My EPPP - EPPP Practice Questions: I/O Big 6

b. a neutral job evaluation procedure.

According to the principle of comparable worth, men and women who perform jobs that require similar levels of education, training, and skills should receive similar compensation. A job evaluation is used to establish comparable worth and, to be useful for this purpose, it must be unbiased (gender-neutral).

d. improving rater accuracy

Frame-of-reference training is used to improve rater accuracy by helping raters become better observers of behavior.

a. facilitates obtaining the information a supervisor needs to provide useful performance

feedback to employees. Critical incidents are descriptions of specific job behaviors that are associated with successful or unsuccessful job performance. Anchoring the points on a job performance rating scale with critical incidents ensures that the scale provides information that can be used to provide employees with feedback about their job performance. BARS is one type of rating scale that uses critical incidents.

b. selection rates for different groups differ

As defined in the EEOC’s Uniform Guidelines, adverse impact is occurring when rates of selection or other employment practices are different for different groups of workers. Several techniques are used to determine if adverse impact is occurring, including the 80% rule and evaluating test bias (which involves comparing the slopes and Y-intercepts of the regression lines for the groups).

d. transfer of training

“Identical elements” refers to providing similar conditions in the training and performance environments in order to maximize transfer to training.

d. reduce employee dissatisfaction and turnover.

Realistic job previews consist of job descriptions, discussions with current employees, work samples, and/or other procedures or techniques. Two assumptions underlying the use of realistic job previews are that (a) turnover is related to unrealistic expectations about the job and (b) providing applicants with accurate information about what the job entails will reduce unrealistic expectations and thereby decrease dissatisfaction and turnover.

a. the job fits his/her self-concept

According to Super, the ideal circumstance is for the job to fit the individual’s self-concept, which is comprised of several elements including the individual’s interests, abilities, and values.

a. resembles one personality type and no other type

According to Holland, a person is highly differentiated when he/she obtains a high score on only one personality dimension. He also believed that a personality-occupational match is most accurate for predicting outcomes for those who are highly differentiated.

c. existence

From lower- to higher-order, Maslow’s five needs are physiological, safety, social (belongingness), esteem, and self-actualization. (Existence, relatedness, and growth are the three needs identified by Alderfer.)

b. social comparison

According to equity theory, worker motivation is related to the comparisons workers make between their own input/outcome ratio and those of other workers doing the same or a similar job.

d. instrumentality

Expectancy theory proposes that motivation depends on three beliefs — expectancy, instrumentality, and valence. Instrumentality refers to the belief that one’s performance will lead to certain rewards.

d. the situation is either very favorable or very unfavorable

Fiedler distinguished between task-oriented (low LPC) and person-oriented (high LPC) leaders. He proposed that the former are most effective when the situation is extreme – either very favorable or very unfavorable in terms of the leader’s ability to control and influence subordinates.

b. goal setting theory

One of goal setting theory’s predictions is that specific moderately difficult goals are more effective than easy or ambiguous (“do your best”) goals.

c. the ability and motivation of the employees

Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership model distinguishes between four leadership styles (telling, selling, participating, and delegating), with each style being characterized by a different combination of task- and relationship-orientation. According to this model, the best leadership style depends on the employee’s job maturity, which is determined by a combination of ability and willingness to accept responsibility.

a. make organizational goals more meaningful to employees

A key characteristic of transformational leaders is their ability to motivate employees by placing goals in a meaningful context.

b. behaviors

Results of the Ohio State leadership studies indicated that leaders can be described in terms of two behavioral dimensions – consideration and initiating structure.

b. a lack of time and information

As the result of a lack of time and information, decision makers often do not consider all possible alternative solutions but, instead, pick the first solution that seems acceptable.

a. actively encourage dissidence and criticism

Groupthink is most likely to occur in highly cohesive groups when members feel a need to achieve consensus and, therefore, disregard and discourage consideration of alternative actions. Actively encouraging dissent and criticism would help disrupt the pattern of communication that characterizes groupthink.

a. large group with low group cohesiveness

In one study, R. C. Liden and his colleagues found that social loafing increased as (1) group size increased, (2) group cohesiveness decreased, (3) perception of task interdependence increased, (4) task visibility (belief that one’s supervisor is aware of one’s effort) decreased, and (5) perception of distributive justice (fair pay) decreased [Social loafing: A field investigation, Journal of Management, 30(2), 285-304, 2004].

c. higher employee productivity for complex tasks and higher employee satisfaction

The research on communication networks has found that centralized networks – for example, the “chain” and the “Y” – are most effective in terms of productivity for simple tasks, while decentralized networks – such as the “all-channel” – are better for complex tasks. In addition, while supervisors and managers are likely to be more satisfied with a centralized network, the employees (supervisees) tend to be more satisfied with a decentralized network.

c. unfreezing, changing, and refreezing

Lewin’s model describes the process of planned change in terms of these three stages: Unfreezing occurs when the need for change is recognized and steps are taken to make members of the organization receptive to change; changing involves moving the organization in the new direction; and refreezing entails supporting the changes that have been made to help stabilize the organization at a new state of equilibrium.

a. overall job satisfaction

The research on the effects of the compressed workweek have produced inconsistent results, but the meta-analysis by Baltes et al. (1999) found that it has positive effects on overall job satisfaction, satisfaction with the work schedule, and supervisor ratings of performance but not on objective measures of job performance and absenteeism.