SHRM Workplace Flashcards
ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA)
Amendments to U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act covering the definition of individuals regarded as having a disability, mitigating measures, and other rules to guide the analysis of what constitutes a disability.
Adverse impact
Type of discrimination that results when a policy that appears to be neutral has a discriminatory effect; also known as disparate impact
Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
U.S. act that prohibits discrimination in the workplace on the basis of age.
Amendment
Modification of the U.S. Constitution or a U.S.
law.
Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA)
U.S. act that prohibits discrimination against a
qualified individual with a disability because of
his/her disability.
Annualized loss expectancy
ALE
Expected monetary loss for an asset due to a
risk over a one-year period; calculated by
multiplying single loss expectancy by
annualized rate of occurrence.
Assignees
Employees who work outside their home
countries.
Bill
A proposal presented to a legislative body for
possible enactment as a statute
Bona fide occupational
qualification (BFOQ)
Factor (such as religion, gender, national origin,
etc.) that is reasonably necessary, in the normal
operations of an organization, to carry out a
particular job function.
Burlington Industries, Inc.
v. Ellerth
U.S. court ruling that distinguished between
supervisor harassment that results in tangible
employment action and supervisor harassment
that does not.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
First comprehensive U.S. law making it unlawful
to discriminate on the basis of race, color,
religion, sex, or national origin.
Civil Rights Act of 1991
U.S. act that expands the possible damage
awards available to victims of intentional
discrimination to include compensatory and
punitive damages; gives plaintiffs in cases of
alleged discrimination the right to a jury trial.
Comparable worth
Concept that jobs filled primarily by women that
require skills, effort, responsibility, and working
conditions comparable to similar jobs filled
primarily by men should have the same
classifications and salaries.
Compliance
State of being in accordance with all national,
federal, regional, and/or local laws, regulations,
and/or other government authority requirements
applicable to the places in which an
organization operates.
Conflict of interest
Situation in which a person or organization may
benefit from undue influence due to involvement
in outside activities, relationships, or
investments that conflict with or have an impact
on the employment relationship or its outcomes.
Consolidated Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act
(COBRA)
U.S. act that provides individuals and
dependents who may lose health-care coverage
with opportunity to pay to continue coverage
Contingency plan
Protocol that an organization implements when
an identified risk event occurs.
Corporate social
responsibility (CSR)
Varying ways an organization can create value,
looking beyond traditional profit measures of
revenue and expenses; includes such areas as
philanthropy, volunteerism, corporate-sponsored
community programs, social change, sustainability,
corporate governance, employee rights, and
workplace safety
Covering
Defensive behavior that occurs when an
organization recruits a diverse workforce but,
consciously or otherwise, promotes assimilation
rather than inclusion.
Disability
Physical or mental impairment that substantially
limits one’s major life activities.
Disparate impact
Type of discrimination that results when a policy
that appears to be neutral has a discriminatory
effect; also known as adverse impact.
Disparate treatment
Type of discrimination that occurs when an
applicant or employee is treated differently
because of his or her membership in a
protected class.
Diversity
Differences in people’s characteristics (such as
socioeconomic status, beliefs, personality,
thought processes, work style, race, age,
ethnicity, gender, religion, education, job
function, etc.).
Diversity council
Task force created to define a diversity and
inclusion initiative and guide the development
and implementation process.
Drug-Free Workplace Act
U.S. law that requires federal contractors with
contracts of $100,000 or more as well as
recipients of grants from federal government to
certify that they are maintaining a drug-free
workplace.
Duty of care
Principle that organizations should take all steps
that are reasonably possible to ensure the
health, safety, and well-being of employees and
protect them from foreseeable injury.
Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)
U.S. act that prevents private employers from
requiring applicants or employees to take a
polygraph test for preemployment screening or
during the course of employment, with certain
exemptions.
Employee resource group
ERG
Voluntary group for employees who share a
particular diversity dimension (race, religion,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.); also known
as affinity group or network group.
Employee Retirement
Income Security Act
(ERISA)
U.S. act that established uniform minimum
standards to ensure that employee benefit and
pension plans are set up and maintained in a
fair and financially sound manner.
Employees
Individuals who exchange work for wages or
salary; in the U.S., workers who are covered by
Fair Labor Standards Act regulations as
determined by the IRS.
Employment practices liability insurance (EPLI)
Type of liability insurance covering an
organization against claims by employees,
former employees, and employment candidates
alleging that their legal rights in the employment
relationship have been violated.
Equal Employment
Opportunity Act
U.S act that amended Title VII and gave the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
authority to “back up” its administrative findings
and conduct its own enforcement litigation.
Equal Pay Act (EPA)
U.S. act that prohibits wage discrimination by
requiring equal pay for equal or “substantially
equal” work performed by men and women.
Essential functions
Primary job duties that a qualified individual
must be able to perform, either with or without
reasonable accommodation.
Ethics
Set of behavioral guidelines that an organization
expects all of its directors, managers, and
employees to follow to ensure appropriate moral
and ethical business standards.
Exempt employees
Employees who are excluded from U.S. Fair
Labor Standards Act minimum wage and
overtime pay requirements.
Fair and Accurate Credit
Transactions Act (FACT
Act)
U.S act that frees employers who use third
parties to conduct workplace investigations from
the consent and disclosure requirements of the
Fair Credit Reporting Act in certain cases.
Fair Credit Reporting Act
FCRA
U.S act that protects privacy of background
information and ensures that information
supplied is accurate.
Fair Labor Standards Act
FLSA
U.S act that establishes minimum wage,
overtime pay, youth employment, and recordkeeping standards affecting full- and part-time
workers in the private sector and in federal,
state, and local governments.
Family and Medical Leave
Act (FMLA)
U.S act that provides employees with up to 12
weeks of unpaid leave to care for family
members or because of a serious health
condition of the employee.
Faragher v. City of Boca
Raton
U.S. court ruling that distinguished between
supervisor harassment that results in tangible
employment action and supervisor harassment
that does not.
Gender identity
Refers to one’s internal, personal sense of
being a man or a woman (or boy or girl), which
may or may not be the same as one’s sexual
assignment at birth.
General Duty Clause
Statement in U.S. Occupational Safety and
Health Act that requires employers subject to
OSHA to provide employees with a safe and
healthy work environment.
Genetic Information
Nondiscrimination Act
(GINA)
U.S act that prohibits discrimination against
individuals on the basis of their genetic
information in both employment and health
insurance.
Global integration (GI)
Globalization strategy that emphasizes
consistency of approach, standardization of
processes, and a common corporate culture
across global operations.
Globalization
Status of growing interconnectedness and
interdependency among countries, people,
markets, and organizations worldwide.
Glocalization
Characteristic of an organization with a strong
global image but an equally strong local identity.
Governance
System of rules and processes set up by an
organization to ensure its compliance with local
and international laws, accounting rules, ethical
norms, internal codes of conduct, and other
standards.
Griggs v. Duke Power
U.S. case that set the standard for determining
whether discrimination based on disparate
impact exists.
Hazard
Potential for harm, often associated with a
condition or activity that, if left uncontrolled, can
result in injury or illness.
Hostile environment
harassment
Occurs when sexual or other discriminatory
conduct is so severe and pervasive that it
interferes with an individual’s performance;
creates an intimidating, threatening, or humiliating
work environment; or perpetuates a situation that
affects the employee’s psychological well-being.
Identity alignment
Extent to which diversity is embraced in
management of people, products/services, and
branding.
Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)
U.S. act that prohibits discrimination against job
applicants on the basis of national origin or
citizenship and establishes penalties for hiring
undocumented workers.
Inclusion
Extent to which each person in an organization
feels welcomed, respected, supported, and
valued as a team member.
Independent contractors
Self-employed individuals hired on a contract
basis for specialized services.
Key risk indicators (KRIs)
Metrics that provide an early signal of
increasing risk exposures for an enterprise.
Labor Management
Reporting and Disclosure
Act (LMRDA)
U.S. act that imposed regulations on internal
union affairs and the relationship between union
officials and union members.
Labor-Management Relations Act (LMRA)
U.S. act that imposed several restrictions and
requirements on unions.
Lechmere, Inc. v. NLRB
1992 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that an employer cannot be compelled to
allow nonemployee organizers onto the
business property.
Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire
and Rubber Company
2007 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that claims of sex discrimination in pay
under Title VII were not timely because
discrimination charges were not filed with the
EEOC within the required 180-day time frame.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
U.S. act that creates a rolling time frame for
filing wage discrimination claims and expands
plaintiff field beyond employee who was
discriminated against.
Local responsiveness (LR)
Globalization strategy that emphasizes adapting
to the needs of local markets and allows
subsidiaries to develop unique products,
structures, and systems.
Moral hazard
Situation in which one party engages in risky
behavior knowing that it is protected against the
risk because another party will incur any
resulting loss.
Multinational enterprises
MNEs
Organizations that own or control production or
service facilities in one or more countries other
than the home country.
National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
U.S. act that expanded FMLA leave for
employees with family members who are
covered members of the military.
National Federation of
Independent Business v.
Sebelius
U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act requirement
that individuals purchase health insurance was
constitutional but requirement that states
expand Medicaid was not.
National Labor Relations
Act (NLRA)
U.S. act that protected and encouraged the
growth of the union movement; established
workers’ rights to organize and bargain
collectively with employers.
National origin
Refers to the country (including those that no
longer exist) of one’s birth or of one’s ancestors’
birth.
Near-shoring
Practice of contracting a part of business
processes or production to an external company
in a country that is relatively close (e.g., within
the same own region).
NLRB v. Weingarten
Landmark 1975 U.S. labor relations case that
dealt with the right of a unionized employee to
have another person present during certain
investigatory interviews.
Nonexempt employees
Employees covered under U.S. Fair Labor
Standards Act regulations, including minimum
wage and overtime pay requirements.
Occupational illness
Medical condition or disorder, other than one
resulting from an occupational injury, caused by
exposure to environmental factors associated
with employment.
Occupational injury
Injury that results from a work-related accident
or exposure involving a single incident in the
work environment.
Occupational Safety and
Health (OSH) Act
U.S. act that established the first national policy
for workplace safety and health and continues
to deliver standards that employers must meet
to guarantee the health and safety of their
employees.
Offshoring
Method by which an organization relocates its
processes or production to an international
location through subsidiaries or third-party
affiliates
Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA)
U.S. act that amended the Age Discrimination in
Employment Act to include all employee
benefits; also provided standards that an
employee’s waiver of the right to sue for age
discrimination must meet in order to be upheld
by a court.
Onshoring
Relocation of business processes or production
to a lower-cost location inside the same country
as the business.
Outsourcing
Process by which an organization contracts with
third-party vendors to provide selected services/
activities instead of hiring new employees.
Overtime pay
Required for nonexempt workers under U.S.
Fair Labor Standards Act at 1.5 times the
regular rate of pay for hours over 40 in a
workweek.
Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act
(PPACA)
2010 U.S. law that requires virtually all citizens
and legal residents to have minimum health
coverage and requires employers with more
than 50 full-time employees to provide health
coverage that meets minimum benefit
specifications or pay a penalty.
Phillips v. Martin Marietta
Corporation
1971 U.S. case that stated that an employer
may not, in the absence of business necessity,
refuse to hire women with preschool-aged
children while hiring men with such children.
Portal-to-Portal Act
U.S. act that defines what is included as hours
worked and is therefore compensable and a
factor in calculating overtime.
Pregnancy Discrimination
Act (PDA)
U.S. act that prohibits discrimination on the
basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related
medical conditions.
Principal-agent problem
Situation in which an agent (e.g., an employee)
makes decisions for a principal (e.g., an
employer) potentially on the basis of personal
incentives that may not be aligned with the
principal’s incentives.
Process alignment
Extent to which underlying operations such as
IT, finance, or HR integrate across locations.
Protected class
People who are covered under a particular
federal or state antidiscrimination law.
Prudent person rule
States that a fiduciary of a plan covered by the
U.S. Employee Retirement Income Security Act
has legal and financial obligations not to take
more risks when investing employee benefit
program funds than a reasonably knowledgeable,
prudent investor would under similar
circumstances.
Public comment period
Time allowed for the public to express its views
and concerns regarding an action of an
administrative agency
Quid pro quo harassment
Type of sexual harassment that occurs when an
employee is forced to choose between giving in
to a superior’s sexual demands and forfeiting an
economic benefit such as a pay increase, a
promotion, or continued employment.
Reasonable
accommodation
Modifications or adjustments to a job or job
application process that accommodate persons
with disabilities but do not impose a
disproportionate or undue burden on the
employer.
Redeployment
Process by which an organization moves an
employee out of an international assignment;
can involve moving back to the home country,
moving to a different global location, or moving
to a new location or position in the current host
country.
Regulation
Rule or order issued by an administrative
agency of government, which usually has the
force of law.
Repatriation
Process by which employees returning from
international assignments reintegrate into their
home country’s culture, conditions, and
employment.
Residual risk
Amount of uncertainty that remains after all risk
management efforts have been exhausted
Reverse innovation
Innovations created for or by emergingeconomy markets and then imported to
developed-economy markets.
Risk
Uncertainty that has an effect on an objective,
where outcomes may include opportunities,
losses, and threats.
Risk appetite
Amount of uncertainty an organization is willing
to pursue or to accept to attain its risk
management goals.
Risk control
An action taken to manage a risk.
Risk management
System for identifying, evaluating, and
controlling actual and potential risks to an
organization.
Risk position
An organization’s desired gain or acceptable
loss in value.
Risk scorecard
Tool used to gather individual assessments of
various characteristics of risk (e.g., frequency of
occurrence; degree of impact, loss, or gain for
the organization; degree of efficacy of current
controls).
Risk tolerance
Amount of uncertainty an organization is willing
to pursue or to accept to attain its risk
management goals.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
U.S. act that requires that all publicly held
companies establish internal controls and
procedures for financial reporting to reduce the
possibility of corporate fraud.
Sexual orientation
Sexual, romantic, or emotional/spiritual attraction that one feels for persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or both sexes and more than one gender
Single loss expectancy
SLE
Expected monetary loss every time a risk
occurs; calculated by multiplying asset value by
exposure factor.
Sustainability
Practice of purchasing and using resources
wisely by balancing economic, social, and
environmental concerns, with the goal of
securing the interests of present and future
generations.
Triple bottom line
Economic, social, and environmental impact
metrics used to determine an organization’s
success.
Uniform Guidelines on
Employee Selection
Procedures
Procedural document designed to assist
employers in complying with federal regulations
prohibiting discrimination.
Uniformed Services
Employment and
Reemployment Rights Act
(USERRA)
U.S. act that protects the employment,
reemployment, and retention rights of persons
who serve or have served in the uniformed
services.
Vesting
Process by which a retirement benefit becomes
nonforfeitable.
Veto
Action of rejecting a bill or statute.
Vicarious liability
Legal doctrine under which a party can be held
liable for the wrongful actions of another party
Weingarten rights
Union employees’ right in U.S. to have a union
representative or coworker present during an
investigatory.
Whistleblowing
Reporting of an organization’s violations of
policies and processes by employees.
Worker Adjustment and
Retraining Notification
(WARN) Act
U.S. act that requires some employers to give a
minimum of 60 days’ notice if a plant is to close
or if mass layoffs will occur.
Workweek
Any fixed, recurring period of 168 consecutive
hours (7 days times 24 hours = 168 hours).
