Unit 6

Question 1

Define Human resources (HR) What activities are associated with HR

Answer 1

Is the function of an organisation that is focused on the activities of employees. These activities normally include recruitment, training, retention, motivation, welfare and benefits.

Question 2

What is the value of setting HR objectives

4 points

Answer 2

Employee engagement - an environment in which employees are enthusiastic and motivated about their jobs.

Compliance - Aligning company policies with government laws regarding health and safety and employment.

Turnover and retention - Reducing turnover and increasing the retention of employees thereby reducing recruitment costs.

Employer of choice - improves Employer branding/ reputation

Question 3

What objectives may HR set

6 points

Answer 3

Employee engagement and involvement.

Talent Retention and development.

Training the whole workforce

Diversity.

Alignment of Employee and business values .

Number, skills and location of employees .

Question 4

Internal influences on HR objectives

4 points

Answer 4

Overall corporate objectives

The resources available (especially finance)

The type of product

The style of management adopted ( a hard or soft approach)

Question 5

Describe what is meant by Hard HR management approach

Answer 5

One in which employees are treated simply as a resource.There is minimum communication and little empowerment and delegation. Appraisal systems focus on judgements about good or bad performance, and pay is at a minimum wage in order to recruit and retain staff.

Question 6

Describe what is meant by Soft HR management approach

Answer 6

Involves regular communication with the workforce and having employees empowered and encouraged to take responsibility. Appraisal systems focus more on identifying and addressing employee needs, and pay structures are competitive and may encompass performance-related rewards such as profit sharing.

Question 7

Define Appraisal system

Answer 7

The process by which a manager examines and evaluates an employee’s work by comparing it with pre-set targets.

Question 8

External Influences on HR objectivs

3 points

Answer 8

PESTLE- Political, Econmic, social, technological, legal and enviromental

Market

Competetive enviroment

Question 9

Define Job design

Answer 9

is the process of grouping together or dividing up tasks and responsibilities to create complete jobs.

Question 10

Why is a good Job design important

Answer 10

A well-designed job is likely to be more interesting and lead to better performance and engagement of the employee.

Question 11

Name four components of job design to achieve greater engagement

Answer 11

Job rotation
Job enlargement
Jon enrichment
Empowerment

Question 12

What is Job rotation

Answer 12

Under this system employees switch regularly from one duty to another.
This may mean the employe will learn more tasks without necessarily any greater reward.

Question 13

What is Job enlargement

Answer 13

This is similar to job rotation, but instead of rotating round different jobs the role itself is increased to include more tasks.
(Often referred to as ‘horizontal loading’)

Question 14

What is Job enrichment

Answer 14

occurs when employees’ jobs are redesigned to provide them with more challenging and complex tasks. As a result, jobs should be more satisfying and lead to greater engagement and commitment.

Question 15

What is Job empowerment

Answer 15

redesigning employees’ jobs to allow them greater control over their working lives. Empowerment gives employees the opportunity to decide how to carry out their duties and how to organise their work.

Question 16

Name a model that asseses job design

Answer 16

The Hackman and Oldham job characteristics model

Question 17

Name the five Core job dimentions of the Hackman and Oldham job characteristics model

Answer 17

Skill variety, i.e. they use a range of skills

Task significance, i.e. they are working on something that has some significance in terms of the overall business rather than just working on a small section and thereby not appreciating why what they do matters

Task identity, i.e. the work they do has a sense of competition (for example, handing over a complete unit of work to the next stage of the process)

Autonomy, i.e. individuals have some independence to make decisions on how they do the work l

Feedback, i.e. employees receive information on the quality of their work.

Question 18

What are the three critical psychological states in the Hackman and Oldham job characteristics model

What contributes to each of these states

Answer 18

State- Experiencef meaningfulness of the work
Contributions - skill variety, Task identity and Task significance

State- Experienced responsibility for outcomes of the work
Contributions - Autonomy

State - Knowledge of the actual results of the work activities
Contributions - Feedback

Question 19

What are the four personal and work outcomes Hackman and Oldham job characteristics model

What contributes to each of these outcomes

Answer 19

High internal work motivation.
High quality work performance
High satisfaction with work
Low absenteeism and turnover

Experiencef meaningfulness of the work
Experienced responsibility for outcomes of the work
Knowledge of the actual results of the work activities

Question 20

What does The Hackman and Oldham job characteristics model
suggest

Answer 20

That high motivation and engagement is related to experiencing the three critical psychological states while working. In turn, each of these three states is derived from certain characteristics of the job. From knowing these critical job characteristics, it is then possible to derive the key components of the design of the job and redesign it.

Question 21

Name and describe the three groups of influences on job design

Answer 21

Organisational factors - such as the nature of the work and the culture of the business, which determine the willingness of an organisation to design jobs in such a way that enrichment and empowerment exist.

Behavioural factors - and the extent to which a job or task offers autonomy, diversity and the use of skills.

Environmental factors - such as the availability of employees and their abilities as well as their socio-economic expectations.

Question 22

Define Organisational structure

Answer 22

The framework of policies and rules that arranges its lines of authority, communication and allocates rights and duties. It determines the manner in which roles, power and responsibilities are delegated, controlled and coordinated and how information flows between levels of managemen

Question 23

Define Organisational design

Answer 23

Is a process to ensure that the organisation is appropriately designed to deliver organisational objectives efficiently in the short and long term.

Question 24

Define Chain of command

Answer 24

The order in which authority and power in an organisation is held and delegated from top management to every employee at every level. Authority flows down the chain of command, whereas accountability flows up.

Question 25

Define Span of control

Answer 25

the number of subordinates an individual manager can efficiently and effectively control.

Question 26

How does the span of control affect the organisational structure of the businenss

Answer 26

Organisations with wider spans of control require fewer managers and have a flatter organisational structure, as a result the chain of command is smaller and visa versa

Question 27

Define delegation and state one benefit each for managers and employees

Answer 27

is the passing of authority down the organisational structure.

Allows managers to focus on more important tasks.
Improves motivation through job enrichment

Question 28

Define hierarchy

Answer 28

refer to the number of layers of authority within an organisation.

Question 29

Describe the difference between centralised and decentralised

Answer 29

Centralised is if top management make all the organisational decisions with no input from lower-level personnel.
whereas,
The greater the degree of decentralisation the greater the number of lower-level personnel involved in decision making.

Question 30

Name six Influences in Organisational design

Answer 30

Organisational structure - ( span of control , heirarchy , chain of command, delegation, centralisation and decentralisation)

Size - larger the organisation the more complex.

Life cycle - Organisational structure evolves over time.

Strategy - Different corporate objective focuses will need different structures

Environment - A stable or dynamic environment will require a different structure

Technology - The extent to which it is or can be used, may help determine an organisation’s structure.

Question 31

Name four Influences on delegation, centralisation and decentralisation

Answer 31

Uniformity of policy - If an organisation has uniform policies, these must be kept consistent and there will be little scope for decentralisation.

Size of the business - Larger businesses tend to be far more complex and therefore provide greater scope for decentralisation.

Philosophy of the management - An autocratic approach tends towards a centralised structure, whereas a more democratic approach leans more towards a decentralised structure.

Skills of the workforce - A decentralised approach requires the workers to have relevant skills.

Question 32

Define Delayering

Answer 32

The process of cutting layers of management from an organisational hierarchy.

Question 33

What are the values of changing job design and organisational design

use delayering as an example for OD

Answer 33

Flatter stucture
Less managerial Costs
better communication
more employee involvement

making jobs more interesting and rewarding means more engaged and motivated employees leading to improved quality, productivity and lower labour costs per unit.

Question 34

What does the human resource flow consist of

5 points

Answer 34

Human resource plan
recruitment
training
redeployment
redundancy

Question 35

Define Human resource planning

Answer 35

The process that links the human resource needs of an organisation to its strategic plan to ensure that staffing is sufficient, qualified and competent enough to achieve organisational objectives.

Question 36

Define Human resource flow

and name the 5 stages

Answer 36

is the movement of employees through an organisation starting at recruitment and ending at redundency/termination

Question 37

What is required before recruitment can take place?

Answer 37

Human resource planning

Question 38

Define Job description

Answer 38

A broad written statement of a specific job based on the findings of job analysis. It generally includes the duties, purpose, responsibilities, scope and working conditions of a job.

Question 39

Define person specification

Answer 39

A statement of the knowledge, skills, education and experience required of an applicant for a particular job.

Question 40

State the stages of recruitment and selection

Answer 40

Job description
person specification
internal or external recruitment
(External) adverts, invites, shortlists and interviews need to be made

Question 41

Compare the benefits of external and internal recruitment

3 for internal 3 for external

Answer 41

Internal:
cheaper
familiar with the organisation
Motivates employees for promotion

External:
Aquire staff with aquired skillset
Brings new ideas into the business
No bias

Question 42

Why is training important

4 points

Answer 42

For Talent development
Higher labour productivity
Improved quality
More motivation

Question 43

How might an organisation train its employees?
and what is the drawback of training

Answer 43

On the job, learning from present employees
or off the job, on specific work-related courses at training centres, colleges and university.

It is expensive
and a waste of investment if employee leaves must RETAIN

Question 44

How might an organisation train its employees?
and what is the drawback of training

Answer 44

On the job, learning from present employees
or off the job, on specific work-related courses at training centres, colleges and university.

It is expensive
and a waste of investment if employee leaves must RETAIN

Question 45

What specific circumstances leads to dismissal

Answer 45

Gross misconduct
Persistant minor misconduct
A substantial reason - not agreeing to reasonable changes in terms
redundancy - job no longer exists they are entitled to compensation if employed for longer than 2 years

Question 46

Define Natural Wastage

Answer 46

The reduction in size of a workforce through voluntary resignation or retirement rather than redundancy

Question 47

Define Employee engagement

Answer 47

Is the connection (intellectual, affective and social) between a business’s employees, and, its mission, goals and objectives.

Question 48

five Benefits of employee engagement to the business

5 points

Answer 48

increased motvatation

increased labour productivity

increased consumer satisfaction ( due to a more caring and committed workforce)

increased labour retention

greater profitability as a result of the above

Question 49

Name each writer of the three key theories on motivation

3 writers total

No may0 fook that guy

Answer 49

scientific school of thought:
Frederick Taylor
Neo-human relations school:
Abraham Maslow
Frederick Hertzburg

Question 50

Describe Taylor’s theory on motivation

Answer 50

It is based on the belief that employees are motivated only by money; as he saw employees as cogs in a machine rather than human beings.
As a result, Taylor set to improve the efficiency of individual work.
Training was also undertaken and financial methods of motivation were used.

Question 51

Name and Describe different financial methods of motivation

4 points

Answer 51

Piece rate - May produce more but quality could suffer and higher levels of supervision may be required.

Commission - An employee is rewarded as a % of sales achieved.

Wages and salaries - wages = hourly rate and paid overtime salary = annual rate and no paid overtime

Performance-related pay - Usually measured against pre-agreed targets. Such a method may well be linked to an appraisal system.

Question 52

Name and describe Maslow’s theory on motivation

Answer 52

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Idea that workers have five types of needs and these form a hierarchy.
From bottom to top it comprises of:

1. Physiological needs — working conditions, pay, holidays, etc.
2. Safety needs — security needs such as a safe working environment
3. Social needs — team-working and contact with other employees
4. Esteem needs — achievement and recognition, chances for promotion
5. Self-actualisation — having challenging tasks that enable someone to reach their full potential

1-2 = basic needs, 3-4 =physiological needs, 5 = self-fulfilment needs.

1-2 = demotivators 3-5 = motivators
1- Highly engaged
2- Engaged
3- Almost engaged
4- Not engaged
5- Disengaged

Question 53

Name and describe Herzberg’s theory on motivation

Answer 53

His two factor theory on motivation
consits of:

Motivating factors - Herzberg claimed certain factors lead to motivation, such as giving responsibility, recognition and the chance for advancement.

Hygiene factors - On their own, these do not create motivation but are necessary in order for workers to be motivated, as they remove dissatisfaction — pay, job security and working conditions.

Question 54

Name non financial methods of motivation

Answer 54

Job design
(Job rotation, Job enlargement,
job enrichment and Empowerment)
quality circles

Question 55

Define quality circles

Answer 55

A group of workers who meet regularly to identify, analyse and solve workrelated problems.

Question 56

Influences on the choice and effectiveness of financial and non fincancial reward systems

Answer 56

Cost - A business must operate within its means.

Type of work - The skills involved. Reward and conditions of work need to be appropriate to attract and retain employees.

Culture - The type of management system involved; whether it has a hard or soft approach to human resources.

External factors - It may be difficult to have performance-related pay systems in times of economic recession.

Question 57

What are Trade unions

Answer 57

An organisation of workers established to protect and improve economic position and working conditions of its members.

Question 58

What is the role of trade unions

Answer 58

negotiating with employers on pay and conditions

discussing major changes in the workplace such as redundancy

accompanying members in disciplinary and grievance meetings

discussing members’ concerns with employers

providing members with legal and financial advice

Question 59

What is the main benefit of trade unions

Answer 59

It is a collective and this means they benefit from collective bargaining and therefore influence decisions

Question 60

What are work councils

Answer 60

a forum within a business where workers and management meet to discuss issues such as working conditions, pay and training.

Question 60

What are work councils

Answer 60

a forum within a business composed of workers and employers, they meet to discuss issues such as working conditions, pay and training.

Question 61

What is the benefit of.a works council pver a trade union

Answer 61

They are usually elected employer and employee representatives, as a result they may provide better communication and increased employee involvement, resulting in a more conciliatory relationship than that between a business and a trade union.

Question 62

four benefits of good employer - employee relations

Answer 62

Objectives — business is more likely to meet both its human resources and corporate objectives.

Increased motivation —

Decision making — it is likely decision making will be more balanced by taking all views into consideration.

Less resistance to Change — Change will be easier to implement as all perspectives are involved and taken into consideration.