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HR

Terms in this set (175)

T/F: The widespread use of the Internet has affected the basic approach to how human resources are managed.
False
The management of Wrapp Kitchen Inc., a chain of restaurants, plans to implement certain strategies to increase worker productivity and improve efficiency. It restructures the kitchen space and redesigns the jobs of waiters, cooks and, cleaning staff to maximize output and service delivery. This scenario illustrates the concept of _____.
scientific management
Which of the following developments did NOT occur in the field of human resource management during the 1950s and 1960s?
Personnel management began to be recognized as being critically important to organizational success.
Which of the following is true of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
It required firms to fully understand the legal context in which they functioned.
_____ refers to the notion of treating social outcomes and financial outcomes as complementary, rather than competing outcomes.
Conscious capitalism
Which of the following is NOT one of the four basic goals of the human resource management function?
Improving the global economy
Abigail, a human resource executive in a company, plans and implements a wide range of employee engagement activities for improving the mental and physical health of the employees. These include personality enhancement sessions, career development lectures, and annual office trips. She also works with the management to provide employees with a creative space where they can share their innovative ideas. In this scenario, Abigail's initiatives fulfill the human resource management goal of:
promoting individual growth and development.
Fulfilling the psychological contract between employers and employees aligns with the human resource management goal of _____.
promoting individual growth and development
Which of the following is true of human resource management in modern organizations?
Both line and staff managers handle human resource operations.
Which of the following departments was usually thought of as a staff function?
Human resource
Who among the following people is most likely to handle human resource activities in a small, independent business?
The owner or general manager
Which of the following bodies created the Human Resource Certification Institute?
The Society for Human Resource Management
The _____ is the field's largest professional human resources association.
Society for Human Resource Management
Quid pro quo sexual harassment typically involves:
sexual favors in exchange for something of value.
Which of the following is NOT true of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993?
The law applies to those employees who have worked an average of 20 hours a week in the previous 12 months.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires companies to:
make reasonable accommodations for disabled individuals.
Which of the following is true of the Fair Labor Standards Act?
It established the workweek in the United States as 40 hours per week.
The _____ ensures that employees would be able to receive at least some pension benefits at the time of termination.
Employee Retirement Income Security Act
The _____ was passed to regulate union actions and their internal affairs in a way that puts them on an equal footing with management and organizations.
Taft-Hartley Act
The Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988:
reduces the use of illegal drugs in the workplace.
The Privacy Act of 1974:
ensures that federal employees can review their personnel files for accuracy.
Addison Inc. planned to close one of its plants due to a slump in its business. The closing was announced by the company managers on April 1 and took place 60 days after the announcement. In this case, the company conforms to the _____.
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act
The Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Act of 1974 is enforced through the _____.
Office of Federal Contract Compliance Procedures
The ____ established the workweek in the United States as 40 hours per week.
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
The _____ is given the power to apply the Occupational Safety and Health Act standards and enforce its provisions.
Department of Labor
Which of the following is true of developing countries like China and India today?
They are attractive sites for new businesses and joint ventures.
_____ refers to the set of values that helps an organization's members understand what it stands for, how it does things, and what it considers important.
Culture
Which of the following staffing models calls for the dominant use of host-country nationals throughout the organization?
Polycentric
A geocentric staffing model is one where:
an organization seeks to hire the best person available for a position regardless of where the individual comes from.
Which of the following cultural dimensions identified by Hofstede emphasizes a preference for structured circumstances over situations that are relatively unstructured?
Uncertainty avoidance
What is the term used when a company lets a foreign firm make and/or distribute its products in the foreign country's local market?
Licensing
Under which two approaches to international business will the human resource function be least affected?
Exporting and licensing
Which of the following disciplinary problems is most likely to lead to immediate termination?
...
Which of the following is the easiest way to enter a new market in the international business scenario?
Exporting
Which international business strategy involves cooperation between firms and may not involve sharing of ownership?
Strategic alliance
In the context of Bartlett and Goshal's analysis of the situation relative to potential agency problems for international strategies, if an expatriate manager is expected to acquire, leverage, and transfer specialized knowledge and is yet given independence, he is most likely to be working with a firm using the _____.
transnational strategy
Which of the following is NOT likely to be a part of the compensation package designed for an expatriate?
Complete tax exemptions
An organization's _____ is its basic reason for existence.
purpose
​The role of the board of directors in an organization is to _____.
monitor the actions of the top management team to ensure that stockholders' interests are protected
A(n) _____ strategy deals with determining what businesses a firm will operate.
corporate
A _____ strategy occurs when an organization finds that its current operations are not effective, and major changes are usually needed to rectify the problem.
retrenchment
Which of the following strategies is pursued by an organization made up of various businesses with similar products or services?
Related diversification
In the context of the adaptation model, which of the following strategic alternatives is seen as a strategic failure and is not held up as a model that any firm should emulate?
Reactor
A _____ strategy occurs when a company targets a specific segment of the marketplace for its products or services.
focus
A new, mid-range chain of restaurants groups its personnel into different departments on the basis of individual expertise. This is an example of the _____ design.
functional
Which of the following organizational designs is most likely to be used by smaller or newer organizations?
U-form
Which of the following is NOT a form of organizational design?
O-form design
_____ is the process of dealing with employees who are represented by an employee association.
Labor relations
The set of factors that prompt people to behave in certain ways is called _____.
motivation
When a fast moving consumer goods company faced bankruptcy, the company decided to encourage its employees by inviting them to contribute their ideas toward organizational development and growth. Further, the organization asked its human resource team to assess the workers' levels of commitment. In this scenario, which of the following human resource management practices is being used by the company?
Attitude surveys
An individual's reactions to environmental factors that present excessive demands is called _____.
stress
Which of the following steps will be pursued by a company to implement a stability strategy?
It will increase the value of existing employees through additional training.
Which of the following is true of market wage rates?
They change according to the demand and supply of labor.
Which of the following is NOT true of job analysis?
It helps firms to analyze the labor force trends in the market.
A group of jobs that have task and knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) requirements that are quite similar constitutes a _____.
job family
The first step in the job-analysis process involves:
determining an organization's precise information needs.
In the process of job analysis, when a job analyst interviews individuals who are performing the jobs being analyzed, it is most likely that the individuals may:
overstate the skills and qualifications needed to perform the task.
Which of the following refers to a computerized job classification system that contains continually updated information regarding the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for virtually every job in the U.S. economy?
The Occupational Information Network
Which of the following job-analysis techniques requires a subject matter expert to develop a comprehensive description of a job?
The narrative job analysis
The Fleishman job-analysis system of conducting work assessments involves:
defining abilities as the enduring attributes of individuals that account for differences in performance.
Harris looks at a job analysis that reports scores on various items that are organized into areas called "Information inputs," "Mental processes," "Relationships with other people," and so on. The scales tell how frequently these functions are used in the job, how important they are to the job, and other measures. In this scenario, the job-analysis technique employed is the _____.
Position Analysis Questionnaire
Which of the following would be included in the job description for a computer programmer?
Writing programs to run network processes
Which of the following job-analysis techniques focuses on the important behaviors that distinguish effective from ineffective performers?
The critical incidents approach
Which of the following would be a measure of competency of an employee?
Decisiveness
Which of the following is an advantage of employing part-time workers in an organization?
They are usually not covered by benefits offered by an organization, thus lowering the labor cost.
Cinergy Inc., a Midwestern gas and electric utility company, agreed not to penalize workers who left the company before the age of 65 and also offered those workers a bonus equivalent to two weeks' pay for every year of employment with Cinergy. Cinergy is:
encouraging voluntary early retirement.
_____ is a critical dimension of procedural justice that refers to the perception that a person applying rules to a decision had no vested interest in the outcome of the decision.
Free from bias
Sally's boss, Kim, prepared a list of workers to be laid off in the next quarter. Sally felt that Kim did not handle the situation professionally since she displayed the names of the workers on the notice board causing embarrassment to those workers. In this case, Kim has _____.
violated interactional justice
_____ describes employees who feel guilty over keeping their jobs when others lost their jobs.
Survivor syndrome
_____ states that an employer has the ability to terminate any employee, at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all.
Employment at will
Exceptions to the doctrine of employment at will is inapplicable when:
an employee is an objectively documented poor performer.
An advantage of retaining effective employees is that:
they help in avoiding expenses involved in replacing them.
Job satisfaction is independent of:
job embeddedness.
Which of the following is true of job description index?
It is used to measure job satisfaction.
For a merger or acquisition to be successful,:
all the employees should identify the new firm and cooperate with one another.
Which of the following is a disadvantage of internal recruiting?
It fosters stagnation in an organization.
Bob has worked for a local hotel for nearly three years and is interested in advancing his career in the organization. Bob notices the description of an excellent job opportunity on the bulletin board of his organization and hence decides to apply for the position. What type of recruiting method was used?
Job posting
Which of the following is the most common method organizations use for internal recruiting?
Job posting
Which of the following is a disadvantage of external recruitment?
It decreases the motivation of existing employees.
Which of the following external recruiting techniques is most likely to be associated with the goal of finding jobs for unemployed individuals?
Public employment agencies
_____ enable an organization to utilize both the internal and external perspectives of an organization.
Internships
The first step of the selection process is:
gathering information about the pool of recruits.
In the context of the selection process, which of the following is most likely to constitute the second step?
Evaluating the qualifications of each applicant
A job interview shortlists candidates who possess a major in political science for the next round. In this case, which of the following basic selection criteria is being used?
Education
Which of the following selection criteria relate more directly to the specific qualifications and capabilities of an individual to perform a specific job?
Skills and abilities
_____ is the tendency to be altruistic and cooperative.
Agreeableness
A firm hires a person who will adapt well into the overall organization rather than selecting a person who is the most qualified for a specific job. In this case, which of the following criteria is the firm adopting?
Hiring for fit
_____ applies to all employment decisions, but this legislation is the most critical for selection decisions.
The Civil Rights Act
The _____ argument for diversity suggests that organizations that do a poor job of managing diversity will suffer from problems of lower productivity and higher levels of turnover and absenteeism.
cost
Which of the following arguments for diversity considers diversity in organizations as an opportunity to attract the right talent from minority groups?
The resource acquisition argument
The systems flexibility argument for diversity suggests that diverse organizations are better able to face competition because they will:
be better equipped to respond to changes in its environment.
Which of the following is the best description of empathy?
Understanding the perspectives of others who are different
Which of the following involves making allowances for differences in opinion, approach or behavior even without having to accept or agree with them?
Tolerance
Which of the following is true of the strategies for dealing with diversity?
Offensive behavior by a person should be pointed out in a friendly low-key manner.
Managing diversity in an organization starts with:
framing appropriate organizational practices.
_____ training is offered in organizations to help individuals function better in a multicultural organization.
Diversity
Offering foreign language courses to employees in a multicultural organization is an example of _____.
diversity training
Which of the following best describes a multicultural organization?
A firm that capitalizes on diversity and has no identifiable minority groups
When every group in a company strives to understand other groups, the company is said to be characterized by _____.
pluralism
The process by which a company adapts to its environment is called _____.
organizational learning
T/F: Benefits offered by companies seldom impact the job satisfaction of employees.
False
Which of the following is a disadvantage of using an above-market compensation rate?
It encourages a sense of entitlement among employees.
_____ refers to a company indicating to employees the importance of certain behaviors by paying for such behaviors.
Signaling
A laborer who is paid in terms of the hours worked per week most likely to receive a _____.
wage
Organizations are most likely to pay below-market compensation rates in an area with:
high unemployment
A law firm performs a job evaluation by organizing jobs into sets called grades. Once the grades have been determined, a job evaluator writes definitions and descriptions of each job type that serve as a standard around which the compensation system for employees is built. Which of the following job evaluation methods is the law firm using?
Classification system
An advantage of the _____ as a job evaluation method is that it provides specific standards for compensation and can easily accommodate changes in the value of various individual jobs in an organization.
classification system
Which of the following job evaluation methods assesses jobs against a standard of key points?
The factor-comparison method
Which of the following is true of the factors influencing benefits offered by organizations?
Most experts believe that organizations willing to spend more money on total compensation are able to attract better-qualified people.
_____ is funded through employee and employer taxes that are withheld on a payroll basis.
Social Security
Which mandated type of insurance covers individuals who suffer a job-related illness or accident?
Workers' compensation
Which of the following is an example of a life-cycle benefit plan offered by employers?
Providing child care facilities at the work place
Which of the following is true of executive compensation?
Incentives for executives are normally in the form of bonuses that can exceed their base pay by some multiple.
Performance management differs from performance appraisal in that performance management _____.
is the general set of activities carried out by an organization to change employee performance
Who among the following people are the most frequently used sources of information in performance appraisal?
Supervisors
Which of the following methods is most likely to give a more realistic view of an employee's performance?
A 360-degree appraisal
Katy, a manager, is evaluating her team by rating the members of the team from best to worst. Which performance-appraisal method is Katy utilizing?
The simple ranking method
Which of the following methods of performance appraisal involves grouping employees into predefined frequencies of performance ratings?
The forced-distribution method
Which type of performance-appraisal rating method focuses on specific instances of good or poor performance for evaluating performance?
The critical incident method
The performance-appraisal process of a restaurant includes requires that its employees and managers to specify their targets for the coming year. Which of the following appraisal methods is the restaurant employing?
Management-by-Objectives
The type of distribution error that involves giving average ratings to all employees is called _____.
central tendency
When a rater tends to use only one part of a rating scale, it is known as a:
distributional error.
_____ is the traditional career stage that involves identifying interests and opportunities.
Exploration
Which of the following is true of career management?
Individuals who carefully monitor their careers will have accurate assessments of future promotion prospects and possibilities.
What is the final step in the career planning process?
Career counseling
_____ is the process by which managers and union representatives negotiate the terms and conditions of employment.
Collective bargaining
The American Federation of Labor focused on _____.
improving working conditions
Which of the following legislations gives workers the legal right to form unions and engage in group activities such as strikes to accomplish their goals?
The Wagner Act
A _____ requires firms to hire individuals who are already union members.
closed-shop agreement
Which of the following legislations outlawed the closed-shop agreement?
The Taft-Hartley Act
The _____ requires national labor unions to elect new leaders every five years.
Landrum-Griffin Act
Which of the following statements reflects the current trend in union-management relations in the United States?
Labor unions prefer working with management to working against management.
Which of the following issues forms a significant part of contemporary bargaining situations between managements and unions?
Job security
Which of the following is true of labor unions in the United States?
They opt to fight against wage cuts rather than strive for wage increases.
Which of the following is a prerequisite for decertifying a labor union?
No labor contract should currently be in force.
_____ items have to be included as part of the collective-bargaining process if either party expresses a desire to negotiate one or more of them.
Mandatory
_____ items are included in the collective-bargaining process if both parties involved agree to negotiate on them.
Permissive
A(n) _____ is a situation in which at least one party involved in a negotiation believes that reaching an agreement is not imminent.
impasse
Health hazards refer to _____.
elements of the work environment that more slowly and systematically, and perhaps cumulatively, result in damage to an employee's health
An employee of Speedz Corp., a car manufacturing company, dies on the job because of equipment malfunction. This is the fifth incident that has happened over a period of three months. OSHA finds that Speedz Corp. is guilty of violation of safety regulations. In this case, OSHA is most likely to:
fine the firm for repeated major violations.
The _____ is a comprehensive law that enforces standards for the protection and well-being of employees at the workplace.
Occupational Safety and Health Act
Many experts believe that OSHA is LEAST effective because:
its standards are very comprehensive.
Farhan, a software programmer, is allocated a new project with a tight deadline. Due to differences in time zones between his location and that of the client, he has to work during nights thrice a week. In this scenario, Farhan is most likely to have a negative attitude toward his job due to _____.
improper work schedules
Which of the following is true of task demands?
They are associated with the specific job a person performs.
Which of the following is a characteristic of individuals with the Type B personality?
They are very patient and easygoing.
Which of the following is a role demand stressor?
Ambiguity
_____ is a physical demand stressor.
Adverse temperature
Which of the following is true of individuals who have a high degree of hardiness?
They are individuals who effectively deal with stress.
Which of the following is an organizational consequence of stress?
Absenteeism
If a person experiences the positive consequences of stress, he or she is most likely to _____.
be motivated and takes up challenges at work
In the context of Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which of the following best describes a self-actualization need?
It is the need to reach one's personal potential.
Which of the following motivation theories allows for multiple levels of needs being prepotent?
ERG theory
The _____ theory identifies motivators and hygiene factors as two sets of conditions at work that can satisfy needs.
dual factor
Thomas, the manager of an automobile showroom, announces a new scheme wherein the company will provide an all-expense paid trip to an exotic island to the salesperson who sells the maximum number of cars in the next quarter. This incentive inspires Thomas's subordinates to work harder and improve their performance. In the context of the reinforcement theory, which of the following is shown in this scenario?
Positive reinforcement
What is the basis of the reinforcement theory?
Behavior is a function of its consequences.
Interval schedules are partial reinforcement schedules in which:
behavior is strengthened as a function of the passage of time.
Ratio schedules are partial reinforcement schedules in which:
behavior is strengthened as a function of how many times it occurs.
A _____ refers to a schedule in which the amount of time that must pass before a reward is given is constant over time.
fixed interval schedule
In a _____, the number of times a behavior must occur before it is rewarded remains constant over time.
fixed ratio schedule
​Which of the following statements defines a variable ratio schedule?
It is based on the idea that the number of times a behavior must occur before it is rewarded changes over time.
In a _____, the number of times a behavior must occur before it is rewarded changes over time.
variable ratio schedule
In a _____, the amount of time that must pass before a reward is given can change from one reward period to another.
variable interval schedule
Which of the following is a disadvantage of implementing compressed workweek arrangements?
The greater number of days off affects the social aspects of jobs.
_____ is an alternative work arrangement under which employees do almost all of their work at home and receive assignments electronically.
Telecommuting
A(n) _____ is the most general form of a merit-pay plan.
annual salary increase
Which of the following is NOT an example of an incentive pay system?
QuLine Inc. provides a higher salary to engineers with a Master's degree than to those with a Bachelor's degree.
The owner of a hardware store decides to pay an incentive to his salespeople based on their ability to sell products to industrial buyers. Each salesperson would receive a share of the amount earned from his or her sales. Which of the following incentive systems is being offered to the salespeople in this scenario?
Commission
Which of the following incentive reward systems distributes the cost savings resulting from a work team's suggestion among all employees in an organization?
Scanlon plan
_____ is the systematic and simultaneous application of positive reinforcement and either punishment or extinction.
Behavior modification
Which of the following is NOT a beneficial approach while providing performance feedback to an employee?
Avoiding discussion on future in formal feedback sessions
Which of the following is true of the productivity measurement and evaluation system (ProMES)?
It incorporates ideas from goal setting to feedback and includes incentives for improvement.
It incorporates ideas from goal setting to feedback and includes incentives for improvement.
An organization's success needs to be assessed by examining the state of multiple indicators.
_____ is an example of a human resource indicator.
Turnover rate
Which of the following statements reflects the challenges faced by contemporary human resource departments in the context of cybersecurity?
Every desktop computer, laptop, or hand-held device is vulnerable to attack in an organization.
A _____ is an example of a group incentive plan.
stock-purchase plan
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