Gerald is conducting a performance appraisal of the employees in his department, ranking them from the most to the least valuable. He lists the names of the employees to be rated on the left side of a sheet of paper. Then he chooses the most valuable employee on the list, crosses that name off the left-hand list, and puts it at the top of the column on the right-hand side of the paper. Next, he selects and crosses off the name of the least valuable employee from the left-hand column and moves it to the bottom of the right-hand column. Gerald repeats this process for all of the names on the left-hand side of the paper. The resulting list of names in the right-hand column gives a ranking of the employees from the most to the least valuable. Identify the ranking method Gerald is using.
a. Paired comparison ranking
b. Central tendency distribution
c. Alternation ranking
d. Forced distribution

When a human resources manager performs an alternation ranking, he is ranking his employees from best to worst based on one or more traits that he/she considers important. This method is useful to determine which employee is able to perform better depending on the necessary trait or ability. It also helps to determine which employee or employees perform worst, always related to the specific trait or ability required.