Deck 10: Decision Making

Question 1

Some organizations collect and combine applicant information from objective sources, such as tests or biographical inventories, and the decision maker examines these data to form an overall, subjective impression of the applicant's suitability for the job.Which of the following terms refers to this approach

A)pure judgment
B)trait rating
C)profile interpretation
D)pure statistical

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What is the term for the threshold at which those scoring at or above the score will pass, and those scoring below will fail

A)minimum performance score
B)cutoff score
C)pass mark score
D)threshold level score

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT a constraint or a competing demand employers must contend with when making selection decisions

A)time pressures
B)satisficing
C)an oversupply of applicants
D)selecting individuals who have adequate information about the job requirements

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which concept refers to the proportion of applicants who are hired for one or more positions

A)yield ratio
B)applicant ratio
C)selection ratio
D)employment ratio

Question 5

Which approach to collecting and combining applicant information involves the decision maker forming an overall impression of the applicant based on gut feelings or implicit theories, rather than on explicit, objective criteria

A)the pure judgment approach
B)the trait rating approach
C)the profile interpretation approach
D)the judgmental composite approach

Question 6

How are implicit theories defined

A)They are theories about how certain behaviours, mannerisms, or personality characteristics go together without objective evidence.
B)They are theories about how certain behaviours, mannerisms, or personality characteristics go together with objective evidence.
C)They are theories about how certain behaviours, mannerisms, or personality characteristics go together with conscious awareness.
D)They are theories about how certain behaviours, mannerisms, or personality characteristics differentiate between applicants.

Question 7

What type of error occurs when an applicant who is assessed favourably turns out to be a poor choice

A)false negative error
B)false positive error
C)leniency error
D)strictness error

Question 8

In organizations that select candidates for the organization rather than for specific jobs, which of the following is NOT required

A)selecting for organizational fit
B)having strong external hiring policies
C)possessing flexible job descriptions
D)hiring to fill dynamic and changing jobs

Question 9

Which of the following does NOT reduce the objectivity of group decisions

A)group conformity
B)power motives
C)organizational culture
D)information asymmetry

Question 10

Which of the following is NOT related to the statistical composite approach

A)collecting both judgmental and statistical data
B)combining data statistically
C)combining the ratings or scores in a formula or regression equation
D)combining data in a judgmental manner

Question 11

In which approach are data combined statistically

A)statistical composite
B)trait rating
C)profile interpretation
D)pure statistical

Question 12

In which approach are judgmental data combined statistically

A)trait rating
B)profile interpretation
C)judgmental composite
D)pure judgment

Question 13

Regarding the accepted standard for passing a course in most general undergraduate university degree programs, what cutoff score was established by convention

A)80 percent
B)70 percent
C)60 percent
D)50 percent

Question 14

What might team members of a selection committee uncover by discussing their rationales for candidate ratings during the selection process

A)expectancy errors
B)person-organization fit
C)negligent hiring
D)biases and errors

Question 15

Which concept refers to the value, in terms of increased validity, of adding a particular predictor to an existing selection system

A)referent validity
B)coefficient validity
C)external validity
D)incremental validity

Question 16

What type of theories are personal beliefs that are held about how people or things function, without objective evidence and often without conscious awareness

A)explicit
B)implicit
C)psychological
D)attribution

Question 17

Which concept refers to the process in which statistical data are combined in a judgmental manner

A)pure statistical approach
B)profile interpretation
C)pure judgment approach
D)judgmental composite

Question 18

For employers who tend to have a holistic, intuitive decision-making style, what might convince them to use statistical approaches in the selection process

A)changes to HR policy manuals
B)more evidence and training
C)technologically generated data
D)data integrated to selection criteria

Question 19

Which concept refers to making an acceptable or adequate choice rather than the best or optimal choice

A)selection bias
B)satisficing
C)sufficiency
D)success rate

Question 20

In which approach to collecting and combining applicant information are a number of judgmental ratings made based on various sources of information

A)trait rating
B)profile interpretation
C)pure statistical
D)judgmental composite

Question 21

Scenario 10-1 For four months you have been employed as the part-time HRM for TS Inc., a small Canadian aviation company.In the past, recruitment and selection rested on the shoulders of the president and, like most small companies, TS Inc.used employee referrals and an informal interview process in selecting employees.Since you have been hired, you have guided management through several stages of the recruitment and selection process to hire an aircraft maintenance engineer.TS Inc.has used proper selection methods, such as screening, testing, and structured interviews, but is not sure about how to integrate the data from these various sources.In the past, the president relied on his gut feeling about applicants and made poor hiring decisions.
Refer to Scenario 10-1.There are several constraints and competing demands when making selection decisions.Which is NOT a constraint for TS Inc.

A)time pressures
B)satisficing
C)statistical data
D)organizational policies

Question 22

What concept refers to grouping applicants based on ranges of scores

A)banding
B)profiling
C)matching
D)categorizing

Question 23

Scenario 10-1 For four months you have been employed as the part-time HRM for TS Inc., a small Canadian aviation company.In the past, recruitment and selection rested on the shoulders of the president and, like most small companies, TS Inc.used employee referrals and an informal interview process in selecting employees.Since you have been hired, you have guided management through several stages of the recruitment and selection process to hire an aircraft maintenance engineer.TS Inc.has used proper selection methods, such as screening, testing, and structured interviews, but is not sure about how to integrate the data from these various sources.In the past, the president relied on his gut feeling about applicants and made poor hiring decisions.
Refer to Scenario 10-1.TS Inc.has made costly selection errors in the past when the company underestimated the potential of an aircraft maintenance engineer, which resulted in a no-hire decision.The applicant accepted a position with a competing aviation company, and the quality of his work led to an industry safety award, resulting in increased contracts for the competing company.What is this error called

A)a false positive
B)a false negative
C)a positive error
D)a negative error

Question 24

Scenario 10-1 For four months you have been employed as the part-time HRM for TS Inc., a small Canadian aviation company.In the past, recruitment and selection rested on the shoulders of the president and, like most small companies, TS Inc.used employee referrals and an informal interview process in selecting employees.Since you have been hired, you have guided management through several stages of the recruitment and selection process to hire an aircraft maintenance engineer.TS Inc.has used proper selection methods, such as screening, testing, and structured interviews, but is not sure about how to integrate the data from these various sources.In the past, the president relied on his gut feeling about applicants and made poor hiring decisions.
Refer to Scenario 10-1.TS Inc.would like to use an approach to collecting and combining applicant information in which judgmental and statistical data are combined statistically.The applicants' scores would be given, and selection decisions would be based on each component, such as the structured interview and test.Which approach is this

A)trait rating
B)pure statistical
C)judgmental composite
D)statistical composite

Question 25

Scenario 10-1 For four months you have been employed as the part-time HRM for TS Inc., a small Canadian aviation company.In the past, recruitment and selection rested on the shoulders of the president and, like most small companies, TS Inc.used employee referrals and an informal interview process in selecting employees.Since you have been hired, you have guided management through several stages of the recruitment and selection process to hire an aircraft maintenance engineer.TS Inc.has used proper selection methods, such as screening, testing, and structured interviews, but is not sure about how to integrate the data from these various sources.In the past, the president relied on his gut feeling about applicants and made poor hiring decisions.
Refer to Scenario 10-1.Why would TS Inc.management be concerned about false positive errors

A)The high-performing applicants were not screened out.
B)These could result in litigation and loss of employees' competitive skills.
C)The low-performing applicants were hired.
D)Individuals who had the qualifications were mistakenly eliminated.

Question 26

The belief that unswerving eye contact reveals honesty, directness, and confidence is an example of an implicit theory.

Question 27

The purpose of selection is to discriminate.

Question 28

Scenario 10-1 For four months you have been employed as the part-time HRM for TS Inc., a small Canadian aviation company.In the past, recruitment and selection rested on the shoulders of the president and, like most small companies, TS Inc.used employee referrals and an informal interview process in selecting employees.Since you have been hired, you have guided management through several stages of the recruitment and selection process to hire an aircraft maintenance engineer.TS Inc.has used proper selection methods, such as screening, testing, and structured interviews, but is not sure about how to integrate the data from these various sources.In the past, the president relied on his gut feeling about applicants and made poor hiring decisions.
Refer to Scenario 10-1.Which term defines TS Inc.'s president's decision-making style, in which he bases his selection decisions on whether he likes the applicant and how he feels about the applicant

A)implicit theory decision making
B)intuitive decision making
C)rational decision making
D)logical decision making

Question 29

Scenario 10-1 For four months you have been employed as the part-time HRM for TS Inc., a small Canadian aviation company.In the past, recruitment and selection rested on the shoulders of the president and, like most small companies, TS Inc.used employee referrals and an informal interview process in selecting employees.Since you have been hired, you have guided management through several stages of the recruitment and selection process to hire an aircraft maintenance engineer.TS Inc.has used proper selection methods, such as screening, testing, and structured interviews, but is not sure about how to integrate the data from these various sources.In the past, the president relied on his gut feeling about applicants and made poor hiring decisions.
Refer to Scenario 10-1.Based on an applicant's unswerving eye contact, the president commented that the applicant was honest and confident.What is this an example of

A)implicit theory
B)reflection behaviour
C)false negative error
D)true positive

Question 30

What is the simplest way of combining applicant information in the selection process

A)Add the scores together.
B)Apply weighted averages.
C)Apply moving averages.
D)Separate quantitative and qualitative data.

Question 31

What is a decision-making model in which applicants must pass the minimum cut-off for each predictor, in turn, before being assessed on the next predictor

A)multiple regression
B)multiple cutoff
C)multiple hurdle
D)multiple criteria

Question 32

Implicit theories are personal beliefs that are held about how people or things function, without objective evidence or often without conscious awareness.

Question 33

Scenario 10-1 For four months you have been employed as the part-time HRM for TS Inc., a small Canadian aviation company.In the past, recruitment and selection rested on the shoulders of the president and, like most small companies, TS Inc.used employee referrals and an informal interview process in selecting employees.Since you have been hired, you have guided management through several stages of the recruitment and selection process to hire an aircraft maintenance engineer.TS Inc.has used proper selection methods, such as screening, testing, and structured interviews, but is not sure about how to integrate the data from these various sources.In the past, the president relied on his gut feeling about applicants and made poor hiring decisions.
Refer to Scenario 10-1.TS Inc.would like to use a decision-making model in which applicants' scores on each predictor (i.e., tests, interviews, reference checks) are weighted and summed to yield a total score (i.e., predicted job performance).What is this model called

A)multiple regression model
B)multiple cutoff model
C)multiple hurdle model
D)profile matching model

Question 34

Scenario 10-1 For four months you have been employed as the part-time HRM for TS Inc., a small Canadian aviation company.In the past, recruitment and selection rested on the shoulders of the president and, like most small companies, TS Inc.used employee referrals and an informal interview process in selecting employees.Since you have been hired, you have guided management through several stages of the recruitment and selection process to hire an aircraft maintenance engineer.TS Inc.has used proper selection methods, such as screening, testing, and structured interviews, but is not sure about how to integrate the data from these various sources.In the past, the president relied on his gut feeling about applicants and made poor hiring decisions.
Refer to Scenario 10-1.TS Inc.wants the relationship between the actual number of people hired and the number who applied for a position to yield 0.8.What is this proportion of applicants called

A)applicant ratio
B)standard deviation
C)selection ratio
D)selection pool

Question 35

Scenario 10-1 For four months you have been employed as the part-time HRM for TS Inc., a small Canadian aviation company.In the past, recruitment and selection rested on the shoulders of the president and, like most small companies, TS Inc.used employee referrals and an informal interview process in selecting employees.Since you have been hired, you have guided management through several stages of the recruitment and selection process to hire an aircraft maintenance engineer.TS Inc.has used proper selection methods, such as screening, testing, and structured interviews, but is not sure about how to integrate the data from these various sources.In the past, the president relied on his gut feeling about applicants and made poor hiring decisions.
Refer to Scenario 10-1.Which of the following statistical and judgmental approaches to collecting and combining applicant information would TS Inc.NOT choose to use

A)behaviour rating
B)trait rating
C)pure statistical
D)judgmental composite

Question 36

Scenario 10-1 For four months you have been employed as the part-time HRM for TS Inc., a small Canadian aviation company.In the past, recruitment and selection rested on the shoulders of the president and, like most small companies, TS Inc.used employee referrals and an informal interview process in selecting employees.Since you have been hired, you have guided management through several stages of the recruitment and selection process to hire an aircraft maintenance engineer.TS Inc.has used proper selection methods, such as screening, testing, and structured interviews, but is not sure about how to integrate the data from these various sources.In the past, the president relied on his gut feeling about applicants and made poor hiring decisions.
Refer to Scenario 10-1.TS Inc.has often selected the first applicant who met the minimum qualifications.What is this constraint

A)applicant knowledge, skills, abilities, and other attributes
B)satisficing
C)implicit hiring
D)judgmental procedure

Question 37

Scenario 10-1 For four months you have been employed as the part-time HRM for TS Inc., a small Canadian aviation company.In the past, recruitment and selection rested on the shoulders of the president and, like most small companies, TS Inc.used employee referrals and an informal interview process in selecting employees.Since you have been hired, you have guided management through several stages of the recruitment and selection process to hire an aircraft maintenance engineer.TS Inc.has used proper selection methods, such as screening, testing, and structured interviews, but is not sure about how to integrate the data from these various sources.In the past, the president relied on his gut feeling about applicants and made poor hiring decisions.
Refer to Scenario 10-1.Currently, TS Inc.is using objective sources such as test scores to collect applicant information.How is this approach defined

A)as statistical
B)as subjective
C)as biased
D)as judgmental

Question 38

According to the textbook, which of the following is NOT a predictor score for a sales applicant

A)cognitive ability test
B)introversion scale
C)structured interview
D)reference check

Question 39

Scenario 10-1 For four months you have been employed as the part-time HRM for TS Inc., a small Canadian aviation company.In the past, recruitment and selection rested on the shoulders of the president and, like most small companies, TS Inc.used employee referrals and an informal interview process in selecting employees.Since you have been hired, you have guided management through several stages of the recruitment and selection process to hire an aircraft maintenance engineer.TS Inc.has used proper selection methods, such as screening, testing, and structured interviews, but is not sure about how to integrate the data from these various sources.In the past, the president relied on his gut feeling about applicants and made poor hiring decisions.
Refer to Scenario 10-1.Why would TS Inc.management be concerned about false positive errors

A)lower turnover
B)lost productivity
C)reduced termination costs
D)loss of competencies

Question 40

Scenario 10-1 For four months you have been employed as the part-time HRM for TS Inc., a small Canadian aviation company.In the past, recruitment and selection rested on the shoulders of the president and, like most small companies, TS Inc.used employee referrals and an informal interview process in selecting employees.Since you have been hired, you have guided management through several stages of the recruitment and selection process to hire an aircraft maintenance engineer.TS Inc.has used proper selection methods, such as screening, testing, and structured interviews, but is not sure about how to integrate the data from these various sources.In the past, the president relied on his gut feeling about applicants and made poor hiring decisions.
Refer to Scenario 10-1.In the past, TS Inc.used subjective sources such as unstructured interviews to collect applicant information.What is this approach called

A)profile interpretation
B)pure judgment
C)profile judgmental
D)judgmental composite

Question 41

In the multiple cutoff model, applicants are rejected if their scores on any of the predictors fall below the cutoff scores.

Question 42

Many employers believe they have a knack for making good selection decisions.Comment, defining the impact of implicit theories on the selection process.

Question 43

Top-down selection is the proportion of applicants for one or more positions who are hired.

Question 44

In the profile matching model, current employees who are poor performers are assessed on several predictors.

Question 45

Describe one of the statistical or judgmental approaches used for the collection and combination of information.

Question 46

What are some of the constraints facing managers during the selection process

Question 47

An approach in which data are combined statistically is referred to as a judgmental composite.

Question 48

Surveys indicate that in most organizations one individual makes selection decisions.

Question 49

Banding involves ranking applicants on the basis of their total scores and selecting from the top down until the desired number of candidates has been selected.

Question 50

In the multiple hurdle model, applicants must pass the minimum cutoff for each predictor, in turn, before being assessed on the next predictor.

Question 51

Employers welcome statistical approaches to selection decision making and use them widely.

Question 52

A false negative error occurs when an applicant who is assessed positively turns out to be a poor choice.

Question 53

Cutoff scores ensure that applicants meet some minimum level of ability or qualification to be considered for a job.

Question 54

Describe three selection decision-making models.What are the advantages of each

Question 55

A false negative error occurs when an applicant who is rejected would have been a good choice.

Question 56

For an employment contract to be valid and enforceable there must be consideration.

Question 57

What are some of the advantages of group decision making in selection

Question 58

Why do most employers resist using statistical decision-making approaches

Question 59

In banding, employers may select within bands on the basis of secondary criteria, such as education, experience, or professional conduct.Minority status can be used only as a tiebreaker among individuals with the same scores.

Question 60

What are two common types of errors made in selection decision making

Question 61

Describe some of the major challenges facing HR professionals with respect to decision making in the recruitment and selection process.

Question 62

Refer to an organization and job position you are familiar with.Describe the elements you would use in making a final selection decision.