Week 7: Lab
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Lab 7 of 7 – Microsoft Office (Word and Excel)
Lab Overview
Scenario/Summary
The purpose of this lab is to become familiar with Office products and gain skills with both Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.
Deliverables
Week 7 Lab deliverable is the modified Word document: CEIS100_W7_LabReport (Part 1). (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Required Software
This Lab will use the following Lab Resources:
• Virtual Lab – Citrix
Use a personal copy of the software or access the Lab Resources, go to the Course Resources page – Lab Resources section.
Lab Steps
Part 1: Word
Please watch the walk-through video for instructions on the lab.

Transcript (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Applying Styles: Word styles are saved versions of text formatting.
1. Open the file: CEIS100_W7_LabReport_Pt1.docx (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., and save it in your computer.
2. Using the file from Step 1, create a paragraph style named Title_Page_1 with the following formats:
o 22-point font size
o shadow font effect (Offset Diagonal Top Right)
o character spacing expanded by 2 points
o horizontally centered
o font color: dark blue, text 2, darker 50%
o Apply this style to the first line of the document, Understanding the Personal Interview.
3. Create a paragraph style named Title_Page_2 based on the first style that you created, with the following changes:
o 20-point font size
o Custom color 66, 4, 66
o Apply this style to the subtitle, A Study for Managers Involved in the Hiring Process.
4. Place your cursor to the left of Understanding the Personal Interview (below the titles), and insert a page break to move all content to page 2.
5. Select the remainder of the text in the document, starting with Understanding the Personal Interview, and apply the following formatting:
o Justify alignment
o 1.5 line spacing
6. Apply the Heading 1 style to all main headings. Apply the Heading 2 style to the paragraph headings, such as Introduction and Pre-InterviewImpressions.
7. Modify the Heading 2 style to use Dark Red font color.
Formatting the Paragraphs (remember to save!)
1. Apply bullet-point formatting to the five-item list under Introduction, beginning with Pre-interview Impressions. Change the bullet point symbol to a four-sided star: ✧
2. Select the second paragraph under Introduction, and apply the following formats:
o 6” left and right indent and 6 point “after” spacing
o box border of 1 ½-point width, using the color Blue, Accent 1, Darker 25%
o shading color of Blue, Accent 1, Lighter 80%
3. Apply numbered-list formatting to the three phases under Pre-Interview Impressions.
4. Select the second and third paragraphs under The Unfavorable Information Effect, and then convert them to 2-column formatting with a line between the columns.
Inserting Graphics and Page Numbers (remember to save)
1. Select the [Image Placeholder] text under Introduction, and search for clip art using the phrase “interview” (be sure to include all media file types, including office.com content).
o Choose the first image result: two orange figures at a table.
o Select the image, and change the dimensions to 3” x 3.” Center the image on the page. Apply the Simple Frame, White picture formatting.
2. Double click into the footer (the bottom margin) and a page number at the bottom of the page using the Accent Bar 4 format. Check the box that says Different First Page, and then format the page numbers to start at 0 – in the Page Number > Format Page Number menu.
3. Review the entire document to ensure that headings and paragraphs are not separated across pages. Fix any other formatting issues that you notice.
4. Save and submit your completed Lab Report (part-1) for grading.
Part 2: Excel
Watch the walk-through video here for assistance:
Transcript (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
In this lab, we will solve two business problems using Excel application. The first problem will be a step-by-step guide to familiarize you with Excel application and its formulas. The second problem you will do on your own.
Problem 1:
1. You would like to open a daycare facility, and need to know how much it will cost to operate the business and how many children need to attend to break even, and how many it will take to make a profit . You will use Excel for this lab and create formulas to solve this problem. The following is the information that you need to solve the problem.
1. You employ four teachers at $15/hr.
2. You employ one manager at $20/hr.
3. We will assume that they will work 2,000 hours.
4. Food/snacks will cost $3,000 per year.
5. Supplies will cost $1,000 per year.
2. Create a spreadsheet to solve the following problems:
1. How much will it cost to run the daycare facility for a year?
2. If you charge tuition of $8,000 per year, how many students do you need to break even?
3. Assuming that tuition is still $8,000 per year, how many students do you need to make a $25,000 profit?
4. Create a pie chart showing the percentage of expenses for each category.
Problem 2:
1. You own a game company and would like to develop a new game. Your goal is to determine how much it costs to create a game , how many games you need to sell to break even, and how many it will take to make a profit . You will use Excel for this lab and create formulas to solve this problem. The following is the information that you need to solve the problem.
1. You employ 60 programmers at $40/hr.
2. You employ 10 managers at $55/hr.
3. Marketing has requested $1,000,000 to market the game.
4. Each employee will work 1 year (2,000 hours) to develop this game.
2. Create a spreadsheet to solve the following problems.
1. How much will it cost to develop the game?
2. If you sell the game for $55, how many games do you need to sell to break even?
3. Optional:
1. Assuming the $55 price, how many games do you need to sell to make a $1,000,000 profit?
2. Create a pie chart showing the percentage of expenses for each category.
Procedure:
1. Open Microsoft Excel application.
2. Watch the video explaining how to complete Problem 1.
3. Create formulas to calculate the total costs for teachers and managers and calculate the total cost of the daycare. Your formulas should be similar to the screenshot below.

4. Next, do the analysis to determine the breakeven point and the number of students needed for a desired profit. These formulas are below. You need the ceiling function to round up to the nearest integer.

5. A pie chart is needed to illustrate the percentage of expenses for the daycare. Select A4:A7. Press and hold ctrl and select E4:E7. Then, choose Insert -> Pie to create a pie chart based on the expenses. Add a title to the pie chart.

6. Your final spreadsheet should look like the following.

7. Save your worksheet from Problem 1 as CEIS100_W7_LabReport(part-2)
8. Open a new worksheet for Problem 2 in the CEIS100_W7_LabReport(part-2) that you created. Enter all of the data into your spreadsheet as shown below. You can format the spreadsheet as you wish. Replace “Your Name” in the title with your first and last name.

9. Using the knowledge from the previous exercise, solve the problems in this spreadsheet. Save your final spreadsheet, and submit CEIS100_W7_LabReport(part-2) document for grading. Be sure that both Problem 1 and Problem 2 are saved in the submitted document.
PreviousNext

Understanding the Personal Interview:
A Study for Managers Involved
in the Hiring Process

Understanding the Personal Interview
Introduction
It is ironic, the large emphasis that is placed on the personal interview when arriving at selection decisions within organizations, despite its low reliability and low accuracy in predicting future job performance. These interviews are usually relatively unstructured. Recent literature reviews suggest that the interviewer’s judgmental errors, along with numerous errors and biases associated with the processing of applicant information, contribute to the low validity of personal interviews. Since the workforce is the primary asset in most organizations, one might assume that the most effective selection strategy would be chosen to maximize productivity.
Personal interviewing continues to be the most widely used method for selecting employees and is often used in conjunction with other techniques such as reference checking, weighted application blanks, skill tests, and psychological testing. There are obviously good reasons for the popularity of the employment interview despite the controversy regarding its validity.
This paper analyzes the validity of the interview, the measure of the degree to which the test predicts job success. Good selection doesn’t depend only on quality information, but on the quality of the interpretation. In the interview, the interviewer looks at the background of the applicant, analyzes the applicant’s responses during the interview, and makes judgments about the behavior of the applicant. The following factors affect validity:
o Pre-Interview Impressions
o Psychological Selective Perceptions
o Stereotypes
o Halo-Effect
o Trait Configurations
Thus, oftentimes the validity of the interview rests on the interviewer. The interviewer needs to recognize that everyone perceives things in different ways. Furthermore, interview perceptions are based on the interviewer’s life experiences, goals, needs, and values, and thus can affect the judgment of the applicant.

[Image Placeholder]

First, we discuss some of the psychological pitfalls of personal interviewing. Second, we look at a company that is experiencing personnel problems. Third, we look at how the problems can be resolved.

Pre-Interview Impressions
Before the interviewer greets the applicant and begins the discussion, judgments are likely to have already been formed. Impressions of the applicant’s qualifications and characteristics by looking solely at the application and resume could bias the conduct of the interviewer and the eventual results. First impressions of a person from just paper credentials can exert a disproportionate influence on our continued perception of them. A process model by Diboye, 1982, proposes three interview phases:
o The Pre-Interview Phase;
o The Interview Phase, or the face-to-face interview with the applicant;
o The Post-Interview Phase, where impressions are formed of the applicant’s qualifications and the decision is made to hire or not to hire.
A study at the University Placement Center of 120 interviews by Macan and Diboye in 1990, revealed a strong positive correlation between pre-interview and post-interview impressions.
Hakel, in 1982, concluded after his interview research that “It is abundantly clear that whatever information occurs first has disproportionate influence on the final outcome of interviews.” This could be explained by the fact that people with high test scores, good grades, etc…, on their credentials actually make better impressions in the interview, although studies have been done (Sparks & Manese, 1970) to show little support for this contention.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
An interviewer forms a pre-interview opinion of the applicant and categorizes the applicant as ideal, highly qualified or typical or unqualified, and the interviewer’s subsequent conception of the applicant then influences the subsequent gathering and processing of information. This cognitive categorization means that interviewers form expectancies of how applicants present themselves in an interview. Macan and Diboye confirmed this theory in a study they did and found that candidates with high qualifications were expected to give better answers and display traits of an ideal candidate. Their findings also revealed that interviewers have more favorable attitudes to these higher-qualified applicants and show more signs of approval in their verbal and nonverbal behavior than the less-qualified applicants. This, in turn, influences the applicant’s motivation to make a favorable self-presentation or stop the applicant from trying to make a good impression if he or she becomes discouraged. Also, the interviewer can lead to a behavioral confirmation by restricting the interviewee’s responses or by only asking about negative aspects of their credentials.
The Bias of Information Processing
Disproportionate weight can be given to the pre-interview impressions for other reasons. The interviewer could either fail to recall information that is inconsistent with his or her expectations, or just recall information primarily that is consistent with expectations. A psychological experiment by Macon & Diboye in 1987 found that interviewers who were allowed to take notes recalled information more accurately than those who did not take notes.
These pre-interview impressions obviously prevent interviewers from generating and retaining new information, and once they have created an impression of the candidate, they are unlikely to go out of their way to try and disprove it.

Perception in the Interview
The Unfavorable Information Effect
There is evidence that the interviewer forms an Accept/Reject opinion very early on in the interview, often in the first 5 minutes. This could have a very adverse effect on the outcome of the interview, especially if the initial opinion is unfavorable. The results of Springbett’s research in 1958 revealed that unfavorable information had a much greater impact on selection decisions than favorable information. He found that a single early unfavorable rating resulted in a Reject decision in 84% of his cases. He found that 8.8 items of favorable information were required to change an initially unfavorable impression and only 3.8 items of unfavorable information were required to alter an initially favorable impression. Since then, many other studies have been done to confirm this fact.

A number of reasons for this have been proposed. First, decision-makers almost certainly receive negative feedback about an unqualified, unsuitable candidate that has been hired, but rarely receive positive feedback about a good hiring decision. Second, the error of rejecting a good candidate goes unpunished.
Kanouse and Hanson offer another possible reason–people are more motivated to avoid potential costs than look for potential rewards. In other words, a bad hiring decision is much more costly than the cost of not hiring a good applicant.
Interviewer Decision Styles
Decision styles greatly affect perception, accuracy of observation, and interjudge reliability. It affects the gathering, storing, combining, and evaluating of information and thus can influence the outcome of an interview. The interviewer’s decision style could change considerably in the presence or absence of stress. If something personal were at stake, non-rational feelings could distort evaluations. Thus, it might be a good idea if the interviewer simply had to describe the applicant and the information was then passed on to someone else to make the hiring decision. The interviewer’s perceptions would then be much more accurate and informative. An additional attribute that aids in information processing is having an interviewer with an augmented cognitive structure who can organize and hold information for a long time, and extract relevant information from speech. This aids in the interviewer’s ability to sift through abstractions in search of clear understanding.
Non-Verbal Communications
It has already been mentioned that the interviewer often comes to a Reject/Accept decision in the first 5 minutes. In addition, studies reveal that nearly 100% of impressions formed in the first 4 minutes come from the applicant’s nonverbal behavior. Over half of a complete impression is based on just facial expressions revealing emotions such as anger or disgust, and 38% of impression comes from vocal tones. Physical space, body movement, appearances, etc…, are all other nonverbal clues. Since the nonverbal element is so critical, it’s important that interviewers understand the significance of nonverbal indicators and how to interpret these silent messages to make successful hiring decisions.
Physical Characteristics
An interviewer’s inferences about a candidate’s traits are derived not only by watching their behavior but also by observing their physical characteristics. The halo effect occurs when an obvious characteristic about a person influences our impressions about the person’s other characteristics. Halo effects have more impact when the characteristic is one about which we have a strong positive or negative feeling. For example, the interviewer may decide the applicant is dressed inappropriately; the interviewer links this with what he believes the mode of dress means or says about the applicant. This negatively affects the interviewer’s further observations. There is evidence that physical attractiveness has an effect on interviewers’ judgment when they assess resumes of applications for managerial positions. Attractive people are presumed to have other positive qualities such as personalities, honesty, intelligence, poise, and confidence. This is consistent with the implicit personality theory about the relationships between one trait and another. For example, a neat person is often thought of as efficient and also punctual. This means that a little information can be taken a long way and also be very misleading.
Stereotypes
Interviewers are also affected by stereotypes. These are concepts that people form and those they feel they can rely on with certainty regarding the unalterable nature and character of certain types of people. Other people and friends share the same stereotypes that reinforce the interviewer’s perception and make stereotypes real. Stereotyping in an interview means that the applicant is put into a category in the interviewer’s mind. The interviewer then makes assumptions about the applicant’s character based on the traits associated with that particular category.