Final

Question 1

9.1 What is HPWS

Answer 1

specific combination of HR practices, work structures, processes

Question 2

9.1 What does HPWS intend

Answer 2

maximize employees
…knowledge, skills, abilities
…motivation
…commitment
…opportunities
…performance, flexibility

Question 3

9.1 HPWS includes

Answer 3

…selective staffing
…comprehensive training & development
…competitive compensation
…active communication channels

Question 4

9.1 HPWS leads to

Answer 4

…greater organizational commitment
…lower turnover
…higher productivity and quality
…better service performance
…ultimately better financial performance

Question 5

9.1 AMO model

Answer 5

ability, motivation, opportunity (to perform)
employee and organizational performance is a function of those 3 components

Ability-enhancing practices: comprehensive recruitment, rigorous selection, extensive training

Motivation-enhancing HR practices: performance management, incentive and bonus, benefits, promotion, career development, job security

Opportunity-enhancing HR practices: flexible work arrangement, autonomous work teams, employee knowledge sharing

Question 6

9.1 HPWS always beneficial?

Answer 6

not always good, can cause anxiety & role overload

HPWS can be a critical stressor for facilitating anxiety of employees due to signals for high performance

employees with less job control or discretion may feel that they are getting less out of the system while being expected to perform with greater effort

Question 7

9.1 Implementing HPWS

Answer 7

4 steps
1. build a case for change
2. engage stakeholders
3. communication: commitment from top essential, 2 way communication
4. evaluate/sustain: focus on goals of HPWS, ongoing process

Question 8

9.2 compute turnover rates

Answer 8

(number of people that left in time period * 100) / total number of employees at beginning of time period ???

Question 9

9.2 calculate cost of turnover

Answer 9

separation costs + replacement costs + training costs

Question 10

9.2 unfolding model of turnover

Answer 10

shocking events -> employees reevaluate their job (negative or positive even)
model suggests 5 distinct paths

Question 11

9.2 Turnover contagion model

Answer 11

people leaving might make others leave as well, as they do talk

Question 12

9.2 Context emergent collective turnover (CET) theory

Answer 12

the negative effect of collective turnover is enhanced when:
…the departing employees in stores have higher competencies (high quality turnover)
…the turnover dispersion is lower (more people quit at the same time)
…there is higher newcomer concentration

Question 13

10.1 Analyzing current environment

Answer 13

PEST analysis (political, economic, socio-cultural, technological)

Question 14

10.1 causes of failure of expatriate manager

Answer 14

Family adjustment
Lifestyle issues
Work adjustment
Bad selection
Poor performance
Other opportunities arise
Business reasons
Repatriation issues

Question 15

10.1 Repatriation

Answer 15

process of going back to the home country

Question 16

10.1 How to do international staffing

Answer 16

can be difficult to select employees in a foreign country, need to get to know the local market and customs in hiring

• Get to know the universities, technical schools, and primary schools in the area
• Develop network in the business and government communities
• Understand the employees of the firm’s competitors

Question 17

10.1 select a global manager expatriate

Answer 17

• cultural environment
• core skills
• augmented skills

steps:
- begin with self-selection
- create candidate pool
- assess core skills
- assess augmented skills and attributes

Question 18

10.1 content of training programs

Answer 18

• infos about country where they are going
• sensitivity training against ethnic prejudices

Question 19

10.1 Preparation for going abroad

Answer 19

become familiar with many aspects of the new country (etiquette, culture, language…)
- Language training
- Cultural training
- Assessing and tracking career development
- Managing personal and family life
- Repatriation

Question 20

10.1 Performance

Answer 20

Define objectives
agree on quantifiable measures
develop conversion of behavior into measures
evaluate against these measures
calculate ROI

Question 21

10.1 Compensation of Host country employees

Answer 21

• hourly wages and benefits vary
• paid on base of productivity and time
  with global compensation system: host country employees are offered full range of training, benefits and pay → higher effectiveness and satisfaction level

Question 22

10.1 Compensation of Expatriate employees

Answer 22

options:
- home-based pay
- balance-sheet approach
- split-pay
- host-based pay
- localization
issues: medical care, security, compensation policy of competitors

Question 23

10.2 Hofstede’s cultural value dimensions

Answer 23

4 primary dimensions + 2 others
- power distance
- individualism vs. collectivism
- uncertainty avoidance
- masculinity/feminity
+
- short & long-term values
- indulgence/self-restraint

Question 24

10.2 Dimensions of Diversity

Answer 24

Primary (factors inborn or in early socialization)
Secondary (factors that matter to us and to some extent define us to others)

Question 25

10.2 Faultlines

Answer 25

hypothetical dividing lines
- based on demographic information and social categories: negative impact
- informational faultlines (task-related attributes): positive impact

Question 26

10.2 Diversity management in HRM

Answer 26

Workforce composition affects organizational productivity

Utilize the variety of talents, perspectives, backgrounds of all employees

Management:

Multicultural (or Transnational) Teams: more difficult to manage, but strategic in global marketplace, greater potential for creativity and innovation

Employee Network Groups: based on social identity, organized by employees, focus on their concerns, reduce social isolation

Question 27

11.1 Definitions Climate & Culture

Answer 27

climate: the shared perceptions of and the meaning attached to the policies, practices, and procedures employees experience and the behaviors they observe getting rewarded and that are supported and expected

culture: the shared basic assumptions, values, and beliefs that characterize a setting

Question 28

11.1 Types of Organizational Culture Climate

Answer 28

• climate for customer service -> higher customer satisfaction
• climate of concern for employees
• climate for procedure justice -> reduced turnover
• climate for safety -> reduce accidents

Question 29

11.1 competing values framework

Answer 29

flexibility vs. stability structure; internal vs. external
1. clan culture: internal & flexible -> more satisfied and committed employees
2. adhocracy: external and flexible
3. market: external and stable -> greater operational and financial performance
4. hierarchy: internal and stable

Question 30

11.2 Effects of Unionization

Answer 30

Positive effect:
- Unions improve the communication between employees and employers, and builds workplace culture and climate, rules, and wage levels that employees prefer, thereby improving employee satisfaction and reducing stress
- Such satisfaction is connected to productivity increase, and it reduces the turnover of high-performance people to continuously strengthen the capacity of human capital resources

Negative effect:
- Using collective bargaining to promote wage increase → Increasing production costs and decreasing organizational profits (Denny & Nickell, 1991)
- Increasing costs for investment while hindering the introduction of new technologies and systems
- Through labor disputes and strikes, the sound culture and climate is disrupted and the use of human capital resources is also hindered

Question 31

11.2 Conflict workplace

Answer 31

Inconsistent management policies
Insufficient handling with complaints from employees
Distrust toward the firm and employer
Lack of publicity on the financial status of the firm
Shortage of sound conversation window
Injustice of human resource management
Conflict with managers and lack of competencies of managers

Question 32

12. Models/Theories for HR analytics

Answer 32

deductive: theory driven
hypotheses are made, data collected, analysis to which degree this hypotheses are supported

inductive: data driven
seek to find possible alternate explanations from patterns in data, theories formulated