Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Answers to In-Text Questions
Chapter 5: The Analysis and Design of Work
The Development of SHRM’s Competency Model for HR Practice
Case Discussion Questions:
1. Regardless of whether or not you plan to be an HR professional, how might you use this
competency model for your professional development? Specifically, how would you go
about gaining proficiency in each of these nine competencies? How might doing so help
you succeed in your chosen occupation?
A clear understanding of what employees do on their jobs, and the skills employees need
to do their jobs, is the basis for building strong organizations. This is true within specific
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
2. How might the robust empirical process used to develop the model be used to promote
the model’s credibility among business leaders? How would you argue in favor of the
model to leaders in a government organization? In a multinational, private corporation?
SHRM developed this model by studying over 800 HR professionals and supervisors in a
variety of fields, both technical and behavioral, and then surveys tens of thousands of HR
3. What do you think about the relative value of each of the nine competencies at different
career stages of HR practitioners? For example, how might an executive HR professional
differ from an entry-level HR professional in their need for each of these competencies?
Some of these competencies should be reinforced at every stage; for example, the idea of
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
4. How do you think business schools and HR programs could use the model for curriculum
development for both HR professionals and students in other fields of business
administration?
Similar to the employee life cycle, students move through an educational cycle, starting
with more general classes and moving to classes that require new and specific skills. All
5. How relevant do you think each of the nine competencies is for an employee’s success in
organizations, whether or not a person is associated with the HR function? Explain.
Every competency has value and is critical to the success of the organization. An entry
level employee might find less value in leadership competencies, but to be promoted, they
Spotlight on Ethics: Designing Ethics and Integrity Into Work
Questions:
1. How would you define ethics and integrity? Do you see them as personal qualities, or can
they also be characteristics of an organization?
Integrity is a characteristic and a personality trait. Integrity is viewed as having strong
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
2. Give some examples of events in the news involving ethics or integrity at the
organizational level.
There have been many events in the news that involve integrity and ethics. Student
Mini-Case Analysis Exercise: Job Analysis and KSAO Ratings
Questions:
1. Based on your initial review of the mean criticality ratings for each KSAO, which
KSAOs would you consider dropping from the job analysis? Explain why.
Most of the ratings are relatively high so if one had to be dropped, it appears the logical
2. You know that a key role of this job is driving fire equipment (e.g., fire trucks) to the fire
scene. But KSAO D has a fairly low mean and a high standard deviation. Why might this
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
be? Rather than tossing out this KSAO, do you see any issue with the way that the KSAO
is currently written and how it might be edited?
One reason KSAO D has a low mean but high standard deviation might be because of the
3. You learn that the city of Jasper collected most of the data for this job analysis from
SMEs who are located in urban areas of the city rather than in the more suburban areas.
Knowing this, would it affect any of your decisions about which KSAOs to remove from
the job analysis? How might the city approach future data collections like this
differently?
Where the respondents live could influence the value of the KSAOs. For example, those
HR Decision Analysis Exercise: Strategic Issues in Choosing a Job Analysis
Approach
Please provide the rationale for your answer to each of the questions below.
Was the VP of human resources approach legal, ethical, and fair?
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
The approach of the VP might be legal but is more likely not ethical or fair. This approach
Was her evidence based/evidence informed?
Her suggestion was not evidence based or evidence informed. While there are likely many
Would her decision foster healthy employee–employer relationships?
Unlikely. Those working in clinics outside of the city might find that much of the information
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
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Would her recommendations for how to approach these job analyses be time- and cost-
effective?
While this approach might be time– and cost-effective in the short term, it may not be in the long
Did the she take a systematic stakeholder perspective?
She is not taking a systematic stakeholder perspective because she is not considering all
stakeholders, only one very small subset.
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______________________________________________________________________________
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Considering your analysis above, overall, what would be an effective decision? Why?
An effective decision would be to include all clinics in order to best understand how each is
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
What, if anything, do you think should be done differently or considered to help make this
decision more effective?
A wider pool of respondents needs to be considered. While there may not be a perfect decision
for all groups, there could be better decisions for most groups with some deviation based on
HR Decision-Making Exercise: Using O*NET
1. Search for a job with which you are familiar. Were you able to find the job quickly, with the
same job title you were using or did O*NET use a slightly different job title? Or did it suggest
multiple possible job titles? If so, why do you think this is?
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
2. Now look at the Tasks, Knowledge, Skills, Abilities that O*NET notes as associated with that
job. Do these match your impression of the job? Why might there be some differences between
the job title you used and the job title in the O*NET database?
Students should be able to find some KSAs that they had not considered on a practical level.
3. Sometimes no single O*NET job title captures the job for which you are searching. In your
case, did it require piecing together the information from two or more jobs listed in the O*NET
database to adequately describe the job you’re looking for? If so, can you explain why this may
have happened?
Responses will vary by student depending on the job title they searched for. This might lead to a
4. For most jobs you will search for, the O*NET job titles will not be a perfect fit for a particular
job in a particular organization. More important, the content listed in the O*NET may not be a
perfect match either. Given these challenges, what do you see at the value to HR professionals
using the O*NET when conducting job analyses?
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Responses will vary by students, but students should find value in using O*NET as a starting