MGT 367 Exam 2

Which of the following is a characteristic of task analysis?

It is usually conducted along with person analysis.

Identify the correct statement regarding predictive validation.

It uses the test scores of all applicants and looks for a relationship between the scores and future performance.

In the context of human resource planning, the primary goal of forecasting is to

predict labor shortages or surpluses in specific areas of an organization.

A correlation coefficient of -1.0 between two sets of numbers indicates _____.

that when one set of numbers goes up, the other set goes down

In the case of succession planning, job assignments for high-potential employees are based on

the successful career paths of the managers whom these employees are preparing to replace.

Erica helped a sales manager place an ad on job boards and hire 5 new salespeople. She calculates that the total cost to recruit and select these employees was $200,000. What was the cost per hire for this recruiting effort?

$40,000

The glass ceiling is likely caused by

A lack of access to developmental relationships

The HR department at Trevor Communications oversees the recruitment and training of employees at the firm. As the firm grows and recruits more employees, overseeing individual training programs has been come too much for HR staff to handle. Which of the following applications should the HR department use to help with employee training?

A learning management system.

Terral Prime, an auditing firm, purchases a management information system called Alpha Duo. Most of Terral's employees are unfamiliar with the functional aspects of Alpha Duo, and management decides to approach external trainers to train its employees. Rebecca, the company's training coordinator, is tasked with finding suitable trainers. Rebecca sends an email, with a document outlining the company's training requirements, to multiple vendors and asks them to provide suitable trainer profiles and cost quotes. What is the document called that Rebecca sends out to training vendors?

A request for proposal

A customer at Danielle, a French restaurant, complains to Jason, the owner, about a specialty dessert being unacceptable. Jason inspects the dessert and finds that brie, a type of cheese, is overripe. Jason questions the new pastry chef, Mario, who acknowledges he should have substituted another type of cheese for the brie. Jason analyzes the situation and concludes that Mario should be put through additional training to avoid such mistakes in the future. What type of analysis has Jason performed in this situation?

A task analysis

Which of the following statements is true of an apprenticeship?

An apprentice can earn an income while learning a trade.

Which of the following distinguishes an apprenticeship from an internship?

An apprenticeship is sponsored by employee unions, whereas an internship is sponsored by educational institutions.

Russell is paid for assisting a welder on a construction site. He also is adding to his welding skills by attending a local trade school. When he finishes his training program and demonstrates he has mastered specific skills, he will become a journeyman welder. Which of the following statements best identifies that Russell is in an apprenticeship program?

Apprentices have hands-on experience assisting a tradesperson.

Which of the following statements is true about an assessment center?

At an assessment center, multiple raters or evaluators evaluate employees' performance on a number of exercises.

Gary, the new human resource manager at Alchemy Corp., proposes using automated systems for screening résumés of applicants. Gary claims that automated systems are better than humans at picking the right profiles. Which of the following statements weakens Gary's claim?

Automated systems might reject qualified people who didn't use the same keywords as the job description.

Identify the similarity between the natural attrition and early retirement strategies for reducing a labor surplus.

Both strategies yield slow results for an organization.

Karen works as a sales manager for Apencience Corp. Karen can read, write, and speak Mandarin, English, and German. She assists top-level management in making business decisions and setting long-term goals for the organization. Which of Karen's abilities is illustrated in this scenario?

Cognitive Ability

Buildtron Inc., a construction firm, is in need of a construction superintendent, whose primary responsibilities involve organizing, supervising, and inspecting the work of several subcontractors. Buildtron administers a construction-error recognition test, where an applicant has to enter a shed that has 25 construction errors and has to record as many of these errors as can be detected. What type of validity is being established in this case?

Content Validity

Jonathan, the CEO of Maxofan Inc., finds that the company needs to eliminate a labor surplus to avoid financial difficulties. To deal with this problem, he chooses a strategy that gives him fast results. However, the amount of suffering caused to employees is high. Jonathan is most likely using the _____ strategy to reduce the labor surplus.

Downsizing

Which of the following statements accurately characterizes electronic performance support systems (EPSSs)?

EPSSs provide expert advice when a problem occurs on the job.

Luis, a human resource executive, is meeting with the executive team to discuss the need to fill a soon-to-be vacant position for vice president of the company's Medical Devices Division. Normally, he posts vacancies on the company's website, but he encourages the team to allocate funds to hire an executive search firm (ESF) for filling this position. Which statement best supports Luis's recommendation?

ESFs provide confidentiality for employer and recruit, giving access to better candidates.

Steve, the CEO at Winsfeld Inc., learns that his company is perceived as low-value by customers. He plans to combat this by hiring highly skilled and knowledgeable employees in order to improve Winsfeld's competitive standing. In this scenario, Steve will most likely be hiring

Employees with a core competency

Which of the following statements is true of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991?

Employers are required to make reasonable accommodation to disabled individuals.

A start-up software company hires Mia as its first human resource manager. Whenever a new position needs to be filled, Mia sits down with the supervisor to gather facts that will be included in a realistic job preview. Mia knows that the impact of job previews on candidates is limited, but she believes the effort is important anyway. Which of the following statements best explains Mia's decision to provide realistic job previews?

Giving realistic information is not expensive or difficult, so it is worth even a small benefit.

Christopher, an employee, understands that he has great potential after taking a self-assessment test at his company. He decides to create a checklist of short-term objectives to achieve to help him hone his skills. In this scenario, Christopher is employing _____ as a mechanism of career management.

Goal setting

Brenda, the vice president of human resources at FSE Inc., meets with the executive committee to discuss planning for future job openings at the vice president level. Brenda advises the committee that sending some high-potential employees to an assessment center would be beneficial, although a full-day assessment could cost $20,000. Which of the following statements supports Brenda's recommendation?

High assessment center ratings are associated with career success.

Which of the following categories in the DiSC inventory means that a person emphasizes relationships and also displays optimism?

Influence

Which of the following is the correct statement regarding internal recruitment sources?

Internal recruiting minimizes the possibility of unrealistic employee expectations.

Why is temporary employment popular with employers?

It gives employers flexibility in operations.

Which of the following best describes the multiple-hurdle model of personnel selection?

It is a process of arriving at a selection decision by eliminating some candidates at each stage of the selection process.

In the context of forecasting the demand for labor, using trend analysis, inventory levels, changes in technology, and actions of competitors are examples of _____.

Leading Indicators

Identify the limitation of cognitive ability tests.

Legal issues related to administering the tests.

Brendan and Angela are HR managers at Seattle Investments. They are expecting a labor surplus over the next two years resulting in the organization having 24 more employees than required. Typically, two employees leave the organization each month. Which of the following HR strategies should Brendan and Angela consider, taking into account the length of time they have available?

Natural Attrition

El Eram Inc. is automating processes so the company can meet its demand with a smaller workforce. The CEO asks Monica, the vice president of human resources, for advice on how to address the resulting labor surplus. Monica studies the workforce and observes that many employees are in their 50s and 60s. Furthermore, these employees are the highest-paid workers in every job category. Based on this information, what should Monica suggest as the most effective way of addressing El Eram's labor surplus?

Offer early-retirement incentives to the employees in their 50s and 60s.

Faulkner and White Company, a firm that builds enterprise resource planning products for customers, wants to implement training programs for its employees as an HR initiative. Senior management proposes the use of an instructional design process. Which of the following should ideally be Faulkner and White's next step?

Organization Analysis

James, the marketing manager for an automobile manufacturer, observes frequent conflicts between two of his subordinates, Jeff and Kevin. He asks the human resource department to help, and the department's training manager, Kelly, investigates. She tells James that the two subordinates lack interpersonal communication skills, but would be likely to improve with proper training. This scenario suggests that Kelly has conducted a(n) _____.

Person analysis

Francisco Holt had applied for the position of an emergency direct care worker at the City Medical Center. In the last round of the selection process, he had to take part in a testing procedure that simulated an emergency situation. He had to run a half-mile on the treadmill, followed by a step test, a posture test, a squat test, and a weight-lifting test. His performance was timed and his heart rate was monitored throughout the tests. Which of the following tests is exemplified in this case?

Physical Ability Test

Tiara Inc., an international clothing brand, recruited 15 people as brand managers. They all took a test as part of the recruitment process. Three months after the recruitment, their test scores were analyzed along with their performance on the job to find a substantial correlation between the two factors. Which of the following methods of research is exemplified in this scenario?

Predictive validation

Nazir, an HR manager at Solomon Beverages, identifies and attracts potential job seekers to his organization. In the context of HRM functions, Nazir is carrying out the _____ process.

Recruiting

A manufacturing company, hit by a slump in demand, is experiencing a labor surplus. The company expects the market to improve in six months, and it does not want to lay off any of its employees. Which of the following strategies is an equitable way to handle this issue and spread the burden more fairly?

Reduced work hours

Identify the correct statement regarding the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

The MBTI is a valuable tool for understanding communication styles.

While applying for the position of administrative assistant, Rachel was asked to provide the name and phone number of her previous supervisor. She was also provided the alternative of presenting a letter from her previous supervisor vouching for her performance on the job. Which of the following tools used in the initial selection process is illustrated in this case?

References

Steve applies for a job at Texel Inc. because his friend Dan, who is a manager there, prompts him to do so. In this scenario, Steve is a(n) _____.

Referral

Marika is a senior journalist at a news agency. She goes on a temporary leave for six months and travels around different parts of South Asia during her leave. She records her travel experiences in a book and shares it with her colleagues upon her return. During her leave, she was also being paid by the organization. This is an example of a(n) _____.

Sabbatical

Ensuring that employees are ready for training in terms of their attitudes, motivation, basic skills, and work environment is the _____ step of the instructional design process.

Second

Which of the following activities is most appropriate for the first step of the career management process?

Self-assessment

Wrap Foods, a leading brand in microwavable food items, prides itself on helping its employees with their career paths. The employees are highly efficient and are motivated to define areas of weakness in their job performances and work to eliminate them. The employees take various tests to help them assess their career interests and behavioral tendencies, thus helping them work on becoming successful. In this scenario, which of the following systems for career management is being employed at Wrap Foods?

Self-assessment

Fernando is hired as a seasonal firefighter by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The training used to prepare Fernando for his firefighting job involves an online training module. In this game-like module, Fernando is virtually placed in a real-life scenario such as a garage fire or a restaurant fire, and his goal is to put out the fire and save as many lives as possible. This form of training is referred to as a(n) _____.

Simulation

During interviews for a sales position at Lock-Spark Inc., the interviewer asks each candidate to imagine a situation where a customer emails to report that products were damaged during delivery from Lock-Spark. The interviewer then asks each candidate what he or she would do to handle this situation. This is an example of a(n) _____ interview.

Situational

Alexander is being interviewed for the position of an entry-level financial analyst at a well-known asset management company. Alexander is asked questions about the current state of the U.S. stock market, the current net worth of certain financial firms, and concepts such as IPOs and mergers from a set of predetermined questions that the interviewer has prepared. This is an example of a(n) _____.

Structured Interview

A pharmaceutical company, TechnoGene, has initiated a system where high-potential employees are identified and trained for senior positions in the company. Which of the following processes is exemplified in this scenario?

Succession planning

Adam, a team leader at a business process outsourcing firm, tells the human resource department that a significant share of his employees are missing deadlines. The department conducts a needs assessment and tells Adam that the employees' jobs require time management skills, so a training session on time management would be likely to improve performance. In this scenario, the department's recommendations would most likely be based on a(n) _____.

Task Analysis

Compared with other forms of diversity training, which approach do trainees tend to respond to most positively?

Teaching employees skills for constructively handling communication barriers, conflicts, and misunderstandings that normally arise.

Review of résumés is most valid when the content of the résumés is evaluated in

Terms of the elements of a job description

Meryl, a training manager, is making a presentation to her company's business leaders. She says meeting the company's five-year plan will require skills in using some new technology. Employees and their supervisors are eager to learn, but Meryl says some situational constraints are standing in the way of meeting these objectives. Which of the following could be such a constraint?

The company has not budgeted sufficient funds for training.

What is a disadvantage of using résumés as a source of information about job applicants?

The content of the résumé is controlled by the applicant.

Which of the following is true of the relationship between training and development?

The goal of training is preparation for the current job, while the goal of development is preparation for future job opportunities.

A strategic approach to selection requires ways to measure the effectiveness of selection tools. According to your text, which of the following is a basic standard for this?

The method offers practical value.

The employees at Melly Towers acknowledge that their supervisor is excellent at his work and that he has received many accolades during his 40-year career. However, they claim he is a dysfunctional manager. When confronted, the supervisor argues that his work should speak for itself and the employees' opinions of his behavior is irrelevant. Which of the following statements would support the employees' claim?

The supervisor often discourages employees from challenging tasks, saying that they are incapable of accomplishing them.

Gina, a marketing manager, sets up a meeting with Xavier, a human resource manager, to ask for his help in improving her interviewing methods. Gina explains that she is a people person, and her department is built on teamwork, so when candidates interview for a job, she tries to get to know the candidates as people. She always begins by saying, "Tell me about yourself," and based on what the candidate says, she lets the conversation unfold for 30 to 60 minutes. How does this approach limit Gina's effectiveness as an interviewer?

The wide latitude of these nondirective interviews can result in low reliability and often poor validity.

Which of the following statements is true of simulators used in training?

They must have elements identical to those found in the work environment.

Which of the following statements is true of selection decisions?

They should be based on which candidate best meets the requirements of the position.

Which of the following is true of in-basket exercises?

They simulate the administrative tasks of a manager's job, using a pile of documents for the employee to handle.

Premiere Software is having difficulty filling all its positions for systems analysts. The company's human resource manager suggests introducing a kind of personnel policy known as a due-process policy. How is that most likely to help with recruitment?

This policy implies greater job security and concern for employees.

What is an employee's responsibility in the data-gathering stage of career management?

To identify opportunities and areas needing improvement

Identify the main purpose of diversity training programs that focus on attitudes.

To increase participants' awareness of cultural, ethnic, personal, and physical differences in the workforce

James is the HR manager at Flenzel Inc., which is preparing for the launch of a new product line. The company needs to know how many new customer service representatives to add to help customers with questions and concerns about the existing, and new, products. To guide the company, James needs information about the number of employees currently providing customer service, the number likely to be in those jobs next year, and the numbers expected to move to other positions in the organization. The information will be easier to organize and interpret if James uses a(n) _____.

Transitional Matrix

Sasha, a production manager at ZestCorp Inc., must predict future labor demand using information about inventory levels from the past three years. Sasha will most likely use _____ to predict the demand.

Trend Analysis

Which of the following is true of validity?

Validity ensures the fairness of employment practices during selection procedures.

The stage to prepare for evaluating a training program is

When the program is being developed.

Solenz Inc. is a relatively new company that employs 23 workers. When it finished a major contract, the owner realized that there wasn't enough work left for all the remaining workers. The company is negotiating contracts that could provide future work in a few months, but it currently must address its labor surplus in order to remain financially sound. Which of the following is the best strategy to deal with this labor surplus?

Work Sharing

Michael, a newly appointed human resource manager at Zeta Inc., learns that several female managers have complained that the company has a "glass ceiling." Indeed, the top positions are all filled by men, but Michael isn't sure whether the pattern is just a coincidence. He agrees to investigate. Which of the following conditions, if it exists, would be evidence of a glass ceiling at Zeta?

Zeta has no formal mentoring program to ensure that the female managers have mentors.

Charles is a successful senior employee at Groo Technology. He has five years of experience in the company and is well recognized for his contributions. The vice president of human resources tells Charles about Nina, an employee Groo hired for her keen intelligence. According to the vice president, Nina is struggling to make an impact because she does not speak up assertively or understand who to talk to when she has questions. The vice president asks Charles to serve as a mentor to Nina. What would this role involve doing?

developing Nina through coaching, sponsorship, and challenging assignments

Zoe is a recruiter with a bachelor's degree in business administration. She is well respected among her peers for her professional standards and understanding of the HR field. However, she has noticed that when she recruits engineers for her company, they sometimes seem unresponsive to her. According to your text, the most likely reason for this is because Zoe

is perceived as less credible because she is an HR specialist.

Identify the correct statement about succession planning.

it provides a set of developmental experiences that managers must complete to be considered for top management positions

Myrtle Flower Company, sends its management trainees to an assessment center. There, the employees are assigned to small groups and given a problem to solve within an allotted time frame. The team members have to work together in tackling problems that they might face in a management position, without a source to whom they can refer any questions. What is the correct term for this type of development exercise?

leaderless group discussion

Which of the following is a characteristic of a successful formal mentoring program?

managers are rewarded for employee development

Grace is the HR manager of Trelsoft Inc., a software company located in Boston. She wants to establish the validity of a test designed for computer technicians using a predictive validation strategy. Accordingly, Grace must administer the test to _____.

people applying for computer technician jobs in Trelsoft

Which of the following is the main objective of diversity training programs that focus on behavior?

to change organizational policies and individual conduct that inhibit employees' personal growth and productivity

Reliability answers the important question of

whether you are measuring something accurately.