Yellow Blaze Candle Shops provides a full
line of various types of candles and accessories
such as candleholders. Yellow
Blaze has 150 shops in shopping malls and strip malls throughout the country.
Over 600 salespeople staff these stores, each of which has a full time man ag
er. Staffing the manager’s position, by policy, must occur by promotion from
within the sales ranks. The organization is interested in improving its
identification of salespeople most likely to be successful store managers.
It
has developed a special technique for assessing and rating the suit[1]ability
of salespeople for the manager’s job. To experiment with this technique, the
regional HR department representative reviewed and rated the promotion
suitability of each store’s salespeople. They reviewed sales results, customer
ser vice orientation, and knowledge of store operations for
each salesperson
and then assigned a 1–3 promotion suitability rating (1 = not suitable,
2 = may
be suitable, 3 = definitely suitable) on each of these three factors. Customer
ser vice orientation was rated based on supervisor and coworker observations of
work behavior.
These ratings incorporated evaluations of how often salespeople
asked customers how they could help, how effectively sales people were able to
suggest products that matched customer requests, and how well salespeople
ensured that customers were happy with their
intended purchases at the end of
the encounter.
In most cases, ratings of customer ser vice
orientation were similar across managers and assistant managers, but there were
some discrepancies. Knowledge of store operations was evaluated based on a
standardized exam consisting of a variety of questions on managerial practices
and procedures, refund and exchange policies, and record keeping requirements.
A total promotion suitability (PS) score, ranging from 3 to 9, was then
computed for each salesperson.
The PS scores were gathered for all salespeople
but were not formally used in promotion decisions. Over the past year, 30
salespeople were promoted to store man ag er. Now it is time for the organization
to preliminarily investigate the validity of the PS scores and see whether
their use results in adverse impact against women or minorities. Each store manager’s
annual overall performance appraisal rating, ranging from 1 (low performance)
to 5 (high performance), was used as the criterion measure in the validation
study.
Using
the data in the images, calculate the following:
1. Average PS scores for the whole sample,
males, females, non minorities, and minorities.
2. The correlation between PS scores and
performance ratings, and its statistical significance (r = .37 or higher is
needed for significance at p < .05).
3. Adverse impact (selection rate)
statistics for males and females, and non-minorities and minorities. Use a PS
score of 7 or higher as a hypothetical passing score
(the score that might be
used to determine who will or will not be promoted).
4.
Average performance rating scores for the whole sample, males, females, non
minorities, and minorities. For each group, evaluate whether the performance
rating scores are different for subgroups
of employees. Also evaluate whether
the magnitude of these differences is sizable enough to
warrant concern for
Yellow Blaze.
Using
the data, results, and description of the study, answer the following
questions:
1.
Is the PS score a valid predictor of performance as a store manager? Do you see
any potential reasons why either the customer ser vice orientation measure or
knowledge of store operations measure might be problematic? In answering,
consider issues related to reliability and validity.
2.
With a cut score of 7 on the PS, would its use lead to adverse impact against
women? Against minorities? If there is adverse impact, does the validity evidence
justify use of the PS anyway?
3.
What limitations do you see in the current study design? Do you think that the
conclusions you
would reach based on this sample of individuals who were
promoted to store man ag er would generalize to the population of all
salespeople who are being evaluated for promotion potential? Do you
think that
the method of rating performance is sufficient as a criterion, and if so, why?
If not, what additional steps would you take to ensure that performance is measured
adequately?
4. Would you recommend that Yellow Blaze
use the PS score in making future promotion decisions? Why or why not? If you
said yes, can you think of anything the company could do to make these measures
even better than they are already? If you said no, can you think of any ways
that this system
might be improved?
5.
One employee has raised questions regarding whether the performance ratings
themselves are biased. This employee has not made a formal legal complaint
against Yellow Blaze yet, but the organization wants to evaluate whether there
is reason for concern. Based on the calculations you made regarding the
differences for performance evaluation ratings for women relative to men, and
for minorities relative to non minorities, do you believe that there is reason
for the organization to be concerned regarding this issue? In other words, do
the data suggest that there is, in fact, a substantial difference in performance
evaluation ratings for different groups of employees? How should the organization
respond to this individual employee’s concerns?
