Imagine that you are head of personnel at Huge Corp. The CEO keeps getting other
ID: 3237123 • Letter: I
Question
Imagine that you are head of personnel at Huge Corp. The CEO keeps getting other people's mail by mistake, so she asks you to conduct a study of mailroom productivity. You take random sample of 27 mailroom employees and gather data on the following variables: Productivity (PROD = letters correctly sorted per minute), Experience (EXP = months of experience in the Huge Corp. mailroom), and Aptitude test score (SCORE = aptitude test score for employees of the Huge Corp.) You generate the following regression equation: PROD = 2.0 + 0.5 EXP + 0.2 SCORE 1) Interpret the slope(s) of the regression equation in this context. 2) Ernest has just been hired, and has an aptitude score of 80. What level of productivity would you expect from Ernest? 3) What is the best interpretation of the intercept term in the regression equation? (a) This is the predicted gain in average productivity for each additional month of experience. (b) This is the predicted gain in average productivity for each additional point of aptitude score. (c) This is predicted average productivity for all new hires. (d) This is the predicted average productivity for new hires with an aptitude score of 0. 4) Jack has 3 months more experience than Jill, but Jill's aptitude score is 20 points higher than Jack's. Who is expected to be more productive? Please give a name of the person who is more productive and interpret (show your work!).Explanation / Answer
1. Interpretation of slopes:
For each month increase in experience in Huge Corp mailroom, the productivity increases by 0.5
For each unit increase in aptitude test score, the productivity increases by 0.2
2. For Ernest,
EXP=0 and SCORE = 80
So,
Productivity = 2 + 0.5(0) + 0.2(80) = 18
3. Option d is correct.
4. Jack is 3 months more experience than Jill so his productivity on the basis of EXP factor will be 0.5(3) = 1.5 units more than Jill.
Now Jill's aptitude score is 20 points higher than Jack so his productivity on the basis of SCORE factor will be 0.2(20) = 4 units more than Jack.
Hence,
Jill's overall productivity will be (4 - 1.5) i.e. 2.5 units more than Jack.
The answer is Jill.