HR Research & Evidence-Based Practice 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A company wants to determine whether a new onboarding software reduces time-to-productivity. Which research design best establishes causality?
- Cross-sectional survey of current employees
- Randomized controlled experiment with a control group (Correct answer)
- Retrospective analysis of exit interview data
- Focus group discussions with managers
Correct answer: Randomized controlled experiment with a control group
A randomized controlled experiment isolates the effect of the onboarding software by comparing it to a control group, establishing causality.
Question 2: In HR analytics, what does 'p-value < 0.05' typically indicate?
- The effect size is large enough to be practically significant
- There is less than a 5% probability the result occurred by chance (Correct answer)
- The sample size is sufficient for generalization
- The correlation coefficient exceeds the threshold for action
Correct answer: There is less than a 5% probability the result occurred by chance
A p-value below 0.05 means there is less than a 5% probability that the observed result is due to random chance under the null hypothesis.
Question 3: Which data collection method is most appropriate for capturing nuanced employee sentiment about a newly deployed HRIS?
- Automated pulse survey with Likert scales
- Semi-structured qualitative interviews (Correct answer)
- Review of system login frequency logs
- Benchmarking against industry turnover rates
Correct answer: Semi-structured qualitative interviews
Semi-structured interviews allow employees to express nuanced opinions and unexpected insights that structured surveys cannot capture.
Question 4: An HR team finds that employee engagement scores correlate strongly with manager tenure. What is the appropriate conclusion?
- Manager tenure directly causes higher engagement
- Manager tenure should be increased to improve engagement
- Longer tenure and higher engagement share a statistical relationship but causation is unproven (Correct answer)
- The finding is spurious and should be disregarded
Correct answer: Longer tenure and higher engagement share a statistical relationship but causation is unproven
Correlation establishes a statistical relationship but cannot confirm that one variable causes the other without additional experimental evidence.
Question 5: Which validity type assesses whether an HR assessment tool actually measures the construct it claims to measure (e.g., leadership potential)?
- Predictive validity
- Content validity
- Construct validity (Correct answer)
- Concurrent validity
Correct answer: Construct validity
Construct validity evaluates whether a test truly measures the theoretical construct it is designed to assess, such as leadership potential.
Question 6: A meta-analysis on remote work productivity is most valuable to HR practitioners because it:
- Provides a single definitive case study from one organization
- Synthesizes findings across many studies to produce more reliable conclusions (Correct answer)
- Replaces the need for internal organizational research
- Uses only qualitative data from employee testimonials
Correct answer: Synthesizes findings across many studies to produce more reliable conclusions
Meta-analyses aggregate results from multiple studies, reducing the impact of individual study limitations and increasing statistical power.
Question 7: When applying evidence-based HR practices, which source of evidence carries the highest scientific rigor?
- Practitioner blog posts and vendor white papers
- Peer-reviewed research published in scientific journals (Correct answer)
- Consultant recommendations based on industry experience
- Internal anecdotal reports from HR business partners
Correct answer: Peer-reviewed research published in scientific journals
Peer-reviewed journals subject research to independent expert scrutiny, making them the most rigorously validated source of evidence.
HR Research & Evidence-Based Practice 2
A company wants to determine whether a new onboarding software reduces time-to-productivity.
Which research design best establishes causality?