MGT 3306 Final Review

Among employers that provide health insurance, the cost to provide family coverage per year per employee is approximately _____.

$16,000

Recent surveys show that, on average, an outstanding performer receives a _____ merit increase, an average performer a _____ merit increase, and a poor performer a 0.4% merit increase.

4.4%; 2.8%

Nina is a high-performing individual who works best alone. Which of the following companies is the most appropriate for her?

A company that uses a hierarchical pay structure to pay its employees based on performance

Which of the following tests of competitive advantage is probably the easiest test to pass?

Alignment test

Which of the following statements regarding allowing employees a choice in their pay mix is NOT true?

Allowing employees their choice is easy for competitor companies to imitate

Inclusion of essential elements in job descriptions for jobs covered by the legislation is required by the

Americans With Disabilities Act.

Which of the following is the correct order of the steps in formulating a total compensation strategy?

Assess the strategy, map the strategy, implement the strategy, and reassess the strategy.

Organization factors that shape internal pay structures include all BUT which of the following?

Cultures and customs

All of the following EXCEPT _____ are compensation systems associated with a cost-cutter strategy.

Customer satisfaction incentives

Organization factors that shape internal pay structures include all BUT which of the following?

Economic pressures

Which of the following policy decisions directly affects employees' attitudes and work behaviors?

Employee contributions

Which of the following is an example of a relational return?

Employment security

Which of the following is NOT a factor in defining equal work according to the Equal Pay Act?

Equal experience

According to the text, which of the following decisions should be made jointly?

External competitiveness and employee contribution decisions

Which of the following statements is NOT true?

Focusing only on one dimension of the pay strategy is a best practice.

Hourly compensation costs for production workers in manufacturing are higher in _____ than in the United States.

Germany

Today, job analysis is typically performed by _____

HR generalists and supervisors

Which of the following pay structure procedures would NOT increase perceptions of pay fairness?

Hiring consultants to develop the pay structure

Which of the following is NOT included in a strategy map?

Hr alignment

Which form of pay does not permanently increase labor costs?

Incentive

_____ refers to comparisons among jobs or skills inside a single organization.

Internal Alignment

Whole Foods' shared-fate philosophy of limiting executive salaries to no more than 19 times the average pay of full-time employees is an example of which strategic pay decision?

Internal alignment

Which of the following statements about reliability of job analysis is true?

It is a necessary condition for validity

In the formula predicting performance, the component most closely related to compensation is _____.

M

Which of the following companies is taking efforts to improve the work/life balance of its employees?

MH Corp. increases the number of paid holidays given to its senior employees

Which of the following is given as an increment to the base pay in recognition of past work behavior?

Merit Pay

One of the more readily accessible sources for generic job descriptions is the _____.

O*NET

In the context of pay relationships, which of the following is illegal in the United States?

Paying on the basis of one's age

Egalitarian pay structures have all BUT which of the following characteristics?

Prefer individual performance over team performance

Hierarchical pay structures have all BUT which of the following characteristics?

Prefer team performance over individual performance

____ is the measure of how important total compensation is in the overall HR strategy.

Prominence

Most unions prefer which of the following?

Small pay differences among jobs and seniority-based promotions

_____ looks at how an organization does its work: activities pursued to accomplish specific objectives for specific customers

Supply chain analysis

Common bases for modern pay structures include all BUT which of the following?

The extent of external competitiveness and equity

Which of the following is NOT one of the factors that define an internal pay structure?

The number of times the pay structure has been changed

GreenRain Corp. faces an increase in employee turnover rate. The CEO calls for a board meeting with the senior executives to discuss the issue. Who among the following suggests increasing the relational returns that employees receive to reduce the turnover rate at GreenRain?

Tom suggests increasing the decision-making authorities given to the employees to make work more challenging.

Which theory predicts that individual performance will be maximized when the pay differentials between job levels is large?

Tournament theory

Which of the following programs introduced by Congress includes restrictions on executive pay that are designed to discourage executives from taking "unnecessary and excessive risks"?

Troubled Asset Relief Program

Pension and health benefits are a very large component of total compensation for many large companies such as American Airlines and GM. T/F

True

Which of the following is NOT a question to ask for determining if research has value?

Was the research conducted by PhD researchers?

Based on the opinions of 10,000 U.S. workers, Hudson found that when given their choice of unconventional benefits, most employees would select _____.

a more flexible work schedule

The verification step of the government's job analysis method is always conducted with _____.

all the interviewees together

Union preferences are a major factor in _____ a total compensation strategy.

assessing

Most job structures are best described as

both person- and job-based structures.

The best way to establish _____ is to account for competing explanations, either statistically or through control groups.

causation

The well-defined jobs at McDonald's and their small differences in pay are an example of a(n) _____ internal pay structure.

closely tailored

When job analysis shows that managers and employees disagree on parts of a job, the best answer is to

collect more data

Which of the following is a policy, and NOT an objective, in the pay model?

competitiveness

Mike, a job analyst, is in the process of conducting a job analysis. He is given an initial tour of the work site by George, a first-level supervisor, and by Haley, a new recruit. According to the conventional job analysis procedures developed by the U.S. federal government, which of the following steps should Mike perform next?

conduct an interview with George to get an overview of the job

A measure of how changes in one variable are related to changes in another variable is the:

correlation coefficient

All of the following EXCEPT _____ are bases for judging job analysis.

cost

A compensation system focusing on system control and work specifications is most closely associated with a(n) _____ strategy.

cost-cutter

Mich Inc., a hardware store, has a rating system in place that rates employees on their friendliness, usefulness, and product knowledge. Based on the ratings an employee receives, he or she gets an incentive. The compensation strategy followed by Mich is most closely described as a:

customer-focused strategy

A difference between incentives and merit increases is that incentives:

do not increase the base wage, whereas merit increases the base wage.

Joshua believes that treating employees equally will improve their job satisfaction, which in turn will increase their work productivity and performance. In accordance to his beliefs, he wants to reduce the number of job levels and the pay differentials between the levels. In this case, he is most likely to use a(n):

egalitarian pay structure.

Incentives and merit guidelines are techniques of the _____ policy of the pay model.

employee contributions

The decisions to implement pay for performance, flat rate pay, and profit sharing are examples of _____ policy decisions.

employee contributions

In firefighting and rescue squads and global software design teams, a(n) _____ structure is most closely associated with higher performance.

eqalitarian

Comparisons on the forms of compensation used by other companies are part of _____.

external competitiveness

Compensation policy choices that affect the pay level relative to other companies are most closely associated with the _____ aspect of the pay model.

external competitiveness

A study of IBM showed that its long-standing policy of no layoffs was the major cause of its strong profits. T/F

false

Base wage reflects both the value of the work and individual employee skills and experience. T/F

false

Even if the federal compensation laws change, it is unnecessary to change pay systems to ensure continued compliance. T/F

false

Procedural fairness suggests that the way a pay decision is made is of less importance to employees than the results of the decision.

false

According to the government's procedures of the job analysis process, the first interview should be conducted with the _____.

first-level supervisor

The alignment test

helps ensure passing the differentiation test

External factors are dominant influences on jobs filled via:

hiring graduates

The degree to which pay influences individual and aggregate motivation among employees at any point in time is referred to as a(n):

incentive effect

Variable pay may also be called _____.

incentives

Robert, the CEO of GameTrack Corp., wants to restructure the pay plan without increasing the labor costs in the long run. He is most likely to achieve this, while retaining his top employees, by:

increasing incentive pay and decreasing base pay.

A compensation system using market-based pay is most likely to be part of a(n) _____ strategy.

innovator

Career growth, hierarchy, and flexible design are most closely associated with the _____ aspect of mapping a total compensation strategy.

internal alignment

Research shows that _____ will effectively shift an organization in a downward performance spiral to an upward one.

it is unclear what compensation practices

A set of identical positions makes a _____.

job

The process of collecting information that identifies the similarities and differences among jobs is known as _____.

job analysis

The list of tasks, duties, and responsibilities that make up a job is known as a _____.

job description

Engineering, sales, and maintenance are examples of _____.

job families

Which of the following is an ordering of jobs based on their content or relative value?

job structure

Organizations in a turbulent and unpredictable environment requiring flexibility in jobs and work processes are likely to be more successful with a(n) _____ internal pay structure.

loosely coupled

Issues of transparency, technology, and choice are most closely associated with the _____ aspect of mapping a total compensation strategy.

management

Gina announces that she would lose her job as her company is considering to offshore her job to another country. In this case, Gina is most likely to be working in a job that requires her to:

manually fix typos in a document.

ADA has directly led many employers to _____.

modify the format of their job descriptions to specifically call out the essential elements

You are an HR manager, and your boss has told you to find the best way to raise job performance. After some research, you find that _____ have the greatest instrumental value.

monetary incentives

_____ are related to greater performance when the work flow depends on individual contributors.

more hierarchical structures

According to the Hudson survey, _____ is the single thing that would make 41 percent of the U.S. workers happier.

more money

In mapping a total compensation strategy, the question of how important compensation is in the overall HR strategy is part of _____.

objectives

All of the following statements regarding offshoring are true EXCEPT that _____.

offshoring is limited to low-skill jobs

Conventional methods of collecting job information are _____.

open to bias and favoritism

The role non-HR managers play in making pay decisions is called _____.

ownership

Trying to measure an ROI for any compensation strategy implies that

people are "human capital," similar to other factors of production.

When organization performance declines

performance-based pay plans do not pay off.

A group of tasks performed by one person makes up a(n) _____.

position

Jane works as a copy editor at TreeTime Inc. She receives an e-mail from the human resources department with a link to a questionnaire that asks her to rate the necessary attributes required for her job. In this scenario, the approach used by TreeTime is characterized as:

quantitative job analysis.

In the strategic approach to pay, internal alignment is the _____ issue to be decided.

second

Which of the following is often the largest component in an executive pay package?

stock options

A specific statement of what a worker does on a job is known as a(n) _____.

task

The job analysis method that uses information input, mental processes, work output, job context, other job characteristics, relationships with other persons, and general dimensions is _____.

the PAQ

Job analysis is important for both managers and employees because it is

the basis for a work-related rationale for pay differences.

The parable of the vineyard owner and the compensation paid to the laborers illustrated:

the ignorance of the owner toward the content of work.

Apart from being reliable, a job analysis is also considered valid if:

the results converge among various sources of data and methods.

The most common way to collect job information is _____.

to ask incumbents to fill out a questionnaire

A study found that only a very small amount of change in CEO pay is related to changes in company performance. T/F

true

Causality is one of the most difficult questions to answer and continues to be an important and sometimes perplexing problem for researchers. T/F

true

Commissions are an example of incentives. T/F

true

Objectives guide the design of pay systems and provide the standards for evaluating their effectiveness. T/F

true

When unemployment increases, the proportion of the population covered by health insurance decreases. T/F

true

Marginal productivity theory argues that employers pay _____.

use value

If several incumbents, supervisors, and peers respond in similar ways to job analysis questionnaires, it suggests that the results are most likely to be _____.

valid

The most common bases for determining internal structures are:

work content and its value

Content refers to the

work performed in a job and how it gets done.