Chapter 9

Unprecedented generational diversity. Today's workforce is in a state of flux as a blend of three generations...

(Baby Boom, Gen-X, and Gen-Y) present new management challenges.

Assessing Jobs...

Basic building blocks of human resource management include job analysis, job descriptions, and job specifications. Job analysis is a systematic process of gathering and interpreting information about the essential duties, tasks, responsibilities, and context of a job.

Corporations that build strong, diverse organizations reap numerous dividends, including:...

Better use of employee talent. Companies with the best talent are the ones with the best competitive advantage.; Increased understanding of the marketplace. A diverse workforce is better able to anticipate and respond to changing consumer needs.; Enhanced breadth of understanding in leadership positions. Diverse top management teams tend to be less myopic in their perspectives.; Increased quality of team problem solving. Teams with diverse backgrounds bring different perspectives to a discussion that result in more creative ideas and solutions.

One issue of growing concern is sexual harassment, which is a violation of Title VII of the ________ ___________ _____. The _________ guidelines specify that behavior such as unwelcome advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal and physical conduct of a sexual nature becomes sexual harassment when submission to the conduct is tied to continued employment or advancement, or when the behavior creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

Civil Rights Act; EEOC

Sexual harassment creates an unhealthy and unproductive work environment and is illegal. As a form of sexual discrimination, sexual harassment in the workplace is a violation of the 1964 ______ _________ ______. Sexual harassment in the classroom is a violation of the ________________ ________________ of 1972.

Civil Rights Act; Education Amendment

The strategic approach to human resource management recognizes three key elements...

First, all managers are involved in human resource management. Second, employees are viewed as assets. In today's brutally competitive business environment, how a company manages its workforce may be the single most important factor in sustained competitive success. Third, HRM is a matching process, integrating the organization's strategy and goals with the correct approach to managing human capital.

___________-born workers make up 16 percent of the U.S. workforce and are most likely employed in ___________ industries, such as food preparation, cleaning, and maintenance. Of the total number of ____________-born workers, nearly half are Hispanic and 23 percent are Asian.

Foreign; service; foreign

To break through the glass ceiling into senior management roles, top executives suggest female and minority managers follow this advice:...

Gain profit-and-loss experience. For managers who want to be considered for top-level jobs, it is important to have experience in line position with profit-and-loss responsibilities.; Be assertive and ask for what you want. Many Asian managers have found themselves stereotyped as "not top manager material" because they are too quiet and unassertive. Women in general are also uncomfortable asking for what they want, for fear of being perceived as too aggressive or too selfish.; Be willing to take risks: Jump in as a problem solver when an organization is in crisis, an opportunity known as the glass cliff.; Display confidence and credibility in your body language. Consultant Carol Kinsey Goman advises women who strive for leadership positions to be aware of nonverbal messages that reduce their authority, and urges them to avoid certain actions including excessive smiling and delicate handshakes.

The following categories describe various forms of sexual harassment...

Generalized. This form involves sexual remarks and actions not intended to lead to sexual activity.; Inappropriate/offensive. Though not sexually threatening, it causes discomfort in a coworker and limits the offended person's freedom and ability to function at work.; Solicitation with promise of reward. This action treads a fine line as an attempt to "purchase" sex, with the potential for criminal prosecution.; Coercion with threat of punishment. The harasser coerces a coworker into sexual activity by using the threat of power to jeopardize the victim's career.; Sexual crimes and misdemeanors. These acts, if reported, would be considered felony crimes and misdemeanors.

___________ recruiting is less costly, generates higher employee commitment, and offers career advancement. __________ recruiting gains newcomers from advertising, state employment services, online recruiting services, private employment agencies, job fairs, and employee referrals.

Internal; External

Online Checks...

One of the newest ways of gauging whether a candidate is right for the company is by seeing what the person has to say about him or herself on blogs and social networking sites. HR managers may also search online for criminal records, credit history, and other indications of the candidate's honesty, integrity, and stability. One way in which HR managers gauge an applicant's suitability for an open position is by checking what the applicant says on social media sites. Maryland was the first state to pass a lawmaking it illegal to ask job applicants for their social networking passwords.

Performance Evaluation Errors include...

Stereotyping; Halo effect; Behavior Anchored Rating scale

_______________________, or using computers and telecommunications equipment to do work without going to an office, is one way organizations are helping employees lead more ______________ lives. ____________ scheduling for regular employees is also important in today's workplace, with approximately ____% of the U.S. workforce having flexible hours.

Telecommuting; balanced; Flexible; 53

Social Media...

Today, much of the recruiting is done via the Internet and social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Meetup. In a 2012 survey of global HR executives, 46 percent reported using social media to find good candidates. Companies still use online recruiting methods, but the trend is towards more targeted online recruiting.

Growth in women workers....

Today, women outnumber men in the workplace, and their numbers are projected to grow slightly faster, at 7.4 percent compared to 6.3 percent for men.

Human resource planning begins with several questions:...

What new technologies are emerging, and how will they affect the work system?; What is the volume of business likely to be in the next five to ten years?; What is the turnover rate, and how much, if any, is avoidable?

The responses to these questions are used to formulate specific questions pertaining to HR activities, such as:...

What types of engineers will we need and how many?; How many administrative personnel will we need to support the additional engineers?; Can we use temporary, part-time, or virtual workers to handle some tasks?

A 2012 survey by _______________ Management has found that nearly ____% of employers are using more _______________ workers than a decade ago. People in these temporary jobs do everything from data entry to becoming the interim CEO. Highly skilled supertemps do mission-critical work.

Workforce; 44; contingent

A written job description is...

a clear and concise summary of the specific tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a job.

In particular, Asian managers bump up against the bamboo ceiling,...

a combination of cultural and organizational barriers that impede Asians' career progress.

Managing diversity...

a key management skill in today's global economy, means creating a climate in which the potential advantages of diversity for organizational or group performance are maximized while the potential disadvantages are minimized.

Diversity of perspective is achieved when...

a manager creates a heterogeneous team made up of individuals with diverse background and skill sets. By tapping into the strengths of diversity, teams are more likely to experience higher efficiency, better quality, less duplication of effort among team members, and increased innovation and creativity.

Performance review ranking system is...

a method in which managers evaluate direct reports relative to one another and categorizes each on a scale. These systems rank employees according to their relative performance: 20 percent would be placed in the top group of performers; 70 percent have to be ranked in the middle; and 10 percent are ranked at the bottom. The bottom tier are given a set period of time to improve their performance, and if they don't improve, they are fired. The advantages of this system include identifying the best and worst performers, and creating and sustaining a high performance culture in which people continuously improve. The disadvantages are that it may increase cutthroat competition among employees, discourage collaboration and teamwork, and potentially harm morale.

The goal for organizations seeking cultural diversity is pluralism rather than...

a monoculture and ethnorelativism rather than ethnocentrism.

The 360- degree feedback is...

a process that uses multiple raters, including self-rating, as a way to increase self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses and guide employee development. Members of the appraisal group may include supervisors, co-workers, and customers to provide appraisal of the employee from a variety of perspectives.

A stereotype is...

a rigid, exaggerated, irrational belief associated with a particular group of people. To be successful managing diversity, managers need to eliminate them from their thinking, shedding any biases that negatively affect the workplace. Managers can learn to value differences, which means they recognize cultural differences and see them with an appreciative attitude.

Structured interviews use...

a set of standardized questions that are asked of every applicant so comparisons can easily be made. These may include biographical interviews, which ask about the person's previous life and work experiences; behavioral interviews, which ask people to describe how they have performed a certain task or handled a particular problem; and situational interviews, which require people to describe how they might handle a hypothetical situation.

A realistic job preview (RJP) gives applicants...

all pertinent and realistic information, positive and negative, about the job and the organization. It enhance employee satisfaction and reduce turnover, because they facilitate matching individuals, jobs, and organizations.

Diversity is defined as...

all the ways in which employees differ. Many companies once defined diversity in terms of race, age, gender, lifestyle, and disability. Today, companies are embracing a more inclusive definition of it that recognizes a spectrum of differences that influence how employees approach work, interact with each other, derive satisfaction from their work, and define who they are as people in the workplace.

An internship is...

an arrangement whereby an intern, usually a high school or college student, exchanges free or low-cost labor for the opportunity to explore whether a particular career is appealing. They are an increasingly popular approach to recruiting because they provide a way to "test-drive" a potential employee.

Affirmative action requires...

an employer to take positive steps to guarantee equal employment opportunities for people within protected groups.

A corporate university is...

an in-house training and education facility that offers broad-based learning opportunities for employees—and frequently for customers, suppliers, and strategic partners as well—throughout their careers.

The glass ceiling is...

an invisible barrier that exists for women and minorities that limits their upward mobility in organizations. They can look up through the ceiling and see top management, but prevailing attitudes and stereotypes are invisible obstacles to their own advancement. This barrier also impedes the career progress of minorities.

Pluralism means...

an organization accommodates several subcultures. It seeks to fully integrate into the organization the employees who feel isolated and ignored. Most organizations are making a conscious effort to shift from a monoculture to this.

A _______ boomer turns 60 every seven seconds, continuously bumping up the average age of the workforce. While the number of workers between 25 and 45 years old is expected to __________ from 66.9 % to 63.7 % by 2020, the number of baby boomers age 55 years and older will _____ from 19.5 % to 25.2 % in the same period.

baby; decline; leap

The application form is used to...

collect information about the applicant's education, previous job experience, and other background characteristics. Employers should avoid questions that are irrelevant to job success. Additionally, it should not ask questions that create an adverse impact on protected groups.

Promoting from within helps...

companies retain valuable employees. This provides challenging assignments, prescribes new responsibilities, and helps employees grown by expanding and developing their abilities.

The behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS) is...

developed from critical incidents pertaining to job performance and is designed to help raters avoid performance evaluation errors. Each job performance scale is anchored with specific behavioral statements that describe varying degrees of performance.

Several federal laws have been passed to insure _________ __________________ ________________ (EEO). The purpose of these laws is to stop discriminatory practices that are unfair to specific groups and define ___________________nagencies for these laws. EEO legislation attempts to balance the pay given to men and women and provide employment opportunities without regard to race, religion, national origin, sex, age, or disability. The ______ _________ _____ of 1964 created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the major agency involved with employment discrimination.

equal; employment; opportunity; enforcement; Civil Rights Act

Managers across the ________ wrestle with many of the same diversity challenges as U.S. managers, especially concerning the progression of __________ into upper management positions. To boost the percentage of women on the corporate boards of _______________ countries, the ______________ ________ is studying whether to introduce quotas across the continent. ______________ companies have an even greater struggle to bridge the gender gap on corporate boards. Part of it relates to tepid economic growth and societal expectations. The progression of __________ into executive positions continues to be slow in both U.S. and global corporations, but innovative companies are initiating programs to boost _________'s advancement into higher levels of responsibility.

global; women; European; European Union; Japanese; women; women

Reduced costs associated with...

high turnover, absenteeism, and lawsuits. Companies that foster a diverse workforce reduce turnover, absenteeism, and the risk of lawsuits.

Underlying the organization's effort to attract employees is a matching model,...

in which the organization and the individual attempt to match the needs, interests, and values they offer each other. Both the company and the employee are interested in finding a good match.

The majority of organizational learning occurs through ___________ rather than __________ channels, so managers are supporting the use of social media technology for learning in ________________ work.

informal; formal; day-to-day

Broad work-life ____________ have become a critical ______________ strategy. Managers realize that people have personal needs that may require special attention. Some HR responses include __________ such as on-site gym facilities and childcare, assistance with arranging child and eldercare, and paid leaves.

initiatives; retention; benefits

Recruiting, sometimes referred to as talent acquisition,...

is defined as activities or practices that define the characteristics of applicants to whom selection procedures are applied.

Employer-branding campaigns are...

like marketing campaigns to "sell" the company and attract the best job candidates. However, many large, well-known companies are also using employer branding as companies fight fr talent.

Despite the best efforts of _____ managers and HRM professionals, the organization will lose employees. _________________ are valuable in maintaining an effective workforce in two ways. Employees who are poor ________________ can be dismissed. Productive employees often resent ______________, low-performing employees who are allowed to stay with the company and receive pay comparable to theirs.

line; Terminations; performers; disruptive

The best human resource managers know a compensation package requires more than ________. Although salary is an important component, benefits are equally important. Benefits make up ____% of labor costs in the U.S. Some benefits are required by ______ such as Social Security, unemployment compensation, and worker's compensation. One reason that benefits make up such a ________ portion of the compensation package is that health care costs have been increasing so quickly.

money; 40; law; large

Ethnocentric viewpoints produce a...

monoculture that accepts only one way of doing things and one set of values and beliefs. These assumptions create a dilemma for people of color, women, gay people, disabled, the elderly, and others who feel pressure to conform and are presumed deficient because of differences. Valuing diversity means ensuring that all people are given equal opportunities in the workplace.

The ______ social contract can benefit both employees and organizations. However, some companies take the new approach as an excuse to treat people as economic factors to be used when needed and then let go. Studies have found ________ employee and firm performance and _______________ commitment in companies where the interaction between employer and employee is treated as an economic exchange rather than a ____________ human and social relationship.

new; lower; decreased; genuine

Other types of benefits, such as health insurance, vacations, or educational reimbursement are...

not required by law but are provided by organizations to maintain an effective workforce.

Performance appraisal is...

observing and assessing employee performance, recording the assessment, and providing feedback to the employee. During it, skilled managers give feedback and praise concerning the acceptable elements of the employee's performance. It can also reward high performers with merit pay, recognition, and other rewards.

Moreover, vast changes are occurring in today's workplace and consumer base. The average worker is...

older now, and many more women, people of color, and immigrants are seeking job and advancement opportunities.

Training and development is a planned effort by an organization for employees to learn job‑related behaviors. The most common method of training is _______________ training (OJT), in which an experienced employee "adopts" a new employee to teach him or her how to perform job duties. ___________________ places an employee in a new position for as short as a few hours or for as long as a year to develop new skills and give the organization flexibility.

on-the-training; cross-training

Many women choose to get off the fast track long before they hit the glass ceiling. In this _____________ trend, highly-educated, professional women are deciding that corporate success isn't worth the price in terms of reduced family and personal time. Some are _________ ______ to be stay-at-home moms, while others want to continue working, but just not in the kind of fast-paced, competitive, aggressive environment that exists in most corporations. Critics argue that this is just another way to blame women ________________ for the dearth of female managers at higher levels.

opt-out; opting out; themselves

Contingent workers are...

people who work for an organization, but not on a permanent or full-time basis. This may include temporary placements, contracted professionals, leased employees, or part-time workers.

The first step in attracting a workforce is ____________, predicting the need for new employees based on the types of vacancies that exist. The second step is to __________________ with potential applicants; the third step is to ________ those with the best potential; finally, the new employee is welcomed to the organization.

planning; communicate; select

Current strategic issues of particular concern to managers in HRM include:...

right people to become more competitive on a global basis; right people for improving quality, innovation, and customer service; right people to retain after mergers, acquisitions, or downsizing; and right people to apply new information technology for e-business.

Unless HRM departments carefully manage the ______________ process, layoffs can lead to decreased morale and performance. Managers can smooth the _______________ process by regularly communicating with employees and providing them with as much information as possible. Managers can also use training and development to help address the _____________ needs of remaining employees.

rightsizing; rightsizing; emotional

An employer brand is...

similar to a product brand except that rather than promoting a specific product; its aim is to make the organization seem like a highly desirable place to work.

A company's compensation system has an impact on ___________ performance. Human resource managers design the pay and benefit systems to fit the company strategy and to provide compensation _______.

strategic; equity

Non-directive interviews allow...

the applicant a great deal of freedom in determining the course of the conversation, with the interviewer taking care not to influence the person's remarks.

Ethnorelativism is...

the belief that groups and subcultures are inherently equal.

Ethnocentrism is...

the belief that one's own group and subculture are inherently superior to other groups and cultures, thus making it difficult to value diversity. The business world tends to reflect values, behaviors, and assumptions based on the experiences of a homogeneous, white, middle‑class, and male workforce. Most management theories presume workers share similar values, beliefs, motivations, and attitudes about work and life in general.

The new social contract is based on...

the concept of employability rather than lifetime employment. Individuals are responsible for developing their own skills and abilities, understanding their employer's business needs, and demonstrating their value to the organization. The employer, in turn, invests in creative training and development opportunities so that people will be more employable when the company no longer needs them.

Inclusion is...

the degree to which an employee feels like an esteemed member of a group in which his or her uniqueness is highly appreciated. Inclusion creates a strong sense of belonging where all people can have their voices heard and appreciated.

Human resource management refers to...

the design and application of formal systems in an organization to ensure the effective and efficient use of human talent to accomplish organizational goals. This term includes activities undertaken to attract, develop, and maintain an effective workforce.

In the old social contract,...

the employee contributed ability, education, loyalty, and commitment in return for the company providing wages and benefits, work, advancement, and training. Volatile changes in the environment have disrupted this contract. Organizations have downsized and careers no longer necessarily progress up a vertical hierarchy.

Human resource planning is...

the forecasting of human resource needs and the projected matching of individuals with expected job vacancies.

A job specification outlines...

the knowledge, skills, education, physical abilities, and other characteristics needed to adequately perform the job.

Job evaluation is...

the process of determining the worth of jobs within the organization through an examination of job content. The intent is to pay employees fairly. Wage and salary surveys show what other organizations pay incumbents in jobs that match a sample of "key" jobs selected by the organization.

Stereotype threat describes...

the psychological experience of a person who, usually engaged in a task, is aware of a stereotype about his or her identity group suggesting that he or she will not perform well on that task. People most affected by it are those we consider as disadvantaged in the workplace due to negative stereotypes-racial and ethnic minorities, members of lower socioeconomic classes, women, older people, gay and lesbian individuals, and people with disabilities.

Job-based pay links compensation to...

the specific tasks that an employee performs.

Prejudice is...

the tendency to view people who are different as being deficient.

Pay-for-performance, also called incentive pay,...

ties at least part of the compensation to employee effort and performance through merit-based pay, bonuses, team incentives, gainsharing or profit sharing. With it, incentives are aligned with the behaviors needed to help the organization achieve its strategic goals. However, recent years have shown the potential dangers of misdirected this type of plans.

For organizations, the primary goals are...

to access specialized skills for specific projects, enabling the company to maintain flexibility and keep costs low.

Compensation refers...

to all monetary payments and all goods or commodities used in lieu of money to reward employees. Developing an effective compensation system is an important part of human resource management because it helps to attract and retain talented workers.

The three broad activities of HRM are...

to attract an effective workforce, develop the workforce to its potential, and maintain the workforce over the long term. Achieving these goals requires skills in planning, training, performance appraisal, wage and salary administration, benefit programs, and termination techniques.

Skill-based pay systems encourage employees...

to develop skills and competencies, making them more valuable to the organization and more employable if they leave.

Halo effect refers...

to giving an employee the same rating on all dimensions of the job even if performance is good on some dimensions and not good on others.

Rightsizing, also called downsizing, refers...

to intentionally reducing the company's workforce to the point where the number of employees is deemed to be right for the company's current situation. The goal is to make the company stronger and more competitive by aligning the size of the workforce with the company's current needs.

In addition, some firms are using offbeat approaches, also known as extreme interviewing,...

to test job candidates' ability to handle problems, cope with change, think on their feet, and work well with others.

Human capital refers...

to the economic value of the combined knowledge, experience, skills, and capabilities of employees. To build it, HRM develops strategies for finding the best talent, enhancing their skills and knowledge with training programs and opportunities for personal and professional development, and providing compensation and benefits that support the sharing of knowledge and appropriately reward people for their contributions to the organization.

The interview serves as a...

two-way communication channel that allows both the organization and the applicant to collect information that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. This selection technique is used in the hiring process in almost every job category in nearly every organization, but it is not generally a valid predictor of job performance, though it does have face validity (i.e. it seems valid). This is another area in which employers can get into legal trouble if they ask questions that violate EEO guidelines. Some organizations are using panel interviews, in which the candidate meets with several interviewers who take turns asking questions.

Stereotyping occurs...

when a rater places an employee into a class or category based on one or a few traits or characteristics.

Discrimination occurs...

when people act out their prejudicial attitudes toward other people who are targets of their prejudice. Although this in blatant form is not as widespread as in the past, bias in the workplace often shows up in subtle ways.

Discrimination occurs...

when some applicants are hired or promoted based on criteria that are not job relevant. When discrimination is found, remedies include back pay and affirmative action.

Some people think ___________ might actually be better managers, partly because of a more collaborative, less hierarchical, relationship-oriented approach that is in tune with today's global and multicultural environment. As attitudes and values change with _____________ generations, the qualities women seem to possess may lead to a ___________ role reversal in organizations. ___________ of all races and ethnic groups are outpacing _____ in earning bachelor's and master's degrees. Over all, ___________'s participation in both the labor force and civic affairs has steadily increased since the mid-1950s, while _____'s participation has slowly but steadily declined.

women; changing; gradual; Women; men; men