Kafli 11 Flashcards
Because of changes in the business world, some observers have proposed that issues pertaining to managing people should be given a higher profile. Which of the following is one of the factors that Guest (1987) attributed this proposition to?
A.
An emphasis on price over flexibility
B.
More employees joining trade unions
C.
The economic failure of countries such as Japan in the 1980s
D.
The emergence of globally integrated markets
D.
The emergence of globally integrated markets
Identify the four areas covered by human resource management (HRM).
A.
Portfolio management, human resource coordination, capital budgeting and customer management
B.
Acceptance testing, employee engagement, human resource planning and job enlargement
C.
Employee influence, work systems, human resource flow and reward management
D.
Employee engagement, cross-functional training, job specialisation and information systems
C.
Employee influence, work systems, human resource flow and reward management
Technofrax Ltd. is a large technology service provider. The company implemented some new practices last year, as a result of which the number of employees who quit this year reduced significantly compared to previous years. In the context of High Performance Work Systems (HPWS), which of the following is true of Technofrax Ltd.?
A.
The company implemented affirmative action practices.
B.
The company centralised its human resource function.
C.
The company increased its human capital.
D.
The company minimised its voluntary turnover.
D.
The company minimised its voluntary turnover.
In the context of the four roles that HRM practitioners perform, which of the following tasks is performed by a change agent?
A.
Aligning HR plans and strategies with business strategy
B.
Designing and delivering HR processes effectively
C.
Addressing the concerns and needs of individual employees
D.
Identifying new behaviours to help sustain competitiveness
D.
Identifying new behaviours to help sustain competitiveness
Clara, a HR manager in a public relations firm, is responsible for recruiting employees for various departments in the organisation. She focuses on effectively fulfilling the company’s staffing needs and making pay-related decisions. According to Dave Ulrich’s HR roles framework, which of the following human resource roles does Clara focus on performing in this scenario?
A.
Administrative expert
B.
Employee champion
C.
Change agent
D.
Strategic partner
A.
Administrative expert
Truss and Gill (2009) show how HR managers build the resources they need to do their job by combining structural arrangements with good working relationships. In this context, which of the following is a structural arrangement?
A.
Sharing positive experiences with line managers
B.
Providing opportunities to meet with colleagues
C.
Ensuring HR staff understand organisational needs
D.
Ensuring line managers have good contacts with HR practitioners
B.
Providing opportunities to meet with colleagues
Planners use different models to identify their staff requirements to fulfil demands. Which of the following do these models typically start with to identify the demand for services?
A.
Internal processes or agile management
B.
Organisational strategy or demographic changes
C.
Resource availability and human capital
D.
Production bandwidth and organisational hierarchy
B.
Organisational strategy or demographic changes
The uncertainty of the social and economic environment makes long-term forecasting difficult. Which of the following is an alternative to demand forecasting?
A.
Outsourcing the supply function
B.
Increasing the flexibility of supply
C.
Moving from divisional to a functional structure
D.
Centralising the organisational functions
B.
Increasing the flexibility of supply
Identify a true statement about long-term forecasting:
A.
It is the most reliable form of demand forecasting.
B.
It tends to be more accurate than short-term forecasting.
C.
It is used for tactical business decisions rather than for strategic decisions.
D.
It must take into account the uncertainty of the social environment.
D.
It must take into account the uncertainty of the social environment.
Identify a true statement about job analysis:
A.
Job analysis identifies the main constituents of a role, including skills and level of responsibility.
B.
Job analysis involves focusing on a specific job skill or area of expertise.
C.
Job analysis involves integrating processes or functions within an organisation.
D.
Job analysis is specific to how the employees of an organisation feel about their jobs and about the organisation.
A.
Job analysis identifies the main constituents of a role, including skills and level of responsibility.
Which of the following includes the dimensions on which the elements of jobs are rated?
A.
Flexible benefits, time rate, skill-based pay and payment by results
B.
Extent of use, frequency, importance and amount of time involved
C.
Context recognition, assumption analysis, limitation analysis and formulation of alternatives
D.
Job title, job purpose, key result areas and working relationships
B.
Extent of use, frequency, importance and amount of time involved
Technifive is a game development firm. It only hires employees with a wide range of skills and varied knowledge in the area of game development. The company also looks for flexible employees who are open to working on a range of tasks in the organisation. In the context of human resource management, which of the following is most likely true of Technifive?
A.
The company uses job specialisation to increase employee flexibility.
B.
The decisions made by the company’s management are centralised.
C.
The company focuses on employees’ competencies.
D.
The practices followed by the company are characteristic of functional structures.
C.
The company focuses on employees’ competencies
Amer, an HR executive at Jenowera Ltd., interviews many candidates to the post of a product engineer in the company. He hires Farheen to the post as he believes she is a perfect fit for the role. Eight months into the job, Farheen’s managers report that her performance has been consistently poor and that she has made no improvement despite being provided feedback. In the context of the selection process, which of the following errors or biases is most likely to have affected Amer’s decision making in this scenario?
A.
A false positive error
B.
The projection bias
C.
A false negative error
D.
The hindsight bias
A.
A false positive error
Which of the following is an advantage of personality tests in the hiring process?
A.
Their results are unlikely to vary with changing circumstances.
B.
Their results provide qualitative rather than quantitative data.
C.
They can easily be used and interpreted by all employees.
D.
They minimise the effect of subjective perceptions.
D.
They minimise the effect of subjective perceptions.
In the context of evaluating job candidates’ abilities, which of the following is true of assessment centres?
A.
They have higher validity than interviews.
B.
They are less systematic and standardised than interviews.
C.
They are less accurate than interviews.
D.
They use fewer assessors than interviews.
A.
They have higher validity than interviews.
