Compensation and Benefits Long Answer

Question 1

Identify 3 types of employee behaviour

Answer 1

Membership behaviour

Task behaviour

Organizational citizenship behaviour

Question 2

Identify 3 categories of reward problems

Answer 2

1) failure to produce the desired behaviour
2) production of the desired behaviour but with undesirable consequences
3) production of reward dissatisfaction.

Question 3

What is the definition of membership behaviour?

Answer 3

occurs when employees decide to join and remain with a firm.

Question 4

What is the definition of task behaviour?

Answer 4

occurs when employees perform the specific tasks that have been assigned to them.

Question 5

What is the definition of organizational citizenship behaviour?

Answer 5

occurs when employees voluntarily undertake special behaviours beneficial to the organization that go beyond simple membership and task behaviour, such as extra effort, high cooperation with others, high initiative, high innovativeness, extra customer service, and a general willingness to make sacrifices for the good of the organization. Organizational citizenship behaviour is sometimes known as “contextual performance” in contrast with “task performance.”2

Question 6

What is the failure to produce the desired behaviour?

Answer 6

• reward system often has no impact on behaviour
• the behaviour the organization needs isn’t occurring, or it is occurring only among certain employees
• EX: Green Giant

Question 7

What is the production of the desired behaviour but with undesirable consequences

Answer 7

• Too much focus on attain reward goals and lost focus on other company goals
• the reward system does generate the desired behaviours with no obvious negative consequences but also suppresses other desirable behaviours that are not measured or rewarded
• EX: CN Rails reward system reduced per-item purchasing costs, but it also discouraged any search for potentially more valuable approaches to cost savings

Question 8

What is the production of reward dissatisfaction?

Answer 8

• When employees believe the rewards they receive are not consistent with the contributions they are making to the organization, or when they believe the reward system is unfair, they will experience reward dissatisfaction.
• Reward dissatisfaction can have a variety of negative consequences, such as poor work performance, high turnover, poor customer service, and even employee dishonesty.

Question 9

What are the 4 compensation constraints?

Answer 9

1. Labour
2. Finanacial
3. Product/service
4. Leglislation

Question 10

Provide examples of legislation constraints

Answer 10

Dealing with both the Fed. and prov. Legislation

ESA: min hours, min wage, OT, stats, max hours

Human Rights Acts: discrimination, pay equity

Trade union legislation: any changes to working conditions are negotiated

Corporate tax laws: encourage certain pay approaches and discourage others, employee vs IC

Question 11

Provide examples of labour market constraints

Answer 11

the available pool of labour from which employers choose their employees

Supply & demand of labour; tight vs loose market
Pay leadingm lagging, or matching the market

Question 12

Provide examples of product/service constraints

Answer 12

Constraints on compensation strategy caused by
the nature of the product or service market in which the firm operates.
Supply & demand of products

Labour intensive costs

volatility ; swings in demand, contingent workers

Question 13

Provide examples of financial constraints

Answer 13

Financial performances of the organization

Companys stage of growth

Funding limitations

Escaping union constraints to get public funding

Question 14

What are the steps managers can take concerning legislated constraints when formulating a compensation system?

Answer 14

Be compliant with legislation to remain legally defesible, fair, and maintain equity.

Make equity a priortty, comply with pay equity laws

Seek legal advice where necessary

Do your due dillgience

Follow trade union rules and cooperate with them, negotiate fairly while keeing organizational goals in mind

Comply with tax laws

Be clear whether worker is employee or contractor

Question 15

What are the steps managers can take concerning labour constraints when formulating a compensation system?

Answer 15

Lead, lag, and match payment of positions approprattly to continue achieving organizational goals that align with strategy, while mainitning an equitable pay system to avoid potentia downfalls of choosing incorrectly: not attract the right employees, increas costs,

Decide to base pay system on regional or national labour markets rates to make sure pay remains fair and feasible to the company

Question 16

What are the steps managers can take concerning product/service constraints when formulating a compensation system?

Answer 16

Be mindful of the companies product/service, and make sure that labour and production needs are aligning to balance costs and production.

Be mindful of potential swings in demand

Question 17

What are the steps managers can take concerning financial constraints when formulating a compensation system?

Answer 17

Be aware of the companies financial situation, and what stage they are at in growing before creating a compensation strategy.
Be mindful of any funding limitations and restrictions, and budget accordingly
Dont make compensation strategy beyond the financial means of the company

Question 18

List the methods for a job analysis?

Answer 18

1) observations
2) interviews
3) Questionnaires
4) functional job analysis

Question 19

What is the definition of a job analysis?

Answer 19

The process of collecting information on which job descriptions are based.

Question 20

What is the definition/elements of the observation method?

Answer 20

can be conducted only in organizations that already have examples of the jobs that need to be evaluated

Involves watching the employee as the job is performed and noting the kinds of activities performed, with whom they are performed, and with what tools or equipment.

Observation is mainly useful for jobs in which the activities can be easily observed and for which the work cycle is short

For most jobs, observation is useful only as a supplement to other methods.

Question 21

What is the definition/elements of the interview method?

Answer 21

can be conducted only in organizations that already have examples of the jobs that need to be evaluated
can be conducted with a sample of employees, or their supervisors, or both.
Example: HR Manager Tayedra sits down with employee Sophie and interviews her about her perceptions of her job, what she does, her duties etc

Question 22

What is the definition/elements of the questionnaire method?

Answer 22

can be conducted only in organizations that already have examples of the jobs that need to be evaluated

Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ): focuses on the behaviours that make up a job and uses job elements to describe work activities.

It is not used to evaluate performance, but rather to relate the duties performed, decisions made, and the skills needed

Conduct when there are job to compare within the company

Question 23

What is the definition/elements of the functional job analysis method?

Answer 23

Organizations that are just being created or that are introducing new jobs must depend on the functional job analysis.

an attempt to develop generic descriptions of jobs using a common set of job functions.

Question 24

What is an example of the observation method?

Answer 24

Sophie, employee, is watched by her HR manager as she performs her typical job duties while she slices meat and makes sandwiches at the deli

Question 25

What is an example of the interview method?

Answer 25

HR Manager Tayedra sits down with employee Sophie and interviews her about her perceptions of her job, what she does, her duties etc

Question 26

What is an example of the questionnaire method?

Answer 26

HR Manager Sophie gives Tayedra a questionnaire to fill out regarding her job responsibilities

Question 27

What is an example fo the fictional job analysis method?

Answer 27

New company, HR Director Tayedra has to come up with generic job descriptions for each positions by using a common set of job functions

Question 28

What are the strengths of the observation method?

Answer 28

Analyst sees firsthand what the job involves
useful for blue-collar work

Simple to use

May verify data from other sources

Question 29

What are the weaknesses of the observation method?

Answer 29

Observations may not cover all time periods in which job is performed

Time-consuming

Not useful for jobs involving cognitive tasks

Observation may bias performance
validity and reliability may be problematic

Question 30

What are the strengths of the interview method?

Answer 30

Interviews with employees can generate valid information

Interviewing supervisors may produce more objective information

Job incumbents describe work

Information obtained from persons most familiar with the job

May provide unexpected information

Question 31

What are the weaknesses of the interview method?

Answer 31

Cost and time for everyone involved

Interviewing only one or the other of these groups has drawbacks.

the employee perspective on the importance of various job duties may be different from that of the supervisor.

If employees know that the job analysis is being conducted for the purpose of job evaluation, it is in their interest to portray the job in a way that maximizes its value.

supervisors may not be as aware of the realities of the job as the employees.

Requires experienced interviewer

Requires well-designed questions and probes

provides qualitative data that may be difficult to

combine and analyze

Interviewees may distort information

Question 32

What are the strengths of the questionnaire method?

Answer 32

Job incumbents describe work

Information obtained from persons most familiar with the job

Access information from large number of workers

Relatively inexpensive

Question 33

What are the weaknesses of the questionnaire method?

Answer 33

the development of reliable and valid questionnaires is a complex process

Only a portion of workers may respond

Respondents may not answer honestly

Questions are fixed and do not allow flexibility

May not capture points that the worker believes are important

Question 34

What are the strengths of the functional analysis method?

Answer 34

Managers can then analyze these statements to draw conclusions about the nature of the job, as well as the skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions associated with it.

provides task bank of standardized task statements

Identifies the level of involvement with people, data, and things

used to develop job descriptions

Helps to identify KSAOs related to task statements
produc

Question 35

What are the weaknesses of the functional job analysis?

Answer 35

depending on the job, it may be difficult to draw conclusions about all these factors, such as working conditions or responsibility.

Only trained analysts may use the method

very costly for analyst training

very time consuming, laborious, and costly to collect task statements

Question 36

How are employee job attitudes and behaviours are linked with reward systems?

Answer 36

The rewards systems impacts the employees attitudes and their levels of job satisfaction, organizational identification, and their motivation.

Each of these attitudes then, impacts the employees behaviour/performances based on the underlying rewards systems.

Therefore, it is essential to align the rewards system with the organizational needs to achieve the desired job performances to ensure that employees have a positive attitude and reaction to the rewards, and in turn, and performing adequately as a result.

Question 37

What are the key aspects of the reinforcement theory?

Answer 37

Process Theory: Reinforcement Theory: A theory that states a behaviour will be repeated if valued outcomes flow from that behaviour, or if performing the behaviour reduces undesirable outcomes.

For reinforcement theory to work, the individual must perceive a link between the behaviour and the consequence.

the key to predicting a person’s future behaviour is to understand how that person and others around them were reinforced for various types of behaviour in the past

Question 38

How should managers make sure the reinforcement theory is being used properly?

Answer 38

Desired behaviours for each employee need to be clearly specified. Then each time that behaviour occurs, it needs to be followed by a reward of significant value to the recipient. The closer in time the reward is to the behaviour, the better.

Make sure unwanted behaviurs arent inadvertently rewarded

Ensure behaviour is continually rewarded to maintain desired performances

Question 39

What are the key aspects of expectancy theory?

Answer 39

Process Theory: Expectancy Theory: A theory stating that individuals are more likely to exert effort to perform a particular behaviour if they believe that behaviour will lead to valued consequences and if they expect they can perform the behaviour.

Valence: the net value of the consequences of that behaviour

Instrumentality: the perceived likelihood that the behaviour will actually lead to those consequences

Expectancy: the perceived likelihood of actually being able to accomplish those behaviours

Question 40

How should managers make sure the expectancy theory is being used properly?

Answer 40

make sure that instrumentality is strong. Employees must clearly understand that performance of the desired behaviours leads to the specified rewards. Trust and credibility may be an important issue here.
make sure that the net valence for performing a behaviour is positive in the eyes of the person expected to perform the behaviour.
maximizing the person’s rewards while minimizing the costs of performing the behaviour.
need to understand the needs and personal values of the people you are attempting to motivate.
make sure that expectancy is strong—that employees have confidence in their ability to accomplish the desired behaviours.