human resource decision: improving organisational design and managing the human resource flow

Question 1

what is authority?

Answer 1

the power to carry out a task or to instruct someone else to do it

Question 2

what’s responsibility?

Answer 2

the person or job role that is responsible for ensuring something is done

Question 3

define delegation

Answer 3

the passing of authority (power) down an organisational structure

Question 4

what’s an organisational structure?

Answer 4

the way a firm organises the activities that need to be done- either tall or flat

Question 5

define what an organisational chart is

Answer 5

a diagram which illustrates the organisational structure i.e- the way that activities are organised

Question 6

what are levels of hierarchy?

Answer 6

the levels of authority (power) in an organisation that exist from the chief executive to the worker on the shop floor

Question 7

what’s a chain of command?

Answer 7

the line of authority from the chief executive via the manager and supervisor to the shop floor. it is also a communication route

Question 8

define span of control

Answer 8

the number of workers who are directly responsible to a manager or supervisor- narrow or wide

Question 9

what’s centralisation?

Answer 9

this is when decision making is concentrated among a small number of managers at the top/centre of an organisational structure

Question 10

what is human resource or workforce planning?

Answer 10

a comprehensive process that provides managers with a framework for making staffing decisions based on an organisations corporate objectives and strategic plans. it aims to ensure the right number of people with the right skills, experience and competencies are in the right place at the right time

Question 11

what’s recruitment?

Answer 11

the process businesses go through to attract the right people to apply for a job

Question 12

define training

Answer 12

this is the process through which a worker acquires the job related skills and knowledge needed to do a job

Question 13

what’s redeployment?

Answer 13

usually means moving people to different jobs because their existing job is no longer needed. it sometimes involves moving people to a different job because they are not good enough at their existing one

Question 14

define redundancy

Answer 14

occurs when a job function is no longer required. as a result, the person doing the job is no longer needed and loses their job and are not replaced with someone else

Question 15

define job design

Answer 15

the process of putting individual tasks together to create a job that someone is employed to do

Question 16

what are the 4 techniques used in job design?

Answer 16

job enlargement
(horizontal loading)

job enrichment
(vertical loading)

empowerment

team working

Question 17

describe what job enlargement is?

Answer 17

giving workers a wider range of tasks to do to add variety and enable them to see a particular production process from start to finish. can involve job rotation moving workers from one task to another

Question 18

what’s job enrichment?

Answer 18

jobs are redesigned to include more challenging and complex tasks which are more interesting

Question 19

what’s empowerment?

Answer 19

this is intended to give employees greater control over their working lives by giving them the power to make decisions about issues that affect them

Question 20

define team working

Answer 20

work is broken down into large units and teams are given the responsibility to complete the work