Human Resources Management Quiz

Introduction to Work Psychology

• Studies enhanced understanding of what motivates individuals in the workplace.
• Economic needs, social needs play important roles in influencing work-related attitudes and behaviors.
• Employees perform better when feeling singled out or when management cares about their welfare.
• Work Psychology includes Personnel psychology, organizational psychology, occupational health and safety, consumer psycology, Human factors and ergonomics and choaching psychology.
• Work Psychologists study working styles of managers and employees, analyze productivity, provide advice on policies and HR teams, organize training, enhance workplace quality, and optimize work-life balance.

Research in Work Psychology

• Research in Work Psychology answers questions and guides decision-making in the workplace.
• Examples of research questions include the impact of noise on employee performance, the most effective employee recruitment source, and how to best motivate employees.
• Research methodologies, outcomes, and theories are used to answer the questions.

False Beliefs

• Anchoring bias (over-reliance on initial information)
• Availability heuristic (overestimation of readily available information)
• Bandwagon effect (groupthink)
• Blind-spot bias (inability to recognize one's own biases)
• Choice-supportive bias (favoring chosen options)
• Clustering illusion (seeing patterns in random events)
• Confirmation bias (favoring confirming information)
• Conservatism bias (slow to accept new evidence)

Individual Differences

• Individual differences in behavior, emotions, and thoughts are studied in differential psychology.
• Intelligence—general cognitive ability—involves reasoning, planning, problem-solving, abstract thinking, learning quickly, and learning from experience.
• Personality models like the Big Five (e.g., openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism) focus on individual differences.

Job Analysis and Recruitment

• Job analysis: Description of employee roles emphasizing qualifications, tasks, tools, and responsibilities.
• Job description, qualifications, and responsibilities inform employee selection, training, planning, and appraisal.
• Crucial to defining appropriate qualifications to avoid unwanted behaviors.
• Gendered job descriptions can perpetuate inequality.
• Masculine gendered language can deter women from applying for jobs.

Writing Recruitment Ads

• Recruitment ads should be realistic, detailed, and well explained to engage the appropriate applicants.
• Effective recruitment strategies attract qualified applicants while being both timely and cost-effective.
• Avoid unstructured interviews to reduce bias based on interviewer biases and to enhance candidates comfort.

Selection Methods

• Reference checks are a tool for evaluating candidates' past behavior, which may include performance, personality, or interactions with colleagues.
• The reliability and validity of references for candidates may vary.
• Training and education, experience, skills, knowledge of ability, personality, and character, interests are all evaluated.
• Validity, reliability, practicality, and bias concerns need to be considered when selecting assessment methods.
• Structured interviews based on detailed job descriptions produce quality hires, in contrast to the limitations in unstructured interviews.

Recruiting Biases

• Unconscious biases in hiring can shape perceptions.
• Confirmation bias—seeking information that confirms existing beliefs—leads to flawed hiring decisions.
• Hiring biases like affect heuristics (emotional biases), expectation anchor biases (comparing all candidates to a high-performing individual), and affinity bias (preference for individuals who share characteristics) need to be considered in organizations.
• Stereotyping biases are a possible risk in hiring organizations.
• Interviewers should use a well-defined method and questions in order to reduce biases and obtain a better candidate

Competing Commitments and Work Psychology

• "Competing commitments," unconscious beliefs which hinder changes or new ways of thinking and working.
• They are often rooted in experiences and create road blocks to changes in attitudes.
• The process of realizing and addressing competing commitments involves identifying sabotaging behaviors/fears, and hidden commitments.

Employee Attitudes and Motivation

• Attitudes are affective, behavioral, and cognitive components of how an individual feels, acts, and thinks about an object.
• Work-related attitudes like satisfaction, commitment, engagement, job involvement, justice and fairness are important for employee well-being.
• Job engagement—people being enthusiastic, devoted, and committed to their work—positively affects individuals, work, and organization outcomes.
• Job involvement is the extent to which employees link their work to their sense of self-worth.

Individual Differences in Job Satisfaction

• Individual differences affect job satisfaction and commitment.
• Past experiences shape expectations/beliefs which further impacts how the individual perceives the job or organization.
• Individuals who are happy with the rewards they are receiving will be motivated to continue in their work
• Perceptions of fairness (e.g., equity, procedural justice) influence job satisfaction.

Employee Stress

• Stress is a reaction to circumstances that place demands on a person that exceed their ability to respond effectively
• Stressors (work demands, work-life balance issues, relationships with co-workers) and strains (physiological, psychological, behavioral) can be categorized into areas such as:
• work, environment, personality, and organizational culture.
• Interventions and resources may be applied at the workplace level, or individually.

Violence and Mistreatment

• Workplace violence can take various forms, including aggression, incivility, ostracism, harassment, and bullying.
• Bystanders of workplace violence can experience similar negative consequences (e.g., anxiety, reduced performance), which raises the importance of intervening in appropriate ways.
• Identifying and addressing competing commitments is an essential step in managing workplace violence.
• Stressors influence violence.

Learning and Development in Workplace

• Learning and Development encompasses strategies aimed at enhancing employee skills, knowledge, and performance.
• The ADDIE model—Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation—provides a framework for developing and implementing training programs.
• The 70-20-10 model highlights the importance of on-the-job learning, learning from others, and formal learning in development.
• Effective training often involves identifying the needs of employees through analysis, design, development, training the trainers, implementing the training, and evaluating its effectiveness.

Employee Attitudes, Job Satisfaction, and Commitment

• Job satisfaction and commitment are key factors in employee attitudes.
• Individual propensities like optimism, self-efficacy, and self-esteem can impact attitudes at work.
• Unmet work expectations can impact commitment and job satisfaction negatively.
• The ability and approach to address workplace stressors enhances job satisfaction and commitment.

Test your knowledge on key concepts in Human Resources Management, including job evaluation, recruitment methods, and employee satisfaction factors. This quiz covers foundational elements such as KSAO components, structured interviews, and more. Perfect for HR students and professionals looking to assess their understanding of the field.