Deck 6: International Employment Law, Labor Standards, and Ethics

Question 1

Employment law and regulation is one of the most important components of the global context for IHRM.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The UN plays a relatively insignificant role in establishing employment laws or standards.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The World Bank sets two types of labor standards - conventions and recommendations -
in industrial categories

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The OECD has many directorates dealing with many aspects of economic and social development, including a Directorate for Employment, Labour, and Social Affairs.

Question 5

The best known (and most fully developed) of the regional trade agreements is the European Union (EU) (with the recent 2020 exit of Great Britain)

Question 6

Mercosur/Mercosul is a "common market" agreement signed for the free circulation of goods and services and the adoption of common trade and tariff policies between three North American countries

Question 7

Every MNE must consider the application of its parent-country laws to its overseas operations (referred to as the extraterritorial application of national law).

Question 8

The concept of "employment at will," as practiced in the US (where the employer, with a few exceptions, has the right to terminate an employee at will and the employee has the right to quit at any time for any reason), also exists in most developed countries.

Question 9

One of the basic ethical dilemmas for IHR and MNEs involves what management should do when an employment practice that is illegal or viewed as wrong in the home country is legal or acceptable in the host country.

Question 10

A cosmopolitanism approach requires the reconciliation of seemingly opposing differences in ethical choices and requires debate, effort, and compromise.

Question 11

There are at least three different major legal systems operating in the nations of the world. Overall, law

A) shapes government
B) establishes rules for behavior
C) serves as a mediator between people and organizations
D) all of the above

Question 12

The common law system, the civil code approach, and religious law has their unique methodologies for

A) creating laws
B) developing the content of laws
C) enforcing laws
D) all of the above

Question 13

The common law system, adopted in the United States, legislation and statutes tend to be quite general, and interpretation about questions or disagreements is done in court, so that legislation establishes basic principles, with _____________ and __________ determining what people can and cannot do.

A) Judges and lawyers
B) MNEs and SMEs
C) precedence and practice
D) all of the above

Question 14

Understanding the differences between very different legal systems is essential if firms are to know what to expect and how to act about the law, especially in terms of HR practices such as _________ which will vary between countries.

A) standards proscribing discrimination for various groups
B) determining holiday and termination standards
C) A and B
D) none of the above

Question 15

The International Labor Organization's (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work attempts to establish consensus on basic employment rights and includes all of the following EXCEPT

A) restricting association and limiting collective bargaining
B) abolition of child labor
C) elimination of forced labor
D) elimination of discrimination in regards to employment

Question 16

The United Nations Global Compact asks businesses worldwide to embrace 10 principles in the areas of human rights, labor standards, and the environment. The principles that directly involve IHR include

A) businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights
B) businesses should pay appropriate amounts for all forms of forced labor
C) businesses should improve practices that discriminate against various groups
D) none of the above

Question 17

The Mercosur/Mercosul "common market" agreement was signed by _________.

A) Argentina
B) Boliva
C) Columbia
D) Peru

Question 18

Which of the following is not an institution within the structure of the EU?

A) European Parliament
B) European Commission
C) World Trade Organization
D) Court of Auditors

Question 19

_______________ is an emerging interdisciplinary field that aims at influencing foreign government policy and regulatory decisions that affect global trade.

A) International business bargaining
B) Commercial diplomacy
C) Private business-government negotiation
D) Non-government organizational policy-making

Question 20

IHR policy and decisions result from attempting to deal with a "patchwork" of different legislative powers (national, international, extraterritorial). IHR managers must

A) comply with the laws of the countries in which it operates.
B) comply with international standards and supranational regulations.
C) comply with the extraterritorial laws of its own country.
D) all of the above

Question 21

Which of the following is not legally binding on EU member states?

A) Directives
B) Regulations
C) Opinions
D) Decisions

Question 22

Overall, EU directives have been ____________ effective.

A) somewhat
B) brarely
C) moderately
D) very

Question 23

HR's tactical role in a visa application process consists of

A) anticipating roadblocks in the application process.
B) being aware of the procedural requirements in different countries.
C) complying with the necessary record keeping and tracking of visas.
Dall of the above

Question 24

Under the 1998 EU directive on the protection of employee privacy, personal data on European employees _________ transferred out of the EU unless the country in which the data recipient resides has acceptable privacy protection standards in place.

A) generally is not
B) cannot be
C) consistently is
Dnone of the above

Question 25

On an ethical continuum, ethical ________ suggests that what is right is whatever a society defines as right.

A) relativism
B) revolution
C) absolutism
D) none of these

Question 26

Describe the legal environment in which MNEs and their international human resources (IHR) managers operate.

Question 27

Why do IHR managers need to understand international employee (IE) relations from different perspectives?

Question 28

What is Corporate Social Responsibility? What does it encourage MNEs to do?

Question 29

Define sustainability and identify sustainable HR practices. How do they affect employees?

Question 30

Which employment laws and standards are most important for MNEs to pay attention to? Why?

Question 31

You are an IHRM manager. You need to make recommendations to your senior management team about designing a code of conduct and ensuring effective implementation of ethical standards of worldwide operations. Explain the important steps in developing such a code of conduct and what you would have to do to ensure effective implementation.