CHAPTER 9—STAFFING AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Human resources executive Sarah says, “I finally have a seat at the table.” She most likely is implying
that
a.
she is allowed into the executive dining room.
b.
her work is tied in with company business strategy.
c.
she no longer has to stand in the back of the room during meetings.
d.
she will be allowed to negotiate with the labor union.
2. A specific way in which human resources contributes to business strategy is by
a.
helping to build high-performance work practices.
b.
organizing company picnics.
c.
making PowerPoint presentations to top management.
d.
helping to prepare job descriptions.
3. An example of a workplace factor that could lead to turnover is
a.
a booming economy with many job opportunities.
b.
a worker’s limited ability to cope with the job demands.
c.
job-hopping tendencies of the worker.
d.
lack of emotional support from the supervisor.
4. According to the theory of job imbeddedness, whether employees stay with a firm depends on
a.
how long a worker has held the job.
b.
how well the employee is liked by coworkers.
c.
a variety of factors on and off the job.
d.
the worker’s demographic characteristics.
5. An affirmative action program must comply with anti-discrimination law and
a.
create managerial opportunities for minorities and women.
b.
change employee attitudes about discrimination.
c.
increase minority hiring by 40 percent.
d.
increase minority pay by 40 percent.
6. According to federal laws prohibiting discrimination, it is illegal to discriminate against people
a.
in any aspect of employment.
b.
mostly with respect to hiring.
c.
mostly with respect to transfer, promotion, layoff, or recall.
d.
mostly with respect to recruitment and testing.
7. The general purpose of strategic human resource planning is to
a.
develop selection systems to meet the needs of the firm.
b.
control costs in carrying out the human resource function.
c.
identify skills needed for the success of the business.
d.
ensure that business strategy does not neglect people.
8. Recruiting is the process of
a.
attracting job candidates.
b.
finding candidates with the right characteristics and skills to fill job openings.
c.
both a & b
d.
training job candidates.
9. A job specification describes the
a.
working conditions encountered on the job.
b.
pay and benefits associated with the job.
c.
demands of the job.
d.
qualifications needed for the job.
10. Online recruiting
a.
now accounts for about 80% of external hires.
b.
occurs on social networking Web sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
c.
is considered discriminatory because they require computer literacy.
d.
suffers from not attracting a large enough number of inquiries.
11. Much informal learning takes place
a.
in meetings
b.
on breaks
c.
in customer interactions
d.
all of the choices
12. A multicultural employee
a.
is able to conduct business in another culture.
b.
was raised in a multicultural environment.
c.
speaks three or more languages fluently.
d.
has experience working in other countries.
13. An example of a knock out question for a flight attendant would be
a.
“Would you want a child of yours to be an airplane pilot?”
b.
“Are you currently employed?”
c.
“Who invented the airplane?”
d.
“Are you afraid of flying?”
14. All of the big five personality factors
a.
are included in the Americans with Disabilities Act.
b.
influence job performance.
c.
are part of measuring the person-organization fit.
d.
create job problems, if present.
15. The purpose of a realistic job preview is to give the job applicant a(n)
a.
accurate picture of the potential problems within the job.
b.
accurate picture of the earnings potential within the job.
c.
thorough analysis of his or her perceived strengths.
d.
thorough analysis of his or her perceived weaknesses.
16. Lucy applies for the position of ambulance medic. To give her a job simulation screening test, the
interviewer
a.
asks her to say the alphabet backwards in three minutes.
b.
has her stop the bleeding of an accident victim.
c.
interviews her in an ambulance.
d.
interviews her in an operating room.
17. E-learning, is least likely to be effective for teaching
a.
financial ratios.
b.
product information.
c.
interpersonal skills.
d.
software skills.
18. A key advantage of delivering training content by MP3 players is that workers can
a.
listen to music while being trained.
b.
impress customers with how cool they look.
c.
design their own training content.
d.
receive training during spare moments.
19. Performance, as measured in performance evaluation systems, appears to have the three following
components:
a.
task performance, interpersonal performance, and mental performance
b.
task performance, citizenship performance, and counterproductive performance
c.
past performance, present performance, and future performance
d.
performance related to customers, the manager, and coworkers
20. Forced rankings
a.
evaluate employees against a performance standard.
b.
measure employees against one another.
c.
select an outstanding performer.
d.
both a & b.
21. Performance evaluation methods are usually designed to measure
a.
traits
b.
behavior.
c.
results.
d.
all of the choices
22. 360-degree feedback is
a.
a performance appraisal.
b.
an evaluation using a sampling of all the people with whom an employee interacts.
c.
both a & b
d.
a selection tool.
23.
A ranking system that requires managers to rank each employee within each unit and
distribute raises and bonuses accordingly is called
a.
stack-ranking
b.
360-degree feedback
c.
employee benefits
d.
workman’s compensation
24. Under a variable pay system, workers receive some of their pay based on
a.
demonstration of skills.
b.
demonstration of competencies the company needs for its success.
c.
number of years of employment.
d.
actual job performance.
25. A concern is that in some industries, union demands for compensation
a.
include variable pay.
b.
have made it difficult for companies to remain competitive.
c.
include wellness clinics.
d.
seek unfair treatment for workers.
TRUE/FALSE
1. To make a maximum contribution, the human resource function separates itself from the company’s
business strategy.
2. When the human resources group in helps build high-performance work practices, the group is
contributing to business strategy.
3. Individual, environmental, and workplace factors often work in combination to produce turnover.
4. According to the job embeddedness theory of job turnover, the longer a worker stays in the same job,
the less likely he or she will quit.
5. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color,
religion, sex, or national origin except for temporary workers and undocumented aliens.
6. Affirmative action programs are designed to implement anti-discrimination employment legislation.
7. Strategic human resource planning attempts to match up the human resources in the firm with its
business strategy.
8. A key purpose of recruiting is to sell the organization to high quality prospective candidates.
9. Global recruiting for managers can be difficult because candidates must be found who can blend the
work practices of two cultures.
10. Situational judgment tests measure of the potential for success in situations or scenarios that describe a
dilemma or problem representative of the job under consideration.
11. A validity study is a statistical and scientific method of seeing whether a selection device does predict
job performance.
12. The purpose of behavioral interviewing is to reveal behaviors that would be either a strength or a
weakness in the job under consideration.
13. A reference check is an inquiry to a second party about a job candidate’s suitability for employment.
14. Giving out negative information about a former employee is considered to be legal so long as the
person receiving the information has a legitimate interest in receiving the information.
15. According to the Americans with Physical Disabilities Act, job applicants are no longer required to
take a physical exam if they do not wish to.
16. A key success factor in cross-cultural selection is matching a person’s personality to the culture in
which he or she will work, such as sending a polite, refined person to England.
17. Orientation, training, and development are useful ways of combating a “sink or swim” philosophy of
employee learning.
18. E-learning training programs tend to be well structured, and give the learner the opportunity to interact
with the training material.
19. Developmental needs can be organization-wide as well as individual.
20. You are engaged in informal learning when you and a few co-workers exchange ideas about a new
technology while working out in the company gym.
21. A forced ranking system of performance evaluation allows the manager to place all employees into
one or two categories such as “outstanding” or “substandard.“
22. The 360-degree performance appraisal offers the advantage of the person being rated receiving
multiple opinions and viewpoints.
23. According to the stack-ranking method, only the workers ranked number one and number two in the
unit receive a bonus.
24. A consumer driven health plan requires that the employee pay a large deductible before receiving
reimbursement from the insurance company.
25. The thrust of the American Rights to Work Group is to establish cooperative, productive relationships
between management and labor unions.
ESSAY
1. Describe how a firm can use the organization staffing model.
2. Describe the various ways in which employers recruit, or search, for potential job candidates.
ANS:
3. Google began crunching data from employee reviews and promotion and pay histories in a
mathematical formula to identify which of its 20,000 employees were most likely to quit.
Applying a complex equation to a basic human resource problem is pure Google, a company
that made using heavy data to drive decisions.
1. Why is Google identifying employees that are most likely to quit?
2. Why is Google using technology to recruit new employees?
4. Suppose your job is to establish a performance evaluation system for your company that has 300
employees. Describe the system you would install.
