UEXCEL Human Resource Management

Direct applicants

People who apply for a job vacancy without prompting for the organization.

Referrals

People who are prompted to apply for a job by someone within the organization.

Dimension of Culture -- Long Term orientation

Source: Hofstede - The degree to which a society embraces, or does not embrace, long-term devotion to traditional, forward thinking values. A long-term orientation is thought to support a strong work ethic where long term rewards are expected as a result of today's hard work.

Dimension of Culture -- Masculinity-femininity

Source: Hofstede - The extent to which society values masculine characteristics of aggressiveness, assertiveness, and not caring for others; also the extent to which male and female roles are clearly defined.

Dimension of Culture -- Power Distance

Source: Hofstede GLOBE - The degree to which power in unequally distributed in a society or organization.

Dimension of Culture -- Uncertainty avoidance

Source: Hofstede GLOBE - the degree to which a society considers itself threatened by uncertain events ad ambiguous situations and tends to avoid these types of situations or tries to control them through formal means.

Dimension of Culture -- Individualism-collectivism/communitarianism

Source: Hofstede Tropenaars - The extent to which society emphasizes the importance of the individual versus the group.

Dimension of Culture -- Universalism vs. particularism

Source: Trompenaars - Rules are more important than relationships; legal contracts are drawn up, and to be seen as trustworthy you must honor them; a deal is a deal. Or whether a rule applies "depends"; attention is given to particular relationships, obligations, and unique circumstances involved; relationships evolve.

Dimension of Culture -- Neutral vs. Affective

Source: Trompenaars - Thoughts or feelings are hidden; there is a cool self-control; don't touch; monotone expression. Or people express their thoughts openly; there is a heated vitality to discussions; people touch, use gestures, and can be dramatic in their expressions.

Right-to-work laws

State laws that make union shops, maintenance of membership, and agency shops illegal.

Occupational Safe and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA)

The 1970 law that authorizes the federal government to establish and enforce occupational safety and health standards for all places of employment engaging in interstate commerce.

Employee Retirement Income Security (ERISA)

The 1974 Act that increased the fiduciary responsibilities of pension plan trustees, established vesting rights and portability provisions, and established the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBCG)

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) 1985

The 1985 act that requires employers to permit employees to extend their health insurance coverage at group rates for up to 36 months following a qualifying event, such as a layoff.

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

The 1993 Act that requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide up to 12 weeks unpaid leave after childbirth or adoption; to care for a seriously ill child, spouse or parent; or for an employees's own serious illness.

four fifths rule

The EEOC developed a rule for determining adverse impact. The rule states that in the minorities hired-minority applicants ratio is less than four-fifths (80 percent) of the majority members hired-majority applicants ratio, than a prima facie case of discrimination exists.

Duty of Fair representation

The National Labor Relations Board Act requirement that all bargaining unit members have equal access to and representation by the union.

Strategy Formulation

The Strategic planning groups decide on a strategic direction by defining the company's mission and goals, its external opportunities and threats, and it's internal strengths and weaknesses. They then generate various strategic alternatives and compare those alternatives' ability to achieve the company's mission and goals.

Development

The acquisition of knowledge, skills, and behaviors that improve an employee's ability to meet changes in job requirements and in client and customer demands.

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)

The agency that guarantees to pay employees a basic retirement benefit in the event that financial difficulties force a company to terminate or reduce employee pension benefits.

Attitudinal structuring

The aspect of the labor-management negotiation process that refers to the relationship and level of trust between the negotiators.

Forecasting

The attempts to determine the supply of and demand for various types of human resources to predict areas within the organization where there will be future labor shortages or surpluses.

Pay level

The average pay, including wages, salaries, and bonuses, of jobs in an organization.

Equity

The balance between the inputs (experience, education, special skills, etc.) an employee brings to a job and the outcomes he/she receives from it. Outcomes include pay, benefits, achievement, recognition, and any other rewards.

Validity

The extent to which a performance measure assess all the relevant-and only the relevant-aspects of job performance.

Specificity

The extent to which a performance measure gives detailed guidance to employees about what is expected of them and how they can meet these expectations.

Acceptability

The extent to which a performance measure is deemed to be satisfactory or adequate by those who use it.

Strategic congruence

The extent to which the performance management system elicits job performance that is consistent with the organizations strategy, goals, and culture.

Psychological success

The feeling of pride and accomplishment that comes from achieving life goals.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

The government committee established to ensure al individuals have an equal opportunity for employment, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)

The government's attempt to ensure that all individuals have an equal opportunity for employment, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin.

Succession planning

The identification and tracking of high-potential employees capable of filling higher-level managerial positions.

Ergnomics

The interface between individuals' physiological characteristics and the physical work environment. Ergonomic design of a chair.

Outcome fairness

The judgement that people make with respect to the outcomes received relative to the outcomes received by other people with whom they identify.

Minimum Wage

The lowest amount that employers are legally allowed to pay; the 1990 amendment of the Fair Labor Standards Act permits a sub minimum wage to workers under the age of 20 for a period of up to 90 days.

Performance Management

The means through which managers ensure that employees' activities and outputs are congruent with the organizations goals.

Transfer

The movement of an employee to a different job assignment in a different area of the company.

Job rotation

The process of systematically moving a single individual from one job to another over the course of time. The job assignments may be in various functional areas of the company or movement may be between jobs in a single functional area or department.

Performance Appraisal

The process through which an organization gets information on how well an employee is doing his or her job.

Performance appraisal

The process through which an organization gets information on how well an employee is doing his or her job.

General duty clause

The provision of the Occupational Safe and Health Act that states an employer has an overall obligation to furnish employees with a place of employment free from recognized hazards.

Job experience

The relationships, problems, demands, tasks, and other features that employees face in their jobs.

Pay Structure

The relative pay of different jobs (job structure) and how much they are paid (pay level)

Job structure

The relative pay of jobs in an organization.

integration

To achieve full (blank), HR managers must have the ability to influence the development and selection of information used in making a decision, as well as the ability to make or strongly influence the decision itself.

compelling business case

To create (blank) HR managers must create "an awareness of potential 'gain or pain' for a specific business. Human Resource initiatives are successful when they resolve an issue - they make the issue 'go away'. For maximum impact, HR initiatives should be backed by compelling data and should be focused on on a few critical issues rather than on a huge range of problems.

Merit Pay

Traditional form of pay in which base pay is increased permanently.

Voluntary turnover

Turnover initiated by employees (often whom the company would prefer to keep)

Involuntary turnover

Turnover initiated by the organization (often among people who prefer to stay)

Analytic approach

Type of assessment of HRM effectiveness that involves determining the impact of, or the financial costs and benefits of, a program or practice.

analytic approach

Type of assessment of HRM effectiveness that involves determining the impact of, or the financial costs and benefits of, a program or practice.

Audit Approach

Type of assessment of HRM effectiveness that involves review of customer satisfaction or key indicators (e.g. turnover rate, average days to fill a position) related to an HRM functional area (e.g., recruiting, training)

Audit approach

Type of assessment of HRM effectiveness that involves review of customer satisfaction or key indicators (e.g., turnover rate, average days to fill a position) related to HRM functional area (e.g., recruiting, training)

Corporate campaigns

Union activities designed to exert public, financial, or political pressure on employers during the union-organizing process.

Maintenance to membership

Union rules requiring members to remain members for a certain period of time (e.g. length of the union contract).

Configurational (bundling)

Various configurations or "bundles" of HR practices go together and, collectively, can improve business performance. Certain bundles are effective in certain industries or in certain business conditions; other bundles should be used in other industries or under different business circumstances.

Goals

What an organization hopes to achieve in the medium to long term future.

environmental opportunities

are aspects of the surroundings that may help the organization achieve its goals. Xilinx's base of large and successful customers world-wide provided it with a strong foundation on which to rebuild its financial success after the economic downturn of 2001. For any firm preparing a strategic plan, an environmental scan should include an analysis of technology, economic factors, the legal/political environment, international markets, competitors, the labor supply, and its customers.

environmental threats

are features of the external surroundings that may prevent the organization from achieving its strategic goals. For example, it is obvious from the reading the HR challenge that Xilinx faced new threats worldwide from terrorism and its impact on the global economy.

inward HR function measures

assess the efficiency and quality of activities within the HR function itself.

outward focused HR measures

assess the impact of HR practices on aspects outside the HR function itself.

Talent architect

a role of the CHRO that focuses on building and identifying the human capital critical to the present and future of the firm.

liaison to the board of directors

a role of the CHRO that focuses on preparation for board meetings, phone calls with board members, and attendance at board meetings.

Strategic advisor to the executive team

a role of the CHRO that focuses on the formulation and implementation of the firms strategy.

delayering

a trend for fewer management levels and fewer managers. As a result more authority and more responsibility are delegated to self-managed teams or autonomous work groups to plan, organize, supervise, and evaluate their own work.

Third country

A country other than the a host or parent country.

Concurrent validation

A criterion-related validity study in which a test is administered to all people currently in a job and then incumbents' scores are correlated with existing measures of their performance on the job.

Predictive validation

A criterion-related validity study that seeks to establish an empirical relationship between applicants' test scores and their eventual performance on the job.

Negative affectivity

A dis-positional dimension that pervasive individual differences in satisfaction with any and all aspects of life.

Mentor

A experienced, productive senior employee who helps develop a less experienced employee.

Internal growth strategy

A focus on new market and product development, innovation and joint ventures.

Gainsharing

A form of group compensation based on group or plant performance (rather than organizationwide profits) that does not become part of the employees base salary.

Associate union membership

A form of union membership by which the union receives dues in exchange for services (e.g. health insurance, credit cards) but does not provide representation in collective bargaining.

Merit increase grid

A grid that combines an employee's performance rating with his or her position in a pay range to determine the size and frequency of his or her pay increases.

Preferred Provider Organization (PPO)

A group of healthcare providers who contract with employers, insurance companies, and so forth to provide health care at a reduced fee.

Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)

A health care plan that provides benefits on a prepaid basis for employees who are required to use only HMO Medical service providers.

Downward move

A job change involving a reduction in an employee's level of responsibility and authority.

Bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ)

A job qualification based on race, sex, religion, and so on that the employer asserts is a necessary qualification for the job.

Sabbatical

A leave of absence from a company to renew or develop skills.

Employment-at-will

A legal theory that states that either the employee or the employer can terminate the employment relationship at any time for any reason. Recent state laws and court decisions have limited an employer's right to terminate an employee at will.

Job Specification

A list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) (Knowledge, skills, abilities, other) that an individual must have to perform a job.

Job Description

A list of the tasks, duties and responsibilities that a job entails.

Pay policy line

A mathematical expression that describes the relationship between a job's pay and its job evaluation points.

Criterion-related validity

A method of establishing the validity of a personnel selection method by showing a substantial correlation between test scores and job performance scores.

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR)

A method of resolving disputes that does not rely on the legal system. Often proceeds through the four stages of open door policy, peer review, mediation, and arbitration.

Role-play

A participant taking the role of a manager or other employee.

Coach

A peer or manager who works with an employee to motivate her, help her develop skills, and provide reinforcement and feedback.

360-degree appraisal (feedback systems)

A performance appraisal process for managers that includes evaluations from a wide range of persons who interact with a manager.

360-degree appraisal (Feedback systems)

A performance appraisal process for managers that includes evaluations from a wide range of persons who interact with the manager.

Upward feedback

A performance appraisal process for managers that includes subordinates' evaluations.

upward feedback

A performance appraisal process for managers that includes subordinates' evaluations.

Fact Finder

A person who reports on the reasons for a labor-management dispute, the views and arguments of both sides, and a non-binding recommendation for settling the dispute.

Training

A planned effort to facilitate the learning of job-related knowledge, skills and behavior by employees.

Job satisfaction

A pleasurable feeling that results from the perception that one's job fulfills or allows the fulfillment of one's important job values.

Arbitration

A procedure for resolving collective bargaining impasses by which an arbritator chooses a solution to the dispute.

Mediation

A procedure for resolving collective-bargaining impasses by which a mediator with no formal authority acts as a facilitator and go-between in the negotiations.

Assessment Center

A process in which multiple raters evaluate employees' performance on a number of exercises.

Strategic Management

A process, an approach to addressing the competitive challenges an organization faces. It can be thought of as managing the "pattern or plan that integrates an organization's major goals, policies and action sequences into a cohesive whole."

Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI)

A psychological test used for team building and leadership development that identifies employees' preferences for energy, information gathering, decision making, and lifestyle.

Comparable worth or Pay equity

A public policy that advocates remedies for any undervaluation of women's jobs (also called pay equity)

Summary Plan Description (SPD)

A reporting requirement of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) that obligates employers to describe the plan's funding eligibility requirements, risks, and so forth within 90 days after an employee has entered the plan.

Talent architect

A role if the CHRO that focuses on building and identifying human capital critical to the present and future of the firm.

Representative of the firm

A role of the CHRO that focuses on activities with external stakeholders, such as lobbying, speaking to outside groups, etc.

Counselor/confidante/coach

A role of the CHRO that focuses on counseling or coaching team members or resolving interpersonal or political conflicts among team members.

counselor/confidante/coach to the executive team

A role of the CHRO that focuses on counseling or coaching team members or resolving interpersonal or political conflicts among team members.

Workforce sensor

A role of the CHRO that focuses on identifying workforce morale issues or concerns.

workforce sensors

A role of the CHRO that focuses on identifying workforce morale issues or concerns.

Liaison to the Board

A role of the CHRO that focuses on preparation for board meetings, phone calls with board members, and attendance at board meetings.

Strategic Advisor to the executive team

A role of the CHRO that focuses on the formulation and implementation of the firm's strategy.

Leader of the HR function

A role of the CHRO that focuses on working with HR team members regarding the development, design, and delivery of HR services.

leader of the HR function

A role of the CHRO that focuses on working with HR team members regarding the development, design, and delivery of HR services.

Four-fifths rule

A rule that states that an employment test has disparate impact if the hiring rate for a minority group is less than four fifths, or 80%, of the hiring rate for the majority group.

Standard Deviation Rule

A rule used to analyze employment tests to determine disparate impact; it uses the difference between the expected representation for minority groups and the actual representation to determine whether the difference between the two is greater than would occur by chance.

Position

A set of tasks and duties performed by a single individual in an organization .

In-basket

A simulation of the administrative tasks of a manager's job.

Appraisal politics

A situation in which evaluators purposefully distort a rating to achieve personal or company goals.

Offshoring

A special case of outsourcing where the jobs that move actually leave one country and go to another.

Frame of reference

A standard point that serves as a comparison for other points and thus provides meaning.

Concentration strategies

A strategy focusing on increasing market share, reducing costs, or creating and maintaining a market niche for products and services. --Irving look for more definition

Job Enlargement

Adding challenges or new responsibilities to an employee's current job.

bottom-line impact

Addressing the dollar costs and benefits of HR practices is not always so easy. Despite the difficulty, the pressures of a more competitive business environment will increasingly place HR practitioners in the position of have to justify the (blank) of their practices on the organization.

centralized HR services

Administrative efficiency can also be enhanced through the development of centralized HR services that are shared throughout an organization. For example, University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) developed a "one stop shop" for all its payroll, benefits, and other HR administrative services. Another process involved HR Staff members becoming "administrative experts" completely rethinking how they create value for the firm through their administrative activities.

Promotions

Advances into positions with greater challenge, more responsibility, and more authority than the employee's previous job.

Role Behaviors

Behaviors that are required of an individual in his or her role as a job holder in a social work environment.

Key jobs

Benchmark jobs, used in pay surveys, that have relatively stable content and are common to many organizations.

Universalistic approach

Best practices are universally applicable and directly related to a firm performance which can be measured in financial terms.

Departmentalization

Degree to which work units are grouped based on functional similarity or similarity of workflow.

Rate ranges

Different employees in the same in the same job may have different pay rates.

High-potential employees

Employees the company believes are capable of being successful in high-level management positions.

Exempt

Employees who are not covered by the Fair Labor and Standards Act are not eligible for overtime pay.

Parent-country nationals (PCNs)

Employees who were born and live in a parent country.

Employee assistance programs (EAPs)

Employer programs that attempt to ameliorate problems encountered by workers who are drug dependent, alcoholic, or psychologically troubled.

Safety awareness programs

Employer programs that attempt to instill symbolic and substantive changes in the organization's emphasis on safety.

External Analysis

Examining the organization's operating environment to identify strategic opportunities and threats.

Balanced scorecard

provides a strategic framework for assessing the effectiveness of an organizations HR activities. The scorecard assess organizational performance from four perspectives. 1. Financial (what is the firms strategy for satisfying shareholders?) 2. Customer (What does the customer want, and how must the firm be perceived by the customer to achieve its strategic objectives? 3. Internal, Operational (What are the critical aspects of the firms long-term goals, how must the organization learn and improve? 4. Strategic and Organizational learning (To achieve the firm's long-term goals, how must an organization learn and improve?)

Prima Facie Case of discrimination

simply means "on the face of it" or "at first sight" The evidence must suggest at first sight the employer has discriminated. Once a prima facie case has been established, the burden of proof shifts to the employer who has the opportunity to show that its actions were not illegal and are justified for sound business reasons.

Theory X

some managers assume that employees dislike work, are lazy, and must be coerced to perform.

Gamification

Game-based strategies applied to performance management to make it a fun, effective, transparent, and inclusive process for employees and managers.

Benchmarks

HR Benchmarking is the process of comparing ones HR practices with those of another firm, particularly a competitor, as a way to outperform the competition.

external fit

HR fit involves making sure HR activities "make sense" and help the organization achieve its goals and objectives. there are three aspects of HR fit vertical, horizontal, and (blank) fit. (Blank) fit concerns how well HR activities match the demands of the external environment. To achieve (blank), horizontal, and vertical fit, HR staff members, working closely with line managers, must make correct choices about the nature and specific types of HR programs used in an organization.

Exempt Jobs

Higher level administrative, managerial, and professional employees are paid on a salary basis and are exempt from the overtime provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

resource flexibility

is the extent to which an organization can apply its resources to a variety of uses and purposes. (blank) also involves the cost, difficulty and time needed to switch resources from one use to another. The organization includes in its selection process measures of "trainability" or "ability to learn" to select employees who can more easily develop new skills if they are needed.

Interview

Employees are questioned about their work and personal experience, skills, and career plans.

Host-country nationals (HCNs)

Employees born and raised in a host, not parent, country.

Third-country nationals (TCNs)

Employees born in a country other than a parent or host country.

Workforce utilization review

A comparison of the proportion of workers in protected subgroups with the proportion that each subgroup represents in the relevant labor market.

Utilization Analysis

A comparison of the race, sex and ethnic composition of a employer's workforce with that of the available labor supply.

business impact measures

(Blank) can include levels of improvement in the quality of the firms products or services, cost avoidance or reduction, production efficiency indices, amount of time to produce and get a product to market, number of new products introduced, revenue and sales growth, market share, customer satisfaction and retention rates, indices of profitability, and share price.

Geocentric approach

(This is the most open approach) HR policies are developed to meet the goals of the Global network of the home-country locations as well as foreign subsidiaries. This approach is also called the Open hybrid model

competitive benchmarking

(blank) is conducted against external competitors in the same markets. Firm A might compare itself with four of its competitors in terms of its employee turnover rate, ratio of HR staff to production, employee turnover rate, ratio of HR staff to production employees, and percentage of total operating budget spent on employee training.

competitive advantage

(blank) is the leverage that a business has over its competitors. This can be gained by offering clients better and greater value. Advertising products or services with lower prices or higher quality interests consumers. Target markets recognize these unique products or services. This is the reason behind brand loyalty, or why customers prefer one particular product or service over another.

Profit sharing

A compensation plan in which payments are based on a measure of organization performance (profits) and do not become part of the employee's base salary.

Procedural justice

A concept of justice focusing on the methods used to determine the outcomes received.

Interactional justice

A concept of justice referring to the interpersonal nature of how outcomes were implemented.

Duty

A (blank) is loosely defined area of work that contains several distinct but related tasks performed by an individual. A (blank) for a grocery store employee might be to check and restock shelves or to check out customer purchases.

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)

A 1990 Act prohibiting individuals with disabilities from being discriminated against in the workplace.

Glass ceiling

A barrier to advancement to higher-level jobs in the company that adversely affects women and minorities. The barrier may be due to lack of access to training programs, development experiences, or relationships (e.g. mentoring).

Job hazard analysis technique

A breakdown of each job into basic elements, each of which is rated for its potential for harm or injury.

Protean Career

A career that is frequently changing due to changes both in the person interests, abilities, and values and changes in the work environment.

Transnational scope

A company's ability to make HRM decisions from a international perspective.

Development planning system

A system to retain and motivate employees by identifying and meeting their development needs (also called career management systems).

Content validation

A test validation strategy performed by demonstrating that the items, questions, or problems posed by a test are a representative sample of the kinds of situations or problems that occur on the job.

Disparate treatment

A theory of discrimination based different treatment given to individuals because of their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability status.

Disparate impact

A theory of discrimination based on facially neutral employment practices that disproportionately exclude a protected group from employment opportunities. To get a (blank) case off the ground, the employee must present evidence that an employer's neutral policy, rule, or practice has a disproportionate negative impact on members of a protected class. Objective criteria, such as tests, degree requirements, and physical requirements (for lifting or stamina, for example), may be challenged under a disparate impact theory. Subjective criteria, such as performance, collegiality, or impressions made during an interview, may also be the subject of a disparate impact case.

Efficiency Wage Theory

A theory stating that wage influences worker productivity.

9 box grid

A three-by three matrix used by groups of managers and executives to compare employees within one department, function, division, or the entire company.

Checkoff Provision

A union contract provision that requires an employer to deduct union dues from employees' paychecks.

Closed Shop

A union security provision requiring a person to be a union member before being hired. Illegal under NLRA.

Union Shop

A union security provision that requires a person to join the union within a certain amount of time after being hired.

Agency Shop

A union security provision that requires an employee to pay union membership dues but not to join the union.

Calibration meetings

A way to discuss employees performance with the goal of ensuring that similar standards are applied to their evaluations.

Shared service Model

A way to organize the HR function that includes centers of expertise or excellence, service centers, and business partners.

Job evaluation

An administrative procedure used to measure internal job worth.

External growth strategy

An emphasis on acquiring vendors and suppliers or buying businesses that allow a company to expand into new markets.

Stock options

An employee ownership plan that gives employees the opportunity to buy the company's stock at a previously fixed price.

Employee stock ownership plan (ESOP)

An employee ownership plan that providers employers certain tax and financial advantages when stock is granted to employees.

ADA (Americans with disabilities act) 1992

An equal opportunity law.

Compa-ratio

An index of of the correspondence between actual and intended pay.

Situational Interview

An interview procedure where applicants are confronted with specific issues, questions, or problems that are likely to arise on the job.

Leading Indicator

An objective measure that accurately predicts the future labor demand

Outsourcing

An organization's use of an outside organization for a broad set of services.

dollar value of HR programs

Another issue in assessing HR practices relates to the monetary costs and benefits of HR activities. dollar-value indices used to assess HR are included in measures such as these: Cost of benefits as a percentage of total compensation -Labor contract costs -Cost per hire -Sales revenue per employee -HR cost per sales dollar

Ethical Duties

Applied to businesses to guide their dealings with employees and applicants. These duties include: Respecting people and not using them solely as means to one's own ends. -Not doing any harm -Telling the truth -Keeping promises -Treating people fairly and without discrimination -Not depriving people of basic rights, such as the right to free speech and association.

Inpatriates

Are foreign nationals who are hired by an MNC and stationed for some length of time (often one to three years) in the MNC's corporate operations before returning to their home locations.

Human Resource Specialist

Are usually the entry-level positions May begin career as as interviewer, compensation analyst, benefits coordinator, job analyst, and trainer. A new specialist might begin as an interviewer, move up to coordinating college recruiting in a region, and progress to supervising all college recruiting.

service quality measures

Assess the quality of HR systems as perceived by the primary users of those systems. (blank) are evaluated in terms of improvement over time, to external standards, or against the preprogram expectation of the users involved. A variety of service quality dimensions can be assessed.

Reverse mentoring

Business situation in which younger employees mentor more senior employees.

Bona Fide Occupational qualification BFOQ

Can be a defense against a Prima Facie case of adverse treatment. This can be based on age, sex, religion, or national origin but not on race or color. An employer claiming its conduct was based on a BFOQ admits sex-based treatment, for example, but maintains that the differential treatment is necessary to promote legitimate business objectives.

Career Support

Coaching, protection, sponsorship, and providing challenging assignments, exposure and visibility.

Assessment

Collecting information and providing feedback to employees about their behavior, communication style, or skills.

Benchmarking

Comparing an organization's practices against those of the competition.

Transaction Processing

Computations and calculations used to review and document HRM decisions and practices.

Expert Systems

Computer systems incorporating the decision rules of people recognized as experts in a certain area.

Quantitative ability

Concerns the speed and accuracy with which one can solve arithmetic problems of all kinds.

Outplacement counseling

Counseling to help displaced employees manage the transition from one job to another.

New Technologies

Current applications of knowledge, procedures and equipment that have not been previously used. Usually involves replacing human labor with equipment, information processing, or some combination of the two.

Differentiation

Dealing with putting HR policies into practice....It is Flexibility in policies and practices at the local subsidiary level.

Centralization

Degree to which decision-making authority resides at the top of the organizational chart.

Theory Y

Douglas McGregor explained that managers oriented towards (blank) assumptions believe that employees like work and will be motivated by intrinsic rewards that promote growth and self-direction.

Strategy Implementation

During (blank )the organization follows through on the chosen strategy. This consists of structuring the organization, allocating resources, ensuring that the firm has skilled employees in place, and developing reward systems that align employee behavior with the organizations strategic goals. Both of these strategic management phases must be performed effectively.

Formal education programs

Employee development programs, including short courses offered by consultants or universities, executive MBA programs, and university programs.

Expatriate

Employee sent by his or her company to manage operations in a different country.

HRM

Human Resource Management refers to the policies, practices and systems that influence employees behavior, attitudes, and performance.

Competency Model

Identifies and provides a description of competencies that are common for an entire occupation, organization, job family, or specific job.

resource-based model

In 1995 an article by Jay Barney discussed (blank) of strategic HRM. This model is based on the idea that organizations gain competitive advantage when they possess resources are valuable, rare, difficult for competitors to imitate, and organized in such a way to maximize their overall value to the firm.

Polycentric approach

In Polycentric Approach, the nationals of the host country are recruited for the managerial positions to carry out the operations of the subsidiary company. The rationale behind this approach is that the locals of the host country know their culture better and can run the business more efficiently as compared to their foreign counterparts.

Agent

In agency theory, a person (e.g., a manager) who is expected to act on behalf of a principal (e.g., an owner)

Principal

In agency theory, a person (e.g., the owner) who seeks to direct another person's behavior.

Geocentric approach or open hybrid model

In this approach HR policies are developed to meet the goals of the global network of home-country locations and foreign subsidiaries. Has also been referred to the open hybrid model because subsidiary practices are a hybrid of activities to meet both global and local demands, with extensive sharing among subsidiaries of effective practices.

Ethnocentric

In this approach the MNC simply exports the HR practices and policies used in the home country to subsidiaries in foreign locations. (probably the easiest approach)

Polycentric approach

In this approach the subsidiaries are basically independent from headquarters. HR policies are adapted to meet the circumstance in each foreign location.

Closed Hybrid model

In this approach to HR, a subsidiary uses a parent country "template" for HR but adapts practices within the template to local conditions.

Rater Error Training (RET)

In this training, Evaluators view examples of common errors and receive suggestions on how to avoid them. RET has been found effective in reducing common rating errors.

Diversity

Inclusive to all races/people

Dimension of Culture -- Gender egalitarianism

Source: GLOBE - The extent to which an organization or a society minimizes gender role differences and gender discrimination.

Stretch assignments

Job assignments in which there is a mismatch between an employee's skills and past experiences and the skills required for success on the job.

Temporary assignment

Job tryouts such as employees taking on a position to help them determine if they are interested in working in a new role.

Pay grades

Jobs of similar worth or content grouped together for pay administration purposes.

Nonkey jobs

Jobs that are unique to organizations and that cannot be directly valued or compared through the use of market surveys.

Parent country nationals (expatriates)

Key Term PARENT COUNTRY workers BORN in the companies PARENT COUNTRY

Host country nationals

Key term HOST COUNTRY workers born in a host country not Parent country

Whistle-blowing

Making grievances public by going to the media or government.

MBO -- acronym

Management by Objectives

Transitional Matrix

Matrix showing the proportion or number of employees in different job categories at different times.

Merit Bonus

Merit pay paid in the form of a bonus, instead of a salary increase.

Technic of operations review (TOR)

Method of determining safety problems via an analysis of past accidents.

MNC - acronym

Multi-national corporation

Power distance

One of Hofstede's cultural dimensions; concerns how a culture deals with hierarchal power relationships-particularly the unequal distribution of power.

Long-term-short-term orientation

One of Hofstede's cultural dimensions; describes how a culture balances immediate benefits and future rewards.

Uncertainty avoidance

One of Hofstede's cultural dimensions; describes how cultures seek to deal with an unpredictable future.

Masculinity-femininity dimension

One of Hofstede's cultural dimensions; describes the division of roles between the sexes within a society.

Individualism-collectivism

One of Hofstede's cultural dimensions; describes the strength of the relation between an individual and individuals in a society.

centralized centers of expertise

One of the three roles in the New HR organization. The task of this role is effective strategy formulation and provision of highly specialized technical expertise.

central administrative service units

One of the three roles in the New HR organization. The task of this unit is efficient delivery of administrative transactions, such as payroll, responses to benefits inquiries, and so forth.

business partner teams

One of the three roles in the New HR organization. This roles is assigned to specific business units (and sometimes regional or country-specific units). This role provides effective and efficient strategy implementation at the business-unit (or regional/country) level, although they may occasionally also have to formulate HR strategies specifically for their own business units.

empowered employees

Organizations are finding that (blank) are more able to have a "line of sight" - that is, see the link between their own behavior and organizational success. Employee line of sight contributes to the overall strategic success of the firm via employee motivation.

Skill-based pay

Pay based on the skills employees acquire and are capable of using.

Due process policies

Policies by which a company formally lays out the steps an employee can take to appeal a termination decision.

Kaizen

Practices participated by employees from all levels of the company that focus on continuous improvement of business processes.

Decision Support Systems

Problem-solving systems that usually include a "what-if" feature that allows users to see how outcomes change when assumptions or data change.

Leaderless group discussion

Process in which a team of five to seven employees solves an assigned problem within a certain time period.

Delayering

Reducing the number of job-levels within an organization.

Verbal comprehension

Refers to a person's capacity to understand and use written and spoken language.

Reasoning ability

Refers to a persons capacity to invent solutions to many diverse problems.

Transnational representation

Reflects the multinational composition of a company's managers.

Cash Balance Plan

Retirement plan in which the employer sets up an individual account for each employee and contributes a percentage of the employees salary; the account earns interest at a predetermined rate.

Reengineering

Review and redesign of work processes to make them more efficient and improve the quality of the end product or service.

Dimension of Culture -- Societal collectivism

Source: GLOBE - The degree to which organizational and societal institutional practices encourage and reward collective distribution of resources and collective action.

Psychosocial support

Serving as a friend and role model, providing positive regard and acceptance, and creating an outlet for a protege to talk about anxieties and fears.

Competencies

Set of skills, knowledge, and abilities and personal characteristics that enable employees to perform their jobs.

administrative efficiency

Several processes are needed to enhance the administrative expertise of HR units. One of these is to focus on improving administrative efficiency by targeting current processes for improvement. The role of HR unit is to examine the gaps between the "as is" process and what the system "should be".

social performance management

Social media and microblogs similar to facebook, LinkedIn, and Yammer that allow employees to quickly exchange information, talk to each other, provide coaching, receive feedback and recognition in the form of electronic badges.

SHRM acronym - a society

Society for Human Resource Management

Dimension of Culture -- In group collectivism

Source: GLOBE - The degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty, and cohesiveness in their organizations or families.

Equity Theory

Suggests that individuals determine whether they are being treated fairly by comparing their own outcomes/inputs ratio with the outcomes/inputs ratio of someone else.

Strategic Human Resource Management

Suppose an organization is planning to become known for its high quality products. Ideally HR practitioners will design appraisal and reward systems that emphasize quality to support this competitive strategy.

Action plan

Teams work on an actual business problem, commit to an action plan, and are accountable for carrying out the plan.

Cognitive ability tests

Tests that include three dimensions: verbal comprehension, quantitative ability, and reasoning ability.

configurational approach

The (blank) to SHRM (Strategic Human Resource Management) proposes that the strategic effectiveness of HRM depends on a set, or bundle, of HR practices rather than on any single HR program or policy.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) 1938

The 1938 law that established the minimum wage and overtime pay.

Taft-Hartley Act

The 1947 Act that outlawed unfair union labor practices.

balanced scorecard approach

The balanced scorecard approach provides a strategic approach for assessing the effectiveness of an organization. The scorecard assesses organizational performance from four perspectives: Financial (What is the firms strategy for satisfying shareholders?) Customer (What does the customer want, and how must the firm be perceived by the customer to achieve its strategic objectives? Internal, operational (What are the critical aspects of the firm'd business processes, and how must they operate to be consistent with its customer objectives?) Strategic and organization learning (To achieve the firm's long term goals, how must the organization learn and improve?)

Bench strength

The business strategy of having a pool of talented employees who are ready when needed to step into a new position within the organization.

Compensable factors

The characteristics of jobs that an organization values and chooses to pay for.

HR bundles

The configurational view of HR focuses on implementing (blank) rather than single, "magic bullet" programs. The configurational approach to SHRM is consistent with the long-held view that employee performance is determined by a number of factors, such as motivation and ability.

Reliability

The consistency of a performance measure; the degree to which a performance measure is free from random error.

Parent country

The country in which a company's corporate headquarters is located.

Host country

The country in which the parent-country organization seeks to locate or has already located a facility.

Organizational commitment

The degree to which an employee identifies with the organization and is willing to put forth the effort on its behalf.

Pro social motivation

The degree to which people are motivated to help other people.

Job involvement

The degree to which people identify themselves with their jobs.

Utility

The degree to which the information provided by selection methods enhances the effectiveness of selecting personnel in real organizations.

Generalizability

The degree to which the validity of a selection method established in one context extends to other contexts.

Range spread

The distance between minimum and maximum amounts in a pay grade.

Employment-at-will doctrine

The doctrine that, in the absence of a specific contract, either an employer or employee could sever the employment relationship at any time.

Incentive effect

The effect a pay plan has on the behavior of current employees.

Sorting effect

The effect a pay plan has on the composition of the current workforce (the types of employees attracted and retained)

Transnational process

The extent to which a company's planning and decision-making processes include representatives and ideas from a variety of cultures.

Strategic Choice

The organization's strategy: The ways an organization will attempt to fulfill its mission and achieve its long-term goals.

Goals and timetables

The part of a written affirmative action plan that specifies the percentage of women and minorities that an employer seeks to have in each job group and the date by which that percentage will be attained.

Action Steps

The part of a written affirmative action plan that specifies what an employer plans to do to reduce underutilization of protected groups.

Distributive bargaining

The part of the labor-management negotiation process that focuses on dividing a fixed economic "pie".

Integrative bargaining

The part of the labor-management negotiation process that seeks solutions beneficial to both sides.

Intraorganizational bargaining

The part of the labor-management organization negotiation process that focuses on the conflicting objectives of factions within labor and management.

Marginal tax rate

The percentage of an additional dollar of earnings that goes to taxes.

Downsizing

The planned elimination of large numbers of personnel, designed to enhance organizational effectiveness.

Tuition reimbursement

The practice of reimbursing employees' costs for college and university courses and degree programs.

Human Resource recruitment

The practice or activity carried on by the organization with the primary purpose of identifying and attracting potential employees.

Selection

The process by which an organization attempts to identify applicants with the necessary knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that will help it achieve its goals.

Job redesign

The process of changing the tasks or the way work is performed in an existing job.

strategy formulation

The process of deciding on a strategic direction by defining a company's mission and goals, its external opportunities and threats, and its internal strengths and weaknesses.

Job Design

The process of defining the way work will be performed and the tasks that will be required in a given job.

Internal Analysis

The process of examining an organization's strength and weaknesses.

Job Analysis

The process of getting detailed information about jobs.

Performance feedback

The process of providing employees information regarding their performance effectiveness.

Recruitment

The process of seeking applicants for potential employment.

Job Rotation

The process of systematically moving a single individual from one job to another over the course of time. The job assignments may be in various functional areas of the company or movement may be between jobs in a single functional area or department.

Financial Accounting Statement (FAS) 106 - (1993)

The rule issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in 1993 requiring companies to fund benefits provided after retirement on an accrual rather than pay-as-you-go basis and to enter these future cost obligations on their financial statements.

horizontal fit

The second aspect of HR fit, relates to the interrelationship among HR activities; that is, the extent to which they are mutually consistent. Consistency ensures that HR practices reinforce one another. HR consistency means that all programs send a common message to all employees, which makes it easier for workers to understand what behaviors are required of them.

Talent Management

The systematic planned strategic effort by a company to bundles of human resource management practices including acquiring and assesing employees, learning and development, performance management, and compensation to attract, retain, develop, and motivate highly skilled employees and managers.

Expectancy theory

The theory that says motivation motivation is a function of valence, instrumentality, and expectancy.

Progression of withdrawal

Theory that dissatisfied individuals enact a set of behaviors to avoid the work situation.

Cost-Benefit Utility

There is an ever-increasing need for HR managers to speak the language of business, and, in so doing, to justify the economic value of existing or proposed programs. The key question decision makers must answer with respect to all programs is this: How can we best allocate our limited resources in the most cost-effective way?

Human Resource Executive

This Top-level position is usually a vice president of the organization, has the responsibility of linking corporate policy and strategy with human resource management.

Human Resource Planning

This process is essential to meet the staffing needs that result when complex and changing organizations encounter a dynamic business environment. This process involves forecasting HR needs and developing programs to ensure that the right numbers and types of individuals are available at the right time and place. organizations depend on what if scenarios that look at future needs in the context of work force demographics, economic projections, anticipated technological changes, recruitment success, retention goals, and shifts in organizational strategy.

job extinction

This view argues that much of what we now know as job analysis is no longer meaningful and must be replaced with drastically different means for understanding what employees do in organizations.

Competitiveness

a company's ability to maintain and gain market share in its industry. Competitiveness is related to company effectiveness, which is determined by whether the company satisfies the needs of stakeholders (groups affected by business practices).

benchmarking

a generic term that can be defined as "a comparison with selected performance indicators from different organizations, typically in the same industry, or with comparable organizations that are considered to be 'best in class'.

"one-stop shop"

can be a centralized HR service. For example, University of Nebraska Medical Center developed a (blank) for all its payroll, benefits, and other HR administrative services.

strategic human resource management (SHRM)

can be thought of as "the pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable an organization to achieve its goals. For example, many firms have developed integrated manufacturing such as advanced manufacturing technology, just in-time inventory control, and total quality management in an effort to increase their competitive position.

coordination flexibility

concerns the extent to which an organization has decision-making and other systems that enable it to quickly move resources from one use to another. For example, AT&T's Resource Link is a database of employee skills to which line managers have ready access.

human capital pool

consists of the skills, abilities and knowledge that exist among employees at any one particular time.

mission statement

delineates the organization's reason for existing. It is important to operationalize a mission and ensure buy-in if a mission statement is not to degenerate into mere rhetoric.

HR practice choices

figure 2.3 on page 69 in fisher book organizes (blank) into six categories and defines opposite ends of each practice continuum, such as promoting entirely from within versus filling all openings from the external labor market. The challenge is to develop internally consistent configurations of HR practice choices that implement the organization's strategy and advance it's competitiveness. To accomplish this successfully a clear understanding of the nature of HR choices available is needed.

results measures

focus on assessment of aspects such as the extent to which the firm: -Recruits employees with critical skills. -Retains key employees -Develops employee skills, abilities, and knowledge -Aligns individual and organizational objectives -Shares knowledge across business units -Enhances team performance -creates a positive social climate between management and workers. -Enhances employee satisfaction, motivation, loyalty, trust, and commitment and promotes working relationships across both internal and external boundaries.

Stakeholders

go beyond owners. Blank- include the customers, the community, in which the business is located, stockholders, employees, and even non-human entities such as the environment.

Generic HR benchmarking

involves the comparison of HR processes that are the same, regardless of industry.

Job

is " a group of positions that are identical with respect to their major or sufficiently alike to justify their being covered by a single analysis. For example, the grocery store employs twenty people in a job of check-out clerk.

Task

is " a meaningful unit of work activity generally performed on the job by one worker within some limited time period...It is a discrete unit of activity and represents a composite of methods, procedures, and techniques."

Human Resource Manager

is a generalist who administers and coordinates programs spanning several functional areas. The HR manager is usually a top ranked person at a plant or facility and, as such is expected to be knowledgeable about all areas of human resource management to oversee the implementation of organizational human resource policies at the facility, and to advise line managers on human resource issues.

Nonexempt Jobs

lower level Jobs such as manual or clerical Jobs are called nonexempt jobs because their incumbents are not exempt from the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. These people are typically paid an hourly wage.

Reasonable accomodation

making facilities readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.

internal benchmarking

occurs when a firm compares practices in one part of the organization against those in other internal units. For example, work and safety practices in a firm's operation in the Southwestern United States might be compared with those in its New England operations.

disparate or (adverse) impact

occurs when the same standards are applied to all employees but have very different consequences for particular groups.

Human Resource certification

offered by the Human Resource Certification Institute. Must meet educational and experience requirements as well as a 4 hour 225 question test.

Regiocentric approach

represents a regional grouping of subsidiaries. HR policies are coordinated within the region to as great an extent as possible, Sunsidiaries may be staffed by managers from any of the countries within the region. The regiocentric approach enhances coordination and communication among subsidiaries in a region.

Collective Bargaining

requires unionized companies to negotiate with employee representatives on wages (e.g. base pay, increases overtime), benefits (e.g., vacations, holidays, pensions), hours (e.g., breaks, cleanup time), and other conditions of work, such as seniority, discipline, and discharge procedures.

Ethnocentric approach

the MNC (multinational corporation) simply exports HR practices and policies used in the home country to subsidiaries in foreign locations. In (blank), the key positions in the organization are filled with the employees of the parent country. All the managerial decisions viz. Mission, vision, objectives are formulated by the MNC's at their headquarters, and the same is to be followed by the host company.

yield ratio

the number of candidates who pass each stage of the selection process and then choose to proceed to the next stage compared with the number who entered each stage to begin with.

partnership -- business partner

to become a business partner, the HR manager must (1) learn as much about the firms business as possible, (2) be more responsive to and more aware of the organization's needs and direction, (3) shift away from traditional HR functions, (4) become more involved in supportive, collaborative relationships with managers throughout the organization and (5) demonstrate how critical HR is to the success of the business.

Operational measures

usually assess the quantity, quality/accuracy, cost and speed or cycle times associated with various HR practices. Examples include average cost of filling a vacant management position, cost per training hour, amount of time required to time to fill vacant positions, or cost to process an administrative transaction.

Third country nationals

workers that in transit working for and going to a host country neither of which are their country of origin.