Fundamentals of HR Management, 8e (Noe)
Chapter 6 Selecting Employees and Placing Them in Jobs
1) The process of selecting employees remains constant for all organizations and for all jobs.
2) Automated systems always ensure that all highly qualified candidates are included in the
selection process.
3) A reliable measurement generates consistent results.
4) Reliability answers the important question if one is measuring something that matters.
5) Content validation is most suitable for measuring abstract qualities such as intelligence or
leadership ability.
6) Under equal employment opportunity laws, if an employer uses an interview process that
eliminates most candidates who are black or Hispanic, the employer must show that the method
is necessary for selecting candidates who project the right brand image.
7) Equal employment opportunity laws affect the kinds of information an organization may
gather on application forms and in interviews.
8) The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that employers obtain a candidate’s consent before
downloading his or her résumé from an online job site.
9) An HR department at a manufacturing firm wants to ensure that applicants for production jobs
provide complete information about themselves in a standard format. The most effective method
would be to ask candidates to submit a résumé.
10) Most organizations check references as soon as they receive a candidate’s application form.
11) Aptitude tests assess a person’s existing knowledge and skills.
12) Jenny is the human resource manager for a machine job that produces custom parts. To make
these products, production employees must be able to quickly learn new methods and machines.
To identify job candidates who can quickly acquire new skills, Jenny could administer
achievement tests.
13) Race norming refers to establishing different norms for hiring members of different racial
groups.
14) The Civil Rights Act of 1991 encourages the use of sex norming as a selection tool.
15) Personality tests are more reliable than intelligence tests.
16) The Polygraph Act legalized the use of polygraph tests for employment screening in most
organizations.
17) In a nondirective interview, the interviewer always asks questions from an established set of
questions.
18) Interviewing is considered the most accurate basis for making a selection decision.
19) Interviews are the least expensive method of employee selection.
20) In an organization, a supervisor usually makes the final employee selection decision.
21) Ed, an entrepreneur, wants to hire a human resource professional who can help him make
decisions about who will or will not be allowed to join his organization. In advertising for this
professional, what term should he use to describe the process he wants help with?
A) predictive validation
B) job analysis
C) concurrent validation
D) trend analysis
E) personnel selection
22) In most organizations, the first step in the personnel selection process is
A) verifying the applicants’ qualifications through reference and background checks.
B) negotiating with the employee regarding salary and benefits.
C) screening the applications to see which ones meet the basic requirements for the job.
D) administering tests and reviewing work samples to rate the candidates’ abilities.
E) inviting candidates with the best abilities to the organization for one or more interviews.
23) Along with 50 other candidates, Paula applied for the position of analyst at Atticus Inc.
Because Paula’s profile stood out from other candidates’ profiles, she was called for an interview
in which she performed well. In the context of the steps involved in the selection process for
recruitment, which step would most likely be taken next by the recruiter?
A) reviewing Paula’s work samples
B) negotiating salary and benefits with Paula
C) verifying Paula’s qualifications through background checks
D) sending Paula a job offer letter
E) getting Paula to sign the job offer
24) Russell, the new human resource manager at RTL Inc., proposes using automated systems
for screening résumés of applicants. Russell claims that automated systems are better than
humans at picking the right profiles. Which statement weakens Russell’s claim?
A) Automated systems might reject qualified people who didn’t use the same keywords as the job
description.
B) Automated systems reduce the pace of the selection process by a large margin.
C) Automated systems prevent candidates from knowing the status of their applications.
D) Automated systems do not help in matching résumés to the keywords in job requirements.
E) Automated systems refrain from replying to the candidates when their profiles are rejected.
25) A strategic approach to selection requires ways to measure the effectiveness of selection
tools. What is a basic standard for this?
A) The method can be personally relatable.
B) The method will highlight invalid information.
C) The information provided will always be specific to the candidates applying.
D) The method offers practical value.
E) The legality of the selection criteria depends on in which country the measurement is
performed.
26) The ________ of a type of measurement indicates how free that measurement is from
random error.
A) reliability
B) validity
C) generalizability
D) utility
E) verifiability
27) Statistics that measure the degree to which two sets of numbers are related are known as
A) aligned statistics.
B) important integers.
C) reliable ratings.
D) natural numbers.
E) correlation coefficients.
28) A correlation coefficient of -1.0 between two sets of numbers indicates
A) a complete lack of any correlation between the two sets.
B) that when one set of numbers goes up, so does the other set.
C) that when one set of numbers goes up, the other set goes down.
D) a positive correlation between the two sets.
E) an indefinite relationship between the two sets.
29) What does a correlation of 0 mean?
A) a negative correlation
B) a positive correlation
C) a correlation where one number goes up and the other goes down
D) no correlation at all
E) an error in the correlation coefficients
30) Reliability answers the important question of
A) whether you are measuring something accurately.
B) whether you are measuring something that matters.
C) how you are measuring correlation coefficients.
D) how many errors something can achieve while still being considered useful.
E) intelligence in employees.
31) The ________ of an employment test is indicated by the extent to which the test scores relate
to actual job performance.
A) reliability
B) validity
C) generalizability
D) utility
E) dependability
32) The HR department at Hufton Co. recently developed and employed a certain test in the
selection process for managers. After observing trends within the organization, the HR
department concluded that the test was not a valid selection criterion. What most likely led to the
observation that the test was not valid?
A) Managers who were recruited without the tests performed well when promoted to other roles.
B) Managers who got low scores on the tests performed poorly when promoted to other roles.
C) Managers who fared well in the tests performed well in their roles.
D) Managers who performed well on the tests performed poorly in their roles.
E) Managers who were recruited without the tests performed poorly in their roles.
33) What is true of validity?
A) Validity cannot be explained using correlation coefficients.
B) Validity identifies how free a measurement is from random error.
C) Validity measures the level of cultural fit.
D) Validity can only be measured in one way.
E) Validity ensures the fairness of employment practices during selection procedures.
34) Which measure of validity is based on showing a substantial correlation between test scores
and job performance scores?
A) criterion-related validity
B) diagnostic validity
C) content validity
D) convergent validity
E) construct validity
35) Sparkle Spin, a national appliance brand, recruited 15 people as brand managers. They all
took a test as part of the recruitment process. Three months after the recruitment, their test scores
were analyzed along with their performance on the job to find a substantial correlation between
the two factors. Which method of research is exemplified in this scenario?
A) content validation
B) predictive validation
C) concurrent validation
D) construct validation
E) diagnostic validation
36) Identify the correct statement regarding predictive validation.
A) It is the least effective method of measuring validity.
B) It uses the test scores of all applicants and looks for a relationship between the scores and
future performance.
C) It involves administering a test to people who currently hold a job and comparing their scores
to existing measures of their current job performance.
D) It is the quickest and easiest method compared to other ways of measuring validity.
E) Its scores are influenced by applicants’ job experiences.
37) Kate is the HR manager of Gunther Corp., a software company located in Chicago. She
wants to establish the validity of a test designed for computer technicians using a predictive
validation strategy. Accordingly, Kate must administer the test to
A) at least half the present computer technicians in Gunther Corp.
B) people doing similar jobs in other companies.
C) people applying for computer technician jobs in Gunther Corp.
D) only those computer technicians in Gunther Corp. who are performing at acceptable levels.
E) a random selection of computer technicians currently employed at Gunther Corp.
38) To test the validity of a selection test for advanced widget designers, Apptastic administers
the test to its current widget designers. The test results are then compared with existing measures
of job performance. In this instance, what type of validation is being used by Apptastic?
A) predictive validation
B) concurrent validation
C) content validation
D) construct validation
E) diagnostic validation
39) Identify an accurate difference between predictive validation and concurrent validation.
A) Predictive validation correlates current job roles and job performance; concurrent validation
does not.
B) Predictive validation correlates future job performance and applicant test scores; concurrent
validation does not.
C) Concurrent validation is very time-consuming; predictive validation is not.
D) Concurrent validation is difficult to employ; predictive validation is not.
E) Concurrent validation is utilized on new recruits; predictive validation is not.
40) The consistency between test items or problems and the kinds of situations or problems that
occur in a job is known as
A) predictive validity.
B) content validity.
C) concurrent validity.
D) diagnostic validity.
E) construct validity.
41) Brick-n-Go, a construction firm, is in need of a construction superintendent whose primary
responsibilities involve organizing, supervising, and inspecting the work of several
subcontractors. Brick-n-Go administers a construction-error recognition test, where an applicant
has to enter a shed that has 25 construction errors and has to record as many of these errors as
can be detected. What type of validity is being established in this case?
A) concurrent validity
B) construct validity
C) content validity
D) representative validity
E) predictive validity
42) Which statement is true about content validity?
A) It is usually measured on the basis of expert judgment.
B) It indicates how free a measurement is from random errors.
C) It is most suitable for tests that measure abstract qualities.
D) A test that scores high on content validity tends to score low on generalizability.
E) It is useful for tests that measure intelligence and leadership quality.
43) For tests that measure abstract qualities such as intelligence or leadership skills, validity
would best be established by ________ validation.
A) criterion-related
B) content
C) concurrent
D) construct
E) predictive
44) A test that is valid in other contexts beyond the context in which it was developed is known
as a(n) ________ method.
A) practical
B) generalizable
C) reliable
D) invalid
E) concurrent
45) Christian is the HR manager of Pryor’s Printing, a publishing company. He wants to know if
a certain test of cognitive ability, used in the advertising industry, can be successfully used in his
organization. This scenario suggests that he wants to know if this test is a(n) ________ method.
A) substitutable
B) evaluative
C) practical
D) generalizable
E) nondirective
46) Selection methods should accurately predict how well individuals perform, and they should
A) produce information that actually benefits the organization.
B) not cost the company a great deal of money.
C) all be applicable to many different roles in many different locations.
D) only be applicable to the company where they are being used.
E) only be used on current employees with leadership aspirations.
47) The extent to which something provides economic value greater than its cost is called its
A) practicality.
B) utility.
C) validity.
D) accountability.
E) reliability.