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Business A-Level > Unit 6 > Flashcards

Unit 6 Flashcards

1
Q

What is HR?

A

human resources

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2
Q

What is a HR department responsible for?

A

the use of labour within the organisation

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3
Q

What are HR objectives?

A

are the goals or targets that a business’s HR department seeks to achieve

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4
Q

What are 2 examples of HR objectives?

A
  • amount of employees produce
  • quality of their work
  • training
  • talent development
  • diversity
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5
Q

What does employee engagement and involvement mean?

A

‘Being positively present during the performance of work by willingly contributing intellectual effort, experiencing positive emotions and meaningful connections to others’ - CIPD

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6
Q

What did CIPD believe the 3 segments were of their definition?

A

intellectual engagement
affective engagement
social engagement

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7
Q

What is intellectual engagement?

A

thinking hard about the job and how to do it better

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8
Q

What is affective engagement?

A

feeling positively about doing a good job

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9
Q

What is social engagement?

A

actively taking opportunities to discuss work related improvement with others at work

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10
Q

How can employee involvement be achieved?

A
  • considering employees ideas and opinions

- employee representatives

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11
Q

What are the external influences of HR?

A 
technological
social
political
economic
competitive
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12
Q

What data can be used to show performance of employees?

A

labour productivity
unit labour costs
labour turnover and retention

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13
Q

What is the calculation for labour productivity?

A

total output per time/ number of workers at work

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14
Q

What affects labour productivity?

A
  • extent and quality of capital equipment available

- motivation of the workforce

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15
Q

What does unit labour cost measure?

A

the labour costs per unit of output

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16
Q

What factors will influence employees cost as percentage of revenue?

A
  • productivity rates of workforce
  • wage rates
  • non-wage employment costs (pension schemes and benefits can increase costs without increasing revenue)
  • The management of capacity
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17
Q

What is the calculation for labour turnover?

A

number of staff living during year / average number of staff X 100

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18
Q

What does labour turnover measure?

A

the proportion of a workforce leaving their employment at a business over some period of time usually a year

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19
Q

What factors cause poor staff retention?

A
  • low wages
  • inadequate training
  • low morale/motivation
  • ineffective recruitment
  • redundancy
  • retirement
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20
Q

What is the calculation for labour retention?

A

number of employees employed for a year or more / average number of staff x 100

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21
Q

What does labour retention measure?

A

the extent to which businesses retain employees

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22
Q

What does high labour retention cause?

A

increases recruitment and training costs

can unsettle other employees

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23
Q

What are the stages of data for HR decision making and planning?

A
  1. overall/corporate objectives - contribute to achieve these
  2. how human resources can be managed - technology to complement or replace
  3. size and type of workforce
  4. availability
  5. recruitment process needed
24
Q

What are the positives of using data for HR decisions?

A
  • amount of data available
  • popularity
  • increasing importance of HR
  • employee performance
  • better decision making
  • forecasts
25
Q

What are the negatives of using data for HR decisions?

A
  • effective use of the data to inform and improve decision making
  • doesn’t give managers sufficient information to make decisions
  • poorly or not used with several companies at present
26
Q

What is job design?

A

process of deciding the contents of a job in terms of techniques, systems and procedures and the relationships that should exist between the job holder and his superiors, subordinates and colleagues

27
Q

What does job design try to do?

A

engage and motivate employees so their work isn’t repetitive and monotonous

28
Q

What is job enlargement?

A

(horizontal loading) increases the number of similar duties, so the employee carries out a number of similar tasks, therefore stimulating interest

29
Q

What is job rotation?

A

a particular type of job enlargement where employees switch regularly from one duty to another

30
Q

What is job enrichment?

A

(vertical loading) occurs when employees jobs are redesigned to provide them with more challenging and complex tasks

31
Q

What does job enrichment involve?

A
  • increase complexity of tasks
  • giving employees greater responsibility for managing themselves
  • offering employees the authority to identify and solve problems relating to their work
32
Q

What is empowerment?

A

gives employees the opportunity to decide how to carry out their duties and how to organise their work

33
Q

What would influence job design?

A
  • business’s overall or corporate objectives
  • employee performance
  • health & safety and other legal requirements
  • meeting customer requirements as fully as possible
  • the existing and potential skills of the workforce
  • the resources available
  • expected future developments
34
Q

What is motivation?

A

describes the factors that stimulate, maintain and channel behaviour towards a goal

35
Q

What are the 3 motivation theories?

A

Frederick Taylor
Elton Mayo
Abraham Maslow and Frederick Herzberg

36
Q

What are the ideas for Frederick Taylor theory?

A
  • motivation is an external factor achieved through money.
  • employees should be closely supervised and paid piece rate.
  • ignored the social needs of employees
37
Q

What are the ideas for Elton Mayo theory?

A
  • brought sociological theory into management and accepted that employees could be motivated by meeting their social needs.
  • more attention was given to the social dimension of work (communication etc)
38
Q

What are the ideas for Abraham Maslow and Frederick Herzberg theory?

A
  • importance of fulfilling psychological needs to improve employee performance.
  • motivation depended upon designing jobs to fulfil psychological needs
39
Q

What are the sections of the Herzberg triangle?

A 
5 . self-actualisation
4 . esteem needs
3. social needs
2. security needs
1. physiological needs
40
Q

What are the Herzberg’s hygiene and motivational factors?

A

dissatisfiers :

  • working conditions
  • company policy and administration
  • supervision
  • salary
  • relationship with fellow relationship

motivators:

  • growth and advancement
  • responsibility
  • interest in work itself
  • recognition
  • personal achievement
41
Q

What are the financial methods of motivation?

A 
Salaries and wages
Piece rate
Performance Related pay (PRP) - bonuses
Profit sharing
Share ownership
Commission
42
Q

What influences the choice and assessment of motivational methods?

A

Costs
The attitude of the management team
The training given to the management team
The skill levels of the workforce
The importance of the public’s perception of the business
The effectiveness of communication within and outside the business

43
Q

How can employees be represented in negotiations with employers?

A

trade unions
work councils
factory or office community
staff association

44
Q

What is a trade union?

A

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

45
Q

What are the aims of a trade union?

A
  • maximising pay
  • achieve safe and secure working conditions
  • attaining job security
  • participating in and influencing decisions in the workplace
46
Q

How do trade unions achieve their aims?

A
  • protect members interests over issues e.g discrimination
  • negotiate pay and conditions through collective bargaining
  • provide a range of services including legal advice, insurance, education, training and financial advice
47
Q

What are the benefits of trade unions?

A
  • act as a communication link between management and employees
  • professional negotiation on behalf of a large number of employees can save time and lessen the likelihood of disputes occurring
48
Q

What is a work council?

A

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

49
Q

Why might staff associations be formed?

A

to provide employer representatives

50
Q

What are the stages in the process of communication?

A 
1 - sender 
2 - message
3 - medium
4 - receiver
5 - feedback
51
Q

What could cause difficulties in communication?

A
  • mergers and takeovers
  • scale (size) of business
  • locations
  • delayering
  • communication mechanisms
52
Q

What are the 2 types of employer-employee relations?

A
  • avoiding industrial disputes

- resolving industrial disputes

53
Q

What are the features of avoiding industrial disputes?

A
  • no strike and single union agreements

- ACAS

54
Q

What is ACAS?

A

advisory, conciliation and arbitration - is an independent organisation established to prevent and resolve industrial disputes

55
Q

What are the costs and benefits of good employer-employee relations for the employer ?

A
  • loss of revenue from strike action
  • damage to relationship with employees, productivity and engagement
  • damage to reputation

+ helping to develop a strong employer brand
+ promoting employee engagement

56
Q

What are the costs and benefits of good employer-employee relations for the employees?

A
  • lose pay
  • weaken employers finance impacting on job security, training affecting development
  • employer may become more capital intensive

+ improvements in pay and conditions
+ job security
+ the possibility of greater participation in decision making

Business A-Level (11 decks)

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