Deck 4: Criterion Measurement

Question 1

St. Agatha's University includes on its instructor evaluations a question about the quality of the classroom. However, instructors do not have any control over the classroom they use because it is assigned to them. Because this question measures something that is not truly part of the instructor's performance, it might be considered:

A)criterion contamination.
B)criterion deficiency.
C)criterion relevance.
D)criterion sensitivity.

Answer 1

criterion contamination.

Question 2

At D'Amico's Pizza Parlor, servers are evaluated on their knowledge of the menu, their accuracy of order taking, and their ability to work the cash register. But they should also be measured on how satisfied their customers are with the service. Because customer satisfaction is missing from the performance measure, one might consider it an example of:

A)criterion contamination.
B)criterion deficiency.
C)criterion relevance.
D)criterion practicality.

Answer 2

criterion deficiency.

Question 3

Having a particularly unreliable measure of performance can increase:

A)criterion relevance.
B)criterion prediction.
C)criterion contamination.
D)criterion deficiency.

Answer 3

criterion contamination.

Question 4

_____ is the condition in which a measure fails to measure some aspect of the ultimate criterion.

A)Criterion relevance
B)Criterion bias
C)Criterion contamination
D)Criterion deficiency

Question 5

If one were somehow able to measure everything that makes up job performance, he or she would be measuring:

A)actual criteria.
B)ultimate criteria.
C)composite criteria.
D)subjective criteria.

Question 6

One contributing factor of criterion contamination is:

A)validity.
B)fairness.
C)random measurement error.
D)contextual performance.

Question 7

_____ is the condition in which a measure assesses something that is not part of the ultimate criterion.

A)Criterion relevance
B)Criterion sensitivity
C)Criterion contamination
D)Criterion deficiency

Question 8

A real-world representation of all aspects of performance that define success on the job is known as the:

A)actual criterion.
B)ultimate criterion.
C)composite criterion.
D)objective criterion.

Question 9

According to the definition of "performance" in the textbook, which of these is an example of performance?

A)A flight attendant is excited to go to work in the morning.
B)An animal trainer receives a positive review from a client.
C)A nurse inserts an IV into a patient's arm.
D)A photographer thinks about what items he needs to pack for tomorrow's wedding shoot.

Question 10

All aspects of performance that describe success on the job, although in actuality they can never be completely defined and measured, are known as the:

A)actual criteria.
B)ultimate criteria.
C)composite criteria.
D)objective criteria.

Question 11

Criterion _____ is the extent to which dimensions in the ultimate criterion measure are not part of the actual criterion measure.

A)reliability
B)deficiency
C)relevance
D)contamination

Question 12

Criterion contamination can occur when a rater allows something unrelated to performance, such as liking a ratee, to affect his or her ratings. This is known as:

A)criterion relevance.
B)criterion bias.
C)criterion desensitization.
D)criterion deficiency.

Question 13

In a statistical sense, the percentage of variance in the ultimate criterion that can be accounted for by the actual criterion is known as:

A)practicality.
B)sensitivity.
C)reliability.
D)relevance.

Question 14

Which of these is an example of performance?

A)A plumber fixes a leak.
B)A piano teacher is excited to go to work in the morning.
C)An athletic trainer feels stressed.
D)A wedding planner receives payment for her services.

Question 15

Which statement about performance criteria is true?

A)There is no one performance criterion that is suitable for all organizational purposes.
B)Performance criteria usually consist of one dimension only.
C)I/O psychologists have identified several performance criteria that are perfect measures of performance.
D)All performance criteria are suitable for all organizational decisions.

Question 16

A professor decides to use student attendance in an I/O class as a way to gauge student performance. In this case, student attendance is the _____ and student performance is the _____.

A)actual criterion; ultimate criterion
B)ultimate criterion; actual criterion
C)predictor; criterion
D)criterion; predictor

Question 17

When we talk about performance, we are talking about:

A)beliefs.
B)attitudes.
C)thoughts.
D)behaviors.

Question 18

The amount of overlap between the actual criterion and the ultimate criterion is known as criterion _____:

A)deficiency.
B)contamination.
C)relevance.
D)reliability.

Question 19

An I/O psychologist interested in measuring performance decides to use supervisor ratings. Supervisor ratings are an example of a(n):

A)composite criterion.
B)objective criterion.
C)ultimate criterion.
D)actual criterion.

Question 20

In I/O psychology, _____ are evaluative standards that can be used as yardsticks for measuring employees' success or failure.

A)dimensions
B)elements
C)criteria
D)expatriates

Question 21

An electrician handles phone inquiries and sets appointments to provide estimates. This behavior exemplifies the performance factor known as:

A)job-specific task proficiency.
B)non-job-specific task proficiency.
C)facilitating peer and team performance.
D)supervision.

Question 22

According to Campbell's taxonomy of performance, if a lawyer goes to the office on a holiday to review his or her cases and prepare for the next week, that behavior is best described as:

A)job-specific task proficiency.
B)non-job-specific task proficiency.
C)supervision.
D)demonstrating effort.

Question 23

Campbell's model of performance suggests that all jobs include at least _____ factors.

A)2
B)5
C)8
D)12

Question 24

Even though Emiliana's job performance has not changed over the past year, she received a higher evaluation this year because she has become better friends with her boss. This is an example of _____, which leads to _____.

A)measure reliability; criterion deficiency
B)measure reliability; criterion contamination
C)bias; criterion deficiency
D)bias; criterion contamination

Question 25

Campbell's model of performance includes a total of _____ factors, _____ of which are required for every job.

A)12; 6
B)8; 5
C)12; 3
D)8; 3

Question 26

Someone is measuring the performance of dog grooming professionals by using supervisor ratings. He or she finds that when the supervisors rate the groomers' performance, the ratings are biased because higher ratings are given to groomers who are well liked, regardless of their actual job performance. The supervisors' bias has resulted in:

A)criterion contamination.
B)criterion deficiency.
C)criterion overlap.
D)criterion sensitivity.

Question 27

An I/O psychologist has developed a set of performance criteria with hardly any criterion deficiency or contamination. However, the organization does not approve the measures because they are too difficult to measure and too abstract to be useful for their purpose. The I/O psychologist has encountered a problem with the criteria's:

A)fairness.
B)practicality.
C)reliability.
D)sensitivity.

Question 28

Which of these refers to the stability or consistency of a measure?

A)reliability
B)sensitivity
C)relevance
D)practicality

Question 29

According to Campbell, which of the three dimensions of performance are necessary components of every job?

A)demonstrating job-specific task proficiency, demonstrating effort, and maintaining personal discipline
B)demonstrating proficiency in written and oral communication tasks, maintaining personal discipline, and supervision
C)demonstrating proficiency in written and oral communication tasks, facilitating peer and team performance, and demonstrating effort
D)demonstrating effort, management/administration, and maintaining personal discipline

Question 30

The criterion problem is characterized by two elements. First, practitioners must decide between using multiple or composite criteria. Second, practitioners must determine how to address:

A)counterproductive work behaviors.
B)criterion relevance.
C)dynamic criteria.
D)the lack of available objective criteria.

Question 31

Campbell's model of performance includes a total of _____ factors.

A)3
B)5
C)8
D)12

Question 32

Sara, an I/O psychologist, develops a performance appraisal system that measures employee leadership effectiveness, attendance, and team performance, and combines these into a single performance index. Which type of criterion has Sara created?

A)static
B)dynamic
C)contextual
D)composite

Question 33

I/O researchers have often debated about how to measure performance appropriately. This area of debate and research is generally referred to as the:

A)contextual versus task debate.
B)criterion problem.
C)subjective/objective issue.
D)multiple versus composite argument.

Question 34

According to the textbook, it is important for criteria to be relevant, reliable, sensitive, practical, and:

A)formidable.
B)objective.
C)subjective.
D)fair.

Question 35

Even though Kelsey's job performance has not changed over the past year, she received a higher evaluation this year. Because the measure of performance is not reliable, there is _____ in the measure.

A)criterion relevance
B)criterion deficiency
C)criterion contamination
D)criterion sensitivity

Question 36

According to Campbell, what is one problem with adding up multiple criteria to create a single composite criterion?

A)Such a criterion contains a great deal of data and is often too complex to be used for hiring decisions.
B)Such a criterion treats performance as if it were a single construct.
C)Such a criterion makes it too difficult to select the single best person for a job.
D)Such a criterion is not typically used in organizations because it tends to be quite expensive.

Question 37

Nishina Computers has an evaluation that all computer technicians are rated on. The criteria are so simple; however, that nearly all technicians (even those with low performance) receive a high rating. In this case, the measure likely has low:

A)sensitivity.
B)reliability.
C)practicality.
D)fairness.

Question 38

Yara has determined that, in terms of her bartenders' performance, it is much more important for them to make customers feel comfortable than it is for them to pour drinks correctly. If she uses unequal weighting when evaluating performance, this means that:

A)she weights each bartender differently, depending upon whether he or she makes customers comfortable.
B)in some evaluations she focuses more on customer service, and on other evaluations she focuses more on how her employees pour drinks.
C)customer service and skill in pouring drinks are equally important in her performance evaluations.
D)she tends to weight customer service more heavily than pouring drinks when she evaluates her bartenders.

Question 39

According to Campbell's taxonomy of performance, if an off-duty pilot avoids excessive alcohol in the event that he or she is needed in an emergency, that behavior exemplifies the performance factor known as:

A)job-specific task proficiency.
B)non-job-specific task proficiency.
C)maintaining personal discipline.
D)demonstrating effort.

Question 40

Employees at a dry cleaning service are evaluated on the number of shirts ironed per hour. All of the employees iron between 10 and 12 shirts per hour, so it is difficult to distinguish between effective and ineffective employees. There appears to be a problem with the performance criterion's:

A)sensitivity.
B)fairness.
C)practicality.
D)reliability.

Question 41

The study conducted by Day, Sin, and Chen (2004) on National Hockey League players indicated that:

A)performance varies randomly.
B)an individual's level of productivity remains constant over time.
C)performance is stable over time.
D)performance improves when individuals were promoted to leadership roles.

Question 42

In studying the productivity of National Hockey League players, Day, Sin, and Chen (2004) found that:

A)performance declines when individuals are promoted to leadership roles.
B)performance is unpredictable over time.
C)performance is stable and generally remains the same over time.
D)performance levels appeared to change as a function of leadership responsibilities.

Question 43

Contextual performance is similar to the concept known as:

A)social organizational performance.
B)prosocial organizational behavior.
C)organizational courtesy performance.
D)organizational development behavior.

Question 44

Probably the most typical objective criterion is:

A)turnover.
B)absence.
C)effort.
D)productivity.

Question 45

When selecting an administrative assistant, a supervisor mentions that the assistant's customer service skills might be much more important than his or her typing skills for proper job performance. In this case, one might recommend that the supervisor use a(n) _____ composite criterion when hiring her assistant.

A)equally weighted
B)unit-weighted
C)unequally weighted
D)dynamically weighted

Question 46

A law firm uses law school GPA and work experience to determine if a law school graduate should be hired. When making hiring decisions, a law school graduate's GPA is weighted 80% and work experience is weighted only 20%. This is an example of a(n) _____ composite criterion.

A)fair
B)practical
C)dynamic
D)unequally weighted

Question 47

Sondra assesses the performance of her manufacturing employees by keeping track of how many of the products they produce are defective. This would be an example of a(n) _____ criteria.

A)dynamic
B)deficient
C)objective
D)subjective

Question 48

What is one of the major strengths of subjective criteria for performance?

A)They tend to be less biased than objective criteria.
B)They are more likely to be about a behavior that employees have control over.
C)They are rarely used in most organizations, so attaining them can give a company a competitive advantage.
D)They can be automatically recorded by equipment or personnel records.

Question 49

What is the major weakness of subjective criteria for performance?

A)These criteria are more likely to be affected by rater attitudes than objective performance.
B)They are rarely under the control of the employee.
C)Organizations rarely have access to raters from whom they can obtain subjective measures of performance.
D)It can be quite expensive to obtain subjective measures of performance.

Question 50

Objective criteria tend to be more appropriate for:

A)nonmanagerial positions.
B)managerial positions.
C)low-quality employees.
D)high-quality employees.

Question 51

Louisa assesses the performance of her manufacturing employees by having supervisors provide effectiveness ratings. This would be an example of a(n) _____ criterion.

A)objective
B)composite
C)dynamic
D)subjective

Question 52

In their classic article on handling criteria, Schmidt and Kaplan (1971) argue that when making hiring decisions most applied psychologists should:

A)use a weighted composite for hiring, and then examine the relationships between predictors and the various criteria.
B)examine multiple criteria in light of predictor variables without combining them into a composite.
C)treat performance as a single construct.
D)weight the criterion dimensions the same as those used for termination decisions.

Question 53

Alex assesses the performance of his managers by having their subordinates provide ratings of how effective they believe their manager is. This would be an example of a(n) _____ criterion.

A)deficient
B)contaminated
C)objective
D)subjective

Question 54

Criteria taken from organizational records and referred to as "hard" or "nonjudgmental" are known as _____ criteria.

A)dynamic
B)subjective
C)objective
D)composite

Question 55

What is one limitation of objective criteria, as mentioned in the textbook?

A)They are strongly affected by rater attitudes, such as favoritism.
B)They can be limited by situational constraints, for example a jammed machine.
C)They tend to be unrelated to subjective measures of performance.
D)They can record only contextual performance.

Question 56

Juan is developing criteria for the job of a grocery store manager but he is unsure what type of criteria to use. For this type of job, the most appropriate type of criteria for Juan to use are:

A)objective criteria.
B)subjective criteria.
C)static criteria.
D)ultimate criteria.

Question 57

Lorenzo assesses the performance of his managers by noting how many grievances their subordinates file each year. This would be an example of a(n) _____ criteria.

A)contaminated
B)objective
C)ultimate
D)subjective

Question 58

An I/O psychologist develops measures that will reflect performance levels that change over time to address the issue of:

A)dynamic criteria.
B)static criteria.
C)subjective criteria.
D)contextual performance.

Question 59

According to Schmidt and Kaplan (1971), composite scores should be used _____, while individual predictor scores should be used _____.

A)to examine how individual predictors affect performance; to make a hiring decision
B)for selection purposes; for training purposes
C)for training purposes; for selection purposes
D)to make hiring decisions; to examine how individual predictors affect performance

Question 60

Which of these would be an example of an objective criterion?

A)accidents
B)peer ratings
C)supervisor ratings
D)effectiveness

Question 61

Task activities _____ across jobs; contextual behaviors _____ across jobs.

A)vary; vary
B)are similar; are similar
C)vary; are similar
D)are similar; vary

Question 62

Rick has caused a coworker to miss an important deadline by withholding important information about their work. Rick has engaged in _____ behavior.

A)expatriate
B)counterproductive
C)subjective
D)task

Question 63

A manager decides to use days missed as a measure of performance. However, at the end of the year, he finds that only a few employees in the entire organization have missed a day at work. Because almost everyone has the same score on this measure of performance, it lacks:

A)practicality.
B)fairness.
C)sensitivity.
D)reliability.

Question 64

Which of these is an example of the contextual performance dimension known as civic virtue?

A)a cashier who takes on extra responsibilities to help another cashier leave work on time
B)a teacher who continues to work despite a salary reduction and school budget cuts
C)a waiter who encourages his friends to eat at the restaurant where he is employed
D)an engineer who always turns in technical reports on time and who follows safety procedures

Question 65

Recent research has indicated that organizational citizenship behaviors may be particularly helpful for employees who are:

A)female.
B)male.
C)expatriates.
D)parents.

Question 66

Research has indicated that in terms of organizational citizenship behaviors and counterproductive work behaviors:

A)the antecedents are very dissimilar.
B)never co-occur.
C)counterproductive work behaviors appear to be more strongly related to group and individual performance.
D)are both very harmful to productivity.

Question 67

Which of these is NOT an example of a counterproductive behavior?

A)theft
B)abuse of others
C)anger
D)withdrawal behaviors

Question 68

Borman and Motowidlo (1997) suggested that contextual performance can be divided into five categories: enthusiasm, volunteering, organizational courtesy, civic virtue, and:

A)defending and supporting the organization.
B)being proactive in telling management about problem employees.
C)engaging in additional training on a voluntary basis.
D)desiring to move up in the organization.

Question 69

Steven, a manager, is providing performance ratings for his employees. Chetana, one of his employees, has been doing a very poor job. However, Steven is worried her poor performance will reflect badly on him, so he rates her higher than she deserves. This undeserved high rating is an example of:

A)criterion relevance.
B)criterion deficiency.
C)criterion desensitization.
D)criterion bias.

Question 70

_____ performance describes work-related activities, while _____ performance describes activities that help to maintain the broader organizational, social, and psychological environment.

A)Dynamic; static
B)Static; dynamic
C)Task; contextual
D)Contextual; task

Question 71

Professor Von Hansen is grading essays for his class. One of his students, Ivan, has written a good response on the essay. However, Professor Von Hansen has had some unpleasant interactions in class with Ivan, and as a result gives the essay a poor grade. Because this grade is lower than Ivan deserves based on his performance, this would be an example of:

A)criterion relevance.
B)criterion bias.
C)criterion desensitization.
D)criterion deficiency.

Question 72

A restaurant owner decides to use tips his servers earn as a way to measure their performance. In this case, tips are the _____ and server performance is the _____.

A)predictor; criterion
B)ultimate criterion; actual criterion
C)actual criterion; ultimate criterion
D)criterion; predictor

Question 73

Sheila performs many activities that help maintain the broader organizational, social, and psychological environment. She would therefore likely receive high ratings with regard to:

A)task performance.
B)expatriate performance.
C)contextual performance.
D)dynamic performance.

Question 74

One contributing factor to criterion contamination is:

A)bias.
B)fairness.
C)validity.
D)contextual performance.

Question 75

One of the major distinctions between task performance and contextual performance is that:

A)contextual performance is more likely to be formally instituted by the organization on a performance appraisal form.
B)contextual behaviors vary greatly across jobs, whereas task behaviors are similar across jobs.
C)contextual performance is not relevant to employees outside the United States.
D)task activities have different antecedents than do contextual performance.

Question 76

According to the text, it is important for criteria to be relevant, reliable, fair, practical, and:

A)substantive.
B)objective.
C)subjective.
D)sensitive.

Question 77

Which of these is an example of the contextual performance dimension known as organizational courtesy?

A)a server who stays after work to help another server wait on a large group of people
B)a bus driver who is friendly and attentive to children, even when he is in a bad mood
C)a store clerk who encourages his friends to shop at the store where he is employed
D)a construction worker who always follows safety procedures

Question 78

Spending extra time helping a coworker is an example of _____; stealing paper from a company is an example of _____.

A)a counterproductive work behavior; an organizational citizenship behavior
B)an organizational citizenship behavior; a counterproductive work behavior
C)contextual performance; task performance
D)task performance; contextual performance

Question 79

Recent research proposes that organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) result in positive coworker relationships, which serve as _____. This in turn affects the organization's overall performance and effectiveness.

A)a worker's civic duty
B)a form of conscientiousness
C)social capital
D)a form of sportsmanship

Question 80

A recent meta-analysis has indicated that when groups engage in more organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs):

A)they tend to have better social processes, such as coordination and communication.
B)they tend to spend more time socializing and less time on task-related behaviors.
C)they tend to have lower performance and profit margins.
D)they also experience an increase in counterproductive work behaviors.