Berman, Bowman, West, & Wart, Human Resource Management in Public Service, Sixth Edition
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Study Questions
Chapter 8: Employee-Friendly Policies: Fashionable, Flexible, and
Fickle
1. What is generation X? (291)
2. How do family-friendly policies relate to the paradox of needs? (293)
3. What is the sandwich generation? (294)
4. What are nontraditional families? (294)
5. How has workforce composition change in recent years? (293–294)
6. What is downshifting? (294)
7. What is the 3 o’clock syndrome? (295)
8. What are four employer-sponsored childcare programs? (296–297)
9. How have employers and employees benefited from a flexible work
program in Great Britain? (297)
Berman, Bowman, West, & Wart, Human Resource Management in Public Service, Sixth Edition
SAGE Publishing, 2020
10. What are workplace implications of employees caring for elderly family members?
(299)
11. What are components of elder-care programs? (299)
12. What cost indicators of parental leave programs exist at each stage? (301)
13. What was the first U.S. state to offer parental leave? What were the program
benefits? (301)
14. What are three issues related to adoption assistance? (302)
15. What equity and loyalty issues are involved? (302)
If parents giving birth are entitled to benefits, why not adoptive parents? Support for
16. What is domestic partnership coverage? (302)
17. Why might single employees harbor resentment against family-friendly policies?
(304)
18. What is the lesson from the Salvation Army’s policy flip-flops on providing health
benefits to same-sex partners of employees? (303)
19. What are four health-promoting initiatives? (305)
20. What are the three most useful strategies for reducing stress in your opinion? (305–
21. What are some components of stress reduction programs? (305–306)
22. What are some elements of wellness programs? (306–308)
23. How widespread are wellness programs? (306–308)
24. Which stress-reduction strategies are most useful for (a) managers, (b) employees at
work, and (c) employees at home? (307)
25. What are the types of problems that EAPs can address? (308)
26. What is a legal caution about EAPs? (308)
27. What are seven types of alternative work arrangements? (310)
28. What is flextime? (311)
29. What is a compressed workweek? (311)
30. What did research by Facer and Wadsworth (2008) find about compressed workweeks
in Utah? (310)
31. What forms can flextime take? (311)
32. What are some implementation problems with flextime? (311)
33. What is telecommuting? (311)
34. What are pros and cons of telecommuting? (312)
35. How is part-time work defined by the federal government? (312)
36. Why might people prefer temporary work? (313)
37. What are the advantages for donors and recipients? (314)
38. What is leave sharing and pooling? (314)
39. What is job sharing? (314)
40. What is “power of peers” applied to job sharing? (315)
41. What is the trend in public employee pensions and health-care benefits? (317–318)
42. Explain the difference between defined-benefit plan and defined-contribution plan.
(318)
43. Describe the “Hard HRM” and the “soft HRM.” (320)
Hard HRM: utilitarian/instrumental view sees employees as costs to be minimized and
resources to be used for maximum return.
44. What is the trend in health care for peripheral labor force (part-time, temporary, and
newly hired employees)? (321)
45. What are the six stages for implementing family-friendly policies? (330–331)
46. What are some warning signs of possible workplace violence? (332)
47. What is the paradox of harassment? (333)
48. Which four agencies were rated in the top five on (a) Work/life Balance and (b) Family-
Friendly Culture and Benefits? (334)
Work/Life Balance