MGT4240 Final

James is the founder of a new start-up company. He hires mostly young employees who are fresh out of college. He finds that most of his employees are willing to develop their knowledge and skills and would like to take up courses to improve themselves. Which of the following programs is James most likely to use in order to encourage this behavior?

tuition reimbursement program

Barry, a supervisor at Yenzen Hotels Inc., thinks self-appraisal is a valid measure of performance appraisal. However, his colleague Vincent disagrees. Whose argument is most likely to be correct and why?

vincent is right because employees have a tendency to inflate their self-assessments

Historically, if an organization and employee do not have specific employment contract, the employer or employee may not require a specific time to end the employment relationship. This is referred to as the _______ doctrine.

employment-at-will

Which of the following is legally required by an organization while offering early retirement incentives?

ensuring there is no coercion used to force employees to retire

According to ______, people measure outcomes such as pay in terms of their inputs

equity theory

Low job involvement and low organizational commitment are:

examples of psychological withdrawal

How does linking executive pay to stock performance lead to unethical behavior?

executives can use the advantage of knowing the company's inside information to buy or sell stock and create huge personal gains

Which of the following situations is an example of a voluntary turnover?

fatima, an employee at flora., is about to resign her job to start her own business

Margaret, a production manager at Falcon Inc., needs to measure the performance of 12 of her subordinates. She divides the number of employees into categories like exceptional, above average, average, and below average. She assigns a certain percentage of employees to each category to determine the quality of their performances. In the context of methods for measuring performance, Margaret is using the ______ method.

forced-distribution

Brendan, the HR manager at Baretta & Co., is trying to implement an effective group incentive plan which measures increases in productivity and effectiveness and distributes a portion of its earnings to all employees. In this case, Brendan should apply the incentive scheme of _______.

gainsharing

Paul is a manager at Firefly Corp., and he uses a rating approach to evaluate his employees. He considers one employee at a time and circles a number or a word to signify the degree to which that employee demonstrates a particular trait in the scale. Which of the following approaches is Paul using to assess his employees?

graphic rating scale

What are vesting rights?

guarantee that employees in a pension plan will receive a pension at retirement age, regardless of whether they stay with the employer

A feature of an effective incentive pay plan is that it should:

have performance measures linked to the organization's goals

When an employee evaluates his or her manager low on all performance criteria due to dissatisfaction with the manager's disposition, the employee has most likely committed a(n) _______.

horns error

Brandon, an employee of EduTech Corp., demonstrates a series of unacceptable behaviors. Marian, his manager, wants to involve an impartial person to look into this matter. However, Ming, the head of the HR department, believes that the problem should be referred to the company's employee assistance program. Which of the following situations is most likely to strengthen Ming's view?

if EduTech Corp. wants to terminate Brandon due to problems that involve alcohol abuse

Which of the following is an advantage of a qualified plan in retirement benefits?

immediate tx deductions for the funds employees to the plan

Vactin Motors, an automobile company, ties individual performance, profits, and other measures of employees' success to a particular form of pay. This form of pay is influential because the amount paid is linked to certain predefined behaviors or outcomes. Which of the following is exemplified in this scenario?

incentive pay

The Workers' Adjustment Retraining and Notification Act requires that:

organizations with more than 100 employees give 60 days' notice before any closing or layoff that will affect at least 50 full-time employees

Franco, an employee at Fundz Corp., arrives late at the office on a Monday morning due to a personal emergency. His manager fires him, although this was the first instance of Franco arriving late at work. In this scenario, Franco would conclude a lack of _____ in dealing with employees who arrive late at work.

outcome fairness

Vincent has just been discharged from his job after the company he was working for started downsizing. Confused about his state of joblessness, Vincent threatens to sue the company for reparations. Which of the following programs can help the company avoid such situations from exiting employees?

outplacement counseling

Which of the following statements is true of the FLSA requirements for overtime pay?

overtime must be paid whether or not the employer specifically asked or expected the employee to work the extra hours

Contrary to Western European countries, the United States has no legal requirements regarding employee ________.

paid vacation time

Los Amigo Inc., a clothing manufacturer, believe that employees must be paid above the average market rate. The company aims to provide good customer service and to increase its sales. In this case, which of the following is most likely the reaction of employees working in Los Amigo?

the employees will be motivated to work hard

Steve and Cathy are managers at an advertising firm. Steve proposes that the company adopt defined-benefit plans to attract and retain its employees, and Cathy opposes his view. Which of the following statements Steve's argument?

the firm employs experienced, older people

Which of the following statements is true about pay ranges?

the market rate or the pay policy line generally serves as the midpoint of a range for the job

Which of the following statements is true of compensable factors?

they are the characteristics of a job that a firm values and chooses to pay for

Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which of the following criteria makes employees eligible to take unpaid family leave?

they should be working for an organization with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius

What should employees typically do to earn bonuses under the Scanlon plan?

they should keep labor costs to a minimum and produces as much as possible with that amount of labor

On average, out of every dollar spent by a company on employee compensation, more than ______ cents goes to employee benefits

30

Cindy and Alex execute the same roles and responsibilities at their organization. However, Alex earns more than Cindy. Under the laws governing equal employment opportunity, which of the following will justify the organization's decision to pay Alex more than Cindy?

Alex has more experience compared to Cindy

Micheal, formerly a model employee at his organization, has recently begun losing interest in his work due to personal and financial issues. He has spoken to his manager about leaving the company, complaining that he hasn't been receiving enough recognition for his work of the last 12 years. In an effort to change Michael's mind, his manager decides to give him a large amount of money as an incentive. In this scenario, Michael's manager is giving him ______.

a retention bonus

For incentive pay to motivate employees to contribute to the organization's success, the pay plans must be well designed. Which of the following statements would strengthen this argument?

employees will value the rewards or incentives that are being offered

James was recently made the manager of his department at Patches Inc., and he has to evaluate his subordinates' behavior in the next two weeks. He is unsure if he should use the behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS) or the behavioral observation scale (BOS) to assess their behavior. Which of the following characteristics of the two would help James decide the scale that would be most appropriate for him to use?

a BOS uses many instances to specify the behaviors necessary for effective performance

The ______ requires employers to make jobs available to their workers when they return after fulfilling military duties for up to five years.

USERRA (Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act)

Which of the following statements is true about key jobs?

a job with a higher evaluation score than a particular key job would receive higher pay than that key job

MediaTxt Corp. is an organization that follows the process of progressive discipline. The organization communicates with Leila, an employee, about unacceptable behavior and responds to a series of her offenses. Which of the following would be the step that immediately precedes a written warning for Leila along with a threat of temporary suspension?

an official written warning

Trevor, a researcher, believes that having higher labor costs than competitors is not necessarily bad. His colleague, Nick, supports Trevor's opinion by stating that employees must be paid according to the market rate. Which of the following strengthens their statements?

an organization may gain an advantage by paying above the market rate if it uses this method to attract top talent and uses employees' knowledge to be ore innovative

Caroline, a researcher, believes that an organization needs to plan what they will pay employees in each job. Mark, her colleague, argues that an employee's pay should be independently negotiated. Which of the following statements will weaken Mark's argument?

an unplanned approach will likely result in unfairness an dissatisfaction among the employees

Payne Corp. wants to assess the performance of its employees. It uses a questionnaire that has a high fit with strategy, high validity, high reliability, moderate acceptability, and very high specificity. Which of the following approaches to employee performance is being focused on by this questionnaire?

behavioral

Capnos Inc., an insurance company incurred losses about $100 million. To analyze its losses and to overcome them, the company began comparing its own practices against those of its successful competitors. In this scenario, which of the following procedures is adopted by Capnos?

benchmarking

What is the difference between bonuses and team awards?

bonuses reward attainment of goals measured in terms of physical output, whereas team awards reward performance in terms of cost savings

Which of the following is a similarity between unemployment insurance benefits and workers' compensation benefits?

both the programs' costs depend on the organization's experience ratings

How can managers improve employee satisfaction with the feedback process?

by letting employees voice their opinions and discuss performance goals during the feedback process

Ravi is the CEO of a magazine publishing company. He wants to diversify his workforce and bring in more ethically diverse employees into his company as he believes that exposure to people from different cultures is likely to increase the creativity of his workforce. Which of the following types of plans should Ravi adopt to allow flexibility?

cafeteria-style plan

Ramon Inc., a software company, uses job evaluations to establish the value of its jobs in terms of criteria such as their difficulty and their importance to the organization. The company then compares the evaluation points awarded to each job with the pay for each job. If jobs have the same number of evaluation points, but are not paid equally, the pay of the lower-paid job is raised. Based on the scenario, identify the policy adopted by the company.

comparable-worth policy

Which of the following statements is true about labor markets?

competition for labor establishes the minimum an organization must pay to hire an employee for a particular job

Crimson Inc., is conducting their annual performance review process for employees. The company uses a tool that measures entrepreneurial behavior and found there was a lot of irrelevant information that was also gathered. The irrelevant information gathered from the results is termed.

contamination

Jonathan, a supervisor, needs to assess his subordinate's performance. He uses a method that compares one employee with another. In doing so, he rates an exceptional employee as an average performer by mistake. Jonathan's manager tells him that compares an employee with an objective standard rather than another employee. In the context of types of rating errors, Jonathan commits the error.

contrast

"Performance management serves as a basis for improving employees' knowledge and skills." This statement corresponds to which of the following purposes of performance management?

developmental purpose

Clayton, a supervisor, needs to rate the performance of 20 subordinates. He uses a rating scale to rate them on a scale of 1 to 10. He rates 18 employees at 5, which leads to central tendency. In the context of types of rating errors, Clayton commits the ________ error.

distributional

Which of the following is an advantage of cafeteria-style plans?

employees can get a better understanding of the value of benefits provided

Stan, the CEO of a company, considers dropping medical insurance from the list of benefits provided to employees. Alisha, the operations director, disagrees with Stan by stating that medical insurance is a high-value benefit. Which of the following supports Alisha's statement?

employees usually realize that surgery or major illness can be financially devastating

Employees should participate in pay-related decisions. This will most likely help in the success of incentive plans, and the plans are more likely to influence employee behavior as desired. Which of the following statements weakens this argument?

employees will make decisions that are in their best interests at the expense of the organization's interests

Which of the following is an advantage of providing benefits instead of cash compensation?

employers can assemble creative benefits packages that give them a competitive advantage

Bob, an employee at Machina Group., is well known among his colleagues because of his temper and impatience. During a heated argument with one of his supervisors, he reacts with hostility. Bob's manager calls him in for discussion and listen to what he has to say about the incident, while treating him with dignity and respect. This scenario can be best categorized as one that used _______.

interactional justice

Bill and Nancy, managers at Sanzen Inc., want to check the consistency of results for an employee on a scale of 1 to 10. This will help them evaluate his performance. In the context of criteria for effective performance management, Bill and Nancy are testing the ______.

interrater reliability

Karl, an employee at BizVentures Inc., is known for his short-tempered and argumentative nature. During a heated exchange at work one day, Karl makes a derogatory gesture toward his manager, which causes Karl to be fired. This scenario is an example of:

involuntary turnover

Compa-ratio

is defined as the ratio of average pay to the midpoint of the pay range

Which of the following statements is true of a performance bonus?

is should be re-earned by employees during each performance period

Which of the following statements is true of effective performance management?

it can tell top performers they are valued

Which of the following statements is true about balanced scorecard?

it combines the advantages of different incentive pay plans and helps employees understand the organization's goals

Which of the following statements is true of a progressive discipline system?

it communicates unacceptable behavior and responds to a series of offenses with increasing forcefulness

Which of the following is a disadvantage of using group bonuses?

it could result in competition among groups

Which of the following is a disadvantage of skill-based pay systems?

it does not guarantee that employees can use their new skills

How does the balanced scorecard help organizations deal with unethical behaviors of executives?

it ensures that by rewarding the achievement of a variety of goals, temptation on the executive's part to gain bonuses by manipulating data are reduced

Which of the following is an advantage of using balanced scorecard?

it helps employees understand the organization's goals

Which of the following is an advantage of the merit pay incentive system?

it makes the reward more valuable by relating it to economic conditions

Das Work and Edge Tech are electronics manufacturing companies competing to serve the same customers. The labor-related expenses per product for Das Work is $30 higher than that for Edge Tech. However, Das Work makes more profits than Edge Tech. In this case, which of the following actions has contributed to the profits made by Das Work?

it produces high quality goods and charges more for these products than competitors

Janet, a production manager, thinks management by objectives is a good way to measure performance results of employees in an organization. However, her colleague, Ferdinand, disagrees with her. Whose argument is correct and why?

janet is right because results-oriented performance measurement is relatively easy to link to the organization's goals

The aspects of a task - namely the complexity of the task, the degree of physical strain and exertion required, and the value an employee places on the task - have particular significance when they are viewed as linked to ______.

job dissatisfaction

Hamish Life, an insurance company, defines the difference in pay between an entry-level recruiter and an entry-level assembler, as well as the difference between an entry-level recruiter, the HR manager, and the organization's Vice President. Which of the following is being exemplified in this scenario?

job structure

John is the head of the insurance claims department. John works for longer hours than his subordinates. However, John is not paid overtime for working more than 40 hours per week. Under the FLSA, which of the following will justify the organization's decision not to give John overtime pay?

john is considered as an exempt employee

Joseph, a supervisor at H2O Chemicals, Inc., needs to assess the behavior of 25 people, who constitute a large group of his subordinates. Which of the following must Joseph ideally do to assess the behavior of his subordinates and why?

joseph must use a behavioral observation scale because it is relatively easier than other methods of assessing behavior and providing feedback

Lydia, a supervisor at Sansen Inc., needs to appraise the performance of her subordinate, Charlie. In the context of performance information, which of the following is the least biased source of information for appraisal and why?

managers are the least biased source of information for appraisal because their success depends on the employee's productivity

Adam Wallace, a neutral party outside of La Mesa Inc., helped simplify issues between two technical teams of the company. Though Wallace's solution had no binding power, both the teams decided to accept his solution. This is an example of:

mediation

Songreen Inc., a firm that manufacturers ready-to-eat soups, offers incentives based on an employee's performance rating and the employees' compa-ratio. Which of the following payment plans is exemplified in this scenario?

merit pay

In a meeting to discuss pension plans, management decides to offer retirement plans exclusively to the organization's owners and top managers. Steven, one of the top managers, disagrees with this decision because he believes the company can benefit more by providing pensions to a broad range of employees. Which of the following strengthens Steven's belief?

nondiscrimination rules provide tax benefits to plans that do not favor the organization's highly compensated employees

Which of the following statements is true about the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)?

nonexempt employees are covered by FLSA and include most hourly workers

Paula, the CEO of Gester Inc., wants to carry out the first company-wide performance appraisal. However, she needs to make sure that the information obtained for performance appraisal is free of bias, and that managers have provided information about subordinates without any personal needs influencing the information. Which of the following options will be assist Paula in obtaining her objective?

paula must hold calibration meetings because they hold managers accountable for the appraisal information they provide about their subordinates

Choose the correct statement about personal dispositions

people with a positive core self-evaluation tend to experience job satisfaction

______ is the process through which managers ensure that employees' activities and outputs contribute to the organization's goals

performance management

Christina, an employee at Value Depot, regularly is late for work and takes excessive sick days. In this scenario, which of the following types of job withdrawal is being experienced by Christina?

physical job withdrawal

Nina works at Gia Inc., which provides her with a health care plan that contracts with health care professionals to provide services at a reduced fee. Which type of health care plan is Gia providing to its employees?

preferred provider organization

Mike, the CEO of an automobile company, believes that profit sharing has increased the productivity of his organization. He feels than an incentive plan motivates employees to be more productive. Which of the following statements strengthens Mike's argument?

profit sharing helps employees to cooperate and to focus on organizational interests

Identify the disadvantage of using profit sharing plans

profit sharing is not directly linked to individual behavior

Sean is employed as a supervisor at MaxCharge Industries. He gets fired from his job because he refused to discharge harmful chemicals from MaxCharge into a nearby river. Which of the following is the exception to the employement-at-will doctrine that Sean is likely to choose when he files a wrongful discharge suit?

public policy

Kelly is a new employee of a company, and her company provides a group insurance plan that she can enroll in. Her friend, Michael, suggests that Kelly would be able to save money if she chooses to purchase an individual insurance plan over the company's group insurance plan. Which of the following weakens Michael's argument?

rates for group insurance are typically lower than that of an individual policies

Lily, a manager at Pyramid Inc., uses a rating tool to evaluate the performance of her subordinates. However, she finds that the scale she used did not yield consistent results and could not determine if a change had taken place in the performance of the employees. Which of the following was lacking in the rating scale?

reliability

Clair, a manager, decides to conduct a random search to make sure her employees are following the ethics and principles of the company. Prior to this, she states that a search is about to occur and requests employees to comply. Which of the following measures for protecting employees' privacy illustrated in this scenario?

requesting consent before gathering information

Talent poaching makes it difficult for companies to _______.

retain their top performers

Devon was recently told by senior management that they expected him to exercise more authority and leadership with his work group. Just two days prior to that, his team told him that while they appreciated the initiative he demonstrated, they expected him to be less authoritative and more democratic in the future. The term that best describes what Devon is experiencing is:

role conflict

Research asking employees about their benefits has shown that employees:

significantly underestimate the cost and value of their benefits

Instruck Inc. is a real estate firm based in Colorado. The company ensures that employees' pay is dependent on what they are capable of doing. The company also supports effort to empower its employees by encouraging them to be independent and making decisions in various areas. This, in turn, ensures job enrichment. Based on this information, identify the pay structure being exemplified in this scenario.

skill-based pay systems

Ryan was working as an engineer at a paint manufacturing company. A chemical spill at the factory caused an accident that left him permanently disabled. Which of the following programs is specifically designed to help employees like Ryan?

social security

Steve, the vice president of Ocher Inc., plans to introduce a retirement plan for all employees. George, the operations director, disagrees because they proposed plan would increase the company's costs. Which of the following, if true, strengthens Steve's arguments?

some benefits have become so common that today's employees expect them

Which of the following helps performance management meet the goals of supporting strategy and developing employees?

specific feedback

The link between employees' performance and pay is harder to establish in:

stock ownership plans

An employee at CellWorks who produces 10 components in an hour earns $9 ($.90 x 10) per hour, while another employee who produces 15 components earns $13.50 ($.90 x 15). This is an example of a :

straight piecework plan

The two types of people in the organization who most affect an individual's job satisfaction are:

supervisors and co-workers

Which of the following federal laws increased the responsibility of pension plan trustees to protect retirees?

the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)