Psychology Of The Workplace - Criteria

Front 1

Criterion deficiency

Back 1

The degree to which the actual criterion fails to overlap with conceptual criterion. Example1: if a component of the job of secretary is typing and there is no criterion measure which assesses competency in performing typing tasks. Example 2: Dr. Waung develops an exam & there are only 50 minutes for the exam. The test is deficient because it's not completely capturing everything you know.

Front 2

Conceptual criterion

Back 2

The theoretical or abstract standard that researchers seek to understand, e.g. job performance

Front 3

Actual criterion

Back 3

The operational standard or actual measurement that researchers use to measure or assess something (in I/O psych, usually job performance)

Front 4

Criterion relevance

Back 4

The degree of overlap or similarity between the actual criterion and the conceptual criterion, i.e. the greater the match b/w the conceptual and the actual criteria, the greater the criterion relevance.

Front 5

Criterion contamination

Back 5

The part of the actual criterion that is unrelated to the conceptual criterion,e.g. if a student takes an exam, their skills at taking a test, their reading comprehension – all affect how you perform. Professor is not trying to measure how good you are at taking a test or how good your reading comprehension is; what she’s really trying to measure are how much you know. Anything else is contamination.

Front 6

What are the two undesirable parts of criterion contamination?

Back 6

Systematic bias
Random error

Front 7

Define systematic bias

Back 7

The extent to which the actual criteria systematically or consistently measure something other than the conceptual criteria, so the bias is going to occur again and again (e.g. you will always measure reading comprehension in an exam, not just what the student knows about a certain subject)

Front 8

Define random error

Back 8

The extent to which the actual criteria are randomly affected by a variable that’s unlikely to occur again, e.g. the first time you take the exam you have a headache but the 2nd time you do much better.

Front 9

Job analysis consists of what two things:

Back 9

Job specification – focuses on what human skills would be needed to do the job
Job description – focuses on the tasks and the duties, etc.

Front 10

Job analysis can be divided into four components. what are they?

Back 10

Break job into major parts (duties)

Break duties into tasks

Describe the situation (tools, equipment, working conditions eg extreme heat or cold)

Determine human KSAs – what skills, knowledge and abilities are required to do the job

Front 11

Compare the worker-oriented and task-oriented approaches to job analysis.

Back 11

Worker-oriented approach: focus is on the human qualities needed to do job e.g. teaching needs oral communication skills (for job of college professor).

The job-oriented (task-oriented) approach seeks to understand a job by examining the tasks performed, usually in terms of what is accomplished. End result is a list of things being done, e.g. preparing and delivering lectures.

Front 12

What four specific ways can you do a job analysis?

Back 12

Interviews – disadvantages: people exaggerate the importance of their job. People are often motivated to make their jobs seem important because they are aware of potential changes afoot
Structured survey or questionnaire (eg PAQ) – has a listing of a lot of different job tasks and the job incumbent ticks them and then list how often they perform these tasks, when and where, etc.
Direction observation: you simply watch somebody perform their job. Will work for some jobs but not others. Works well for jobs involving physical activity. Doesn’t work well for jobs with lots of paperwork or long cycles.
Log books and diaries where people write down everything they do. (Disadvantage: people vary in how thorough they are, some will forget)

Front 13

What is a PAQ?

Back 13

Position Analysis Questionnaire - a very common job analysis survey that assesses the content of jobs using 200 items. It’s a worker-oriented method and focuses on the human characteristics used to complete a job.

Front 14

What are the 6 main categories of a PAQ (Position Analysis Questionnaire)?

Back 14

Information input: Where people get the information to do their jobs (e.g. do you have to sort through things, classify, searching for things)
Mental processes: is reasoning involved?
Work output: what kind of physical activities does the worker perform, e.g. typing?
R/ships with other people: mentoring involved?, contact with the public, managing or instructing people?
Job context: physical, social surroundings – working alone or in a group, is in indoors or outdoors?
Other requirements: physical or emotional stress involved?

Front 15

List 2 advantages of the PAQ?

Back 15

Regardless of how well or poorly the worker is performing in a job, how they respond to the PAQ is the same. (this is good because we don’t want the PAQ to be idiosyncratic to a particular person).
Widely-used, well-known.

Front 16

List 2 disadvantages of the PAQ.

Back 16

Needs at least a high school reading level (sometimes college grad)
Jobs with different duties may sound v similar. E.g. a research study compared police officers who completed a PAQ with housewives and househusbands who also completed a PAQ – their responses were very similar to each other. Some of the human qualities that were needed were very similar.

Front 17

What is the purpose of a job evaluation?

Back 17

To determine the relative value of a job

Front 18

Internal equity

Back 18

The fairness within an organization with regard to pay. If there seems to be a huge gap b/w the highest and lowest level workers, you could make a case for poor internal equity.

Front 19

External equity

Back 19

The degree of pay fairness across the marketplace, i.e. comparing what an engineer in one company gets paid with an engineer in another company

Front 20

What are the two categories of methods for doing a job evaluation to achieve internal equity (fairness within the organization)

Back 20

Comparative method – comparing jobs with one another, i.e. what one job is being paid is relative to what another job is being paid. Similar to student rankings where your position in the class is relative to the others in the class
Absolute method – using a ratings scale which uses a standard, e.g. 94% is an A, 90% is an A-. One type of absolute job evaluation method is the point factor method.

Front 21

what are two comparative methods for establishing internal equity?

Back 21

Ranking: an organization takes all the job titles and ranks them (i.e. no. 1 is the most valuable job etc). A situation where the football coach gets paid the most reflects lack of internal inequity but the company might argue external equity

Factor comparison: come up with a set of criteria and rank within that criteria so the jobs with the highest rank would be paid the most, e.g. there are 4 titles: supervisor, clerk, assistant clerk and administrator. We decide we’re going to pay for skill, negative working conditions, effort and these are the 3 criteria to determine who gets paid more and who gets paid less.

Front 22

Describe one type of Absolute method for establishing internal equity

Back 22

Point factor method
Use a ratings scale where 0 would mean none of these things required
e.g. for a clerk how much responsibility is required and give a number, how much danger and give a number. You add up all the numbers and the jobs that had more points would translate into jobs with higher dollar value.

Front 23

What is one method of establishing external equity?

Back 23

Salary surveys. In 2000, I/O Psychology organization did a survey and they found $90,000 for Phd and for $67,000 with master’s. If you compared males with females $93,000 for males, $77,000 for females.

Front 24

list 2 different forms of legislation designed to make pay fairer for women.

Back 24

Equal Pay Act (1963) prohibits pay differences for jobs which are substantially equal, i.e. male nurse gets paid same as female nurse. However, you can pay more for seniority, merit or any other job factor apart from sex.

Unisex Pension Plans (under Title VII) – companies used to pay less for pension for women because they claimed that women lived longer than men and therefore they cost the company more.

Front 25

Criteria

Back 25

What you are trying to measure, the DV. In I/O psychology, it is the evaluative standards used to determine good job performance.

Front 26

Task

Back 26

The lowest level of analysis in the study of work; a basic component of work (such as typing for a secretary)

Front 27

Position

Back 27

A set of tasks performed by a single employee

Front 28

Job

Back 28

a set of similar positions in an organization

Front 29

What is the PAQ and what does the acronym stand for?

Back 29

Position Analysis Questionnaire - a method of job analysis that assesses the content of jobs on the basis of approx 200 items in the questionnaire

Front 30

Harvey (1991) defined job analysis as.....

Back 30

'the collection of data describing (a) observable or otherwise verifiable job behaviors performed by workers, including both what is accomplished as well as what technologies are employed to accomplish the end results, and (b) verifiable characteristics of the job environment with which workers interact, including physical, mechanical, social and informational elements."

Front 31

Give three examples of what job analyses can be used for.

Back 31

To identify the criteria (performance dimensions) of a job
A way of arriving at conceptual criteria
To provide the basis for many personnel decisions (selection, training, promotion, compensation)

Front 32

What is an advantage of the worker-oriented approach to job analysis?

Back 32

It is easier to compare across jobs that are different and allow you to determine which jobs need particular skills.

Front 33

What is the Equal Pay Act?

Back 33

Legislation passed n 1963 which prohibits pay differences on the basis of sex

Front 34

What are some reasons for the pay differential between men and women?

Back 34

Comparable worth
Recent influx of women into workforce - low seniority
Tendency of some women to invest less in education and training than men
Socialized into 'acceptable' jobs
Tend to work fewer hours due to child/elder care
Unionization
Salary negotiation process

Front 35

What three standards should be used to determine if a certain job performance criterion will work?

Back 35

Appropriate (i.e. it should work for the job at hand)
Reliable
Practical, i.e. easy to measure & inexpensive

Front 36

List 6 examples of objective criteria used to measure job performance?

Back 36

Production
Sales
Tenure/turnover
Absenteeism
Accidents
Thefts

Front 37

Difference bw objective and subjective criteria

Back 37

Objective: based on hard facts, things you can count
Subjective: human judgment involved, usually supervisor rating subordinates in terms of performance

Front 38

Disadvantage of using 'production' (no. of units produced) as an objective criterion.

Back 38

Not as objective as appears, e.g. one work group/person may be using old equipment while another using updated equipment.

Front 39

Disadvantage of using 'sales' as an objective criterion

Back 39

One person's sales territory might be different from others

Front 40

Disdvantage of 'tenure/turnover' as an objective criterion

Back 40

Not all turnover is bad, e.g. people may get promoted.

Front 41

Disadvantage of using 'absenteeism' as an objective criterion

Back 41

One person may never take days off but gets sick once and takes 10 days while another takes one day off every few weeks

Front 42

Absenteeism is negatively correlated with....?

Back 42

job satisfaction

Front 43

Absenteeism is positively correlated with....?

Back 43

Job stress/ burnout

Front 44

Problem with using 'accidents' as an objective criterion

Back 44

hard to predict, underreporting, little stability or consistency found in research (e.g. being left handed or young is correlated)

Front 45

Problem of using 'theft' as an objective criterion

Back 45

There are people who steal who don't get caught

Front 46

What are some 'subjective' methods of judging employee performance?

Back 46

Supervisory ratings or rankings
Peer, subordinate and self ratings

Front 47

Define comparable worth

Back 47

A reform effort aimed at paying different job titles the same based on their value to their employer regardless of gender. It is based on the idea that the labor market discriminates against women as a group because employers, out of habit or prejudice, pay women less than their true worth.