Chapter 4 Exercises

Exercise 4.1. Choose an occupation that you are interested in pursuing and, using O*NET ( identify the top 5 KSAOs that are required for successful performance in this occupation. Discuss the benefits of an electronic resource such as O*NET to managers or Human Resource representatives who have some job openings that they would like to fill in this particular occupation.

Exercise 4.2. Search O*NET ( for “Industrial-Organizational Psychologist”. Go to the Details Report, and identify the top 3 knowledges, the top 3 skills, and the top 3 abilities that are required for successful performance as an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist. Given what you have learned so far in this course, describe why these KSAs are important for successful job performance as an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist.

Exercise 4.3. The concepts of criterion deficiency and criterion contamination were discussed in the text in Chapter 5. For each performance measure below, identify 1 way in which it may be deficient and 1 way in which it may be contaminated.

a) Number of properties sold in a month by a real estate agent

b) Number of drinks mixed per night for a bartender

c) Number of arrests for a police officer

d) Number of marriages performed by a minister

e) Number of problems solved by software help desk operator

Exercise 4.4. Consider each of the following measures and categorize each as a performance measure, an effectiveness measure, a productivity measure, or none of those three. Explain why you placed each measure in the particular category or why the measure does not belong in any of the categories.

A) Order of finish in an athletic competition

B) A supervisory rating of overall performance

C) Profit on the output of a single machine operator over a one hour period

D) Time it takes a computer programmer to debug a subroutine

E) The number of times a production shift has won the “least lost days through injury” award of the company over a 10 year period

Exercise 4.5. Examine the following list of work context factors, which have been taken from Table 5.4. For each work context factor, identify 1 job that would be influenced by that factor. Use a different job or occupation for each factor.

Job requires you to assume an adversarial role:______

Job includes great responsibility for the safety of others:______

Job involves encounters with angry or discourteous people:______

Job is performed under extreme temperatures (hot or cold):______

The consequences of an error on this job are catastrophic: ______

Worker has little or no control over the work: ______

Job requires high levels of vigilance: ______

The work is monotonous: ______

There are strong competitive pressures in this job: ______

There are frequent and strict deadlines: ______

Exercise 4.6. Identify 3 ways in which competency modeling differs from job analysis.