Johnson, Human Resource Information Systems, 5e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
Answers to Questions in the Text
Chapter 7: HR Administration and HRIS
1. Discuss the theoretical bases for the four HR administrative approaches introduced in
this chapter. Are such theories useful to HR professionals in their efforts to improve
transactional performance? Why, or why not?
Students should be able to identify and discuss two theoretical bases for the four
administrative approaches. First, the resource-based view of the firm (Barney,
1991, 2001). Barney, in delineating the resource-based view of organizations,
argued that organizations are bundles of resources, identified as physical capital,
organizational capital, and human capital. Physical capital includes an
organization’s technology, geographic locations, physical assets (e.g., plants and
money), and access to raw material. Organizational capital includes its formal
reporting structure; its coordinating, planning, and organizing systems; and its
internal/external group relationships. Human capital includes the experience,
capabilities, relationships, and insights of individual employees. Taken together,
these resources are combined and managed to determine an organization’s
opportunity to win sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Johnson, Human Resource Information Systems, 5e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
2. Why is service-oriented architecture enhanced by XML important to HR
administration? Choose two HR administrative approaches, and discuss how each is
facilitated by this architecture.
SOA is focused on providing overall service that is well-defined, self-contained,
context- and platform-independent and adds value to the organization’s business
purpose rather than simply addressing the technology itself. In effect, SOA is a
collection of internal and external services that can communicate with each
other by point-to-point data exchange or through coordination among different
services to achieve a business purpose.
HRIS capabilities are leveraged dramatically by SOA and XML (Lublinsky,
2007; Walker, 2001), such that SOA is enhanced by extensible markup
language (XML), described in Chapter 3. XML combines text and other
information about the text, such as its structure, allowing data sharing across
different information systems across the internet. XML underpins SOA such
that SOA is ineffective without it. Specifically, XML improves interface
technology through platform independence and protocols, such as security and
transactions, previously unavailable in interfaces (Erl, 2005). Platform
independence refers to software that does not rely on any special features of any
single platform (e.g., Windows), or if it does, it handles those special features
such that it can deal with multiple platforms.
Johnson, Human Resource Information Systems, 5e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
3. What are the primary advantages of HR portals and shared services centers? Give
examples of how HR professionals might use each to better achieve cost controls and
service enhancement.
Students should be able to identify and discuss the primary advantages of HR
portals and shared services centers that have been discussed in this chapter.
HR Portals:
First, they improve the speed and quality of service to employees and managers
for routine inquiries and changes.
Reduced inquiry transactions requiring direct HR staff involvement facilitate
keeping information current. For example, changes in the doctors and hospitals
allowed for each medical plan or status of hiring a new employee are more
likely to be updated as required.
In addition, self-service portals enhance employee satisfaction by permitting
employees to control when and where such access activities occur. This
empowers employees; increases their productivity, especially for those who
travel frequently; and offers privacy for those who prefer to handle such matters
without the presence of coworkers.
Johnson, Human Resource Information Systems, 5e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
4. What are the primary purposes of ESS and MSS? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each?
Students should be able to explain the primary purposes of ESS and MSS.
Employee self-service (ESS) HR portals provide an electronic means for a
company’s employees to access its HR services and information. Such portals
provide a single sign-on capability for employees, who can complete
transactions based on data previously established in records and/or knowledge
bases, without HR assistance. ESS portals can range from simple intranet
websites that allow employees to access static HR policies, such as safety
requirements, to sophisticated internet websites that allow employees to access
Johnson, Human Resource Information Systems, 5e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
5. Define outsourcing and offshoring. Compare and contrast the two as HR
administrative tools. Give examples of the decision factors to consider when choosing
one over the other.
Students should be able to define outsourcing and offshoring and be able to
compare and contrast the two. Additionally, students should be able to give
examples of the decision factors that should be considered when choosing one
over the other.
Johnson, Human Resource Information Systems, 5e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
Outsourcing is the practice of contracting with vendors to perform HR services
and activities. Outsourcing is not new in HR administration. Obviously, HR
administration managers would require significant assistance from multiple
groups such as the legal, operations, and information systems departments
within the organization to establish and monitor the contract, ensuring that the
organization is adequately protected from incompetent or unethical outsourcing
providers.
• Offshoring is an expansion of HR outsourcing that includes sending work
outside the United States to vendors located in other countries. Technological
capabilities and global competition have combined to make HR outsourcing a
global business, and offshoring in MNEs is quite complex.
6. Using the EEO-1 report as an example, discuss the purpose of government mandates.
Give examples of penalties that organizations incur when they fail to comply with
government mandates such as EEO and OSHA reporting.
Students should be able to express that the purpose of government mandates is
to prevent discrimination in the workforce. Failures to comply with such
government mandates include loss of government contracts, substantial fines,
and jail sentences for employers.
Johnson, Human Resource Information Systems, 5e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
That all individuals should be considered for employment based on knowledge,
skills, and abilities rather than irrelevant factors (e.g., sex, race, or religion) is
the general principle of equal employment opportunity (EEO). Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides the requirements for such equal employment
opportunity. Under the statute, it is illegal for employers with 15 or more
employees working 20 or more weeks per year to do the following:
7. Based on information in this chapter, recommend the most effective HR
administrative approach or approaches for the owner of a small business with fewer
than 50 employees and infrequent staffing needs. What would you recommend for a
business with 5,000 employees and high turnover? Defend your position with
information from the chapter.
This is a good question for students to break up into small groups and discuss.
Once groups have had time to work on this question, the groups should then
share their suggestions with the class. While individual groups are not likely to
Johnson, Human Resource Information Systems, 5e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
8. Identify and explain the purpose of each of the four perspectives included in the
balanced scorecard. Give two examples of HR measures for each of the four areas that
would demonstrate the value of HR in achieving the strategic goals of organizations.
• Kaplan and Norton (1996) defined the four components of the balanced
scorecard as financial, customer, internal business processes, and learning and
growth. Inclusion of these components reflects an organization’s commitment to
balance its strategic goals, reflecting expectations of its multiple stakeholders.
9. Return to the vignette that opened this chapter and answer the questions posed there.
The vignette in the beginning of the chapter is recommended to be utilized to
facilitate an insightful group discussion after the instructor has covered the