80.
The relative position of an organization’s pay incentives in comparison with those of other
organizations in the same industry employing similar kinds of workers is called pay
________.
A.
level
B.
structure
C.
analysis
D.
planning
Pay level is the relative position of an organization’s pay incentives in comparison with
those of other organizations in the same industry employing similar kinds of workers.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 12-05 Explain the issues managers face in determining levels of pay and benefits.
Topic: Cafeteria-Style Benefit Plan
81.
The arrangement of jobs into categories reflecting their relative importance to the
organization and its goals, level of skills required, and other characteristics is called
________.
A.
pay level
B.
pay structure
C.
job analysis
D.
benefit structure
A pay structure clusters jobs into categories reflecting their relative importance to the
organization and its goals, levels of skill required, and other characteristics managers
consider to be important.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 12-05 Explain the issues managers face in determining levels of pay and benefits.
Topic: Cafeteria-Style Benefit Plan
82.
What does a cafeteria-style benefit plan do?
A.
It permits employees to choose the benefits they want.
B.
It allows management to have a uniform pay structure.
C.
It supports managers to offer the same benefit package to all employees.
D.
It encourages managers to express confidence in a subordinate’s ability to improve.
A cafeteria-style benefit plan is a plan from which employees can choose the benefits they
want.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 12-05 Explain the issues managers face in determining levels of pay and benefits.
Topic: Cafeteria-Style Benefit Plan
83.
Unions exist primarily because ________.
A.
managers always try to take advantage of workers
B.
managers may take actions to benefit other stakeholders at the expense of workers
C.
union leaders force people to form and join unions
D.
the law requires that all employees be part of a union
Sometimes, organizations adopt plans to satisfy one constituency that hurts the interests
of another. When this occurs to employees, unions can give them a powerful voice in
representing their interests.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 12-06 Understand the role that labor relations play in the effective management of human resources.
Topic: Labor Relations
84.
The act that made it legal for workers to organize into unions was the ________.
A.
Fair Labor Standards Act
B.
Equal Pay Act
C.
National Labor Relations Act
D.
Civil Rights Act
The National Labor Relations Act made it legal for workers to organize into unions to
protect their rights and interests and declared certain unfair or unethical organizational
practices to be illegal.
AACSB: Ethics
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 12-06 Understand the role that labor relations play in the effective management of human resources.
Topic: Labor Relations
85.
Negotiations between labor unions and managers to resolve conflicts and disputes about
important issues, such as working hours, wages, working conditions, and job security, are
known as ________.
A.
the strategy decision-making process
B.
collective bargaining
C.
affirmative action
D.
the union organizing campaign
Collective bargaining is negotiation between labor unions and managers to resolve
conflicts and disputes about important issues such as working hours, wages, working
conditions, and job security.
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 12-06 Understand the role that labor relations play in the effective management of human resources.
Topic: Collective Bargaining
Essay Questions
86.
Each component of an HRM system influences the others, and all five must fit together.
Explain the components of recruitment and selection and training and development.
Managers use recruitment and selection, the first component of an HRM system, to attract
and hire new employees who have the abilities, skills, and experiences that will help an
organization achieve its goals.
After recruiting and selecting employees, managers use the second component, training
and development, to ensure that organizational members develop the skills and abilities
that will enable them to perform their jobs effectively in the present and the future.
Training and development comprises an ongoing process; changes in technology and the
environment, as well as in an organization’s goals and strategies, often require that
organizational members learn new techniques and ways of working.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 12-01 Explain why strategic human resource management can help an organization gain a
87.
Write a note on the components of performance appraisal and feedback and pay and
benefits to the employees.
Performance appraisal and feedback is the third component of the HRM system. It serves
two different purposes. First, performance appraisal can give managers the information
they need to make good human resources decisions—decisions about how to train,
motivate, and reward organizational members. Second, feedback from performance
appraisal serves a developmental purpose for members of an organization.
On the basis of performance appraisals, managers distribute pay to employees, which is
part of the fourth component of an HRM system. By rewarding high-performing
organizational members with pay raises, bonuses, and the like, managers increase the
likelihood that an organization’s most valued human resources will be motivated to
continue their high levels of contribution to the organization. Benefits such as health
insurance are important outcomes that employees receive by virtue of their membership in
an organization.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 12-01 Explain why strategic human resource management can help an organization gain a
competitive advantage.
Topic: Human Resource Management
88.
How do good labor relations contribute to a good working relationship? Explain the
importance of maintaining a balance between all of the five components with an
example.
Labor relations encompass the steps that managers take to develop and maintain good
working relationships with the labor unions that may represent their employees’ interests.
For example, an organization’s labor relations component can help managers establish
safe working conditions and fair labor practices in their offices and plants.
Managers must ensure that all five of these components fit together and complement
their company’s structure and control systems. For example, if managers decide to
decentralize authority and empower employees, they need to invest in training and
development to ensure that lower-level employees have the knowledge and expertise they
need to make the decisions that top managers would make in a more centralized
structure.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Apply
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 12-01 Explain why strategic human resource management can help an organization gain a
competitive advantage.
Topic: Human Resource Management
89.
Outsourcing has advantages and disadvantages for the organization. Discuss the
advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing to an organization.
Outsourcing allows managers flexibility, so that part–time workers can be hired only when
needed by the organization instead of having to keep a full-time worker on the payroll at
times when this worker is not really needed. Outsourcing can frequently reduce costs
because the organization does not have to pay any benefits to the temporary workers and
can often pay them at a lower rate than they would have to pay a full-time worker.
Outsourcing has disadvantages, however. When work is outsourced, managers may lose
some control over the quality of goods and services. Also, individuals performing
outsourced work may have less knowledge of organizational practices, procedures, and
goals and less commitment to an organization than regular employees. In addition, unions
resist outsourcing because it has the potential to eliminate some of their members.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 12-02 Describe the steps managers take to recruit and select organizational members.
Topic: Selection
90.
External and internal recruiting have both advantages and disadvantages for the
organization. Discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of both of these types of
recruiting.
External recruiting has both advantages and disadvantages for managers. Advantages
include having access to a potentially large applicant pool: being able to attract people
who have the skills, knowledge, and abilities that an organization needs to achieve its
goals: and being able to bring in newcomers who may have a fresh approach to problems
and be up to date on the latest technology. These advantages have to be weighed against
the disadvantages, including the relatively high costs of external recruitment. Employees
recruited externally also lack knowledge about the inner workings of the organization and
may need to receive more training than those recruited internally. Finally, when employees
are recruited externally, there is always uncertainty concerning whether they will actually
be good performers.
Internal recruiting has several advantages. First, internal applicants are already familiar
91.
Managers can use a variety of selection tools to weed out and sort job applicants in order
to appraise their potential for being good performers on a job. Briefly discuss the different
types of paper-and-pencil tests and physical ability tests.
The two main kinds of paper-and-pencil tests used for selection purposes are ability tests
and personality tests. Ability tests assess the extent to which applicants possess the skills
necessary for job performance, such as verbal comprehension or numerical skills.
Personality tests measure personality traits and characteristics relevant to job
performance.
For jobs requiring physical abilities, such as firefighting, garbage collecting, and package
delivery, managers use physical ability tests that measure physical strength and stamina
as selection tools.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 12-02 Describe the steps managers take to recruit and select organizational members.
Topic: Selection
92.
Explain the importance of reliability and validity of selection tools used by managers of an
organization.
Whatever selection tools a manager uses need to be both reliable and valid. Reliability is
the degree to which a tool or test measures the same thing each time it is administered.
Scores on a selection test should be similar if the same person is assessed with the same
tool on two different days; if there is quite a bit of variability, the tool is unreliable. Validity
is the degree to which a tool measures what it purports to measure—for selection tools, it
is the degree to which the test predicts performance on the tasks or job in question.
Managers have an ethical and legal obligation to use reliable and valid selection tools. Yet
reliability and validity are matters of degree rather than all-or-nothing characteristics.
Thus managers should strive to use selection tools in such a way that they can achieve
the greatest degree of reliability and validity. For ability tests of a particular skill,
managers should keep up to date on the latest advances in the development of valid
paper-and-pencil tests and use the test with the highest reliability and validity ratings for
their purposes. Regarding interviews, managers can improve reliability by having more
than one person interview job candidates.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 12-02 Describe the steps managers take to recruit and select organizational members.
93.
Explain the role of classroom instruction in training programs.
Through classroom instruction, employees acquire knowledge and skills in a classroom
setting. This instruction may take place within the organization or outside it, such as
through courses at local colleges and universities. Many organizations establish their own
formal instructional divisions—some are even called “colleges”—to provide needed
classroom instruction.
Classroom instruction frequently uses videos and role playing in addition to traditional
written materials, lectures, and group discussions. Videos can demonstrate appropriate
and inappropriate job behaviors. During role playing, trainees either directly participate in
or watch others perform actual job activities in a simulated setting.
Simulations also can be part of classroom instruction, particularly for complicated jobs
that require an extensive amount of learning and in which errors carry a high cost. In a
simulation, key aspects of the work situation and job tasks are duplicated as closely as
possible in an artificial setting.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 12-03 Discuss the training and development options that ensure organizational members can
effectively perform their jobs.
Topic: Diversity Training
94.
Justify how on-the-job training is beneficial for employees of an organization, giving some
examples.
In on-the-job training, learning occurs in the work setting as employees perform their job
tasks. On-the-job training can be provided by coworkers or supervisors or can occur
simply as jobholders gain experience and knowledge from doing the work. For all on-the-
job training, employees learn by doing. Managers often use on-the-job training on a
continuing basis to ensure that their subordinates keep up to date with changes in goals,
technology, products, or customer needs and desires.
Examples may vary.
Newly hired waiters and waitresses in chains such as Red Lobster or the Olive Garden
often receive on-the-job training from experienced employees. The supervisor of a new
bus driver for a campus bus system may ride the bus for a week to ensure that the driver
has learned the routes and follows safety procedures. Sales representatives at Mary Kay
Cosmetics Inc. receive ongoing training so they not only know about new cosmetic
products and currently popular colors but also are reminded of Mary Kay’s guiding
principles. Mary Kay’s expansion into Russia has succeeded in part because of this
ongoing training.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
95.
Discuss the most important ways in which performance appraisal and feedback contribute
to the effective management of human resources within an organization.
Performance appraisal gives managers important information on which to base human
resource decisions. Decisions about pay raises, bonuses, promotions, and job moves all
hinge on the accurate appraisal of performance. Performance appraisal can also help
managers determine which workers are candidates for training and development and in
what areas. Performance feedback encourages high levels of employee motivation and
performance. Performance feedback can provide both good and poor performers with
insight on their strengths and weaknesses and ways in which they can improve their
performance in the future.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 12-04 Explain why performance appraisal and feedback are such crucial activities, and list the
choices managers must make in designing effective performance appraisal and feedback procedures.
Topic: Performance Appraisal
96.
Trait appraisals have both advantages and disadvantages for the organization. Explain
what is meant by this term and discuss three disadvantages of this technique.
A trait appraisal is a manager’s subjective assessment of the personal characteristics of a
subordinate that the manager believes are relevant to job performance. Three
disadvantages of trait appraisals are
• possession of a personal characteristic does not guarantee that the characteristic will
be used on the job,
• courts may view them as unfair and discriminatory, and
• they do not allow managers to provide feedback and suggestions for improvement to
subordinates.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 12-04 Explain why performance appraisal and feedback are such crucial activities, and list the
choices managers must make in designing effective performance appraisal and feedback procedures.
Topic: Performance Appraisal
97.
Describe behavior appraisal. How does it help employees improve their performance?
Through behavior appraisals, managers assess how workers perform their jobs—the
actual actions and behaviors that workers exhibit on the job; behavior appraisals assess
what workers do. For example, with a behavior appraisal, a manager might evaluate a
social worker on the extent to which he looks clients in the eye when talking with them,
expresses sympathy when they are upset, and refers them to community counseling and
support groups geared toward the specific problems they are encountering.
Behavior appraisals are especially useful when how workers perform their jobs is
important. Behavior appraisals have the advantage of giving employees clear information
about what they are doing right and wrong and how they can improve their performance.
And because behaviors are much easier for employees to change than traits, performance
feedback from behavior appraisals is more likely to lead to improved performance.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 12-04 Explain why performance appraisal and feedback are such crucial activities, and list the
choices managers must make in designing effective performance appraisal and feedback procedures.
Topic: Performance Appraisal
98.
Discuss the 360-degree performance appraisal.
In a 360-degree appraisal a variety of people, beginning with the manager and including
peers or coworkers, subordinates, superiors, and sometimes even customers or clients,
appraise a manager’s performance. The manager receives feedback based on evaluations
from these multiple sources. Research suggests that 360-degree appraisals should focus
on behaviors rather than traits or results and managers need to carefully select
appropriate raters. Moreover, appraisals tend to be more honest when made anonymously
and when raters have been trained in how to use 360-degree appraisal forms. Additionally,
managers need to think carefully about the extent to which 360-degree appraisals are
appropriate for certain jobs and be willing to modify any appraisal system they implement
if they become aware of unintended problems it creates. Even when 360-degree
appraisals are used, it is sometimes difficult to design an effective process by which
subordinates’ feedback can be communicated to their managers, but advances in
information technology can solve this problem.
AACSB: Reflective Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 3 Hard
Learning Objective: 12-04 Explain why performance appraisal and feedback are such crucial activities, and list the
choices managers must make in designing effective performance appraisal and feedback procedures.
Topic: Performance Appraisal
99.
What is pay level? What is its impact on an organization?
Pay level is a broad comparative concept that refers to how an organization’s pay
incentives compare, in general, to those of other organizations in the same industry
employing similar kinds of workers. Managers must decide if they want to offer relatively
high wages, average wages, or relatively low wages. High wages help ensure that an
organization is going to be able to recruit, select, and retain high performers, but high
wages also raise costs. Low wages give an organization a cost advantage but may
undermine the organization’s ability to select and recruit high performers and to motivate
current employees to perform at a high level. Either of these situations may lead to inferior
quality or inadequate customer service.
In determining pay levels, managers should take into account their organization’s strategy.
A high pay level may prohibit managers from effectively pursuing a low-cost strategy.
However, a high pay level may be worth the added costs in an organization whose
competitive advantage lies in superior quality and excellent customer service.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 12-05 Explain the issues managers face in determining levels of pay and benefits.
Topic: Cafeteria-Style Benefit Plan
100.
Describe collective bargaining.
Collective bargaining is negotiation between labor unions and managers to resolve
conflicts and disputes about important issues such as working hours, wages, working
conditions, and job security. Before sitting down with management to negotiate, union
members sometimes go on strike to drive home their concerns to managers. Once an
agreement that union members support has been reached (sometimes with the help of a
neutral third party called a mediator), union leaders and managers sign a contract spelling
out the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 12-06 Understand the role that labor relations play in the effective management of human resources.
Topic: Collective Bargaining