Being able to influence people and build interpersonal relationships is an important
characteristic of a successful HR professional.
To help employees manage role conflict, employers have sought a number of
family-friendly policies.
Lawsuits filed against performance management usually involve charges of
discrimination or unjust dismissal.
To create a learning organization, one challenge is to shift the focus of training away
from merely generating and sharing knowledge toward a stronger focus on teaching
skills.
Cafeteria-style plans increase benefits costs for employers.
The most frequent uses of assessment are to identify employees with managerial
potential to measure current managers’ strengths and weaknesses.
Which of the following is a strategy used by the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) to increase ergonomic job design?
A. Issuing regulations rather than guidelines for industries
B. Penalizing companies that allow employee participation in ergonomic redesign
C. Enforcing violations of its requirement that employers have a general duty to protect
workers from hazards, including ergonomic hazards
D. Levying fines on employers who issue computers with keyboards instead of
touchscreen tablets
E. Working with organizations to design workspaces in such a manner that they meet
the standards of ergonomics
KYG Instruments, a firm that produces manufacturing equipment for various industries,
experiences an influx of new sales employees due to a recent expansion. Despite
possessing a vast amount of sales experience, most of the new employees perform
poorly. This is because the new recruits possess inadequate technical knowledge about
the products sold by KYG. To address the issue, the HR department decides to
implement a training program using the instructional design process. As part of the
process, the HR department’s first step should be to:
A. ensure that sales representatives do not feel undervalued.
B. identify that the sales representatives need technical training.
C. identify senior product engineers to train the sales representatives.
D. chart the methods that should be used to train the sales representatives.
E. announce the objectives of the training program.
Which of the following is a disadvantage of broad bands?
A. They reduce managers’ flexibility in making assignments.
B. They always result in pay decreases.
C. They increase the number of levels in the organization’s job structure.
D. They reduce the opportunities for promoting employees.
E. They discourage employees from gaining valuable experience through lateral career
moves.
Identify the correct statement regarding internal recruitment sources.
A. Research indicates that most organizational positions are filled internally.
B. Internal recruitment sources expose an organization to new ideas or new ways of
doing business.
C. Internal recruiting minimizes the possibility of unrealistic employee expectations.
D. Employee referrals are the most common source of job applicants for internal
recruitment.
E. Internal sources are most appropriate for specialized upper-level positions.
Which of the following statements is true of a psychological contract?
A. A psychological contract describes spoken expectations that are widely held by
employers and employees.
B. In the new version of the psychological contract, organizations manage the career
paths for their employees.
C. In the traditional version of the psychological contract, organizations expected
employees to take more responsibility for their own careers, from seeking training to
balancing work and family.
D. A psychological contract is a display of how the company is performing on specific
HR metrics, such as productivity and absenteeism.
E. A psychological contract is not formally put into words.
Jenny, a sales executive, believes that her hard work and persistence will reap rewards
in the future. She is not very assertive, prefers to address her seniors by titles rather than
names, prefers to be instructed, and awaits her team’s approval before taking decisions.
Jenny is likely to belong to a culture that:
A. is highly individualistic.
B. has high power distance.
C. is low on uncertainty avoidance.
D. is feminine.
E. is long-term oriented.
How can managers improve employee satisfaction with the feedback process?
A. By keeping the feedback session short and concentrating on only the positive aspects
of performance
B. By using the tell-and-sell approach during the feedback session
C. By avoiding decisions about following up on goals as these tend to intimidate the
employee
D. By letting employees voice their opinions and discuss performance goals during the
feedback process
E. By focusing on the employee’s personality
Kelton Inc. produces large quantities of products for their customers within tight
deadlines. However, customers are not satisfied with the products produced by Kelton.
Which of the following, if true, would best explain the customers’ dissatisfaction with
Kelton?
A. Kelton’s methods are designed to meet the needs of only internal customers.
B. Kelton focuses on detecting and correcting errors rather than preventing them from
occurring.
C. Kelton does not adhere to quality standards.
D. Kelton collaborates with other companies for product development and
enhancement.
E. Kelton provides quality training to subordinates as well as to top management.
Which of the following is an accurate feature of a job application form?
A. It is an expensive way of gathering information from candidates.
B. It ensures that certain standard categories of information are obtained.
C. It prevents human resource personnel from ranking candidates.
D. It has a customized format for every candidate.
Jonathan, the CEO of Maxofan Inc., finds that the company needs to eliminate a labor
surplus to avoid financial difficulties. To deal with this problem, he chooses a strategy
that gives him fast results. However, the amount of suffering caused to employees is
high. Jonathan is most likely using the _____ strategy to reduce the labor surplus.
A. early retirement
B. downsizing
C. natural attrition
D. retraining
E. hiring freeze
_____ is a necessary condition of high performance because it contributes to good
long-term relationships with employees, customers, and the public.
A. Emotional behavior
B. Ethical behavior
C. Physical behavior
D. Mental behavior
E. Cognitive behavior
The process by which an organization attempts to identify applicants with the necessary
knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that will help the organization
achieve its goals is referred to as _____.
A. orientation
B. selection
C. compensation
D. work analysis
E. performance management
Peter, a logistics manager, is trained to handle inventories and make procurement
decisions in the absence of the purchasing manager. Which of the following training
methods was received by Peter?
A. Coordination training
B. Experiential training
C. Behavior modeling
D. Cross-training
E. Action learning
Which of the following is true of an intranet?
A. It is a system that uses powerful computers to analyze large amounts of data, such as
data about employee traits.
B. It is a network that uses Internet tools but limits access to authorized users in the
organization.
C. It is a network that is used by a business to reach out to the customers and send them
product information.
D. It is a system that is used by outside suppliers to update inventories.
E. It is a network universally used by business organizations to transfer data from one
geographical location to the other.
Which of the following is defined as a combination of employee characteristics and
positive work environment that permit training?
A. Organization analysis
B. Benchmarking
C. Learning management system
D. Orientation
E. Readiness for training
Which of the following is an unfair labor practice by unions under the Taft-Hartley Act?
A. Insisting on provisions that the employer may hire only workers who are union
members
B. Nominating candidates to union office and conducting secret-ballot elections
C. Going out on strike to secure better working conditions
D. Refraining from activity on behalf of the union
E. Joining a union not recognized by the employer
Ravi is the CEO of a magazine publishing company. He wants to diversify his
workforce and bring in more ethnically diverse employees into his company as he
believes that exposure to people from different cultures is likely to increase the
creativity of his workforce. Which of the following types of plans should Ravi adopt to
allow flexibility?
A. Defined-benefit plan
B. Cafeteria-style plan
C. Vested-benefit plan
D. Worker’s compensation plan
E. Cash compensation plan
Keri, a trainer at Klemens Inc., plans on finding out how many candidates moved from
the initial interview stage to the training selection stage in the past month in the
company. She needs to compare the _____ to accomplish her task.
A. yield ratios
B. cost per hire
C. prospective costs
D. returns on investment
E. liquidity ratios
Which of the following is a computer-based technology that provides an interactive,
three-dimensional learning experience?
A. Electronic performance support system
B. Instructional design
C. Learning management system
D. Benchmarking
E. Virtual reality