Deck 13: Business

Question 1

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

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

Answer 1

industrial/organizational

Question 2

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.

Answer 2

engaging in self-effacement when being asked about his qualifications.

Question 3

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.

Answer 3

social influences in the workplace.

Question 4

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

A) Exaggeration
B) Ingratiation
C) Outright lying
D) Image protection

Question 5

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

Question 6

_______ 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

Question 7

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 satisfied with their current romantic partner?
D) How do financial incentives affect worker motivation?

Question 8

Identify the factor (s) that influences human relations.

A) The Hawthorne studies
B) The study of scientific management
C) The threat of unionization
D) All of the above

Question 9

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 10

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 11

According to Marlowe and others (1996), 62% of hiring managers studied selected a candidate who was

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

Question 12

_______ is not a type of qualitative interview because an interviewer prepared a particular set of questions in advance.

A) Oral history interview
B) Structured interview
C) Focus group interview
D) Unstructured interview

Question 13

During 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 14

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 15

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 16

_______ is the study of human behavior in the workplace.

A) Clinical psychology
B) Experimental psychology
C) Economic/applied psychology
D) Industrial/organizational psychology

Question 17

Which of the following findings 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 18

Who conducted the Hawthorne experiments?

A) Max Weber
B) Elton Mayo
C) Henri Fayol
D) Charles Handy

Question 19

The major benefit of face-to-face interviews is that they

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

Question 20

Lindy is a college professor who is attempting to improve the performance of her students by making learning-friendly course material. 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 impact of physical setting on academic performance.

Question 21

Compared to structured interviews, specific questions and specified answers are the major features of

A) directive interviews.
B) appraisal interviews.
C) unstructured interviews.
D) exit interviews.

Question 22

The advantage of structured over 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 understanding of each applicant.
D) has more flexibility to pursue interesting lines of questioning in the interview.

Question 23

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 preinterview.
C) most job applicants do not like the structure.
D) people take a very long time to size up a job applicant.

Question 24

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) nonstructured interviews.

Question 25

The term _______ was coined by Robert K. Merton in 1948.

A) self-fulfilling prophecy
B) illusory correlation
C) regression toward the average
D) the hindsight bias

Question 26

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 27

Which of the following findings 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 28

A(n) ____ test is personality based.

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

Question 29

What is a "probing question"?

A) A question that asks indirectly about a person's personal lives
B) A question that inquires directly about a personal issue
C) A question that motivates the interviewee to say more about a topic
D) A question that takes the conversation to another topic

Question 30

Employee selection processes comprise the following tests except

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

Question 31

Based on 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 32

According to 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

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

A) require applicants to first pass rigorous prescreening 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 34

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 35

Neve will be using a structured interview to hire her new assistant. One of the applicants 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 36

By participating in a(n) _______ job applicants are evaluated by multiple methods and multiple evaluators.

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

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 looks for any information she can find about Rika on Facebook. After seeing a picture of Rika holding an alcoholic beverage 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

Mandy has applied for a job at a big 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 39

_______ is the practice by which information seekers gather online information to evaluate, or vet, target's details.

A) Web interviewing
B) Cybervetting
C) Integrity testing
D) 360 examination

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

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) potential applicants see job-specific tests as most fair.
D) each assessment has significant weaknesses.

Question 42

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

Question 43

Which of the following is the best example of "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% of all new employees at a firm must be female.

Question 44

According to Bobocel and others (1998), 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 45

While implementing an affirmative action policy, an employer should avoid the following:

A) setting and communicating clear and explicit qualifications criteria.
B) emphasizing the target applicant's unique contributions to the organization.
C) clearly informing employees that the use of a quota is, in certain cases, justifiable.
D) providing the target applicant and coworkers with specific feedback about the target's qualifications.

Question 46

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 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

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 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

Two changes in the world that have led organizational psychologists 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 51

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 52

According to Plaut and colleagues (2009), 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 53

Why do 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 54

What is the major advantage of unstructured interviews?

A) Interviewer can ask prepared questions.
B) It can be legally defensible.
C) Interviewers can pursue points of interest.
D) The same questions can be asked to all applicants.

Question 55

According to Cedric Herring (2009), 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 56

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

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

Question 57

Kevin is required to check errors in the work done by his team and to correct all the significant deviations to ensure quality delivery. Kevin is conducting a(n) _______ process.

A) controlling
B) leading
C) Planning
D) organizing

Question 58

In research examining different types of interviews, some students were interviewed in person while others were given a telephone or video interview. Which of the following outcomes 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 59

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 60

In a typical 360-degree assessment, _______ rate the performance of the employee.

A) supervisors
B) human resource managers
C) all who are directly in contact with the employee
D) project managers

Question 61

Bobby, Peter, Greg, and Mike are all 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 62

_______ does not influence the supervisor appraisals of an employee.

A) Ability
B) Friendliness
C) On-the-job knowledge
D) Dependability

Question 63

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 64

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.

Question 65

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 66

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 67

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 68

____ appraisal is the practice of obtaining multiple evaluations of an individual worker from supervisors, peers, and subordinates.

A) Circular
B) 360-degree
C) Multidirectional
D) Recombinant

Question 69

Halo effects can 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 70

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 71

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 72

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 73

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 74

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 75

Marvin is a line worker for the clothing manufacturer. Even though he does not have an official title, Marvin is more than willing to give his complete dedication to helping the organization in attaining its goal of producing a quality product. This willingness to pursue an organizational goal is an indication of _______

A) goal setting.
B) self-motivation.
C) positive reinforcement.
D) goal commitment.

Question 76

Tyler supervises more than 35 employees. Halo effects are 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 77

_______ is the principle of the due process model that gives employees the right to be evaluated by a supervisor familiar with their work while receiving timely feedback about their evaluation and the opportunity to present their own case.

A) Adequate notice
B) Procedural fairness
C) Fair hearing
D) Situational control

Question 78

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 79

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 80

_______ is/are not an aspect of the due process model of performance appraisal.

A) Adequate notice
B) Fair hearing
C) Integrity tests
D) Evidence of job performance