HR Strategy Quiz 2

5. Emotional appeals can help establish ___________________ for the change.

a. An urgency

3. In Bramson's article, she notes that once the thrill of the M&A deal is over and the reality sinks in, the mood may change from exhilaration to remorse as the workload grows and problems arise. People can be confused and fatigued. She terms this response as ________________.

a. Buyer's remorse

6. In the first six months after a merger, Devoge and Shiraki point out that while the leadership focus is typically on financial factors, people issues remain critical to the merger's success. Of the people issues, they feel that the most important people issue at this stage is:

a. Communicating the vision and goals of the merged company to employees

10. Acculturation in M&A results when contact between two autonomous cultures requires change in one group or both. Marks and Mirvis identify four most prominent levels of acculturation. Which level represents the situation where the partners coexist?

a. Cultural pluralism

5. Effective human resources planning begins with developing an understanding of the current and future business context. To do this, managers and HR staff need to

a. Develop and evaluate alternative scenarios of future business conditions and demands

10. In a downsizing, employees need to be prepared to learn how to deal with change and the emotions within a more positive and healthful framework. This can be done by

a. Establishing and implementing support programs

7. The priorities constituting an HR strategy ________ and are ________ over time.

a. Evolve, crafted

7. Bechet and Walker point out that HR planning is most valuable in organizations that are______________ in order to guide actions effectively.

a. Experiencing rapid change

5. Atwater points out that today, workforce forecasting adds _________________ to the business planning process

a. Human resource information

4. In the paper "Human Resources Strategy," it is pointed out that an organization's technology can influence the core HR priorities forming the HR strategy. What type of organization would have a technology that would support an emphasis on HR priorities such as consistency, dependability, high competence and commitment to perform?

a. Large scale manufacturing firm

1. In the article by Cascio and Wynn, a series of "gaps between research and practice" in employment downsizing are discussed. The gap "indiscriminate downsizing boosts profits" implies that by reducing costs you increase revenues assuming that _____________.

a. Other things remain equal

10. A staffing plan for an understood business context includes a comparison of expected supply and demand of employees in order to identify _________________.

a. Staffing gaps and surpluses

3. To implement "strategic workforce planning," the Conference Board report recommends that organizations build on previous successes such as:

a. Succession planning or embryonic workforce planning efforts

8. The most important element contributing to effective communication about a proposed change is the ______________________________________.

a. Trust employees feel toward the leader presenting the change

2. A key finding of the Vakola and Nikilaou research on change was that _______________was the strongest predictor of negative attitudes towards change.

b. Bad work relationships

9. In the strategic staffing process, once _________________ are defined, managers can identify the impacts that they will have on required competencies and staffing levels.

b. Business scenarios

11. In regard to organizational culture, for executives to get to where they want to go in a merger or acquisition, they need to define a(n) _________.

b. Cultural endstate

5. The Devoge and Shiraki study found that no factor was considered more critical to a successful merger than assessing the ____________ of the two companies before the merger.

b. Cultures

7. Devoge and Shiraki emphasize that placing leaders with ________________ in key roles before, during, and after the merger goes a long way toward meeting the people challenges inherent in the M&A process.

b. Emotional intelligence

5. A consistent and clearly understood set of HR priorities should be influential in ______ and _______ the personnel decision-making of managers as they implement an organization's competitive strategy.

b. Guiding , shaping

10. In an uncertain, unpredictable and highly turbulent business environment, the only true source of competitive advantage for an organization may be

b. Its capacity to learn as it goes

2. Each organization will have_____________________________ that will be used as a framework of preferences to guide its HR decision-making.

b. Its own unique set of priorities

7. When managers wish to persuade employees to adopt a change plan, it is important that they incorporate ________ into their messages.

b. Metaphors

3. Research showed that there was a positive relationship between _______________ and positive employee attitudes toward change.

b. Organizational commitment

4. In the current business and environmental context, Cascio and Wynn argue that the classic unwritten _________________ ,which was often seen as lifelong employment with a particular employer and employee loyalty to that employer, is no longer in effect.

b. Psychological contract

4. Bechet and Walker , in their article "Aligning staffing with business strategy," initially point out that ____________ guide the recruitment, utilization, development, movement, and attrition of talent in ways that support long-term business requirements.

b. Staffing strategies

6. In Craft's paper on workforce forecasting methods, he points out that this workforce forecasting method is a flexible tool typically used to forecast labor demand. A manager develops a table with a column listing the job categories to be assessed and specifies the number of persons currently in each position. Then, in succeeding columns the expected number of persons required in those positions is noted. This method is

b. Staffing table

9. Weakland points out that __________________ "is the key element during the planning, implementation and post-implementation stages of downsizing."

c. Communication

10. This forecasting process incorporates both judgmental and quantitative approaches to forecasting.

c. Composite approach

11. Bechet and Walker state in the process of HR planning, organization charts that display all positions (full-time and part-time) are often helpful in defining:

c. Current staffing levels

4. In the Devoge and Shiraki paper, they point out that in a M&A deal, management's attention is inevitably stretched thin and the highest-priority items invariably involve the __________ of the merger.

c. Financial and legal core

2. In her article "HR's Role in Mergers and Acquisitions," Bramson states that there are two kinds of broad synergies that companies seek through a merger or acquisition. These are:

c. Growth and economies of scale

3. While Fulmer identifies a number of ways in which HRM can contribute to the strategic processes of an organization, he states that "perhaps the greatest contribution is in the design and administration of structures and systems that facilitate the _______________."

c. Implementation of strategic plans

5. Besides reducing stress and improving employee performance and satisfaction, procedurally fair treatment in the downsizing process has been shown to encourage ___________________ behaviors. These are discretionary behaviors performed outside of one's formal role that help other employees perform their jobs or that show support for and conscientiousness toward the organization.

c. Organizational citizenship

4. In the Atwater article "Workforce Forecasting," he states that three major paths of workforce forecasting have emerged. These three paths of workforce forecasting are:

c. Process-based, event-based, transaction-based

6. A rational set of HR priorities (HR strategy) may be defined initially but due to experience and learning in the dynamic environment, they may be modified and will evolve into a(n) ________ HR strategy that incorporates elements of both the rational and emergent priorities.

c. Realized

8. In their article, Marks and Mirvis point out that whether cultural differences in organizations implementing a merger or acquisition have a positive or negative impact on M&A performance depends on several factors. Which of the following is NOT one of those factors:

c. The competitive environment of the organizations

8. Which of the following would NOT be one of the six fundamental HR areas identified by Weakland as important for HR action in downsizing?

c. Top management integration

2. The Conference Board study notes that an effective workforce planning process must engage senior executives. To do so, it has to focus on

c. Understanding the strategic business plan and its broad implications for the company's workforce

9. Letting employees __________________________ may turn their negative emotions into positive feelings toward the change agents and their plans.

c. Voice their objections

9. Marks and Mirvis note four stages in development of a culture clash in an M&A situation. Which of the four stages is where the culture clash reaches full height:

c. put-downs

1. In his article "Human Resource Management: The Right Hand of Strategy Implementation" Fulmer states that "HRM is the ___ _______of the organization."

c. very foundation

1. In the paper "Human Resources Strategy," an organizational human resource strategy is defined as _______________ used by an organization to align its available human resources and its personnel policies and programs with its strategic business goals.

d. A set of dominant priorities

6. Fox & Amichai-Hamburger point out that managers should take into consideration the __________ and ___________ the employees are experiencing about the prospect of change.

d. Anxiety, tension

8. Bechet & Walker point out that the first steps in the strategic staffing processes require the establishment: of a base line on current organization, position, and staffing and to identify the business factors influencing or "driving" future staffing requirements. The next step, and the most difficult is to:

d. Define one or more scenarios of what the business will be like in the future.

7. This workforce forecasting method is a structured process that employs a group of experts to make human resource forecasts for a firm.

d. Delphi method

8. This workforce forecasting method uses historical information relating to personnel movements and flows within an organization to make inferences about human resource availabilities in the future.

d. Markov models

2. Research indicates that employment downsizing by firms led to ____________________ as measured by return on assets or industry-adjusted return on assets - both a measure of profitability.

d. No consistent improvement in financial performance

4. In the Fox & Amichai-Hamburger article, they point out that communication has two main components: a(n) __________ component and a(n) _____________ component.

d. Rational, emotional

9. A demand pull forecasting model that is based on vacancies in the organization rather than historic mobility patterns. Position vacancies throughout the organization are filled in a manner consistent with use-defined decision rules for internal movement. A computer program fills the vacancies according to the rules used in replacement.

d. Renewal analysis

1. In the article by Vakola and Nikilaou, they explore how _____ on an individual level has an impact on change at an organizational level.

d. Stress

13. Marks and Mirvis state that in a merger or acquisition, the postcombination culture is reinforced through what they term "key leverage points". Which of the following was not noted as a key leverage point?

d. Structures, processes, systems, and procedures

6. In Weakland's article, she notes that after a badly performed layoff, the remaining workforce often experiences negative effects and this is generally known as :

d. Survivor's syndrome

12. Marks and Mirvis identify five cultural endstates for a combined organization after a merger or acquisition. Which of the endstates represent a fundamental change in both companies where both companies find new ways to operate.

d. Transformation

2. Fulmer cites the study by Gluck and points out that he focuses on the two critical factors ________ and _______ that are the link between "strategic planning" and "operation decision making."

d. Vision, leadership

11. Rowden states that there are four defining characteristics of the learning organization. These include: constant readiness, continuous planning, improvised implementation and _____________.

e. Action learning

1. In a merger or acquisition action, which one of the following would not typically be a primary role of HR during the integration phase?

e. Advise the designated CEO on his/her new job responsibilities

1. In the Conference Board article "More Companies Turn to Workforce Planning to Boost Productivity, Efficiency," it is stated that __________ and _________ are driving more companies toward "strategic workforce planning".

e. An aging workforce, an emerging baby boomer retirement wave

3. In the paper "Human Resources Strategy," it is stated that the priorities that constitute the organizational HR strategy emerge from at least three broad sources. These sources are:

e. External environmental factors, internal organizational influences, the competitive strategy

7. Weakland proposes an approach to downsizing that includes six fundamental HR areas. She refers to this approach as:

e. HR holistic approach

6. In predicting future staffing availability for an organization, which of the following would typically not be considered in making the projections:

e. Motivation levels

3. If downsizing becomes necessary, Cascio and Wynn cite research indicating that it is important to have employees participate in the decisions. However, they indicate four conditions that have to be right to have employee participation. Which of the following was NOT noted as a necessary condition for effective employee participation?

e. The firm's CEO must lead the discussion with employees