HRM Final
Piaffe Products has 15 employees quit during 2010 and an additional 10 are fired for poor performance. At midyear there are 50 employees. Piaffe's turnover rate is
50%
Clarence is selecting questions for a structured interview he is designing. He wants to ask each candidate a question or two that will tap the applicant's motivation. All of the following would be good "motivation" questions EXCEPT
Describe a difficult problem you faced and solved.
Emily works for a small architecture firm that has a dozen employees. Emily has discovered that she is pregnant. Which of the following statements is true under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act?
Emily is not protected by the PDA.
Which of the following statement is TRUE regarding forecasting methods?
Forecasting is a combination of quantitative methods and subjective judgment.
The ____ sponsors the most well-known certification program for HR generalists.
Human Resource Certification Institute
____ is the process of analyzing and identifying the need for and availability of human resources so that the organization can meet its objectives.
Human resource planning
Megan has been working with her supervisor on the Filbert's Fast Foods account for six months. Yesterday, Megan's boss told her that she is capable of handling the Filbert's Fast Foods account on her own from now on, but she can come to him for advice at any time. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
Megan's job now allows her more autonomy.
Evaluating the success of an HR department's own recruiting efforts is important for all the following reasons EXCEPT
evaluation will show whether the firm should make more use of training and development versus external recruiting of specialists.
Which is not one of the major challenges currently facing HR managers?
motivating employees without pay raises and promotions
Which of the following would be defined as retaliation under EEO laws?
A hospital demotes a radiology technician who has complained about ethnic discrimination.
Which of the following examples would most likely NOT be considered evidence of age discrimination?
A modeling agency has sent an 52-year-old man to pose for a photo shoot for a teen-oriented product line. The shoot director was over heard to say on the phone, "What were you thinking? I gave you our target customer profile!"
Which of the following statements is FALSE?
Both concurrent and predictive validity tests can be accurately run with as few as 15 employees.
The most fundamental anti-discrimination employment law, the one that is considered the keystone for following legislation, is the
Civil Rights Act of 1964.
How can recruiters easily and accurately track responses to advertisements in various media?
Code ads in different media by using different contact names.
As director of HR you are reviewing the statistics for this year's college recruiting. At one state university, of 50 college seniors interviewed you made job offers to 10 students. At a large private university, of 20 students interviewed, you made job offers to 2 students. Based just on this information, which of the following statements is FALSE?
Cost per hire is greater for the state university than for the private university.
________________ is the assessment of internal and external conditions that affect the organization.
Environmental scanning
The country that has the highest hourly compensation for manufacturing production workers is
Germany.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has had all of the following effects on HR EXCEPT
HR exempt-level professionals must have professional certification.
Which of the following best describes the responsibility for HR planning?
HR planning requires cooperation of HR professionals with organizational executives and managers.
Chipper, the only grandchild of the founder of a successful commercial construction firm has just graduated from a noted university with a Ph.D. in zoology. Chipper is taking a year's research fellowship at the San Diego Zoo to study tiger genetics. The top management positions in the firm have been held by family members since 1911. Chipper's father, a civil engineer, is the present CEO. He is 72 and has recently had heart surgery. The firm usually generates about $300 million in government bridge highway projects per year. Which of the following statements is FALSE?
It is time for Chipper to get serious and fulfill his family responsibilities.
Which of the following statements is TRUE about job boards?
Job boards enable job seekers to submit résumés to many employers simultaneously.
____ is a positive emotional state resulting from evaluating one's job experiences.
Job satisfaction
____ are obligations to perform certain tasks and duties.
Responsibilities
Andrew has informed the director of HR that as of next month, he will be Andrea. Andrew's co-workers are unaware of the upcoming transformation. Andrew has been a high-performing employee at company headquarters for the last nine years. The company specializes in publishing religious materials and an extensive product line for home-schooling. Which of the following options would be UNWISE for the HR director to take?
The HR director should inform Andrew's manager so that Andrew/Andrea can be transferred from his current client-contact job to another position that does not entail client-contact.
International firms that move manufacturing operations to low-wage countries overseas are sometimes criticized for being "sweatshop employers." Which of the following is NOT a defense for an international firm that is taking advantage of the wage disparity between the U.S. and less-developed countries?
The host country employees receive specialized training that will enable them to emigrate to the U.S. for a better life.
Joshua is an extremely successful salesperson for a chemical products manufacturing company. His sales are approximately twice those of the average salesperson in his category, and he is a very valuable employee. But, Joshua's administrative abilities are minimal. This is causing problems with orders, customer follow-up, and reporting. Joshua's boss is frustrated because significant training expenditures on Joshua have resulted in minimal improvement in his administrative performance. The situation cannot continue. Which of the following would be the most useful solution for the company?
This is probably a person-job fit issue, and Joshua's job should be re-designed to take advantage of his skills and eliminate administrative tasks.
____ is an example of intangible recognition as a form of reward.
Verbal praise from one's supervisor
Which of the following is a fundamental purpose of the application form? It provides
a basic employee record for applicants who are eventually hired.
The customer service department of the cell phone company serving a 10-state region in the Southwest, has a reputation of being unhelpful to customers and sometimes customer service representatives are considered surly and rude to customers, especially to technologically- challenged callers. The cause of this behavior by the customer-relations is most likely to be
a lack of focus on the customer by managers and employees.
Vincent, the vice president of HR, is studying the profile of the organization's workforce. Vincent's employer is a utility company and essentially provides life-time employment for workers, and the turnover rate is very low. Vincent's eye is caught by a troubling aspect of the profile, and he says to himself, "This must be the result of the 7-year hiring freeze we had back in the 1980s," and the low-level of hiring through the 1990s. Vincent has probably noticed
a potential shortage of experienced employees as older workers retire.
If an organization wants to know how competitive it is with other firms for top job candidates, it would learn the most from analysis of
acceptance ratios.
Cliff has about 10 years of HR experience and has recently earned his professional certification. He is searching for a job in an organization that takes a strategic approach to HR. Key phrases that Cliff is looking for in organizational informational materials describing the competencies the hiring organization wants in new HR professionals include all of the following EXCEPT
administrative expert.
The ____ role of HR management has been increasingly outsourced, while the _________ role of HR management is sometimes being give to senior executives without HR experience.
administrative, strategic
The Americans with Disabilities Act
allows physical ability tests to be given to applicants if the tests are job-related.
A tweet would be most appropriate to send out
an alert about a policy change needing immediate implementation.
The ____ pool consists of all persons who are actually evaluated for selection.
applicant
As director of recruiting for a large bank, Stacy has decided to restrict her recruiting efforts for loan officers to placing advertisements on the web site of the American Banking Association. This will determine the ____ for the job of loan officer.
applicant population
A retail pharmacy chain is experiencing low profitability. It is looking into ways to cut costs. One of the members of the executive committee suggests reducing the number of pharmacists on staff, since they are the most highly-paid of the store employees. As director of HR, you are most concerned whether this move would
be effective in meeting organizational objectives in the long run.
In a ____ interview an applicant might be asked,"In your experience as a supervisor, how did you handle an employee who was a poor performer?"
behavioral
The most common area for HR specialization is
benefits.
A nursing home is opening in a mid-sized Northwestern city. It would be most logical for the organization to recruit for patient aides in the ____ labor market. The job pays just above minimum wage.
city
Arnold is the HR manager for a mid-sized engineering consulting firm. The types of ethical misconduct he is most likely to encounter in his daily work as an HR manager include all of the following EXCEPT
collusion among Arnold's firm and its competitors to rig bids on government contracts.
The major saving in time generated by Internet recruiting compared with traditional recruiting is in
communication between the applicants and the employer.
The ____ approach to job analysis considers how the employees' knowledge and skills are used.
competency
Chuck's office has moved to a ____ arrangement where Monday through Thursday the employees work from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. with an hour off for lunch, and everyone takes Friday off.
compressed workweek
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, requires employers to
determine whether the job applicant is a U.S. citizen, registered alien, or illegal alien, within 72 hours of hiring.
Borderline Cafeterias, Inc., has discovered that most of its wait staff is white, while most of its kitchen staff is minority. When interviewed by the local TV news anchor, the CEO of Borderline Cafeterias says, "There has been no conscious or deliberate practice to staff the cafeterias in a discriminatory manner. It just happened to turn out this way." The CEO's argument is an example of
disparate impact.
A large commercial landscaping service in the Southwest requires all Hispanic applicants for crew boss positions to have a U.S. high school diploma. Native English speakers are not required to have a high school diploma. The stated business purpose of this requirement is to insure that the Hispanic applicants speak English well enough to perform the job. This is an example of
disparate treatment.
Work is defined as
effort directed toward producing or accomplishing results.
Effective electronic screening of applicants can take all of the following forms EXCEPT
elimination of all non-minority applicants.
In order to identify threats and opportunities in the world outside the organization, HR managers must
engage in environmental scanning.
Although Kathleen has a healthy lifestyle, she is suffering from high blood pressure and headaches. When she talks with her co-workers in the department, she finds that a number of them have high blood pressure, sleep disorders and other stress-related medical problems. It would be prudent for the HR manager to consider
examining the job design in this department.
In a/an ____ interview, individuals are asked to identify their reasons for leaving the organization.
exit
Job analysis is a systematic way to
gather and analyze information about the content, context and human requirements of jobs.
The main pressure behind U.S. firms resulting in facility closings, international outsourcing, and decreasing their labor costs is from
global competition.
In order for any organizational strategy to be successful, the HR function must
having the right people in the right place at the right time.
Other than information technology occupations, between now and 2016 the highest percentage job growth will be in
health care.
Between now and 2016 the largest number of new jobs in the U.S. will be in
healthcare.
The collective value of the capabilities, knowledge, skills, life experiences and motivation of an organizational workforce is called
human capital.
Three factors (individual ability, effort level expended and organizational support) are the components of
individual performance.
A/an ____ is a grouping of tasks, duties, and responsibilities that constitutes the total work assignment for employees.
job
When the depth of a job is increased by adding responsibility for planning, organizing, controlling, and evaluating the job, ____ has occurred.
job enrichment
The veterinary assistants at a large veterinary practice alternate between working at the reception desk, working in the lab and X-ray department, and assisting the vets during office visits with patients. This is a type of
job rotation.
Each of the following is one of the Big Five personality characteristics EXCEPT
leadership.
Erica is in client relations for a large financial services firm in Atlanta. Her job is being changed from working with local clients to a telecommuting position where she will work largely from her home office. She is being assigned clients in Korea, India, Britain and Brazil. Although Erica can see many advantages of this change, she is also concerned about negative effects. All of the following are potential negative effects of telecommuting EXCEPT:
loss of autonomy.
Which of the following is NOT a personal characteristic associated with success in an overseas assignment?
low tolerance of ambiguity
Which of the following statements about using the Internet for recruiting is FALSE? Internet recruiting...
makes EEO record-keeping more simple.
The major provision of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 is that
maternity leave is to be treated the same as other personal or medical leaves.
One of the advantages for employees of employee leasing companies is that they
may receive better benefits than they would otherwise get in many small businesses.
A school district hired a school bus driver without doing a multi-state criminal background check. It checked only in the state in which the school is located. Subsequently, the school bus driver was convicted of kidnapping one of the children who rode his bus. The prosecution in the case revealed that the driver had been convicted ten years earlier of possession of child pornography in another state. The school district is guilty of
negligent hiring.
Angus is a bus driver for a tour bus company. He's had an excellent driving record for the 15 years that he's been working for the company. Last year Angus was on medical leave for 8 weeks for a back injury that has left him in chronic pain. Recently, Angus' co-workers have noticed that he has been behaving erratically and has been falling asleep in the employee lounge. If Angus has an accident while driving one of the tour buses because of the effects of his prescription pain medication and passengers are injured, the company might be liable for
negligent retention.
Ingrid is a recent immigrant from Denmark with a valid U.S. work permit. She has applied for work on the wait staff at a Chinese restaurant near her home. Ingrid doesn't have a car, and this restaurant is one of the few employers she can walk to. Ingrid was turned down for an opening at the restaurant, although she has relevant job experience. Later, Ingrid noticed a Chinese man was hired for the job. Ingrid should
not sue because Chinese origin is a bona fide occupational qualification in this case.
From the employee's point of view, the traditional psychological contract has changed mainly because of
organizational downsizing and the layoff of long-term loyal employees.
Which of the following would NOT be identified as a typical HR operational activity?
partnering with top executives
The Equal Pay Act, enacted in 1963, requires employers to
pay similar wage rates for similar work without regard to gender.
As the unemployment rate rises
people available for work tend to have high qualifications.
As the unemployment rate rises,
people available for work tend to have high qualifications.
Clarence is the recruiting manager for a start-up firm of about 25 people. He realizes that he needs to be aware of disparate impact in hiring new staff. All but one of the current employees is of European descent. Which is Clarence's best bet as a recruiting source to find qualified Hispanic applicants?
placement office of a university with a high Hispanic enrollment
If an employer plans to tap nontraditional workers, it should be prepared to do all of the following EXCEPT
pre-adapt its work stations for all major disabilities.
Unit labor cost is a measure of
productivity.
The main legal reason for performing a thorough background check of all applicants is
protection against charges of negligent hiring.
The collection of unwritten expectations that both employees and employers have about the nature of their work relationships is called the
psychological contract.
In its broad sense, discrimination means
recognizing differences among items or people.
Sphere Specialties, Inc., has been experiencing a high level of internal movement of employees. Individuals will be hired in entry level jobs, but within six months, most will have transferred or have been promoted to other positions. This job-changing activity is also high in the middle ranges of the organization. Consequently, there is quite a bit of disruption and down-time as job-changers learn their new duties. In order to retain the benefits of internal selection, but reduce the turmoil, the HR director of Sphere Specialties has proposed
requiring at least one year in the current job before employees can apply for a new internal job.
Flexible hours, job-sharing, child-care referral services, and flexible leave programs are all examples of
retention programs based on work/family concerns.
The three phases of business processes re-engineering are
rethink, redesign, retool.
You are writing the electronic technology usage policy for your small company. Which of the following behaviors would be LEAST LIKELY to be included as inappropriate use of company email which might make the company vulnerable to allowing an environment to exist that contributes to harassment?
sending an electronic Valentine to one's spouse
Workers are protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against employment discrimination based on all the following characteristics EXCEPT
sexual orientation.
Through the ____ function, HR management provides the organization with a sufficient supply of qualified individuals to fill the jobs in the organization.
staffing
Amphityron Services, Inc., is experiencing a decline in sales, revenue and profits which it predicts will be reversed in less than a year. Amphityron doesn't have enough work to keep its highly-skilled, experienced workforce busy. The VP of HR should consider all of the following actions EXCEPT
taking advantage of the downturn to lay off the highest-paid operating employees.
The largest professional organization for HR generalists is
the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
Austin, Texas, is a junior rival of Silicon Valley. The city actively recruits new and established high-tech firms to relocate to Austin. As an HR director for a start-up high-tech firm, what would be most important factor regarding the Austin location in comparison to cities without an existing high-tech sector?
the availability of an existing pool of high-tech workers.
Human resource management is
the designing of organizational systems to ensure that human talent is used effectively and efficiently to accomplish organizational goals.
If an employer lists the designation EEO/M-F/AA/ADA in its employment advertisements it indicates
the employer has a policy of complying with equal employment regulations.
Job specifications list
the knowledge, skills, and abilities an individual needs to perform the job satisfactorily.
The most crucial component for diversity programs in organizations to succeed is
the support of top management.
If a recruiter needs to find applicants who have a scarce, highly-specialized skill, it would be most efficient to use
the web site for that particular professional or occupational association.
What is the purpose of pre-employment screening?
to determine if applicants meet the minimum qualifications for open jobs
Attrition to reduce an employee surplus is most useful when
turnover rates in the organization are high.
During an economic downturn, resources (including workers and potential workers) are
under-utilized, and organizations seek to increase productivity and lower costs.