Chapter 1 the Challenge of Human Resources Management

CHAPTER 1—THE CHALLENGE OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

TRUE/FALSE

1.In general, many companies are realizing diminished demand for "touch labor" and an increasing demand for "knowledge workers."

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2.Knowledge workers are employees whose responsibilities focus on problem solving.

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3.A Human Resource Information System (HRIS) provides current and accurate data for control and decision-making by managers.

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4.To proactively manage change, organizations should wait to see how external forces impact an organization's performance, then develop a plan to address those changes.

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5.The strategies companies are pursuing today increasingly involve one or more elements of globalization.

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6.A firm's ability to compete through people depends upon its ability to manage human capital.

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7.Human capital is owned by the organization and is part of the company's core competencies.

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8.Companies are increasingly rotating non-HR managers into HR positions and vice versa to give exposure to different areas of the organization.

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9.Proactive change is change that occurs when external forces have started affecting performance.

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10.Human capital is intangible, but can still be managed the way organizations manage jobs, products, and technologies.

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11.Development of human capital is the responsibility of the HR group.

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12.Total-quality management is a set of principles and practices whose core ideas include doing things right the first time and striving for continuous improvement.

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13.To be successful, organizations should constantly seek to align their processes with customer needs.

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14.'Six Sigma' refers to the six criteria for Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

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15.Six Sigma is a set of principles and practices whose core ideas include doing things right the first time and striving for continuous improvement.

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16.In absolute terms, the United States remains the world’s most productive nation, even when it comes to manufacturing.

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17.Reengineering is a statistical method of translating customer needs into separate tasks and defining the best way to perform each task.

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18.Over the past twenty-five years, the employment relationship between companies and

employees has shifted from transaction based to relationship based.

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19.Labor costs are one of the largest expenditures of any organization.

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20.Furloughing is a situation in which a firm asks an employee to take time off, but the employee is still provided with full pay and benefits.

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21.Methods of reducing labor costs include downsizing, outsourcing, and employee leasing.

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22.Downsizing is often used by organizations for the planned elimination of jobs.

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23.Downsizing was used extensively by firms during the Great Recession of 2008, causing the U.S. unemployment rate to jump up to about 10 percent.

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24.Technology, transportation, communications, and utilities industries tend to spend

the least on training.

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25.Some organizations have instituted "No Layoff" policies to help preserve institutional memory and worker productivity.

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26.Outsourcing refers to employing workers in their homes rather than within the traditional office environment.

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27.Offshoring greatly improves key competencies of a firm.

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28.Corporate social responsibility requires the organization to act in the best interests of the people AND communities affected by its activities.

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29.Older workers have significantly higher training costs than younger workers.

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30.Educational level is positively related to annual earnings.

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31.As many as half of all high school seniors are unable to handle basic math involving fractions, decimals, and simple algebra.

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32.Women now account for slightly more than half of the American workforce.

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33.By 2050, the percentage of Hispanics in the United States is expected to nearly triple, while

the percentage of people of Asian descent is expected to significantly decrease.

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34.Older workers are often willing to work flexible hours.

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35.Employees today are less likely to define success in terms of financial gain.

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36.Family-friendly practices include offering flexible hours, telecommuting, and job sharing.

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37.One of the responsibilities of HR managers is to provide advice and counsel to line managers.

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38.An HR manager is typically expected to function as an in-house consultant to supervisors, managers, and executives.

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39.Because HR managers function in an advisory role, they are responsible for issuing policy revisions and implementing them.

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40.One of the roles of HR managers is to act as employee advocates despite their positions as managers.

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41.HR managers establish credibility by supporting the policies and values of the firm.

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42.Employee leasing shifts administrative costs from the company to a professional employer organization.

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MULTIPLE CHOICE

1.Which of the following is NOT a competitive challenge within the Human Resources Management framework?

a. / changes in the marketplace
b. / globalization
c. / technology
d. / employee rights

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2.The World Trade Organization (WTO) utilizes ____ to establish rules and guidelines for global commerce.

a. / NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)
b. / GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)
c. / FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas)
d. / APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation)

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3.Knowledge workers require skills in all of the following areas except:

a. / computer programming.
b. / planning.
c. / decision-making.
d. / problem solving.

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4.Which of the following is the largest employment agency in the United States?

a. / Snelling Personnel Services
b. / Kelly Services
c. / Manpower Inc.
d. / Labor Ready

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5.An HRIS extends information technology beyond storing and retrieving information to:

a. / overseeing production planning.
b. / providing current and accurate data for purposes of control and decision making.
c. / providing managers easy access to personnel records.
d. / serving as an intranet communication system.

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6.Which of the following is not a primary impact that technology has had on HRM?

a. / It has altered the methods of collecting employment information.
b. / It has speeded up the processing of employment data.
c. / It has diminished the role of supervisors in managing employees.
d. / It has improved the processes of internal and external communications.

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7.The operational impact of information technology on HRM includes all of the following except:

a. / administering benefits programs.
b. / improving productivity internal to the HR function.
c. / providing a direct connection to recruitment sources such as Monster.com.
d. / automating routine tasks.

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8.The first step in choosing an HRIS is for the HR personnel to:

a. / evaluate the most time-consuming tasks.
b. / examine the user-friendliness of the software.
c. / calculate the cost savings in using an HRIS.
d. / calculate the time required to train the HR staff.

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9.A needs assessment for IT investments should include all of the following except:

a. / Initial costs and annual maintenance.
b. / Who will have access to private records.
c. / Ability to upgrade.
d. / User friendly capability.

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10.____ is closely related to corporate social responsibility.

a. / downsizing
b. / furloughing
c. / sustainability
d. / offshoring

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11.Organizational changes are said to be ____ when external forces have already affected an organization's performance.

a. / proactive
b. / intentional
c. / reactive
d. / negative

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12.What change is initiated by management to take advantage of targeted opportunities?

a. / proactive
b. / intentional
c. / reactive
d. / negative

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13.Today, approximately ____ of private sector workers have pension plans?

a. / 5 percent
b. / 15 percent
c. / 25 percent
d. / 40 percent

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14.____ is the process of moving jobs closer to one’s home country.

a. / Nearshoring
b. / Outsourcing
c. / Offshoring
d. / The Boomerang Effect.

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15.Millennials are also known as:

a. / Baby Boomers
b. / Generation X
c. / Generation Y
d. / Screenagers

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16.The value, skills, and capabilities that have a tremendous impact on an organization's performance but does not show up on its balance sheet are known as:

a. / intellectual capital.
b. / human capital.
c. / core competencies.
d. / employee capital.

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17.Women who are employed full-time today earn make about ____ of what men employed full-time make.

a. / 50%
b. / 2/3’s
c. / 80%
d. / 100%

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18.To build human capital in organizations, managers should rely upon staffing programs that focus on:

a. / identifying cheap sources of qualified labor.
b. / identifying and hiring the best and brightest talent available.
c. / identifying college graduates with the requisite skills.
d. / identifying individuals with highly specialized skills.

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19._____ is a process used to translate customer needs into a set of optimal tasks that are performed in concert with one another.

a. / Six Sigma
b. / Total Quality Management
c. / Reengineering
d. / Change Management

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20.Managers have to find ways to empower employees and encourage their participation and involvement to more fully utilize human capital because:

a. / They are figured as part of training costs.
b. / Firms are moving away from team-based structures.
c. / Employee skills often go unused.
d. / Knowledge exchange is the best method of human capital development.

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21.A survey conducted by the Human Resource Planning Society revealed that ____ percent of the responding companies believe that their HR group plays an important role in developing human capital.

a. / less than 30
b. / nearly 50
c. / between 30 and 40
d. / nearly 65

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22.About ___ of what Americans produce every year dollar-wise is sold abroad.

a. / 50 percent
b. / 30 percent
c. / 10 percent
d. / 2 percent

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23.TQM:

a. / Focuses on understanding customer needs, doing things right the first time, and striving for continuous improvement.
b. / Uses statistical methods to translate customer needs into separate tasks and defining the best way to perform them.
c. / Fundamentally redesigns business processes to achieve improvements in cost, quality, service, and speed.
d. / Changes the purpose and function of the HR group.

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24.The trend towards opening up foreign markets to international trade and investment is knows as:

a. / globalization
b. / offshoring
c. / outsourcing
d. / international economic diversity

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25.Six Sigma is a systematic approach to quality that:

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26.______paved the way for the formation of many major trade agreements and institutions.

a. / GATT
b. / The WTO
c. / NAFTA
d. / The EU

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27.Reengineering:

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28.Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of organizations that have been successful in engineering change?

a. / linking the change to business strategy
b. / Engaging key employees early in the change process
c. / investing in the implementation of change
d. / showing how the change has created qualitative benefits

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29.Which of the following is one of the largest expenditures of service companies?

a. / production costs.
b. / marketing costs.
c. / labor costs.
d. / distribution costs.

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30.Which of the following is not an approach used by organizations to try to lower labor costs?

a. / productivity enhancements
b. / outsourcing
c. / employee leasing
d. / employee development

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31.Which strategy is the planned elimination of jobs?

a. / downsizing.
b. / outsourcing
c. / TQM
d. / reengineering

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32.Approximately ____ of the U.S. economy today is affected by international competition, including small companies.

a. / 25-40 percent
b. / 50-65 percent
c. / 70-85 percent
d. / 90-100 percent

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33.A Watson Wyatt study showed that companies with excellent recruiting and retention policies provide a ____ return to shareholders compared to those that do not.

a. / exact rate of
b. / 1.4% lower rate of
c. / 1.4% higher rate of
d. / 14% higher rate of

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34.Layoffs can incur all of the following hidden costs except:

a. / pension and benefit payoffs
b. / increased training expenses
c. / loss of institutional memory and human capital
d. / a paranoid, political workforce

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35.Which one of the following is not an HR cost that is typically incurred as a result of downsizing?

a. / severance pay
b. / vacation and sick-day payouts
c. / potential lawsuits
d. / developmental expenses

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36.A fiercely loyal workforce, a recruiting edge, and workers who aren't afraid to innovate are all benefits of:

a. / downsizing
b. / outsourcing
c. / companies that establish "no layoff" policies
d. / productivity enhancements

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37.Hiring someone outside the company to perform tasks that could be done internally is known as:

a. / outplacement.
b. / contracting.
c. / outsourcing.
d. / employee leasing.

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38.The practice of moving jobs overseas is known as:

a. / outplacement.
b. / offshoring.
c. / outsourcing.
d. / employee leasing.

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39.A method of containing costs that allows firms to maintain working relationships while shifting administrative costs to another firm is known as ____.

a. / Outsourcing
b. / Employee Leasing
c. / Gainsourcing
d. / Professional employer organization

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40.Employee productivity be summarized as a function of all of the following except:

a. / Ability
b. / Motivation
c. / Environment
d. / Compensation

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41.It is anticipated that in the future, the American workforce will exhibit:

a. / about the same demographic mix as it does today.
b. / an increase in ethnic diversity.
c. / a decrease in ethnic diversity.
d. / a decrease in the number of older workers.

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42.Baby Boomers comprise approximately ____ of the population.

a. / 16 percent
b. / 26 percent
c. / 36 percent
d. / 46 percent

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43.Managers are concerned that the expertise of employees will be rapidly drained from their companies because:

a. / recruitment of minorities is increasing
b. / large portions of some workforces are nearing retirement
c. / older workers' skills and performance decline
d. / older workers have higher absentee and accident rates

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44.Labor force demographics are expected to change in which of the following ways?

a. / Minorities will make up a smaller share of the U.S. labor force than they did in the past.
b. / Women will make up a smaller share of the U.S. labor force than they did in the past.
c. / Shrinking pool of entry-level workers.
d. / Increased use of temporary workers.

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45.Older workers:

a. / have lower performance than younger workers
b. / have higher performance than younger workers
c. / are more willing to work more flexible hours
d. / learn new behaviors more quickly because of their experience

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46.Over the last few decades, the educational attainment of the U.S. labor force has:

a. / risen dramatically.
b. / fallen dramatically.
c. / remained at about the same level.
d. / had little influence on HRM.

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47.The average payoff in annual earnings from education has:

a. / declined.
b. / remained the same
c. / increased
d. / resulted in a higher literacy rate

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48.Approximately ___ of mother with school-age children are employed.

a. / 11 percent
b. / 31 percent
c. / 51 percent
d. / 71 percent

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49.The use and disclosure of personal medical information is protected by:

a. / the Privacy Act of 1974
b. / the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
c. / the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986
d. / Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

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50.Which of the following does not represent a cultural change emerging in organizations?

a. / an increased concern for privacy
b. / changing attitudes toward work
c. / balancing work and family demands
d. / accommodating unemployed workers

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51.Employee rights include all of the following except:

a. / company funded pension plan.
b. / equal employment opportunity.
c. / union representation.
d. / equal pay for equal work.

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52.In an attitude survey of 3000 workers, 86 percent of workers said that ____ were their top priorities.

a. / work-life balance and being successful at work
b. / work fulfillment and work-life balance
c. / work fulfillment and being successful at work
d. / being successful at work and high pay

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53.Family friendly work options include all of the following except:

a. / day care.
b. / spousal benefits
c. / parental leave.
d. / job sharing.

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54.About _____ of Fortune 500 companies provide same-sex partner health insurance benefits.

a. / 34 percent
b. / 57 percent
c. / 72 percent
d. / 81 percent

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55.Which of the following is False?

a. / A majority of employees have no children under 18
b. / Family friendly policies have no positive outcomes for firms
c. / Flextime options are on the rise for employees
d. / Family friendly policies may include day care, part-time work, and job sharing

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