1 - Nature and Challenges of Human Resources Management Flashcards
the term __________ describes the economic value of employees’ knowledge, skills and capabilities.
human capital
To build human capital in organizations, managers develop strategies for ensuring superior knowledge, skills and experience within their workforce. Staffing programs focus on identifying, recruiting and hiring the best talent available. Training programs complement these staffing practices. In addition, employees need opportunities for __________ on the job. Consequently, managers have to provide developmental assignments to employees and make certain that job duties and requirements are exible enough to allow for growth and learning.
development
HR management faces all the following issues:
- (1) Changes in the ________ and economy
- (2) Competing, recruiting and staffing ______
- (3) Advancing ___ technology
- (4) ________ while retaining top talent and maximizing productivity
- (5) Responding to the ________ and ________ challenges of the workforce
- (6) Adapting to ________ and cultural shifts affecting the workforce
- marketplace
- globally
- HR
- Containing costs
- demographic / diversity
- educational
One of total quality improvement initiatives, Six Sigma quality is a set of principles and practices whose core ideas include understanding customer needs, doing things right the first time and striving for continuous improvement. (Six Sigma is a statistical method of translating a customer’s needs into ________ and defining the best way to perform each in concert with the others. Six Sigma catches mistakes before they happen.)
separate tasks
The fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, service and speed is called ________ in HRM
reengineering
The term corporate social responsibility is widely used to define how firms behave in terms of aligning their policies with the best interests of the people and communities affected by their activities. Firms are focusing on corporate social responsibility as they recognize that being socially responsible both domestically and abroad can not only help them avoid lawsuits but also improve their ______. Customers are considering a company’s ________ when deciding where to shop. Also, prospective workers are saying corporate responsibility is now more important to their job selection.
earnings
social reputation
Advanced technology continues to reduce the number of jobs that require little skill and to increase the number of jobs that require considerable skill. This transformation has been referred to as a shift from _______ to knowledge workers, in which employee responsibilities expand to include a richer mix of activities such as planning, decision making, and problem solving.
“touch labor”
With HRIS, The most obvious impact has been _________—that is, automating routine activities, alleviating administrative burdens, reducing costs, and improving productivity internal to the HR function itself.
The most frequent uses include automating payroll processing, maintaining employee records and administering benefits programs. “_________,” setting up systems, usually on an intranet, allows managers to access employee records themselves and allows employees to change their own benefits and other personal information. Computers are being used not only for storage and retrieval of information but also for broader applications such as producing reports, forecasting HR needs, strategic planning, career and promotion planning, and evaluating HR policies and practices.
operational
Self-service
- _________ (or _______) is the planned elimination of jobs.
- ________is an alternative to the above. When a company does this, it asks ee’s to take time off for either no pay or reduced pay. Some companies are utilizing creative strategies to avoid downsizing and losing talent to competitors. The strategy does have its disadvantages, though. _____ are not cut as significantly as they would be in downsizing because employees generally retain their benefits and those employees not [this] often are required to do more work.
- ________ is hiring someone outside the company to perform business processes that could be done internally. Firms often hire the services of accounting organizations, for example, to take care of financial services. Interest has been spurred by executives who want to focus on what they do best—their _______. Activities such as maintenance, security, catering and payroll are being outsourced in order to increase exibility, lower overhead costs and gain access to expertise that others may have.
- ________, also referred to as global sourcing, involves shifting work to overseas locations. ________ has been among the key motivators for offshoring decisions; however, now companies are finding they can grow their businesses this way. Sometimes this occurs because an arrangement allocates work more efficiently across the multiple countries in which the company does business. In other cases, managers are finding that if they save money, they can rescue failing businesses, make better use of skilled talent in the host country, and deliver products more cheaply and quickly because they have people across the globe working 24/7 on them.
- Downsizing / rightsizing
- Furloughing / Costs
- Outsourcing / core competencies
- Offshoring / Cost reduction
Employee leasing is the process of dismissing employees who are then hired by a leasing company and contracting with the leasing company to lease back the former employees.
As an alternative to downsizing, outsourcing and offshoring, many companies, especially small ones, have decided to sign employee leasing agreements with __________. (There are legal issues with leased employees that can be minimized by the company making sure that the PEO retains as much control as possible over the terms and conditions of the leased employee’s employment.)
professional employer organizations (PEOs)
Among the most significant challenges to managers are the _______ changes occurring such as changes in employee ethnicity, age and _________.
demographic
education
Describe how each of the following demographics is expected to change in the immediate future.
Diversity of backgrounds
- Workers will continue to be a diverse group. Minorities will make up a larger share of the workforce. In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates whites will no longer make up a majority of Americans by ______. As the component percentage of white males in the workforce continues to decline, the percentages of Hispanics and Asian-Americans are increasing.
Educational levels
- Although the overall educational level of the workforce has risen dramatically, there is an increasing gap in the educational levels among ______. Many firms still have to deal with employees who are unable to read, write, calculate or solve problems at a level that enables them to perform even the simplest technical tasks.
2050
employees
Providing an overall environment that values and utilizes a diverse workforce or managing diversity involves being acutely aware of characteristics ________ to employees, while also managing these employees as _________
common
individuals
In the past few decades, employers have had to deal with cultural changes in several areas including:
(1) Employee ______
(2) Concern for employee ______
(3) Changing _____ toward work
(4) Balancing work and ______ situations.
- rights
- privacy
- attitudes
- family
HR staff have the responsibility for coordinating programs and policies pertaining to people-related issues, but successful organizations combine the experience of _______ with the expertise of HR managers to develop and utilize the talents of employees to their greatest potential. [mentioned above]_____ are non-HR managers who are responsible for overseeing the work of other employees.
line managers
