Vocabulary Flashcards
Accounts payable
Money an organization owes its vendors and suppliers.
Accounts receivable
Money an organization’s customers owe the organization.
ADDIE model
Five-step instructional design process that governs the development of learning programs:
A: Analysis of needs
D: Design
D: Development
I: Implementation
E: Evaluation
Adverse impact
Type of discrimination that results when a neutral policy has a discriminatory effect; also known as disparate impact.
Affinity diagramming
Data sorting technique in which a group categorizes and subcategorizes data until relationships are clearly drawn.
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR)
Umbrella term used to describe a number of problem-solving and grievance resolution approaches.
Amendment
Modification of the U.S. Constitution or a U.S. law.
Andragogy
Study of how adults learn.
Applicant tracking software (ATS)
Software that provides an automated way for organizations to manage the recruiting process.
Apprenticeship
Related to technical skills training; often a partnership between employers and unions.
Arbitration
Procedure in which disputes are submitted to one or more impartial persons for final determination.
Assessment centers
Assessment tools that provide candidates a wide range of leadership situations and problem-solving exercises.
Assets
Financial, physical, and sometimes intangible properties an organization owns.
Assignees
Employees who work outside their home countries.
Auditory learners
People who learn best by relying on their sense of hearing.
Balance sheet
Statement that reports the financial position of the organization at a specific point in time; shows assets, liabilities, and shareholder equity.
Balanced scorecard
Measurement approach that provides an overall picture of an organization’s performance as measured against goals in finance, customers, internal business processes, and learning and growth.
Behavioral interview
Type of interview that focuses on how applicants previously handled real situations.
Benchmarking
Process that compares performance levels and/or processes of one entity with those of another to identify performance gaps and set goals aimed at improving performance.
Benefits
Payments or services provided to employees to cover issues such as retirement, health care, sick pay/disability schemes, life insurance, and paid time off.
Bias (Measurement Bias)
Appraiser’s values, beliefs, or prejudices distort performance ratings.
Big data
High-volume, high-velocity, and high-variety information assets that require innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision making.
Bill
A proposal presented to a legislative body for possible enactment as a statute.
Blended learning
Planned approach to learning that includes a combination of instructor-led training, self-directed study, and/or on-the-job training.
Blogs
Broadcast-style communications that enable authors to publish articles, opinions, product or service reviews, etc., on a web page.
Blue ocean strategies
Strategies that generate competitive advantage by creating a new marketplace arena in which there are no other competitors.
Bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ)
Situation in which religion, sex, or national origin is reasonably necessary to carrying out a particular job function in the normal operations of an organization.
Brain drain
Exit of educated and skilled citizens from emerging and developing countries for better-paying jobs in developed countries.
Bring your own device (BYOD)
Policy of permitting employees to bring their own computing devices to the workplace and to use those devices for connectivity on the organization’s secure network.
Broadbanding
Combining several salary grades or job classifications with narrow pay ranges into one band with a wider salary spread.
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.
Business case
Presentation to management that establishes that a specific problem exists and argues that the proposed solution is the best way to solve the problem in terms of time, cost efficiency, and probability of success.
Business intelligence
Ability to gather and analyze data from inside and outside the organization so that information is available for decision makers.
Business Life Cycles
Introduction
Growth
Maturity
Decline
Business-to-business (B2B)
B2B ecommerce is any activity or program conducted between businesses through the use of a computer network connection instead of an intermediary.
Career development
Process by which employees progress through a series of stages in their careers, each of which is characterized by relatively unique issues, themes, and tasks.
Career management
Preparing, implementing, and monitoring employees’ career paths, with a primary focus on the goals and needs of the organization.
Career planning
Actions and activities that individuals perform in order to give direction to their work lives.
Cash flow statement
Statement that shows incoming and outgoing cash in the areas of operations, investments, and financing and remaining cash reserves; reflects an organization’s ability to meet its current and short-term obligations.
Categories of HR Metrics
Activity-based: focus on quality control; danger of misaligning resources (e.g. time wasted)
Outcomes-based: focus on HR change; danger of “ends justifiy the means” appraoch.
Performance management loop: 1. Start with standard activity-based (valid and reliable), 2. Add outcomes-based (unique to organization or BU), 3. Refine or focus activity-based, 4. Align further with organization’s strategic goals.
Center of excellence (COE)
HR structural alternative established as an independent department that provides services within a focused area to internal clients.
Central tendency error (Measurement Bias)
Appraiser rates all employees within a narrow range, regardless of differences in actual performance.
Chain of command
Line of authority within an organization.
Civil law
Legal system based on written codes (laws, rules, or regulations).
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.
Cloud computing
Style of computing in which scalable IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service using Internet technologies.
Co-employment
Situation in which an organization shares responsibility and liability for their alternative workers with an alternative staffing supplier; also known as joint employment.
Code of conduct
Principles of conduct within an organization that guide decision making and behavior; also known as code of ethics.
Codetermination
Form of corporate governance that requires a typical management board and a supervisory board and that allows management and employees to participate in strategic decision making.
Collective bargaining
Process by which management and union representatives negotiate the employment conditions for a particular bargaining unit for a designated period of time.
Collective bargaining agreement
Agreement or contract negotiated through collective bargaining process.
Common law
Legal system in which each case is considered in terms of how it relates to legal decisions that have already been made; evolves through judicial decisions over time.
Compa-ratio
Pay rate divided by the midpoint of the pay range.
Comparable worth
Concept that states that jobs requiring comparable skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions filled primarily by women should have the same job classification and salary as similar jobs filled by men.
Compensation
All financial returns (beyond any benefits payments or services), including salary and allowances.
Competencies
Clusters of highly interrelated attributes, including knowledge, skills, or abilities (KSA) that give rise to the behaviors needed to perform a given job effectively.
Competency-based interview
Type of interview in which the interviewer asks questions related to competencies for the position and asks candidates to provide examples of times they demonstrated the competencies.
Compliance
Being in accordance with all national, federal, regional, or local laws, regulations, and government authority requirements for all the nations in which an organization operates.
Compliance program
System for ensuring that policies and procedures addressing issues identified in the code of conduct are presented to and understood and acted on by everyone in the organization and for evaluating the results of those efforts.
Conciliation
Method of nonbinding dispute resolution involving a third party who tries to help disputing parties reach a mutually agreeable decision; also known as mediation.
Conflict of interest
Situation in which a person or organization has the potential to be influenced by opposing sets of incentives.
Construct Validity (Performance Management)
Measurement captures performance accurately.
Constructive discipline
Form of corrective discipline that implements increasingly severe penalties for employees; also called progressive discipline.
Content Validity (Performance Management)
Measurement assesses behaviors that represent a job’s responsibilities.
Contingency plan
Protocol that an organization implements when an identified risk event.
Contrast error (Measurement Bias)
Employee’s rating is based on how his or her performance compares to that of another employee rather than objective standards.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Recognition of the impact a corporation has on the lives of its stakeholders and the environment; can include corporate governance, corporate philanthropy, sustainability, and employee rights and workplace safety.
Cosourcing
Situation in which an enterprise outsources only one part of a function, often collocating it at the organization’s workplace.
Cost-benefit analysis
Ratio of value created to cost of creating that value; allows management to determine the financial impact particular activities and programs have on an organization’s profitability.
Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA)
Pay adjustment given to eligible employees regardless of performance or organizational profitability; usually linked to inflation.
Criterion / Predictive Validity (Performance Management)
Degree to which measurement assesses behaviors that are agreed to be good indicators of success in a position
Critical path
Describes the shortest amount of time required to complete a project, taking into account all project task relationships.
Cultural noise
Type of measurement bias in which analyst fails to recognize that individual is responding with answers the analyst wants to hear and that analyst’s culture/values are determining what he or she hears.
Cultural relativism
Concept that argues that ethical behavior is determined by local culture, laws, and business practices.
Culture
Set of beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors shared by members of a group and passed down from one generation to the next.
Dashboards
Reporting mechanisms that aggregate and display metrics and key performance indicators.
Database
Data structure that stores organized information (numeric information as well as sound clips, pictures, and videos).
Database management system (DBMS)
Variety of software applications that electronically manage stored data.
Dedicated HR
HR structural alternative that allows businesses with different strategies in multiple units to apply HR expertise to each unit’s specific strategic needs.
Delphi technique
Forecasting technique that progressively collects information from a group of experts without ever physically assembling the contributors.
The experts answer questionnaires in two or more rounds. After each round, a facilitator provides an anonymous summary of the experts’ forecasts with rationales. Experts are encouraged to revise their earlier answers. Process is stopped at a predefined stage (e.g. number of rounds, achievement of consensus, stability of results) and the mean or median scores of the final rounds determine the results.
Departmentalization
Way an organi?zation groups jobs to coordinate work.
Developmental activities
Activities that focus on preparing employees for future responsibilities while increasing their capacity to perform their current jobs.
Differential pay
Pay rates that are affected by where or when an employee works.
Dilemma reconciliation
Process of charting a course through cultural differences.
Disability
Physical or mental impairment that substantially limits major life activities.
Disparate impact
Type of discrimination that results when a neutral policy 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.
Distance learning
Process of delivering educational or instructional programs to locations away from a classroom or site.
Diversity
Differences in characteristics of people; can involve personality, work style, race, age, ethnicity, gender, religion, education, functional level at work, etc.
Diversity council
Task force created to define a diversity and inclusion initiative and guide the development and implementation process.
Diversity dimensions
Framework for understanding the range and complexity of diversity; includes four layers (personality, internal dimensions, external dimensions, and organizational dimensions); also known as identity group.
Diversity of thought
Concept describing the presence of different types of cognitive processes in a workplace; opposed to “groupthink,” or similarity of thought processes and opinions.
Divestiture
Sale by a company of an asset that is not performing well, that is not core to the company’s business, or that is worth more as a separate entity.
Domestic partners
Unmarried couples, of the same or opposite sex, who live together and seek economic and noneconomic benefits comparable to those granted to their married counterparts.
Dual career ladders
Career development programs that identify meaningful career paths for professional and technical people outside traditional management roles.
Due diligence
Necessary level of care and attention that is taken to investigate an action before it is taken.
Due process
Concept that laws are enforced only through accepted, codified procedures.
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.
E-learning
Delivery of training and educational materials, processes, and programs via the use of electronic media.
E-procurement
Use of electronic communications and transaction processing when buying (or contracting for/tendering) supplies and services.
Employer social media presence policies
Policies should include: who may post, guidelines for posters, authorship and disclaimers, guidelines for handling comments.
Electronic Signature in Global and National Commerce Act of 2000 (ESIGN)
Facilitates the legal use of electronic signatures, or e-signatures, in the US. In general, this act enables organizations to legally use e-signatures on electronic documents including applications, contracts, and verification procedures.
Emotional intelligence (EI)
Quality of being sensitive to and understanding of one’s own and others’ emotions and the ability to manage one’s own emotions and impulses.
Employee engagement
Employees’ commitment to an organization; willingness to put in effort that promotes the effective functioning of the organization.
Employee life cycle (ELC)
Activities associated with an employee’s tenure in an organization.
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 Self-Service (ESS)
Allows employees to handle many job-related HR tasks using technology.
Employee surveys
Instruments used to collect and assess employee perceptions about the work environment.
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.
Employer rights under the law
- Direct the work of employees
- Protect the organization’s rights
- Benefit from work performed by employees through intellectual property.
Employment at-will
Principle of employ?ment in the U.S. that employers have the right to hire, fire, demote, and promote whomever they choose for any reason unless there is a law or contract to the contrary and employees have the right to quit a job at any time.
Employment branding
Process of positioning an organization as an “employer of choice” in the labor market.
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.
Encryption
Conversion of data into a format that protects or hides its natural presentation or intended meaning.
Encryption
The conversion of data into a format that protects or hides its natural presentation or intended meaning.
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 from many business activities.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Integrated information system that serves all departments in an organization:
FInance Resource Management (FRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Human Resources Management (HRM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP)
Environmental scanning
Process that involves a systematic survey and interpretation of relevant data to identify external opportunities and threats and to assess how these factors affect the organization currently and how they are likely to affect the organization in the future.
Equity
Amount of owners’ or shareholders’ portion of a business.
Errors in Performance Appraisal
Halo/horn effect
Recency
Primacy
Bias
Strictness
Leniency
Central tendency
Contrast
Essential functions
Primary job duties that a qualified individual must be able to perform, either with or without reasonable accommodation.
Ethical universalism
Concept that argues that there are fundamental ethical principles that apply across cultures.
Ethics
Set of behavioral guidelines by which all directors, managers, and employees of an organization are expected to behave to ensure appropriate moral and ethical business standards, typically beyond the letter of the law.
Exempt employees
Employees who are excluded from U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act minimum wage and overtime pay requirements.
External equity
Situation in which an organization’s compensation levels and benefits are similar to those of other organizations that are in the same labor market and compete for the same employees.
Extraterritoriality
Extension of the power of a country’s laws over its citizens outside that country’s sovereign national boundaries.
Factors in selecting and integrating technology
Flexibility, scalability, security, usability, extensibility.
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.
First-impression error
Type of measurement bias in which investigator makes snap judgments and lets first impression (either positive or negative) cloud subsequent evaluation.
Flat-rate pay
Provides each incumbent of a job with the same rate of pay, regardless of performance or seniority; also known as single-rate pay.
Focus group
Small group (normally six to twelve) invited to actively participate in a structured discussion with a facilitator.
Force-field analysis
May be used to process issues raised in a brainstorming session.
Factors that could influence an outcome in either a negative or positive manner are listed and assigned weights to indicate their relative strengths. Based on this analysis, the group can decide to pursue opportunities with scores showing favorability for change, avoid changes that face very strong resistance, or decide how to allocate resources to mitigate negative risks and enhance opportunities.
Formalization
Refers to the extent to which rules, policies, and procedures govern the behavior of employees in an organization.
Front-back structure
Organizational structure that divides an organization into “front” functions, which focus on customers or market groups, and “back” functions, which design and develop products and services.
Functional HR
HR structural alternative in which headquarters HR specialists craft policies and HR generalists located within divisions or other locales implement the policies, adapt them as needed, and interact with employees.
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.
Gamification
Selective use of game design and game mechanics to drive employee engagement in non-gaming business scenarios.
Gantt Chart
A type of bar chart, devised by Henry Gantt in the 1910s, that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project.
Gender
Refers to the socially constructed system that associates masculinity or femininity to certain roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes.
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.
General pay increase
Pay increase given to employees based on local competitive market requirements; awarded regardless of employee performance.
Geographic structure
Organizational structure in which geographic regions define the organizational chart.
Global integration (GI) strategy
Globalization strategy that emphasizes consistency of approach, standardization of processes, and a common corporate culture across global operations.
Global mindset
Ability to take an international, multidimensional perspective that is inclusive of other cultures, perspectives, and views.
Global remittances
Monies sent back home by migrants working in foreign countries.
Globalization
Growing interconnectedness and interdependency of countries, people, and companies.
Glocalization
Characteristic of an organization with a strong global image but an equally strong local identity.
Governance
System of rules and processes an organization puts in place to ensure its compliance with local and international laws, accounting rules, ethical norms, and its own codes of conduct.
Green-circle rates
Situations in which an employee’s pay is below the minimum of the range.
Grievance procedure
Orderly way to resolve differences of opinion in regard to a union contract.
Griggs v. Duke Power
U.S. case that recognized adverse impact discrimination.
Gross profit margin
Ratio of gross profit to net sales.
Groupware
Umbrella term for specialized collaborative software applications.
Guidelines for Choosing HR Metrics
- Why: Review strategy and goals with executives.
- What: Identify functions to be measured.
- Exactly What: Define each metric and its formula.
- How: Decide what data and how to collect.
- How Well: Get accurate data.
- How Often: Decide how often to collect and report.
- To Whom: Choose format and recipients.
- Review: Review metrics regularly.
Hacking
Act of deliberately accessing a computer without permission.
Halo effect (Measurement Bias)
Analyst allows one strong point that he or she values highly and that works in subject’s favor to overshadow all other information.
Hazard
Potential for harm, often associated with a condition or activity that, if left uncontrolled, can result in injury or illness.
Head count
Number of people on an organization’s payroll at a particular moment in time.
High-context culture
Society or group where people have close connections over a long period of time and where many aspects of behavior are not made explicit, because most members know what to do and think from years of interaction.
