Organization Flashcards
Industial actions
Various forms of collective employee actions taken to protest work conditions or employer actions.
Employee & Labor Relations
Mediation
Method of nonbinding dispute resolution by which a neutral third party tries to help disputing parties reach a mutually agreeable decision: also called conciliation.
Employee & Labor Relations
Secondary action
attempt by a union to influence an employer by putting pressure on another employer, for example, a supplier.
Employee & Labor Relations
Policy
Broad statement that reflects an organization’s philosophy, objectives, or standards concerning a particular set of management or employee activities.
Employee & Labor Relations
Whistleblowing
Reporting of an organization’s violations of policies and processes by employees.
Employee & Labor Relations
Sympathy strike
Action taken in support of another union that is striking the employer.
Employee & Labor Relations
Arbitration
Method of dispute resolution by which disputing parties agree to be bound by the decision of one or more impartial persons to whom they submit their dispute for final determination.
Employee & Labor Relations
Work-to-rule
Situation in which workers slow processes by performing task exactly to specifications or according to job or task descriptions.
Employee & Labor Relations
Labor union
Group of workers who coordinate their activities to achieve common goals in their relationship with an employer or group of employers; also called trade union.
Employee & Labor Relations
Constructive discipline
Form of corrective discipline that implements increasingly sever penalties for employees.
Employee & Labor Relations
Sit-down strike
Refusal by workers to work; also, refusal by workers to leave their workstations, making it impossible for the employer to use replacement workers.
Employee & Labor Relations
Lockout
Action of an employer to shut down operations to prevent employees from working.
Employee & Labor Relations
Project labor agreement (PLA)
Agreement that requires specific contractors to accept certain conditions in project contracts, such as paying a fair wage and contributing to health insurance, pension, and training funds.
Employee & Labor Relations
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR)
Umbrella term for the various approaches and techniques, other than litigation, that can be used to resolve a dispute.
Employee & Labor Relations
Wildcat strike
Work stoppages at union contract operations that have not been sanctioned by the union.
Employee & Labor Relations
Centralized HR Structure
All HR personnel located within HR department; delivers services to entire organization.
Decentralized HR structure
HR staff within each function, business unit, or location carrying out required activities.
Functional HR structure
Headquarters HR is staffed with specialists who craft policies. HR generalists, who may be located within divisions or other locales, implement these policies, adapt them as needed, and interact with employees.
Dedicated HR structure
Allows organizations with different strategies in multiple units to apply HR expertise to each unit’s specific strategic needs.
Shared services HR structure
Each business unit can supplement its resources by selecting what it needs from a menu of shared HR services (usually transactional) that the units agree to share.
Center of excellence HR structure
Leverages strategic expertise to foster growth and continuous improvement.
Business partners HR structure
Generalists who usually report to managers outside of the HR structure but indirectly report to HR and work to consult and help link their business area to the proper areas of the HR department.
Matrix HR structure
HR staff report directly to HR senior management but also report to other departments through the senior management positions.
Global resources
Refers to the ability to attain support and resources from around the world, often via outsourcing.
Absence rate
Ratio of lost days to number of employees
Accruals
comparison of budget to actual assignee cost
Applicant yield ratio
Percentage of applicants who proceed to the next step in the selection process
Cost per hire
Total costs of hiring divided by number hired
Customer satisfaction
Measure of various different customer opinions across services offered by HR
HR staff per full-time employee
Ratio of the number of staff retained to number of overall full-time staff retained.
Human capital return on investment
Ratio of employment-related expenses to revenue minus nonemployment expenses
Human capital value added
Revenue minus non employment expenses divided by number of full-time employees
Key talent retention
Percentage of key talent retained
Promotion pattern
Percentage of internal promotions
Success ratio
Proportion of selected applicants who are later judged to be successful on the job
Training return on investment
Economic benefit of enhanced performance minus costs of developing, producing, and delivering training
Transfer
Number or percentage of employees moving across divisions to new jobs
Turnover costs
Costs associated with separation, vacancy, replacement, and training
Turnover rate
Proportion of exiting employees to all employees
Vacancy costs
Costs of substitute labor (temporary workers, contractors, outsourcing partners) minus wages and benefits not paid because vacant
Dedicated HR
HR structural alternative that allows organizations with different strategies in multiple units to apply HR expertise to each unit’s specific strategic needs.
Center of excellence
An organizational structure that leverages staff expertise in certain areas to improve the entire organizations strategic performance.
Cosourcing
Arrangement in which an enterprise and a vendor share different tasks within a larger complex, often strategic responsibility.
Outsourcing
Process by which an organization contracts with third-party venders to provide selected services/activates instead of hiring new employees.
Shared services HR model
HR structural alternative in which centers with specific areas of expertise develop HR policies in those areas; each unit can then select what it needs from a menu of these services.
Functional HR
HR structural alternative in which headquarters HR specialist craft policies and HR generalist located within divisions or other locales implement the policies, adapt them as needed and interact with employees.
HR audit
Systematic and comprehensive evaluation of an organization’s HR policies, practices, procedures, and strategies.
Unfair labor practices
ULP
Violation of employee rights; act prohibited under labor relations statuses.
Trade Union
Group of workers who coordinate their activities to achieve common goals in their relationship with an employer or group of employers. also called labor union.
Picketing
Positioning of employees at a place of work targeted for the action for the purpose of protest.
Product structure
Organizational structure in which functional departments are grouped under major product divisions. Each division with their own departments
Organizational development
Process of enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization and the well-being of its members through planned interventions.
Matrix Structure
Organizational structure that combines departmentalization by division and function to gain the benefits of both; results in some employees reporting to two managers rather than one, neither manager assuming a superior role.
Chain of command
Line of authority within an organization
Departmentalization
Way an organization groups jobs to coordinate work.
Line Units
Work groups that conduct the major business of an organization.
Functional structure
Organizational structure in which departments are defined by the services they contribute to the organization’s overall mission, such as marketing and sales, operations, and HR.
Formalization
Refers to the extent to which rules, policies, and procedures govern the behavior of employees in an organization.
Geographic Structure
Organizational Structure in which geographic regions define the organizational chart.
Span of control
Refers to the number of individuals who report to a supervisor.
Staff units
Work groups that assist line units by providing specialized services, such as HR.
Information system (IS)
Way to collect, organize, store, analyze, and share data.
Encryption
Conversion of data into a format that protects or hides its natural presentation or intended meaning.
Software as a service (SaaS)
Software that is owned, delivered, and managed remotely and delivered over the internet to contracted customers on a pay-for -use basis or as a subscription based on use metrics.
Hacking
Act of deliberately accessing computer data without permission.
Human resource information system (HRIS)
Information technology framework and tools for gathering, storing, maintaining, retrieving, revising, and reporting HR data.
Social networks
Online clustering of individuals in groups with common or shared interests.
Cloud computing
Style of computing in which scalable IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service using internet technologies.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Ability of a computer to imitate human thought and behavior.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
Business management software, usually a suite of integrated applications, that a company can use to collect, store, manage, and interpret data form many business activates.
Social engineering
In a computer context, tricking a user into sharing information that can then be used to access systems.
Reduction in force (RIF)
Termination of employment of individual employees or groups of employees for reasons other than performance, for example, economic necessity or restructuring; also known as downsizing.
Knowledge management (KM)
Process of creating, acquiring, sharing, and managing knowledge to augment individual and organizational performance.
Turnover rate
Annualized formula that tracks number of separations and total number of workforce employees per month.
Downsizing
Termination of employment of individual employees or groups of employees for reasons other than performance, for example, economic necessity or restructuring; also known as reduction in force (RIF)
Succession planning
Process of implementing a talent management strategy for identifying and fostering the development of high-potential employees or other job candidates who, overtime, may move into leadership positions of increased responsibility.
Due diligence
Process of investigating a decision thoroughly before finalizing it to identify all potential factors that could affect the positive and negative impacts of the decision.
Replacement planning
“snapshot” assessment of the availability of qualified backup for key positions.
Talent management
Development and integration of HR processes that retain the knowledge, skills, and abilities of employees that will meet current and future organizational needs.
Regression analysis
Statistical method used to determine whether a relationship exists between variables and the strength of the relationship.
Simulations
Representations of real situations; give organizations the opportunity to speculate as to what would happen if certain courses of action were pursued.
Joint employment
Situation in which an organization shares responsibility and liability for its alternative workers with an alternative staffing supplier; also known as co-employment.
Workforce planning
Activities needed to ensure that workforce size and competencies meet current and future organizational and individual needs.
Restructuing
Act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of an organizaiton.
Workforce profile
Part of workforce analysis that identifies the current make-up of employees in terms of their demographics, skills, competencies, performance levels, expected retirement dates, pay grades, and other factors that help explain the workforce’s composition.
Independent contractors
Self- employed individuals hired on a contract basis for specialized services.
Workforce analysis
Systematic approach to anticipate human capital needs and data RH professionals can use to ensure that appropriate knowledge, skills, or abilities will be available when needed to accomplish organizational goals and objectives.
Co- employment
Situation in which an organization shares responsibility and liability for its alternative workers with an alternative staffing supplier; also known as joint employment.
Workforce management
All activities needed to ensure that workforce size and competencies meet the organization’s strategic needs.
Judgmental forecasts
Use of information from past and present to predict future conditions.
Turnover
Act of replacing employees leaving an organizaiton; attrition or loss of employees.
