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Chapter 10 – Performance Appraisal and Career Management
1. People who understand and carefully monitor their careers are likely to understand the reasons behind their successes
and failures.
a. True
b. False
2. A 360-degree appraisal uses performance information collected from people on two sides of a manager: above and
below.
a. True
b. False
3. The establishment stage is the first stage of a typical career.
a. True
b. False
4. Appraisals play a role in performance-management processes, but they do not directly impact employee compensation.
a. True
b. False
5. Performance appraisals that show evidence of disparate impact must be validated the same as any selection technique.
a. True
b. False
6. A central tendency error occurs when one positive performance characteristic causes a manager to rate all other aspects
of performance positively.
a. True
b. False
7. An individual’s supervisor is the least likely person to rate the individual in his or her performance appraisal.
a. True
b. False
8. The forced-distribution method of performance appraisal coerces a rater to make distinctions between employee
performance that might not really be meaningful.
a. True
b. False
9. Contextual performance refers to tasks that an employee is expected to perform as part of his or her job responsibilities.
a. True
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Chapter 10 – Performance Appraisal and Career Management
b. False
10. A critical incident is an example of particularly good or bad employee performance.
a. True
b. False
11. Which of the following is the first step of the performance-management process in a typical organization?
a. Setting up a meeting with each employee
b. Establishing and communicating performance standards
c. Establishing job duties
d. Inspecting performance
12. Performance appraisals cannot accomplish their goals if:
a. managers and employees do not use the same set of standards to rate performance.
b. there are no false negative or false positive errors in the selection process.
c. appraisals are not done on the anniversary date of each individual employee’s hiring.
d. appraisals are conducted for less than thirty employees at a time.
13. Which of the following is an example of a special program in career counseling?
a. A conference organized by an investment firm about new banking solutions and potential career opportunities for
its executives
b. A session conducted for the benefit of employees belonging to minority groups to integrate them into the daily
activities of the firm
c. A workshop conducted by a software development firm to update all its employees on the latest developments in
the field of information technology
d. A one-on-one interaction between an employee and his supervisor to discuss the employee’s performance in the
last fiscal quarter
14. Most companies with a reputation to be great places to work:
a. prevent employees from reaching the disengagement stage of their careers.
b. encourage voluntary retirements.
c. have formal career-planning systems for their managers.
d. use the forced-distribution method for appraising performance.
15. Which of the following rating errors occurs when a manager gives low ratings to all employees by holding them to an
unreasonably high standard?
a. A severity error
b. A halo error
c. A horns error
d. A leniency error
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Chapter 10 – Performance Appraisal and Career Management
16. A performance-appraisal system that is used only for providing feedback:
a. is subject to false negative and false positive errors.
b. is objective, and its results are not to be disclosed to the top management of the organization.
c. is not subject to the same legal requirements as those systems that are used for promotion decisions.
d. is required to demonstrate that the ratings provided are in areas that are job related.
17. Organizational citizenship behaviors are behaviors associated with _____.
a. career planning
b. job embeddedness
c. career counseling
d. contextual performance
18. The _____ of performance appraisal involves contrasting each individual employee with every other individual
employee, two at a time.
a. paired-comparison method
b. factor-comparison method
c. critical incident method
d. forced-distribution method
19. Katy, a manager, is evaluating her team members by rating them from best to worst. This rating is based on their
overall performance. Which of the following performance-appraisal methods is Katy using in the given scenario?
a. The simple ranking method
b. The factor-comparison method
c. The critical incident method
d. The forced-distribution method
20. Xavier, a sales manager, set extremely high daily sales targets for his subordinates. As only three of his subordinates
were able to meet those targets, he gave poor ratings to all subordinates, including those who achieved the targets, in their
performance appraisals. Which of the following errors did Xavier make?
a. A severity error
b. A halo error
c. A horns error
d. A leniency error
21. The goal of performance management is:
a. to formally evaluate the performance of employees.
b. to teach employees new skills that will be useful for the organization in the future.
c. to prevent employees from reaching the disengagement stage of their careers.
d. to improve employee performance.
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Chapter 10 – Performance Appraisal and Career Management
22. _____ is the traditional career stage that involves identifying interests and opportunities.
a. Exploration
b. Establishment
c. Maintenance
d. Disengagement
23. In the context of performance appraisals, a _____ occurs when a rater tends to use only one part of a rating scale.
a. distributional error
b. contrast error
c. halo error
d. horns error
24. Which of the following statements is true of performance management?
a. It prevents employees from reaching the disengagement stage of their careers.
b. It aims to promote ethnocentric behavior in the workplace.
c. It is the ultimate goal of performance-appraisal activities.
d. It is a more specific process than performance appraisal.
25. A disadvantage of using peers as a source of information for performance appraisals is that:
a. they might be competing with a given worker for a promotion, which may affect their motivation to be accurate in
their peer evaluations.
b. they do not have expert knowledge of job content.
c. they have less opportunities than the supervisor to observe the performance of a given worker on a day-to–day
basis.
d. they do not understand their limitations regarding performance.
26. Individuals are more likely to retire when:
a. they reach the establishment stage of their careers.
b. they face gender and racial discrimination at work.
c. their work is part time.
d. their spouses have retired.
27. The _____ of the traditional career model involves creating a meaningful and relevant role in the organization.
a. maintenance stage
b. disengagement stage
c. establishment stage
d. exploration stage
28. Which of the following statements is a disadvantage of ranking methods for performance appraisals?
a. They provide no information about the difference between the persons ranked first and second.
b. They are complex and difficult to implement.
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Chapter 10 – Performance Appraisal and Career Management
c. They do not result in a normal distribution of performance ratings.
d. They require raters to keep a log to record critical incidents that reflect good and bad performance on the part of
individual employees.
29. Which of the following is a difference between the establishment and the maintenance stages of a traditional career?
a. The establishment stage consists of individuals aged between late teens and late twenties, whereas the
maintenance stage consists of individuals aged between late sixties and early seventies.
b. In the establishment stage, individuals begin to create a relevant role for themselves in the firm, whereas in the
maintenance stage, individuals reach a level in the firm that optimizes their talents.
c. In the establishment stage, individuals gradually lose interest in their work, whereas in the maintenance stage,
individuals find that the coursework of their field is of interest to them.
d. The establishment stage is the first stage of a traditional career, whereas the maintenance stage is the fourth stage
of a traditional career.
30. Which of the following statements is true of the goals set under the management-by-objectives (MBO) system of
performance appraisal?
a. They are qualitative and difficult to measure.
b. They are almost always written down.
c. They are subjective in nature.
d. They are the same as the objectives of the organization.
31. _____ is an approach that attempts to emphasize for managers the fact that performance is multidimensional in nature
and to teach those managers about the actual content of various performance dimensions.
a. Contextual performance
b. Frame of reference training
c. The critical incident method
d. The forced-distribution method
32. Which of the following is a difference between a halo error and a horns error?
a. A halo error is the opposite of a distributional error, whereas a horns error is the opposite of a contrast error.
b. A halo error occurs when all aspects of an employee’s performance are rated positively, whereas a horns error
occurs when all aspects of an employee’s performance are downgraded.
c. A halo error is a performance selection error, whereas a horns error is a performance rating error.
d. A halo error occurs when people are compared against one another instead of against an objective standard,
whereas a horns error occurs when a rater tends to use only one part of a rating scale.
33. _____ is the set of experiences and activities that people engage in related to their job and livelihood over the course
of their working life.
a. An appraisal
b. Contextual performance
c. Exploration
d. A career
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34. Which of the following statements is true of rating performance based on outcomes?
a. It emphasizes subjective measures of performance.
b. It focuses on highlighting only the positive aspects of the performance of employees.
c. The goals set for employees are ambiguous and difficult to quantify.
d. Feedback is relatively straightforward and easy to interpret.
35. Which of the following is the first step in effective career planning?
a. Communication
b. Individual assessment
c. Career counseling
d. Performance management
36. Several firms have claimed to have dropped performance appraisals completely and focused entirely upon
performance management. Much of this reaction stems from the use of the _____ for appraising performance.
a. forced-distribution method
b. graphic rating scale
c. goal-based system
d. management-by-objectives system
37. Which of the following is a similarity between a behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS) and a behavioral
observation scale (BOS)?
a. Both are cheap to develop.
b. Both involve grouping employees into predefined frequencies of performance ratings.
c. Both are developed from critical incidents.
d. Both allow managers to rate the frequency with which each employee has exhibited effective and ineffective
behaviors during the rating period.
38. Which of the following is a step in career planning where an organization integrates its performance-management
system with its career-management system?
a. Individual assessment
b. Career counseling
c. Organizational specification of career paths
d. Communication
39. Which of the following is an advantage of a behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS) system?
a. It dramatically increases reliability by providing specific behavioral examples to reflect effective and less
effective behaviors.
b. It can be developed quickly and easily.
c. It allows managers to rate the frequency with which individual employees have exhibited specific behaviors
during the rating period.
d. It is cheap to develop.
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Chapter 10 – Performance Appraisal and Career Management
40. The following item appears on an employee evaluation form of an organization:
How does the employee react when faced with challenging tasks?
1 = Gets nervous and asks the supervisor for help
2 = Looks into the problem and asks peers for solutions
3 = Makes a list of possible solutions and shows them to the supervisor
4 = Comes up with innovative solutions on his own and fixes the problem within time
Which of the following methods of performance appraisal is the organization using?
a. The management-by-objectives system
b. The paired-comparison method
c. A Likert scale
d. A behaviorally anchored rating scale
41. The performance-appraisal process at Lorenzo Inc. requires a manager to evaluate organizational citizenship
behaviors, such as volunteering for unpleasant tasks and integrating new employees into the team, and reward the
employees accordingly. In the given scenario, the manager is:
a. rating contextual performance.
b. using the management-by-objectives system for appraising performance.
c. rating task behaviors.
d. using the goal-based system for appraising performance.
42. Which of the following rating errors occurs when a manager assigns relatively high performance ratings to all
employees?
a. A severity error
b. A leniency error
c. A horns error
d. A halo error
43. In the context of the traditional model of career stages, individuals are likely to view work as less important and find
other sources for fulfilling their personal needs and goals in the _____.
a. maintenance stage
b. disengagement stage
c. establishment stage
d. exploration stage
44. Which of the following statements is true of the maintenance stage of a traditional career?
a. The highest growth in the performance of an individual occurs during this stage.
b. The performance of an individual remains constant during this stage.
c. It involves creating a meaningful and relevant role in the organization.
d. It involves an individual gradually beginning to pull away from work in the organization.
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45. Which of the following statements is true of effective career planning?
a. It results in a stronger and effective workforce for a firm.
b. The chief operating officer of a firm usually represents the firm in the career-planning process.
c. Career planning helps to predict with absolute certainty the level of talent or interest an individual will have in the
future.
d. Hiring for fit is the least effective selection strategy for career planning because the firm hires individuals who
match the firm’s values but do not fit different jobs.
46. Which of the following is one of the ultimate goals of career management?
a. Having employees enjoy productive and satisfying work careers
b. Preventing employees from reaching the disengagement stage of their careers
c. Preventing the use of ranking techniques for performance appraisal
d. Creating special career counseling programs for certain categories of employees
47. Leroy, a senior manager, has been preoccupied with moving the marketing division of Clifford Inc. to its new office.
As he could not monitor the work of his subordinates, he decides to give high ratings to all his subordinates in their
performance appraisals, irrespective of their actual performance. In the given scenario, Leroy is most likely to commit a
_____.
a. severity error
b. leniency error
c. horns error
d. halo error
48. Which of the following is a similarity between leniency and central tendency?
a. Both are contrast errors in performance appraisals.
b. Both are types of distributional errors in performance appraisals.
c. Both occur when people are compared against one another instead of against an objective standard.
d. Both are behaviors that are never stated as formal requirements of a job.
49. Except for _____, it is not always clear that errors in performance appraisals are really errors.
a. horns errors
b. distributional errors
c. halo errors
d. contrast errors
50. Which of the following factors could impact a supervisor’s motivation, rather than ability, to provide a meaningful
performance appraisal?
a. Inadequate job knowledge
b. Favoritism toward specific workers
c. Inadequate opportunity to observe employee performance
d. Changing technology, which impacts the supervisor’s understanding of an employee’s job tasks
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Chapter 10 – Performance Appraisal and Career Management
51. A _____ is developed from critical incidents and uses a substantial number of critical incidents to define specifically
all the measures necessary for effective performance.
a. behavioral observation scale
b. Likert scale
c. graphic rating scale
d. semantic differential scale
52. In the context of the methods for appraising performance, a _____ consists of a statement or question about some
aspect of an individual’s job performance.
a. semantic differential scale
b. graphic rating scale
c. behaviorally anchored rating scale
d. side-by-side matrix scale
53. In _____, performance information is gathered from people on all sides of the manager: above, beside, below, and so
forth.
a. the downward feedback method
b. a peer assessment
c. the negotiated performance appraisal method
d. a 360-degree appraisal
54. Andy, a regional manager at a marketing firm, must formally evaluate his immediate subordinates every year. He does
so by using a management-by-objectives system. In the given scenario, Andy is involved in _____.
a. outbound training
b. job evaluations
c. performance appraisals
d. organizational socialization
55. In the context of performance-appraisal methods, one of the major criticisms that had been leveled against graphic
rating scales is that they were especially prone to a series of _____.
a. contrast errors
b. halo errors
c. distributional errors
d. horns errors
56. One relatively new innovation in performance-appraisal methods is the use of _____.
a. career counseling
b. the graphic rating scale
c. computer monitoring
d. the forced-distribution method
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Chapter 10 – Performance Appraisal and Career Management
57. _____ involves interaction between an individual employee or manager in an organization and either a line manager or
a human resource manager in that organization.
a. A pay survey
b. An individual assessment
c. Internal discourse
d. Career counseling
58. Which of the following statements defines a performance appraisal?
a. It is the general set of activities carried out by an organization to improve employee performance.
b. It is the set of experiences and activities that people engage in related to their job and livelihood over the course of
their working life.
c. It is the specific and formal evaluation of an employee to determine the degree to which the employee is
performing his or her job effectively.
d. It is a phase of career planning in which individuals carefully analyze what they perceive to be their own abilities,
competencies, skills, and goals.
59. In the management-by-objectives (MBO) system of performance appraisal, an individual’s degree of goal attainment:
a. is the same as the degree of accomplishment of the organization’s goals.
b. becomes the individual’s performance appraisal.
c. is not used as the basis for performance evaluation of the individual.
d. is qualitative and subjective.
60. Which of the following is a difference between a behavioral observation scale (BOS) and a behaviorally anchored
rating scale (BARS)?
a. A BARS does not allow managers to rate the frequency with which an individual employee has exhibited each
effective and ineffective behavior during the rating period, whereas a BOS does.
b. A BARS uses substantially more of the effective and ineffective behaviors to define specifically all the measures
necessary for effective performance than a BOS.
c. A BARS takes more time and can be more expensive to develop than a BOS.
d. A BARS is developed from critical incidents, whereas a BOS is not.
61. Describe the management-by-objectives method of performance appraisal.
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62. Briefly explain the legal issues in performance appraisal.
63. Briefly explain the factors that affect an employee’s decision to retire.
64. Describe the four career stages through which an individual progresses as proposed by the traditional career model.
65. Contrast formal and informal career counseling programs.
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Chapter 10 – Performance Appraisal and Career Management