CHAPTER 6

Question 1

staffing decisions

Answer 1

Decisions associated with
recruiting, selecting,
promoting, and separating
employees

Question 2

high-performance work practices

Answer 2

Practices that
include the use of formal
job analyses, selection
from within for key positions, merit-based promotions, and the use of
formal assessment devices
for selection.

Question 3

multinational staffing

Answer 3

Procedures that involve staffing for organizations in
more than one country.

Question 4

validity

Answer 4

The accurateness
of inferences made based
on test or performance
data; also addresses
whether a measure accurately and completely rep
resents what was intended
to be measured.

Question 5

criterion=related validity

Answer 5

Validity approach that is
demonstrated by correlating a test score with
a performance measure;
improves researcher’s confidence in the inference
that people with higher
test scores have higher
performance.

Question 6

selection ratio

Answer 6

Index
ranging from 0 to 1
that reflects the ratio of
positions to applicants;
calculated by dividing
the number of positions
available by the number of
applicants.

Question 7

false positive

Answer 7

Decision
in which an applicant was
accepted but performed
poorly; decision is false
because of the incorrect prediction that the
applicant would perform
successfully and positive
because the applicant
was hired.

Question 8

false negative

Answer 8

Decision
in which an applicant was
rejected but would have
performed adequately
or successfully; decision
is false because of the
incorrect prediction that
the applicant would not
perform successfully and
negative because the
applicant was not hired.

Question 9

true negative

Answer 9

Decision in
which an applicant was
rejected and would have
performed poorly if he or
she were hired; decision is
true because of the correct
prediction that the applicant would not be a good
performer and negative
because the applicant was
not hired.

Question 10

true positive

Answer 10

Decision in
which an applicant was
accepted and performed
successfully; decision is
true because of the correct prediction that the
applicant would be a good
performer and positive
because the applicant
was hired.

Question 11

cut score

Answer 11

Specified point
in a distribution of scores
below which candidates
are rejected; also known as
a cutoff score.

Question 12

criterion-referenced cut
score

Answer 12

Score established
by considering the desired
level of performance for a
new hire and finding the
test score that corresponds
to the desired level of
performance, sometimes
called domain-referenced
cut score

Question 13

norm-referenced cut score

Answer 13

Score based on
some index of the test
takers’ scores rather
than any notion of job
performance.

Question 14

uniform guidelines on employee selection procedures

Answer 14

Official
government guidelines
designed to assist employers, labor organizations,
employment agencies, and
licensing and certification
boards to comply with
federal requirements.

Question 15

utility analysis

Answer 15

Technique
that assesses the economic
return on investment of
human resource interventions such as staffing
and training

Question 16

base rate

Answer 16

Percentage of
the current workforce that
is performing successfully.

Question 17

comprehensive staffing model

Answer 17

Model that gathers
enough high-quality information about candidates
to predict the likelihood
of their success on the varied demands of the job.

Question 18

clinical decision making

Answer 18

Method that uses judgment to combine information and to make a decision about the relative
value of different candidates or applicants

Question 19

statistical decision making

Answer 19

Method that combines
information according to
a mathematical formula.

Question 20

compensatory system

Answer 20

Model in which a good
score on one test can compensate for a lower score
on another test.

Question 21

hurdle system

Answer 21

Noncompensatory strategy in
which an individual has no
opportunity to compensate at a later assessment
stage for a low score in an
earlier stage of the assessment process.

Question 22

multiple hurdle system

Answer 22

Strategy constructed from
multiple hurdles so that
candidates who do not
exceed each of the mini
mum dimension scores
are excluded from further
consideration.

Question 23

multiple regression analysis

Answer 23

Method of
analysis that results
in an equation for
combining test scores
into a composite based
on the correlations
among the test scores
and the correlations of
each test score with the
performance score.

Question 24

cross-validation

Answer 24

Process used with multiple
regression techniques
in which a regression
equation developed on a
first sample is tested on a
second sample to deter
mine if it still fits well;
usually carried out with
an incumbent sample,
and the cross-validated
results are used to weight
the predictor scores of an
applicant sample.

Question 25

termination for cause

Answer 25

Job loss that occurs when an individual is fired from an organization for a particular reason; the individual has usually been warned one or more times about a problem and either can not or will not correct it.

Question 26

layoff

Answer 26

Job loss due to employer downsizing or reductions in force; often comes without warning or with a generic warning that the workforce will be reduced.

Question 27

expert witness

Answer 27

Witness in a lawsuit who is permitted to voice opinions about organizational practices.

Question 28

adverse treatment

Answer 28

Type of discrimination in which the plaintiff attempts to show that the employer actually treated the plaintiff differently from majority applicants or employees; intentional discrimination.

Question 29

adverse impact

Answer 29

Type of discrimination that acknowledges the employer may not have intended to discriminate against a plaintiff, but an employer practice did have an adverse impact on the group to which the plaintiff belongs

Question 30

80 percent or 4/5th rule

Answer 30

Guideline for assessing whether there is evidence of adverse impact; if it can be shown that a protected group received less than 80 percent of the desirable outcomes (e.g., job offers, promotions) received by a majority group, the plaintiffs can claim to have met the burden of demonstrating adverse impact.

Question 31

adverse impact ratio

Answer 31

Ratio obtained by dividing the selection ratio of the protected group by the selection ratio of the majority group; if this ratio is lower than 80 percent, there is evidence of adverse impact.

Question 32

discovery

Answer 32

Process in which lawyers are given access to potential witnesses who will be called by the other side, as well as any documents relevant to the complaints.

Question 33

class certification

Answer 33

Judge’s decision based on several criteria that determine whether individual plaintiffs can file together under a class action suit.

Question 34

deposition

Answer 34

Interview under oath taken by an opposing attorney in a lawsuit.

Question 35

settlement discussions

Answer 35

Discussions conducted by the parties in a lawsuit in an attempt to reach a mutually satisfying resolution of the complaint before proceeding with all of the other steps that lead to a trial.