Quiz 4

How has workforce composition change in recent years?

The trends are going up and against countervailing pressures in the workplace. They reflect the need for organizations to consider adopting employee friendly policies to attract and retain staff. This is ultimately costly for the companies however in meeting the employees wishes for work-life balance it seems to be the direction we are moving towards.

What did research by Facer and Wadsworth (2008) find about compressed workweeks in Utah?

found that employees working the 4 day, 10 hour schedule reported high levels of job satisfaction, higher perceived productivity, and lower levels of work/family conflict.

What are components of elder care programs?

* Social work counseling * Financial assistance * Subsidies to service providers * Leave policies * Information and referral sources * Support groups * Other forms of aid

What are some recommendations for pay systems

* Stakeholder involvement in system design or reevaluation * Simplicity in base pay and diversity in benefits * Salary progression tied to continuous improvement * Job security * Market match pay philosophy

According to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (2006), what factors need to be present for an effective pay for performance system to work?

*A supportive organizational culture *Fair-minded, well-trained supervisors *A rigorous performance appraisal system *A system of checks and balances *An ongoing system of program evaluation

What forms can flextime take?

-Core hours (required presence at work) -Band of flexible hours (typically at the end or beginning of day) -Variable lunch hours -Sliding schedule (variation in the start or stop times daily, weekly or monthly) -Bank time (variable length of workday; hours from long days can be banked for short days later on)

What are the 6 stages for implementing family friendly policies?

-Setting of policies and values for the program -Identification of options or models -Articulation of program objectives -Planning for implementation -Specification of outcomes and benefits -Measurement and evaluation

What are the various federal pay schedules?

-staff and clerical labor submarket administrative support personnel -white-collar worker -blue-collar worker -executives -professional and high-level craft occupations

What are some reasons employees may be discontented with benefit plans?

-standardized packages that require participation whether or not employees need the benefits (duplicate insurance for two employees in the family) or even desire them (inexpensive—and inadequate—group life and disability insurance) -considerable omissions in coverage that annoy many participants (e.g., eye and dental care, long term care policies, legal assistance, child and elder care, domestic partner coverage) -Cost-containment strategies in health care coverage (to the extent that insurance premiums can wipe out pay raises) and retirement plans (changing from employer-paid "defined-benefit" programs to employer/employee-paid "defined-contribution" programs)

What are 4 employer-sponsored child care programs?

1. Child care facility 2. Financial Assistance 3. Resource and referral service 4. Mildly ill / emergency / special-needs child care

What are the 3 most useful strategies for reducing stress in your opinion?

1. offering workships and short courses on time management to reduce stress 2. offer work support systems that foster attachments among employees 3. training employees in behavior self control skills to increase relaxation on the job

1. Identify three tenets of expectancy theory? (243-244) What does expectancy theory assume?

1. the value (valence) the employee attaches to a desired result (e.g. higher pay) 2. the worker's belief that rewards will actually be provided as a consequence of high performance (instrumentality) 3. the employee's understanding (expectancy) is that he or she can successfully accomplish the task that will lead to reward Assumes that people take action based on their perception of the possible success of that action (expectancy) and the likelihood of their achieving outcomes (instrumentality) that they value (valence)

What does internal equity mean?

Chapter definition: Rewards jobs of equal value with the same amount and pays jobs of different value according to some set of acceptable factors. Book definition: Equity of pay for employees doing similar jobs in an organization.

Which four agencies were rated in the top five on (a) Work/life Balance and (b) Family-Friendly Culture and Benefits?

Intelligence Community National Aeronautics and Space Administration Department of Transportation Dept. of Commerce Dept. of Health and Human Services

What are some perverse effects of merit pay?

(1) focus on the short term at the expense of the long term, (2) encourage mediocrity by setting limits on expectations, (3) reduce creativity and risk taking, (4) promote self-interest above other interests, (5) destroy teamwork by increasing dependence on individual accomplishments, (6) generate counterproductive win-lose competition among employees for merit monies, (7) encourage sycophancy (do as I say performance), and (8) generally politicize the compensation system.

Why isn't it a panacea

(1) intrinsic concerns include frustration that can occur when newly developed skills go unused or employees "top out" of the program with no further opportunity to earn raises. (2) extrinsic impacts include effects on complementary personnel functions (short term training & long-term payroll costs increase) and the dynamic political atmosphere (electoral cycles, employees as voters, unions, rank-and-file versus managerial pay). Note; it is also far more difficult to determine external equity.

What cost indicators of parental leave programs exist at each stage?

* Before leave (absenteeism and productivity impacts) * During planning (securing and training potential replacements) * During leave (Disability pay and stakeholder impacts) * While staffing (temps or replacements costs, overtime) * After leave (retraining, possible turnover costs)

How is part-time work defined by the federal government?

Involves fewer than 35 hours per week of working

Discuss the "great pay debate."

Is also known as the "war on public salaries." For every argument that the government pays too much, another is made that it pays too little. One side says that the private sector wage practice is the right one, and the country's economic problems are tied to public service pay. But the other side says that the public workforce is not only older but also more educated, unionized, and white-collar than business employees.

How have employers and employees benefited from a flexible work program in Great Britain?

It is estimated that 25% of employees seeking this option have been successful at their jobs, without business losing their productivity.

What is the average cost of benefits?

Average of 41% to the payroll and account for some 29% of the total personnel compensation package

What is the trend in health care for peripheral labor force (part-time, temp and newly-hired employees)?

The trend is that they are provided inferior benefits compared to those offered to current "first-tier"employees.

What is the sandwich generation?

A Sandwich generation is one with responsibilities for both their children and elderly parents.

What is a compressed workweek?

A flex option in which the number of hours worked per week is condensed into fewer days.

What was the first U.S State to offer parental leave? What were the program benefits?

California. It allowed for up to 6 weeks of paid family leave to care for a child after birth or to care for a seriously ill family member. It is funded by employees who pay $27 a year into the states disability insurance program, which then transfers the funds to the participants. Benefits include: * Increased employee retention (as a result reduced hiring costs) * Increased bonding time for parents who may not otherwise afford to take time off from work (which results in the healthy development of children) * Fewer dollars in welfare spending

What are 3 issues related to adoption assistance?

Adoption assistance includes benefits ranging from time off to reimburstment of expenses following adoption of a child.

What are the advantages for donors and recipients

Advantages for donors is they are able donate benefits that they would otherwise lose because their accrual is capped. It is beneficial to the recipient in that they get benefits in their time of need such as catastrophic illness.

Why might people prefer temporary work? (

Allows for flexibility of work schedules, enables them to meet family responsibilities, complete education or training, master skills, or compete for full-time positions

Identify is the paradox of benefits?

Although salaries form the foundation of most employees' perceptions of pay but most estimates of external equity cannot focus solely on salary data

Historically, why have policy makers increased benefits rather than salaries?

Although salaries form the foundation of most employees' perceptions of pay, accurate estimates of external equity cannot focus solely on salary data. Benefits, a trivial "fringe" in most organizations before World War II, now add an average of 41% to the payroll and account for some 29% of the total personnel compensation package. Historically, low public salaries have been partially offset by benefits because their costs can often be put off by lawmakers and are thereby less visible to voters than pay increases.

Under what conditions does pay for performance work well?

An analysis of economic, management, and social psychological research by two Harvard University faculty members demonstrated that what is supposed to occur with these plans in theory seldom occurs in reality. The conditions for success for these programs- (1) The output produced, (2) the people who do the work, and (3) the organization where it is done, all must be considered.

How effective is the Pay Reform Act? Why?

Attempts were made to establish the principle that federal pay would match that found in the private sector. However it was codified in the Federal Pay Comparability Act of 1970. It ultimately led to the idea that employees should seek a pay restoration, not merely a pay raise

How widespread are wellness programs?

Availability of wellness programs is more than twice as likely in state government and local governments (52%) as in the private sector (25%).

What is ROWE?

Best Buy's Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) was an unparalleled and viable non-time management program intended to redefine work from a place to go to something people do.

Explain why compensation is controversial.

Compensation is controversial because it produces discontent in 3 ways; people compare themselves with others: with those doing the same job in the same office, with those performing different jobs in the agency, and with those holding equivalent positions in other departments. Another reason is that remuneration is often driven more by political considerations than by economic ones. And lastly, is that many citizens believe civil servants are overpaid and underworked—despite arguably noncompetitive salaries and increased workloads resulting from downsizing.

What is domestic partnership coverage?

Consists of the benefits- such as health insurance, retirement benefits, and sick or bereavement leave- that may be made available to a person designated as a domestic partner of an employee

Explain the difference between defined-benefit plan and defined-contribution plan

Defined benefit plan guarantee preset lifetime pension payments. Defined-contribution such as 401k have attendant risks of vulnerability to a volatile stock market.

What is a legal caution about EAPs?

Employees and manager need to be aware that information gathered during EAP sessions may belong to the employer, not the employee.

What is job sharing?

Enables two employees to split the responsibilities, hours, salary and (usually) benefits of a full-time position

What equity and loyalty issues are involved?

Equity- if parents giving birth are entitled to benefits, why not adoptive parents? Two other reasons are also important: cost factors(adoption benefits are low cost because few use them) and stakeholder loyalty (support for adoptive parents can increase loyalty, morale, and retention). Similar equity, cost, and loyalty issues surround questions of domestic partner benefits.

What is "power of peers" applied to job sharing

Evidenced in research findings showing that employees more frequently use alternative work schedules when those in their work groups are already using them

Define equity theory?

Explains that an individual's satisfaction with his or her job is largely (but not wholly) determined by the person's perception of the fairness of the balance between contributions made by the individual and the rewards received from the organization.

What are 7 types of alternative work arrangements?

Flex options, telecommuting, part time work, voluntary reduced work time, temperate work, leaving sharing and pooling, and job sharing.

What is flextime?

Flextime work schedules allow differential starting and quitting times but specify a required number of hours within a particular period.

What is the trend in public employee pensions and health care benefits?

Given economic downturn and the upswing in labor costs, public jurisdictions are increasingly shifting costs away from employers and onto employees, reducing or dropping benefits and requiring higher employee benefit contributions.

Describe the "Hard HRM" and the "soft HRM".

Hard HRM (utilitarian-instrumental) view sees employees as costs to be minimized and resources to be used for maximum return. Soft HRM (developmental-humanistic) view regards employees as assets worthy of investment and resources of competitive advantage

What is the 3'0 clock syndrome?

It relates to those with children whose attention wanes as their children get ready to leave school and begin getting home.

What is the lesson from the Florida Department of Revenue's experience regarding bonuses?

It seems that their employees went above and beyond to save the department $9 million dollars but got nothing in return because the Senate rejected the idea of providing bonuses for "doing their job". The lesson to be learned is to not make any monetary promises because politicians cannot be trusted to keep their promises.

What is the consequence of noncompetitive pay?

It serves as an impetus to hire peripheral labor - low-paid, often poorly trained, part-time employees, temporary workers and even volunteers, many of whom are likely to leave as soon as they find full time positions.

What does Herzberg say about job context versus job content?

Job content- these factors are intrinsic elements that emphasize challenging work, responsibility, achievement, and the like. Job context- is a factor that if it is absent it can create job dissatisfaction. When these factors are available in desired forms, however, they normally are taken for granted. (ex: flextime) Factors focus on policies, supervision, and working conditions)

What is leave sharing and pooling?

Leave sharing and pooling are types of employee-to-employee job benefits whereby healthy workers donate sick time or other benefits to co-workers in crisis

What is the attractiveness of seniority systems and inflation adjustments?

Longevity pay aka seniority pay, is furnished on the basis that an employee's value has increased for the organization as a result of experience, training, and professional development. Such raises recognize that recruitment and training are expensive, institutional knowledge is valuable and difficult to replace, loyalty to the organization is important, and a team ethic with relatively equal raises should not be ignored. This allows for employers to retain their top quality employees by compensating them accordingly.

What is pay compression? Why does it occur?

The narrowing of differentials between pay grades in an agency. This happens when people stay in the same jobs for long durations, receiving generally small base salary increases and only periodic merit raises.

What did the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 mandate?

Mandated that the 30% public-private sector pay gap be closed gradually by the end of the century.

What is the paradox of harassment?

Many organizations have policies on these subjects, there is widespread agreement about what constitutes harassing and threatening or violent behavior, and there are numerous instances of such behavior at work--yet the number of reported violations is low.

Summarize the contentions of supporters and opponents of comparable worth?

Most of the controversy focuses on its feasibility. Supporters maintain that job evaluation tools-when properly utilized- advance pay equity; opponents argue that these techniques ignore free market. Advocates counter markets seldom operate efficiently (e'g. sex & race discrimination); critics say that job evaluation technology is inherently arbitrary. It is unlikely that comparable worth concerns will disappear in the years ahead.

What is downshifting?

The process of scaling back career ambitions and giving more time and attention to family and personal needs.

What are the types of problems that EAPs can address?

Organizations with the EPA use them to improve employee health and help employees cop with personal problems such as difficulties resulting form work/family conflict. Such plans usually offer counseling or referral services for people having problems with alcohol or drug abuse, personal debt, domestic abuse, or other problems that impede job related performance.

What is the general conclusion of Exhibit 7.8?

Pay for performance programs, in short, are deceptively difficult to achieve, both technically and politically. The idea of paying for performance may be good in principle but difficult to enact because of different factors that must be taken into consideration. In a work environment, the final product is usually the sum of all efforts and it becomes hard to compensate someone for the outcome since it is difficult to measure. We also have to assume that a person is working solely because of money and that is what drives them (this is not always the case and may back fire). Lastly, in an organization with ever changing leadership, it becomes difficult to have a consistent direction. Employees need to know what to do and whom to serve in order for the performance pay system to work well.

What is telecommuting?

People who work away from the traditional work locale (e.g. at home, at satellite locations, or on the road)

What are some warning signs of possible workplace violence?

Poor workplace situations (stress, discrimination): the presence of individual, family, or social problems (finances, illness): aggressive behavior in the workplace (intimidation, bullying): discussion about or presence of a weapon or threat of its use in the workplace; and statements suggesting fascination with violent workplace incidents.

What are some implementation problems with flextime?

Problems can result when employees are expected to work as a team, when unions or supervisors resist the move to flextime, and when laws (e.g. maximum hours and overtime requirements) introduce complications.

What are pros and cons of telecommuting?

Pros: Increased productivity, flexibility, economy, and satisfaction Cons: loss of management control, inadequate technology, absence of policy guidance, stakeholder resistance, concerns about customer complaints, insufficient office coverage, problems scheduling meetings, and insufficient funds

Where is the pay gap most severe?

Public and nonprofit employers

Identify different types of this kind of pay.

Shift Differentials - common where work hours extend considerably beyond the normal 8- 5pm workday and the Monday - Friday work week. Location Pay - typically provided to employees working in high-cost areas or unattractive regions and those with undesirable duties. Overtime Pay - is paid for time beyond the 40 hour workweek and is provided at one and a half times the workers regular pay rate. Allowances - are monies to pay for costs imposed by employment or as part of the job. These can be for food, moving, cars, housing, etc.

What are 4 health-promoting initiatives?

Stress reduction programs, wellness programs, safety initiatives, and employee assistance programs.

What is the "real" compensation issue?

The "real issue" is not raises but the size of pay reductions.

What are some elements of wellness programs?

The goals of wellness programs are to alter unhealthy personal habits and lifestyles and promote behaviors conductive to health and well-being. (Services include offering health assessment, blood tests,, injections, and health and nutrition education. They might even provide exercise equipment and facility. Health promotion activities often focus on physical fitness, weight control, smoking, and health awareness.

30. Why is differential pay used? (p, 277), Identify different types of this kind of pay.

The implicit values of this type of pay are to motivate people to take on less desirable assignments, locations, or responsibilities, and hold them harmless for job-incurred expenses.

What are workplace implications of employees caring for elderly family members?

There are many cost factors for employers as the number of employees caring for their elderly continues to grow. Some of the implications are having to replace employees, absenteeism, workday interruptions, supervisor time, unpaid leave and having employees transition from full time to part time status. There is also diminished productivity and excessive turnovers.

What assumptions about human nature and motivation are key to pay for performance plans?

These programs may be effective if (1) employees work primarily for cash and (2) they care about absolute pay levels. Yet people are not only interested in money but also in job satisfaction and challenge something not subject to performance pay.

How do family-friendly policies relate to the paradox of needs

They make it difficult for employers. It is hard to get to a win-win situation because many of these employee friendly policies may create dilemmas in the workplace such as insufficient coverage at the office, productivity, etc.

Why might single employees harbor resentment against family-friendly policies?

They may feel shortchanged or overburdened when employers expect them to "take up the slack" for absent coworkers who are given "special help" in dealing with spouse or child related problems.

What is the lesson from the Salvation Army's policy flip-flops on providing health benefits to same-sex partners of employees?

This example shows that implementation of domestic partner plans can raise complex contentious political social systems. National support for (or opposition to) such plans is linked to broader gay rights issues.

Explain this claim: "the compensation debate is a proxy fight for what the role government should play in society.

This is a dispute not likely to be resolved by data and sweet reason alone. Pay and benefits problems should be resolvable through objective economic analysis. Yet even in this relatively quantitative issue area, relevant facts are hardly conclusive and are subject to interpretation.

What is generation X?

Those born between 1960-1980

What are non-traditional families?

Those that include gay and lesbian couples, unmarried couples in committed relationships, single-parent families and reconstituted families.

What are some components of stress reduction programs?

Too much stress is bad too little stress is counter productive. The prevention, detection, and management of negative stress are beneficial for both employees and employers.

List some preconditions of merit pay?

Trust in management, a valid job evaluation system, clear performance factors, meaningful and consistent funding, and accurate personnel appraisal.

What is V time?

Voluntary reduced work time

What is meant by a wage-lead approach, wage-competitive approach, and wagefollower pay plan?

Wage-lead: may reflect a belief that by "working smarter," a high-quality satisfied workforce constitutes a cost-effective, money-saving strategy. Wage-competitive: neutralizes compensation as a factor in human resource management. Wage-follower: plans may be indicative of unique characteristics of the occupation (military service, State Department Diplomacy), a philosophy that dictates service is not about making money (Salvation army), high unemployment in the area, short time horizons, or simply a "lean and mean" approach to human resources that involves "working harder" to get the most from as few poorly paid workers as possible.

What is pay banding? How widespread is it? (

What is pay banding? Elastic pay systems use small number of pay levels, usually dropping the term grade altogether and referring only to pay ranges. In this procedure, to make the salary structure flexible, separate job levels are grouped into broad categories of related jobs called pay bands. This allows greater discretion at the agency level, offering more organizational flexibility and providing incentives for long-term development. The bands may have ranges of 40% to more than 100%, with only minimums and maximums.

Explain flextime

With most jobs being 5 days a week, 40 hours a week. Flextime allows different work schedules to fit the workers lives better. Whether the worker is a single parent, a morning person, have kids, married, single, etc.

What is the wage gap between men and women?

Women earn approx. 77 cents to every dollar a male employee earns in the general economy (wage gap smaller in government). Two explanations are human capital factors (differential experience, education, job longevity, occupational choice, work/life views) and sex discrimination- all contribute to the disparity.

Which stress-reduction strategies are most useful for (a) managers, (b) employees at work, and (c) employees at home?

a)follow a consistent management style b) schedule time realistically c) exercise regularly

Define skill-based pay?

aka knowledge or competency pay. Compensation for skills that employees have, develop, and use in a multiple task environment.

Define comparable worth?

also known as pay equity, calls for equal pay for jobs of equal value. In concept, comparable worth is gender neutral; in reality, many of its beneficiaries have been women because jobs often held by them pay less than those held by men.

What factors determine compensation?

pay level and pay adjustments -Pay philosophy, as informed by law and policy -Labor market forces (external competiveness), as reflected by manipulation of supply and demand -Internal consistency based on job evaluation, as tracked by different systems of pay progression -Individual considerations, as manifested in various types of pay

What is gain sharing?

the sharing among employees of financial gains that result from organization wide performance.

What do you think about the issue of contractors and compensation in government?

• Personal Opinion - Mine is that it currently is out of control and needs to be regulated or capped at some point. This area has grown over the years and the amount of outside contractors working for our government is ridiculous. These could easily be government jobs.