Fundamentals of HR Management, 8e (Noe)
Chapter 8 Developing Employees for Future Success
1) Development implies learning that is not necessarily related to an employee’s current job.
2) A protean career is one that remains constant despite the changes in a person’s interests,
abilities, and values and in the work environment.
3) The approaches to employee development fall into four broad categories: formal education,
assessment, job experiences, and interpersonal relationships.
4) The most frequent uses of assessment are to identify employees with managerial potential to
measure current managers’ strengths and weaknesses.
5) According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, individuals with a Feeling (F) preference try
always to be objective in making decisions, whereas individuals with a Thinking (T) preference
are more subjective.
6) Research on the validity, reliability, and effectiveness of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is
inconclusive.
7) The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is an assessment tool for behavioral styles based on the
works of the psychologist William Marston.
8) Assessment centers are primarily used to identify employees’ technical skills.
9) Research suggests that assessment center ratings are valid for predicting performance, salary
level, and career advancement.
10) A performance appraisal process must identify causes of an employee’s performance
discrepancy and develop plans for improving his or her performance.
11) Most employee development occurs through formal education programs.
12) An organization can use downward moves as a source of job experience.
13) Relocation is the most common way to use downward moves for employee development.
14) Mentoring programs tend to be very successful when they are compulsory.
15) Coaches are peers or managers who work with other employees to motivate them, help them
develop their skills, and provide them with reinforcement and feedback.
16) Basic career management systems involve the four sequential steps of recruiting, relocation,
reality check, and action planning.
17) In a self-assessment, an organization’s responsibility is to identify opportunities and areas
that need improvement.
18) Action planning often involves the preparation of a career development plan.
19) Women and minorities often have difficulty finding mentors.
20) The development of high-potential employees is usually a very swift process.
21) Managers provide for ________, a combination of formal education, job experiences,
relationships, and assessment of personality and abilities to help employees prepare for the future
of their careers.
A) emotional development
B) training programs
C) employee development
D) counseling sessions
E) feedback
22) ________ increases an employee’s ability to move into jobs that may not yet exist.
A) Development
B) Qualification
C) Physical appearance
D) Personal background
E) Ethnic culture
23) Which statement is true of the relationship between training and development?
A) Training is future-oriented, while development is focused on one’s experiences in the past.
B) Training prepares employees for management careers, while development is for learning
entry-level skills.
C) Participation in training is voluntary, but most organizations require participation in
development activities.
D) The goal of training is preparation for the current job, while the goal of development is
preparation for future job opportunities.
E) Training is often an ongoing process, while development tends to be a short-term process.
24) A(n) ________ is a career that frequently changes based on changes in a person’s interests,
abilities, and values and in the work environment.
A) prescribed career
B) stable career
C) flexible career
D) established career
E) protean career
25) ________ helps employees select development activities that prepare them to meet their
career goals.
A) Career path
B) Training
C) Policy analysis
D) Job sharing
E) Career management
26) The four general approaches that companies use for employee development include
A) formal education, assessment, job experiences, and interpersonal relationships.
B) job rotation, promotion, transfer, and job sharing.
C) psychological tests, assessment centers, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and performance
feedback.
D) business games, formal courses, team building, and assessment.
E) total quality management, Six Sigma, lean manufacturing, and quality function deployment.
27) What is true of formal education as an approach to employee development?
A) Organizations organize formal educational programs at the workplace or off-site to support
employee development.
B) Formal education includes organization-specific workshops that are open to outsiders as well
as employees.
C) As a prerequisite to formal education, trainees must enroll in various courses offered by an
organization.
D) Formal education includes presentations sent out by an organization, which enlist the ethics
and policies educating employees from time to time.
E) In an organization, formal education involves collating data pertaining to the development of
projects.
28) Greene Creations, a popular furniture manufacturer, provides employee support through
various workshops on interior design techniques. It also offers three-month courses on various
aspects of decorating a home, from suitable paint for a media room to contemporary outdoor
furnishings. This adds to employees’ existing knowledge and skill sets, helping create customer
satisfaction. In this scenario, which approach to employee development is Greene Creations
taking?
A) assessment
B) formal education
C) job experiences
D) interpersonal relationships
E) counseling
29) Jacob, the vice president of Money-Makers, is reviewing the development program for the
company’s middle managers. He notes that management development includes psychological
profiles and mentors, as well as lateral moves to positions that give managers a broader view of
the company. Jacob would like to add a component of formal education. Which option could be
included in this new component?
A) on-the-job training in the basics of managers’ current jobs
B) opportunities to sign up for sessions with a life coach
C) a program of externships at local charities
D) workshops involving business games and simulations
E) 360-degree feedback
30) A sales firm regularly enrolls some of its employees in a six-month marketing course with a
leading university. At the end of the course, the employees are able to perform better in the
organization. Which method of employee development has the firm used?
A) externship
B) formal education
C) assessment
D) interpersonal relationships
E) personality test
31) The process of collecting information and providing feedback to employees about their
behavior, communication style, or skills is known as
A) requirements analysis.
B) data mining.
C) assessment.
D) counseling.
E) quality check.
32) For assessment to work efficiently, an employee must be
A) provided suggestions to improve his or her weak skills.
B) evaluated discreetly so the employee does not pretend to be a model employee.
C) present on the day the assessment occurs so that results of the feedback will be accurate.
D) employed at the organization for at least a year.
E) informed that an appraisal can take place at any time during the year.
33) The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) identifies individuals’ preferences for source of
energy, means of information gathering, way of decision making, and
A) succession planning.
B) self-assessment.
C) lifestyle.
D) value system.
E) goal setting.
34) The energy dichotomy of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator indicates
A) the preparations individuals make before making decisions.
B) the amount of consideration individuals give to their own and others’ values and feelings.
C) individuals’ degree of introversion or extroversion.
D) the hard facts of a situation.
E) individuals’ tendency to be either flexible or structured.
35) According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, how do Introverted types (I) gain energy?
A) by focusing on inner thoughts
B) by focusing on interpersonal relationships
C) by gathering facts and details
D) by focusing less on facts and more on possibilities
E) by trying to be objective in making decisions
36) According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Extroverted types (E) gain energy through
A) interpersonal relationships.
B) personal thoughts.
C) facts and details.
D) establishing goals.
E) inner feelings.
37) According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, what is true of individuals with a Sensing (S)
preference?
A) They enjoy surprises.
B) They tend to rush into decision making.
C) They tend to focus less on facts and more on possibilities and relationships among them.
D) They focus on interpersonal relationships.
E) They tend to gather the facts and details to prepare for a decision.
38) The decision-making dimension of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator relates to the
A) steps or actions individuals take when making decisions.
B) amount of consideration given to others’ feelings when making a decision.
C) individuals’ tendency to be flexible and adaptable.
D) confidence and speed with which decisions are reached.
E) individuals’ interpersonal strength and vitality.
39) According to the lifestyle dichotomy of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, individuals with a
________ preference enjoy surprises and dislike deadlines.
A) Judging (J)
B) Perceiving (P)
C) Thinking (T)
D) Feeling (F)
E) Sensing (S)
40) Pen & Paper Inc., a publishing company, administered the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI) assessment to its editorial team and learned that some individuals are drawn toward
gathering the facts and details needed for decision making, while others focus more on noticing
relations among the facts. Some of the employees enjoy learning this about themselves, but the
human resource specialist who administered the assessment cautions them not to use the results
to limit their understanding of what they can do. Which statement best explains the need for
caution in applying the results of this assessment?
A) MBTI scores are mainly useful for measuring job performance.
B) MBTI scores are not necessarily valid and reliable.
C) MBTI scores should be used for evaluating promotion potential.
D) MBTI scores are extremely stable over time.
E) The scores show that some individuals are more flexible in their thinking than others.
41) Which category in the DiSC inventory means that a person emphasizes relationships and also
displays optimism?
A) conscientiousness
B) steadiness
C) influence
D) dominance
E) initiative
42) Milton Inc., a software company, conducts Inscape’s DiSC inventory assessment to evaluate
its employees. The assessment reveals that there are very few employees who are calm,
supportive of others, and work far ahead of any deadlines. Which DiSC category applies to the
employees described in the scenario?
A) influence
B) conscientiousness
C) steadiness
D) dominance
E) intelligence
43) Danielle works at a leading restaurant. She is scared of making mistakes at her workplace, so
she is very keen on paying attention to details. She also prioritizes quality in her work. In the
context of Inscape’s DiSC assessment, she would most likely score high in
A) steadiness.
B) dominance.
C) conscientiousness.
D) humility.
E) influence.
44) Which statement is true about an assessment center?
A) An assessment center is a meeting room where a team of seven to ten employees is assigned a
problem and must work together to solve it within a certain time period.
B) At an assessment center, multiple raters or evaluators evaluate employees’ performance on a
number of exercises.
C) It is an office that looks into the process of collecting information and providing feedback to
employees about their behavior, communication style, or skills.
D) At an assessment center, senior managers hold a test that identifies individuals’ preferences
for source of energy, means of information gathering, way of decision making, and lifestyle.
E) It refers to an on-site location where the corporate leaders design a tool that gathers the ratings
of a manager’s use of the skills associated with success in managing.
45) The primary use of assessment centers is to identify
A) the employees who have the personality characteristics and skills needed for managerial
positions.
B) the strengths and weaknesses of an organization.
C) the decision processes and communication styles that inhibit production.
D) the opportunities and threats to an organization.
E) the factors that inhibit group performance.