HRIR 3021 – Final Exam 2025
Questions and Answers
Ch. 10 - Performance Management (25) - ✔✔
What is the definition of performance management and what is its purpose? (pgs 302-
305) - ✔✔- the process through which managers ensure that employees' activities and
outputs contribute to the org's goals
- to meet 3 broad purposes: Strategic (help the org achieve business objectives),
Administrative (ways in which orgs use the system to provide info for day-to-day
decisions about salary, benefits, and recognition programs), Developmental (a basis for
developing employees' knowledge and skills)
What are the steps in the performance management process? How is this different from
the traditional model? (pgs 302-303) - ✔✔1. Define performance outcomes for company
division and department
2. Develop employee goals, behavior, and actions to achieve outcomes
3. Provide support and ongoing performance discussions
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,4. Evaluate performance
5. Identify improvements needed
6. Provide consequences for performance results.
- TRADITIONAL = few goals, may be vague, might have job description -> little
feedback from supervisor -> annual appraisal
Compare and contrast types of performance measures, subjective and objective. For
instance: What's wrong with rating traits and attributes vs behaviors? - ✔✔Absolute:
- essays: written account of performance
- behavior checklists: 1-7 where you fall
- critical incidents: something excellent, something that didn't do well
- graphic rating scales: similar to checklist, excellent to poor and points along the scale
Results:
- MBO: objectives and review goals
Be able to identify the five criteria to evaluate an effective performance evaluation
system. - ✔✔COMPARATIVE:
-simple ranking: 1st, 2nd, 3rd place
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,-alternating: top, second, third, bottom
-forced distribution:10% exceed, 10% unsatisfactory
-paired comparison.
-PROS: easy to explain, simple, results are clear to employees, easier to determine
rewards, identifies top, mediocre, poor and under-performers, forcers managers to
evaluate performance
-CONS: may not be specific enough, no info on relative difference, may be difficult to
rank similar performance levels, can be time consuming, specific issues
ATTRIBUTE: graphic rating scale, mixed-standards scale.
BEHAVIORAL: critical-incident method, behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS),
organizational behavior modifications (OBM).
RESULTS: sales, costs, productivity.
QUALITY: MBO, goals/specific
STRATEGY?
Know the types of performance information (i.e. trait/attribute-based) - ✔✔TRAIT-
BASED INFORMATION: attitude, teamwork, initiative, creativity, values, dispositions.
COPYRIGHT © 2025 BY OLIVIA WEST, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 3
, BEHAVIOR-BASED INFORMATION: customer satisfaction, verbal persuasion,
timeliness of response, citizenship/ethics, effective communication.
RESULTS-BASED INFORMATION: sales volume, cost reduction, units produced,
improved quality.
Understand the different evaluation methods (simple ranking, forced distribution,
graphic rating scales, BARS, MBO, 360 reviews) and their benefits and disadvantages
and how they fit with strategy (don't worry too much about the criteria of validity,
reliability, acceptability and specificity) (pgs 305-316) - ✔✔SIMPLE RANKING: requires
managers to rank employees in their group from the highest performer to the poorest
performer (con-doesn't define what exactly is good or bad about the person).
FORCED DISTRIBUTION: assigns a certain percentage of employees to each category
in a set of categories (overcomes the temptation to rate everyone high in order to avoid
conflict, can be difficult to assigning employees to the bottom categories).
- pros: easier to determine pay increases, good if competition is a desired value, forces
managers to make distinctions between top, average, and poor performers
- cons: assumes employee performance is normally distributed, may discourage
teamwork and increase competition, unpopular, if you have only top performers, it's
problematic.
GRAPHIC RATING SCALE: lists traits and provides a rating scale for each trait (con-it
leaves to the particular manager the decisions about what is "excellent knowledge" or
"commendable judgement" or "poor interpersonal skills").
COPYRIGHT © 2025 BY OLIVIA WEST, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 4
Questions and Answers
Ch. 10 - Performance Management (25) - ✔✔
What is the definition of performance management and what is its purpose? (pgs 302-
305) - ✔✔- the process through which managers ensure that employees' activities and
outputs contribute to the org's goals
- to meet 3 broad purposes: Strategic (help the org achieve business objectives),
Administrative (ways in which orgs use the system to provide info for day-to-day
decisions about salary, benefits, and recognition programs), Developmental (a basis for
developing employees' knowledge and skills)
What are the steps in the performance management process? How is this different from
the traditional model? (pgs 302-303) - ✔✔1. Define performance outcomes for company
division and department
2. Develop employee goals, behavior, and actions to achieve outcomes
3. Provide support and ongoing performance discussions
COPYRIGHT © 2025 BY OLIVIA WEST, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1
,4. Evaluate performance
5. Identify improvements needed
6. Provide consequences for performance results.
- TRADITIONAL = few goals, may be vague, might have job description -> little
feedback from supervisor -> annual appraisal
Compare and contrast types of performance measures, subjective and objective. For
instance: What's wrong with rating traits and attributes vs behaviors? - ✔✔Absolute:
- essays: written account of performance
- behavior checklists: 1-7 where you fall
- critical incidents: something excellent, something that didn't do well
- graphic rating scales: similar to checklist, excellent to poor and points along the scale
Results:
- MBO: objectives and review goals
Be able to identify the five criteria to evaluate an effective performance evaluation
system. - ✔✔COMPARATIVE:
-simple ranking: 1st, 2nd, 3rd place
COPYRIGHT © 2025 BY OLIVIA WEST, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2
,-alternating: top, second, third, bottom
-forced distribution:10% exceed, 10% unsatisfactory
-paired comparison.
-PROS: easy to explain, simple, results are clear to employees, easier to determine
rewards, identifies top, mediocre, poor and under-performers, forcers managers to
evaluate performance
-CONS: may not be specific enough, no info on relative difference, may be difficult to
rank similar performance levels, can be time consuming, specific issues
ATTRIBUTE: graphic rating scale, mixed-standards scale.
BEHAVIORAL: critical-incident method, behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS),
organizational behavior modifications (OBM).
RESULTS: sales, costs, productivity.
QUALITY: MBO, goals/specific
STRATEGY?
Know the types of performance information (i.e. trait/attribute-based) - ✔✔TRAIT-
BASED INFORMATION: attitude, teamwork, initiative, creativity, values, dispositions.
COPYRIGHT © 2025 BY OLIVIA WEST, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 3
, BEHAVIOR-BASED INFORMATION: customer satisfaction, verbal persuasion,
timeliness of response, citizenship/ethics, effective communication.
RESULTS-BASED INFORMATION: sales volume, cost reduction, units produced,
improved quality.
Understand the different evaluation methods (simple ranking, forced distribution,
graphic rating scales, BARS, MBO, 360 reviews) and their benefits and disadvantages
and how they fit with strategy (don't worry too much about the criteria of validity,
reliability, acceptability and specificity) (pgs 305-316) - ✔✔SIMPLE RANKING: requires
managers to rank employees in their group from the highest performer to the poorest
performer (con-doesn't define what exactly is good or bad about the person).
FORCED DISTRIBUTION: assigns a certain percentage of employees to each category
in a set of categories (overcomes the temptation to rate everyone high in order to avoid
conflict, can be difficult to assigning employees to the bottom categories).
- pros: easier to determine pay increases, good if competition is a desired value, forces
managers to make distinctions between top, average, and poor performers
- cons: assumes employee performance is normally distributed, may discourage
teamwork and increase competition, unpopular, if you have only top performers, it's
problematic.
GRAPHIC RATING SCALE: lists traits and provides a rating scale for each trait (con-it
leaves to the particular manager the decisions about what is "excellent knowledge" or
"commendable judgement" or "poor interpersonal skills").
COPYRIGHT © 2025 BY OLIVIA WEST, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 4
