Question 1

An organization using a ____ to evaluate employees performance requires raters to rank-order their employees from best to worst.

Accepted Answer

A simple ranking system requires raters to rank-order their employees from best to worst.

Question 2

When faced with a disparate treatment case related to promotion, a court would specifically examine the ____ of the ratings.

Accepted Answer

When faced with a disparate treatment case related to promotion, a court would specifically examine the issue of fairness.

Question 3

What type of errors occur when an appraiser avoids giving any ones and fives on a five-point scale leading to difficulties in discerning the best and worst performers?

Accepted Answer

Central tendency errors occur when appraisers purposely avoid giving extreme ratings leading to difficulties in discerning the best and worst performers.

Question 4

____ occur when appraisers purposely avoid giving extreme ratings even when such ratings are warranted.

Accepted Answer

Central tendency errors occur when appraisers purposely avoid giving extreme ratings even when such ratings are warranted.

Question 5

Which of the following instruments commonly used for appraising performance employ rankings instead of ratings?

Accepted Answer

Employee comparison systems use rankings rather than ratings.

Question 6

____ occur when raters provide ratings that are unduly low.

Accepted Answer

Severity errors refer to raters providing ratings that are unduly low.

Question 7

When a rater's rating of an employee's performance is based on the rater's estimation of how different types of people behave in certain situations, the rater is using the:

Accepted Answer

Implicit personality theory involves a rater classifying the employee according to some perceived personality type.

Question 8

A rater's failure to recall all of an employee's pertinent job behaviors that have taken place during a rating period is called:

Accepted Answer

When rating an employee on a particular characteristic, a rater may be unable to recall all of the employee's pertinent job behaviors that have taken place during that rating period. The failure to recall such information is called memory decay.

Question 9

If an appraiser classifies an employee as a conscientious person based on the observation that the individual comes to work early, and due to this classification decides that the employee will pay close attention to detail, the rater is relying on the:

Accepted Answer

If an appraiser classifies an employee as a conscientious person based on the observation that the individual comes to work early, and due to this classification decides that the employee will pay close attention to detail, the rater is relying on implicit personality theory.

Question 10

With ____, employee performance is evaluated relative to other employees' performance.

Accepted Answer

Employee comparison systems evaluate employee performance relative to other employees' performance.

Question 11

____ acts as a barrier to accurate appraisals because those guilty of it fail to identify specific strengths and weaknesses of their employees.

Accepted Answer

The halo effect acts as a barrier to accurate appraisals because those guilty of it fail to identify specific strengths and weaknesses of their employees.

Question 12

Which type of error occurs as a result of memory decay?

Accepted Answer

The usual consequence of memory decay is the occurrence of a recency error.

Question 13

____ occur when raters provide ratings that are unduly high.

Accepted Answer

Leniency errors occur when raters provide ratings that are unduly high.

Question 14

A ____ approach requires a rater to assign a certain percentage of employees to each category of excellence, such as best, average, or worst.

Accepted Answer

A forced distribution approach requires raters to assign a percentage of employees to each category of excellence, such as best, average, or worst.

Question 15

A ____ occurs when an appraiser's overall impression of an employee is based on a particular characteristic.

Accepted Answer

Halo effect occurs when an appraiser's overall impression of an employee is based on a particular characteristic.

Question 16

When scrutinizing charges of disparate impact in promotions, the court would specifically examine the job-relatedness of the appraisal form and ____ of the ratings.

Accepted Answer

If employees brought charges of disparate impact in promotions, a court would scrutinize the job- relatedness of the appraisal form and accuracy of the ratings.

Question 17

Which type of performance appraisal system ranks employees by matching them against each other with the employee winning the most contests receiving the highest ranking?

Accepted Answer

When using the paired comparison approach, a rater compares each possible pair of employees with the employee winning the most contests receiving the highest ranking.

Question 18

Which type of rating errors lead to an employee receiving a low rating due to poor performance during the last month of a one-year rating period, despite an excellent performance record during the preceding 11 months?

Accepted Answer

Recency errors can lead to an employee receiving a low rating due to poor performance during the last month of a one-year rating period, despite an excellent performance record during the preceding 11 months.

Question 19

Ratings that are heavily influenced by recent events may be subject to:

Accepted Answer

Rating that are heavily influenced by recent events are subject to recency errors.

Question 20

____ errors occur when the end points of a rating scale are unrealistically defined.

Accepted Answer

Central tendency errors occur when the end points of the rating scale are unrealistically defined.

Quiz 8: Appraising Employee Job Performance