Questions for Review
17-1. What is the value of various recruitment methods?
evaluate the roles they may be occupying. The most effective recruiters use a variety of
AACSB: Reflective thinking
17-2. What are the methods of initial selection?
Learning Objective: Specify initial selection methods
Learning Outcome: Describe the components of human resource practices
AACSB: Reflective thinking
17-3. What are the most useful methods of substantive selection?
simulations. Interviews are the most common selection tool.
AACSB: Reflective thinking
17-4. What are the similarities and differences among the main types of training?
Answer:
ethical principles.
Learning Objective: Compare the main types of training
Learning Outcome: Describe the components of human resource practices
AACSB: Reflective thinking
17-5. What are the methods of performance evaluations?
Answer:
improvement.
incident and graphic rating scale approaches.
Forced Comparisons: evaluate one individual’s performance against the performance of
another or others.
Learning Outcome: Describe the components of human resource practices
AACSB: Reflective thinking
17-6. What are the various roles of HR in the leadership of organizations?
Experiential Exercise
Designing a Virtual Assessment Center Exercise
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objectives: Specify initial selection methods; Identify the most useful substantive selection methods
Learning Outcome: Describe the components of human resource practices
AACSB: Ethical understanding and reasoning; Reflective thinking
Break up into groups of two or three people each. In this exercise, you will focus on creating a
performance-simulation test for selecting a new head of character design at a digital animation
studio. The position is completely virtual. Candidates are being assessed from Detroit to Dubai.
To assess candidates from so many varied geographical areas, the hiring manager wants to use an
period.
There are a couple things that are unique about the position. Unlike many other positions that
may be selected using assessment centers, the head of character design should be very creative,
technically proficient, and artistic. A competitive candidate should be a great artist, but also good
position.
Step 1: To start the exercise, consider the common tasks someone in this position would
encounter. What would managing other artists entail? To assist in this step, it may be helpful to
look up job descriptions for creative directors, head animators, and character designers at large
firms like Pixar and Dreamworks. Come up with 5-10 essential tasks for someone in this
position.
complete the task.
Step 3: When you have created your assessment center exercise, start considering scoring. To
create a good rubric for scoring, first decide what results would reflect good or poor
performance. Next, decide what traits would be needed to be successful during this exercise.
Each trait should be measured by something that can be seen while the person is completing the
Class Discussion
After all the groups have designed the assessment center exercise and graphic rating scale,
discuss what each group did as a class. What were some of the challenges of creating an
assessment center exercise for this type of position? How did you determine the core tasks that
would be needed for this type of position? Could you use the assessment center model to
Ethical Dilemma
Can I Recruit from My Social Network?
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objectives: Specify initial selection methods; Identify the most useful substantive selection methods
Learning Outcome: Describe the components of human resource practices
AACSB: Ethical understanding and reasoning; Reflective thinking
example, a restaurant owner may ask his friends if any of their kids are interested in working as a
server rather than advertising a job opening for a new server.
There are many pros to recruiting from one’s friends and family. It will probably be easier,
quicker, and cheaper than more formal methods of recruiting. Hiring through personal
Sources: P. LeSaffre, “Why You Should Never Hire Your Friends,” Fortune, June 29, 2016,
http://fortune.com/2016/06/29/startup-entrepreneur-hire-friends/; and S. Tobak, “5 Things to Consider When Hiring Friends,” Entrepreneur, June
27, 2014, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235194.
Questions
17-7. How often do personal connections impact recruitment and selection? Is it okay to use a
and selection, especially at the very highest levels of an organization where personal
employee would be beneficial.
17-8. Is it fair to hire a friend or acquaintance? How might using one’s social network to find
job candidates impact diversity?
Using a personal social network could result in a less diverse candidate pool.
17-9. Will an employee who is friends with the boss be as motivated as an employee who isn’t?
Why or why not?
Answer: Again, the student’s answer will depend on his or her opinion.
Case Incident 1
Getting a Foot in the Door?
This exercise contributes to:
potential applicants in a setting identical to the one in which they would perform. And unlike
employees, interns are easily terminated if they don’t pan out. It’s the same situation for
part-time or summer workers, who are sometimes let go at a moment’s notice.
Internships are such a powerful tool for finding jobs that some students have begun to take on
The value of internships for students, however, has long been questioned. While there may be a
promise of a chance to learn, many students complain of doing little more than acting as unpaid,
unskilled labor. Christina Isnardi is one student who felt exploited by the system. She described
working 16- or 17-hour days at Lions Gate Entertainment, doing work like taking breakfast
all faced lawsuits from former interns.
In what might seem like a dream job, other students have negotiated great-sounding internships
at organizations that regularly hire interns and pay them, but then don’t know what to do with
these temporary employees. One student we know of was encouraged to make the best use of his
time during his summer internship in a major city, including taking a paying job elsewhere and
broader corporate social responsibility (CSR) value.
Whether internships have value remains an open question. Most of the controversy does suggest
that students need to know the details before agreeing to these arrangements, because not all
internships offer a fair living wage or a strong career experience. HR departments are responsible
for monitoring and designing internship programs.
Questions
17-10. If you were an HR professional at Lions Gate Entertainment, how might you evaluate
Isnardi’s claim of exploitation? What changes might you suggest to top management, and
managers?
17-11. What specific characteristics would you look for in an internship?
Answer: Responses to this question will vary by student.
17-12. Do you think interns who feel they’ve had a negative or exploitive relationship with a
company should file lawsuits? Why or why not? What types of company actions might
make you think a lawsuit is justified?
Answer: Responses to this question will vary by student depending on individual ethics
Case Incident 2
You May Be Supporting Slavery
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objective: Identify the most useful substantive selection methods
Learning Outcome: Describe the components of human resource practices
AACSB: Ethical understanding and reasoning; Reflective thinking
through a staffing agency were slaves. The agency, Quality Staffing Services, charged
immigrants fees for food, housing, and utilities that depleted their earnings to near zero and left
them perpetually owing the initial $5,000 recruiting fee. Living conditions were awful, medical
care was refused, and abuse was common. Workers’ visas were withheld, so they couldn’t leave.
company’s revenue is generated.
The cases of Miami Shores Country Club and United Fisheries are far from unique. There are
more than 27 million victims of human trafficking worldwide, and their number is growing with
the increasing demand for inexpensive labor, particularly in the United States and other Western
democracies. In response, U.S. law now holds companies responsible for violations even when
chains.
HR departments are on the front lines of the unwitting use of slavery, whether slaves are
employees in our midst or employees of suppliers. “Just like you’ve got to know where your raw
materials come from, you’ve got to know where your people come from. I think HR people are
just awakening to this,” said ManpowerGroup executive vice president Mara Swan. Experts urge
feasibility of the violators.
Sources: B. DiPietro, “The Morning Risk Report: Coming to Grips with Thailand’s Slave Labor Seafood,” The Wall Street Journal, June 11,
2014, http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/tag/p-f-chang/; D. Meinert, “Modern-Day Slavery,” HR Magazine, May 2012, 22–27; and E. B.
Skinner, “The Cruelest Catch,” Bloomberg Businessweek, February 27–March 4, 2012, 70–76.
Questions
17-13. What are two ways in which modern-day workers might become slaves? Who do you
hold ethically accountable for their indentured servitude?
enough money to pay their debts associated with recruiting fees.
17-14. How might an employer seek to determine whether the individuals hired through
agencies are in indentured servitude?
Student responses will vary.
17-15. Once someone becomes an indentured worker, why might he or she stay?
servitude.
MyLab Management
following Assisted-graded writing questions:
17-17. From your reading of Case Incident 2, what would you do if you were in an HR
placement agencies?
17-18. MyLab Management Only—comprehensive writing assignment for this chapter.
Instructor’s Choice
Recruiting for the Registry
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objective: Identify the most useful substantive selection methods
Learning Outcome: Describe the components of human resource practices
AACSB: Diverse and multicultural work environments; Reflective thinking
Students are asked to assume the position of Director of Human Resources for a gift registry
website based in St. Paul, Minnesota. The company is expanding rapidly and must hire 30 new
employees. However, the company wants to increase its workforce diversity, so the HR office is
attempting to develop a recruitment strategy to increase diversity.
Form groups of five to six students each. Each group will be assigned a particular minority group
for which to develop a recruitment strategy. (Minority groups that have been assigned in the past
include African Americans, Native Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and physically challenged men
over 40). In developing your recruitment strategy, be as specific as possible (i.e., list specific
organizations, journals/magazines, newspapers, college campuses, radio, and/or TV stations, etc.
that you would use to target your minority group).
Exploring OB Topics on the Web
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objective: Identify the most useful substantive selection methods
Learning Outcome: Describe the components of human resource practices
AACSB: Reflective thinking
1. Do you have a job in mind once you graduate from college, or maybe a dream job that
categories.
2. Rank and Yank. This is not an “official term” you will see in the textbooks, but it is how
and search “Rank and Yank at Enron,” http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/08/on-powers.php.
3. Termination: it’s not a friendly term, but employees are fired every day. What would you
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/203070. Write a short reaction paper on what you learned.
4. Writing a job analysis is one of those duties that managers typically only do rarely in
conduct a job analysis. Select a job and then write a job analysis for it based on the