Situational Judgement Test

FREE Situational Judgement Question and Answers

Sarah Arkwright, a senior manager in the finance division, sent you an email. She will oversee your placement when you join the team in three months. She wants you to be aware that you'll be starting at the department's busiest time. The busiest time for financial planning is January, when you are scheduled to begin working in finance. The team will put in all-out effort to create the annual business plans and budget allotments for each department at Sutton & Sykes and to match these with the company's projected profit and loss. In order for you to "hit the ground running" when you join the team, your supervisor believes it is crucial that you are aware of this. You've never held a position in finance before.
Review the following responses and then choose the one that you feel is the situation's "least effective" response.

Email Sarah thanking her for her early warning. Ask her whether she can provide any information on the projects on which you might be working in January.

Thank Sarah and say that you will contact her in December, a few weeks before your placement, and ask for specific details of your projects.

Email Sarah and ask whether it would be possible to have a one-to-one meeting with her before you begin your placement to find out as much as possible about the projects on which you might be working.

Search on the internet for information about business planning, budgeting and profit & loss calculation.

Correct! Wrong!

Explanation:
This is the least effective response as, although if you took the other approaches suggested it may turn out that you would have to wait until this time for the specific details of projects, at least with those responses you could be doing work to prepare much earlier than a few weeks before the start of your placement.

Late June has come. Your team just finished its monthly meeting for the "book section," and your team leader has given you a specific goal for the following month. You are expected to work toward a 15% increase in children's book sales over last July's figures. Since it is the end of the summer term and families are less likely to spend money on children's books or stationery at this time, July is always a challenging month for children's products. You won't have any extra money to use toward achieving this objective.
Review the following responses and choose the one you feel would be "most likely to make" in the given circumstance.

Approach as many customers with children (or who look like they may have children or grandchildren) and politely mention to them that More Than Pens has a great range of summer holiday activity books and story books for children and show them where the children’s books are.

Tidy up the children’s book area and make it look as presentable as possible.

Pick out a selection of summer-themed books and ‘summer holiday’ activity books and put them near the front of the children’s area

Put a hand-written poster near the till promoting the great range of summer activity books that More Than Pens stock for children.

Correct! Wrong!

Explanation:
This is the most effective response as you are actively promoting the summer-themed books and helping customers to find them. You may worry that this approach is slightly ‘pushy’ but without any budget for creating visual publicity this is the best and most dynamic way to raise customer awareness. You can also be on hand to offer help and advice if a customer shows an interest in buying books for the summer holidays.

After roughly 10 minutes of browsing in your sector, a customer is starting to become impatient and frustrated. He comes up to you and asks if you have a specific book that he is looking for, and after looking it up on your computer, you have to tell him that it is "out of stock" right now.
Review the replies that you feel best to describe the decision you would "most likely" make in the given circumstance.

Suggest he try the Alpston branch of More Than Pens (which is the nearest neighbouring town, 40 minutes drive away) or other bookshops in Saldringham.

Give the customer the ISBN (book serial number) of the book so that he can easily and quickly search it out elsewhere, either online or at another bookshop.

Offer to order the book for the customer and let him know how long this will take. Offer to call him when the book arrives.

Apologize that the book is unavailable and suggest he try Morethanpens.co.uk or another online retailer instead.

Correct! Wrong!

Explanation:
This is the most effective response as you are trying to give the customer what he wants without him having to do too much more. By telling the customer how long it will take to order, he can make an informed decision as to whether he wishes to take this option

"On a Monday morning at 9 a.m., your boss, Mary Alvarez, sends you an email requesting that you move up the due date for a small research project you were working on for her so that it "closes of play" today. She claims that since she has an urgent meeting tomorrow morning regarding the matter, she needs the written report from you sooner than she originally anticipated (she told you about the report on Friday and said it would be due by the end of the following day). You haven't even begun writing the report, but you anticipate finishing it in 4 or 5 hours. You have two additional emails in your inbox. One comes from a coworker in HR who is out with the flu today but was scheduled to join the head of the research department for an HR liaison meeting in Southampton. According to the email, Mary has agreed to let you go in his place after hearing from him. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 11 am, and it takes about an hour to travel from Alton to Southampton. The Graduate Development Manager (GDM) sent a feedback form to all Graduate Trainees a week ago, and the third email serves as a reminder about it. He wants to know your thoughts on how to make the trainee program better for the incoming class in January. You quickly scan the sheet and notice that it is a four-page questionnaire that needs thoughtful answers from you. To give him time to review the feedback and put it to good use, the GDM needs the form back by the end of the day. Review the following responses and choose which you think is the situation's "most effective" response.

Agree to attend the meeting and flag up to Mary that you are going. Email the GDM and apologize that you won’t be able to get him the feedback until mid-morning tomorrow. Email the Head of the Research Department and apologize that you will only be able to meet for up to 1 hour today due to a busy schedule; ask if he would rather re-schedule when your colleague is back at work or if he is happy with a short meeting. Start your report between 9am and 10am. Attend the meeting, if appropriate, and then return to Alton by 1pm and write your report for Maria until 5pm.

Complete the feedback sheet for the GDM first thing as this has been waiting for the longest time to be done. Say to Maria that you can’t attend the meeting because if you do you might not complete her report. Spend the remainder of the day writing your report for Mary.

Say that you will attend the meeting and then return to the office this afternoon to complete your report for Mary. Email the GDM and say that you may not get the feedback to him until tomorrow mid-morning.

Speak to Mary and explain that if you go to the meeting in Southampton it may stop you getting your report done on time and therefore it would be better if someone else went instead. Email the GDM and say that unfortunately you might not get the feedback to him until tomorrow mid-morning.

Correct! Wrong!

Explanation:
This is the most effective response as, by limiting the length of the meeting there is sufficient time in the day to complete the two urgent and important tasks. The GDM feedback report is important but not time-critical as the new trainee intake don’t arrive for another 3 months.

On a busy Saturday afternoon, you are working a shift at the cash register. You are manning the main bank of tills near the store's entrance, where customers can come from all over to make purchases. One of the team leaders informs you that it will be 15 minutes before the system provider can fix the issue after the credit card transaction system abruptly stops functioning. Customers are lined up in a long waiting line.
Review the following responses and choose the one you feel is the one you would be "least likely to make" in the given circumstance.

Take the opportunity to take your afternoon tea break as it appears that most customers will have to come back later when the system is working again.

Ask the team leader what to do.

Continue serving customers and apologize about the lack of availability of credit card payment.

Talk to the team leader and suggest that someone goes down the line of customers informing them of the problem and how long it will take to resolve. This will save customers queuing up in case they have no cash or chequebook on them.

Correct! Wrong!

Explanation:
This is the least effective response as you do not know for sure that most customers will have to pay later and you are leaving your colleagues and team leader to deal with the situation without checking what else you could do to help.

On this Tuesday morning, a coworker in the stationery department is absent due to illness. When you pass by the stationery section on your way to the staff room to grab a quick cup of tea at 11 a.m., you notice that it is reasonably disorganized. The shelves are messy, there are items on the wrong shelves, and items have fallen to the floor and been left there.
Review the following responses and then choose which one you think would be your "least likely to make" in each situation.

Inform the stationery team leader that there is a problem with the presentation of the section.

Do nothing. The stationery team leader probably has it all under control and will deal with it soon. It’s understandable that there’s a bit of a mess as someone is away and you don’t want to insult the stationery team by mentioning anything.

Go back to your section and ask your team leader whether you can be spared for 10 or 15 minutes to help out in stationery. If agreed, offer your help to the stationery team leader to quickly tidy up the area and take your tea break at 11.30am.

Take your tea break and then on the way back quickly tidy up a few bits and pieces if it’s still in a state.

Correct! Wrong!

Explanation:
This is the least effective response as you are making assumptions that the problem will be dealt with and the whole store will suffer if one section looks scruffy. It will give customers a poor impression of your More Than Pens branch.

"You're attending a meeting with Marinell, your boss. You have been asked to attend the meeting with the representatives of Jack Lanis Stores, a prospective new retail client. A sizable group of department stores known as Jack Lanis Stores (JLS) has developed a solid reputation as an ethical and responsible retailer. The chain takes pride in offering British-made, environmentally friendly, and ethically sourced products on the UK high street. Jack Lanis examines potential suppliers' records with regard to the moral and equitable treatment of employees because the company is run as a co-operative in which all of the employees own a portion of the business. Pay rates and the terms and conditions of an employee's employment contract are included. A significant agreement could be signed for Sutton & Sykes to supply the retail chain with 40,000 washing machines and 14,000 tumble dryers annually if this meeting goes well (i.e., the Jack Lanis representatives leave confident that Sutton & Sykes are a fair and ethical company with regard to how it treats its employees). You are a relative newcomer to the company when Nazib Khan, the senior buyer from JLS, turns to you halfway through the meeting and inquires about your opinion of Sutton & Sykes.
Review the following responses and then choose the one that you feel is the situation's "least effective" response.

Thank Mr. Khan for asking your opinion but say that the meeting was supposed to be about Sutton & Sykes’ policies and procedures for all employees and your experience might not be a representative one, therefore you’d rather not go into too much detail about yourself.

Give an honest and positive account of your recruitment, selection, training and management as a graduate trainee; include a few specific examples of how these things were done fairly and ethically by Sutton & Sykes.

Thank Mr. Khan for asking your opinion and say that you have always been treated in accordance with Sutton & Sykes’ fair and ethical employment structure. Illustrate this by showing Mr. Khan a Sutton & Sykes’ employment policy document.

Thank Mr. Khan for asking your opinion and check what it is that he would like to hear about in particular, then try to respond to his interest as honestly and positively as possible.

Correct! Wrong!

Explanation:
This is the least effective response as you are failing to respond at all to Mr Khan’s interest in getting a ‘personal’ perspective on the issue.

FREE Situational Judgement Question and Answers

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