Mr Fish

Question 1

what is human resources (HR)?

Answer 1

the people of a business or organisation regarded as a significant asset in terms of skills and abilities

Question 2

what is a HR department?

Answer 2

the department of a business or organisation that deals with the hiring, administration and training of staff

Question 3

what are some examples of HR objectives?

Answer 3

Labour productivity, employee engagement and involvement, talent development, training, diversity, alignment of values.

Question 4

what is a hard HR strategy?

Answer 4

treats employees as a resource to be monitored and used efficiently in order to achieve strategic objectives.

Question 5

what is a soft HR strategy?

Answer 5

treats employees as valuable assets, a major source of competitive advantage which is vital in its importance to achieving strategic objectives

Question 6

what is labour turnover?

Answer 6

the proportion of employees leaving a business over a period of time - usually a year

Question 7

what is the formula for labour turnover?

Answer 7

number of employees leaving over a period / average number employed over a given period x 100

Question 8

what are retention rates?

Answer 8

the proportion of employees with a specific length of service (normally one or more years) as a proportion of the total workforce

Question 9

what is job design?

Answer 9

the process of deciding on the context of the job in terms of its duties and responsibilities.

Question 10

what are organisational charts?

Answer 10

they are diagrams that show the internal structure of the business. they make it easy to identify the specific roles and responsibilities of staff

Question 11

what are levels of hierarchy?

Answer 11

the layers of authority in a business

Question 12

what is span of control ?

Answer 12

how many employees you directly look after

Question 13

what is chain or command?

Answer 13

how many layers there are under you.

Question 14

what is delegation?

Answer 14

the passing down of authority (or tasks) to more junior employees.

Question 15

what are the features of a tall chain of command and span of control?

Answer 15

there are many managerial levels (hierarchies) and a narrow span of control

Question 16

what are the features of a flat chain of command and span of control?

Answer 16

there are few managerial levels and a wide span of control

Question 17

what are the advantages of delegation?

Answer 17

lower level staff will feel trusted increasing their motivation, there will be a wider range of opinions and ideas, tasks will be completed more efficiently, allows manager to focus on more strategic and important tasks

Question 18

what are the disadvantages of delegation?

Answer 18

could demotivate staff if workload increases too much, could decrease quality of task completion, managers lose control.

Question 19

what is a matrix type of organisational structure?

Answer 19

combines the traditional departments seen in functional structures with project teams

Question 20

what is centralisation?

Answer 20

businesses with a centralised structure keep key decisions being made at the top by those with the highest levels of authority.