Performance Evaluation Quiz

TOTAL POINTS 10

1.Question 1
Which of the following is an example of how people analytics are being used by organizations:

Employee retention

Hiring

Performance evaluation

Team composition

All are true

1 point

2.Question 2
Which of the following is not true?

“Separating skill from chance is…”

…a problem because performance measures are imperfectly related to employee effort.

…equally difficult in all environments.

…a motivation for evaluating how persistent performance is.

…a fundamental issue in performance evaluation.

1 point

3.Question 3
Which of the following is not true?
“If we select the best performers on a specific metric in a given period of time…”

Their ranks relative to each other may not reflect their true underlying abilities.

In subsequent periods we would expect their performance to be average.

Their success is likely due to a mix of good skill and good luck.

Their performance on other metrics in that same period is likely closer to average.

1 point

4.Question 4
A company designs a training program for underperforming employees. They enroll in the program
the employees who received the worst 10% of performance evaluations in a given year. They find
that very few of the employees who go through the program are in the bottom 10% of performance
evaluations the next year. What can they conclude about their new program?

Though it may not be clear why, the program is effective at improving performance.

Nothing unless they can compare their performance to similar employees who did not receive the
training.

That their performance evaluation system must be flawed.

On average, employees respond favorably to additional attention.

1 point

5.Question 5
Which of the following does not dilute the value of collecting opinions from a number of people (e.g.,
regarding a performance evaluation or hiring decision)?

They have discussed the matter with the same people.

They evaluated the same materials.

They have discussed the matter with each other.

They have similar backgrounds.

1 point

6.Question 6
Which of the following is not a benefit of the “wisdom of crowds” (i.e., collecting a group of
independent opinions) approach to employee-related decisions?

People are sensitive to whether opinions are truly independent

Reduces variance

Idiosyncratic errors cancel each other out

Reduces the likelihood of extremely bad judgment

1 point

7.Question 7
There are a handful of common mistakes people make when trying to separate skill from chance.
Which of the following is not one of those mistakes?

Hindsight bias

Outcome bias

Loss aversion
Narrative seeking

1 point

8.Question 8
Which of the following mistakes is not implied by the “Law of Small Numbers”, the tendency to
believe that small samples closely match the underlying conditions.

Believing employees are more different from each other than they actually are

Punishing bad performance too harshly

Highly variable performance evaluations

Status quo bias

1 point

9.Question 9
A firm is evaluating the performance of two managers running a summer training program. One
manager is in a large division with over 100 trainees, while the other is in a small division with only
15 trainees. What is one principle the firm should use in its evaluation?

Expect higher performance from the smaller group because of closer supervision.

Expect higher performance from the large group because of scale economies.

Treat them equally, as it’s not clear ex ante whether it is an advantage or disadvantage to have a
large group.

Expect more volatility from the small group.

1 point

10.Question 10
An organization contracts with software developers to produce apps for clients. The organization is
paid in part by how well the app sells in the marketplace. Historically they have evaluated their
developers primarily by this same outcome measure, how well the apps sell. The organization is
considering adding process measures to the performance evaluation, e.g., time to completion,
quality of code, coordination with other developers, client satisfaction. Which of the following is not a
reason the firm should include these process measures in employee performance evaluations?

Processes measures are more objective.

There is considerable uncertainty in app sales that is outside the control of the developer.

Developer performance on the process measures is likely more persistent – good or bad – than it is
on the outcome measures.

The organization has multiple objectives, not just sales.

1 point