CPM Goal Cascading & Performance Reviews 5

Question 1

A manager rates a high-performing employee lower than deserved because the employee had one highly visible failure late in the year. This is an example of:

Accepted Answer

Horn effect

Answer

The horn effect occurs when one negative incident disproportionately lowers a manager's overall assessment of an employee, overshadowing their broader performance.

Question 2

In a performance review conversation, a manager should spend the majority of time on:

Accepted Answer

Discussing future development opportunities and goal-setting for the next period

Answer

Effective performance conversations are forward-looking; spending most time on development and future goals drives growth more than backward-looking rating justification.

Question 3

What is the key difference between an output-based goal and an outcome-based goal in performance management?

Accepted Answer

Output-based goals focus on activity volume; outcome-based goals focus on the business result or impact produced

Answer

Output goals measure what was produced (e.g., number of calls made), while outcome goals measure the business impact of that activity (e.g., revenue generated per call).

Question 4

A manager is preparing for annual review calibration and realizes her ratings skew significantly higher than her peers'. What should she do before the calibration session?

Accepted Answer

Bring supporting documentation for each rating to justify her assessments to peers

Answer

Bringing evidence-based documentation allows the manager to defend legitimate high ratings or identify where leniency bias may have inflated scores.

Question 5

When cascading a company goal of 'increase customer retention by 10%' to a software engineering team, which individual goal best reflects appropriate cascading?

Accepted Answer

'Reduce customer-reported critical bugs by 30% within six months'

Answer

Reducing critical bugs directly contributes to customer retention through improved product stability, creating a measurable link between the engineering role and the company objective.

(CPM) Certified People Manager Practice Test

(CPM) Certified People Manager Practice Test

CPM Goal Cascading & Performance Reviews 5