Industrial / Organizational

Question 1

What is ranking?

Answer 1

Using a point system to rank applicants in terms of the various job requirements.

Question 2

What is banding?

Answer 2

It involves specifying a range of scores on a test that are considered equivalent for selection purposes and then considering applicants who obtain scores within that range. Other job-related and / or diversity factors are then used to select among applicants who obtain scores within that range.

Question 3

What is the multiple hurdle technique?

Answer 3

A selection procedure that requires an applicant to pass two or more tests or other procedures sequentially.

Question 4

Goal setting theory is most accurate for:

a) Simple tasks for people who are high in need of achievement
b) Simple tasks for people who are low in need of achievement
c) Complex tasks for people who are high in need of achievement
d) Complex tasks for people who are low in need of achievement

Answer 4

a) Simple tasks for people who are high in need of achievement.

Question 5

Which does innovative work schedules (such as 10 hrs/day, 4 days a week) affect more, productivity or attitudes?

Answer 5

Attitudes. It typically causes more job satisfaction, but has little to no effect on productivity.

Question 6

In Holland’s RIASEC model, what are the 6 person / environment types?

Answer 6

Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional

Question 7

In Holland’s RIASEC model, what characterizes an investigative job?

Answer 7

It requires analytical, technical, scientific, and verbal competencies.

Question 8

In Holland’s RIASEC model, what characterizes a realistic job?

Answer 8

Manual and mechanical competencies and interactions with machines, tools, and objects.

Question 9

In Holland’s RIASEC model, what characterizes a conventional job?

Answer 9

Clerical skills and an ability to meet precise standards of performance.

Question 10

In Holland’s RIASEC model, what characterizes an enterprising job?

Answer 10

Persuasion skills.

Question 11

What is the central tendency bias?

Answer 11

When a rater rates all individual using the middle of a rating scale.

Question 12

What is the contrast effect?

Answer 12

When ratings of one individual are affected by ratings given to another.

Question 13

What is severity error?

Answer 13

The rater tendency to rate all individuals using the low end of the rating scale.

Question 14

What is severity error also known as?

Answer 14

Strictness error (or strictness bias)

Question 15

What is strictness error also known as?

Answer 15

Severity error

Question 16

What is the ceiling effect?

Answer 16

The measurement instrument’s inability to distinguish between individuals who have high levels of what is being assessed by the instrument.

Question 17

How is productivity affected in flextime vs. 4x10 workweeks?

Answer 17

Productivity goes up with flextime; it does not with 4x10 workweeks. Both have increases in job satisfaction.

Question 18

In the context of organizational development, what is the purpose of feedback?

Answer 18

According to Burke, it is to help clients understand the diagnostic information that has been collected.

Question 19

What are the phases of organizational development, according to Burke?

Answer 19

Entry
Contracting
Diagnosis
Feedback
Planning Change
Intervention
Evaluation

Question 20

What is utility analysis?

Answer 20

The process which summarizes and identifies key variables that describe the consequences of HR programs to improve decision making. It has been most frequently studied as applied to selection procedures, although it has been applied to other processes.

Question 21

What is utilization review?

Answer 21

A cost containment procedure involving an evaluation of patients’ use of services to identify any unnecessary or inappropriate use of health care resources.

Question 22

What is concurrent review?

Answer 22

A utilization review conducted during the course of treatment.

Question 23

What is Quality management?

Answer 23

Another name for quality assurance.

Question 24

According to Organ, what is organizational citizenship behavior?

Answer 24

Discretionary, voluntary behaviors that are not part of an employee’s specified role requirements nor formally rewarded by the organization, and in aggregate, contribute to organizational effectiveness by enhancing the “social and psychological context that supports task performance.”

Question 25

What is Organ’s five-factor model of organizational citizenship behavior?

Answer 25

Altruism

Conscientiousness - generalized complaince and representing behaviors that go above and beyond minimal expectations of good workers in areas such as attendance, timeliness, and conservation of resources

Sportsmanship - behaviors such as tolerating trivial or minor inconveniences without complaining or initiating a grievance

Courtesy - involving anticipatory acts that help someone else prevent a problem such as consulting with others when making decisions that may affect them or providing relevant information in advance

Civic Virtue - Constructive invovement or participation in the overall organization ad may include attending meetings regarding the organization.

Question 26

What are the two *major” factors in Organ’s organizational citizenship behavior?

Answer 26

Altruism - behaviors directed toward a specific person, such as helping co-workers with work-related tasks

Generalized compliance – Behaviors representative of what a “good worker” should do, such as arriving on time and not wasting time while at work.

Question 27

What is expectancy theory?

Answer 27

Motivation is a cognitive process involving a combination of three variables:

Valence - The value placed on the outcomes of performance

Instrumentality - The belief that successful performance will result in certain outcomes

Expectancy - the belief that effort will lead to successful performance

a.k.a. VIE theory.

Question 28

What is banding?

Answer 28

It is used to increase diversity and reduce adverse impact in the workplace. It is based on the assumption that different scores should be viewed as equivalent unless they are statistically significantly different (as determined by the standard error of the difference between scores). It refers to a range of scores being considered as equivalent for selection purposes.

Adverse impact is lowered due to lower-scoring applicants being included within the band, and banding provides flexibility to select from candidates based on other factors such as ethnicity, gender, work experience, seniority, and other job-related factors.

Question 29

Under Anne Cleary’s model of test unfairness, when is a test considered unfair?

Answer 29

If the slope and / or the y-intercept of the regression line is different for one subgroup than for another.

Question 30

According to Bass, what are the interrelated components of transformational leadership?

Answer 30

Idealized or charisma influence (attributed or behavioral) – high morals and ethical standards characterize this area.

Inspirational motivation - provides followers with meaning and challenges for engaging in undertakings and shared goals

Intellectual stimulation - helps followers to question assumptions and to generate more creative slutions to problems.

Individualized consideration - treats each follower as an individual and provides coaching, mentoring, and grown opportunities.

Question 31

What is Herbert Simon’s bounded rationality (administrative) model of decision making?

Answer 31

It proposes that decision makers are not always completely rational in making choices. Instead, time and resources limit their consideration of alternatives, so they tend to consider alternatives only until a satisfactory one is identified.

Question 32

What is Gottfredson’s theory of circumscription and compromise?

Answer 32

It addresses how gender and prestige influence and limit career choices.

Question 33

What are Gottfredson’s four stages of cognitive development?

Answer 33

Orientation to power
Orientation to sex roles
Influence of social class
Introspection and perceptiveness

Question 34

What is circumscription in Gottfredson’s theory of circumscription and compromise?

Answer 34

The progressive elimination of least preferred options or alternatives that occurs as children become increasingly aware of occupational differences in gender or sex-type, prestige, and then field of work.

Question 35

What is compromise in Gottfredson’s theory of circumscription and compromise?

Answer 35

The expansion of preferences in recognition of and accommodation to external constraints (e.g. level of effort required, accessibility cost) encountered in implementing preferences.

Question 36

What is Super’s theory of career development?

Answer 36

It has 5 stages wherein people achieve job satisfaction when they are able to express themselves and develop their self-concept through their work roles.

Question 37

What is Krumboltz’s Social Learning Theory of Career Decision Making (SLTCDM)?

Answer 37

It involves 4 types of influences on making career decisions:

Genetic characteristics and special abilities
Environmental conditions and events
Learning experiences
Performance standards and values.

Social learning influences can be positive or negative factors.

Question 38

In Big Five personality theory, which trait has the strongest relationship with overall job satisfaction?

Answer 38

Neuroticism, followed by conscientiousness and extraversion. Lower neuroticism and higher extraversion are associated with higher job satisfaction.

Question 39

What are the major roles in Super’s life rainbow?

Answer 39

9 roles:

Child
Student
Worker
Partner
Parent
Citizen
Homemaker
Leisurite
Pensioner

Question 40

What are Super’s 4 theaters in the life rainbow?

Answer 40

Home
School
Community
Workplace

Question 41

What are the 5 life stages in Super’s life rainbow?

Answer 41

Growth
Exploration
Establishment
Maintenance
Decline

Question 42

What is equity theory?

Answer 42

It believes that in any work situation we assess both our input (how much effort we are contributing to a work situation) and our output (how much we get out of it). We then compare our input / output ratio to what we perceive as the ratio of our co-workers.

Equity theory holds that motivation is affected by those perceived input / output ratios. If you perceive you are working harder than a co-worker for the same pay, you would take action to correct this inequity.

This theory suggests that the relationship between pay and motivation is complex and will be mediated by one’s perceived input, the perceived input/output ratio of co-workers and the strategy chosen to achieve a state of balance or equity.

Question 43

According to Stajovic and Luthans, self-efficacy is positively and strongly related to work-related performance and is moderated by:

a) Task complexity
b) Locus of performance
c) both task complexity and locus of performance
d) There’s no relationship

Answer 43

b) Both task complexity and locus of performance.

The relationship is moderated by task complexity and situational factors The two moderators appear to weaken the relationship between self-efficacy and work-related performance, with the relationship weakest for the higher levels of task complexity and field settings.

Question 44

Goal setting as a motivational technique is most effective when goals are _____________ and feedback is ____________.

Answer 44

Goals are difficult; feedback is specific.

Question 45

What are Hershey and Blanchard’s four main leadership styles?

Answer 45

Telling - leaders tell their people what to do and how to do it. (Low level of maturity). The employee’s ability and willingness to accept responsibility is low. High task orientation; low relationship orientation.

Selling - Leaders provide information and direction, but there’s more communication with followers. Leaders “sell” their message to get people on board. (Medium maturity; limited skills), High task orientation; high relationship orientation. Employee has low ability but high willingness to accept responsibility.

Participating - Leaders focus more on the relationship and less on the direction. The leader works with the team, and shares decision-making responsibilities. (Medium maturity; higher skills but lacking confidence) Low task orientation; high relationship orientation. Employee has high ability but low willingness to accept responsibility.

Delegating - Leaders pass most of the responsibility onto the followers or group. The leaders still monitor progress, but they’re less involved in the decisions. (High maturity). Low in task and low relationship orientation. The employee has high ability and high willingness to accept responsibility.

Question 46

What is criterion contamination?

Answer 46

When a rater knows how a ratee did on a predictor test, and this knowledge affects the rating. For example, if an employee obtained a very high score on a post-training test and the supervisor knows this, the supervisor’s ratings of the employee’s on-the-job performance might be biased upwards.

To prevent criterion contamination, a rater should not no knowledge of the ratee’s predictor scores.

Question 47

What is the contrast effect?

Answer 47

The tendency to give ratings on the basis of comparison to other ratees.

Question 48

What are demand characteristics?

Answer 48

Cues in the environment that inform research participants of what behaviors are expected of them.

Question 49

What is pooled interdependence?

Answer 49

It occurs when individuals have a shared source of resources but little else in common.

Question 50

What is sequential interdependence?

Answer 50

A series or chain of one-way interactions in which individuals rely on those who procede them in the chain.

Question 51

What is reciprocal interdependence?

Answer 51

The most complex form of interdependence. It is when everyone involved is reciprocally interdependent upon each other.

Question 52

What is the target of organizational transformation?

Answer 52

The entire group, not just an individual in it. The target of change is the entire organization’s vision of its beliefs, purpose, or mission. It attempts to alter the viewpoints of the organization’s members. It includes everything from re-writing a mission statement to changing pay scales to changing from vertical to horizontal markets.

Question 53

What doe Tiedeman and O’Hara emphasize in the process of career development?

a) Innate drives
b) Interests
c) Aptitude
d) Identity

Answer 53

d) Identity

Question 54

On what theorist do Tiedeman and O’Hara base their theory of career development?

Answer 54

Ericsson

Question 55

Which theorists identified 6 categories of power?

Answer 55

French and Raven

Question 56

According to French and Raven, what is legitimate power?

Answer 56

Formal authority delegated to an individual in the form of rank, title, decree, etc.

Question 57

According to French and Raven, what is coercive power?

Answer 57

The ability of the power-holder to punish others.

Question 58

According to French and Raven, what is reward power?

Answer 58

The ability to award others.

Question 59

According to French and Raven, what is refernt power?

Answer 59

It is abased on personal qualities, and operates to the degree others identify with the power holder.