Chapter 11 – Human Resource Management: Finding and Keeping the Best Employees
419. Steely Percussion Inc. briefly tried to implement a flextime system only to abandon it
after a few months. Which of the following is the most likely reason Steely would drop its
flextime plan?
A. It caused an increase in traffic congestion.
B. It often made communication among employees more difficult.
C. The employees resented being required to come to work early or stay late.
D. Workers tend to be less productive when they have to work longer hours in a single
day.
Feedback: One of the problems with a flextime system is that it can complicate
communications among employees. When workers arrive and leave at different times,
situations can arise where certain employees are not available when others need to talk to
them.
420. Tony is an office manager with a financial company. His company recently announced
that it will soon implement a flextime plan. Under this new system, Tony is likely to find
that:
A. he will have to work longer hours.
B. workers tend to forget their work schedules.
C. almost all of his workers decide to change to an earlier schedule.
D. he will have to work harder to maintain high morale among the employees in his
office.
Feedback: A problem with flextime systems is that managers often have to work longer days
to be able to supervise and direct workers.
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426. The _______________ doctrine states that employers have as much right to fire
workers as the workers have to leave the company voluntarily.
A. first-in, first-out
B. employment at will
C. reciprocal employment
D. mutual consent
427. A(n) __________ is a financial incentive a firm offers to encourage employees to
accept an early retirement offer.
A. ESOP
B. green fair-way
C. golden handshake
D. silver lining
428.
Chapter 11 – Human Resource Management: Finding and Keeping the Best Employees
A reason workers tend to receive fewer promotions than in the past is that:
A. most firms now believe hiring people outside the organization is a better way to fill
management positions because it brings in “new blood.”
B. the movement toward flatter organizational structures, provide fewer opportunities to
move upward.
C. firms have found that promoting employees can create jealousy and resentment among
the workers who are not promoted.
D. very few of today’s supervisors and lower-level managers have the qualifications
needed to move into higher management positions.
Feedback: As companies downsize and become flatter, they have fewer levels of
management. This means that fewer higher-level management positions are available for
employees to reach.
429. Which of the following statements about early retirement is most accurate?
A. Traditional early retirement plans are no longer legal because they represent age
discrimination.
B. An advantage of early retirement as a method of downsizing is that early retirement
provides opportunities for younger employees to be promoted.
C. Federal law requires firms to offer early retirement benefits to any worker who
voluntarily offers to retire before the age of 60.
D. Workers who receive an offer for early retirement are likely to gain by refusing the
firm’s first offer and holding out for a better deal.
Feedback: Early retirements have an advantage over layoffs as a means of downsizing
because having workers voluntarily retire is better for the morale of remaining workers than
seeing workers being laid off.
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438. Dramatic changes in the U.S. labor force will make the work of human resource managers
more interesting, and more difficult, in the future. Identify and describe three trends that will
challenge future human resource managers.
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443. Before the director’s accident, Dee had worked with him to devise a plan that would
allow each employee to select the fringe benefits he or she wants up to a certain dollar
amount. The type of plan Dee and the director developed is known as a(n):
A. cafeteria-style fringe benefits plan.
B. benefits buffet.
C. open options plan.
D. flexible spending plan.
Feedback: A cafeteria-style benefits plan allows employees to choose the benefits they want
up to a certain dollar amount.
