Chapter 2 - Trends in Human Resource Management

Question 1

Internal Labor Force

Answer 1

Organization’s workers:

- employees and people who have contracts to work at organization

Question 2

External Labor Market

Answer 2

• individuals who are actively seeking employment

- # and kinds of people in external labor market determine kinds of HR available to an organization

Question 3

Changes in the Labor Force

Answer 3

Aging, Diverse, Skill deficiencies

Question 4

Baby Boomers

Answer 4

• opportunity for learning
• time management
• undeserved rewards

Question 5

Generation X

Answer 5

• pragmatic and cynical

- self skills

Question 6

Generation Y (1981-1995)

Answer 6

• includes me

- will be managing people much older than self

Question 7

HRM Implications of Aging Workforce

Answer 7

• Spend time on…
  
  • > retirement planning
  • > retraining older workers
  • > motivating workers whose careers plateau
• organizations struggle to control rising cost of health care and other benefits
• organizations must find ways to attract, retain, and prepare youth labor force

Question 8

HRM Practices that support diversity management

Answer 8

• Communication
• Development
• Performance Appraisal
• Employee Relations

Question 9

Skill Deficiencies of Workforce

Answer 9

• gap between needed and available skills has decreased companies ability to compete
• sometimes lack the capacity to upgrade tech, reorganize work, and empower employees

Question 10

Organizations have best fit between…

Answer 10

• social system (people and how they interact)

- technical system (equipment and processes)

Question 11

Key trends in high performance work systems

Answer 11

• reliance on knowledge workers
• empowerment of employees to make decisions
• teamwork

Question 12

Knowledge Workers

Answer 12

• Employees whose contribution is specialized knowledge of customers, processes, and/or profession
• especially needed for jobs in: health services, business services, social services, engineering, and management

Question 13

Employee empowerment

Answer 13

• giving employees responsibility and authority to make decisions regarding all aspects of product development or customer

Question 14

Employee engagement

Answer 14

• full involvement in one’s work and commitment to one’s job and company
• associated with higher productivity, better customer service, lower employee turnover

Question 15

Teamwork

Answer 15

• work teams often assume many of the activities traditionally reserved for managers…
  -> selecting new team members
  -> scheduling work
  ->coordinating work with customers and other
  units of the organization

Question 16

HR’s beginnings

Answer 16

• started as “personnel” and just kept track of things

- now is involved in all major areas of company

Question 17

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Answer 17

companywide effort to continuously improve the ways people, machines, and systems accomplish work

Question 18

TQM Core Values

Answer 18

• methods and processes are designed to meet the needs of internal and external customers
• every employee receives quality training
• quality is designed into a product or service so errors are prevented from occurring
• organization promotes cooperation with all to improve quality and hold costs down
• managers measure progress with feedback based on data

Question 19

Mergers/Acquisitions

Answer 19

HRM has major role in these…

• diff. b/w businesses involved in the deal make conflict inevitable
• training should include conflict resolution skills
• need to sort out difference in 2 companies’ practices regarding compensation, performance appraisal, and other HR systems

Question 20

Ways to lay off employees but keep reputation…

Answer 20

• programs to find other jobs
• severance packages
• teach how to write resumes

Question 21

Reengineering/Downsizing

Answer 21

• complete review of the organization’s major work processes to make them more efficient and able to deliver higher quality
• affects HRM in 2 ways:
  
  • > how HR accomplishes its goals may change
  • > change requires HR to help design and implement change so that all employees will be committed to the new organization’s success

Question 22

Outsourcing

Answer 22

• having another company provide services
  
  • > outsourcing gives the company access to in-depth expertise and is often more economical as well
  • > HR helps with a transition to outsourcing

Question 23

Offshoring

Answer 23

moving operations from the country where company is headquartered to diff. county where pay rates are less but necessary skills are available

Question 24

International Labor Pool

Answer 24

hiring at home may involve selection of employees from other countries

Question 25

HR Information Systems (HRIS)

Answer 25

computer system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyze, retrieve, and distribute information related to an organization’s human resources… HRIS can:

• > support strategic decision making
• > help the organization avoid lawsuits
• > provide data for evaluating programs or policies
• > support day-to-day HR decisions

Question 26

Electronic Human Resource Management (e-HRM)

Answer 26

• e-HRM: processing and transmission of digitized HR information especially using computer networking and Internet
• Self-Service: system in which employees have online access to information about HR issues and go online to enroll themselves in programs and provide feedback through surveys

Question 27

Psychological Contract

Answer 27

employment relationship that describes what employees and employers expect from the employment relationship

Question 28

Nature of employment relationship change

Answer 28

Employees now looking for:

• flexible work schedules
• comfortable working conditions
• greater autonomy
• opportunities for training and development
• performance related financial incentives