Oral Comps- Personnel

Front 1

Why is Personnel/HR an important function?

Back 1

As an org divides all of the responsibilities towards achieving objectives into various jobs they are faced with variability in jobs and people. Using this human capital effectively requires some overlap between HR and psychology.

Front 2

What areas of expertise doesn't personnel cover?

Back 2

compensation law, labor law, org. theory, industrial medicine, collective bargaining or employee benefits.

Front 3

What are some changes in the marketplace that personnel psychology must consider?

Back 3

Information age means less job security, so more emphasis on T+D. Changing demographics means more emphasis on recruiting and staffing, especially diversity. Org. culture is becoming virtual, boundary-less, flexible but no guarantees for workers. the role of the manager- now must think about democracy, explain and communicate how orgs create value. The role of the employee- must be able to adapt and focus on career mobility.

Front 4

What are some benefits of the changes in the marketplace that personnel psych can enhance?

Back 4

Challenge, creativity, flexibility, control and interrelatedness. Especially for those that are not timid, insecure, or low-skilled.

Front 5

What are the two types of unfair discrimination?

Back 5

Unequal/Disparate- intentional discrimination that is proved using direct evidence, circumstantial evidence or mixed motive criteria.
Adverse Impact- unintentional, use same standards but differentially select one groups members over another.

Front 6

Why is Personnel/HR an important function?

Back 6

As an org divides all of the responsibilities towards achieving objectives into various jobs they are faced with variability in jobs and people. Using this human capital effectively requires some overlap between HR and psychology.

Front 7

What areas of expertise doesn't personnel cover?

Back 7

compensation law, labor law, org. theory, industrial medicine, collective bargaining or employee benefits.

Front 8

What are some changes in the marketplace that personnel psychology must consider?

Back 8

Information age means less job security, so more emphasis on T+D. Changing demographics means more emphasis on recruiting and staffing, especially diversity. Org. culture is becoming virtual, boundary-less, flexible but no guarantees for workers. the role of the manager- now must think about democracy, explain and communicate how orgs create value. The role of the employee- must be able to adapt and focus on career mobility.

Front 9

What are some benefits of the changes in the marketplace that personnel psych can enhance?

Back 9

Challenge, creativity, flexibility, control and interrelatedness. Especially for those that are not timid, insecure, or low-skilled.

Front 10

Briefly- what is the Equal pay act of 1963?

Back 10

Determined issue of comparable worth.

Front 11

Briefly- what is the CRA 1964, Title VII?

Back 11

Illegal to discriminate based on sex, race, religion, or national origin except with BFOQ (bona fide occupational qualifications and BFSS (Bona fide seniority systems). Applicable to employment selection, testing, promotions, etc. You can ask about race but never use it for employment decisions. Steer clear of preferential treatment (affirmative action). It's ok to give veterans preference over other candidates and we have to be wary of issues with national security (communist party affiliations are ok to discriminate against).

Front 12

Briefly- what is the ADEA 1967?

Back 12

You must show linkages b/w business necessity and age-related skill declines.

Front 13

Briefly- what is the Older workers benefits protection act of 1990?

Back 13

Allows companies to induce older employees to leave first, legally.

Front 14

Briefly- what is the Immigration reform and control act of 1986?

Back 14

You can't hire people who aren't allowed to work in the country.

Front 15

Briefly, what is ADA?

Back 15

A disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities (walking, talking, seeing, hearing, learning). This law protects you if you have an impairment, if you have history of an impairment, or if the employer thinks you have one. The employer must attempt to make a reasonable accommodation (ambiguous term) unless the accommodation causes undue hardship (business impact).

Front 16

Briefly, what is CRA 1991?

Back 16

A revision of CRA 1964 dealing with within-group norming. It is now unlawful to adjust scores or use different cutoff scores (basically in any way alter the employment test) on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, or national origin.

Front 17

Briefly, what is FMLA 1993?

Back 17

Specifies the time an employee can take off work in which the employer must hold their position.

Front 18

Briefly, what is EEOC?

Back 18

Equal employment opportunity commission, enforces federal civil rights laws.

Front 19

Briefly, what is Sexual Harassment?

Back 19

There are two main types.
1. Quid pro quo- trade offs for sex
2. Hostile Work Environment- intimidating, hostile or offensive atmosphere.
Both are prohibited by CRA 1964 Title VII. No unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct when submission to conduct is explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of the individuals employment. Oncale v. Sundowner expanded this to same-sex harassment in 1998.

Front 20

Are there any risks to doing background checks (drug screens, BCI, etc.)?

Back 20

Yes- research has shown that companies may be more prone to litigation when they use these screening devices. You can lesson problems with investigations by requiring applicants to waive their rights to privacy or their right to sue for defamation.

Front 21

What is negligent hiring? How can a company avoid the consequences of it?

Back 21

Negligent hiring is when employers can be held liable for the wrongful act of their employees because they did not do a thorough enough investigation of them before they were hired. You can lesson problems with investigations by requiring applicants to waive their rights to privacy or their right to sue for defamation.

Front 22

What is employment at will? How can employers protect themselves from angry employees (let go, etc.).

Back 22

Employment at-will defines an employment relationship in which either party can break the relationship with no liability, provided there was no express contract for a definite term governing the employment relationship and that the employer does not belong to a collective bargaining group (i.e., has not recognized a union). Be careful in wording of all handbooks, pre-employment documents and especially in documentation of layoffs, downsizing, etc.

Front 23

What are the pieces of information a personnel manager must consider when doing a Utility Analysis? What is the purpose of this analysis?

Back 23

Base rate (proportion of ppl who can be successful in the job in the absence of our manipulation), selection ratio (proportion of ppl we're going to hire), validity of the test (correlation b/w test score and future performance). Essentially you want to determine the consequences of the intervention- will the investment be worth it in the long-term?

Front 24

What is the benefit of considering Organizations as Systems?

Back 24

This is a contextual focus where all decisions made effect the organization as a whole as well as surrounding environment and constituents.

Front 25

How do you go about doing a job analysis? Talk about the specific steps- order is important!

Back 25

Phase One: Information Gathering. First review all materials available at the site- current job descriptions, etc. and then check O*Net.
Phase Two: SME Identification. Find out who the most suitable subject matter experts (SME's) are and note their demographics.
Phase Three: SME Information Collection. Interview SME's via structured interview. Observe SME's.
Phase Four: Structure SME information. Develop initial task and KSAO's from these observations/interviews (SME input).
Phase five: Finalize Lists. Sort information into different content areas (major work tasks, etc.).
Phase six: Criticality ratings. Determine which KSAO's, work behaviors, and tasks are most essential by having experts rank the criticality, importance & time when the employee should possess the behavior (before or after employment). Use these ratings to determine importance.
Phase seven: Critical Incidents Development. Work with SME's to identify examples of good and bad performance. Verify with experts. Have SME's sort these verified incidents into categories. Have experts combine and name categories. Have SME's sort incidents into named categories.
Phase Eight: Product development. Begin using critical incidents and task statements/ KSAO's to develop test items, create job descriptions, etc. Wrap up: Create executive overview with process used to create descriptions.

Front 26

What other processes can be enhanced with the information obtained in a job analysis?

Back 26

Workforce planning- anticipating future staffing requirements. Recruitment- Cost of recruiting and selection ratio. Initial screening (what MUST be present upon hire vs. what can be trained). T & D. Performance management. Organizational Exit.

Front 27

In the selection process, what is Erroneous Acceptance? What is Erroneous Rejection?

Back 27

Erroneous Acceptance: A candidate passed a preceding stage but fails at next stage. Erroneous rejection: An individual who is rejected at one stage but who could succeed at following stage is allowed to continue through process.

Front 28

What is Criterion Relevance? Criterion Deficiency? Criterion Contamination?

Back 28

Relevance- portion of criterion being measured that SHOULD be measured. Deficiency- parts of the ULTIMATE criterion that are NOT part of the ACTUAL criterion (are not being measured). Contamination- portions of actual criterion that are being measured but SHOULD NOT be (not part of ultimate criterion). Some examples of contamination are: opportunity bias, ratings bias, etc.

Front 29

What is test Validity? I.e. what are we really saying when we say a test is valid?

Back 29

The overlap b/w the test score variance and the variance in the actual criterion measure (no access to ultimate criterion information).

Front 30

What are three challenges in criterion development?

Back 30

1. job performance UNRELIABILITY (is job performance stable over time) 2. job performance OBSERVATION/EVALUATION (can't consistently evaluate performance) 3. DIMENSIONALITY of job performance.
Overall, measuring job performance is difficult b/c it is multidimensional: "good" criteria changes over time in three ways: group average performance, validity of test changes, rank orders of people change. All criteria is DYNAMIC.

Front 31

What is Individual Dimensionality (in reference to Criterion Relevance)?

Back 31

Individual dimensionality exists because jobs can be multidimensional and some people will be good at one aspect while others will be good at another aspect- both will look like good performers criterion-wise

Front 32

Talk about the concept of criterion sensitivity (in reference to Criterion Relevance).

Back 32

Given the problems with criterion development you still need to be able to make decisions based on your criterion (discriminate b/w good and bad employees).

Front 33

What are the different types of bias we should be concerned about in consideration of criterion relevance?

Back 33

Knowledge of predictors, group membership bias & rating bias (halo, leniency, severity).

Front 34

What is criterion equivalence?

Back 34

You would have to measure the exact same thing for the criterion to occur in the same way- rare.

Front 35

What are the differences between composite and multiple criteria?

Back 35

Composite- take everything and put together to create overall estimate of how effective an employee is. Assumes criteria represents economic rather than behavioral construct and validation is carried out for economic reasons.
Multiple- You consider different elements of the criterion independently. You are assuming that the criterion is psychological or behavioral and validation is a way to understand better AND for economic reasons.

Front 36

Are utility analysis widely supported as an aide in making management decisions?

Back 36

Whyte & Latham argue that a positive UA does not always necessitate managers using the UA to make HR decisions. Hoffman & Thornton argue that UA does enhance managerial decision making.

Front 37

What are some different things that a personnel manager should consider when trying to find the best selection procedure (ie utility analysis)?

Back 37

Utility analysis is useful in evaluating the many "what-if's" of using different methods. Hoffman and Thornton encourage practitioners to consider test validity, the cut scores, issues of adverse impact, and the utility trade-offs that occur (actual cost vs validity vs. protection against AI)

Front 38

What are some various ways you could use Performance Appraisal information?

Back 38

Employment decisions (administrative), HR research, establishing training objectives, provide concrete feedback and to help with organizational development (you can anticipate the event and look at behavior changes due to it).

Front 39

What are some different barriers to PA effectiveness (talk about the different organizational levels)?

Back 39

Organizational level barriers include common causes (faults in system) and special causes (specific event). Political level barriers include accuracy vs. motivation. Interpersonal barriers include communication.

Front 40

What are the two key processes of PA?

Back 40

1. Observation- gathering the information to establish performance standards.
2. Judgment- use the criteria developed and apply to employees.

Front 41

Describe the various types of potential raters that can be involved in PA.

Back 41

Immediate supervisors. Peers (nomination, rating, ranking). Subordinates. Self. Clients. 360 usually involves at least three types of raters.

Front 42

What are the four biases in ratings?

Back 42

1. Leniency 2. Severity 3. Central Tendency 4. Halo.

Front 43

What are four things that will affect the rating process?

Back 43

1. Ratee's characteristics 2. Rater's characteristics 3. Rating Scale used 4. Characteristics of the setting in which the ratings took place.

Front 44

What are the two general ratings systems and what criterion do they assess?

Back 44

1. Absolute Rating System- look at benchmark criterion, no comparisons with other ratee's
2. Relative Rating System- look at employee comparison criteria.

Front 45

What are some ways that performance can be measured?

Back 45

Ratings, standardized job samples, direct task observation.

Front 46

How should organizational goals relate to job performance?

Back 46

Campbell et. al. argue that a full understanding of performance MUST include an understanding of the organizational goals that the individual must contribute too.

Front 47

What did the Hosada et al (2003) study on the effects of physical attractiveness on job-related outcomes find?

Back 47

Attractive individuals, both male and female, fare better than unattractive individuals on a variety of job-related outcomes.

Front 48

What is the likely performance outcome when managers overrate themselves compared to how others rate them? What about those who under-rated themselves?

Back 48

Johnson & Ferstl found that managers that rated themselves higher tended to improve their ratings from one year to the next while under-raters tended to decline. This is consistent with self-consistency theory.