HRM-6698 Final Practice Exam

To improve the performance feedback process, employers should not

discuss every criticism of the employee

The approach to measuring and managing performance that consists of techniques requiring the rater to rank order individuals within a given work group is called the

comparative approach

job rotation involves

giving employees job assignments in various functional areas of the company

Mary was recently told by upper management that they expected her to exercise more authority and leadership in her work group. Just two days prior to that, her team told her that while they appreciated the initiative she demonstrated, they expected her to be less authoritative and more democratic in the future. The term that best describes what Mary is experiencing is

role conflict

Most attempts to measure job satisfaction rely on

self reports

The performance management scales on which managers assign points to a list traits are called

graphic rating scales

Compared to Western European countries and Japan, the United States

has more union members

To be qualified benefit plan, a benefit cannot discriminate in favor of

highly compensated employees

A firm is considering locating a facility in another country, but the management team is concerned with weather or not they will be able to find enough workers with necessary skills to perform the work. This is a concern with which factor that affects HRM in global markets?

human capital

According to Hofstede's cultural dimensions, a culture where people are expected to look after their own interests and the interests and the interests of their immediate families is one in

individualism

Which of the following is the most objective performance measure?

number of errors made

Pay satisfaction deals with all of the following except

intrinsic needs

An in-basket exercise in an assessment center

is a simulation of the administrative tasks of a manager and measures leadership, problem-solving and administrative skills

Which of the following is not a benefit that proteges receive from a mentoring relationship?

performance goals

In merit pay programs an individual's compa-ratio represents his or her

position in the pay range

The compensation programs that would best fit any company regardless of the organizational structure or the independence of job is

profit sharing

Of the following pay programs, the weakest link between employees' performance and their earnings is found in

profit-sharing plans

The job-evaluation process is characterized by all of the following except

it is an objective method for pricing jobs

The family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 requires all but the following

maintenance of all benefits including vacation and pension

In what type of system are annual goals established and passed down through the organization?

management by objectives

Which of the following is not a problem with comparative approaches to performance management?

managers can still give high ratings to all employees

Which of the following is not a recognized characteristics of merit pay programs?

There is a strong relationship between pay and actual performance on the job in organizations that use them

Which of the following is not a recent research finding concerning the effects of unionization on profits an stock performance?

Unions have a negative effect on stock performance

The Hofstede dimension that deals with the degree to which a culture prefers structured conditions is

uncertainty avoidance

Which of the following is not one of the organization conditions that has been recommended as organizational requirements for gainsharing to be successful?

A strong sense of employee ownership of the organization

Which of the following is false concerning jobs assigned to the same pay grade?

All would receive the same market pay rate under alternative pay-setting approaches

Which pay-setting approach places the highest relative emphasis on external comparisons?

Basing pay on market surveys that cover as many key jobs as possible

Which of the following is not a way in which culture affects HRM?

Culture determines the role of the HR department

What is a problem with attribute approaches to performance management?

Different raters often provide very different ratings and rankings

Which of the following is not a recognized limitation of a job-based pay structure?

It is difficult to explain to employees

Which of the following is a similarity between defined benefit and defined contribution retirement benefit plans?

Employees must receive a summary plan description

Which of the following is not a recognized characteristic of profit sharing programs?

Evidence clearly shows a link to better organization performance

To take unpaid family leave under the provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act, employees must meet all except which of the following criteria?

Have worked at least 15 hours per week

Which of the following is not a reason for emphasizing external pay comparisons over internal comparisons in jobs with similar numbers of job-evaluations points?

The organization wants to rotate people through different positions with equivalent job-evaluation scores

Which of the following is not a characteristic on union membership in the United States since the 1950s?

Union membership reached approximately 40 percent

According to equity theory, perceived outcomes might include all of the following except

ability

Successful organizations are characterized by

all of the above

to be successful in their jobs, employees

all of the above

Employee assistance programs

are seldom cost effective and should be constantly analyzed to determine their effectiveness

Skill based pay systems generally are not appropriate for organizations that

determine pay rates by market-based rates

A potential problem with using job rotation for development is

employees not receiving challenging assignments because they do not have enough time to understand the work unit

When managers are being evaluated, who are especially valuable sources of information?

subordinates

The two primary sets of people in the organization who affect an individual's job satisfaction are

supervisors and coworkers

Comparable worth is public policy

that advocates the use of job evaluation to replace the market in pay-setting

Pay is powerful organizational tool for influencing all of the following except

the organization's business strategy

Which of the following is not characteristic of Employee Wellness programs?

the programs tend to be quite costly

In most grievance procedures

there are several steps prior to arbitration

Key jobs (or benchmark jobs) have all of the following characteristics except

they must have many incumbents within the organization

In contrast to distributive bargaining, integrative bargaining has what kind of focus?

win-win

The net union advantage in wages over their nonunion counterparts is

10 percent

Denise is very dissatisfied with her job situations, but she doesn't perceive any other employment opportunities, so she stays and spends most the workday dreaming about non-work matters. Which of the following withdrawal behaviors is she experiencing?

Psychological withdrawal

An "industrial" type of union is characterized by which of the following?

Members all work in the same industry

Employee A received the highest performance rating, has a coma-ratio of 1.2, and received a pay percentage increase of 10 percent. Employee B received the highest performance rating and has a comma-ratio of .90. Given the way most merit increase grids work, what size ay increase would you expect employee B to receive?

More than 10 percent

A survey of HR practitioners found that most performance appraisal systems focused on

development and administrative purposes

A major assumption of using job experiences for development is that

development occurs when there is a mismatch between the employees' skills and skills required for the job

The unemployment insurance program is financed largely through federal and state taxes on

employers only

Low job involvement and low organizational commitment are

examples of psychological withdrawal

Which if the following is not associated with job structure decisions?

external comparisons are made

The process of adding and meaningfulness to a person's work is called

job enrichment

Most employee development occurs as a result of

job experiences

According to Hofstede's cultural dimensions, a culture that is characterized by easygoing and flexible people regarding different views and taking each day as it comes is one that is

low in uncertainly avoidance

Assume that you are visiting Mexico for a business meeting and you call your host his first name rather than his title. He seems offended. Your offense most likely stemmed from a difference between the U.S. culture and Mexico's culture on which dimension?

power distance

In developing a job-evaluation system, compensable factors

reflect the characteristics of jobs that an organization values

The 360 degree feedback process

relies heavily on upward feedback from subordinates and others

All of the following relate to the glass ceiling but

research has found gender differences in access to job experiences regarding creating change

The NLRB ruling in the Electromation, Inc. cases was that the company had violated the NLRA by

setting up worker-management committees to solve problems having to do with absenteeism and pay scales

What approach to performance management tries to define desired actions to be effective in the job?

the behavioral approach

In addition to the comma-ratio, which other factor requires close attention in the administration of merit pay programs in order to control compensation costs?

the distribution of performance ratings

Under 401 (k) plans, whose responsibility is it ti decide how to invest employee money contributions?

the employee

The workers' compensation cost to an employer is based on all of the following except

the employer's profitability

A characteristic of most merit pay programs is

the feedback comes primarily from the supervisor

What type of union security arrangement is considered to be the strongest for maintaining a viable and secure union membership organization?

union shop

The right of an employee to a pension upon retirement is known as

vesting

in expectancy theory terms, the fundamental drawback of profit sharing in encouraging employee effort occurs because of

weak instrumentally perceptions