Employers concerned with employee exposure to workplace substances have
implemented a number of strategies over the years to protect employees. ________ is
one type of effort to identify employees susceptible to specific occupational substances.
A) Genetic testing
B) Fetal testing
C) Haz-Map
D) GINA
Improving diversity management must begin with:
A) top management’s commitment to diversity.
B) multicultural hiring policies and procedures.
C) support groups for minorities.
D) senior mentoring programs.
If supervisors want to help employees gain insight into their performance problems and
have input into the performance appraisal, they should most likely use:
A) peer reviews.
B) self reviews.
C) team reviews.
D) subordinate reviews.
Which of the following is LEAST likely to improve attendance when job avoidance or
family demands are the problem?
A) Redesigning jobs
B) Suspending employees
C) Restructuring the organization
D) Offering flexible work schedules
Additional Case 11.2
Richland Manufacturing uses an individual-based pay-for-performance plan for
employees.
Manager input in the form of performance evaluations primarily determines individual
employee rewards. Performance appraisals at Richland are used for multiple purposes
including compensation, training, and work planning. Since implementing the plan,
many managers have noticed that employees tend to play it safe by setting modest
rather than challenging goals for themselves. Employees have also been avoiding
important tasks, such as satisfying the needs of customers and keeping work areas neat.
In addition, most employees express disbelief that pay and performance are actually
linked. As a result, Richland is considering making modifications to the system.
The HR Director wants a system that will reward all employees based on the entire
company’s performance because he wants to increase employee commitment. The VP
of Operations wants to reward specific productivity and quality improvements with a
simply structured system that considers labor costs as well as other production
expenses. The VP of Operations also believes that labor and management should work
together to allocate the rewards.
Refer to Additional Case 11.2. Which of the following would most likely meet the
demands of managers, the HR Director, and the VP of Operations?
A) A profit sharing plan
B) A multiple-layers-of-rewards system
C) A plantwide plan
D) A team-based pay-for-performance plan
Your text suggests that if an organization does not offer career development programs,
employees should initiate their own career development by:
A) creating their own personal mission statements.
B) placing a priority on enhancement over advancement.
C) applying for positions with competing firms.
D) finding a subordinate to mentor and coach.
You are job-sharing with a co-worker, Dave. Which of the following is true about this
working arrangement?
A) You and Dave divide the job’s responsibilities, hours, and benefits between the two
of you.
B) You and Dave work for a temporary agency, which splits assignments between the
two of you.
C) You and Dave are responsible for managing yourselves and your assigned projects.
D) You and Dave divide the job’s responsibilities but neither of you receives any health
benefits.
Which of the following subjects is appropriate to address on an application form?
A) Age
B) Race
C) Education
D) National origin
The time and cost of exit interviews are part of the ________ costs of an employee
separation.
A) recruitment
B) selection
C) training
D) separation
A company using a labor market model holds the philosophy that:
A) the wage rate for any given job is set at the point where the supply of labor equals
the demand for that labor in the marketplace.
B) internal equity is more important than external equity in a balanced labor market.
C) egalitarian pay policies are more effective than elitist policies when labor demand is
high.
D) nonmonetary rewards are more effective motivators than monetary rewards.
The progressive discipline process begins with a:
A) written warning.
B) verbal warning.
C) meeting with HR staff.
D) short-term suspension.
Ralph is wheelchair-bound. After a construction injury, he attended vocational school
and was trained to be a telemarketer. He has an interview for a telephone marketing
position for which he is fully qualified. When he arrives, he realizes that the interview
office is located on the third floor of a building without an elevator. He calls and
explains his problem, but the interviewer refuses to change the appointment or location.
Has management made a decision that makes the firm legally liable for discrimination
under the ADA?
A) No, because Ralph cannot get to the job location.
B) Yes, because being wheelchair-bound disqualifies Ralph from the job.
C) No, because the employer didn’t know Ralph was disabled when scheduling the
interview.
D) Yes, because the employer is required to accommodate Ralph for the employment
interview.
Additional Case 4.3
Your retail company has 80% of its stores located in downtown metropolitan areas.
Your biggest stores are in communities where minorities represent 60% of your
customers. Your middle-management team has been changing over time so that 50% of
your managers are women and about 30% are ethnic minorities. A significant number of
your hourly employees, about 35%, have served over 20 years in their respective stores
and many are over 40 years of age. Top management feels that African-Americans are
under-represented in the hourly workforce and in middle management. They want HR
to initiate an aggressive recruitment process to address the situation.
Hispanics are the biggest minority group, besides women, in your workforce. In a
discussion about where the company should target its diversity program, the CEO
explains she wants to implement a training program for managers to raise their
sensitivity to minorities, especially Hispanics. She also notes that there are no disabled
persons in the workforce and very few Asian-Americans. Carlos, the VP of facilities,
notes that he has accommodated all the Asian-American employees he can in his MIS
and facility support services. He also argues that he only has about $10,000 in his
budget for reorganizing display space in the stores to accommodate disabled employees
and that this amount probably isn’t sufficient to accommodate a disabled employee.
Refer to Additional Case 4.3. Which of the following should HR establish to
complement its recruiting efforts and most likely improve retention rates for hourly
African-American workers?
A) Mentoring
B) Job sharing
C) Management training
D) Technical education training
Additional Case 14.2
Gloria, an employee at Hamilton Resources, which is a unionized company, has
performance and absenteeism problems. Gloria’s manager, Dean, wants to fire her
immediately. As the HR manager at Hamilton, you explain to Dean that he needs to try
to improve the employee’s performance first and save termination as a last resort.
Sometime later, the CEO asks you to review and update the firm’s employee discipline
process. He wants to give employees as much responsibility for their own performance
improvement as possible. He is also willing to invest in management training to ensure
the best and most fair process. As HR manager, you will be responsible for training
managers on the new discipline process.
Refer to Additional Case 14.2. Hamilton’s discipline program must include which of the
following to be legally defensible and warranted?
A) Two-way communication
B) Regular performance appraisals
C) Top-level management review
D) Reasonable rules and penalties
Additional Case 2.2
You are the HR manager at Steel City, Inc., a firm that is considering going global in its
product line and markets. The president realizes that this may require a reorganization.
She wants to move into new international markets with minimum time and effort. She
also wants to reduce management overhead and labor costs.
At the same time, employees have been complaining about their work. Jobs are
repetitive, and employees don’t know how their work fits into the big picture. The
president wants to provide employees with satisfying work, autonomy, and a
performance-based pay system. She wants to give them as much control as possible and
remove layers of management.
Refer to Additional Case 2.2. The president’s ideas regarding employee dissatisfaction
suggest that her thinking would be most compatible with a ________ theory of
motivation.
A) two-factor
B) work adjustment
C) job characteristics
D) goal-setting
You have asked the HR department at your company to design a program through
which new employees who have poor literacy will be trained in such a way that they
will at least be able to perform their respective job duties. The HR department will most
likely suggest a:
A) general literacy program.
B) functional literacy program.
C) pre-literacy program.
D) cross-functional literacy program.
Refer to Additional Case 8.1. The discussions with the managers and employees are
most likely an example of:
A) stating the problem in behavioral terms.
B) conducting a needs assessment.
C) setting performance goals.
D) evaluating the training.
Refer to Additional Case 8.3. HR at McBain has decided to use an e-learning program
to train managers. Which of the following best supports this decision?
A) Managers cannot agree on the best time to schedule training.
B) HR representatives team with managers for performance appraisals.
C) Most departments at McBain benefit from cross-functional team managers.
D) Newly hired managers recently participated in orientation training sessions.
Additional Case 15.1
Billiards, Inc. makes collapsible pool cues and other billiard products. Tegau, the
general manager, has called a management team meeting with Tammy, the director of
HR; Gary, the VP of operations; Ramonia, the employee relations specialist; and Ryan,
a labor relations consultant.
Tegau wants ideas from her management team about what to do concerning the possible
unionization of their workers. Tammy suggests that they do nothing, let the union
conduct its vote, and if certified, treat it as a legitimate worker representative of the
workers. Gary says the firm should begin aggressively opposing union organization. He
thinks first-line supervisors should be brought in and told that if workers in their areas
vote for the union, the supervisors will lose their jobs and the company might sell off
the unionized part of the business. Ramonia suggests that Billiards, Inc. tell the
employees about their current plans to upgrade employee benefits and working
conditions’”a project she’s worked on for the last six months.
Management decides to mildly oppose the union but the union is certified anyway.
Tegau is now in her first contract negotiation. Ryan explains to the union that if they
will accept flexible work rules, the employees can have more fulfilling jobs, the
company will save money which it can spend on benefits, and the union will start with a
positive relationship with the company. The union representative says “No way. We go
on strike in ten days.”
Refer to Additional Case 15.1. Ramonia’s idea is most likely a(n) ________ strategy.
A) union avoidance
B) union suppression
C) union substitution
D) union acceptance
Additional Case 1.2
As the manager of HR of an old, established company, you are leading the management
team in a strategic planning session. During the planning session, managers are being
forced to think about the future, see the likely changes in the marketplace, and make
plans to use company resources to enhance their competitive edge.
The company decides that as part of its business strategy, it wants to attract and retain
the best possible employees. You suggest that the company pay a hiring bonus, use a
pay scale that is 10% above the industry average, and provide an extra week of vacation
after only one year instead of the standard three years.
Refer to Additional Case 1.2. If this firm chooses to also address its employee and labor
relations, it should most likely:
A) review its policy on union avoidance or support.
B) develop policies to protect employee interests.
C) decentralize union policy formation.
D) promote exclusively from within.
A major self-assessment tool that permits employees to identify their strengths and
weaknesses by answering written questions and completing written exercises is a:
A) psychological test.
B) performance appraisal.
C) career workbook.
D) aptitude assessment.
The Equal Pay Act prohibits compensation discrimination between men and women
doing substantially the same job, EXCEPT when:
A) the pay differential is due to gender.
B) the titles of the jobs in question are different.
C) there is no apparent disparate impact from the practice.
D) the base pay for the job is minimum wage.
E) seniority or productivity are the basis for the differential.
Additional Case 8.2
Aysha, an HR manager, has been assigned the task of implementing a training and
development program at her firm, Singer Enterprises. The firm has offices in New York,
California, and India. Executives at the firm want to develop more innovative products
and improve customer service. Singer employs 50 product development specialists and
200 customer service representatives.
Aysha must determine the fit between the current organizational culture at Singer and
the firm’s new mission and vision. After gathering the results of a needs assessment,
Aysha will be responsible for implementing appropriate training programs. In an initial
review, Aysha discovers that a large percentage of customer service errors stem from
representatives who simply do not remember all the different pricing programs and
policy changes. Aysha also learns that the firm’s product development team is scattered
throughout the firm’s offices and that members rarely have face-to-face meetings.
Refer to Additional Case 8.2. Which of the following would most likely help Aysha
address the problems in the customer service department?
A) Monitoring the orientation program for customer service representatives.
B) Identifying the KSAs required for customer service representative positions.
C) Implementing a succession planning program for customer service managers.
D) Providing monthly classroom instruction to new customer service representatives.
Kristy is translating the duties and tasks of a set of jobs into the knowledge, skills, and
abilities required to perform the job. This translation effort is part of any:
A) organizational analysis.
B) personal needs analysis.
C) task analysis.
D) HR analysis.
The process by which work is organized into the separate tasks required to perform a
specific job is called:
A) job analysis.
B) job design.
C) task significance.
D) task identity.