Study Notes III Flashcards
What will be the outcome of requiring all employees to be trained in business continuity and disaster recovery plans?
Increased confidence among organization stakeholders
Managing risk effectively entails taking steps to prevent the risk, lessen its impact, or transfer the burden of risk (e.g., through insurance). Hiring additional workers before absences occur may be an unnecessary expense. Simply staying abreast of the situation may mean action will be taken too late. Lining up temporary help is a good idea, but if a flu outbreak affects many employers, who will all compete for temporary workers, this tactic may not help. The best risk management action may be to try to avoid the risk by making it easy for employees to receive flu shots.An HR manager is concerned about work interruption during the upcoming flu season. How could the manager best deal with this risk?
Arranging for on-site flu shot clinics
Commonly referred to as the Wage and Hour Law, the FLSA governs employee status, overtime pay, and minimum wage. Employee benefits, sales commissions, and equal pay are not governed by the FLSA.
What is regulated by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)?
An essential job function is one that is performed regularly and requires highly specialized skills or expertise, and, in many cases, the reason the job exists is to perform the function. Nonessential functions typically can be performed by many different people, and, if not completed, there are often minimal consequences.
Requirements for highly specialized skills
A software development company changes the development platform it uses to create its products. The change is introduced at many levels in the organization and radiates out as other units in the company are affected. What approach to introducing change does this implementation process illustrate?
Organic implementation relies on independent centers and multiple origins of change within the organization. Points of origin can be at any level. Change radiates out unevenly but accelerates when supported by top management.
Which part of the SWOT analysis identifies the core competencies of a global enterprise?
Strengths and weaknesses
Which of the following terms describes an employer’s liability when an employee reports an incident of sexual harassment by a supervisor?
This legal responsibility of the employer is called vicarious liability. Vicarious liability is a legal doctrine under which a party can be held liable for the wrongful actions of another party. Because of this doctrine, employers are legally responsible for the discriminatory acts of their employees. In cases of sexual harassment, this particular standard of vicarious liability is based on two principles: 1) employers have the responsibility to promptly and irrevocably end harassment (sexual or otherwise) through appropriate intervention, including, if necessary, discipline, and 2) employees should be encouraged to take advantage of preventive and corrective opportunities. Vicarious liability
Prima facie
based on the first impression; accepted as correct until proved otherwise.
A company has separate divisions for distinct types of products. Each division has its own marketing, sales, manufacturing, and finance functions. What type of organizational structure does this illustrate?
Companies with a product structure usually have separate divisions for different products, and each division has its own functional departments.
An organization using the single designated officer approach to ADR designates and empowers a specific individual within the organization to investigate and resolve disputes. An ombudsperson cannot settle disputes but may forward them for resolution. In a chosen officer system, the employee selects an arbitrator from a group of individuals. Peer review uses a panel of trained managers and employees to hear and resolve complaints.
Single designated officer
What should be the first step in creating an organization’s philanthropic strategy as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy?
Align philanthropic activities with the organization’s core business strategy and values.
A global mindset is characterized by intellectual curiosity, a desire to understand larger contexts and multiple perspectives. Employees with a global mindset tend to see change as an opportunity.
A curious mind and ease with change
What is the most effective way to control hazards and their negative consequences?
Eliminate the hazard from the workplace.
What characteristic is critical to a good training objective?
States what a trainee will be able to do as a result of training
A company announces that it intends to capture another 20% of market share by opening ten more stores within three years in key locations. What is being communicated?
A strategic objective outlines specific results that an organization seeks to achieve in pursuing its strategy.
What term does Trompenaars use to describe the process of charting a course through cultural differences?
Trompenaars refers to the process of resolving cultural differences as dilemma reconciliation, noting that solutions to dilemmas need not be either-or propositions.
Which category of risk applies to Nassim Taleb’s “black swan” theory?
Unknown unknowns
Which activity takes place first in the strategic planning process?
Strategic planning begins with the vision and mission statements. A vision is the ultimate picture of what leadership envisions for the organization. A mission statement articulates who the organization is, what the organization does, and where the company is headed. The mission sets the direction for all other activities. Without vision and mission statements, other activities such as needs assessments, inventories, and environmental scans have no direction.
What distinguishes the most-effective survey questions?
They lead to specific corrective actions. While employee satisfaction, attitudes, and ideas to improve work processes are important, taking specific corrective actions from survey results demonstrates a long-term commitment to providing a rewarding work experience.
Which is considered a good practice for handling grievances?
Ensuring the confidentiality of grievance discussions is in the best interest of all parties involved.
What is a characteristic of activity-based budgeting?
It considers the cost and strategic significance of key tasks.
What is the best definition of a contingency plan?
Plan that is activated when a risk event occurs
Which of the following is a primary advantage of the balanced scorecard?
It relates the performance of business functions to the organization’s mission.
The balanced scorecard links business strategies with day-to-day activities and aligns business function measurements with organizational strategies. As a result, an organization can track progress, reinforce accountability, and prioritize improvement opportunities. The scorecard includes four related perspectives (finance, customers, internal business processes, and learning and growth) rather than just a financial perspective.
What approach to offsetting a downturn is often used by companies in the decline phase of their life cycle?
Reducing costs
A cosmetics company that denounces animal testing as a primary part of its branding was recently reported as buying findings from companies that routinely test on animals. Which aspect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) does this practice violate?
Good governance. By definition, governance is the system of rules and processes an organization puts in place to ensure its compliance with local and international laws, accounting rules, ethical norms, and environmental and social codes of conduct. An organization with good governance is transparent and accountable at each level and function. By buying animal testing results, the organization is intentionally deceiving consumers and being opaque rather than transparent.
