HR 7-13
An employee decides to leave his company. However, during his exit interview, an HR supervisor learns that Adam had no complaints about the work he did or the pay he received. What might be a source of job dissatisfaction for Adam that would potentially lead to his departure?
Adam experienced uncivil behavior from his co-workers and it was not addressed by management.
Which statement about an assessment center is accurate?
At an assessment center, multiple raters or evaluators evaluate employees' performance on a number of exercises.
Bob and Carlotta are welders working for two different divisions of the same company. Both have the same level of experience. However, Bob earns more than Carlotta. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which statement justifies the organization's decision to pay Bob more than Carlotta?
Bob lives in a location where living expenses are higher.
Which statement is true about labor markets?
Competition for labor establishes the minimum an organization must pay to hire an employee for a particular job.
Dakari and Hadia hold the same position at their company; however, Dakari earns more than Hadia. Which statement justifies the organization's decision to pay Dakari more than Hadia?
Dakari meets higher productivity targets than Hadia.
Kathryn and Eldred execute the same roles and responsibilities at their organization; however, Eldred earns more than Kathryn. Under the laws governing equal employment opportunity, which statement will justify the organization's decision to pay Eldred more than Kathryn?
Eldred has more experience than Kathryn.
An HR manager recommends adding self-appraisals to the company's performance management system. The other executives wonder why, since people would certainly want to inflate scores of their own performance. Which statement best supports the manager's idea of using self-appraisals?
Evaluating one's contributions gets employees thinking about their performance.
What is an advantage of using a balanced scorecard approach?
It helps employees understand the organization's goals.
What is a characteristic of a successful formal mentoring program?
Managers are rewarded for employee development.
Which statement about a product market is accurate?
Organizations in a product market are competing to serve the same customers.
Which statement about personal dispositions is accurate?
People with a positive core self-evaluation tend to experience job satisfaction.
Identify a disadvantage of using profit-sharing plans.
Profit sharing is not directly linked to individual behavior.
An employee works longer hours than his subordinates, however, he is not paid overtime for working more than 40 hours per week. Under the FLSA, which statement justifies the organization's decision not to give the employee overtime pay?
Roger is considered as an exempt employee.
Shari is analyzing an incentive plan she has at work and has just completed exercising the option. What process has Shari completed?
She has purchased company stock at a specified price.
Which statement is true of using stock options as incentive pay?
Stock options are rewarding for employees who exercise their option when the company's stock value has risen.
A manager wants to use subordinates as sources of performance appraisal information. Which statement best supports that idea?
Subordinates often have reliable information about a manager's behavior toward employees.
Ryan may seek further career development within the company, which will be aided by improving his performance.
The employee has the necessary skills but lacks motivation.
A company hires employees ranging in age from 14 to 25. Which practice by the company would ensure that it complies with child labor laws?
The employees aged 14 and 15 work only in office jobs and for limited time periods.
Which statement about the relationship between training and development is accurate?
The goal of training is preparation for the current job, while the goal of development is preparation for future job opportunities.
the characteristics of a job that a firm values and chooses to pay for.
The market rate or the pay policy line generally serves as the midpoint of a range for the job.
A manager believes he can hire a few employees by promising them job security and later terminating them if business slows down. On what grounds could such a termination be considered a wrongful discharge?
The terminations deviate from the promise of job security in the work agreement.
Which statement is an accurate depiction of standard hour plans?
They encourage employees to work as fast as they can.
What 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.
Which statement about high-performance work systems is accurate?
To develop a high-performance work system, organizations need to determine what kinds of people fit their needs and then locate, train, and motivate those people.
What factor is necessary for gainsharing to be successful in an organization?
What factor is necessary for gainsharing to be successful in an organization?
Computer-based training is
a method that gives a company flexibility in scheduling training
Which HRM practice helps organizations achieve high performance?
a performance management system measuring customer satisfaction and quality
It contributes to good long-term relationships with employees, customers, and the public.
authorizing the team to make decisions traditionally made by managers.
An insurance company incurred losses of about $100 million. To analyze its losses and to overcome them, the company began comparing its own practices against those of its successful competitors. In this scenario, which procedure is adopted by the insurance company?
benchmarking
In which way do modern information systems contribute most directly to the creation of a high-performance work system?
by enabling organizations to share information with employees
One of the least expensive and least time-consuming ways to train multiple trainees on a specific topic is
classroom instruction
What is the most accurate way to evaluate a training program?
conduct pretests, train only part of the employees, then compare the trained employees to the untrained
Foreign assignments can be highly disruptive to family members, and the resulting role __________ is the top reason that people quit overseas assignments.
conflict
A manufacturing company has a pay structure based on job descriptions. As the company moves toward customizing production to meet customers' specific needs, it finds that managers are lacking flexibility in both job assignments as well as awarding pay increases to their employees. It has decided to reduce the number of levels in their job structure in order to increase their flexibility. This is called
delayering
Historically, if an organization and employee do not have a specific employment contract, the employer or employee may end the relationship at any time. This is referred to as the __________ doctrine.
employment-at-will
Parul was working at Walmart when she found out that Maia was making more for the same job at Target. She went to her manager and demanded a raise. This demonstrates how __________ equity impacts a person's feelings about pay equity.
external
A feature of an effective incentive pay plan is that it should
have performance measures linked to the organization's goals.
The differential piece rate system refers to a(n)
incentive pay in which the piece rate is higher when a greater amount is produced.
The main purpose of diversity training programs that focus on attitudes is to
increase participants' awareness of cultural, ethnic, personal, and physical differences in the workforce
by demonstrating that raises of different sizes are associated with differences in performance
interactional
Yvonne is pursuing a degree in international business management. As part of her college program, she accepts an opportunity to work at Chris Consulting for a period of six months, where she will gain experience related to her field. Yvonne's employment at Chris Consulting is an example of a(n)
internship
Two managers want to the check the consistency of results for a performance measure that uses ratings by a supervisor. They want to know if different supervisors would rate the same behavior the same way. In the context of criteria for effective performance management, the managers are interested in the measure's
interrater reliability.
An employee is known for his short-tempered and argumentative nature. During a heated exchange at work one day, the employee makes a derogatory gesture toward his manager, which causes him to be fired. This scenario is an example of
involuntary turnover.
More than 40 percent of the employees at a company lost their jobs during a recent recession. The human resource department of this company would call this
involuntary turnover.
Managers are most likely to support training if
it will solve a significant problem
When conducting a workplace search, employers can act fairly and minimize the likelihood of a lawsuit by
justifying that the organization has work rules that provide for searches.
Andrew, a manager at a meat packing company, is asked to rate his subordinates' performances. He needs to rate 30 employees on a scale that ranges from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best. He rates 25 of the employees with a score of 8. In doing so, Andrew commits a rating error. In the context of types of rating errors, Andrew's mistake is called
leniency
A human resource department has played a leading role in helping a hospital become a high-performance work system. Recently, the team has been focusing on the hospital's performance management. Which effort would most directly ensure that performance management supports the development of a high-performance work system?
making sure employees know how their work contributes to the hospital's mission
Organizations customize their balanced scorecards according to their
markets, products, and objectives.
Job rotation involves
moving an employee through a series of job assignments in one or more functional areas of the 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. What should ideally be the company's next step?
organization analysis
A senior journalist at a news agency goes on a temporary leave for six months and travels around different parts of South Asia during his leave. He records his travel experiences in a book and shares it with his colleagues upon his return. During his leave, he was also being paid by the organization. This is an example of a(n)
sabbatical
Mehra is the new HR manager at a newspaper. She meets with the company's leaders to discuss how she intends to support business objectives. Mehra tells them that the paper has a performance management process that delivers reliable information, but it needs to be more strategic. Which action would best make performance management more strategic?
setting individual performance measures that are linked to the organization's goals
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
Every employee at Kline Engineering received a check for $1,500 at the end of the year to thank them for their efforts in reducing overhead costs by 25%. Which type of incentive pay does this represent?
team awards
The pay ratio reporting policy, as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, requires that companies report the ratio of their average worker's pay to that of
the CEO
Compensable factors are
the characteristics of a job that a firm values and chooses to pay for.
Employees' conclusions about equity depend on
what they choose as a standard of comparison.
Alex is reviewing the development program for his company's middle managers. He would like to add a component of formal education. Which option could be included in this new component?
workshops involving business games and simulations
What is a characteristic of a performance bonus?
It must be re-earned by employees during each performance period.
Which statement about the mixed-standard scale is most accurate?
It uses several statements describing each trait to produce a final score for that trait.
How can managers improve employee satisfaction with the feedback process?
letting employees voice their opinions and discuss performance goals during the feedback process
A CEO holds a meeting with employees, telling them they need to put 100 percent effort into their daily work. The CEO adds that with every quarter the company meets its sales targets, employees will receive a $500 bonus. In this scenario, the CEO's actions are most likely to improve
A CEO holds a meeting with employees, telling them they need to put 100 percent effort into their daily work. The CEO adds that with every quarter the company meets its sales targets, employees will receive a $500 bonus. In this scenario, the CEO's actions are most likely to improve
A company has a system of progressive discipline. Even so, in which situation would it be appropriate for the company to follow a stricter policy and dismiss an employee after a first offense?
A welder brought a gun to work and made threats to another employee.
What guideline helps increase the readability of training materials?
Add checklists and illustrations to clarify the text.
Which statement about apprenticeships is true?
An apprentice usually assists a certified tradesperson at the worksite.
An employee believes that an organization needs to plan what they will pay employees in each job. Her colleague argues that an employee's pay should be independently negotiated. Which statement weakens the colleague's argument?
An unplanned approach will likely result in unfairness and dissatisfaction among the employees.
Elton was part of a formal mentoring program and was mentored by Angel. The mentoring sessions were conducted over a period of eight weeks to improve Elton's communication and interpersonal skills in the workplace. The sessions, however, were unsuccessful. Which scenario, if true, would most likely have caused the failure of the mentoring sessions?
Elton's participation was involuntary, and he had little understanding of the details of the program.
Employee turnover at a company is low overall, but many employees from one department are seeking transfers to other divisions. Which situation is most likely an explanation for the employees seeking to leave their department?
Employees consider the manager of their department to be unfair.
What would most likely aid in the formation of a high-performance work system?
Employees' rewards and compensation relate to the company's financial performance.
A pharmaceutical company expects its employees to work long hours and achieve increased production rates. Employees earn one and a half times the usual hourly rate for working more than 40 hours in one week. Which law is the company abiding by in this scenario?
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
The terminations deviate from the promise of job security in the work agreement.
He was disciplined for doing what the law requires.
As part of his company's initiative to create a high-performance work system, Darrin, an HR manager, has been reorganizing work so that teams of employees will concentrate on coordinating their efforts to make sure customers are satisfied. The vice president of human resources has asked Darrin to explain to a team of executives how this project will help the company's financial performance. What would be the most effective explanation for Darrin to use?
Improving customer satisfaction should increase demand, leading to greater sales and profits.
What is a valid reason for ethical behavior to be a necessary condition for high performance?
It contributes to good long-term relationships with employees, customers, and the public.
What is a disadvantage of a pay structure that rewards employees for getting promotions?
It discourages employees from gaining valuable experience through lateral career moves.
What is most likely a consequence of paying most or all of a salesperson's compensation in the form of commissions?
It encourages the salesperson to focus on closing the sale.
How does the balanced scorecard help organizations deal with unethical behaviors of executives?
It ensures that by rewarding the achievement of a variety of goals, temptation on the executive's part to gain bonuses by manipulating data are reduced.
Which statement about e-HRM is most accurate?
Most administrative and information-gathering HRM activities can be part of e-HRM.
Ryan is a hardworking, reliable employee in a warehouse. His supervisor notices that this is the fifth year in a row in which Ryan's performance appraisal shows that he has met requirements for every performance standard of his job. Even so, the supervisor has identified areas for improvement. Which statement gives the most significant reason for seeking improvement in Ryan's performance?
Ryan may seek further career development within the company, which will be aided by improving his performance.
A training and development manager believes that in addition to providing superior benefits to employees, it is important to create an environment in which employees are able to develop. She suggests a new program that encourages employees take time out of their workday to research relevant topics and share knowledge with their colleagues. Which statement best demonstrates the positive or negative value of this program to the company?
Shared knowledge can lead to new innovations for the company, as well as the development of internal talent.
A CEO wants to carry out the first company-wide performance appraisal. She wants to make sure that the information obtained for performance appraisal is free of bias and that the managers have provided information about subordinates without any personal issues influencing the information. Which option will assist the CEO in obtaining her objective?
She should hold calibration meetings because they hold managers accountable for the appraisal information they provide about their subordinates.
Management at an IT firm is thinking of promoting Steve, a customer service representative, to the position of senior customer relationship manager. Which scenario would make the promotion less likely to happen?
Slow growth is limiting the opportunities available in the company.
The human resource department of a company brings in a consultant to evaluate its performance management system. The consultant says she evaluated the validity of the system's performance measures and identified some deficiencies. What does the consultant most likely mean?
Some behaviors that contribute to business success are not being measured.
Ariel, a human resource executive, is preparing a recommendation to the company's executives that the company develop a program of succession planning. The company has been growing rapidly, so she anticipates some resistance to the time required for careful planning. Which statement would best support Ariel's idea for succession planning?
Succession planning ensures that the company is ready with candidates if a key position becomes vacant.
The __________ performance management method requires managers to rate the frequency with which an employee has exhibited a behavior during a rating period.
The __________ performance management method requires managers to rate the frequency with which an employee has exhibited a behavior during a rating period.
A human resource department is evaluating its pay structure. A compensation specialist computes the compa-ratio of the designers and determines that it is 1.4. What problem is most likely to result from a compa-ratio of this size?
The company may have difficulty keeping costs under control.
A human resource manager is advising the company's business executives that paying more for labor than competitors can support the company's strategy. Under what conditions might this idea be most valid?
The company pays more to attract top talent, using employees' knowledge to become more innovative than competitors.
According to the hot-stove rule, which quality makes discipline more effective?
The consequences for breaking a rule are immediate.
A manufacturing firm aims to become a high-performance work system. To do this, a survey team asks employees for comments and suggestions on how they can improve the firm. Some of the newest hires say they feel left out of decision-making processes, while some of the experienced employees say their objections towards the firm switching to cheaper manufacturing equipment went unheard. Which condition would help the firm strengthen the formation of its high-performance work system?
The management should allow experienced employees to participate in planning changes in equipment, layout, and work methods.
Which statement accurately characterizes behavioral approaches to performance measurement?
They link the company's goals to the specific behavior required to achieve those goals.
Which statement about simulators used in training is true?
They must have elements identical to those found in the work environment.
A company was preparing to roll out a new performance management system. The human resource executive insisted that for the new system to succeed, they must first explain it to employees. She said employees need to perceive the system as fair. Why would this effort make the performance management system more effective?
When employees are more confident about performance measures, they are more likely to apply the feedback.
A team of employees at an online retailing company are being trained on cyber surveillance and user security. As part of their training, they are working to identify a solution to the problem of cyber-phishing and data breaches. Which group-building method is being employed by this team?
action learning
Job enlargement is defined as
adding challenges or new responsibilities to employees' current jobs.
The ways in which organizations use the performance management system to provide information for day-to-day decisions about salary, benefits, and recognition programs falls under the __________ purpose of a performance management system.
administrative
The decision-making dimension of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator relates to the
amount of consideration given to others' feelings when making a decision.
A transfer typically is
an assignment of an employee to a position in a different area of the company, usually in a lateral move.
In a learning organization, training is viewed as
an investment in the organization's human resources.
A company follows the process of progressive discipline. The organization communicates with an employee about unacceptable behavior and responds to a series of her offenses. Which step would immediately precede a threat of temporary suspension?
an official written warning
Barb, a supervisor in a shoe store, observes Carl, an employee, becoming anxious and defensive when a customer complains about some shoes. The customer reacts to Carl's behavior by raising her voice and demanding to talk to a manager. When should Barb give Carl performance feedback related to his handling of customer complaints?
as soon as she is finished talking with the complaining customer
The slogan of an exercise apparel company is "Loving the Planet." This is more than just an advertising message. The company hires people who not only have job-related skills but also a commitment to sustainability and enjoyment of nature. The employees regularly have opportunities to sign up for service projects such as river cleanups and recycling drives. Employees are enthusiastic about developing and marketing products made with all-natural ingredients sustainably sourced. The HR department uses its communication tools to remind employees about how everyone contributes to realizing this eco-friendly vision for the company. Together, these efforts at the company create
brand alignment
Soft Touch Linens is developing a profit-sharing plan. Bianca, the human resource manager, assumes the employees are excited to participate in this start-up company's success. However, a supervisor tells Bianca about anxiety surrounding a rumor that employees will lose money if the company has a bad year. How should Bianca address this problem with employee morale?
by conducting meetings to teach about profit sharing and how employees will benefit
Marcia and Darius are both data-entry clerks in the same department of a company. On the anniversary of her employment, Marcia receives a 2 percent increase in salary. Later that day, while talking to Darius, she learns that on his anniversary, his pay increase was 4 percent. How could the company's supervisor and HR department best ensure that Marcia will perceive outcome fairness in this situation?
by demonstrating that raises of different sizes are associated with differences in performance
A retailer has outlets in more than 30 cities in the United States. After a recent expansion of an additional 25 outlets, the company looked to expand its IT infrastructure to make it easier for workers to apply for jobs and for employees to submit their time sheets. The IT department decided against increasing the capacity of the company's servers. Instead, the team used a third-party hosting service for running these applications. The employees at the stores are allowed access to this information through a web interface. This company is most likely employing
cloud computing.
Compensation systems can help create the conditions that contribute to high performance. Consequently, organizations can increase empowerment and job satisfaction by
communicating the basis for decisions about pay.
A company offers its employees a career management program in which they can take a variety of self-assessments. When employees complete these self-assessments, what is the organization's responsibility in the next stage of the career management process?
communicating to the employee the results of the assessments and available opportunities
A software company uses job evaluations to establish the value of its jobs in terms of criteria such as their difficulty and their importance to the organization. The company then compares the evaluation points awarded to each job with the pay for each job. If jobs have the same number of evaluation points but are not paid equally, the pay of the lower-paid job is raised. Based on the scenario, identify the policy adopted by the company.
comparable worth
Belinda works at a leading restaurant. She is worried about making mistakes at her workplace, so she pays attention to details. She also prioritizes quality in her work. In the context of the DiSC assessment, she would most likely score high in
conscientiousness.
Barney needs to assess a subordinates' performance. He considers the subordinate to be reliable and meets all his requirements, so he rates her as a good performer. But then Barney thinks about another exceptional employee in his department, and decides that, compared with her, the first subordinate is just average. In this way, Barney has committed a __________ error.
contrast
A grocery store hired Thomas to maintain inventory records and Jaclyn to place orders for new inventory when stocks run low. To ensure that the warehouse can continue to function when either is on vacation, the company also trained Thomas to place orders and trained Jaclyn to maintain inventory records. Which training method does this situation illustrate?
cross-training
Nathan is a successful senior employee at his company. He has five years of experience in the company and is well recognized for his contributions. The vice president of human resources tells Nathan about Therese, an employee hired for her keen intelligence. According to the vice president, Therese 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 Nathan to serve as a mentor to Therese. What would this role involve?
developing Therese through coaching, sponsorship, and challenging assignments
"Performance management serves as a basis for improving employees' knowledge and skills." This statement corresponds to which purpose of performance management?
developmental
Neveen is a technical analyst at Saturna Inc. and has consistently impressed her managers with her ability to perform outstandingly in all projects assigned to her. Her manager, Raul, understands that she is really good at her job, but also believes she might experience burnout because of the repetitive nature of the job. He talks to her about developing other possible skills by working full time for a short period at a different company. In this scenario, which approach to employee development is Raul encouraging?
externship
Anton is training a new group of employees. After each training session, the employees complete various exercises to test their knowledge. After evaluating the results, Anton speaks one-on-one with the employees to help them define their areas of weakness and encourage them to keep fine-tuning their strengths. In this scenario, Anton is providing his employees with
feedback
A production manager needs to measure the performance of 12 of her subordinates. She divides the number of employees into categories: exceptional, above average, average, and below average. She assigns a certain percentage of employees to each category to determine the quality of their performances. In the context of methods for measuring performance, the manager is using the __________ method.
forced-distribution
A popular furniture manufacturer provides employee support through various workshops on interior design techniques. It also offers full-day courses on decorating a home, from suitable paint for a media room to contemporary outdoor furnishings. This adds to employees' existing knowledge and skill sets, helping create customer satisfaction. In this scenario, which approach to employee development is Greene Creations taking?
formal education
A manager uses a scale rating approach to evaluate his employees. He considers one employee at a time and circles a number or a word to signify the degree to which that employee demonstrates a particular trait in the scale. Which approach is the manager using to assess his employees?
graphic rating scale
have performance measures linked to the organization's goals.
have performance measures linked to the organization's goals.
A company determines that it needs to train 200 employees on using a new software application. The training administrator is investigating options to find the one that will meet the company's needs within the budget available. He determines that no one at the company knows enough about the software to provide the training. Which plan would be most likely to achieve training objectives at the lowest cost?
having employees participate in a general outside training course for software
When an employee evaluates his or her manager low on all performance criteria due to dissatisfaction with the manager's disposition, the employee has most likely committed a(n)
horns error
A firm that produces manufacturing equipment for various industries experiences an influx of new sales employees due to a recent expansion. Despite possessing a vast amount of sales experience, most of the new employees perform poorly. This is because the new recruits possess inadequate technical knowledge about the products sold by the company. To address the issue, the HR department decides to implement a training program using the instructional design process. As part of the process, the HR department's first step should be to
identify what the sales representatives will need to learn
What is the first step in the performance management process?
identifying what the company is trying to accomplish
A year ago, a production facility of a beverage company became the subject of negative news coverage following complaints that it had been slow to alert the community to some contamination of the water supply. During the reporters' investigation, several employees came forward to blame a supervisor who they claimed ignored their suspicions about the contamination. After the stories spread, the human resource department noticed that the number of workers applying for jobs at the facility had rapidly declined and so had the quality of applicants who did apply. The troublesome manager was dismissed, and now the human resource department is investigating how to improve the ethical climate at the facility. Which measure would contribute most to the effort?
including measures of ethical behavior in performance management
A human resource department gathers data for computing compa-ratios of several positions. Based on the data, for which position is Fresher Inc. most likely underpaying for human resources?
inventory clerks: average salary of $20,000, range midpoint of $30,000
A company pays attention to improving employee skills on the job. Its training centers and mentors are open to one-on-one sessions, group discussions, and workshops. The organization boasts a world-class resource center that offers the latest editions of many books and journals related to the industry. All employees have free access to the knowledge pool in the organization and are welcome to initiate discussions on topics of interest. In this scenario, the company has created a __________ organization.
learning
What is a characteristic of effective training objectives?
measurable performance standards
Cho, an outside neutral party, is helping simplify a conflict between two technical teams of a company. Though Cho's solution has no binding power, both teams decided to accept her solution. This is an example of
mediation
A firm that creates games for mobile devices and PCs has an unusual training program for all its new employees. The program lasts for five days and does not involve doing any work. During this period the trainees, in teams of three, visit different departments, gathering information about the company and various department functions. Additionally, they are paired with more experienced employees to discuss their goals at the company and to learn more about the organization's culture and policies. The form of training used for new employees at this company is known as
onboarding
A new firm has to hire qualified individuals, compartmentalize them into different departments, and hire a set of managers who will be able to instruct, monitor, and guide these employees to ensure smooth functioning of the organization. In this scenario, the company is creating a(n)
organizational strucutre
Arthur arrives late at the office on a Monday morning due to a personal emergency. His manager fires him, although this was the first instance of Arthur arriving late at work. In this scenario, Arthur would most likely notice a lack of __________ in dealing with employees who arrive late at work.
outcome fairness
An employee has just been discharged from his job after the company he was working for started downsizing. Confused about his state of joblessness, the employee threatens to sue the company for reparations. Which program can help the company avoid such situations from exiting employees?
outplacement counseling
Jorge, the marketing manager for an automobile manufacturer, observes frequent conflicts between two of his subordinates, Taylor and Liu. He asks the human resource department to help, and the department's training manager investigates. She tells Jorge that the two subordinates lack interpersonal communication skills but would be likely to improve with proper training. This scenario suggests that the training manager has conducted a(n) __________ analysis.
person
A client asks a company to complete a project that involves working with a software tool called ELIM, which is new to the company. The training manager in the company's HR department begins by conducting a needs assessment. Which method will the training manager use to identify individuals' needs and readiness for training?
person analysis
Lisa refuses her employer's request to falsify the contents of a report to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The employer subsequently discharges Lisa for "not following orders." Identify the exception to the employment-at-will doctrine that supports a wrongful discharge suit.
public policy
What is the most popular way to measure performance in organizations?
rating attributes
A software company is currently looking for new candidates to fill vacant positions. It prefers candidates who are enthusiastic about their work and willing to share their knowledge on various topics related to their field. The HR department is responsible for finding the right type of candidate to fit the open roles in the organization. In this scenario, the HR department contributes to high performance through
recruitment and selection.
A manager uses a rating tool to evaluate the performance of subordinates. However, the scale she used did not yield consistent results, and it could not be determined if a change had taken place in the performance of the employees. What was lacking in the rating scale?
reliability
A supervisor wants to compare the performance of the employees. If they do this by listing the employees from best to worst performer, which term describes the method?
simple ranking
A telecommunications company wants to implement an on-the-job training program for the sales staff who are unaware of the technical aspects of the firm's products. The lack of technical knowledge among its sales staff is harming the company's prospects of securing lucrative contracts. Although the company's IT team is well versed in various technologies, it is not well suited to handle a training program. However, the best IT trainers in the industry cost more than the company can afford to spend on the training program. This scenario illustrates
situational constraints
A real estate firm ensures that employees' pay is dependent on what they are capable of doing. The company also supports efforts to empower its employees by encouraging them to be independent and to make decisions in various areas. This, in turn, results in job enrichment. Based on this information, what pay structure is being utilized by this company?
skill-based pay systems
As a predictor of job dissatisfaction, the most important element is
the nature of the task itself.
Some employees at a clothing manufacturer investigate pay rates on Salary.com and learn that the company has been paying them significantly more than the national average for their jobs. In this case, what is the most likely reason for this?
there are regional differences in pay
Which activity is most appropriate for the first step of the career management process?
self-assessment
Ty earns a base rate of $12 an hour and receives a weekly attendance award of $20. He works 40 hours this week. What would be his total compensation for the week?
500
To support human resource planning, an HR specialist monitors trends in the Consumer Price Index. In recent months, the CPI has been rising at an increasing rate. What can the specialist predict based on this information?
A rising cost of living will lead workers in the labor market to seek higher pay.
