Gaining a Competitive Advantage HRM: CH 5

* _____ is the planned elimination of large numbers of personnel designed to enhance organizational effectiveness.

Downsizing

Which of the following statements is true about downsizing?

Downsizing efforts often fail because employees who survive the purges often become narrow-minded, self-absorbed, and risk averse.

A _____ is a short-term elimination of paid workdays applied to salaried workers, as opposed to hourly workers.

furlough

The approach that pays employees higher wages than what competitors pay their employees in similar roles is called the _____.

lead-the-market approach

A critical aspect of the program implementation step of human resource planning is

making sure that some individual is held accountable for achieving the stated goals.

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

offshoring

Yield ratios express the

percentage of applicants who successfully move from one stage of the recruitment and selection process to the next.

A policy that lays out the steps an employee can take to appeal a termination decision is called a(n) _____.

due process policy

Methods used to reduce an expected labor shortage HIGH on revocability

1. Overtime 2. Temporary employees 3. Outsourcing 4. Retrained transfers

Relatively fast methods to reduce an expected labor surplus

1. Work sharing 2. Pay reduction 3. Demotion 4. Transfer

_____ forecast and monitor the proportion of various protected group members, such as women and minorities, that are in various job categories and career tracks.

Affirmative action plans

Which of the following best exemplifies the process of self-selection?

An applicant decides to interview with a particular company while at a job fair.

Which of the following is most likely to lead to a successful downsizing?

Avoiding indiscriminant reductions

The _____ requires that everyone receiving unemployment compensation be registered with a local state employment office.

Social Security Act

Which of the following is the biggest downside for large job sites?

Because of the sheer size of the website, there is a lack of differentiation between candidates listed on the site.

Which of the following is NOT one of the forces that draw out an older worker's career?

Insufficient younger workers to replace the older workforce

Which of the following is considered a fast option for reducing an expected labor surplus but results in high human suffering?

Demotions

_____ are people who apply for a vacancy without prompting from the organization.

Direct applicants

Which of the following is considered a slow option for reducing an expected labor surplus and has a low impact on human suffering?

Early retirement

Which of the following is true of the several options available to reduce an expected labor surplus?

Early retirement causes relatively less human suffering.

Due to a series of resignations from the organization, Zylon Inc., a large software firm, is facing an acute labor shortage. During which of the following human resource planning steps would the firm contemplate several options to address the labor issue?

Goal setting and strategic planning

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

Human resource recruitment

Which of the following best explains why older people approaching retirement age have no intention of retiring?

Improved health of older people in general, in combination with the decreased physical labor in many jobs, has made working longer a viable option.

Which of the following is an advantage of relying on internal recruitment sources?

It generates a sample of applicants who are well known to the firm.

Which of the following is the accurate definition of workforce utilization review?

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

* Which of the following is the definition of a leading indicator?

It is an objective measure that accurately predicts future labor demand.

Which of the following is a method used to REDUCE an expected labor shortage that is LOW on revocability?

New external hires

Is the argument that "call center" staffing is the only type of work being offshored valid?

No, because figures have shown that countries such as China and India are trying to climb the skill ladder of available work.

Which of the following is true about outsourcing?

Outsourcing is a logical choice when a firm simply does not have certain expertise and is not willing to invest time and effort into developing it.

_____ is a generic term used to refer to organizational decisions that affect the nature of the vacancies for which people are recruited.

Personnel policies

Which of the following is an example of image advertising?

Rain Inc. releases television advertisements that give an idea about the pleasant working conditions in the organization.

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

Referrals

_____ is considered a SLOW option for avoiding an expected labor shortage but has HIGH revocability.

Retrained transfer

How do statistical forecasting methods differ from judgmental forecasting methods with regard to the labor market?

Statistical methods are excellent for capturing historic trends.

Which of the following options for avoiding an expected labor shortage is a SLOW solution and has LOW revocability?

Technological innovation

Which of the following options for avoiding an expected labor shortage has the benefit of being a FAST solution with HIGH revocability?

Temporary employees

Which of the following is true about temporary workers?

Temporary workers give employers some flexibility to respond to fluctuations in consumer demand for their products and services.

Which of the following is an example of an intrinsic reward?

The U.S. Army appealing to the patriotism in people to get more new recruits

Which of the following is true about offshoring?

The actual cost savings from offshoring work can be less than a company expects.

* Which of the following is a disadvantage of employing temporary workers as a means of eliminating a labor shortage?

The low levels of commitment to the organization and its customers that temporary workers bring with them often reduce the level of customer loyalty.

Which of the following is true of statistical forecasting methods that capture historic trends?

They provide predictions that are much more precise than judgmental methods.

Which of the following is true about transitional matrices?

Transitional matrices are extremely useful for charting historic trends in a company's supply of labor.

Recruiting advertisements in newspapers and periodicals

are likely to generate less desirable candidates than direct applications or referrals.

Ron works as a sale executive for Janus Inc., a large manufacturer of turbocharged engines. He hears about a vacancy for sales manager at Ios Inc., a competitor in the same industry, and sends in his resume requesting Ios to consider him for the vacancy. Ron is an example of a(n) _____.

direct applicant

Policies that state that either party in an employment relationship can terminate that relationship at any time, regardless of cause, are called _____.

employment-at-will policies

The final step in the planning process is to _____.

evaluate results

The first step on the HR planning process

forecasting

The process of attempting to ascertain the supply and demand for various types of HR

forecasting

Sometimes, organizations advertise just to promote themselves as a good place to work in general. This is called _____.

image advertising

Executive search firms (ESFs)

primarily seek out potential job candidates who are already employed.

The programs developed in the strategic-choice stage of the process are put into practice in the _____ stage.

program-implementation

Which of the following actions is most likely to enable organizations to increase the impact that recruiters have on those they recruit?

providing timely feedback

Hector is a maintenance supervisor at a large petroleum refinery in Texas. His friend, Ronald, who works at another refinery in Louisiana, informs Hector about a vacancy for a maintenance manager's position at the Louisiana refinery and asks him to apply for the position. Hector is an example of a(n) _____.

referral

Each of the following is a relatively fast method to reduce an expected labor surplus EXCEPT _____.

retraining

Statistical planning models almost always have to be complemented by _____.

subjective judgments

The goals that are set in the human resource planning process should come directly from

the analysis of the labor supply and demand.

When a company faces a shortage of employees in the workforce, and it predicts that current demand for products or services may not extend to the future, it will

try to garner more hours out of the existing labor force.

* The purpose of setting specific quantitative goals is ______?

to focus attention on a problem and provide a benchmark for determining the relative success of any programs aimed at redressing a pending labor shortage or surplus.

* A(n) _____ shows the proportion of employees in different job categories at different times.

transitional matrix

In the face of demographic pressures dealing with an aging workforce, many employers try to use _____ among their older workers through early retirement incentive programs.

voluntary attrition

Which of the following pairs of recruiter characteristics does an applicant tend to respond to most positively?

warmth and informativeness

The process of determining whether there are any subgroups whose proportion in a given job category within a company is substantially different from their proportion in the relevant labor market is called _____.

workforce utilization review