Psyc 516 Ch. 4 Complete Solutions
Criteria ✅evaluative standards that can be used as yardsticks for measuring employees' success or
failure; these evaluative standards can be used to measure employee performance, personnel selection,
placement, promotion, succession planning, and performance management; it is useful when prediction
is involved; usually is given less attention than prediction
Two types of criteria ✅1) ultimate criterion and
2) actual criterion
Ultimate criterion ✅everything that ultimately defines success on the job; ideal measure of all the
relevant aspects of job performance; "real performance"; everything that makes up job performance; is
ultimate in the sense that one cannot look beyond it for any further standard by which to judge
performance
Actual criterion ✅best real-world representation of the ultimate criterion; we develop it to reflect or
overlap with the ultimate criterion as much as possible; includes only those elements of the ultimate
criterion that we intend to measure; supervisor ratings are an example of actual criterion
"Criterion problem" ✅refers to the difficulties involved in the process of conceptualizing and measuring
performance constructs that are multi-dimensional, dynamic, and appropriate for different purposes
Five things that make a good criterion ✅relevance, reliability, sensitivity, practicality, fairness
Relevance ✅degree to which the actual criterion is related to the ultimate criterion; degree of
correlation or overlap between actual criterion and ultimate criterion (we want as much overlap as
possible! percentage of variance in the ultimate criterion accounted for by the actual criterion)
Conditions limiting relevance ✅1) criterion deficiency
2) criterion contamination
, Criterion deficiency ✅when a criterion does not cover the entire domain we are hoping to measure;
occurs when a major source of variance in the ultimate criterion is not in the actual criterion; a criterion
is deficient to the extent that these dimensions are not tapped by our criterion measure but are
important to the criterion construct
Individual Dimensionality ✅the idea that people doing the same job may be considered equally good at
performing a job while making completely different contributions
Criterion contamination ✅occurs when the operational or actual criterion includes variance that is
unrelated to the ultimate criterion; contamination itself may be subdivided into two distinct parts, error
and bias:
1) Error - by definition is random variation (e.g., due to nonstandardized procedures in testing, individual
fluctuations in feelings) and cannot correlate with anything except by chance alone
2) Bias - by contrast, represents systematic criterion contamination, and it can correlate with predictor
measures
Performance ✅actual on-the-job behaviors that are relevant to the organization's goals; also referred to
as criterion, performance, and performance criterion; performance is defined as both behavior and
results
Three different types of criterion dimensionality are: ✅1) Static
2) Dynamic
3) Individual
Static Dimensionality ✅are fixed dimensions of criteria; includes two general facets of performance:
task and contextual performance
Task performance ✅a) the activities that transform raw materials into goods and services that are
produced by the org and
b) the activities that help with the transformation process by replenishing the supply of raw materials;
distributing its finished products; or providing important planning, coordination, supervising or staff
functions that enable it to function effectively & efficiently
Criteria ✅evaluative standards that can be used as yardsticks for measuring employees' success or
failure; these evaluative standards can be used to measure employee performance, personnel selection,
placement, promotion, succession planning, and performance management; it is useful when prediction
is involved; usually is given less attention than prediction
Two types of criteria ✅1) ultimate criterion and
2) actual criterion
Ultimate criterion ✅everything that ultimately defines success on the job; ideal measure of all the
relevant aspects of job performance; "real performance"; everything that makes up job performance; is
ultimate in the sense that one cannot look beyond it for any further standard by which to judge
performance
Actual criterion ✅best real-world representation of the ultimate criterion; we develop it to reflect or
overlap with the ultimate criterion as much as possible; includes only those elements of the ultimate
criterion that we intend to measure; supervisor ratings are an example of actual criterion
"Criterion problem" ✅refers to the difficulties involved in the process of conceptualizing and measuring
performance constructs that are multi-dimensional, dynamic, and appropriate for different purposes
Five things that make a good criterion ✅relevance, reliability, sensitivity, practicality, fairness
Relevance ✅degree to which the actual criterion is related to the ultimate criterion; degree of
correlation or overlap between actual criterion and ultimate criterion (we want as much overlap as
possible! percentage of variance in the ultimate criterion accounted for by the actual criterion)
Conditions limiting relevance ✅1) criterion deficiency
2) criterion contamination
, Criterion deficiency ✅when a criterion does not cover the entire domain we are hoping to measure;
occurs when a major source of variance in the ultimate criterion is not in the actual criterion; a criterion
is deficient to the extent that these dimensions are not tapped by our criterion measure but are
important to the criterion construct
Individual Dimensionality ✅the idea that people doing the same job may be considered equally good at
performing a job while making completely different contributions
Criterion contamination ✅occurs when the operational or actual criterion includes variance that is
unrelated to the ultimate criterion; contamination itself may be subdivided into two distinct parts, error
and bias:
1) Error - by definition is random variation (e.g., due to nonstandardized procedures in testing, individual
fluctuations in feelings) and cannot correlate with anything except by chance alone
2) Bias - by contrast, represents systematic criterion contamination, and it can correlate with predictor
measures
Performance ✅actual on-the-job behaviors that are relevant to the organization's goals; also referred to
as criterion, performance, and performance criterion; performance is defined as both behavior and
results
Three different types of criterion dimensionality are: ✅1) Static
2) Dynamic
3) Individual
Static Dimensionality ✅are fixed dimensions of criteria; includes two general facets of performance:
task and contextual performance
Task performance ✅a) the activities that transform raw materials into goods and services that are
produced by the org and
b) the activities that help with the transformation process by replenishing the supply of raw materials;
distributing its finished products; or providing important planning, coordination, supervising or staff
functions that enable it to function effectively & efficiently
