Deck 6: Person-Based Pay Structures

Question 1

Employees and managers are the sources of information for all the following EXCEPT:

A) defining the skills
B) assessing the skills
C) arranging skills into a hierarchy
D) bundling skills into skill blocks
E) certifying whether a person possesses the skills

Answer 1

assessing the skills

Question 2

The higher labour costs under skill-based pay indicate that it may be a better fit to companies where _____.

A) labour costs are a small share of total costs
B) labour costs are a large share of total costs
C) employees lack motivation to increase their skills
D) employees focus on seeking promotions to earn more pay
E) the focus is on average performance rather than optimum performance

Answer 2

labour costs are a small share of total costs

Question 3

Observable behaviours that indicate the level of competency within each competency set are known as:

A) cognitive patterns
B) competence builders
C) core competencies
D) behavioural descriptors
E) core mnemonics

Answer 3

behavioural descriptors

Question 4

Which of the following is true about competencies?

A) They focus on average performance rather than optimum performance.
B) They discourage employees from assuming leadership roles.
C) They fail to provide a common basis for working together.
D) They create risks that need to be managed due to inferred proficiencies.
E) They make people lose their focus.

Question 5

The most important decision in competency analysis is: ______.

A) deciding what information to collect
B) clarifying the objective of the plan
C) deciding who to involve
D) establishing certification methods
E) conducting research

Question 6

Lack of reliability with evaluators:

A) is common when evaluators work in similar jobs to those being evaluated
B) can be reduced by training
C) has little effect on results
D) increases when employees are unionized
E) is a greater problem in quantitative job evaluation than conventional job evaluation

Question 7

Determining the relative worth of jobs to the organization is an example of:

A) validity
B) consistency
C) acceptability
D) reliability
E) subjectivity

Question 8

Which of the following is an advantage of the job-based pay structure?

A) flexibility
B) sense of progress
C) continuous learning
D) lateral movement
E) reduced workforce

Question 9

A job-based plan pays employees for the job to which they are assigned, regardless of the skills they possess.

Question 10

Employees like the control over their work lives that comes with the skill-based structure.

Question 11

Behavioural descriptors translate the core competencies into specific actions.

Question 12

List the basic decisions involved in determining a skill-based structure.

Question 13

What are the three key elements of a competency-based approach?

Question 14

Compare and contrast earlier schools of thought concerning competencies with more recent conceptions.