Chapter 2; Trends in Human Resource Management

Why is the work force increasing its diversity?

Primarily due to immigration from...

Self-Service

System in which employees have online access to information about HR issues & go online to enroll themselves in progress & provide feedback through surveys

Total Quality Management (TMQ)

a company wide effort to continually improve the ways people, machines, & systems accomplish work

Reengineering

a complete review of the organization's critical work processes to make them more efficient and able to deliver higher quality

HR Information Systems (HRIS)

a computer system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyze, retrive, & distribute information related to an organization's HR

Psychological Contract

a description of what an employee expects to contribute in an employment relationship & what the employer will provide the employee in exchange for those contributions

HR Dashboard

a display of how the company is performing on specific HR metrics

Intranet

a network that uses Internet tools but limits access to authorized users in the organization

Labor Force

all the people willing and able to work

Internal Labor Force

an organization's workers (its employees & the people who have contracts to work at the organization)

Downsizing

cud down the workforce to save the company money, a growing issue

Expatriates

employees who take assignments in other countries

Knowledge-Workers

employees whose main contribution to the organization is specialized knowledge, such as knowledge of customers, a process, or a profession

Employee Empowerment

giving employees responsibility & authority to make decisions regarding all aspects of product development or customer service

External Labor Force

individuals who are actively seeking employment

Strategy

its plan for meeting broad goals such as profitability, quality, & market share

Alternative Work Arrangements

methods of staffing other than the traditional hiring of full-time employees

Offshoring

moving operations from the country where a company is headquartered to a country where pay rates are lower but the necessary skills are available

High-Performing Work Systems

organization that have the best possible fit between their social system (people & how they interact) & technical system (equipment & process)

Virtual Teams

teams that rely on communication technology such as video conferences, email, & cell phones to keep in touch & coordinate activities

Teamwork

the assignment of work to groups of employees with various skills who interact to assemble a product or provide a service

Outsourcing

the practice of having another company (a vendor, third-party provider, or consultant provide services)

Electronic HRM

the processing & transmission of digitized HR information, especially using computer networking & the internet

Labor Market

the workforce is aging, but are not retiring soon