one thing that he can feel very safe implementing is the use of_______ .

A) interviews as a method to screen and select candidates
B) educational qualifications to screen candidates
C) work sample tests
D) any of the above
E) none of the above

Question 28

_______ranking requires the evaluator to place employees into a particular classification, such as top one-fifth or second one-fifth.

A) Individual
B) Fractional
C) Group order
D) Paired
E) Percentile

Question 29

Mahir will need to know that the results of looking at the country's time orientation will affect_______ .

A) how much importance should be placed on meeting work deadlines
B) how often performance evaluations should occur
C) how quickly an employee should be reprimanded after misconduct
D) how long performance evaluations should last
E) how much training an employee should typically receive

Question 30

How would a participator best absorb information?

A) use computers to read manuals
B) copy what others do on computers
C) watch others and imitate behaviors
D) gain hands-on experience
E) listen to an audiotape

Question 31

The unstructured interview is_______ .

A) often only modestly related to future job performance
B) none of A, B or C
C) typically biased
D) usually made up of random questions
E) all of A, B and C

Question 32

Diversity training programs are generally intended to provide a vehicle for_______ .

A) socializing otherwise unmanageable employees
B) focusing on individual differences
C) eliminating group learning
D) increasing awareness and examining stereotypes
E) balancing work/life conflicts

Question 33

The evaluation method that focuses the evaluator's attention on those behaviors that are key to executing a job effectively is known as_______ .

A) graphic rating scales
B) forced comparison
C) intellectual competence
D) critical incidents
E) behaviorally anchored rating scales

Question 34

Which performance evaluation method is probably the simplest?

A) graphic rating scales
B) critical incidents
C) written essays
D) intellectual assessment
E) behaviorally anchored rating scales

Question 35

Omar has received authorization to add an assistant manager to his department. This person will be working closely with Omar and must have excellent interpersonal as well as technical skills. Omar wants to make certain that he maximizes the chance of choosing the correct individual and is trying to decide on the most appropriate selection device.

-Omar has decided to create a work sampling and let applicants demonstrate their abilities. He
Should use this to evaluate candidates'_______skills.

A) interpersonal
B) reactive
C) technical
D) associative
E) ethical

Question 36

_______involves evaluating one's performance against the performance of one or more others.

A) BARS
B) Forced comparison
C) A critical incident diary
D) A graphic rating scale
E) Likert analysis

Question 37

Alima is the new director of human resources and psychological services for a small consulting firm in Cairo.

-Alima's consulting firm makes extensive use of teams, encourages employee involvement, and is very concerned with quality-management. An appropriate evaluation technique for this firm would be _______.

A) BARS
B) graphic rating scales
C) trait evaluations
D) written essays
E) 360-degree evaluations

Question 38

Examples of off-the-job training include all of the following except .

A) Internet courses
B) apprenticeship programs
C) public seminars
D) videotapes
E) classroom lectures

Question 39

Which of the following is not one of the major challenges presented by diversity?

A) acceptability of others
B) resistance to change
C) globalization
D) language barriers
E) effectiveness of interpersonal communication

Question 40

Elaborate sets of performance simulation tests, specifically designed to evaluate a candidate's managerial potential, are_______ .

A) likely to skew the results of behavioral samples
B) administered in assessment centers
C) considered drawbacks of some management development programs
D) more effective than work sampling
E) similar to personality tests

Question 41

Which of the following is not true concerning self-evaluations?

A) They lead to employees rating themselves highly.
B) They are often low in agreement with superiors' ratings.
C) They tend to be biased estimates.
D) They tend to heighten employees' defensiveness about the appraisal process.
E) They make excellent vehicles for stimulating job performance discussions between employees and their superiors.

Question 42

_______can be used to increase the perception that employees are treated fairly.

A) Documenting with a journal
B) Multiple raters
C) Selective evaluation
D) Due process
E) Focusing on subjective evaluations

Question 43

When an appraiser rates employees based on items on a continuum with the points reflecting actual behaviors on a given job, this type of evaluation is called _______.

A) MBWA
B) behavioral structured ratings
C) graphic rating scale
D) critical incident
E) BARS

Question 44

If the manager uses critical incidents as a method of performance evaluation, then_______ .

A) the cost of the evaluation is likely to be incredibly high for the organization
B) the subordinate is apt to become confused
C) the subordinate is likely to become motivated
D) the focus of the evaluation will center on key behaviors
E) the evaluator's writing skills become the determining factor of the evaluation

Question 45

The focus of most diversity programs is _______.

A) employee satisfaction
B) training
C) top management commitment
D) human resource personnel
E) employee commitment

Question 46

Omar has received authorization to add an assistant manager to his department. This person will be working closely with Omar and must have excellent interpersonal as well as technical skills. Omar wants to make certain that he maximizes the chance of choosing the correct individual and is trying to decide on the most appropriate selection device.

-Omar is considering administering written integrity tests to management candidates that pass the initial screening. These tests will most likely help Omar to predict a candidate's_______ .

A) likelihood of posing discipline problems
B) degree of attention to detail
C) spatial and mechanical abilities
D) degree of positive self-concept
E) propensity to react calmly under stress

Question 47

Performance evaluations are used as a mechanism for all of the following except .

A) providing feedback to employees
B) human resource decisions
C) monitoring the success of marketing strategies
D) identifying training and development needs
E) reward allocations

Question 48

The logic of using _______is that it should be the best way for an employer to find out if a potential employee can do a job.

A) a written test
B) an IQ test
C) a performance simulation test
D) an interview process
E) background checks

Question 49

Performance evaluations are used to_______ .

A) help management make HR decisions
B) improve group cohesiveness
C) decrease conformity within organizations
D) define departmental structure
E) identify how jobs are completed

Question 50

Hands-on simulation of part of a job is known as a _______.

A) work sample
B) practical assessment
C) performance-simulation interview
D) behavioral role exposition
E) job simulation assessment

Question 51

In practice, organizations use interviews _______.

A) to determine applicant-organization fit
B) to assess a candidate's credit history
C) to manipulate an applicant's image of the company
D) solely to assess specific, job relevant skills
E) for none of the above

Question 52

You are involved in training and development for your division at WorldProducts, Inc. You want to target some specific organizational problems through training.
WorldProducts is considering implementing employee ethics training programs. Some members of senior management are opposed to these programs. Their opposition is most likely based on which of the following beliefs?

A) Ethics training is almost nonexistent in today's workplace.
B) Integrity cannot be taught by example.
C) Ethics can be learned only through formal teaching programs.
D) Ethics programs help employees to recognize ethical dilemmas.
E) Individual values systems are fixed at an early age.

Question 53

Initiatives to improve work/life balance can include flextime, relocation assistance, on-site child care, and tying manager pay to employee satisfaction.

Question 54

Self-evaluations usually reflect the same ratings as evaluations performed by an individual's superiors.

Question 55

Which of the following statements is not an accurate representation of basic literacy skills levels?

A) For many developing countries, widespread illiteracy means there is little hope of competing in a global economy.
B) Governments in the Arab world are not concerned about literacy levels.
C) There are high levels of illiteracy across the Arab world.
D) Education systems in the Arab world are under pressure to improve basic literacy standards.
E) Poor basic literacy skills present a problem in workforces throughout the world.

Question 56

Which of the following has proven to be a particularly good predictor for jobs that require cognitive complexity?

A) behavioral assessment
B) intelligence tests
C) aptitude tests
D) integrity evaluations
E) work sampling

Question 57

The behavioral structured interview is built on the assumption that_______ .

A) personality and mood are highly correlated
B) technical knowledge and mood are highly correlated
C) past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior
D) personality is the best predictor of job performance
E) technical knowledge and skills are the best predictor of job performance

Question 58

Which of the following is not true concerning international performance evaluations?

A) Every culture is concerned with performance appraisal.
B) Caution should be used in generalizing across cultures.
C) Israel's culture values group activities.
D) Individualistic countries emphasize formal performance evaluation systems.
E) Not all managers look at performance appraisal the same way as do managers in the US.

Question 59

Omar has received authorization to add an assistant manager to his department. This person will be working closely with Omar and must have excellent interpersonal as well as technical skills. Omar wants to make certain that he maximizes the chance of choosing the correct individual and is trying to decide on the most appropriate selection device.

-A written test will most likely help Omar to evaluate candidates'_______ .

A) productivity
B) all of a, b and c
C) none of a, b or c
D) cognitive abilities
E) on-the-job skills

Question 60

Which of the following is not a reason typically cited by managers regarding their reluctance to give performance feedback?

A) Managers often fear confrontation with employees.
B) Employees have an inflated assessment of their own performance.
C) Manager are often uncomfortable discussing performance weaknesses with employees.
D) Many employees become defensive when their weaknesses are pointed out.
E) The human resources department is not supportive of the feedback process.

Question 61

The use of educational qualifications in screening candidates is not used in Middle Eastern countries since managers tend to see people as subjugated to their environment.

Question 62

One of the most popular methods of evaluation is the graphic rating scale.

Question 63

When a manager is evaluated on the cost per unit of production in his or her department, the evaluation criterion being used is behaviors.

Question 64

There is no evidence to support the idea that training evaluators can help them to be more accurate raters.

Question 65

Assessment center tests are effective for predicting the job performance of employees in managerial positions.

Question 66

The most effective training is conducted through the use of standardized teaching techniques.

Question 67

Forced comparisons are absolute measuring devices for performance evaluation.

Question 68

Most training takes place in the form of formal, live classroom lectures.

Question 69

To maximize training results, those who learn best by reading should have the opportunity to observe individuals modeling new skills.

Question 70

Statistically speaking, half of all employees must be below-average performers.

Question 71

Interpersonal skills are inherent, which means that training can make some minor improvements, but it is not likely to result in major changes.

Question 72

Due process systems provide individuals with adequate notice of what is expected of them.

Question 73

The objective of effective selection is to match individual characteristics with the requirements of a job.

Question 74

As a selection device, written tests have decreased in usage during the past 20 years.

Question 75

Employees will alter their job behavior to reflect the criteria that management uses to evaluate their performance.

Question 76

A structured interview is short and made up of random questions.

Question 77

The approach that compares each employee with every other employee and rates each as either the superior or weaker member of the pair is called group order ranking.

Question 78

Collectivist cultures that dominate the Arab world are characterized by informal systems for performance evaluation.

Question 79

The individual ranking approach ranks each employee into a particular classification.

Question 80

If the recruitment process is done properly, new employees shouldn't need any further training.