Free Supervisory Situational Judgment Test Practice Guide 2024

Best response: A
Core competency: building and maintaining relationships
Secondary competencies: responsibility for subordinates, integrity and reliability, flexibility and adaptability

Explanation: This is a question about the chain of command and your relationship with your employees. We are told about a competent, reliable employee who doesn’t manage to finish her task on time due to difficulties in learning her task.

Notice that there are in fact only two options of actions in the answer choices, and every couple of answer choices which suggest the same action, differ in their rationalization. Therefore, when choosing your response, you should take both elements into consideration: action and rationalization.

Response A emphasizes your relationship with your employees: you want your employee to know she can ask for help and can rely on you (responsibility, reliability).

Working alongside her is a good opportunity to see what went wrong, where were her difficulties and tutor her. Notice that this answer choice does not suggest that you do her work instead of her, but rather working together in a way that allows you to see what she is doing, each step of the way and vice versa, she has a chance to watch closely and how you perform the task. This is the best response.

Response B emphasizes discipline; it reflects worry that Hillary would make it a habit not to finish her own tasks. Since we are told that she is usually independent and competent, you can feel comfortable that she won’t rely too much on your help next time, but rather would learn to inform you when something is not working and to ask for help. Moreover, this response is harmful since it could create the impression of punishment – in fact, Hillary was responsible enough to point out the problem in advance, therefore punishment is harsh and inappropriate.

Response C suggests an appropriate action, but its rationalization is flawed. Helping your employee is valuable for the sake of work progress, employee development, and relationship with your employees. In this response, you help your employee for the sake of your ego and the impression you make on your employees. At the beginning of working with you, your employees probably believe you are familiar with their work. When you do notice that your employees feel otherwise, this implies a lack of trust and such a situation requires more thorough treatment.

Response D has a valid rationalization and in some positions, it’s possible that you won’t be able to work alongside your employees. However, since we are told about an exceptional situation and about an employee who is relatively new and still learning her job, leaving her with the problem seems inflexible.

Best response: A
Core competencies: integrity and reliability, responsibility
Secondary competencies: flexibility and adaptability, organizational thinking, respect for employees

Explanation: In this situation, you have failed to prepare for a commitment you took upon yourself. This is a question about your approach when facing errors which you have made. Notice that you are asked about your first reaction – this implies that other actions may follow, as well as adjustments to the situation if it changes.

Choosing response A, you first fulfill your commitment. Remember that you are asked about your first response – adjustments and additional actions to compensate for the missing person in your unit can follow. This response states that you take your commitments seriously; you don’t back out and leave the production unit without a solution. This response shows responsibility and reliability.

Response B fulfills only half of your commitment. This response may be appropriate in some contexts, but we are not given a reason to assume this is the case. Therefore, in the given context, this solution doesn’t seem enough in comparison with response A.

Helping the production unit by yourself (response C) sounds like a responsible response - you have made a mistake, and you make sure to correct it personally. But in fact, by leaving your own unit you neglect your responsibilities as its supervisor. This response is too extreme as a first response, choosing it seems like a rash move without considering it through.

Response D drops all responsibility for this error. This response may be the right one to choose in some situations, but not as a first response (you should try other options first) and not on a test. Again, you want to consider the most general situation and consider what the response you choose tells your potential employer about you. This response lacks consideration of organizational goals (organizational thinking) and adaptability to changing situations.

Calling a team member from home (response E) is an extreme action, moreover as a first response to the events. You may consider asking an employee to come from home, but in this answer choice you are not asking, you are telling them. This response shows that you don’t respond well to stress and the way you deal with the problem is to drop it on someone else (respect for employees, responsibility).

Best response: A, worst response: C
Core competency: responsibility for subordinates
Secondary competencies: building and maintaining relationships, respect for employees, flexibility and adaptability, creative problem solving

Explanation: This is a question about handling employees’ personal needs. Like everyone else, your employees have personal lives and they could sometimes affect their work. Employees’ personal matters should be handled with sensitivity – you want to be caring and helping as much as possible, without giving an inquisitive feeling.

Discussing ways to help the employee (response A) shows understanding of your employee’s situation and willingness to help. You use creative problem solving and adapt to your employee’s needs. This also shows understanding that work affects employees’ personal lives just as much as their personal lives affect their work (responsibility for subordinates). This is the best response.

Response B shows less adaptability, yet it’s still appropriate. In some positions and situations you don’t have the option to be as flexible as in response A. However, since you are taking a test you are asked to consider a general situation. Response A represents important competencies which response B doesn’t.

Response C seems cold. It creates the impression that your function is only to supervise your employees’ productivity, and neglects your responsibility for them. Notice that the action itself – referring the employee to the HR department – is not bad in itself, but the rationale behind it, as presented in the answer choice, doesn’t show empathy and respect for your employee and lacks any consideration of your relationship with him. We chose this response as the worst.

Response D is another response that could be appropriate in some situations, but generally it’s not ideal. Most importantly, in the test context what this response actually says is “do nothing”. This response doesn’t show any competency. As response C creates damage (it hurts your relationship with your employee), while response D seems to not have any particular effect at this point, we chose response C as the worst.