BMGT 3630 Final Exam

National Labor Relations Act, Illegal acts:

-Threats -Interrogation -Promises -Surveillance/spying

unions good or evil? Evil:

-Unions are profit seeking organizations -raise costs and reduce profits -contracts remove management discretion -contracts make organizations less flexible

Equity Theory - Perceived Fairness

-attracting applicants and keeping employees -preventing counterproductive behavior

External Approach Disadvantages

-depends on quality of the data -has to be repeated for every hire -some jobs are unique to your organization -often ends in negotiation that may lead to unjustifiable differences between individuals

Unemployment Insurance

-designed to protect people unemployed through no fault of their own -in TN maximum benefit is $275/week -benefits available up to 26 weeks

Workers Comp

-employers with 5+ employees must have coverage -form of no fault insurance -medical benefits -

Hours worked may include

-engaged to wait -on call -in training -traveling -as well as sleep time -work not requested but "suffered or permitted" is work time

FLSA most common minimum wage and overtime exemption (EAP or "white collar" exemption)

-executive employees -administrative employees -professional employees

Deductions from pay are illegal if

-items are primarily for the benefit or convenience of employer AND deduction reduces earning below minimum wage

Internal Equity Disadvantages

-less likely to be updated when labor markets are changing rapidly -sometimes the labor market disagrees with job evaluation

Internal Approach

-let's create a structure that predetermines the value of every job (not person) -every new hire is assigned a salary based on that structure

FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) Major Provisions

-minimum wage -overtime -youth employment

External Equity

-pay is determined by external labor market -labor market contains all of the organizations competing with us for labor

internal equity

-pay is determined mostly by internal structure of jobs -jobs are pay based on their value to the organization

Internal Equity Advantages

-pay is rational/defensible/consistent -possible to compare the value of very different jobs

unions good or evil? Good:

-protect workers from evil companies -safety -pay/benefits -job security -working conditions

Social Security

-provides a basic foundation of security american workers and their families -for tax purposes, system is split into two programs: social security & medicare -paid by employer and employee

Financial Control

-significant investment -unreimbursed expenses -opportunity for profit or loss -method of payment

Effective Incentive Plans

-simple -specific -attainable -measurable -linked with organizational strategy

Behavioral Control

-type and degree of instruction given -evaluation system -training

Compensation includes

-wages -commissions -certain bonuses -tips received by employees up to $5.12/hour -reasonable cost of room, board, facilities, etc

defined benefit plan

1. provides explicit benefits 2. company assumes risk 3. employer costs difficult to project

defined contribution plan

1. unknown benefit level 2. employee assumes risk 3. employer costs known up front

Currently, ________ percent of states have workers' compensation laws.

100

Under federal law, how much time does a union have after the representation election as an exclusive representative to reach a contract for the newly organized workers?

12 months

Which of the following actions is management prohibited by law from participating in?

All of these

The ________ was organized in 1886 as a group of national craft unions.

American Federation of Labor

Title VII of the ________ Act covers top executives in companies receiving government support and states that companies can retract bonuses, retention awards, or incentives paid to the top five senior executive officers or the next 20 most highly compensated employees based on corporate information that is later found to be inaccurate.

American Recovery and Reinvestment

In the context of developing effective pay systems, which of the following is a major change seen today in company philosophies concerning pay and benefits?

An increased willingness to control the costs of wages, salaries, and benefits

________ incentive plans encourage the efficient use of existing assets.

Annual

Internal Approach Step 2:

Job evaluation -identify compensable factors for the organization -rate every job on those compensable factors -rank order jobs according to their scores

Internal Approach Step 3:

Link scores to external market pay surveys

In the context of pay planning and administration, which of the following is a solution to the problem of pay compression?

Setting maximum rates of pay that are close to the maximums paid by other companies for similar jobs

________ is a situation in which employers seek to avoid unionization by offering workers the wages, benefits, and working conditions that rival unionized firms do.

Spillover effect

Under the ________, professional employees cannot be forced into a bargaining unit with nonprofessionals without their majority consent.

Taft-Hartley Act

Distinctive features of the U.S. industrial relations system compared with those of other countries include:

all of these

Whenever an organizing drive begins, employees are asked to sign ________ that designate the union as the employees' exclusive representation in bargaining with management.

authorization cards

A ________ occurs when parties are unable to move further toward settlement.

bargaining impasse

The group of employees eligible to vote in a representation election is termed a(n):

bargaining unit

The Japanese value ________ and tend to resolve conflict by emphasizing status differences between the parties.

collectivism

The NLRB defines a bargaining unit that reflects the shared interests of the employees involved using a concept called:

community of interest.

When ________ fail, the union may strike, management may shut down operations, or both parties may appeal for third-party involvement.

contract negotiations

Limiting Medicare payments to what Medicare would have paid for in the absence of a group health plan and to the actual charge for the services is an example of what is referred to as:

cost shifting

Railway Labor Act

covers railroads, airlines, and express carriers

Actions by a union of withdrawing its labor in support of bargaining demands, including those for recognition or organization, are:

economic strikes.

right to work

employees represented by a union cannot be compelled to join the union or pay dues

Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare)

employers must offer health insurance that is affordable and provides minimum value to 95% of their full-time employees and their children up to the end of the month in which they turn age 26, or be subject to penalties. Applies to employers with 50 or more full-time employees -employee contributions for employee-only coverage do not exceed 9.78% of employee household income -MINIMUM VALUE: plan pays at least 60% of costs of covered services

In the context of legislation that determines the internal practices of organizations, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act holds that:

executives cannot retain bonuses or profits from selling company stock if they mislead the public about the financial health of the company.

In the context of organizational reward systems, fairness in the wages paid by an organization, in terms of competitive market rates outside the organization, is known as ________.

external equity

In the context of pay-system mechanics, when jobs are evaluated and rank-ordered from highest point total to lowest point total, a(n) ________ is defined. Question options:

hierarchy of job worth

The anti-discrimination rule holds that employers can obtain tax advantages only for those benefits that do not discriminate in favor of:

highly compensated employees

Instrumentality Belief

if i perform better, rewards will follow

Expectancy Belief

if i try harder, i can perform better

The process of assessing the relative worth of jobs to a firm is called:

job evaluation

Open pay systems tend to work best when:

job performance can be measured objectively.

External Equity Step 1:

locate relevant market data

why do people join unions?

low wages, benefits, discrimination, unfair treatment

In the context of performance incentives, an end-of-year bonus given to employees that does not build into their base pay is known as a(n) ________.

lump-sum bonus

Expectancy Theory - Expectations of Reward

motivating desired behavior

Overtime

must pay non-exempt employees 1 1/2 times their rate if worked over 40 hrs/week

Perceived Fairness

my outcome / input ratio (education, experience, performance, etc)

Team incentives provide an opportunity for each team member to receive a bonus based on the:

output of the team as a whole

In the context of pay planning and administration, ________ is the narrowing of ratios of pay between jobs or pay grades in a firm's pay structure.

pay compression

nature of the relationship

permanency

Fundamentally, labor-management relations are about ________—who has it and how they use it.

power

The "gatekeeper" in a "managed-care" health insurance plan is the:

primary - care physician

________ is not legally required, and, because of unemployment compensation, many firms do not offer it.

severance pay

The ________ of a bargaining unit is critical for both the union and the employer because it is strongly related to the outcome of the representation election.

size

In the context of incentives for low-level employees, a ________ is a one-time bonus that an employer may offer an employee as a reward for exceptional performance.

spot bonus

External Equity Step 2:

strategy adjustment

In the context of the four major income-maintenance laws, ________ provides benefits in the form of full retirement payments after age 67 (for those born in 1960 or later), or at reduced rates after 62, to worker and spouse.

the Social Security Act

valence belief

the available rewards are valuable

The role of the line manager in grievance procedures is to know and understand ________, as well as federal and state labor laws.

the collective-bargaining contract

The efficiency wage hypothesis holds that:

there is payment of wage premiums by some employers to attract the best talent available and to enhance productivity in order to offset any increase in labor costs

Regular rate =

total compensation / total hours worked

Internal Approach Step 1:

update job descriptions

At lower levels, ________ systems almost guarantee cost control.

variable-pay

Many of the fastest-growing unions in the United States represent ________ (more than 51 percent of all union members).

white-collar professionals

The benefits of ________ average about two-thirds of an employee's weekly wage and continue for the term of a disability.

workers' compensation

Generally, employees of nonagricultural, private-sector firms are entitled to benefits for work-related accidents and illnesses leading to temporary or permanent disabilities under:

workers' compensation.

The methods for costing benefits include:

all of the above

External Equity Step 4:

Check internal alignment -what do we do about salary compression? -what do we do about salary inversion?

External Approach Advantages

Compensation is tired to labor market

External Equity Step 3:

Cost of Living Adjustment

Which of the following statements is true of economic strikes?

Economic strikers have limited rights to reinstatement.

Expectancy Theory

Effort = expectancy x instrumentality x valence

The benefits of the ________ are based on a percentage of average weekly earnings and are available for up to 26 weeks.

Federal Unemployment Tax Act

Which of the following is a type of insurance that is usually yearly renewable term insurance whose typical coverage is one to two times the employee's annual salary?

Group life insurance

employment relationship

In order for the FLSA to apply, there must be an employment relationship between the employer and the employee -does not apply to independent contractors

Which type of pay structure is feasible if all jobs are benchmark jobs and direct matches can be found in the market?

Market-based pay system

Which of the following is NOT an approach widely used to express the cost of employee benefits and services?

National salary index

Which of the following is NOT an area of payment covered by workers' compensation?

Payments to employers while injured workers are recovering

Which of the following acts established the first national minimum wage?

The Fair Labor Standards Act

Which agency acts as an insurance company, collecting annual premiums from companies with defined-benefit plans that spell out specific payments upon retirement?

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Which act states that executives cannot retain bonuses or profits from selling company stock if they mislead the public about the financial health of the company?

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Which of the following statements is true of lockouts in organizations?

They are legitimate employer tactics to decrease union power in situations where a lockout is done to avoid economic loss.

In the context of setting incentives for lower-level employees, identify a true statement about performance standards.

They make it easier for supervisors to assign work to employees equitably.

Identify a true statement about preferred provider organizations (PPOs)

They pay 80 to 100 percent for what is done within the network but only 50 to 70 percent for services rendered outside it.

In which of the following situations is a worker eligible to receive unemployment benefits?

When a worker is able and available to work and is actively seeking work

All states' workers' compensation laws share all of the following features EXCEPT:

a worker's loss is usually covered fully by the insurance program.

In a(n) ________, employees need not join the union that represents them, but, in lieu of dues, they must pay a service charge for representation.

agency shop