Why is it critical first to identify what employees need to learn before deciding on a method to use in training them?
> A problem facing shoe store managers is that many shoes eventually must be sold at markdown prices. This prompts a manufacturer to conduct a mail survey of shoe store managers in which we ask, what methods have you found most successful for reducing the
> You study the attrition of entering college freshmen (those students who enter college as freshmen but don’t stay to graduate.). You find the following relationships between attrition, aid, and distance of home from college. What is your interpretation?
> You are preparing to give a research presentation about the effectiveness of Toyota’s advertising to restore public confidence in the wake of their delays in solving the accelerator pedal malfunction and antilock braking problems for high-tech hybrid veh
> Suppose you were preparing two-way tables of percentages for the following pairs of variables. How would you run the percentages? a) Age and consumption of breakfast cereal. b) Family income and confidence about the family’s future. c) Marital status and
> How should the researcher handle missing data?
> How should the researcher handle “don’t know” responses?
> Distinguish between: a. Coding scheme and recoding b. Bar chart and histogram c. DK response and missing data. d. Listwise deletion and pairwise deletion e. Thematic units and referential units
> Using the response strategies within Exhibit 11-8 or Exhibit 11-16, which would be appropriate to understanding the various indicants of student demand for the academic program in which you are majoring?
> Following are six questions. Evaluate each on its strengths and weaknesses a. Do you read National Geographic magazine regularly? b. What percentage of your time is spent asking for information from others in your organization? c. When did you first star
> Assume the American Society of Training Directors is studying its membership in order to enhance member benefits and attract new members. Below is a copy of a cover letter and mail questionnaire received by a member of the society. Please evaluate the us
> What invalid assumptions might a researcher make in instrument design? How would each affect the instrument?
> One of the problems in developing rating scales is the choice of response terms to use. Below are samples of some widely used scaling responses. Do you see any problem with them?
> What would you say are four major faults of survey instrument design? Justify your choices.
> The head of New York City’s teachers’ union has a theory that every time there is something that could be construed as bad news for the city’s Department of Education, the city leaks a salacious story about teacher misconduct to draw attention away from
> Summarize the instrument design decisions that would result in decreased participant rapport.
> What is the function of the skip logic diagram?
> 1. Distinguish between the following: a. administrative and classification questions b. Screen and buffer questions. c. Introduction and transition. d. Rapport and social desirability bias. e. Measurement instrument and measurement question.
> According to BusinessWeek, the U.S. workforce is becoming a temporary workforce. Even full-time workers are often contract employees without health, vacation, or other benefits. What measurement scale(s) would be appropriate to measure this trend?
> You have been asked by the head of marketing to design an instrument by which your private, for-profit school can evaluate the quality and value of its various curricula and courses. How might you try to ensure that your instrument has:
> Below is a Likert-type scale that might be used to evaluate your opinion of the educational degree program in which you are enrolled. There are five response categories: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree.
> You are working on a consumer perception study of four brands of bicycles. You will need to develop measurement questions and scales to accomplish the tasks listed below. Be sure to explain which data levels (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio) are approp
> You receive the results of a paired-comparison preference test of four soft drinks from a sample of 200 persons. The results are as follows:
> An investigative question in your employee satisfaction study seeks to assess employee “job involvement.” Create a measurement question that uses the following scales: a) A graphic rating scale. b) A multiple rating list.
> Assume you are Menu Foods and you planned a major research study just prior to the largest pet food recall in our history. You plan to proceed with the study and feel you must add one or more questions to measure the consumer’s confidence that your firm
> Why did VI insist on a custom-designed measurement question for the survey questionnaire?
> Discuss the relative merits of, and problems with: a) Rating and ranking scales. b) Likert and semantic differential scales. c) Unidimensional and multidimensional scales.
> Using Exhibit 10-3 and one of the case questionnaires on the text website (www.mheducation.com/schindler 13e), match each question to its appropriate scale type. For each scale type not represented, develop a measurement question that would be of that sc
> After more than 75 years in the business, Walsworth Publishing’s leadership was well aware of the efforts that go into juggling school work and the production of a high-quality school yearbook. They examined their communication and production processes a
> You have been asked to develop an index of student morale in your department. a) What constructs or concepts might you employ? b) Choose several of the major concepts, and specify their dimensions. c) Select observable indicators that you might use to me
> A major corporation agrees to sponsor an internal study on sexual harassment in the workplace. This is in response to concerns expressed by its female employees. How would you handle the following issues: (a) The communication approach (self-administered
> Below are listed some objects of varying degrees of abstraction. Suggest properties of each of these objects that can be measured by each of the four basic types of scales.
> You have data from a corporation on the annual salary of each of its zoo employees. a) Illustrate how the data can be presented as ratio, interval, ordinal, and nominal data. b) Describe the successive loss of formation as the presentation changes from r
> Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Explain. a) Validity is more critical to measurement than reliability. b) Content validity is the most difficult type of validity to determine. c) A valid measurement is reliable, but a reliable mea
> What are the four major sources of measurement error? Illustrate by example how each of these might affect measurement results in a face-to-face interview situation.
> How do these differences affect the statistical analysis techniques we use?
> For the data below, X Y 25 5 19 7 17 12 14 23 12 20 9 25 8 26 7 28 3 20 a. Calculate the correlation between X and Y. b. Interpret the sign of the correlation. c. Interpret the square of the correlation. d. Plot t
> What are the essential differences among nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scales?
> What can we measure about the four objects listed below? Be as specific as possible.
> In recent years, in-home personal interviews have grown more costly and more difficult to compete. Suppose, however, you have a project in which you need to talk with people in their homes. What might you do to hold down costs and increase response rate?
> How might Apple use the survey methodology to evaluate the success of its iPad?
> Dolby, the company that provides advanced sound and light systems in movie theaters, is operating in an environment where theater ticket sales are dropping 5-10% per year due to a better variety of entertainment options, shorter attention spans, and bett
> Using Exhibit 8-7, diagram an experiment described in one of the Snapshots in this chapter using research design symbols.
> As competition for a scarcer dollar increases, an increasing number of companies are taking action by fostering customer-centric cultures that enhance satisfaction and drive bottom-line profitability. Research reveals that 96 percent of companies are lev
> You plan to conduct a mail survey of the traffic managers of 1,000 major manufacturing companies across the country. The study concerns their company policies regarding the payment of moving expenses for employees who are transferred. What might you do t
> You decide to take a telephone survey of 40 families in the 721 phone-exchange area. You want an excellent representation of all subscribers in the exchange area. Explain how you will carry out this study.
> In the following situations, decide whether you would use a personal interview, telephone survey, or self-administered survey. Give your reasons. (a) A survey of the residents of a new subdivision on why they happened to select that area in which to live
> Then investigate the appropriateness of the model for the data using diagnostic tools for evaluating assumptions.
> What hypotheses are driving the BrainSavvy research?
> What can organizations do to enhance positive transfer from training to on-the-job application?
> Some companies don’t want to offer training to employees because they fear that the employees will then leave. How might a firm use training as a strategy to retain employees?
> Companies with the best training practices seem to share several characteristics in common. What are they?
> Given the growth of the “on-demand,” or “gig,” economy, we can no longer assume that “workers” in an organization are all employees. What are the implications of that for training and on-boarding?
> Think back to your first day of the most recent job you have held. What could the organization have done to hasten your on-boarding and your adjustment to the job?
> Why do organizations so frequently overlook the on-boarding of new employees?
> Outline an evaluation procedure for a training program designed to teach sales principles and strategies.
> How does goal setting affect trainee learning and motivation?
> Would you be able to recognize a sound training program if you saw one? What features would you look for?
> Melissa chooses to accept international assignments her entire career. Over time, it is not clear where her “home” is. How might a local-plus approach to compensation help smooth her international transfers?
> Choose a job you know well. Develop three job-relevant situational interview questions (“What would you do if . . .” or “Tell me about a time when . . .”) to use with applicants for that job.
> Why is emotional intelligence particularly important in service jobs?
> Of the Big Five personality characteristics, what might explain why conscientiousness is the most valid predictor across many types of jobs?
> Your boss asks you to review the current application form that your organization is using. How will you decide which questions to keep, change, or delete?
> There are many possible staffing tools to help forecast later job performance. How do you decide which ones to use?
> As jobs become more team oriented, assessment centers will be used more often for nonmanagement jobs. Do you agree or disagree?
> Discuss the do’s and don’ts of effective reference checking
> How does business strategy affect management selection?
> Why are reliability and validity key considerations for all assessment methods?
> Your boss asks you how she can improve the accuracy of pre-employment interviews. What would you tell her?
> What are some differences between local and cosmopolitan perspectives?
> You have been assigned to manage the recruitment visit of a prospective new hire for your 12-person organization. Develop a checklist of do’s and don’ts to help ensure a successful visit.
> Your boss asks you to develop an employee-referral program for new hires. What might such a program look like?
> Why is organizational culture particularly important in internal recruitment?
> How might social media help in recruiting passive job applicants, those not actively looking for a job?
> You have just lost your middle-management job. Outline a procedure to follow in trying to land a new one.
> Draft a recruitment ad to advertise a job opening at your company. Have a friend critique it, as well as—if possible—a knowledgeable HR professional from a local company. Summarize their suggestions for improvement and incorporate them into a final draft
> Knowing that you have been studying the subject of recruitment, a friend asks you for advice on doing an online job search. What would you say?
> How would you advise a firm that wants to improve its recruitment efforts at universities?
> Discuss the conditions under which realistic job previews are and are not appropriate.
> What special measures might be necessary for a successful diversity-oriented recruitment effort?
> Your boss asks for suggestions about ways to reduce the high rate of attrition among repatriates. What advice would you offer?
> Why is it important to have up-to-date job descriptions?
> Why is it important that job design include all of the following kinds of characteristics: task, physical, knowledge, social, and contextual?
> Discuss the kinds of employee information that managers might find to be particularly useful in a talent inventory.
> The chairperson of the board of directors at your firm asks for advice about SWP. What would you say?
> Why should the output from forecasting models be tempered with the judgment of experienced line managers?
> When is it more cost-effective to “buy” rather than to “make” competent employees?
> Why are forecasts of workforce demand more uncertain than forecasts of workforce supply?
> For purposes of succession planning, what information would you want in order to evaluate “potential”?
> Discuss the similarities and differences between job analysis and competency models.
> How are workforce plans related to business and HR strategies?
> Describe the balance-sheet approach to international compensation.
> Why don’t more fathers take paternity leave, even when their employers offer it?
> You are the CEO of a midsize manufacturing company. You want to be sure that all your supervisors understand the concept of retaliation and that your company is not accused of it. What actions might you take?
> It has been said that diversity only endures when it is baked into the way a company does business every day. As a newly appointed CEO of a cosmetics company, how would you ensure that diversity is “baked in”?
> Describe a management policy designed to promote a culture of cooperation.
> Why is cultivating a diverse workforce an ethical imperative?
> Suppose you were asked to identify key components of a successful diversity-training program. What would you say?
> What are some possible sources of intergenerational friction? How might you deal with those?
> What would be the broad elements of a company policy to emphasize the management of diversity?
> How would you respond to someone who has questions or concerns about diversity?
