HR - Chapter 5 Connect

Due to a series of resignations from the organization, Zylon Inc., a large software firm, is facing an acute labor shortage. During which of the following human resource planning steps would the firm contemplate several options to address the labor issue? A) Goal setting and strategic planning B) Program evaluation C) Forecasting D) Program implementation E) Data collection

A

Knowing the college is on the verge of a financial crisis, a few of the older professors get together and decide that they can help. Which option will they choose? A) Early retirement causes relatively less human suffering. B) The human suffering after pay reduction is relatively low. C) Retraining causes comparatively more human suffering than other options. D) A hiring freeze causes immense human suffering. E) Transfers cause the least amount of human suffering.

A

The _____ requires that everyone receiving unemployment compensation be registered with a local state employment office. A) Social Security Act B) Employers' Liability Act C) Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act D) Protection of Employment Regulations E) Equal Pay Act

A

The final step in the planning process is to A) evaluate results. B) set goals and objectives. C) formulate strategies. D) establish forecasting methods. E) implement recruiting methods.

A

The first step in the human resource planning process is A) forecasting. B) goal setting. C) program implementation. D) program evaluation. E) groupthink.

A

When a company faces a shortage of employees in the workforce, and it predicts that current demand for products or services may not extend to the future, it will A) try to garner more hours out of the existing labor force. B) recruit and train new employees. C) be willing to hire part-time employees. D) decrease the production rate by half to meet quality standards. E) lease out its machinery to other factories, thereby maintaining income.

A

Which of the following is the accurate definition of workforce utilization review? A) It is a comparison of the proportion of workers in protected subgroups with the proportion that each subgroup represents in the relevant labor market. B) It is a comparison of the proportion of workers who are underperforming with the proportion of those in the labor market who are not yet hired. C) It is a comparison of the proportion of workers who are underperforming with the proportion of those who are excelling in the workplace. D) It is a comparison of the proportion of workers who are being paid higher than the national average with the proportion of workers who are being paid lower than the national average. E) It is a comparison of the proportion of workers whose performance ratings are lower than the internal average with the proportion of those whose performance ratings are higher.

A

Which of the following pairs of recruiter characteristics does an applicant tend to respond to most positively? A) Warmth and informativeness B) Race and qualifications C) Age and experience D) Gender and warmth E) Experience and qualifications

A

_____ is the practice or activity carried on by an organization with the primary purpose of identifying and attracting potential employees. A) Human resource recruitment B) An applicant tracking system C) Customer relationship management D) Sensitivity training E) Customer experience transformation

A

A critical aspect of the program implementation step of human resource planning is A) setting a benchmark for determining the relative success of a program. B) making sure that some individual is held accountable for achieving the stated goals. C) selecting the best option for redressing a pending labor shortage or surplus. D) ascertaining whether the company has successfully avoided any potential labor surpluses or shortages. E) focusing attention on redressing a pending labor supply problem.

B

A(n) _____ shows the proportion of employees in different job categories at different times. A) invertible matrix B) transitional matrix C) definite matrix D) task role matrix E) orthogonal matrix

B

Each of the following is a relatively fast method to reduce an expected labor surplus EXCEPT A) work sharing. B) retraining. C) pay reduction. D) demotion. E) transfer.

B

One way to recruit companies to a state is to offer tax incentives; another is to assure them that the workforce is prepared. When a state government confirms that an employer will be given the authority to terminate employment of an employee at any time without cause and gives the same assurance to the employees, those statutes are referred to as A) due process policies. B) employment-at-will policies. C) counter cyclical hiring policies. D) employee liability policies. E) affirmative action policies.

B

Sometimes, organizations advertise just to promote themselves as a good place to work in general. This is called A) product advertising. B) image advertising. C) informative advertising. D) proactive advertising. E) subliminal advertising.

B

Statistical planning models almost always have to be complemented by A) competitor information. B) subjective judgments. C) transitional matrices. D) unstable history. E) labor forecasts.

B

The process of determining whether there are any subgroups whose proportion in a given job category within a company is substantially different from their proportion in the relevant labor market is called A) adverse treatment analysis. B) workforce utilization review. C) subgroup reconciliation. D) discrimination analysis. E) leading indicator.

B

The programs developed in the strategic-choice stage of the process are put into practice in the _____ stage. A) forecasting B) program-implementation C) goal-setting D) evaluation E) program feedback

B

Which of the following best exemplifies the process of self-selection? A) An applicant posts his or her resume on an online job bulletin board. B) An applicant decides to interview with a particular company while at a job fair. C) An applicant is asked to return for a second interview with a firm. D) An applicant asks a friend for advice on which companies to apply to. E) An applicant calls a firm to check whether she has been selected.

B

Which of the following is a method used to reduce an expected labor shortage that is low on revocability? A) Overtime B) New external hires C) Temporary employees D) Outsourcing E) Retrained transfers

B

Which of the following is an advantage of relying on internal recruitment sources? A) It is a good way to strengthen one's own company, while weakening one's competitors at the same time, because it increases diversity. B) It generates a sample of applicants who are well known to the firm. C) The applicants are relatively less knowledgeable about the company's vacancies and are hence easily trainable. D) Because of the applicants' lack of knowledge about a particular position, their expectations are easy to meet. E) It results in a workforce whose members all think alike and who therefore are more suited to innovation.

B

Which of the following is the biggest downside for large job sites? A) Most job sites do not return with quick results, which can be frustrating for an applicant. B) Because of the sheer size of the website, there is a lack of differentiation between candidates listed on the site. C) Job sites offer lackluster customer service, which is a huge disappointment for applicants. D) Most job sites post jobs that are completely unrelated to an employee's expertise and job interest. E) While they promise excellent service, the exuberant service charges discourage applicants from using job sites.

B

Which of the following is true about outsourcing? A) Outsourcing became a valid choice after certain methods of production and manufacturing became obsolete. B) Outsourcing is a logical choice when a firm simply does not have certain expertise and is not willing to invest time and effort into developing it. C) Technological advancements have slowed the momentum of outsourcing being done today. D) Statistical forecasting resulted in companies' transferring their operations and functions overseas. E) Companies shifted their operations overseas because customers were complaining about poor client services domestically.

B

Yield ratios express the A) output yielded by a new hire in relation to the cost of recruiting the new hire. B) percentage of applicants who successfully move from one stage of the recruitment and selection process to the next. C) ratio between the price paid to a recruiting firm for potential applicants versus the number of applicants hired. D) cost of hiring new employees as opposed to promoting internal employees to vacant positions. E) quality of new hires by comparing the cost of training new recruits to the cost of hiring them.

B

_____ are people who apply for a vacancy without prompting from the organization. A) Internal employees B) Direct applicants C) Referrals D) Poached employees E) Virtual employees

B

_____ is a generic term used to refer to organizational decisions that affect the nature of the vacancies for which people are recruited. A) Budgetary policies B) Personnel policies C) Judicial policies D) Fiscal policies E) Monetary policies

B

_____ is considered a slow option for avoiding an expected labor shortage but has high revocability. A) Natural attrition B) Retrained transfer C) Outsourcing D) Transfer E) Technological innovation

B

_____ is the planned elimination of large numbers of personnel designed to enhance organizational effectiveness. A) Homesourcing B) Downsizing C) Retirement D) Retraining E) Work sharing

B

Hope College is planning for the next biennium. School administrators know that the enrollment is on the decline, but still need to offer students the best experience possible. They want to shrink their payroll slowly. They can accomplish this through A) downsizing. B) demotions. C) early retirement. D) pay reduction. E)temporary employees

C

Recruiting advertisements in newspapers and periodicals A) are exempt from the requirements of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. B) are used exclusively to attract applicants who are currently employed. C) are likely to generate less desirable candidates than direct applications or referrals. D) are generally used to attract candidates from a specific minority community. E) are less expensive than direct applications or referrals.

C

The goals that are set in the human resource planning process should come directly from A) the mid-level managers who tend to be most in touch with the organization's needs. B) the results of the previous year's appraisal process. C) the analysis of the labor supply and demand. D) the strategic choices made by the company's top-level managers. E) the feedback provided by the organization's customers.

C

When a state or federal government is unable to pass a budget, workers sometimes take a ______ as there is no money to pay the employees. A) work-sharing culture B) demotion C) furlough D) layoff E) suspension

C

Which of the following best explains why older people approaching retirement age have no intention of retiring? A) Many employers want to stay away from the costs of hiring a younger crowd and refuse to retire the older workers. B) Older workers typically occupy the best-paid jobs and hence prevent the hiring of younger workers. C) Improved health of older people in general, in combination with the decreased physical labor in many jobs, has made working longer a viable option. D) Employers are ignoring situations where it is more expensive to pay for an older worker's experience than to hire younger employees. E) Statistical forecasting results have shown that older people are an asset to an organization's economic strength.

C

Which of the following is an example of an intrinsic reward? A) A manufacturing organization offering a monthly bonus on joining the firm at a particular position in a particular city B) A firm providing free vehicles to employees who are promoted to the managerial level C) The U.S. Army appealing to the patriotism in people to get more new recruits D) A bank offering loans at a subsidized rate to its employees E) A school management giving monthly bonuses to the teachers

C

Which of the following is true of statistical forecasting methods that capture historic trends? A) They are useful for predicting events in the labor market that have no historic precedent. B) They are particularly useful in situations where there is no long, stable history. C) They provide predictions that are much more precise than judgmental methods. D) They remove the need for subjective judgments of experts. E) They include variables such as intuition and guesswork in economic decision-making.

C

_____ forecast and monitor the proportion of various protected group members, such as women and minorities, that are in various job categories and career tracks. A) Ethnocracies B) Group rights C) Affirmative action plans = D) T-test techniques E) Employment background checks

C

Debbie feels that her employer let her go for no reason. Although the company practices employment-at-will, she still pursues resolution with the EEOC. This is called A) counter cyclical hiring policy. B) outsourcing policy. C) employment-at-will policy. D) due process policy. E) affirmative action policy.

D

Executive search firms (ESFs) A) are taking the place of internal recruiting activities at many companies. B) require the person being placed to make the initial contact with the prospective employer. C) are unaffected by the reduced employment levels because of the recent recession. D) primarily seek out potential job candidates who are already employed. E) have remained unaffected by the increased use of low-cost electronic search vehicles.

D

How do statistical forecasting methods differ from judgmental forecasting methods with regard to the labor market? A) Judgmental methods are not useful in situations that have no historic precedent. B) Statistical methods are the best option for events that have no historic precedent. C) Forecasting using judgmental methods is always more precise than forecasting using statistical methods. D) Statistical methods are excellent for capturing historic trends. E) Judgmental methods are better than statistical methods for events that have historic precedent

D

In the face of demographic pressures dealing with an aging workforce, many employers try to use _____ among their older workers through early retirement incentive programs. A) paid leave B) job rotation C) work sharing D) voluntary attrition E) transfers

D

Is the argument that "call center" staffing is the only type of work being offshored valid? A) No, because countries to where jobs are being offshored are facing a shortage of skilled labor and are refusing "call center" jobs. B) Yes, because the level of education and infrastructure does not support high-end support jobs such as reading X-rays and other medical tests. C) Yes, because the state of online security and privacy is less advanced in developed countries. D) No, because figures have shown that countries such as China and India are trying to climb the skill ladder of available work. E) Yes, because in order to maintain employment rates in their own countries, companies avoid offshoring jobs

D

The approach that pays employees higher wages than what competitors pay their employees in similar roles is called the A) premium-wage approach. B) free-rider effect. C) lead-indicator approach. D) lead-the-market approach. E) first-mover advantage.

D

The process of attempting to ascertain the supply of and demand for various types of human resources is called A) outsourcing. B) downsizing. C) delegation. D) forecasting. E) implementation.

D

The purpose of setting specific quantitative goals is A) to make sure that employees are held accountable for achieving the stated goals. B) to ascertain whether the company has successfully avoided any potential labor surpluses or shortages. C) to collect data about current employees, measure their performances, and compare the results with global standards in order to get a better idea of the firm's international competence. D) to focus attention on a problem and provide a benchmark for determining the relative success of any programs aimed at redressing a pending labor shortage or surplus. E) to predict areas within the organization where there will be future labor shortages or surpluses.

D

Which of the following is NOT one of the forces that draw out an older worker's career? A) The improved health of older people in general B) The fear of Social Security being cut C) Employers being constrained by age discrimination legislation D) Insufficient younger workers to replace the older workforce E) Employers' fear of losing the experience that older workers possess

D

Which of the following is a disadvantage of employing temporary workers as a means of eliminating a labor shortage? A) The use of temporary workers adds up to many administrative tasks and financial burdens associated with being the "employer of record." B) Small companies that cannot afford their own testing program often get employees who have tested by a temporary agency. C) The low levels of commitment to the organization and its customers that temporary workers bring with them often reduce the level of customer loyalty. D) Many temporary agencies train employees prior to sending them to employers, which often means that the company has to retrain them in accord with its own standards. E) Because temporary workers have little experience in the host firm, the objective perspective they bring is of no value.

D

Which of the following is true about temporary workers? A) Although they are temporary, these workers have to be included in employee records. B) The objective perspective that temporary workers bring with them is of no value because of their lack of experience. C) Despite prior training from temporary agencies, companies have to retrain temporary workers to match company standards. D) Temporary workers give employers some flexibility to respond to fluctuations in consumer demand for their products and services. E) Instead of replacing long-term employees with temporary employees, many organizations supplement their core staff with a small set of temporary workers who act more like assistants to the core staff than potential replacements.

D

Which of the following is true about transitional matrices? A) Transitional matrices can be read across rows but cannot be read from top to bottom. B) Transitional matrices provide a comparison of the proportion of workers in protected subgroups with the proportion that each subgroup represents in the relevant labor market. C) Transitional matrices provide an objective measure of the effectiveness of an organization's human resource recruitment policy. D) Transitional matrices are extremely useful for charting historic trends in a company's supply of labor. E) Transitional matrices show the increase in productivity of employees over a period of time.

D

_____ are people who are prompted to apply for a job by someone within the organization. A) Direct applicants B) Internal employees C) Boomerang employees D) Referrals E) Virtual employees

D

Ron works as a sale executive for Janus Inc., a large manufacturer of turbocharged engines. He hears about a vacancy for sales manager at Los Inc., a competitor in the same industry, and sends in his resume requesting Los to consider him for the vacancy. Ron is an example of a(n) A) poached employee. B) virtual employee. C) internal employee. D) referral. E) direct applicant.

E

Since there are fewer students on campus, security does not have to wait to shrink their workforce. Which option should administrators choose to reduce those numbers quickly? A) Early retirement B) Retraining C) A hiring freeze D) Natural attrition E) Demotions

E

Which of the following actions is most likely to enable organizations to increase the impact that recruiters have on those they recruit? A) Withholding the company's information B) Excluding personnel specialists C) Recruiting individually D) Providing highly positive, unrealistic descriptions of the job E) Providing timely feedback

E

Which of the following is an example of image advertising? A) Orange Inc. releases an advertisement promoting the product it produces. B) Paper Corp. publishes its profit details in the newspaper. C) Richmond Inc. releases an advertisement on television about an event it is promoting. D) Umbrella Corp. asks its employees to work on Saturdays for the next three months to meet project deadlines. E) Rain Inc. releases television advertisements that give an idea about the pleasant working conditions in the organization.

E

Which of the following is the definition of a leading indicator? A) It is an informal way of measuring the purchasing power parity between two currencies. B) It is a measurement of consumer confidence, which is defined as the degree of optimism about the state of the economy. C) It is an economic indicator found by adding the unemployment rate to the inflation rate of an economy. D) It is an indicator to measure changes in the price level of consumer goods and services purchased by households. E) It is an objective measure that accurately predicts future labor demand.

E

Which of the following is true about offshoring? A) The smaller and newer a vendor, the better it is for the company to conduct business. B) Small overseas upstarts do not take risks that larger, more established contractors take. C) Any work that is proprietary and requires tight security should be offshored. D) A company should avoid outsourcing work that is self-contained and does not need an exchange of information. E) The actual cost savings from offshoring work can be less than a company expects.

E

Which of the following statements is true about downsizing? A) The typical organizational response to a surplus of labor has been downsizing, which is slow but low in human suffering. B) An organization turns to downsizing only in times of recession. C) In firms that are high in research and development intensity, downsizing has been linked to higher long-term organizational profits. D) The negative effects of downsizing seem to be reduced in service industries characterized by high levels of customer contact. E) Downsizing efforts often fail because employees who survive the purges often become narrow-minded, self-absorbed, and risk averse

E

T/F: Jan is a veteran HR manager and she still prefers to solicit applications through newspaper advertisements. Her argument is that she will get better candidates. Is she correct?

F

T/F: Jonah is a baby boomer and his boss is expecting that he will retire at age 65. This is an appropriate expectation.

F

T/F: Newspaper ads generate the largest number of recruits, and many of these are qualified for the position.

F

A comparison of the proportion of workers in protected subgroups with the proportion that each subgroup represents in the relevant labor market is called a workforce utilization review

T

Statistical planning models are useful when there is a long, stable history that can be used to reliably detect relationships among variables.

T

T/F: A leading indicator is an objective measure that accurately predicts future labor demand.

T

T/F: A reason that downsizing efforts often fail is that employees who survive the purges often become narrow-minded, self-absorbed, and risk averse.

T

T/F: An advantage of employing temporary workers is that it frees a firm from many of the administrative tasks and financial burdens associated with being the "employer of record."

T

T/F: Image advertising is often effective because job applicants develop ideas about the general reputation of the firm and then this spills over to influence their expectations about the nature of specific jobs at the organization.

T

T/F: MediPlus is planning a large technology project. The company currently has a technology staff of two people who provide desktop support. The company has decided to contract with IT4U to get the job done. This is an example of outsourcing.

T

T/F: One of the reasons that organizations engage in downsizing is that many firms change the location of where they do business for economic reasons.

T

T/F: Promote from-within policies make it clear to applicants that there are opportunities for advancement within the company.

T

T/F: Public employment agencies serve primarily the blue-collar labor market; private employment agencies perform much the same service for the white-collar labor market.

T

T/F: The second step in human resource planning is goal setting and strategic planning.

T

T/F: The typical organizational response to a labor shortage has been either hiring temporary employees or outsourcing, responses that are fast and high in revocability.

T

The purpose of setting specific quantitative goals is to focus attention on the problem and provide a benchmark for determining the relative success of any programs aimed at redressing a pending labor shortage or surplus.

T

In the late 1990s and early 2000s many jobs left the United States for a cheaper labor force. The American people did not like this move to ______ and stopped buying certain products until the company came back to the United States. A) homesourcing B) co-sourcing C) reshoring D) telecommuting E) offshoring

E

T/F: Characteristics of a job vacancy are less important than recruiters or recruiting sources when it comes to predicting job choice.

F

T/F: Employers prefer hiring and training new employees rather than having to pay existing workers extra for overtime production.

F

T/F: Hiring employees from external sources is a fast option to avoid an unexpected labor shortage; plus. its revocability is high.

F

T/F: Recruiters tend to be viewed by job seekers as more credible when they are personnel specialists rather than subject matter experts in the job being filled.

F

T/F: Referrals are people who apply for a vacancy without prompting from the organization.

F

T/F: Research indicates that job applicants find companies with due process policies less attractive than companies with employment-at-will practices.

F

T/F: The last step in the human resource planning process is forecasting.

F

T/F: When applicants' reactions to recruiters are examined, age and gender are the two traits that stand out the most.

F

Typically, "call center" staffing is the only type of work that is being offshored.

F

Instead of filling vacant instructor positions with new full-time faculty, Hope College can take advantage of A) temporary employees. B) technological innovation. C) turnover reductions. D) new external hires. E) retraining.

A

Which of the following is most likely to lead to a successful downsizing? A) Avoiding indiscriminant reductions B) Informing employees that they are laid off via emails C) Downsizing at random D) Avoiding changes in the nature of work roles E) Removing the company's long-term employees first

A

Which of the following options for avoiding an expected labor shortage is a slow solution and has low revocability? A) Overtime B) Temporary employees C) Retrained transfers D) Technological innovation E) Outsourcing

D