UGBA 151

Problems with performance measurement and their remedies (e.g., biases, unclear standards, etc.)

"Rater error" problems: in other words, systematic errors in judgement that occur when people evaluate each other: unclear standards, halo effect, central tendency, leniency or strictness, and bias •unclear standards •Halo effect •central tendency •leniency or strictness

1. Behavioral consistency theory

"the best indicator of future performance is past performance"

Halo effect

in performance appraisal, the problem that occurs when a supervisor's rating of a subordinate on one trait biases the rating of that person on other traits. Supervisors often rate unfriendly employees lower on all traits. Supervisory training can help this issue as can using a BARS.

1. Content validation

A test that is content valid is one that contains a fair sample of the tasks and skills actually needed for the job in question

Central tendency

A tendency to rate all employees the same way, such as rating them all average. Ranking employees instead of using graphic rating scales can reduce this problem, since ranking means you can't rate them all average.

1. Organization's defenses following a finding of adverse impact

1) BFOQ (bona fide occupational qualification) 2) business necessity

1. Sexual harassment: two conditions

1) Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment 2) Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual 3) Suc conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment

1. Testing for adverse impact (multiple tests and their calculation)

1. 4/5s rule: assess disparate rejection rates. A selection rate for any racial, ethnic, or sex group which is less than four-fifths or 80% of the rate for the group with the highest rate will generally be regarded as evidence of adverse impact, while a greater than four-fifths rate will generally not be regard as evidence of adverse impact. 2. Standard deviation rule: the different between the numbers of minority candidates we would have expected to hire and whom we actually hired should be less than two standard deviations. (see book for calculation) 3. Restricted policy: demonstrating that the employer's policy intentionally or unintentionally excluded members of a protected group 4. Population comparisons: approach compares 1) percentage of minority/protected group and white workers in the organization with 2) percentage of the corresponding group in the labor market. Workforce analysis to analyze the data regarding the firm's use of protected vs. non protected employees in various job classifications. Utilization analysis: process of comparing the percentage of minority employees in a job (or jobs) at the company with the number of similarly trained minority employees available in the relevant labor market. 5. McDonnell-Douglas Test: to show intentional disparate treatment rather than unintentionally disparate impact. Four rules for applying the McDonnell-Douglas test: 1)that the person belongs to a protected class 2) that he or she applied and was qualified for a job for which the employer was seeking applicants 3) that despite this qualification, he or she was rejected 4) that, after his or her rejection, the position remained open and the employer continued seeking applications from persons with the complainant's qualifications. If plaintiff meets all these conditions then a prima facie case of disparate treatment is established

What creates an incentive?

1. An incentive program is defined as a contingent relationship between performance and reward. Any incentive program which attempt to increase individual performance in order to receive individual reward, must be a contingent relationship. 2. There must be the following sequence of events in order to maintain the contingent relationship: performance must come before rewards. If rewards are given before performance, there is no incentive to perform because the reward has already been received. 3. Individual effort is tied to outcomes. It is important that one's own performance is tied to rewards in order for it to be a contingent relationship. If an employee receives the rewards without delivering the target outcomes, there is no contingent relationship. Therefore, incentive value is determined by how an individual's performance is rewarded. 4. Employees perceive that they have control over the outcomes. As mentioned above, there has to be a belief that they can influence outcomes through their efforts; if not, no incentive exists. 5. Targets are realistic. As mentioned above, employees have to believe that they can reasonably achieve the target behaviors. What degree of difficulty does this translate into? A rule of thumb that can be applied is, "there is an 80% change of achieving the target outcome with greater than average effort." 6. Rewards are valued. Employees must believe it is a good "deal" regarding what they are being asked to do, and what rewards or extra pay they receive in return. Rewards should be delivered closely in time with the achievement of the target outcome. Timing is very important in that significant delays in time between individual performance and rewards diminishes the perception of a contingent relationship between performance and reward. The form of incentive compensation that has the highest incentive value is piecerates or "payment by the piece" because employees can calculate at the end of every day or week how much they have earned because they are paid by the piece (or by the rate of production). Close timing ensures that a contingent relationship is perceived.

1. How to design an effective employment interview

1. Analyze the job 2. Rate the job's main duties 3. Create interview questions 4. Create benchmark answers 5. Appoint the interview panel and conduct interviews

1. Recruiting goals

1. Create the largest selection pool possible. The bigger the selection pool, the more likely you will get candidates who fall at the high end of the distribution of KSAs. It is a function of small vs. large samples. The larger the sample, the more it approximates a normal 2. Target high quality pools of talent. Rather than sending out announcements of the job opening to a broad audience, you want to go where there are high concentrations of the people who have the KSAs you are looking for. Another thing to remember is, the more skill required, the larger the geographic area of your search. For unskilled work, you can recruit from the local community. For a CEO position, you should recruit nationally or even internationally depending on the skill requirements. 3. Utilize a recruiting method that achieves the best match between the KSAs required for the job and the KSAs of the applicants. This is a difficult concept to get across, but I will try. Basically, you want some help with assembling a high quality candidate pool. You do so by giving potential applicants the ability to judge for themselves whether they are qualified for the position; if they are, they are encouraged to apply and if they are not, they are not encouraged to apply. The result of this will be higher concentrations of qualified people in your applicant pool, and a smaller number of applications to discard out of hand. What method achieves this? Methods that give potential applicants a lot of information about the job (tasks, scenarios, skill demands, qualifications) allow people to assess their own match between their interests and KSAs against the KSAs of the job. Examples of methods that achieve this are employee referrals and self-initiated contacts. 4. Maximize the retention of the highest quality applicants through realistic job previews (RJPs). However, the company is very interested in keeping those hires for the long term. Every time a good hire leaves the company, the entire investment in the recruitment, training, and coaching of this person is lost, and a new investment needs to be made in someone else. Therefore, it is in the best interests of the company to recruit and hire people who are both highly qualified and motivated to stay with the company for a long time.

How to develop a incentive program

1. Determine what behavior you want to motivate 2. Determine the criteria by which you will compute rewards 3. Determine how rewards or extra pay will be distributed 4. Develop a measurement process for tracking performance for feedback purposes 5. Communicate the program and data comprehensively 6. Deliver rewards as promised

1. Two assumptions underlying equal employment opportunity laws

1. Equal average ability levels across subgroups 2. Equal access to jobs

1. Mistakes interviewers make

1. First impressions (snap judgments) 2. not clarifying what the job involves and requires 3. candidate-order error and pressure to hire 4. nonverbal behavior and impression management 5. the effects of interviewees' personal characteristics 6. the interview's inadvertent behaviors

1. What maximizes predictor power

1. Focus on the right KSAs, no more and no less. 2. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior 3. Samples predict better than signs. 4. Use multiple measures of the KSAs.

1. The selection process (KSAs, measures, scoring schemes, measurement, rank order of candidates)

1. Have good, accurate, complete job descriptions. Know what the job consists of, in detail. 2. Accurately specify the required KSAs, no more and no less. Require only those KSAs that will contribute to job performance. Requiring less will result in too many under-qualified hires. Requiring more will result in too many people rejected who would otherwise be effective. 3. Have reliable and valid measures of the KSAs. It is one thing to know what KSAs you want in applicants—it is quite another to determine whether the applicants have them. Measures need to be reliable because they have to give you a score for each applicant, a score that you can depend on. 5 know this applicant would earn another "16" if the test or assessment was administered on a different day, by another person, in a different room, or with other people present. If a score changes depending on who administers the test and on what day it was administered, then it is worthless to you. It is worthless because you don't really know what an applicant's scores really is if it moves around a lot, and more important, you don't know what it will be when the applicant is on the job. If the test or assessment is related to job performance, then you don't know what a person's performance level is going to be. When a score changes as a function of presumably irrelevant factors, it is unreliable and therefore, gives us no real information about a person. Measures need to be valid and reliable. 4. Record test scores accurately. 5. Select best candidates first. After candidates have been examined on the critical KSAs using reliable and valid assessment tools and tests and their scores accurately recorded, the candidates with the highest scores should be selected over everyone else. The highest scoring candidates have the highest predicted job performance—if there is a relationship between KSAs and job performance. You want to hire the applicants who have the highest predicted success, and those are the applicants who showed the highest degree of KSAs.

Steps in developing a performance management system

1. Identify key strategic goals and outcomes for the organization that should be part of every employee's definition of performance. 2. Define performance for each job using both work behaviors and work outcomes. 3. Determine the most appropriate performance dimensions for each job from the definitions of job performance. 4. Define in behavior terms each performance dimension. 5. Construct an evaluation continuum (e.g., rating scale) for each performance dimension with each scale anchored by behavioral examples at each level of effectiveness (e.g., high, average and low effectiveness). 6. Create a process for administering the performance measurement system: how performance data are collected; how data are recorded and preserved; how performance data are summarized across sources, methods and time; and how performance appraisal results are communicated to the employees. 7. Create a process for delivering performance feedback: how to prepare for the appraisal feedback meeting; how to conduct the meeting; how to follow-up after the meeting. 8. Create a process for performance improvement: how to design individual performance plans based on deficiencies revealed in the performance measurements and how to monitor improvement.

1. Job analysis data collection methods (advantages and disadvantages)

1. Interview: A: Simple and organized way to collect information. Skilled interviewers can unearth activities that only occur occasionally, or informal contacts that aren't on the organization chart. Employee can vent frustrations that might otherwise go unnoticed D: Distortion of information Questionnares: A: Quick and efficient way to obtain information from a large number of employees; its less costly than interviews D: developing and testing can be time-consuming. Employees may also distort their answers. Observation: A: useful when jobs consist mainly of observable physical activities D: Not appropriate when the job entails a lot of mental activity. Reactivity - the worker's changing what he or she normally does because you are watching Participant Diary/Logs: Quantitative Job Analysis Techniques: Position analysis questionnaire and Department of Labor approach Position Analysis Questionnaire: items belong to one of five PAQ basic activities: 1) Having decision making/communication/social responsibilities 2) performing skilled activities 3) being physically active 4) operating vehicles.equipment 5) processing information A: assigning jobs to job classes for pay purposes - can compare jobs to one another DOL Procedure: uses a set of standard activities called worker functions to describe what a worker must do with respect to data, people, and things Electronic Job Analysis: A: san distribute to geographically disbursed employees D: employees might not cover important points or could have misunderstandings that cloud the results

77. Types of interview questions

1. Job Knowledge questions 2. Experience questions 3. Behavioral (Past Behavior) questions 4. Situational (What Would you do) questions

1. Steps to finding the right person for the right job at the right time

1. KSAs of the person 2. Measure of KSAs (reliable and valid) 3. Scores on measures 4. Match scores with KSAs required

1. How to make a resume a good predictor

1. Look up the ONET at www.onetonline.org to find the position that you are applying for or positions that might be related to the internship you are applying for. From the description in the ONET, list the action verbs used. 2. From the job description on the ONET, identify what you think are the KSAs underlying the job. There is usually a large set of KSAs, but write down the ones you think would be most relevant for the job you are applying for. Make a list of these. 3. select those KSAs on your list that you think you might be able to demonstrate through your past experience and classes you are taking and have taken in college

1. How to do a job analysis

1. Obtain job information from multiple persons who have different perspectives and views of the job (e.g., incumbents, supervisors, peers). 2. Obtain job information through multiple methods (e.g., observations, interviews, questionnaires) as each method tells only part of the story. 3. Utilize subject matter experts (SMEs) to provide job information such as highly experienced incumbents, supervisors of incumbents, trainers who train employees in the job. The SMEs are supposed to be the most knowledgeable about the job and therefore can give you the most accurate information. 4. Obtain information in observable, behavioral terms. 5. Continue to collect job information from different sources until you start hearing the same things—a point of redundancy. Then you know you have collected all the information you need. 6. Once the information is collected and assembled into the form of a task list, review the task list periodically with SMEs to ensure the list is still current and revise when necessary.

Advantages and disadvantages of training methods/techniques

1. On-the-job Techniques: OJT Apprenticeships Job Instruction Training Internships Job Rotation Coaching/Understudy Action Learning Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS) 2. Off-the-job Techniques: Computer-based Training (CBT) Lectures Programmed Learning Audiovisual-based Training (video) Simulations On-line Learning Distance/Internet-based Learning Case Study Management Games Seminars Role Playing Behavior Modeling Executive Coaching

Steps in developing a training program

1. Perform a needs assessment 2. Identify training objectives -have to be observable, specific, concrete and behavioral (tangible and easily recognized) 3. Design content to meet training objectives -break into parts and determine the order -Gagne 4. Match training techniques to content -overall cost of development and delivery -Dependence on a good trainer -cost of mistakes -Number of learning principles involved (more principles - more effective) -Realism 5. Evaluate training effectiveness - experiments -reactions -learning -behaviors -organizational results

1. Types of sexual harassment

1. Quid Pro Quo: prove that rejecting a supervisor's advances adversely affected what the EEOC calls a "tangible employment action," such as hiring, firing, promotion, demotion, and/or work assignment. 2. Hostile Environment Created by Supervisors 3. Hostile environment created by coworkers or nonemployees

Financial compensation principles

1. Reward high performers, fail to reward low performers 2. Attract too quality candidates to the organization through high compensation potential 3. Retain employees through long term compensation strategies 4. Pay fairness and equity is perceived, not real. So, employers must manage the perception of equity 5. What you reward is what you get, nothing more and nothing less

Two requirements for accurate measurement: ability and willingness

1. The manager's ability to measure accurately. This includes several components: a. The manager's knowledge and understanding of the job content based on a systematic job analysis. b. The manager's knowledge and understanding of the job's performance dimensions and each dimension's performance criteria and expectations. c. The manager's opportunity to observe the employee on the job over time and across situations. d. The manager's ability to collect reliable and valid information from other sources knowledgeable about the employee's performance effectiveness. e. A record of observations and relevant reports to serve as performance data for consideration in the performance review. 2. The manager's willingness to measure performance accurately. This includes several components: a. The establishment of a norm for evaluating performance conscientiously and accurately. b. Removal of competing demands for appraisal outcomes (e.g., linkages to pay increases). c. The manager's skill in dealing with interpersonal conflict over appraisal disputes. d. The manager's personal commitment to accurate measurement.

1. Techniques for forecasting personnel needs

1. Trend analysis: study of a firm's past employment needs over a period of years to predict future needs 2. Ratio analysis: a forecasting technique for determining future staff needs by using ratios between, for example, sales volume and number of employees needed 3. The scatter plot: A graphical method used t help identify the relationship between two variables. Drawbacks: 1) historical sales/personnel relationships assume that the firm's existing activities and skill needs will continue as is 2) they tend to reward managers for adding employees, irrespective of the company's needs 3) they tend to institutionalize existing ways of doing things, even in the face of change Computerized forecasts enable managers to build more variables into their personnel projections. 4. Managerial judgment: Few historical trends, ratios, or relationships will continue unchanged into the future, Judgment is thus needed to just the forecast.

1. Types of interviews

1. Unstructured sequential interview: an interview n which each interviewer forms an independent opinion after asking different questions 2. Structured sequential interview: an interview in which the applicant is interviewed sequentially by several persons; each rates the applicant on a standard form 3. panel interview: an interview in which a group of interviewers questions the applicant 4. mass interview: a panel interviews several candidates simultaneously 5. phone interviews 6. computer-based job interviews 7. web-based video interviews

1. Changing workforce demographics

1. Workforce is getting older 2. Workforce is becoming more diverse 3. Workforce is shrinking 4. Workforce is becoming less well-educated 5. The Size of skilled jobs is increasing, and the size of unskilled jobs is decreasing 6. Globalization is increasing, putting pressure on American business

1. Workforce trends

1. Workforce is getting older 2. Workforce is becoming more diverse 3. Workforce is shrinking 4. Workforce is becoming less well-educated 5. The Size of skilled jobs is increasing, and the size of unskilled jobs is decreasing 6. Globalization is increasing, putting pressure on American business

Strategic management process

1. ask "what business are we in now?" 2. evaluate the firm's internal and external strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats 3. formulate a new business direction 4. decide on strategic goals 5. choose specific strategies or courses of action 6/7. implement and then evaluate the strategic plan

1. Outcomes of job analysis

1. the job description of work actually performed by job incumbents, 2. the job specifications.

Constuctive dicharge

A "quit" may turn into a "termination" (constructive discharge) when an employee believes he/she is faced with intolerable employer actions or conditions of employment and has no reasonable alternative except to quit. To be unlawful (or wrongful), the constructive termination must be caused by unlawful reasons, such as discrimination. The standard for constructive discharge is an objective one: whether a reasonable person faced with the same actions or conditions would have no reasonable alternative except to quit.

Compensable factors

A fundamental, compensable element of a job, such as skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. They are the factors that determine how the jobs compare to one another, and that determine the pay for each job. The Equal Pay Act uses four compensable factors - skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. Hay consuming firm method uses know-how, problem solving, and accountability. You usually compare each job with all comparable jobs using the same compensable factors.

Benchmark jobs

A job that is used to anchor the employer's pay scale and around which other jobs are arranged in order of relative worth. Evaluation committee usually identifies 10-15 key benchmark jobs. These are the first jobs they evaluate.

Job evaluation: job classification

A method for categorizing jobs into groups. All the jobs in the same group are roughly of the same value of pay purposes. These groups are classes if they contain similar job, or grades if they contain jobs that are similar in difficulty but otherwise different. Several ways to categorize: •write class or grade summaries or descriptions; then place jobs into the classes or grades based on how well they fit the descriptions. •write a set of compensable factor-based rules for each class, then categorize each job according to these rules. Usual procedure blends these two: the analysts choose compensable factors and the develop short class or grade descriptions that describe each class in terms of the amount or level of the factors in those jobs. Then you write a grade definition based on those compensable factors. Then the evaluation committee reviews all job descriptions and slots each job into appropriate grade by comparing each job description to the rules in each grade description. Advantages: most employers usually end up grouping jobs into classes or grades anyway regardless of the evaluation method they use. Disadvantage: isn't easy to write the class or grade descriptions, and considerable judgement is required to apply them.

Training needs assessment approaches

A needs assessment is a systematic examination of the employee's training needs. What's important about a needs assessment is that this step appropriately targets training efforts to the places in the organization where it is most needed. It is also the mechanism through which detailed information is collected about what needs to be trained so training can be designed to deliver the right results. •Task Analysis •Performance (Person) Analysis •Organizational Analysis

Graphic rating scale method

A scale that lists a number of traits and a range of performance for each. The employee is then rated by identifying the score that best describes his or her level of performance for each trait. You may list several job dimensions or traits. Competency based graphic rating scales are when employer's want to appraise an employee's job-related skills. The scale might rate how well the employee did with respect to achieving specific profit, cost, or efficiency goals.

1. Essential functions of the job

ADA prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals - those who wit (or without) a reasonable accommodation, can carry out the essential functions of the job*

1. Work samples

Actual job tasks used in testing applicants' performance

narrative forms

All or part of the written appraisal may be in narrative form. Here the person's supervisor assesses the employee's past performance and required areas of improvement. The supervisor's narrative assessment helps the employee understand where is or her performance was good or bad, and how to improve that performance.

1. Pregnancy Discrimination Act

An amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits sex discrimination based on "pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions." If an employer offers its employees disability coverage, then it must treat pregnancy and childbirth like any other disability, and include it in the plan as a covered condition.

1. Harasser's intentions

Another key principle here is intent has no part in the judgment of harassment. It does not matter what the motives of the harasser were. It doesn't matter whether he/she was "just joking around" or "just having fun" and didn't mean any harm. It does not matter what the harasser intended. The offense is in the mind of receiver (victim).

Peer appraisals

Appraisal by ones peers. People usually come across differently to their peers than to their boss. Usually an employee chooses an appraisal chairperson who then selects a supervisor and several peers to evaluate the employees work. They can be effective. Peers see aspect of the person the boss may never see. Knowing colleagues will appraise you also changes your behavior.

Who should appraise

Appraisals by immediate supervisor are still at the heart of most appraisal processes. The supervisor is usually in the best position to observe and evaluate the subordinate's performance, and is responsible for that person's performance. HR usually gives advice on what appraisal tool to use but leaves final decision on procedures to operating managers. Relying only on the supervisors' appraisals isn't recommended. Other options are: •peer appraisals •rating committees •self-ratings •appraisal by subordinates •360-degree feedback

How to introduce meaningfulness into the performance management system (Banks chapter)

As long as perofmrnace measurement at all levels is tied to critical aspects of organizational success, managers and supervisors will be more likely to see the connection between their own success and employee success. This, performance measurement will become a personally meaningful process and performance management will become a meaningful tool for obtaining critical organizational outcomes. Why is it important to make performance measurement and management meaningful. One of the factors behind resistance to traditional performance measurement is its lack of personal meaningfulness. One of the major blocks to effective performance management is the appraiser's unwillingness to provide accurate appraisals. When content is meaningful in the eyes of the appraiser, it is in the appraiser's best interest to evaluate employee performance accurately and conscientiously. You can increase not only managers motivation to appraise accurately but also their motivation to work with subordinates to address performance issues.

How to build an effective appraisal feedback interview

Before conducting interview you should review the job description, compare performance to the standards, and review any pervious appraisals. Give the employee at least a weeks notice to review his or her work. Set a time for the interview. Conduct the interview privately with no interruptions. An effective interview, requires effective coaching skills. Preparation means understanding the problem and the employee. Here the manager will watch the employee to see what he or she is doing, review productivity data, and observe the workflow. Planning the solution is next. This requires reaching agreement on the problem, and laying out a change plan in the form of steps to take, measures of success, and date to complete. Then the manager ca start coaching one a plan is agreed to. Guideline for interview 1. Talk in terms of objectives work data (absences, tardiness, and productivity) 2. Dont get personal - compare performance to a standard, don't compare performance to other people 3. Encourage the person to talk - ask open-ended questions 4. Get agreement - make sure the person leaves knowing specifically what he or she is doing right and doing wrong and with agreement on how things will be improved and has an action plan with targets and dates

Behavior change

Behavior change is the purpose of training and development. Training and development activities are not successful unless there is evidence of behavior change. It means that an employee who participates in a training or development program should exhibit the behaviors that were expected to be learned through the program.

1. ONET: information available and uses of ONET information

By selecting an occupation, you can pull up all the jobs that have job descriptions for that occupation. Click on one of the jobs listed under the occupation and you will get several pages of information about that job. You will get an overall summary, then several pages of detailed information about the job. First, you will get detailed information on the tasks involved, the knowledges/skills/abilities tied to these tasks, general work activities involved in this job, and several other work attributes. There are many uses for the O*NET, and two we are most interested in are developing job descriptions and explore career options based on descriptions of jobs and their knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs).

At-will doctrine

California Labor Code Section 2922 o In the absence of an agreement between the parties to the contrary, all employees in California are presumed to be "at will." This means that either the employee or the employer can terminate the employment relationship at any time—with or without notice—with or without cause.

Career management, workforce planning, career development (reading only for this and the following terms)

Career management: it is composed of a number of activities designed to give individual employees the development they need to move to successively more demanding and skilled work. Workforce planning: is a strategic planning activity which is designed to ensure that the organization will have the talent it needs in the right places at any point in time. This type of strategic planning takes a "macro" view of the organization to determine where talent excesses and shortages are likely to occur over time, and how to acquire and/or move talent within the organization to maximize the "fit" between work demands and the pool of talent to meet those work demands

1. Reverse discrimination

Claim. that due to affirmative action quota systems, white males are discriminated against. The bottom line seems to be that employers should emphasize the external recruitment and internal development of better-qualified minority and female employees, "while basing employment decisions on legitimate criteria"

77. What employers can do to keep exempt jobs exempt

Company leadership must implement training that supports managers allocating their time appropriately and taking a significant role in decision-making. Incorporate these goals into performance management systems

1. Wards Cove v. Atonio

Complaint of discriminatory hiring practices that resulted in large number fo skilled permanent jobs filled by white workers, and large numbers of unskilled seasonal jobs filled by local nonwhite workers. Nonwhite workers were predominately native Alaskans and Filipinos. Company won. Workers appealed and they reversed the District court decision stating that workers had a prima facie case of disparate impact.

1. Qualifications inventories

Computerised or manual records maintained in a systematic manner, which list down every employee's education, work related information like career interests and special skills, languages known, and other details which are useful in forecasting, succession planning and for internal promotion of candidates

1. Albermarle v. Moody

Court provided more details on how employers could prove that tests or other screening tools relate to job performance. If an employer wants to test candidates for a hob, then the employer should first clearly document and understand the job's duties and responsibilities. Job's performance standards should be clear and unambiguous. Court's ruling also established the EEOC Guidelines on validation as the procedures for validating employment practices.

Legal issues in performance appraisal

Courts have found that an inadequate system lay at the root of illegal discriminatory actions. Steps to ensure your appraisals are legally defensible include: •base the duties and criteria you appraise on a job analysis •communicate performance standards to employee in writing •using a single overall rating of performance is not acceptable to the courts, which often find doing so vague. Courts generally require combining separate ratings for each performance dimension (quality, quantity and sol on) with some formal weighting system to yield a summary case •Include an employee appeals process. Employees should be able to review and make comments bout their appraisals before they become final, and should have a formal appeals process •One appraiser should never have absolute authority to determine a personnel action •Document all information. "Without exception, courts condemn informal performance evaluation practices that eschew documentation." Train supervisors. If formal rater training is not possible at least provide raters with written instructions on how to use the rating scale If such a case gets to court, what will judges look for? In a review of about 300 US court decision, actions reflecting fairness and due process were most important

1. Criterion-related validation

Criterion validity: A type of validity based on showing that scores on the test (predictors) are related to job performance (criterion)

DFEH

Department of Fair Employment and Housing

Behaviors affected by different forms of compensation: attraction, retention, loyalty, productivity

Determine your company compensation philosophy - what you can and want to pay. As a company, you have to decide what you want to pay for (compensable factors) and the level of pay you are going to maintain relative to your competition. Are you going to pay more than the market, less than the market, or the same as the market? What you decide will greatly affect the quality of applicants you have for open positions and will affect your ability to retain that talent over time. Besides your philosophy, you have to determine what you can pay—maybe you are not making enough profit to pay above market wages. Then you have to find other things that will attract and retain talent in your organization (e.g., culture) that offsets a lower-than-market compensation philosophy.

1. Ricci v. DeStefano

Disparate impact - twenty city firefighters nineteen white and one hispanic claimed discrimination. They passed a test for promotion to management positions and the city declined to promote them. The test results weren't used because black firefighters didn't score high enough to be considered for positions. City officials said they were worried about a lawsuit over the test's disproportionate exclusion of certain racial groups from promotion. Firefighters won.

1. Two definitions of discrimination: impact and treatment

Disparate impact: discrimination of group - unintentional discrimination Disparate treatment: discrimination of a single individual - intentional discrimination (McDonnell-Douglas test)*

1. Civil Rights Act of 1991

Effect was to roll back equal employment law to where it stood before the 1980s decisions, and to place more responsibility on employers 1. Burden of proof (once adverse impact shown burden of proof shifts to employer) 2. An employee who is claiming intentional discrimination can ask for compensatory damages and punitive damages if he or she can show the employer engaged in discrimination "with malice or reckless indifference to the federally protected rights of an aggrieved individual" 3. "mixed motives" - an employer cannot avoid liability by proving it would have taken the same action - such as terminating someone - even without the discriminatory motive

Self-ratings

Employees usually rate themselves higher than their supervisors or peers. Subject self ratings correlated negatively with their subsequent performance in an assessment center. An average of the person's supervisor, peer, and subordinate rating predicted the subjects assessment center performance.

Employee's role in career development

Employees want to know what kind of career they can expect in their organization and how they will be advanced through work assignments. They want to know how their technical and professional skills will be developed over time to reach higher and higher levels of the organization. To accomplish this employees have to seek out resources and training opportunities to prepare themselves for advancement should the opportunity present itself. These are the activities and resources that facilitate technical and professional development and career advancement 1. Training opportunities 2. Career counseling 3. Career planning sessions 4. Assessment of KSAs and updates of talent profiles 5. Job database 6. Internal postings of job openings 7. High-integrity performance measurement and management systems 8. High potential programs 9. High demand programs 10. Retention programs for employees and retirees Employee is the one who must shoulder the responsibility for his or her own career; assess interests, skills, and values; seek out career information resources; and generally take those steps that must be taken to ensure a happy and fulfilling career. For the employee career planning means matching individual strengths and weaknesses with occupational opportunities and threats. The person wants to pursue occupations, jobs, and a career that capitalize on his or her interests, aptitudes, values and skills

mixed standard scales

Employer "mixes" together sequential the good and poor behavioral example statements when listing them. The aim is to reduce rating errors by making ir less obvious to the appraiser (1) what performance dimensions he or she is rating (2) whether the behavioral example statements represent high, medium, or low performance. For each statement the appraiser rates the employee by indicating whether the latter's performance is better than, the same, or worse than the statement

Computerized performance appraisals (text)

Employers increasingly use computerized or internet based appraisal systems. The software presents written examples to support part of the appraisal. Most such appraisals combine several approval tools, usually graphic ratings anchored by critical incidents. Employee Appraiser presents a menu of evaluation dimensions. Within each dimension (such as communication) are separate performance factors. When the user clicks on a performance factor, he or she is presented with a graphic rating scale. Employee Appraiser uses behaviorally anchored examples. Managers chooses the phrase that most accurately describes the worker. Success factors includes performance review forms and approval processes, competencies for most job types, a built-in writing assistant, and a legal scan

computerized and web-based performance appraisal

Employers increasingly use computerized or internet based appraisal systems. The software presents written examples to support part of the appraisal. Most such appraisals combine several approval tools, usually graphic ratings anchored by critical incidents. Employee Appraiser presents a menu of evaluation dimensions. Within each dimension (such as communication) are separate performance factors. When the user clicks on a performance factor, he or she is presented with a graphic rating scale. Employee Appraiser uses behaviorally anchored examples. Managers chooses the phrase that most accurately describes the worker. Success factors includes performance review forms and approval processes, competencies for most job types, a built-in writing assistant, and a legal scan

EEOC

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: consists of five members appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate. Each member serves a 5 year term. When they find reasonable cause that the charges are justified, it attempts (through conciliation) to reach an agreement. If this fails, it can go to court.

Career paths

Establish paths for advancement that continuously match employee KSAs to KSA requirements for jobs throughout the organization. We must match people to jobs on the basis of the KSAs whenever we move employees from assignment to assignment. The match between the KSAs of the job and the KSAs of the employee is critical to ensure that all jobs within the organization are held by qualified people. We know what job an employee is qualified for at a given time when there are clearly established connections between jobs or career paths which identify a set of jobs that require essentially the same skill set (KSAs). Jobs connected across levels of the organization are joined because they build upon the same skill set, and as an employee Is advanced the skill set broadens and becomes more specialized. The connections or paths give direction to career development by identifying a set of jobs that an employee is qualified for or is likely to be qualified for with skill development and work experience. The importance is that an employee advanced along a career path is likely to be successful in each job within the path.

1. Affirmative Action (Executive Order 11246)

Executive order 11246 required government contractors with contracts of more then $50,000 and 50 or more employees take affirmative action to ensure employment opportunities for those who may have suffered past discrimination. Affirmative action: Steps that are taken for the purpose of eliminating the present effects of past discrimination. Also established OFCCP (Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs)

electronic performance monitoring

Having supervisors electronically monitor the amount of computerized data an employee is processing per day and thereby his or her performance. They allow managers to monitor the employees rate, accuracy, and time spent working online. EPM can improve productivity, but also raises stress.

Training evaluation: reactions, learning, behavior, organizational performance

Experiments •you can test whether training is effective by testing the presence of desired behaviors before and after training •if they appear after training but not before then you would infer that the training created those behaviors •if you can't test before and after training then you can test difference in two group - one that received training and one that didn't (control group) Reactions •measures focus on trainees' satisfaction with the training program •trainees are asked their satisfaction with various aspects of the program (content, trainer, materials) and what they felt was most valuable •This does not track behavior change it only tracks how people felt about the training - reaction measures are not adequate measures of training effectiveness Learning •measures focus on the degree to which material was learned (knowledge, concepts, skills) •learning is measured frequently by the use of tests •the material presented in the training is translated into test questions that are presented to trainees at the end of the program •learning measures do measure training effectiveness to extent learning occurred and retained, but they only look at what they retain in their head and do not test what people can do Behaviors •behavioral measures focus on how behavior has changed on the job •this is most appropriate for training where behavior change is expected •behaviors are measured by supervisors ratings of job performance that incorporates these new behaviors or by performance tests - these measures examine what trainees can do Organizational Results •organizational measures examine performance improvements for a group or unit that received training •these measures look at long-term effects of training and whether organizational performance was improved •this is appropriate when an organization wants to know if the training had any impact on organizational effectiveness. •the measures track the extent to which the training had an impact on the organization as a whole •this is the ultimate goal of training for any organization, but is very hard to achieve

1. FMLA: who is covered and what does it say?

Family and Medical Leave Act Gives employees the opportunity to take up to 12 weeks unpaid leave during a 12-month period (taken at one time or at different times not to exceed 12 weeks) without losing job benefits when the employee is needed for the following reasons: • To care for the employee's child after birth or placement for adoption or foster care; • To care for the employee's spouse, son or daughter, or parent who has a serious health condition; or • For a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the employee's job. A serious health condition is defined as illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition of the employee or a child, parent or spouse of the employee that involves either: • In-patient care (i.e., overnight stay) in a hospital, hospice, or residential health care facility. • Continuing treatment or supervision by a health care provider. Under federal law, employers with 50 or more part-time or full-time employees are required to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to "eligible" employees for family and medical reasons outlined above. Employees are eligible if they have worked for the employer for at least one year, and for 1,250 hours over the past 12 months, and if there are at least 50 employees within a 75 mile radius to carry on the work in the absence of this employee. Upon return to work, employees must be restored to their original or equivalent positions with equivalent pay, benefits, and other employment terms. If both parents of a newborn are employed by the same company, under federal law the parents cannot exceed a combined limit of 12 weeks. Some employees may not be extended these benefits. "Key" employees, those defined as critical to the organization and who are among the highest 10% of pay, may not be extended these benefits if it puts the company at financial risk having the position remain open for the duration of the leave. Thus, senior members of management and executives are unlikely to be extended these benefits.

1. Fair Labor Standards Act

Federal law passed by Congress to get more people back to work during the Great Depression Established rules about pay, working conditions, record-keeping and employment of children Regulated by the US Department of Labor (DOL) •Complaints of violations of the FLSA are reported to the Wage and Hour Division Major rules included in the FLSA: •Overtime pay (1.5 times regular pay when you work more than 40 hours in a work week, 2 times regular pay after 12 hours) •Minimum wage $9.00/hour •Children under 16 years of age have restricted working hours: *3 hours on school day, 18 hours in a school week, 8 hours on non-school day, 40 hours in non-school week; only work 7am-7pm unless summer

1. What you can ask in an application form

Filled in application provides four types of information: 1) you can make judgments on substantive matters, such as whether the applicant has the education and experience to do the job 2) you can draw conclusions about the applicants previous progress and growth, especially important for management candidates 3) you can draw tentative conclusions about the applicant's stability based on previous work record 4) you may be able to use the data in the application to predict which candidates will succeed on the job

1. Relevant labor market

For low skill jobs the relevant labor market is the population. As skill is increased the relevant labor market decreases. *

Strategic HR Management

Formulating and executing human resource policies and practices that produce the employee competencies and behaviors the company needs to achieve its strategic aims

Gagne's strategy for designing training content: learning hierarchy

Gagne studied how people learned and determined that learning could be maximized if the material was designed in a particular way. His theory was that the subject matter could be broken down into its component parts of fundamentals and these parts could be organized into a hierarchical order from most fundamental to most complex. He argued you start with the most fundamental part and then move trainees through the hierarchy until they get to the point where they can demonstrate the behavioral outcomes desired.

How to develop an effective performance measurement system

Goals of Performance Measurement. Before we talk about the mechanics of performance measurement, we should state what our goals are in order to guarantee that we obtain meaningful information from performance measurement Now that we know the goals we are striving for, we can turn to the mechanics of how to create reliable and valid measures of performance. First, let's consider what should be measured. You begin the process of determining the content of the appraisal by first looking at the strategic objectives of the organization and then asking the question, "How does this job contribute to the achievement of those objectives?" By answering this question, you can identify the one or two things that an employee does in his or her job that contribute to the overall success of the organization. Next, you look at the strategic objectives of the department or unit in which the employee works. Like the process described above, you identify the one or two things that an employee does in his or her job that contribute to the overall success of the department or unit. And finally, you look at the individual employee's specific objectives—what the employee needs to achieve in his/her specific job to be a higher performer? At this point, we are looking at what the employee is working on developmentally, or may be focused on specific aspects of his/her own job for its own sake. There may be three or four aspects that are specific to the job that require the employee's focus. Each of the performance areas identified through this process is called "performance dimensions" and collectively, they make up the "performance domain." Everything that matters to an organization in terms of employee contribution to company success is included within the performance domain. Aspects of performance that do not contribute to company success in one form or another fall outside the performance domain. Thus, it is critically important to define the performance domain are clearly, and comprehensively as possible so that employees and their managers know what performance means in every job. By doing so, employees and their managers know the kinds of things that are highly valued by the organization and which ones are not. Then the measurement is a matter of assessing the level of contribution an individual employee is making for every performance dimension included within the performance domain.

1. Good faith strategy vs. quota

Good-faith effort strategy: An affirmative action strategy that emphasizes identifying and eliminating the obstacles to hiring and promoting women and minorities, and increasing the minority or female applicant flow Quota: having a set number of that group you will take

77. What happens if a job is classified as exempt but is really non-exempt?

If a non-exempt job is improperly classified as exempt, employees in that job are wrongfully denied overtime payment and breaks (and all other benefits) allowed under these laws.

1. Reasonable accommodation

If individual can't perform the job as currently structured, the employer must make a "reasonable accommodation" unless doing so would present an "undue hardship" May mean redesigning the job, modifying work schedules, or modifying or acquiring equipment or other devices; widening door openings or permitting telecommuting.

1. Reasonable woman standard

In a court of law, the standard used in most cases is the "reasonable person" standard. That means, when all the evidence is heard, would a reasonable person come to the conclusion of guilt? In the case of sexual harassment, the standard is different. Because of differences in perspectives of men and women in matters of sexual nature, the court uses the "reasonable woman" standard. That means, having heard all the evidence, would a reasonable woman come to the conclusion of guilt

Labor Code 2922 (at-will doctrine)

In the absence of an agreement between the parties to the contrary, all employees in California are presumed to be "at will." This means that either the employee or the employer can terminate the employment relationship at any time—with or without notice—with or without cause.

Integrated employment agreement

In the absence of an express agreement, courts sometimes imply the existence of contractual terms based on the conduct of the parties. These implied terms can overcome the "at will" presumption. Implied agreements can be in the form of company practices, policies and statements. However, an employer can use an Integrated Agreement at the time of hire which says that this agreement is the sole agreement between the parties (no agreement is implied), this agreement supersedes any prior agreements between the parties (no prior statements or agreement hold), and any future modification must be in writing.

Internal and external equity

Internal equity means that jobs within your organization are paid on the basis of their relative worth. You determine what a job should be paid by conducting a job evaluation study and then matching a job's relative worth with its relative pay. There should be a direct parallel between a job's worth relative to other jobs in the company and the pay given to employees in that job relative to the pay given to employees in other jobs. The higher the relative worth, the higher the relative pay. External equity ignores a job's relative worth within the organization. Rather, the organization seeks information from a wage and salary survey of like companies in the region and determines what the same job is being paid in other comparable companies. When this information is known ("the market rate"), then the organization can set pay for a job relative to what it is paid in the market. This is called external equity. A job rarely if ever has both internal and external equity pay because each basis for equity is completely different. External equity is most appropriate for jobs that are hard to recruit for (e.g., supply of talent is too low or hard to find) or to retain talent hired. Internal equity is most appropriate for jobs where the supply of talent is sufficient to obtain replacements relatively easily.

Absolute vs. relative worth of jobs

Is one way to determine base pay. The difference between absolute and relative worth of a job - there is no universal yardstick of worth! If there was a universal yardstick of worth, we would all agree on what to pay every single job, and there would be no issue of pay fairness. Because pay fairness is relative, you have to establish the basis on which pay decisions are made and then show that it is fair. According to lecture, pay equity is relative and not absolute

1. On demand workforce

It is a workforce where employees move from work assignment to work assignment - wherever they are needed to produce work. We now consider the dimension of "time" in our equation of HR management

The purpose of job evaluation

Job evaluation is a formal and systematic comparison of jobs to determine the worth of one job relative to another. Job evaluation aims to determine a job's relative worth. Job evaluation eventually results in a wage or salary structure or hierarchy. By combining the information from the job evaluation and from the salary survey, you are on your way to being able to create a market-competitive pay plan - one where your pay rates are equitable both internally and externally.

Job evaluation, methods of job evaluation

Job evaluation is a formal and systematic comparison of jobs to determine the worth of one job relative to another. Job evaluation aims to determine a job's relative worth. Job evaluation eventually results in a wage or salary structure or hierarchy. This basic principle of job evaluation is this: Jobs that require greater qualifications, more responsibilities, and more complex job duties should receive more pay than jobs with lesser requirements. By combining the information from the job evaluation and from the salary survey, you are on your way to being able to create a market-competitive pay plan - one where your pay rates are equitable both internally (based on each job's relative value) and externally (in other words when compared with what other employers are paying) 1. Ranking 2. Job Classification 3. Point Method

critical incident method

Keeping a record of uncommonly good or undesirable examples of an employee's work-related behavior and reviewing it with the employee at predetermined times. Supervisor keeps a log of positive and negative examples of a subordinates work-related behaviors. Compiling critical incidents as they occur anchors the eventual appraisal in reality and thus improves appraisal outcomes. Compiling incidents provides the supervisor with examples to explain the persons rating. Makes supervisor think about the subordinates performance all during the year. Downside: doesn't produce relative ratings for pay raise purposes

77. What rights do non-exempt employees have under the FLSA? Under California Wage Orders?

Major rules included in the FLSA: Overtime pay (1.5 times regular pay when you work more than 40 hours in a work week, 2 times regular pay after 12 hours) Minimum wage $9.00/hour Children under 16 years of age have restricted working hours: 3 hours on school day, 18 hours in a school week, 8 hours on non-school day, 40 hours in non-school week; only work 7am-7pm unless summer. Wage Orders and California Labor Code Sections 200-600 Go further than FLSA: Overtime pay (1.5 times regular pay over 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week, 2 times if over 12 hours per day) Paid uninterrupted 10-minute rest break earned every 4 hours worked or major part therein Unpaid uninterrupted 30-minute meal break earned every 5 hours worked Payment of all wages due upon termination of employment Must keep accurate payment records and show all deductions on pay stubs If meal break earned and not provided, employee is paid one extra hour of work (California premium), if rest break is not provided, employee is paid one extra hour of work

Succession planning

Management development is usually part of the employers succession planning process. Succession planning involves developing workforce plans for the company's top positions; it is the ongoing process of systematically identifying, assessing, and developing organizational leadership to enhance performance. 1. Organization projection - what company's future key position needs will be 2. Hr and management review the firms management skills inventory to identify management talent now employed - potential candidates as well as their development needs 3. Development stage 4. Selecting who will fill the position Workforce Planning 1. Demand analysis 2. Talent Analysis 3. HR strategy for closing the gap Workforce planning is an on-going process that seeks to ensure that the right people are in the right jobs at the right time over time given all the Human Resource needs across the organization now and in the future.

77. Implications of wage and hour laws for proper compliance (what managers should do and should not do)

Managers should not do the work of non-exempts. Managers should stay involved in exempt behaviors.

Dynamic HR Model

Most important component of the model is "performance". This is the point of HR management - getting performance from people. Performance - both their behavior on the job and the outcomes (products) they generate through their efforts. Called "dynamic" because performance needs are always changing, shifting and adjusting to ensure employees are spending their efforts and time on the right things - to support the business strategies.

The performance domain: job behaviors and work outcomes organized into performance dimensions

Now that we know the goals we are striving for, we can turn to the mechanics of how to create reliable and valid measures of performance. First, let's consider what should be measured. You begin the process of determining the content of the appraisal by first looking at the strategic objectives of the organization and then asking the question, "How does this job contribute to the achievement of those objectives?" By answering this question, you can identify the one or two things that an employee does in his or her job that contribute to the overall success of the organization. Next, you look at the strategic objectives of the department or unit in which the employee works. And finally, you look at the individual employee's specific objectives—what the employee needs to achieve in his/her specific job to be a higher performer? At this point, we are looking at what the employee is working on developmentally, or may be focused on specific aspects of his/her own job for its own sake. There may be three or four aspects that are specific to the job that require the employee's focus. Each of the performance areas identified through this process is called "performance dimensions" and collectively, they make up the "performance domain." Everything that matters to an organization in terms of employee contribution to company success is included within the performance domain. Aspects of performance that do not contribute to company success in one form or another fall outside the performance domain. Thus, it is critically important to define the performance domain are clearly, and comprehensively as possible so that employees and their managers know what performance means in every job. By doing so, employees and their managers know the kinds of things that are highly valued by the organization and which ones are not. Then the measurement is a matter of assessing the level of contribution an individual employee is making for every performance dimension included within the performance domain. Types of Performance Dimensions. There are two basic types of performance dimensions: 1. Work (job) behaviors. These include behaviors that reflect how the employee produces desired outcomes. Put another way, they make up the means by which the employee produces results. For example, work behaviors would include the quality of interactions with customers and planning activities for making sales— work behaviors that have an impact on the achievement of work outcomes such as total sales and number of repeat customers. 2. Work outcomes. These include the results of the employee's efforts and usually include things you can count. For example, the number of new accounts established, revenue per hour, and average size of purchases. Both of these types of dimensions are important for inclusion within the performance domain. If only work outcomes are included such as is the case when only goals are specified as the basis for performance appraisal, then the means by which employees achieve those goals will not be taken into account. This may be a poor decision when employees behave in a manner that undermines the organization (e.g., cheat) in order to make goals. When both the outcomes and the manner in which those outcomes are obtained matter, both types of performance dimensions should be included within the performance domain.

Training methods: on the job, off the job

On the job •consists of learning while doing the job •trainees are put into the job they are training for and they learn while they are performing the job •advantage is that whatever trainees learn it is immediately applicable to the job Off the job •consist of learning in a controlled environment away from the job •advantage is the degree of control trainers have over what trainees learn and how they learn it

Performance management as a tool for culture change (Banks chapter)

Organizations often undergo rapid change to maintain competitiveness. Organizational structures must change, job boundaries must change, the nature of the employment contract must change, work processes must change, and relationships between employees and their supervisors must change. These changes influence organizational culture by creating work environments that employees have not experienced before. Real behavior change does not occur unless it is embedded in performance expectations as expressed through the performance management system. Thus the performance management system is the glue that ensures that new cultural behaviors "stick" and it binds employee efforts together to create competitive advantage.

1. Selection goals

Our objective is to find the right people for the right jobs at the right time 1. Utilize talent wherever it can be found. 2. Maximize the selection and retention of the highest performers. This means we focus on people who have the highest predicted success in the organization and on people who are the highest performers on the job. 3. Maximize performance by focusing selection on evaluation of ability and not so much on motivation. 4. Increase the quality of the applicant pool at each stage of evaluation. The selection process usually consists of a series of steps or "hurdles" during which the least qualified of the pool is dropped from consideration. There are two important things to point out about this. First, if applicants dropped at each hurdle are the ones who are predicted to have the lowest performance, then the overall quality of the selection pool improves with each successive hurdle. This is what you want. By the time you get to the last hurdle, most of the applicants still in the pool are highly qualified and selection of any one within the pool would yield a high performer. What creates this result is imposing valid selection screens. That is, each test or assessment presented at a particular hurdle is related to job performance, and high scorers are predicted to be high performers and low scorers are predicted to be low performers. If the assessment is not reliable and valid, elimination of applicants from the pool will not yield a pool of higher qualified applicants at the next stage. The second important thing to know is the heaviest screens, those that eliminate the most people, should also be the most valid ones.

Pay equity as a perception

Pay fairness and equity is perceived, not real. So, employers must manage the perception of equity.There is no such thing as the absolute worth of a job, and therefore pay fairness is a subjective emotion based on some basis of comparison. Equity is judged when the basis of compensation (pay) appears fair. People have general agreed-upon notions of fairness, so pay practices based on these general notions usually result in perceptions of pay fairness. For example, being paid a salary comparable to the job worth to the company compared to all other jobs in the organization is one way to argue pay fairness. Because it is a subjective emotion, management has to be continuously aware of how employees are perceiving their pay and if employees begin to feel their pay is unfair, management needs to step in and provide the necessary justification (a tie to general notions of fairness) in order to resolve these issues emotionally or, management has to re-look at the basis for assigning pay and make adjustments so that they are perceived as fair again.

Piecerates and piecework

Piecework is the oldest incentive plan and still the most commonly used. Earnings are third directly to what the worker produces; the person is paid a piece rate for each unit he or she produces. Developing a workable piece rate plan requires both job evaluation and (strictly speaking) industrial engineering. Job evaluation enables you to assign an hourly wage rate to the job inquisition. But the racial issue in piece rate planning is the production standard, and this stadard is often developed by industrial engineers. The engineers state production standards in terms of a standard number of minutes per unit or a standard number of units per hour. Straight piecework plan - An incentive plan I which a person is paid a sum for each item he or she makes or sells, with a strict proportionality between results and rewards (need to meet minimum wage) Standard hour plan - A plan by which a worker is paid a basic hourly rate but is paid an extra percentage of his or her rate for production exceeding the standard per our or per day. Similar to piecework payment but based on a percent premium\ Advantage: simple to calculate, easily understood and appear equitable in principle- incentive value can be powerful Disadvantage: unsavory reputation - people raising production standards. Production standard in pieces per hour becomes tied to money earned. So when they try to change the production standard there is resistance. Employees only focus on producing number of units needed.

Wage curve

Play a central role in assigning wage rates to jobs. The wage curve typically shows the pay rates paid for jobs relative to the points or rankings assigned t era job by the job evaluation. Its purpose is to show the relationships between 1) the value of the job (expressed in points) as deterring by one of the job evaluation methods and 2) the pay rates for the job. Usually compare current wage rates and market wage rates relative to a point. - draw an internal wage curve (plot each jobs points and the wage rate the employer is now paying for each job) -draw the market external wage curve (if a point is above the internal wage curve the present wage may be too high) internal curve does not show whether pay rates are too high or too low relative to other firms. To draw external wage curve you use what the market wage rate is.

Profit-sharing and Gain-sharing

Profit-sharing: a percentage of total profits set aside to reward all members of the organization for enabling the company to achieve specific targets (e.g., 10% bonus to each person). Gainsharing: a percentage of total savings achieved through cost-cutting or streamlining business activities, awarded to all members of the organization or to specific individuals or groups of individuals responsible for the innovations that resulted in cost savings.

paired comparison method

Ranking employees by making a chart of all possible pairs of the employees for each trait and indication which is the better employee of the pair.

alternation ranking method

Ranking employees from best to worst on a particular trait, choosing highest, then lowest, until all are ranked. Cross out names of those not known well enough to rank. Then choose highest and then lowest and continue until all are ranked.

1. Test reliability and validity

Reliability: the consistency of scores obtained by the same person when retested with the identical tests or with alternative forms of the same test Validity: the accuracy with which a test, interview, and so on, measures what it purports to measure or fulfills the function it was designed to fill

1. BFOQ examples

Requirement that an employee be of a certain religion, sex, or national origin where that is reasonably necessary not the organization's normal operation.

Wage and salary surveys

Salary surveys are surveys aimed at determining prevailing wage rates. A good salary survey provides specific wage rates for specific jobs. Formal written questionnaire surveys are the most comprehensive, but telephone surveys and newspaper ads are also sources of information. Employers use these in three ways. 1. they use survey data to price benchmark jobs. 2. Employers typically price 20% or more of their positions directly in the marketplace (rather than relative to the firm's benchmark jobs) 3. Surveys also collect data on benefits like insurance, sick leave, and vacations for decision regarding employee benefits Can be informal or formal

1. Samples vs. signs in prediction

Samples predict better than signs. This adage is well known among behavioral scientists. It is easier to predict the same behavior in the future than to predict something different in the future. Again, because of behavioral consistency theory, if someone has displayed the same or similar behaviors in the past to what you are predicting in the future, they are likely to act similarly in the future. A sample is something that is the same thing and the behavior you are trying to predict. For example, if a person was a good public speaker in the past, they are likely to be a good public speaker in the future. The past public speaking experience is a good sample of public speaking behavior in the future. A sample of the behavior is a better predictor than a sign, a behavior that is related but not the same thing as a sample. In this example, grades in high school is a sign for predicting public speaking in the future. A better sign might be scores on a verbal skills test. Nonetheless, neither of these examples are the behavior itself—public speaking—which would be a sample.

conversation days

Semi-annual "conversation days". The stress is on areas for improvement and growth and on setting stretch goals that align with the employee's career interests. No explicit performance ratings.

1. Lilly Ledbetter Act

Signed by President Obama - amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and states that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit regarding pay discrimination resets with each new paycheck affected by that discriminatory action.

forced distribution method

Similar to grading on a curve, predetermined percentages of raters are placed in various performance categories. Top 15% of ratees are 1's etc. Advantage is that it prevents supervisors from rating all or most employees satisfactory or high. Reflects the fact that top employees often outperform average or poor one by as much as 100%. Disadvatage: might increase the risk of discriminatory adverse impact. Damages morale. You can appoint a committee to review any employee's low ranking.

Skills training vs. educational training: purpose, content, evaluation strategies

Skills training •Purpose: to acquire a new set of behaviors that are organized into a skill •Content: focus is on behavior instead of knowledge or concepts - this allows you to identify the tangible outcomes (observable behaviors) you can expect to results from the training program •Evaluation Strategies: success of the program can be evaluated by observing behavior such as through performance tests Educational training •Purpose: Education training is used for the acquisition of knowledge or information •Content: the transfer of information is the focus; material presented at a conceptual level and there are intangible outcomes; most appropriate when an employee needs to acquire new knowledge and concepts •Evaluation Strategies: effectiveness of this type of program is evaluated by a test of the knowledge gained in the form of knowledge tests

1. Job classification exemptions criteria

Specific criteria established to determine which jobs are "exempt" from incurring overtime •Hourly vs. Salary •Classification has significant implications for employer and employee Job must meet criteria from one of three categories: executive, administrative, or professional exemptions. •Each exemption is different (some overlap) •Job can qualify under one or more Criteria different under FLSA vs. CA •Quantitative 50% Compliance with both Federal and State regulations can be challenging for employers with operations in multiple states.

1. How to identify job specifications

Specify qualities such as physical traits, personality, interests, or sensory skills that imply some potential for performing the job or for trainability. 1. Judgement: reflect educated guesses of people like supervisors and human resource managers. "What does it take in terms of education, intelligence, training, and the like to do this job well?" . If you specify KSAs through judgment, you need to collect experts again (SMEs) who can go through a systematic procedure. The procedure is to first read through all the tasks performed on the job. Following this step, you generate a list of potential KSAs for the job—everything you think might be related to the work. Then based on knowledge of the work performed, the experts provide ratings or judgments of how important each KSA is to successful performance on the job. The collective wisdom of the experts (their consensus) allows you to set the qualifications for the job. 2. Job specifications based on statistical analysis: determine statistical relationship between predictor (human trait such as height, intelligence, or finger dexterity) and some indicator or criterion of job effectiveness, such as performance as rated by the supervisor. 5 steps: 1) analyze the job and decide how to measure job performance 2) select personal traits like finger dexterity that you believe should predict performance 3) test candidates for these traits 4) measure these candidates subsequent job performance 5)statistically analyze the relationship between the human trait (finger dexterity) and job performance The statistical method requires you to conduct an empirical study of the incumbents in the job. First, separate the incumbents into two groups: high performing employees and low performing employees. Hopefully they are separated into the right groups—this is critical! Then, you generate your list of potential KSAs. You then evaluate people in each group on each of the KSAs. Anytime you get a big difference between the two groups for a KSA, you know that the KSA is important for job performance. For example, if math skills are a KSA and a comparison between the two groups shows that high performers have these math skills but low performers do not, then math skills are an important KSA for the job. You can then use math skills as a qualification for the job. 3. Job requirements matrix: A more complete description of what the worker does and how and why he or she does it; it clarifies each task's purpose and each duty's required knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics. Main step is the task statements - describe what the worker does on each of a main job duty's separate job tasks and how the worker does it. 5 columns - 1) main job duties 2) task statements 3) importance 4) time spent 5) knowledge, skills, ability, and other human characteristics related to each main job duty

Stock ownership, stock options

Stock ownership: a grant of a certain number of company shares of stock usually on the basis of job performance but could be for tenure. Stock value to the individual recipient is that market value of the stock on any given day. Employee can sell the stock and retain the net value. Stock options: a grant of options to buy company shares of stock at a price on the day the stock option was granted; the options have a vesting schedule (usually 25% of the option vesting per year for four years), and have an exercise period (usually 7 years to turn the options into real shares). The value of the stock option is the difference in value between the price of the stock on the day the option was granted and the price of the stock on the day the employee exercises and sells the stock. There is no downside to the ownership of options; it either has value or no value. There is an opportunity for a high upside if the stock appreciates in value over time.

1. Meritor Savings v. Vinson

Supreme Court recognized sexual harassment as a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Established standards for analyzing whether conduct was unlawful and when an employer would be liable. Court for the first time made sexual harassment an illegal form of discrimination. Vinson was hired as a teller trainee. She reported her supervisor sexually harassed her. Court held that Title VII was not limited to economic or tangible discrimination. Court recognized that Vinson could establish violations of Civil Rights Act by proving discrimination based on sex created a hostile or abusive work environment.

1. US Steelworkers v. Weber

Supreme Court upheld that the Civil Rights Act did not bar employers from favoring women and minorities. Company Weber worked for had a policy of admitting one to one ratio of blacks and whites into a training program, even though there were more whites than blacks. This came from an agreement with the United Steelworkers of America. Weber didn't get in. Company and union argued they were using affirmative action.

77. University policy on sexual harassment and sexual violence

The University prohibits sexual violence and sexual harassment, retaliation, and other prohibited behavior ("Prohibited Conduct") that violates law and/or University policy. The University will response promptly and effectively to Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment.

1. Age Discrimination in Employment Act

The act prohibiting arbitrary age discrimination and specifically protecting individuals over 40 years old. Made it unlawful to discriminate against employees or applicants who are between 40 and 65 years of age.

1. Americans with Disabilities Act

The act requiring employers to make reasonable accommodations for disabled employees; it prohibits discrimination against disabled persons. EEOC says someone is disabled when he or she has a physical or mental impairment that "substantially limits" one or more major life activity Act prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals - those who wit (or without) a reasonable accommodation, can carry out the essential functions of the job If individual can't perform the job as currently structured, the employer must make a "reasonable accommodation" unless doing so would present an "undue hardship"

1. Recruiting yield pyramid

The historical arithmetic relationships between recruitment leads and invitees, invitees and interviews, interviews and offers made, and offers made and offers accepted. Leads generated is at the bottom and new hires is at the top.

Comparable worth

The concept by which women who are usually paid less than men can claim that men in comparable rather than in strictly equal job are paid more. Addresses the question of whether you should pay women who are performing jobs equal to men's or just comparable t men's the same as men?

Employer's role in career development

The employer wants to make sure the open positions can be filled internally by qualified employees at all points in time. To ensure this is possible, several components of infrastructure need to be built 1. Talent taxonomy 2. Job Taxonomy 3. Talent inventory 4. Job inventory 5. Talent/job interface 6. Matching/selection program Along with the employee the employer also has career management responsibilities which depend partly on how long the employee has been with the firm. Before hiring realistic job interview can help prospective employees more accurately gauge whether the job is a good fit for them. This may help prevent reality shock, a phenomenon that occurs when a new employee's high expectations and enthusiasm confrontation the reality of a boring, unchallenging job. Also when employees have been on the job awhile career oriented appraisals are important. Here the manager appraises the employee but also helps them match the person's strengths or weaknesses with a feasible career path.

Importance of training objectives and qualities of good objectives

The objectives are simply restatements of what we expect people to be able to do at the conclusion of the training. Objectives have to be observable - meaning you should be able to see the new behaviors manifested. Secondly they should be specific - this is so you know exactly what you should expect to see. Lastly they should be concrete and behavioral - meaning they have to be tangible and easily recognizable. These are all required to ensure you can adequately evaluate whether training objectives were achieved. Without training objectives, or training objectives set with outcomes in mind it is unlikely that you will obtain the results you want from the training. This is because the content of the training would not be designed and focused on the things needed to change trainee behavior in ways that will result in desired outcomes.

1. Selection=Prediction

The recruitment and selection processes need to be developed and executed in a manner that identifies the job candidates with the highest predicted future performance. The selection process is designed to predict who will be the highest performer on the job.

The universal yardstick of worth

There is not universal yardstick of worth. If there was a universal yardstick of worth, we would all agree on what to pay every single job, and there would be no issue of pay fairness. Because pay fairness is relative, you have to establish the basis on which pay decisions are made and then show that it is fair.

1. Civil Rights Act of 1964

Title VII states that an employer cannot discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Unlawful for for an employer: 1. To fail or refuse to hire or to discharge an individual or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his or her compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin 2. To limit, segregate, or classify employees or applicants for employment in any way that would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his or her status as an employee, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin Established EEOC

Wrongful termination

To be unlawful (or wrongful), the constructive termination must be caused by unlawful reasons, such as discrimination.

Transfer of Learning

Transfer of learning means that the learning during the training program is generalized to other situations and contexts. It is an indicator that learning goes beyond the specific cases or situations trainees encountered during the program - that learning could be generalized to different cases and situations. They are most useful when trainees can apply what they learned in new situations and continue to build their repertoire of new skills after the program.

Transfer of training

Transfer of training means that learning is incorporated into the work behavior in the work setting. Transfer is between the training program and what a person does on the job. If new behavior does not becomes incorporated into a trainee's daily work behavior, the training effort is wasted. What is learned during training must be applicable to trainee's work and fit in naturally so that the behavior is used everyday.

1. Grutter v. Bollinger

US Supreme Court upheld the affirmative action admission policy of University of Michigan Law School. Ruled that Michigan Law school had a compelling interest in promoting class diversity. Race-conscious admissions process that may favor "underrepresented minority groups", but that also took into account many other factors evaluated on an individual basis for every applicant, did not amount to a quota system that would have been unconstitutional.

HR Roles

Ulrich outlines four new roles for HR professional: 1. Partner in strategy execution: help company executives figure out how the company should be organized to carry out its strategy 2. Administrative expert: requires that HR professionals look within the operations of the business and determine how the HR function can be done better, faster, and cheaper. 3. Employee Champion: advocacy for employees 4. Change Agent: help companies build their capacity and readiness for change

1. Gratz v. Bollinger

University fo Michigan undergraduate affirmative action admissions policy. University predetermined points to underrepresented minorities - unconstitutional.

1. Equal Pay Act

Unlawful to discriminate in ay on the basis of sex when jobs involve equal work; require equivalent skills, effort, and responsibility; and are performed under similar working conditions. Pay differences derived from seniority systems, merit systems, and systems that measure earnings by production quantity or quality or from any factor other than sex do not violate the act.

1. Bakke v. Regents of the University of California

Upheld affirmative action. However, court said specific racial quotas were impermissible.

1. Griggs v. Duke Power

Used to define unfair discrimination. Company required its coal handlers to be high school graduates. Griggs claimed this was illegally discriminatory. He said it wasn't related to success on the job, and it resulted in more blacks than whites being rejected for these jobs. Griggs won. 3 crucial guidelines laid out: 1) discrimination does not have to be overt to be illegal 2) an employment practice must be job related if it has an unequal impact on members of a protected class 3) burden of proof on employer to show that the hiring practice is job related For employers Griggs established 5 principles: 1) A test or other selection practice must be job related and the burden of proof is on the employer 2) An employer's intent not to discriminate is irrelevant 3) If a practice is "fair in form but discriminatory in operation," the courts will not uphold it 4) Business necessity is the defense for any existing program that has adverse impact. The court did not define business necessity 5) Title VII does not forbid testing. However, the test must be job related (valid), in that performance on the test must relate to performance on the job

Rating Committee

Usually consists of the employee's immediate supervisor and three or four other supervisors. Having more than one rater helps cancel out problems such as bias on the part of individual raters. Can also provide a way to include the different fact of an employees performance observed by different appraisers. Since ratings usually don't match it is good to obtain ratings from a supervisor, his or her boss, and at least one other manager who knows the employees work. At a minimum employers require that the supervisors boss sign off on any appraisals the supervisor does

Appraisal by subordinates

Usually for developmental rather than for pay purposes. Anonymity affects the feedback. Managers who receive feedback from subordinates who identify themselves view the feedback more positively. However subordinates who identify themselves them to give inflated ratings.

management by objectives

Usually refers to a multistep company wide goal-setting and appraisal program. Requires the manager to set specific, measurable, organizationally relevant goals with each employee, and then periodical discuss the latter's progress toward these goals. Steps are 1. Set the organization's goals 2. Set department goals 3. Discuss departmental goals 4. Dfine expected results (set individual goals) 5. Conduct performance reviews 6. Provide feedback formal MBO programs require many time-consuming meetings, and their use has diminished. Some companies use streamlined versions

1. Proportional (disproportional) representation

We would expect percentages of subgroups in organizations either equal to their representation in the population (or local labor market), or we would expect for any job where a large number of people are employed, that the distribution of subgroups would equal their proportion in the population (or local labor market). We call this "prima facie evidence of adverse impact."

1. How to investigate allegations of sexual harassment

What is the procedure following a sexual harassment incident? Typically companies have individuals trained in how to handle sexual harassment complaints. Special training is needed in order to protect the privacy of all parties in such a sensitive manner. These impartial specially trained individuals document the incident and interview all affected parties and witnesses. Interviews are conducted privately and discreetly. It is important that the victim and harasser do not have to meet together to "work things out" because this in itself is often regarded as harassment and because of the potential for retaliation against complainants. The investigation should be carried out carefully and professionally, ensuring that all relevant testimony is taken so that the full picture of the incident can be brought out. Once the complaint is thoroughly investigated and there is a finding of sexual harassment, there must be prompt and effective remedial action. This means that changes need to be made to ensure the harassment will stop and stop immediately. Depending on the nature of the offense, punishment may result in:

Learning principles

When applied they significantly increase the probability that learning will occur. •Motivation •Participation •Practice/rehearsal •Reinforcement •Opportunity for Feedback •Meaningful chunks •Understanding the whole •Realism/Familiarity

behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS)

an appraisal method that aims at combining the benefits of narrative critical incidents and quantified ratings by anchoring a quantified scale with specific narrative examples of good and poor performance. Developing a BARS typically has five steps 1. Write critical incidents: ask job's job holders and or supervisors to write specific illustrations (critical incidents) of effective and ineffective performance on the job 2. Develop performance dimensions. - have people cluster incidents into 5-10 performance dimensions 3. Reallocate incidents - have another team who also knows the job reallocate the original critical incidents to the cluster they think it fits best. Retain a critical incident if most of this second team assigns it to the same cluster as did the first 4. Scale the incident - this second group then rates the behavior described by the incident as to how effectively or ineffectively it represents performance on the dimension 5. Develop a final instrument - Choose about 6 or 7 of the incidents as the dimension's behavioral anchors Advantages: the critical incidents along the scale illustrate what to look for in terms of superior, average, and poor performance. Critical incidents make it easier to explain the ratings to appraisees . Clustering the critical incident into five or six performance dimensions helps make the performance dimensions more independent of one another.

Unclear standards

an appraisal that is too open to interpretation. Different supervisor might define "good" performance, "fair" performance, "quality of work" differently. Fix this by including descriptive phrases that define or illustrate each trait. Specificity results in more consistent and more easily explained appraisals.

Recency effects

letting what the employee has done recently blind you to what his or her performance has been over the year. The main solution is to accumulate critical incidents all year long

360 degree feedback

the employer collects performance information all around an employee- from his or her supervisors, subordinates, peers, and internal or external customers - generally for developmental rather than pay purposes. Usually process is to have raters complete online rates appraisal survey and computerized system compiles feedback into individualized reports to rates. Participants seem to prefer this approach. But some studies show that multi source feedback led to "generally small" improvements in subsequent ratings by supervisors, peers, and subordinates. Such appraisals are more candid when subordinates know rewards or promotions are not involved. make sure the feedback the person receives is productive, unbiased, and development oriented. It helps to collect multi-source feedback using a web based system that lets the rater rate the person alone a series of dimensions.

The meaning of contingency

the extra pay is contingent on achieving a predetermined outcome. This is central to the idea of an incentive. An outcome is set, which the leadership believes is a target that can be reached with a reasonable amount of effort, and this outcome is communicated to the employees so that they strive toward achieving that outcome so that they can earn the extra pay. because employees have to produce the desired outcome before they earn the extra pay. There is no "paying in advance." The idea is, work motivation to work harder would only occur if employees were paid after they achieved the outcome. It is based on the premise that human beings will do what they need to do in order to receive something they value.

Job evaluation: Point method

the job evaluation method n which a number of compensable factors are identified and then the degree to which each of these factors is present on the job is determined. once evaluation committee determines the degree to which each compensable factor is present in a job they can calculate a total point value for the job by adding up the corresponding degree points for each factor. The result is a quantitative point rating for each job. The point method of job evaluation is the most popular job evaluation method. "Packaged' point plans: number of groups have developed standardized point plans. They contain ready-made factor and degree definitions and point assessments for a wide range of jobs.

Leniency or Strictness

the problem that occurs when a supervisor has a tendency to rate all subordinates either high or low. Especially severe with graphic rating scales. ranking forced supervisors to distinguish between high and low performers. Employer could recommend that supervisors avoid giving all their employees high or low ratings. A second is to require a distribution that say about 10% of the people should be rated "excellent", 20% "good" etc.

job evaluation: ranking

the simplest method of job evaluation that involves ranking each job relative to all other jobs, usually based on overall difficulty 1. Obtain job information 2. Select and group jobs 3. Select compensable factors 4. Rank jobs 5. Combine ratings 6. Compare current pay with what others are paying based on salary survey 7. Assign a new pay scale Drawbacks - only from how managers use ranking than from method - tendency to rely too heavily on guesstimates" since ranking usually does not use compensable factors. Ranking provides no yardstick for quantifying the value of one job relative to another. Ranking is usually more appropriate for small employers that can 't afford the time or expense of a more elaborate method. Factor comparison method: requires ranking each a job's "factors" and then adding up the points representing the number of "degrees" of each factor each job has.

Three types of exceptions to employment at will (contracts, regulations, constructive discharge)

• Contractual Exceptions to the At Will Presumption o The "at will" presumption can be rebutted by evidence that there is an agreement between the parties that states the contrary. The agreement can be express or implied. •Express Agreements. Employees and employers can agree in writing or verbally to an arrangement that is not "at will." Examples: • Term Agreement: This is an agreement to continue the employment for a specified period of time (e.g., 1 year). • An Agreement to Terminate for Cause: This is an agreement to continue the employment relationship unless and until there is "cause" to terminate the employment relationship. The cause may be defined by the parties, such as "misconduct by the employee like theft of trade secrets." •Implied Agreements. In the absence of an express agreement, courts sometimes imply the existence of contractual terms based on the conduct of the parties. These implied terms can overcome the "at will" presumption. Implied agreements can be in the form of company practices, policies and statements. However, an employer can use an Integrated Agreement at the time of hire which says that this agreement is the sole agreement between the parties (no agreement is implied), this agreement supersedes any prior agreements between the parties (no prior statements or agreement hold), and any future modification must be in writing. Implied Covenant of good Faith and Fair Dealing. A covenant of good faith and fair dealing is implied in every contract. This means that one party cannot intentionally deny the other party a benefit under the contract. For example, an employer cannot terminate an employee simply to deny that employee of a benefit (e.g., bonus payout) under the agreement. • Public Policy Exceptions to the At Will Presumption o The employer cannot discriminate against an employee on the basis of his/her sex, age, race religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or disability status by disciplining or terminating the employee. o The employer cannot retaliate against an employee who has objected to an employers' conduct, practices or policies that the employee reasonably believes are discriminatory. o The employer has an obligation to take steps to prevent a hostile work environment from occurring, and eliminate it once it has occurred. The employer has an obligation to provide an employee with accommodations that are reasonable to allow the employee to continue performing his or her job, or in some instances the essential functions of that job. This obligation extends to disabled employees, pregnant women, employees undergoing drug or alcohol rehabilitation and an employee's religious beliefs • Constructive Discharge o A "quit" may turn into a "termination" (constructive discharge) when an employee believes he/she is faced with intolerable employer actions or conditions of employment and has no reasonable alternative except to quit. To be unlawful (or wrongful), the constructive termination must be caused by unlawful reasons, such as discrimination. The standard for constructive discharge is an objective one: whether a reasonable person faced with the same actions or conditions would have no reasonable alternative except to quit.

Why do incentive programs fail? (Alfie Kohn article)

•They suggest in the article it is due to an inadequacy of the psychological assumptions that ground all such plans •Research suggests that rewards only secure temporary behavior, but are ineffective at producing lasting change - once rewards run out people revert to their old behaviors •incentives do not alter the attitudes that underlie our behaviors - they do not create an enduring commitment to any value or action they only chance temporarily what we do •people who don't expect a reward are shown to be more productive 6 point framework that examines the true costs of an incentive program 1. Pay is not a motivator 2. Rewards punish - punishment and rewards are two sides of the same coin. Both have a punitive effect because they are manipulative 3. Rewards rupture relationships - scrambling for rewards often hurts relationships 4. Rewards ignore reasons - possible underlying problems are ignored - it replaces giving employees what they really need to do a good job 5. Rewards discourage risk-taking 6. Rewards undermine interest

Task Analysis

•a detailed study of the job to determine what KSAs are required to perform the job •missing KSAs among jobholders and applicants can be identified and trained •can also conduct this when the organization wants to create a new job - you can conduct a task analysis on several related jobs and find the tasks and activities that need to be filled by the new job and identify KSAs associated with the those tasks and activities

Opportunity for Feedback

•allows trainees to see gaps in their learning that can be filled by review

Performance (Person) Analysis

•conducted on current employees, looking at potential deficits in their performance •Each employee can be examined in terms of their performance effectiveness and deficits discreetly related to skills and abilities can be addressed through training •when conducted on a group or unit the organization can decide whether to train all members or select only certain individuals who have the greatest deficits

Types of appraisal instruments: rating scales, ranking, paired comparison, etc. (text)

•graphic rating scale method •alternation ranking method •paired comparison method •forced distribution method •critical incident method •narrative forms •behaviorally anchored rating scales •mixed standard scales •management by objectives •computerized and web-based performance appraisal •electronic performance monitoring •conversation days

Meaningful chunks

•how material is broken up into manageable piece for easier learning •research shows that any subject can be broken down into about seven pieces - any more and people have trouble retaining the information •breaking up material into logical pieces is the key

Understanding the whole

•involves presenting information to trainees in such a way that they can establish a framework for understanding that can incorporate everything they will learn •by seeing the "whole" trainees can understand how each piece fits into the framework

Practice/rehearsal

•new information and behaviors have to be incorporated into a trainees existing framework of knowledge and behavior •this new information and behavior becomes established by practice •neural pathways that carry this new information and behavior must be repeatedly used to establish long term connections between the existing framework and the new information and behavior

Organizational Analysis

•study of the whole organization to determine where the training emphasis should be given changes that the organization wants to make •company wide surveys of training needs can be given to collect information •Targeted surveys can be used to identify gaps between the skills and abilities that current employees have and what they need in order to successfully implement a change in the organization •Organizational analysis is conducted in response to the need for improved performance effectiveness in the context of short-term and long-term goals and overall workforce capabilities

Realism/Familiarity

•the more the learning occurs within a context that is familiar and is part of a trainee's reality, the more readily the trainee can relate new information and behavior to their current frameworks •facilitates learning by joining new information and behavior to something that is well established - ensuring that new information and behavior will be retained and incorporated into the trainee's current work situation