MGMT 44301 - Chapter Quizzes

____________ refers to the number and types of employees a company needs to meet its current and future needs while __________ refers to the availability of current and potential employees to perform a company's jobs.

labor demand, labor supply

One tactic that organizations implement to help employees attain new jobs after going through layoffs is

outplacement assistance programs.

Sam is a manager in a small company that has just received a new client. She knows that 5 employees are needed for each customer of this size. She has used a _________________ to determine how many new employees she needs to hire.

productivity ratio

If April loves her company and praises it to all of her friends because the company values and develops her, she likely has a ______________ relationship with the organization.

relational

A cost leadership strategy focuses on

running the organization efficiently

Labor shortage tactics

1. Employee Overtime 2. Outsourcing and contingent labor 3. Employee retention 4. Employee promotions, transfers and demotions 5. New hires

The relation between-Workforce Planning and Employee Concerns

1. Employees stress and work/life balance issues 2. Perceptions of procedural and distributive justice

The relation between- Job Design and Company Characteristics

1. Formalization of jobs 2. Breadth and depth of tasks

Job Analysis techniques- Standardized approaches

1. Functional job analysis 2. Position analysis questionnaire

The relation between- Job Design and Regulatory Issues

1. Importance of understanding essential and non-essential job duties 2. Job design and employee safety

Environmental Influences- The relation between HR and Labor Force Trends

1. Increased challenges with workforce planning 2. Shaping the racial composition of the workforce which has different implications for managing employees

The relation between- Job Design and Strategy

1. Job design approach adopted 2. Breadth of tasks, duties and responsibilities performed

Job descriptions provide:

1. Job title 2. Job identification section 3. Essential duties and responsibilities section 4. Job specification section

What are the various Environmental Influences?

1. Labor force trends 2. Technology 3. Globalization 4. Ethics and social responsibility

Labor surplus tactics

1. Layoffs 2. Attrition and Hiring Freezes 3. Early Retirement 4. Employee promotions, transfers and demotions

The relation between-Workforce Planning and Corporate Culture

1. Likelihood of firms using different tactics 2. Employee reactions to workforce planning tactics=

What are the 3 axioms to keep in mind when managing employees?

1. No two companies are the same 2. There is no one best way to manage employees 3. Using the wrong practice, or using the right practice poorly, can cause more harm than good

Methods of collecting job information

1. Observations and diaries 2. Interviews 3. Questionnaires 4. Occupational Information Network (O*Net)

What are the 3 main HR challenges?

1. Organizational demands 2. Environmental influences 3. Regulatory issues

The relation between- Job Design and Employee Concerns

1. Perception of fairness of job duties 2. Need for flexible work arrangements

Building a High-Performing Org

1. Redesigning the practices you use to manage your employees so they contribute more to your organization's competitive advantage 1. Use HR score card for this 2. Being consistent 3. Being specific 4. Following up on the implementation of a redesign

The relation between-workforce Planning and Strategy

1. Required speed to deal with shortages and surpluses 2. Criticality of employee groups

The relation between-Workforce Planning and Regulatory Issues

1. Requirements for mass layoffs and plant closing 2. Determining who is an employee vs. an independent contractor

Organizational Demands - The relation between HR and Culture

1. The culture of a company influences the effectiveness of different HR practices. 2. Management needs to send messages to employees that signal the values and behavior that are most appropriate 3. The strength of the culture influences the effectiveness of employee management practices

The relation between- Job Design and Globalization

1. The need to address cross-cultural issues 2. Relevant labor market

The relation between-Workforce Planning and Company Characteristics

1. The relative impact of labor shortages and surpluses 2. Who carries out workforce planning

Internal Fit

1. The specific practices used within each HR activity are consistent with one another 2. Synergies occur when it is a powerful fit 3. Deadly combinations occur present more problems

The efficiency approaches to Job Design

1. Time and motion studies 2. Job specialization 3. Job simplification

Internal factors influencing workforce planning

1. Turnover 2. Employee movements: promotions, transfer demoted 3. Productivity 4. Company performance 5. Strategic Direction

What are the Primary HR activities?

1. Work design and workforce planning 2. Managing employee competencies 3. Managing employee attitudes and behaviors

The motivational approaches to Job Design

1. job characteristics model 2. psychological states 3. five core job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback 4. Growth need strength 5. Job enlargement 6. Job rotation 7. Job enrichment 8. Empowerment 9. Participation 10. Voice 11. Teams

Contingent labor is a growing segment in the workforce population. Which of the following are not considered contingent laborers?

Full time workers

External alignment relates to how HR reacts to the influences both inside and outside of the organization. Which of the following is not part of external alignment?

Geographic location

Ryan is exploring expanding his business into other countries. He has a computer and can access people all over the world. As he expands, _____ will likely become a central component to his business strategy

Globalization

All of the following are organizational demands except

HR activities

When considering HR activities

HR is influenced by business strategy

External alignment is focused on

How well HR activities align with the challenges a company will face

Organizational Demands - The relation between HR and Strategy

Strategy shapes the competencies, attitudes and behaviors required of employees. Effectively managing employees requires managers to align the primary HR activities with strategic objectives to maximize employee contributions.

Which of the following labor surplus tactics is likely to be the fastest in terms of helping companies meet their labor surplus needs?

Layoffs

Three challenges of external fit

Organizational demands, environmental influences and regulatory issues

HR faces many challenges when conducting business. The three main challenges are:

Organizational demands, environmental influences, and regulatory issues

When companies are evaluating their ethics and social responsibility, they must balance the different stakeholders. Which of the following is a way that companies encourage ethical behavior by employees?

Perform background checks on incoming employees

When recruiting for a sales manager ABC Corporation used an extensive interview process and reinforced to the final candidate, Glenn, who was chosen, that sales volumes would be closely monitored and meeting specific targets would result in bonuses. Once hired, Glenn's orientation did not discuss the sales territory or the preferred selling methods. In addition, Glenn's compensation was set up to be straight salary only, which did not support what he was told during the interview process. Which of the following best describes this scenario?

Poor internal alignment

Human resources practices refer to:

Practices that a company has put in place to manage employees

Regulatory issues in HR discuss how legislation is designed to

Protect the rights of individuals in the employment process

Some of the major practices that managers use to guide employee motivation do not include

Selection of new employees

_________ refers to the extent to which contributions of employees help their organization achieve a competitive advantage.

Strategic Value

What are the various Organizational Demands?

Strategy company characteristics organizational culture employee concerns

Henry has a narrow scope in his job and does a few specific tasks as part of a larger production process. According to the job characteristics model for job design, which dimension is he likely experiencing as low

Task Identity

When Jen's company was looking to go global, the first thought was how much it was going to cost the company. Which of the following is not likely an additional concern that the company is to consider with going global?

The distance from local operations to headquarters

A company's strategy does not affect which of the following:

The employment laws they must obey

What is HR Alignment?

The extent to which the three primary HR activities are designed to achieve the goals of the organization

From a legal perspective, especially with consideration of the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is critical that one outcome of job analysis is

The identification of the essential duties to ensure that candidates can do those particular duties

Why is employee cost typically the largest cost for organizations?

Turnover and under utilization

Which piece of legislation states that employees must be informed in advance prior to a plant closing

WARN

Focus:

a. Design jobs in a way that ensures that employees perform tasks and responsibilities that have the most potential to add value to the company b. Ensure the right people are in the right place in the company, at the right time, to meet company goals c. Ensure that employees have the necessary competencies - knowledge, skills, abilities and other talents—to effectively perform their tasks and responsibilities d. Encouraging the right employee attitudes and behaviors through motivating them to continue their performance

Four key challenges associated with organizational demands

a. Strategy - employees contribute to the achievement of strategic goals and, ultimate, company success. b. Company characteristics c. Organizational culture d. Employee concerns

Employees who have specific skills that are not commonly found in the labor market are

unique

When an employee initiates the decision to leave a company it is called

voluntary turnover

In order to map its employment portfolio an organization must:

weigh the strategic value and uniqueness that each job brings to the organization to determine what type of employment relationship will be created

Methods to improve employee motivation and satisfaction through job design:

- Change job tasks - Increase responsibility - Increase employee teams

Process

- Company goals o Job design ♣ Job analysis • Job description and job specifications

Jobs characteristic model:

- Need to keep in mind: motivation, product, satisfaction - High internal work motivation - High quality work performance - High satisfaction with the work - Low absenteeism and turnover

Axioms for Effectively Managing Employees

- No two companies are the same - There is no one best way to manage employees - Using the wrong practice, or using the right practice poorly, can cause more harm than good

A college town is likely to have more employees than a rural area in terms of

- Number of people available for high skill jobs. - The variety of skills available in the labor market. - The total supply of people in the labor market.

Ways to accomplish job enrichment:

- Provide employees with discretion to set schedules, decide work methods, check quality, and help less experienced employees - Provide employees freedom to decide when to start and stop work, when to break, and how to prioritize their work - Encourage employees to solve problems as they encounter them - Provide employees with knowledge and control over budgets

Organizational culture is a set of assumptions, values, and beliefs. Which of the following is true regarding factors that shape company culture?

- The HR practices used to manage employees - Past decisions regarding how employees are managed. - The company history and founding.

Responses to perceived violations of psychological contracts

- Voice - Silence - Neglect - Exist - Destruction

Environmental Influences- Ethics and Social Responsibility

1. 8 stakeholder groups: shareholders, community, governance, diversity, employees, environmental, human rights, product 2. Can help foster a positive reputation that spurs additional consumer support

Steps to encourage ethical behavior:

1. Appoint an ethics officer 2. Constantly monitor the aspects of the company's culture that concern its value system, including ethics 3. Provide ethics training 4. Perform background checks on incoming employees 5. Devote time at regular staff meetings to talking about responsibilities

Employment Portfolio

1. Core employees (commitment- based HR system) 2. Job based employees (productivity based hr system) 3. Alliance/Partners (collaboration based hr system) 4. Contract workers (compliance based HR system)

Job Analysis techniques-Customized approaches

1. Critical incidents 2. Task inventory 3. Job element

Redesign how you manage your employees using the HR scorecard by

1. Customizing your HR scorecard 2. Being consistent 3. Being specific 4. Following up on the implementation of the redesign

Firms following which of the following strategies are likely to be particularly sensitive to the impact of labor surpluses?

A cost-leadership strategy

What is competitive advantage?

Ability to create more economic value than competitors

External Fit

Alignment between the three primary HR activities and the HR challenges

One of the fastest growing demographic groups in the United States are

Asians

All of the following are reasons layoffs can be stressful for employees except

Being provided with greater flexibility to perform tasks

James had an accident on the job and was injured when using a new piece of machinery. This likely would have been prevented by:

Better training to get him more comfortable with new equipment

Which of the following pair of employee type and HR system is most accurate?

Job-based and productivity-based system

Anum is a good organizational citizen and goes above and beyond her job description, but she is not compensated for it. After continuing to work on tasks without compensation, which kind of injustice is she likely to feel?

Distributive Justice

With regard to internal alignment

Each HR activity needs to be in sync with the other HR activities.

When an organization designs jobs, they are looking to make it clear as to who will do what and how that will affect their coworkers. It is crucial when designing a job to:

Emphasize the way work will get done

Richard's company is pursuing a low cost strategy. He is using technology to make his employees more efficient which leads to which HR deliverable?

Employee productivity.

When organizations consider how to manage their employees, three axioms are given to establish a foundation for managing employees for competitive advantage. Which of the following are not one of the axioms?

Employees will act in the best interest of the company

Which of the following is not one of the ways to change an organization to prevent job stress?

Encourage workers to perform at maximum performance over long periods of time

Which of the following are not strong company responses to unethical behaviors?

Encouraging better financial performance

There is no single culture. But, certain attributes are more aligned with some cultures than others. Which of the following is least likely to be consistent with a bureaucratic culture?

Entrepreneurship

Learning and development are important for organizations because:

Even the most qualified applicants may not have all the necessary skills

Beyond good publicity, Starbucks believes that its social responsibility policy:

Is successful because it shares the wealth

Organizational Demands - The relation between HR and Employee Concerns

It is important for managers to maintain open lines of communication with employees to monitor their attitudes about justice in their jobs.

The process of systematically identifying the tasks, duties, and responsibilities expected to be performed in a single job as well as the competencies employees must possess to be successful in the job is known as

Job Analysis

Manufacturing jobs have historically been based on scientific management and the efficiency approach to job design. Which of the following is not a technique or job design principle that would likely be found in manufacturing jobs on an assembly line

Job enrichment

Given fewer slack financial resources, smaller companies often cannot give their employees comparable _______ when compared to larger companies

Training opportunities, benefits, and levels of pay

Framework for the strategic management of employees

a.HR Challenges i. Environmental Influences ii. Organizational Demands iii. Regulatory Issues 1. Primary HR Activities a. Work design and workplace planning b. Managing employee competencies c. Managing employee attitudes and behavior i. Employee contribution ii. Competitive advantage

Mikhail has unique skills in the labor market and works for himself. His contributions to your company are not very strategic, but his uniqueness secures him a spot to work with your organization. He would be considered a

alliance partner

An example of a deadly combination would be if employees

are motivated but do not possess the required competencies

One of the largest ways that technology is influencing workforce planning is

automation

The factors that companies are not primarily concerned with when going global are:

availability of workspace

The corporate headquarters of a large marketing firm uses Greenthumb Landscapers to mow their property, weed the landscaping, plant and water the flowers, etc. The employees at Greenthumb that provide the services at the corporate headquarters building would be most likely considered a/an:

contract workers

Companies that focus on autonomy and empowerment are likely pursuing a(n)

differentiation strategy

A labor shortage that is seen to be temporary, yet approaching quickly, would be handled best by

employee overtime

In order to effectively manage employees, organizations should always keep the following axioms in mind except:

employees are primarily concerned about being evaluated fairly

Exit interviews are primarily used by organizations to

find out why they are leaving

In order to be prepared for a potential labor shortage, a company can increase its ________________ to have employees with multiple skills to fill needed areas within the company.

functional flexibility

Companies who balance ethics, social responsibility, and financial performance will likely

have a positive reputation and loyal customers

Larger companies typically

have more resources for employees

Examples of how employees may react to layoffs are

higher stress for those losing their jobs as well as those remaining

Attrition and hiring freezes can cause current employees to experience

increased stress since they must perform additional duties that people who have left used to perform

A video game company has been encouraging employees to work in teams by using team-based performance appraisal and team performance-based pay. The organization has:

internal alignment

Which of the following methods of job analysis is best suited to figure out nuanced aspects of jobs that managers may not always observe?

interviews

The psychological contract

is the perceived obligations that employees believe that their employers owe them

In smaller companies,

it usually falls on the managers to plan the workforce needs of the company.

When an organization needs a customized analysis of jobs within their organization, they use the _______________ approach to analyze the specific employee competencies.

job element

When employees need flexible schedules and are willing to work fewer hours, companies can use _______________ to give 2 employees the responsibilities of completing a single job.

job sharing

Which of the following is not one of the ways job design is different in smaller companies from larger companies? In smaller companies

jobs are often more narrow to maximize efficiency

As companies' grow:

jobs tend to become more narrow in scope

When considering the job characteristics model, feedback relates directly to the psychological state of

knowledge of the actual results of the work activities.

Job rotation can help employees develop _____________ when it comes to the job characteristics model

skill variety

The degree to which the HR activities are aligned determines whether companies realize

synergies

Luis has recently graduated college and is looking for a job. He should be looking at _______________ section in order to see if he has the necessary skills and experience for the jobs.

the job specifications section

What are Human Resource practices?

the practices that a company has put in place to manage employees

As labor force trends continue to change

the workforce will become more diverse

A job description is:

the written summary of the specific tasks, responsibilities, and working conditions of a job