Deck 8: Performance Management

Question 1

In most instances, one person can easily observe and evaluate an employee's performance.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Developmental purposes for performance appraisal include identifying strengths and weaknesses and improving communication.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Everet recently transferred to a new position, and he wants to know what is expected of him in order to get a good rating on his performance evaluation. He can get this information from a written copy of the job standards.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Managers may deflate performance ratings to make themselves look good as managers.

Question 5

In their evaluation of the current employee review program in place at TrueBlue, HR managers found that the information gathered tends to be comprehensive as it comes from many perspectives. At the same time, though, combining all the responses is complex, and opinions are often conflicting. Based on this information, it is likely that TrueBlue uses 360-degree reviews.

Question 6

Melanie has the primary responsibility for overseeing and coordinating the performance management system at TrueBlue. It is most likely that she works in the firm's finance department.

Question 7

According to a Supreme Court ruling, performance appraisals are subject to the same validity criteria as selection procedures.

Question 8

At TrueBlue, supervisors, peers, and subordinates all provide input into an employee's performance appraisal. TrueBlue uses a 360-degree evaluation.

Question 9

​Performance evaluations are simply a logical extension of the day-to-day performance management process.

Question 10

Developmental purposes for performance appraisal include evaluating training programs and determining promotion candidates.

Question 11

The marketing department at TrueBlue is immense. The Senior Marketing Manager is responsible for completing performance reviews on all members of the department. Since she does not have the opportunity to work with them all personally, she bases her reviews on the sales figures for their products on the assumption that sales reflect the success of the marketing efforts. It is likely that these performance reviews do not comply with the law.

Question 12

Criterion deficiency occurs when performance standards focus on a single criterion and exclude other important but less quantifiable performance dimensions.

Question 13

Developmental purposes for performance appraisal include evaluating goal achievement and validating selection criteria.

Question 14

Studies have shown that employees who earn performance-based pay are more satisfied.

Question 15

Most performance appraisals focus on long-term improvement, rather than short-term achievements.

Question 16

Criterion contamination occurs when factors outside an employee's control influence his or her performance.

Question 17

​The two most common purposes of performance management programs are administrative and developmental.

Question 18

Performance management programs can be used for many purposes, including promotions, transfers, layoffs, and pay decisions.

Question 19

An appeals process is only necessary for administrative appraisals.

Question 20

Criterion contamination occurs when different supervisors have different and inconsistent ratings of an employee's performance.

Question 21

Jane graduated from the same high school as her supervisor, Anne, although many years later. Anne has a favorable impression of Jane because of this shared alma mater, and, perhaps unwittingly, gives her the benefit of the doubt in most situations, leading to a more favorable performance evaluation. This illustrates a similar-to-me error.

Question 22

Supervisors at TrueBlue are required to rank the employees on their staff in order from the strongest to weakest as part of the performance evaluation process. This ranking may lead to contrast errors.

Question 23

When reviewing the performance appraisals for the marketing department, the HR manager found what appeared to be leniency errors, as most employees received similar ratings that were above average. Going forward, raters are going to be required to use a forced distribution, as this will reduce the chance of leniency or strictness errors.

Question 24

Having appraisals reviewed by a supervisor's supervisor creates unnecessary redundancy and may actually result in greater legal liability.

Question 25

Marco is generally satisfied with the performance of his staff as a whole. Overall, deadlines and goals were met but not exceeded. Some individuals may have contributed more or less to the success of the department. But when completing their performance evaluations, he rates all of them as about average. This is an error of central tendency.

Question 26

When evaluating their employees, managers at TrueBlue focus on measurable contributions that the employees make to the company, rather than just focusing on employee characteristics. TrueBlue is taking a results-oriented approach to performance review.

Question 27

A recency error is an error in which the appraisal is based largely upon the employee's most recent behavior as opposed to their behavior throughout the entire appraisal period.

Question 28

Feedback training for raters should include communicating effectively, diagnosing causes of performance problems, and setting goals.

Question 29

Internal customers can provide extremely useful feedback for both developmental and administrative purposes.

Question 30

Team evaluations are conceptually just a collection of the individual appraisals of a work unit.

Question 31

Criterion deficiency refers to the extent to which the standards of an appraisal relate to the strategic objectives of the organization in which they are applied.

Question 32

TrueBlue uses an evaluation form for sales reps which lists several specific behaviors, such as "follows up on customer leads" and "identifies potential contacts." Raters indicate how frequently the employee engages in each behavior on a scale of 1 to 5, representing the extremes of Never and Always. This is an example of a BOS.

Question 33

Roberta feels that Sal has shown clear improvement over the past three months. When completing Sal's annual performance review, Roberta rates Sal based upon the improvement, rather than considering the entire twelve months of work. Roberta has committed a recency error.

Question 34

Self-evaluations are often best used for developmental purposes rather than for administrative decisions.

Question 35

A similar-to-me error, like contrast, results in less than accurate performance ratings, but would not be considered discriminatory.

Question 36

Marco's department met or exceeded all of its productivity goals this year. When completing performance evaluations, Marco gave all members of his staff above average or excellent ratings, without considering individual effort. This is an example of a distributional rating error.

Question 37

TrueBlue wants to gather accurate information about middle managers on dimensions such as leadership ability, ability to delegate, and employee supportiveness. Subordinate evaluations would be good for this purpose.

Question 38

One disadvantage of peer evaluations is the belief that they contain more biases and furnish less valid information than appraisals by superiors.

Question 39

Employees in the quality assurance department test the product and report their findings back to development. The developers, in turn, rely on the feedback they receive from QA to improve products. In this scenario, development would be considered an external customer of QA and good candidates for conducting external customer evaluations of QA staff members.

Question 40

Subordinate evaluations should be used primarily for developmental purposes.

Question 41

Results evaluations often give employees responsibility for their outcomes and discretion over the way they accomplish them.

Question 42

One of the potential drawbacks of a trait-oriented performance appraisal is that traits can be biased and subjective.

Question 43

Behavior observation scales have rater check statements that they believe are characteristic of the employee.

Question 44

The Balanced Scorecard approach integrates four categories: financial, customer, process, and learning measures.

Question 45

One of the benefits of the forced-choice method is that it is immediately clear which choice is more favorable, thereby eliminating bias.

Question 46

As part of the performance evaluation at TrueBlue, the supervisor is given a form that describes the standards for ten traits. The supervisor indicates on the form whether the employee's performance is worse than, equal to, or better than the standard for each trait. This is a mixed-standard scale.

Question 47

​Behavioral methods specifically describe which actions should (or should not) be exhibited on the job.

Question 48

A major drawback of the essay method is that it can be subjective.

Question 49

One major advantage of a behaviorally anchored rating scale is that it is possible to use a scale developed for one job to appraise individuals in another, unrelated job.

Question 50

Measurable and quantifiable performance objectives are requirements for a successful MBO program.

Question 51

In a feedback session with one of her employees, Portia wants to reach an agreement with the employee on the best way to overcome obstacles in order to improve the employee's actual performance. Portia would be best served by using the problem-solving format.

Question 52

Dividing the performance evaluation meeting into two sessions, one for the performance review and the other for the employee's growth plans, is a good strategy to improve communication between the parties.

Question 53

Senior management at TrueBlue feels that the current performance appraisal method is too vague and rather subjective. They might want to consider incorporating either a behavioral checklist or critical incident method in order to increase specificity.

Question 54

​A self-evaluation ensures that an employee knows against what criteria he or she is being evaluated, eliminating any potential surprises.

Question 55

The Balanced Scorecard evaluation method translates broad corporate goals into divisional, departmental, team, and individual goals in a cascading way.

Question 56

In a feedback session with one of her employees, Portia starts by communicating to the employee the strong and weak points of the employee's job performance. After Portia finishes going through all the items, the employee then shares any reactions, and the employee's feelings are discussed. Portia uses the tell-and-listen format for her feedback sessions.

Question 57

The choice of performance evaluation method to use depends upon the purpose of the evaluation.

Question 58

Because the appraisal interview is for developmental purposes, the interviewer rather than the employee should spend the majority of the time talking.

Question 59

As part of the performance review process at TrueBlue, raters use a rating scale from which they must choose from statements such as "works hard" vs. "works quickly." This is an example of a graphic rating scale.

Question 60

​The mixed-standard scale method evaluates traits according to a single scale.

Question 61

Administrative purposes of performance appraisal include all of the following EXCEPT

A)determining promotion candidates.
B)evaluating training programs.
C)documenting personnel decisions.
D)providing performance feedback.

Question 62

Performance discussions should focus on the employee rather than on his or her behaviors.

Question 63

If a manager rates an employee higher than he or she deserves in order to look good as a manager in the eyes of his or her own superiors, this is an example of

A)criterion deficiency.
B)organizational politics.
C)criterion contamination.
D)administrative appraisal purpose.

Question 64

A diagnosis of poor employee performance should focus on the three interactive elements of ability, motivation, and external conditions.

Question 65

Since praise is a powerful motivator, appraisers should alternate positive and negative statements during a performance appraisal interview.

Question 66

Developmental purposes of performance appraisal include all of the following EXCEPT

A)recognizing individual performance.
B)validating selection procedures.
C)improving communication.
D)identifying strengths and weaknesses.

Question 67

​Which of the following is NOT a reason for the failure of appraisal programs?

A)They discourage teamwork by focusing on workers' individual achievements.
B)They lay more focus on employee input into the development of the appraisal program.
C)They are not useful for the majority of employees in the middle in terms of performance.
D)They often focus on short-term achievements rather than long-term improvement and learning.

Question 68

A person's performance is a function of ability, environment, and motivation.

Question 69

TrueBlue uses an MBO program for its performance reviews. Ranelle, the manager, and Louis, the subordinate, are working through that process. Ranelle has listed her goals and metrics for Louis, and Louis has proposed his own goals and metrics. What is the next step in the process?

A)Review organization performance
B)Reach mutual agreement on goals and metrics
C)Delete inappropriate goals and metrics
D)Complete an interim review

Question 70

The two primary purposes of performance appraisals are

A)informative and developmental.
B)managerial and administrative.
C)managerial and informative.
D)administrative and developmental.

Question 71

Expressing appreciation for the work an employee has done well is likely to make the person more defensive about aspects of the job that are not going so well.

Question 72

​If an employee is doing something wrong, waiting for a formal evaluation later in the year to communicate that information is an example of a balanced approach to effective communication.

Question 73

Freedom from criterion deficiency of performance appraisals refers to the extent to which

A)standards relate to the overall objectives of the organization.
B)standards capture the entire range of an employee's responsibilities.
C)individuals tend to maintain a certain level of performance over time.
D)factors outside the employee's control can influence performance.

Question 74

TrueBlue uses an MBO program for its performance reviews. Ranelle, the manager, and Louis, the subordinate, are working through that process. Now that a review of the organization performance has been completed, what is the next step?

A)The next step is to delete any inappropriate goals or metrics.
B)The next step is for Ranelle and Louis to each list goals and metrics for Louis.
C)The next step is to set the organization's common goals and objectives.
D)The final step has been completed; the process is done and there is no next step.

Question 75

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of the trait method of appraisals?

A)Inexpensive to develop
B)Uses meaningful dimensions
C)Low potential for rating errors
D)Easy to use

Question 76

A common problem with performance management systems is that they

A)tend to be objective and consistent.
B)identify weaknesses of employees as well as strengths.
C)limit feedback to formal reviews.
D)tend to be a bottom-up process.

Question 77

While Steve consistently meets or exceeds his goals, he arrives late to work on an almost daily basis. This annoys his supervisor, who is punctual to a fault, and translated into a below-average performance rating. This illustrates the "horn error."

Question 78

Jakob met all of his goals. His sales figures are at or above the objective, and he increased his customer base by the desired amount. However, Renae exceeded her goals by a significant amount. When completing their performance appraisals, their supervisor gave Jakob below-average ratings because his numbers were so much lower than Renae's. The supervisor has made a recency error.

Question 79

TrueBlue uses an MBO program for its performance reviews. Ranelle, the manager, and Louis, the subordinate, are working through that process. They have reached the point where they are ready to perform an interim review. Which of the following should they do at this stage?

A)Ranelle should list goals and metrics for Louis.
B)Louis should propose his goals and metrics.
C)Inappropriate goals and metrics should be deleted.
D)They should each establish goals and metrics for the department.

Question 80

The strategic relevance of performance appraisals refers to the extent to which

A)standards relate to the overall objectives of the organization.
B)standards capture the entire range of an employee's responsibilities.
C)individuals tend to maintain a certain level of performance over time.
D)factors outside the employee's control can influence performance.