MGT 461 Exam 1

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

2nd

Union preferences are a major factor in _____ a total compensation strategy.

Assessing

A measure of how changes in one variable are related to changes in another variable is the:

Correlation coefficient

All of the following EXCEPT _____ are bases for judging job analysis.

Cost

Which of the following is NOT a test of whether a pay strategy is a source of competitive advantage?

Cost-effectiveness test

All of the following EXCEPT _____ are compensation systems associated with a cost-cutter strategy.

Customer satisfaction incentives

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:

Customer-Focused Approach

A difference between incentives and merit increases is that incentives:

Do not increase the base wage, whereas merit increases the base wage

Which of the following is NOT included in a strategy map?

HR alignment

Today, job analysis is typically performed by _____.

HR generalists and supervisors

Variable pay may also be called _____.

Incentives

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

Internal alignment

Whole Foods' shared-fate philosophy of limiting executive salaries to no more than 19 times the average pay of full-time employees is an example of which strategic pay decision?

Internal alignment

_____ refers to comparisons among jobs or skills inside a single organization.

Internal alignment

Which of the following statements about reliability of job analysis is true?

It is a necessary condition for validity

Research shows that _____ will effectively shift an organization in a downward performance spiral to an upward one.

It is unclear what compensation practices

A set of identical positions makes a _____.

Job

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

Job analysis

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

Job description

Engineering, sales, and maintenance are examples of _____.

Job families

Which of the following is given as an increment to the base pay in recognition of past work behavior?

Merit pay

Mike, a job analyst, is in the process of conducting a job analysis. He is given an initial tour of the work site by George, a first-level supervisor, and by Haley, a new recruit. According to the conventional job analysis procedures developed by the U.S. federal government, which of the following steps should Mike perform next?

Mike should conduct an interview with George to get an overview of the job.

_____ are related to greater performance when the work flow depends on individual contributors.

More hierarchical structures

One of the more readily accessible sources for generic job descriptions is the _____.

O'NET

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

Objectives

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

Position

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

Stock options

_____ looks at how an organization does its work: activities pursued to accomplish specific objectives for specific customers.

Supply chain analysis

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of aligned pay structures?

They are designed to increase the turnover rate.

Incentives do not permanently increase labor costs because:

They are one-time payments.

_____ refers to openness and communication about pay.

Transparency

The well-defined jobs at McDonald's and their small differences in pay are an example of a(n) _____ internal pay structure.

closely tailored

Robert, the CEO of GameTrack Corp., wants to restructure the pay plan without increasing the 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.

Content refers to the

work performed in a job and how it gets done.

Recent surveys show that, on average, an outstanding performer receives a _____ merit increase, an average performer a _____ merit increase, and a poor performer a 0.4% merit increase.

4.4%; 2.8%

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.

Based on the opinions of 10,000 U.S. workers, Hudson found that when given their choice of unconventional benefits, most employees would select _____.

A more flexible work schedule

When cooperation is important for successful organization performance, which of the following pay structures is most suitable?

An egalitarian pay structure

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.

Most job structures are best described as

Both person- and job-based structures

Which of the following is NOT a factor in defining equal work according to the Equal Pay Act?

Equal experience

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

According to the text, which of the following decisions should be made jointly?

External competitiveness and employee contribution decisions

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

Fairness

Gina announces that she would lose her job as her company is considering to offshore her job to another country. In this case, Gina is most likely to be working in a job that requires her to:

Manually fix typos in a document.

The second step of developing a total compensation strategy is to:

Map the strategy

According to the Hudson survey, _____ is the single thing that would make 41 percent of the U.S. workers happier

More money

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

Prominence

Jane works as a copy editor at TreeTime Inc. She receives an e-mail from the human resources department with a link to a questionnaire that asks her to rate the necessary attributes required for her job. In this scenario, the approach used by TreeTime is characterized as:

Quantitative job analysis

Which of the following is NOT one of the factors that define an internal pay structure?

The number of times the pay structure has been changed

The government's job analysis procedures recommend interviewing

The regular employee

Flexible-generic job descriptions would most likely be used with a(n) _____ strategy.

innovator

The most common bases for determining internal structures are:

work content and its value

Organization factors that shape internal pay structures include all BUT which of the following?

Economic pressures

In firefighting and rescue squads and global software design teams, a(n) _____ structure is most closely associated with higher performance.

Egalitarian

Joshua believes that treating employees equally will improve their job satisfaction, which in turn will increase their work productivity and performance. In accordance to 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

Incentives and merit guidelines are techniques of the _____ policy of the pay model.

Employee contributions

According to the government's procedures of the job analysis process, the first interview should be conducted with the _____.

First-level supervisor

Which of the following statements is NOT true?

Focusing only on one dimension of the pay strategy is a best practice.

Which of the following statements regarding reliability of job analysis is NOT true?

Gender and race of analysts affect reliability.

Hourly compensation costs for production workers in manufacturing are higher in _____ than in the United States.

Germany

The alignment test

Helps ensure passing the differentiation test.

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

Improves attitudes and behaviors

Which of the following is an ordering of jobs based on their content or relative value?

Job structure

In the context of pay relationships, which of the following is illegal in the United States?

Paying on the basis of one's age

Managers seek internal alignment within their organization by:

Paying on the basis of similarities among jobs.

Trying to measure an ROI for any compensation strategy implies that

People are "human capital," similar to other factors of production.

When organization performance declines

Performance-based pay plans do not pay off.

Hierarchical pay structures have all BUT which of the following characteristics?

Prefer team performance over individual performance

Most unions prefer which of the following?

Small pay differences among jobs and seniority-based promotions

Pay for temporary workers is based upon

The internal structure of their home employer.

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

the results converge among various sources of data and methods.

The most common way to collect job information is _____.

to ask incumbents to fill out a questionnaire

Marginal productivity theory argues that employers pay _____.

use value

Which of the following is an example of a relational return?

Employment security

Which of the following tests of competitive advantage is probably the easiest test to pass?

Alignment Test

The verification step of the government's job analysis method is always conducted with _____.

All the interviewees together

Which of the following statements regarding allowing employees a choice in their pay mix is NOT true?

Allowing employees their choice is easy for competitor companies to imitate

Inclusion of essential elements in job descriptions for jobs covered by the legislation is required by the

Americans With Disabilities Act

Jacob works at PrimeClean Corp., a carwash 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.

When job analysis shows that managers and employees disagree on parts of a job, the best answer is to

Collect more data.

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

Competitiveness

Which of the following pay structure procedures would NOT increase perceptions of pay fairness?

Hiring consultants to develop the pay structure

External factors are dominant influences on jobs filled via:

Hiring graduates

Which of the following is NOT true?

Large raises with a promotion decreases effort and increases absenteeism

In the formula predicting performance, the component most closely related to compensation is _____.

M

Which of the following companies is taking efforts to improve the work/life balance of its employees?

MH Corp. increases the number of paid holidays given to its senior employees.

Issues of transparency, technology, and choice are most closely associated with the _____ aspect of mapping a total compensation strategy.

Management

All of the following statements regarding offshoring are true EXCEPT that _____.

Offshoring is limited to low-skill jobs

Conventional methods of collecting job information are _____.

Open to bias and favoritism

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

Ownership

The job analysis method that uses information input, mental processes, work output, job context, other job characteristics, relationships with other persons, and general dimensions is _____.

PAQ

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

Task

Job analysis is important for both managers and employees because it is

The basis for a work-related rationale for pay differences.

The problem that is most likely to be faced by organizations using an egalitarian pay structure is _____.

The difficulty in external recruitment

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

The extent of external competitiveness and equity

Which theory predicts that individual performance will be maximized when the pay differentials between job levels is large?

Tournament theory

Which of the following programs introduced by Congress includes restrictions on executive pay that are designed to discourage executives from taking "unnecessary and excessive risks"?

Troubled Asset Relief Program

Organizations in a turbulent and unpredictable environment requiring flexibility in jobs and work processes are likely to be more successful with a(n) _____ internal pay structure.

loosely coupled

One of the reasons why 8 in 10 of the uninsured in the United States are from working families is that _____.

many small employers are much less likely than larger employers to offer health insurance to their employees

ADA has directly led many employers to _____.

modify the format of their job descriptions to specifically call out the essential elements

James says, "I don't trust the way the company determines pay rates in my department." If James feels this way despite being happy with his current salary, he is most likely concerned about _____.

procedural justice

A compensation system focusing on system control and work specifications is most closely associated with a(n) _____ strategy.

Cost-cutter

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

Cost-cutter

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

Employee contributions

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