Upper management of a clothing store in the mall has decided that a good way to motivate employees is to consult with them about ways to bring in more customers. a memo is sent to store managers asking them to encourage participation from all employees. one store manager has hired five new employees who just graduated from high school and are working the three summer months before leaving for college. the manager scrutinizes and directs them in every detail of their job. each time they make a mistake they are reprimanded, told their pay may be docked, and reminded that there are always other people who will gladly take their place. this manager decides he will forward his suggestions to management but not ask his workers for suggestions. what approach is upper management using, as opposed to the store manager?

Reliability and validity reliability and validity are two important considerations that must be made with any type of data collection. reliability refers to the ability to consistently produce a given result. in the context of psychological research, this would mean that any instruments or tools used to collect data do so in consistent, reproducible ways. unfortunately, being consistent in measurement does not necessarily mean that you have measured something correctly. to illustrate this concept, consider a kitchen scale that would be used to measure the weight of cereal that you eat in the morning. if the scale is not properly calibrated, it may consistently under- or overestimate the amount of cereal that’s being measured. while the scale is highly reliable in producing consistent results (e. g., the same amount of cereal poured onto the scale produces the same reading each time), those results are incorrect. this is where validity comes into play. validity refers to the extent to which a given instrument or tool accurately measures what it’s supposed to measure. while any valid measure is by necessity reliable, the reverse is not necessarily true. researchers strive to use instruments that are both highly reliable and valid.