HR CH 13
Which of the following terms refers to an employee who transforms information into a product or service at a firm?
Knowledge worker
Which of the following is LEAST likely the responsibility of a firm's employee relations representative?
Maintaining total quality management practices
Georgio is planning on providing feedback to employees based upon a recent general job assessment. Which of the following would be LEAST effective during the feedback session?
Making the feedback personal and evaluative
Which of the following would most likely improve the success of an employee relations program at a large corporation?
Multiple communication channels
Which of the following topics would LEAST likely be addressed in an employee handbook?
Pay ranges
A revised version of the employee relations policy at Hewit Marketing has been distributed to employees. Which of the following would most likely appear in this document?
Procedures for reporting harassment in the workplace
What is the primary benefit of using Web-based employee attitude surveys?
Providing immediate feedback to managers
Which of the following is NOT a goal of most employee feedback programs?
Providing mediation between two or more employees with interpersonal problems
Connor wants to develop interpersonal trust between himself and his subordinates. Which of the following would most likely help Connor do this?
Sharing credit with employees for successful projects
HR is most likely to be responsible for which of the following means of corporate communication?
Company newsletter
Which of the following is intended to keep employees up-to-date on important events and provide inspirational stories about employee and team contributions to the firm?
Company newsletter
Which of the following is a problem associated with employee handbooks?
Employee handbooks can serve as implied contracts between employers and employees and limit an employer's ability to discharge employees.
Which of the following is NOT an information dissemination tool?
Employee relations
Which of the following is a true statement about EAP programs?
Employees are more likely to use on-site instead of off-site EAP programs
A company would most effectively use a retreat for which of the following purposes?
Holding a strategic planning session
According to research, workers in which of the following countries are LEAST happy with their jobs and employers?
Japan
Based on information in the text, which of the following is a true statement?
Japanese gather information and analyze data during meetings
Tom is the HR manager of a publishing company. The firm needs to hire several new employees, and Tom's assistant suggests that the new employees be telecommuters. Tom likes the idea but is not sure about the best way to manage telecommuters. Which of the following is the best suggestion for Tom?
The contract for the telecommuters should include performance expectations with measurable results.
A firm has poor employee relations because of its highly charged, fast-paced work environment. The CEO wants to get people working together and thinking creatively as they prepare for the new year. Which of the following would be the CEO's best choice?
Weekend retreat to a beach resort
Qamar has recently come up with a plan to increase the efficiency of Moon Struck International's accounting system. As a reward, MSI has provided Qamar and her husband tickets to the DiVinci art show that is coming to town next month. This type of reward is:
a recognition award.
Division or corporate meetings are primarily designed to:
address important issues that affect an organization.
The HR director wants to get a sense of workers' feelings about working conditions on the production lines. She wants a formal process that will give her the maximum amount of honest feedback. Her best tool for gathering this information is:
an employee attitude survey
Which of the following would most likely make a final and binding decision in a union grievance procedure?
arbitrator
A negative aspect of informal communication is that it:
can serve as a conduit for rumors and gossip
It is most likely illegal for managers to:
capture employees' electronic profiles and sell them to marketers.
Reed is sending an e-mail message to Chandra in HR about a new hire he is considering. The e-mail message is the ________ component of the communication process.
channel
A group of employees are discussing a notice on the bulletin board. "This is great! They finally recognize our need for childcare here. Boy, will this make life easier." For the employees, this is an example of:
communication of feelings.
Effective employee relations is primarily built upon:
cooperation between managers and employee relations representatives.
Which of the following is most likely associated with e-mail in the workplace?
decreased productivity
Managers can make meetings more productive by following certain guidelines, such as:
distributing a carefully planned agenda before the meeting begins
Paying attention to the feelings content of the employee communications process is especially important when a company is:
downsizing
________ communication allows managers to influence employees and to implement decisions they have made.
downward
Jasmine needs a very fast way to convey the results of a recent client meeting to her five key managers. Her best choice of medium would be:
Berk has a drinking problem that is affecting work. He decides he needs to do something about it. He needs to contact his company's:
employee assistance program
Betty wants to understand the company's family leave policy prior to requesting leave from her supervisor. Betty's first source for information should most likely be the:
employee handbook.
The most difficult problem managers have with e-mail is that:
employees assume that e-mail is their private property.
To be the most effective, recognition awards should
encourage all employees toward the firm's goals
Florence plans to ask her employees their feeling about working overtime during the next Christmas season. The best communication channel for this discussion would be:
face-to-face communication.
Nepotism is the practice of:
favoring relatives over others in the workplace
Desmond, a manager at a manufacturing plant, wants to solve a specific and significant production problem. He should most likely schedule a(n):
formal meeting of the relevant department managers.
When using employee attitude surveys, employers should most likely adhere to all of the following guidelines EXCEPT:
gathering the information for organizational downsizing purposes.
Sanjay has a complaint about his work schedule. His company requires him to go before a group of his peers and managers, other than his own boss, to explain his complaint. This is an example of a(n):
grievance panel
In general, retreats are
helpful at enhancing employee relations
The first step in the use of an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is to:
identify the troubled employee
EAPs most likely contribute to positive employee relations because they:
indicate management's effort to support and retain workers.
Presently, the U.S. economy is shifting from a(n) ________ to a ________ base.
industrial / information
Kegan and Corazon often take coffee breaks together in the mid-morning and chat about the happenings in their lives and their respective departments. This is an example of:
informal communication
The "grapevine" is a form of:
informal communication
The process of providing information to decision makers wherever they are is called:
information dissemination.
Jim has been on a trip for two weeks. When he returns to his office, he finds 125 e-mails on his computer. Jim is mostly experiencing which of the following?
information overload
One key to managing workers who telecommute is to:
maintain schedules and deadlines
Anastasia is supervising a number of travel agents in a large travel agency. She spends time casually visiting with travel agents at their desks or in the break room discussing issues related to the business. Anastasia's form of supervision is called:
management by walking around
An informal communication tool available to managers that helps them build rapport with employees is:
management by walking around.
A legitimate use of employee attitude survey data is to:
monitor the state of certain employee subgroups.
Jake needs a communication tool that will allow the integration of voice, text, and video. His best choice of tool would be:
multimedia technology
Chrystal is VP of a small computer business. Chrystal's son Todd and another employee, Lacy, were both considered for a management position. Though Lacy had better credentials, Todd was hired at the insistence of his mother. This is an example of:
nepotism
Travis has been showing Shay the basics of C++ computer programming. Shay knows very little about programming and does not understand most of what Travis says. Travis uses terms and concepts that are unfamiliar to Shay. Shay's difficulty in decoding the message most likely comes from:
noise
What is the most informal appeals tool that a company can use?
open door program
To ensure accurate understanding of a message, the receiver should:
provide feedback to the sender
For a suggestion system to be effective, it should:
quickly implement accepted ideas and give credit to the originator
The speak-up program at CIGNA is an open door policy that:
requires employees to begin with their supervisors
A manager can increase the productive use of e-mail by:
setting up an electronic bulletin board.
A company program that encourages, evaluates, and implements ideas from employees is a(n):
suggestion system
Voice mail abuse can most likely be reduced by:
teaching the system to temporary workers.
Ray wants to gather input from all operations managers at the firm. The managers are located in four different states. Ray needs a low-cost way to bring them together and permit immediate interaction. Ray's best choice would be:
teleconferencing
The most important source of information that HR can provide employees is:
the employee handbook, which outlines the company's entire employee relations philosophy.
For a company to have good employee relations, it should most likely:
treat all employees fairly and consistently.
A manager is explaining a project to his staff. The employees ask questions about the details of the project, and they request a delivery date change. The manager agrees to the new deadline. This meeting is most likely an example of:
two-way communication
Jana and her student Julie are discussing revisions that Julie needs to consider for her composition's next draft. Jana will ask a question and then Julie will respond, and perhaps ask a question of her own. The two discuss the paper for nearly 25 minutes, talking back and forth about good aspects of the paper and areas that could be improved. This conversation is an example of:
two-way communication
Employee feedback programs are a tool to provide effective ________ communication
upward
________ communication allows employees at lower levels to communicate their ideas and feelings to higher-level decision makers.
upward
Memos are most appropriate for conveying:
vacation policy changes
________ is a type of electronic communication that allows the sender to leave a detailed audio message for a receiver
voice mail
Family business provides its own unique set of challenges to human resource management, especially in dealing with nepotism. The best way to lessen non-family employees' concerns over nepotism is to have the family member:
work outside of the family business first
