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Chapter Vocabulary
These terms are defined in the "Extended Chapter Outline" section.
Alternative Work Arrangements
Balanced Scorecard
Competitiveness
Change
Cloud Computing
Ethics
Employee engagement
Empowering
Evidence-based HR
External labor market
High-performance work systems
HR dashboard
HR or Workforce Analytics
Human resource information system
Human resource management (HRM)
Intangible assets
Internal labor force
ISO 9000:2000
Knowledge workers
Lean Thinking
Learning organizations
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
Offshoring
Outsourcing
Reshoring
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
Self-service
Shared Services Model
Six Sigma Process
Social Networking
Stakeholders
Sustainability
Total quality management (TQM)
Virtual teams
A Look Back
Mars is trying to preserve its company culture and improve product revenues while keeping
employees engaged.
QUESTIONS
1. What HR practices do you believe are critical for Mars Incorporated to maintain the
culture and product quality and growth it’s known for?
2. Could Mars’ be successful without its current HR practices? Explain.
3. Do you think that Mars’ culture and HR practices can also help the bottom line at companies in
other industries such as health care, manufacturing, or research and development? Explain why
or why not.
4. Mars is a privately held company and a family-owned business. What advantages (or
disadvantages) can this provide for developing effective HR practices compared to a public
company “owned” by its shareholders?
Discussion Questions
1. Traditionally, human resource management practices were developed and administered
by the company's human resource department. Line managers are now playing a major
role in developing and implementing HRM practices. Why do you think non-HR
managers are becoming more involved in developing and implementing HRM practices?
As the relationship between various HRM practices and the productivity and performance
of employees has been recognized, line managers have strong reasons to become
2. Staffing, training, compensation, and performance management are important HRM
functions. How can each of these functions help companies succeed in meeting the
global challenge, the challenge of using new technology, and the sustainability challenge?
Training may improve deficient skills, performance appraisal techniques may emphasize
and measure quality improvement, and compensation practices may be used to reinforce
The work systems challenge necessitates that employees adjust to working in team
Finally, the global challenge may produce the organizational need for employees who
speak multiple languages, who are trained to adjust to new cultures and who are sensitive
3. What are intangible assets? How are they influenced by human resource management
practices?
Intangible assets are a type of company assets including human capital, customer
capital, social capital, and intellectual capital. Human resource management such as
4. What is “Evidence-based HR”? Why might an HR department resist becoming
evidence-based?
Evidence-based HR refers to demonstrating that human resource practices have a
5. What types of workforce analytics would you collect and analyze to understand why an
employer was experiencing a high turnover rate?
It could be helpful to collect employee engagement information obtained through
Additionally, it may be helpful to collect information about workforce demographics
6. Which HR practices can benefit by the use of social collaboration tools such as Twitter
and Facebook? Identity the HR practices and explain the benefits gained.
There are many different ways that social collaboration tools can be used to enhance HR
practices. These practices could include using Twitter to provide updates about sales
7. Do you agree with the statement “Employee engagement is something companies
should be concerned about only if they are making money”? Explain.
Employee engagement is something companies should be concerned with regardless of
8. This book covers four human resource management practice areas: managing the human
resource environment, acquiring and preparing human resources, assessment and
development of human resources, and compensating human resources. Which area do
you believe contributes most to helping a company gain a competitive advantage?
Which area do you believe contributes the least? Why?
Each student’s answer will vary to this question based on opinion. An example can be:
Acquiring and preparing human resources is the most important HRM practice because
9. What is the balanced scorecard? Identify the four perspectives included in the balanced
scorecard. How can HRM practices influence the four perspectives?
The balanced scorecard gives managers an indication of the performance of a company
based on the degree to which stakeholders’ needs are satisfied. This gives managers the
10. Is HRM becoming more strategic? Explain your answer.
Technology is allowing the typical HRM to steer away from everyday tasks to focus more
11. What is sustainability? How can it HR activities help a company become more socially
and environmentally conscious?
Sustainability is the ability of a company to survive in a dynamic competitive
environment. It is based on an approach to organizational decision making that considers
12. Explain the implications of each of the following labor force trends for HRM: (1) aging
workforce, (2) diverse workforce, (3) skill deficiencies.
The aging workforce means that employees will increasingly face issues such as career
The diverse composition of the workforce challenges HRM to ensure that the talents and
Projections show that the supply of entry-level labor will not have the education and
13. What role do HRM practices play in a business decision to expand internationally?
With opportunities opening up in many emerging markets, it is important that a company
14. What might a quality goal and high performance work systems have in common in terms
of HRM practices?
In terms of HRM practices, a quality goal and high performance work system have a lot
15. What disadvantages might result from outsourcing HRM practices? From employee self
service? From increased manager involvement in designing and using HR practices?
The primary disadvantages of outsourcing HRM practices include the loss of strategic
ties in the organization because someone else is handling the company’s HR practices. It
16. What factors should a company consider before offshoring? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of offshoring?
A company should consider a variety of issues, including interests of stakeholders,
Advantages of offshoring usually include higher profit levels due to lower labor costs and
Self-Assessment Exercise: Do You Have What It Takes To Work In HR?
Manager’s Hot Seat Exercise: Ethics: Let’s Make a 4th Quarter Deal-Please refer to the
Asset Gallery on the OLC for Hot Seat videos and notes.
I. Introduction
This scenario provides a depiction of the ethical dilemmas that may arise when two
legitimate organizational goals are in conflict: generating revenue and legal business
practices. The manager in this situation is presented with a risky course of action that, if
it worked, would have tremendous benefits for his company and department.
Interpersonal communication styles and influence tactics are also demonstrated and
provide a stimulus for discussion among students.
II. Learning Objectives
1. To analyze the causes of ethical dilemmas
2. To evaluate influence techniques and communication styles
3. To apply principles of ethical decision making
III. Scenario Description:
Overview: A Wall Street trading company, Smith/Blackwell, is coming to the end of their
4th Quarter. BesTel Inc. has offered to invest 4 million dollars with Smith/Blackwell
which would not only save the department from lay-offs but would create year-end
bonuses for the manager’s team, which in recent months has been plagued by very low
morale. In order to process the investment before year’s end, some procedural steps
would need to be ‘abbreviated/skipped/ignored’. The shareholders of BesTel will not
meet until mid-January and therefore will not approve the investment until then.
Therefore, Gina presents a situation in which she plans to side-step procedure to arrive at
the advantageous outcome for the department and wants Jason’s support. While the
Chairman of the Board, Jack, has assured Gina that the vote will pass and that he’s talked
to the key shareholders personally, the truth is, he does not have the power to make this
decision without the boards’ actual vote.
Profile:
Jason Powell, Director of New Accounts, manages a team of 25 people. Held
position for 4 years but in the past two years, investments have fallen by over
50% department-wide.
Gina Travers, Assets Manager. Gina has been working in the financial industry
for over nine years. She has been with Smith/Blackwell for four years and was
hired by Powell. To date, for the year 2002, Gina has brought in 3.5 million
dollars in investments.
References: The references included in the DVD are:
Concepts in Ethical Behavior (PPT 2-3)
Source for Code of Ethics (PPT 2-5)
Three Principles to Guide Ethical Conduct (PPT 2-9)
Approaches to Social Responsibility (PPT 2-11)
Back History: As the economy worsens, the new accounts department is facing layoffs
and downsizing. If the 4th Quarter numbers do not improve substantially, up to 50% of
their department will be laid off and the year-end bonuses will be foregone for the entire
department. The environment is stressed and morale is low.
Scene Set-up: Travers makes an appointment with Powell to discuss some recent
opportunities.
Scene Location: Powell’s office.
The Meeting - Summary: Gina, the account representative approaches Jason with a
“deal” from BesTel that will save the department and allow everyone to earn their
bonuses for the year. Jason is reluctant to jump on board with this plan because the
transaction would not be approved by the company’s shareholders in time for the 4th
quarter.
Jason attempts to figure out a way to ensure that they “do things right” by getting the deal
in writing and talking to Jack personally with Gina. Gina argues that following procedure
is not going to work in this case and that sidestepping the rules will serve the greater
good. She also suggests that taking risks is critical to success. The conversation
escalates and Gina clearly becomes agitated and stressed. She threatens to go over
Jason’s head, gives him an ultimatum, and tries to appeal to their long-time working
relationship to influence Jason. Eventually, she storms out of the room leaving the
situation unresolved.
Afterthoughts – Summary: Jason did not think the meeting went well. He was
concerned with Gina’s insistence on rushing to action without thoroughly thinking
through the consequences. He noted that there is always tension between the salesperson
and accounting/legal department’s roles in an organization. He suggested that he was
playing the accounting role to ensure that they did not engage in an illegal deal.
Dossier: The specific artifacts included in the DVD are:
1. Document outlining the “restructuring” of the New Accounts Department,
should they not reach their financial goals for the 4th Quarter.
2. Gina’s notes on the financial impact the deal will have – if were to go through,
and if it were not.
3. BesTel Chairmans’ voice-mail assuring Gina that “all systems are go” and that
he’s counting on her to make this happen.
IV. Discussion Questions:
The References and related Discussion Questions may be found in PowerPoint slides 2-1 to 2-11
on the Instructor side of the text’s Website.
Learning Objective #1: To analyze the causes of ethical dilemmas
1. What is the source of this conflict and what role has the organization played to contribute to
this dilemma? (PPT 2-2)
The account representative is very motivated to make this deal go through
because the organization has tied her bonuses and salary increases to the dollar
1. Why is Jason skeptical?
a. Client isn’t reliable
2. Which of the “Concepts in Ethical Behavior” are relevant to this scenario? Why? (PPT 2-2
& 2-3)
Most would be considered in this scenario, students’ answers will vary. Certainly
Professional ethics would be a driving factor in this case because there are rules
3. Organizations can effectively help their employees to behave and act ethically by creating
and communicating a code of ethics. What factors in this scenario should be considered if
you were to develop the code of ethics for Smith/Blackwell? See “Sources for Codes of
Ethics” PPT 2-4 & 2-5.
Students should address each of the three aspects affecting the organization’s code
