Midterm Flashcards
1
Q
What is strategy
A
The formulation of organizational objectives, scopes, and action plans for gaining advantage
2
Q
What are some positive organizational outcomes?
A
Profitability
Customer satisfaction
Employee performance
Organizational survival
3
Q
Typical events that can change strategy
A
Changing market conditions
New technology
Emerging markets
New moves of competitors
4
Q
What is emergent strategy
A
The plan that changes incrementally due to environmental changes
5
Q
Intended strategy
A
The formulated plan
6
Q
Realized strategy
A
The implemented plan
7
Q
Strategy
A
A declaration of intent
8
Q
Strategic intent
A
A tangible corporate goal; a pov aboutthe competitive positions a company hopes to build over a decade
9
Q
Strategic planning
A
The systematic determination of goals and the plans to achieve them
10
Q
Strategy formulation
A
The entire process of conceptualizing the mission of an organization, identifying the strategy, and developing long range performance goals
11
Q
Strategy implementation
A
Those activities that employees and managers of an organization undertake to enact the strategic plan, to achieve the performance goals
12
Q
Objectives
A
The end , the goals
13
Q
Plans
A
The product of strategy, the means to the end
14
Q
Strategic plan
A
A written statement that outlines the future goals of an organization, including long term performance goals
15
Q
Policies
A
Broad guidelines to action, which establish the parameters or rules
16
Q
Discarded strategy
A
Deemed innapropriate due to changing circumstances
17
Q
The relating of the strategic process
A
- Intended strategy
- Emergent strategy
- Discarded strategy
- Realized strategy
18
Q
Corporate strategy
A
Organizational level decisions that focus on long term growth and survival
19
Q
Options within corporate strategy:
A
Restructuring
Growth
Stability
20
Q
What are the restructuring strategy options?
A
Turnaround
Divestiture
Liquidation
Bankruptcy
21
Q
Turnaround strategy
A
An attempt to increase the viability of an organization
22
Q
Turnaround methods include:
A
Getting rid of unprofitable products
Imposing layoffs
Making the organization more efficient
Attempting to reposition it with new products
23
Q
Divestiture
A
The sale of a division or part of an organization
24
Q
Liquidation
A
The termination of a business and the sale of its assets
25
Bankruptcy
A formal procedure in which an appointed trustee in bankruptcy takes possession of a businesss assets and disposed of them in an orderly fashion
26
In what ways can growth be achieved?
Incrementally
Internationally
Mergers and acquisitions
27
How is incremental growth attained?
By expanding the client base, increasing products/services, changing the distribution networks, or using technology
28
How can international growth be attained?
By seeking new customers or markets by expanding internationally
29
Acquisition
The purchase of one company by another
30
Merger
Two organizations combine resources and become one
31
What is the effect on Hr of acquisitions and mergers?
They eliminate the duplication of functions, meld benefits and labour relations practices and create a common culture
32
What are stability strategies
Maintenance strategies where companies do not wish to see their companies grow and so their strategic HRM practices remain constant.
33
Stability strategies can be called:
Status quo
Do-nothing strategies
Pause and proceed with caution
Harvest strategy
34
Status quo
Do not wish to see their companies grow; content to keep market share; doing what it has been doing
35
Do-nothing strategy
Don't do anything different; make no change
36
Pause and proceed with caution
Temporary strategy-until environmental conditions are more favourable for growth
37
Harvest strategy
Choose to milk the investment as current profitable situation will not last forever
38
Business strategy
The action plan for a single line of business to gain competitive advantage
39
Business vs. Corporate strategy
Each business may have its own strategy
40
What is a strategic plan
Describes the organizations future direction, performance targets, and approaches to achieve the targets.
41
What are the steps in the strategic planning process
1. Establish the mission, vision and values
2. Develop objectives
3. analyze the external environment
4. Identify the competitive advantage
5. Determine the competitive position
6. Implement the strategy
7. Evaluate the performance
42
Mission statement
An articulation of the purpose of the organization and the value it creates for customers
43
Vision statement
A clear and compelling goal that serves to unite an organizations efforts
44
Values
The basic beliefs that govern individual and group behaviour in an organization
45
What are the purposes of a value statement?
1. Conveys a sense of identity for employees
2. Generates employee commitment to something greater than themselves
3. Adds to the stability of the organization as a social system
4. Serves as a frame of reference for employees to use to make sense of organizational activities and to use as a guide for appropriate behaviour
46
Hard objectives
Goals that are an expression in measurable terms of what an organization intends to achieve; include numbers
47
Soft objectives
Goals that define the targets of social conduct for the organization and may not always be quantifiable
48
How to analyze the external environment
Managers must be aware of threats and opportunities in the external environment
Should scan and monitor technology, laws and regulations, the economy, sociocultural factors, and changing demographics
Use this info to make reactive and proactive changes to the strategic plan
49
Competitive advantage
The characteristics of a firm that enable it to earn higher rates of profit than its competitors by utilizing its resources
50
Competitive advantage resources are:
Tangible assets
Intangible assets
Capabilities
51
Tangible assets
Organizational assets that have a substance and can be consumed
52
Intangible assets
Organizational assets that are not concrete, such as reputation, goodwill
53
Capabilities
Collective skills, abilities, and expertise of an organization
54
Four criteria of sustained competitive advantage
Valuable
Rare
Inimitable
Organized
55
Valuable
Are the resources and capabilities able to help generate value/reduce cost
56
Rare
Are the resources and capabilities not available to competitors
57
Inimitable
Are the resources and capabilities hard to copy by competitors
58
Organized
Are the resources and capabilities able to be exploited by the firm
59
Core competencies
Organizational resources and capabilities that serve as a firms competitive advantage. A competitively important activity that directly contributes to a company's strategy
60
Dynamic capabilities
Organizational capabilities to adapt and renew competencies in accordance with the changing business environment
61
What is SWOT
Used to analyze the company's resource capabilities and deficiencies and its market opportunities and threats in the future
62
What is Swots acronym
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
63
Value proposition
A statement of the fundamental benefits of the products or services being offered in the market place
64
Porters five generic competitive strategies:
1. Low cost provider strategy
2. Broad differentiation strategy
3. Best cost provider strategy
4. Focused on market niche strategy based on lower cost
5. Focused or market niche strategy based on differentiation
65
Strategy implementation
Is the process by which the strategy is put into action - sometimes called operational planning; consisting of programs, budgets and procedures
66
Program
Outlines the steps or activities necessary to accomplish the goal
67
Procedures
Lists the steps required to get the job done
68
Benefits of strategy formulation
```
Clarity
Coordination
Efficiency
Incentives
Adjustment to change
Career development
```
69
Errors in strategic planning
Relegating the process to official planners and not involving executives and managers
Failing to use the plan as the guide to making decisions and evaluating performance
Failing to align incentives and other HR policies to the achievement of the strategy
70
HRM is an umbrella term that encompasses:
Overarching HR philosophies
Formal HR policies
Specific HR practices
71
Strategic HRM
Interrelated philosophies, policies, and practices that facilitate the attainment of organizational strategy
72
What is the resource based view
Suggests that the management of resources and capabilities will lead to competitive advantage, resulting in superior performance and value creation
73
A firms human resources can create sustained competitive advantage if they meet the four criteria:
Valuable-employees are valuable due to superior performance
Difficult for competitors to imitate-training
Rare-in terms of talent
Hard to substitute
74
Typical resources in the resource based view may include?
Human resources
Proprietary knowledge
Reputation
75
Typical capabilities in the resource-based view may include:
Adaptability
Flexibility
Speed of bringing new products to market
76
Contingency perspective
Blends both the human capital and behavioural theories
| Refers to the need to modify HR strategies relative to its business and organizational strategies
77
Human capital
The collective sum of employees attributes, experience, knowledge, and commitment invested in the organization
78
Three types of resources used in the production of goods and services:
Land
Labour(human capital)
Capital
79
Human capital also includes:
```
Knowledge
Education
Vocational qualifications
Professional certifications
Work-related experience
Competence of an organizations employees
```
80
Human capital roi can be calculated by
Total revenue-(operating expenses - total compensation costs)/total compensation costs
81
The behavioural theory
Suggests that different Hr strategies are required to influence the diverse behaviours of employees
82
What is HRs role within the behavioural theory
To reinforce certain behaviours via hr practices such as recruitment, selection, training, compensation, and performance
83
What are the two reasons hr planning is important
1) employees help an organization achieve success because they are its strategic resources
2) the planning process itself results in improved goal attainment
84
Risks to strategic HR planning
Time and energy in making decisions
Information overload potential
Impossible commitments to employees
Over concern with employee reactions
Potential job losses
Myopia developed from commitment to one strategy
Inability to see and adapt to changes developing in environment
85
What is an apt cliche for organizations and planning
An organization that fails to plan, plans to fail
86
What are three ways you can align HR strategy with business strategy
1. Start with organizational strategy and then create HR strategy
2. Start with HR competencies and then craft corporate strategies based on these competencies
3. Do a combination of both in a form of reciprocal relationship
87
An example of a corporate strategy leading to an HR strategy
Low cost strategy plan will need a low cost labour strategy like McDonald's
88
What is the idea behind hr competencies leading to business strategies
An organization cannot implement a strategy if it does not have the necessary human capital
A skills determine strategy outlook
89
What are some drawbacks of competencies leading to strategy
Over reliance on employee capabilities
Not enough environmental analysis
Changing hr practices
90
What is reciprocal interdependency
The fact that hr strategy influences business strategy or vice versa but he strategy should be built around the issues facing a business
91
What is concurrent strategy formulation
Strategy development is conducted at the same time that HRM issues are considered
92
What are the characteristics of an effective HRM strategy
External fit
Internal fit
Focus on results
93
What is external fit
Fit hr and organizational strategies
94
What is internal fit
Link hr programs to other functional areas
95
What is focus on results
Results must be measured and tracked
96
What is the HR program linkage
Hr program-> employee human capital and behaviours -> organizational strategy -> organizational outcome
97
What is environmental scanning
Systematic monitoring of trends affecting the organization
98
What is the external environment
Anything outside organizational boundaries that might influence an organization
99
The analysis of the external environment consists of these stages:
Scanning
Monitoring
Forecasting
Assessing
100
What are some sources of info in environmental monitoring?
Publications
Professional associations
Conferences/seminars
Professional consultants
101
What is competitive intelligence
A formal approach to obtain information about competitors
102
What are two important questions when it comes to competitive intelligence?
1. Is the source reliable
| 2. What is the likelihood of the information being correct?
103
What are some examples of competitive intelligence acts
Study competitors websites for product launches
Have employees ask suppliers about clmpetitors
Hire employees who have worked for competitors
104
What are the challenges in environmental scanning?
Inability to accurately oredict the future
Inability To isolate what really is important to hr
Technology telecommuting outsourcing downsizing
105
Isolating critical from insignificant
Few trends exist in isolation
| For every trend there is a counter trend
106
What are the major environmental factors
```
Economic climate
Globalization
Political and regulatory context
Issues related to technology
Demographic factors
Social values and norms
```
107
What is the economic climate
Anything to do with the economy that affects HR management. Like unemployment, globalization, interest rates, strength of the Canadian dollar
108
What is globalization and how does it affect hr scanning
It is the growth in flows of trade and financial capital across borders
It affects prosperity jobs wages and social legislation
109
What are the political/legislative factors of scanning
Provincial and federal governments influence organizations with changes to laws and regulations
Governments can influence job creation with tax incentives and job training opportunities
110
What are technological factors in scanning
The process by which inputs from an organizations environment are transformed into outputs
Issues include:online hr functions, infor privacy, identity theft and elearning
111
What are the demographic factors
```
The study of population statistics including
Age
Gender
Family status
Education
Economic status
Labour market
```
112
Labour market as a demographic factor:
Most important demographic factor, influencing an organizations ability to implement strategy
Examples: unemployment rate, graduation rates, provincial, global regions
113
What is diversity as a demographic factor
Increasing it in the workplace. Minority and majority have lost their meansing. Organizations need to tap into underutilized pools of highly educated minority's groups
114
What are the generational differences in demographic factors
Greatest trend is writing baby boomers huge impact on job vacancies and the whole structure of what will follow
115
What are the social/cultural factors of environmental scanning
Includes all the social trends that occur regionally and nationally
116
Right to privacy
Laws and regulations in effect, but still questions as to employers moral right to monitor employees activities
117
Work life balance
Quality time with families while pursuing a career
| Desire to have a better quality of life:elder care, child care, flextime, reduced hours, part time hours, job sharing
118
Contingent workers
Aimed at part time, seasonal, temporary and contract workers
Issues include employee commitment, loyalty and productivity
119
What are stakeholders
Groups of people who have vested interested in an organizations decisions. Also known as consituent group
120
Stakeholders can consist of what
```
The board of directors and senior executives
Senior management
Supervisors
Employees
Unions
```
121
Other stakeholders include
```
Customers
Suppliers
Governments
Regulatory agencies
The public
NGO's
Anyone who can influence or be affected by managements decision making
```
122
What is the issues priority matrix
Used to determine the important trends that may affect an organization
Managers rate the trends from high to low based on:
1. The probability of these trends actually occurring
2. The likely impact of each of these trends on the organization
123
Why is strategic HR planning important to organizations?
It attempts to balance between the work that needs to be done and the workforce that performs the tasks
Insufficient work and too many employees leads to inefficiencies and lower productivity
Employees may become bored and unmotivated and engage in counterproductive activities or vice versa and will compromise Ann organization to meet its goals and objectives
124
What are the forecasting activity categories
Transaction based forecasting
Event based forecasting
Process based forecasting
125
What is transaction based forecasting
Focused on tracking internal change instituted by the organizations managers
126
What is event based forecasting
Is concerned with changes in the external environment
127
Process based forecasting
Not focused on a specific internal organization even but in the flow or sequencing of several work activities
128
What are the benefits of HR forecasting
Reduces costs of hr
Increases organizational flexibility
Ensures a close linkage to the macro business forecasting process
Ensures that organizational requirements take precedence over issues of resource constraint and scarcity
129
What is human resources supply
The source of workers to meet demand requirements, obtained either internally or from external agencies
130
What's I human resources demand
The organizations projected requirements for human resources
131
What are the key personnel analyses conducted by HR forecasters
1. Specialist/technical/professional personnel
2. Employment equity designated group membership
3. Managerial and executive personnel
4. Recruits
132
What is a designated group
Identifiable grouped deemed to need special attention because they typically receive the most discrimination within organizations
133
In Canada what are the four designated groups
1. People of aboriginal descent
2. Women
3. Persons with disabilities
4. Members of visible minorities
134
Organizational factors affecting hr forecasting
```
Corporate mission, strategic goals
Operational goals, production budgets
HR policies
Organizational structure, restructuring
Worker KSAOs, competencies, expectations
HRM's level of development
Organizational culture, climate, job satisfaction, communications
Job analysis: workforce coverage, current data
```
135
Environmental factors affecting HR Forecasting
```
Economic situation
Labour makers and unions
Government laws and regulations
Industry and product life cycles
Technological change
Competitor labour usage
Global market for skilled labour
Demographic changes
```
136
Hr forecasting time horizons
Currents forecast-up to 1 year
Short run forecast- from 1 to 2 years
Medium-run forecast: from 2-5 years
Long run forecast: for 5 or more years
137
Outcomes of forecasts
Prediction
Projection
Envelope
138
What is prediction
A single numerical estimate of hr requirements associated with a specific time horizon and set of assumptions
139
What is a projection
Incorporates several HR estimates based on a variety of assumptions
140
What is the envelope term
An analogy in which one can easily visualize the corners of an envelope containing the upper and lower limits or bounds of the various hr projections extending into the future
141
Steps in determining net HR requirements
Determine HR demand
Ascertain HR supply (includes internal supply and external supply) and skills inventory-personal database record on each employee
Determine NET HR requirements
Institute HR programs: HR shortage and HR surplus
142
What are the two supply options in ascertaining HR supply
1. Internal supply
| 2. external supply
143
What is internal supply
Current memeber if the organizational workforce who can be retrained, promoted, transferred, to fill anticipated future HR requirements
144
What is external supply
Potential employees who are currently undergoing training, working for competitiors, are elements of unions or professional associations, or are in a transitional stage, between jobs or unemployed
