Weeks 1-6 Flashcards
What is strategy?
The formulation of organizational objectives, competitive scopes, and action plans for gaining advantage.
What is logical incrementalism (emergent strategy)?
Subtly redirecting strategy to accommodate for changes.
What is the strategy formulated at the beginning of the period called, vs what actually happened?
Intended strategy vs realized strategy.
Distinguish between corporate and business strategies.
A corporate strategy is at the organizational level that focuses on long-term survival, whereas a business strategy focuses on one line of business in a diversified company or public organization.
What are the four kinds of restructuring strategies?
Turnaround, divestiture, liquidation, and bankruptcy.
What are the three kinds of growth strategies?
Incremental, international, and by mergers and acquisitions.
What are the steps involved in strategic planning?
- Establish MVV
- Develop objectives
- Analyze external environment
- Identify competitive advantage
- Determine competitive position
- Implement strategy
- Evaluate performance
What are the three categories of competitive advantage?
- Tangible assets
- Intangible assest
- Capabilities (collective skills, abilities, and expertise)
What four criteria must capabilities meet in order to provide a sustained competitive advantage?
- VALUABLE to the firm’s strategy
- RARE
- INIMITABLE
- Can be ORGANIZED by the firm
What are core capabilities?
Resources and capabilities that serve a firm’s competitive advantage.
What are dynamic capabilities?
The ability to adapt and renew competencies in accordance with changing business environment.
Define value proposition.
A statement of the fundamental benefits of the products or services being offered in the marketplace.
What are Porter’s five generic competitive strategies?
- Low-cost provider
- Broad differentiation
- Best-cost provider
- Focused or market niche based on lower cost
- Focused or market niche based on differentiation
What is a program, in regards to strategy?
The steps or activities necessary to accomplish a goal.
What are procedures, in regards to strategy?
The steps required to get a job done.
Define strategic HRM.
The management of HR philosophies, policies, and practices to enable the achievement of the organizational strategy.
What are the four stages of the analysis of the external environment?
- Scanning (identify early signals of changes and trends in the environment)
- Monitoring (following key indicators)
- Forecasting (an attempt to project the possible impact on the org)
- Assessing (an attempt to describe the impact, and make a judgement of the probability of each of several possible outcomes).
Define competitive intelligence.
A formal approach to obtain information about competitors.
What four criteria help identify significant trends?
- Are there ripple effects?
- How profound are the impacts on people’s priorities, roles, and expectations?
- How large is the impact scope?
- Will the changes endure over time?
What are the three most important long-term HR priorities reported by organizations?
- Developing leaders
- Workforce planning
- Succession management
Define HR forecasting.
The process of ascertaining the net requirement for human capital by determining the demand for and supply of human resources now and in the future.
What is the term for the KSAOs that are held by employees and are useful to a firm?
Generic human capital.
What is the term that represents skills employees have based on their knowledge in the firm and through mentorship?
Firm-specific human capital.
What is human capital stock and flow?
The amount of human capital within the firm at a given time, and how human capital stock changes over time.
What are the required human capital groups?
- Specialist/Technical/Professional Workers
- Employment Equity-Designated Group Membership
- Managers & Executives
- Recruits
What are the four steps of the forecasting process?
- Determine staffing needs by skills, skill levels, or jobs.
- Perform the analyses to determine the number of required employees.
- Create a budget for fulfilling the stated organizational requirements.
- Put HR programs and policies into place, and track the results.
What are some popular methods of forecasting?
- Survey the business line for their anticipated needs.
- Norm-based rules. (Ratios based on historical data).
- Time series- or regression-based models. (Based on objective data).
- Mathematical and econometric models.
- Qualitative models.
When should time-series, cause-and-effect, and judgemental models be used?
For short-term forecasting; for short-, medium-, or long-term forecasting; when there is no available reliable data.
What are the typical HR forecasting time horizons?
Current (max 1 year); short-run (1-2 year); medium-run (2-5 year); long-run (more than 5 years).
Distinguish between a prediction and a projection.
A prediction is a single numerical estimate of HR requirements, whereas a projection incorporates several HR estimates based on a variety of assumptions.
Define “envelope.”
The range of plausible values of a prediction based on a given set of assumptions.
What is trend analysis?
A forecasting method that extrapolates from historical terms.
What is ratio analysis?
A quantitative method of projecting HR demand by analyzing the historical relationship between an operational index and the number of employees required.
What are the five steps to conducting an effective ratio analysis?
- Select the appropriate business/operational index
- Track the operational index over time
- Track the workforce size over time
- Calculate the average ratio of the operational index to the workforce size
- Calculate the forecasted demand for labour
Describe the steps of the Delphi technique.
- Define and refine the issue or question
- Identify the experts, terms, and time horizon
- Orient the experts
- Issue the first round questionnaire
- Issue summary and subsequent rounds of questionnaires
What are the strategies for a labour shortage?
- Make better use of present employees
- Hire additional workers from outside
- Lower requirements for labour
What are the strategies for a labour surplus?
- Permanent workforce reductions
- Implement workforce cost savings
- Redistribute workforce surplus
