After Several Years of Sound but Unimpressive Performance, Foothill Federal

question 64

Multiple Choice

After several years of sound but unimpressive performance, Foothill Federal was bought out by Cashcorp, a much larger financial organization. Hoping to turn the new network into a stronger asset to the corporation, Cashcorp's managers begin by examining Foothill's existing performance appraisal process. Cashcorp managers quickly determine that employee evaluations have been handled very superficially in the past, typically by division managers at the central location. As a result, seniority, rather than productivity, has been the primary rationale for promotions and rewards. The HR manager assigned to integrating Foothill into the Cashcorp family immediately sees that changes will need to be made in the performance appraisal process. However, he does not want to move too rashly, as the merger has already made the Foothill workforce worried that extensive terminations and layoffs are imminent. Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support beginning a thorough performance appraisal of the Foothill locations by reassessing performance criteria?

• A) Corporate practice has always been to reassess performance criteria on an annual basis.
• B) The performance goals used by Foothill are quite different from those used by Cashcorp.
• C) The Cashcorp CEO would like to see the new Foothill locations increase their assets by at least 15 percent.
• D) The two best performers among the Foothill branches are the most recently opened, and its employees have the fewest years of service with the firm.
• E) Employees at Foothill have been with the firm an average of 12 years.

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Definitions:

Analyzing Information

The process of examining data in order to extract useful insights, draw conclusions, and make informed decisions.

Descriptive Statistic

Statistical measures that describe the basic features of data in a study, providing simple summaries about the sample and measures.

Most Frequent

Refers to the mode, which is the value or category in a data set that appears with the highest frequency.

Inferential Statistics

A branch of statistics focused on drawing conclusions about a population based on a sample data set.