Comp Final - 2

Which of the following are an example of a long-term incentive plan?

Performance plans

Egalitarian pay structures have all but which of the following characteristics?

Preference for individual performance over team performance

Which of the following is an objective of the unemployment insurance program?

To provide an incentive for employers to stabilize employment

In the context of subordinates as raters, which of the following statements is true?

Upward feedback has been historically viewed as countercultural.

Which of the following benefits communication methods allows for personalized communication methods and requires current contact information?

Use of materials

A benefit plan that allocates a set dollar amount to employees and allows them to select benefits is called a ________ plan.

a flexible benefit

An early study of the effects of the living wage law in Los Angeles found all of the following EXCEPT that

a higher proportion of new hires were female.

________ theory argues that pay should be based on outcomes if monitoring of behaviors is difficult or costly and if risk due to variability in outcomes is not large.

agency

Because employers are raising employee pay at various times during the year, survey data must be updated using a process called

aging

MXB, Inc. is a carwash service provider. It orders the jobs in the company on the basis of the least important job to the most important job. In this case, MXB is most likely using the:

alternation-ranking method

Joshua believes that treating employees equally will improve their job satisfaction, which in turn will increase their work productivity and performance. In accordance with his beliefs, he wants to reduce the number of job levels and the pay differentials between the levels. In this case, he is most likely to use a(n):

egalitarian pay structure

According to ________ theory, relative pay is important as employees evaluate the adequacy of their pay via comparisons with other employees.

equity

Competencies are derived from the ________ beliefs about the organization and its strategic intent.

executive leadership's

Common bases for modern pay structures include all but which of the following?

extent of external competitiveness and equity

The pay-level policy that is most likely to reduce pay dissatisfaction is a(n)

lead policy

A ________ plan is a hybrid health plan combining the benefits of a health maintenance organization and a ________.

point-of-service; preferred provider organization

Among pay-mix alternatives, the percentage of base pay is highest in a

security or commitment policy

The Worker Economic Opportunity Act

states that income from most stock plans need not be included in calculating overtime pay.

One of the most preferred benefits is

stock plans.

The size of pay differentials between grades should

support career movement through the pay structure.

If red circle rates become common throughout an organization, then:

the design of the ranges and the evaluation of the jobs should be reexamined.

Apart from being reliable, a job analysis is also considered valid if:

the results converge among various sources of data and methods.

Which of the following is a benefit under Social Security?

Lump-sum death payments

n the formula for predicting performance, the component most closely related to compensation is

M

The most common form of outcome-based appraisal is:

Management By Objectives.

Which of the following rating formats has the lowest rating errors?

Management By Objectives.

The ________ requires individuals to maintain minimal essential health insurance coverage or pay a penalty unless exempted for religious beliefs or financial hardship.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

The most common way to collect job information is

to ask incumbents to fill out a questionnaire.

What are the steps in designing a point plan?

1. Conduct job analysis. 2. Determine compensable factors. 3. Scale the factors. 4. Weight the factors according to importance. 5. Select criterion pay structure. 6. Communicate the plan and train users. 7. Apply to nonbenchmark jobs. 8. Develop online software support.

How many weeks of leave does the Family Medical Leave Act (1993) mandate for all workers at companies that employ 50 or more people?

12 weeks

The average company match for 401(k) retirement plans is ________ on the dollar up to 6 percent of pay.

50 cents

Which of the following companies is taking efforts to improve the work

life balance of its employees? / MH Corp., which increases the number of paid holidays given to its senior employees

A company using a skill-based pay system prices the job of lead assembler between $10 and $22 per hour. Survey data showed that the job of assembler averaged $10 per hour and the job of assembly supervisor averaged $22 per hour. The company is using the ________ method of job matching.

low-high

________ is the process of systematically determining the relative worth of jobs to create a job structure for an organization.

ob evaluation

In mapping a total compensation strategy, the question of how important compensation is in the overall HR strategy is part of

objectives.

A(n) ________ uses cash or stock award if specific goals are achieved.

performance share plan

Teaching raters what constitutes good, average, and bad performance is ________ training.

performance standard

When organization performance declines:

performance-based pay plans do not pay off.

A(n) ________ uses cash or stock award that is determined by an increase in stock price at a fixed future date.

phantom stock plan

A group of tasks performed by one person makes up a(n)

position

If Philadelphia has a CPI of 165 and Houston has a CPI of 145 and if both cities started with bases of 100, it means that

prices have risen faster in Philadelphia since the base year than in Houston.

A major criticism of standard rating scales is that:

raters have different definitions of scale levels.

A compa-ratio reflects the

relationship of the average actual salary in each range to the midpoint of the range.

The Davis-Bacon Act

requires that mechanics and laborers on public construction projects be paid the prevailing wage in an area.

In a strategic approach to pay, internal alignment is the ________ issue to be decided.

second

Which of the following is an individual incentive plan?

A straight piecework system

Which of the following is the basic question to ask to improve quality and ensure that value is added by each technique and at each stage in the compensation system

Does each specific activity directly contribute to our objectives?

Which of the following reasons makes competencies a risky foundation for a pay system?

Vagueness and subjectivity

The most obvious sorting factor is

ability

The motivation triangle includes

culture

The reliability of job evaluation techniques is measured by:

determining if different evaluators produce the same results.

The final step in designing a point plan involves

developing online software support.

The amount of fairness given to employees refers to

distributive justice

External factors are dominant influences on jobs filled via:

hiring graduates

The most common bases for determining internal structures are:

work content and its value

In the regression equation y = a + bx, job evaluation points are denoted by

x

Who among the following is most likely to be working for a company that uses a competency-based pay plan?

Carlos, who focuses on obtaining certifications in her field to get a pay increase

________ are more likely to conduct job evaluations of senior management jobs.

Compensation managers

The ________ was enacted by the Congress to provide current and former employees and their spouses and dependents with a temporary extension of group health insurance when coverage is lost due to qualifying events.

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act

Which of the following policy decisions directly affects employees' attitudes and work behaviors?

EE contributions

Which of the following is the most popular executive perk offered by most companies?

Executive physicals

Which of the following is a fundamental objective, and NOT a policy, of the pay model?

Fairness

Which of the following statements regarding wage differences in industries and firms is NOT true?

Female employment is more heavily concentrated in large firms.

The roots of job-based pay structures are traced to

Frederick Taylor

The ________ is designed to lessen an employer's ability to deny coverage to an employee for a preexisting condition.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

The degree to which pay influences individual and aggregate motivation among employees at any point in time is referred to as a(n):

Incentive effect

Which form of pay does not permanently increase labor costs?

Incentives

Which of the following is true of the marginal revenue product model?

It oversimplifies business conditions in the real world.

In the context of benefits communication methods, which of the following is mostly true about an information portal?

It requires ongoing maintenance and an intuitive user interface.

________ is a nonpermanent (variable) payment (bonus or lump sum) form of variable pay granted to employee as function of some (typically primarily subjective) assessment of individual employee performance

Merit bonus

An incentive system with three piecework rates is the

Merrick plan

In the context of job evaluation methods, which of the following is a common way of ranking?

Paired comparison

How do skill-based plans motivate employees?

Skill-based plans are generally well accepted by employees because it is easy to see the connection between the plan, the work, and the size of the paycheck. Consequently, the plans provide strong motivation for individuals to increase their skills.

Most unions prefer which of the following?

Small pay differences among jobs and seniority-based promotions

Which of the following acts requires that essential elements of a job—those that cannot be reassigned to other workers—must be specified for jobs covered by the legislation?

The Americans With Disabilities Act

________ puts a lid on the maximum pay level an employer can set.

The product market

________ argues that executive pay rises to maintain the same relative relationship with the salaries of lower-level employees.

The social comparison theory

Which of the following is an advantage of skill-based pay plans?

They aid in deploying workers in a way that better matches the work flow.

Which of the following is true of incentives?

They are re-earned each pay period

GreenRain Corp. faces an increase in its employee turnover rate. The CEO calls for a board meeting with the senior executives to discuss the issue. Who among the following suggests increasing the relational returns that employees receive to reduce the turnover rate at GreenRain?

Tom, who suggests increasing the decision-making authorities given to the employees to make work more challenging

If you had repair work done on your car, the shop most likely used ________ to pay the mechanic

a standard hour plan

The most frequently implemented incentive system is:

a straight piecework system.

A job description is compared to class descriptions in the ________ of job evaluation.

classification method

A compensation system that focuses on competitors' labor costs is most closely associated with a(n) ________ strategy.

cost-cutter

Regarding pay differences for different jobs,

courts continue to uphold the use of market data to justify differences.

In recent years, some firms have tried to deal with the plateau effect and also accommodate the different career motivations of mature scientists and engineers through a(n)

dual-career ladder.

The decisions to implement pay for performance, flat rate pay, and profit sharing are examples of ________ policy decisions.

employee contribution

Employers continue to hire until the marginal revenue of the last hire equals his or her wage rate. This is based on the first labor market theory assumption that:

employers seek to maximize profits.

Which of the following is a factor to control in order to manage labor costs in a simple labor cost model?

employment

A recent article analyzing the results from over 100 executive pay studies shows that the best predictor of executive pay is by far

firm size

Robert, the CEO of GameTrack Corp., wants to restructure its pay plan without increasing labor costs in the long run. He is most likely to achieve this, while retaining his top employees, by:

increasing incentive pay and decreasing base pay.

A compensation system using market-based pay is most likely to be part of a(n) ________ strategy.

innovator

Career growth, hierarchy, and flexible design are most closely associated with the ________ aspect of mapping a total compensation strategy

internal alignment

The estimates of competitors' pay rates will be incorrect and the pay level and pay mix inappropriately established if:

markets are incorrectly defined.

You are an HR manager, and your boss has told you to find the best way to raise job performance. After some research, you find that ________ have the greatest instrumental value.

monetary incentives

Annual bonuses often play a major role in executive compensation and are primarily designed to

motivate better short-term performance.

The role non-HR managers play in making pay decisions is called

ownership

Managers seek internal alignment within their organization by

paying on the basis of similarities among jobs.

Available evidence indicates that managers believe the most important factor for pay increases is

performance

In a contemporary job description of a specific job, the job summary section

provides an overview of the job.

KayDen Corp., a small organization with 15 employees, conducts job evaluation using the least expensive method for the first time. In this case, KayDen is most likely to have used the

ranking method

The most widely used benefit survey is conducted by:

the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In most organizations, the responsibility for managing a pay survey lies with

the compensation manager.

Pay for temporary workers is based upon:

the internal structure of their home employer

Incentives do not permanently increase labor costs because:

they are one-time payments.

Research shows that ________ factor(s) account(s) for 98 to 99 percent of the variance in job evaluation plans.

three

TreeWind, Inc. is a bookstore that uses skill and responsibility as its compensable factors. It assigns 20 percent weight to responsibility and 80 percent weight to skill. If the responsibility factor gets a score of 60 after multiplying the subfactors with their corresponding weights and if the skill factor has two subfactors that are rated as 4 and 5, what is the total weightage given to the job?

420

Total compensation in many organizations makes up at least ________ of operating expenses.

50 percent

Approximately ________ percent of private sector employees have access to paid life insurance.

56

Lisa is a manager at Trell, Inc. When she hires her employees, she focuses on finding the right job for the right person. Which of the following pay plans is her employer most likely using?

A job-based pay plan

________ curve expresses the relationship between years since last degree, performance, and salary.

A maturity

________ requires division of a task into simple actions and determination of the time required by an average skilled worker to complete each action.

Bedaux plan

When a job involves very routine, mechanistic tasks, the most appropriate appraisal format is:

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales

In the context of internal structures, which of the following is true of a delayered structure?

It sends the message that all employees are valued equally.

Which of the following is true of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act?

It was amended in 1990 to include the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act.

In the context of internal alignment, which of the following is the correct sequence?

Job description > Job evaluation > Job structure

Which of the following is an assumption held by the labor supply model about the behavior of potential employees?

Job seekers do not face barriers to mobility.

Who among the following is examining the validity of a job evaluation?

Keira, who is measuring the degree to which the job evaluation plan matches an agreed-upon pay structure for benchmark jobs

________ relieve an employer's liability when a preemployment injury combines with a work-related injury to produce a disability greater than that caused by the latter alone.

Second-injury funds

Which of the following is often the largest component in an executive pay package?

Stock options

________ have indirect pay-performance links and require employees to put up money to exercise grants.

Stock options plans

________ allows employees who resign or are laid off through no fault of their own to continue receiving health coverage under their employer's plan at a cost borne by the employee.

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (1984)

Which of the following is defined as a structured job analysis technique that classifies job information into seven basic factors: information input, mental processes, work output, relationships with other persons, job context, other job characteristics, and general dimensions?

The Position Analysis Questionnaire

Which of the following is a characteristic of benchmark jobs?

They employ a reasonable proportion of the workforce.

The most common approach to motivating executives to make decisions that are in the best interests of stockholders is

a long-term incentive plan using stock options.

The denial of jobs, promotions, or training opportunities to qualified women or minorities are examples of

access discrimination

According to the ________ theory of motivation, employees prefer certain or fixed income flows, such as wage or salary, to variable income flows, such as performance-based pay.

agency

Most job structures are best described as:

both person- and job-based structures.

The final major decision in setting externally competitive pay and designing the corresponding pay structures is to

construct a pay policy line that reflects external pay policy.

In the context of performance appraisal formats, which of the following criteria is concerned with whether the evaluation form initially requires a long time to be developed?

cost

Which of the following is the least popular executive perk offered by most companies?

housing allowance

________ theory is based on the premise that higher earnings flow to those who improve their potential productivity by investing in themselves.

human capital

Research investigating high-performance workplaces found that performance-based pay ________ when combined with other high-performance practices.

improves attitudes and behaviors

The list of tasks, duties, and responsibilities that make up a job is known as a

job description.

The ________ pay strategy emphasizes external competitiveness and deemphasizes internal alignment.

market pricing

A specific statement of what a worker does on a job is known as a(n)

task

________ is the value employees attach to the organization rewards received for job performance.

valence

Nina is a high-performing individual who works best alone. Which of the following companies is the most appropriate for her?

A company that uses a hierarchical pay structure to pay its employees based on performance

Which of the following is an open-ended performance appraisal format that involves the use of descriptors ranging from comparisons with other employees to adjectives, behaviors, and goal accomplishment?

An essay format

Which of the following is the correct order of the steps in formulating a total compensation strategy?

Assess the strategy, map the strategy, implement the strategy, and reassess the strategy.

Horizon Inc. wants its employees to focus on organizational as well as individual goals. It also wants to motivate its employees to contribute toward increasing the company's shareholder value. It has implemented a variable pay plan that links incentive payouts to the company's financial targets. Horizon believes that this plan would help it clearly communicate its priorities to its employees. However, the downside of this plan is that the employees receive reduced payouts if the company's financial targets are not fulfilled. Which of the following variable pay plans is Horizon most likely using?

Balanced scorecard plan

Which of the following is the best appraisal format in terms of legal defensibility?

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales

________ are defined benefit plans that look like a defined contribution plan.

Cash balance plans

In the context of child labor, which of the following statements is true?

Child labor has decreased in most countries across the world in recent years.

________ are the observable behaviors that indicate the level of competency within each competency set.

Competency indicators

Which of the following theories states that people choose the behavior that leads to the most satisfactory exchange?

Expectancy theory

________ focuses attention on the competitive positions reflected in the pay relationships among organizations.

External competitiveness

In gain-sharing plan formulas,

labor inputs are in the numerator and productivity outcomes are in the denominator.

refers to the process by which a decision is reached: the right to an attorney, the right to an impartial judge, and the right to receive a copy of the arresting officer's statement.

Procedural justice

________ is the measure of how important total compensation is in the overall HR strategy.

Prominence

A major advantage of a ________ is that it reduces benefits costs, something that the other cost-cutting options ordinarily do not achieve.

RIF

Which of the following benefits is a federally administered program?

Social Security

Which of the following statistical measures shows how similar or dissimilar the market rates are from each other?

Standard deviation

Which of the following methods requires evaluators to agree on which jobs are the most and least valuable, then the next most and least valued, and so on, until all the jobs have been ordered?

The alternation-ranking method

Which of the following is a test that must be met to qualify for the administrative employee exemption?

The employee must be compensated on a salary or fee basis at a rate not less than $455 per week.

All of the following are categories of rater training EXCEPT ________ training.

behavior modeling

The process of matching survey jobs by applying an employer's plan to the external jobs and then comparing the worth of the external job with its internal "match" is called

benchmark conversion

Financially healthy employers may wish to maintain their competitive positions in the labor market or share financial success through

bonuses and profit sharing.

A common first step in interpreting compensation survey data is to

check for the accuracy of job matches.

A major decision in job evaluation is to:

choose among alternative approaches.

The job evaluation method that most resembles a bookcase with many shelves is:

classification

Jacob works at PrimeClean Corp., a car wash company. He is asked to follow a set of instructions in a predetermined order to wash a car. All the details including the amount of washing liquid to use for each type of car are clearly specified. In this case, Jacob's company is most likely to use a:

closely tailored pay structure.

Which of the following is least likely to be used in establishing skill-based certification methods?

college degree

Skill-based plans tend to work best in organizations using a(n) ________ strategy.

cost cutter

Mich Inc., a hardware store, has a rating system in place that rates employees on their friendliness, usefulness, and product knowledge. Based on the ratings an employee receives, he or she gets an incentive. The compensation strategy followed by Mich is most closely described as a(n):

customer-focused strategy.

Compensable factors, skill blocks, and competency sets are used for:

determining what to value.

A difference between incentives and merit increases is that incentives:

do not increase the base wage, whereas merit increases increase the base wage.

The executive branch of the federal government

enforces laws through agencies and its other bodies.

Compensation policy choices that affect the pay level relative to other companies are most closely associated with the ________ aspect of the pay model.

external competitiveness

Contingent workers receive ________ benefits than regular workers; contingent workers' benefits cost ________ for employers than it does for regular workers.

fewer; less

Bottom-up budgeting includes the process of distributing forecasting instructions and worksheets where:

firms furnish managers with the forms and instructions necessary to preplan increases.

All of the following factors are reasons for the growth of benefits EXCEPT:

foreign lawsuits.

The trend in recent variable-pay design is to combine the best of

gain-sharing and profit-sharing plans

The alignment test:

helps ensure passing the differentiation test.

The biggest cost-containment strategy in recent years is the movement to:

high deductibles

All of the following are advantages of a lead pay-level policy EXCEPT

higher turnover rates.

The systematic process of collecting information that identifies the similarities and differences among jobs is known as

job analysis.

A ________ approach controls costs by paying only as much as the work performed is worth, regardless of any greater skills the employee may possess.

job-based

If several incumbents, supervisors, and peers respond in similar ways to job analysis questionnaires, it suggests that the results are most likely to be

valid