Deck 1: Human Resource Management: a Strategic Function

Question 1

Human resource development is the HR function that is concerned with designing and implementing compensation and benefit systems for all employees.

Answer 1

False
Explanation: The human resource development function involves orienting and training employees, designing and implementing management and organizational development programs, building effective teams within the organizational structure, designing systems for appraising the performance of individual employees, assisting employees in developing career plans.

Question 2

The human resources (HR)of an organization represent one of its largest investments.

Answer 2

True
Explanation: The human resources (HR) of an organization represent one of its largest investments. In fact, government reports show that approximately 61 percent of national income is used to compensate employees.

Question 3

The retirement age has been gradually decreasing over the last ten years.

Answer 3

False
Explanation: With the aging of the overall U.S. population along with the emergence of the baby boomers, the percentage of older employees in the labor force is also expected to increase. One result of this trend is that the retirement age has already begun to increase.

Question 4

A human resource department normally acts in an advisory capacity and does not have authority over operating managers.

Question 5

Human resource management is seen as being much narrower and more clerically oriented than personnel management.

Question 6

Most human resource certification programs require a person to have specific experience and education.

Question 7

Talent management involves identifying and developing outstanding performers only in the middle management.

Question 8

One of the human resource functions is to provide assistance to employees with personal problems that influence their work performance.

Question 9

Fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost,quality,service,and speed is known as outsourcing.

Question 10

The primary function of a human resource department is to provide support to operating managers on all human resource matters.

Question 11

The level of communication should be determined by the instigator of the communication rather than the receiving audience.

Question 12

Human resource management (HRM)encompasses those activities designed to provide for and coordinate the human resources of an organization.

Question 13

The web-based human resource systems (eHR)that many organizations have implemented have not really helped to effectively communicate human resource programs.

Question 14

The HR scorecard system uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures to evaluate performance.

Question 15

Large organizations use operating managers to perform human resource functions instead of maintaining a human resource department.

Question 16

It is desirable for human resource managers to become well-rounded businesspeople.

Question 17

Today human resource management (HRM)is clearly isolated from both the management and the strategic planning process of an organization and occupies a purely administrative role.

Question 18

Information is the raw material from which data is developed.

Question 19

Telecommuting is becoming popular in today's organizations.

Question 20

Downsizing involves laying off large numbers of managerial and other employees.

Question 21

____ refers to the broad spectrum of human resource activities involved in obtaining and managing an organization's human resources.

A) Enterprise resource planning
B) Supply chain management
C) Talent management
D) Social audit

Question 22

A human resource generalist is a(n):

A) human resource professional who works on a freelance basis with several small companies.
B) individual who devotes most of his or her time to human resource issues, but does not specialize in any one area.
C) person specially trained in one or more areas of human resource management.
D) manager who specializes in recruiting and selecting employees for extremely large organizations.

Question 23

Continuous and proactive assessment of mission-critical work and its staffing requirements is known as ____.

A) crowdsourcing
B) rightsizing
C) downsizing
D) outsourcing

Question 24

The average age of the American workforce is:

A) decreasing.
B) increasing.
C) constant.
D) impossible to predict.

Question 25

Which of the following major human resource functions within an organization would include designing discipline and grievance handling systems?

A) Compensation and benefits
B) Employee and labor relations
C) Human resource planning, recruitment, and selection
D) Human resource development

Question 26

Which of the following major human resource functions would include building effective teams within an organizational structure?

A) Human resource development
B) Employee and labor relations
C) Human resource research
D) Safety and health

Question 27

When an organization is sold,the purchase price may be higher than the total value of its physical and financial assets.This difference is sometimes called ____.

A) social cost
B) goodwill
C) level price
D) potential value

Question 28

According to a survey published in Monthly Labor Review,January 2012,approximately 45 percent of the new entrants during the 2010-2020 time span will be ____.

A) men
B) women
C) white men
D) Hispanic women

Question 29

Subcontracting work to an outside company that specializes in that particular type of work is known as ____.

A) rightsizing
B) workshifting
C) outsourcing
D) reengineering

Question 30

Which of the following major human resource functions would include providing assistance to employees with personal problems that influence their work performance?

A) Human resource development
B) Compensation and benefits
C) Human resource research
D) Safety and health

Question 31

The major functions of human resource management identified by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)include all of the following EXCEPT:

A) human resource selection.
B) financial management.
C) compensation and benefit administration.
D) safety and health.

Question 32

Which of the following is a disadvantage of increasing organizational diversity?

A) Increased intolerance toward wider views
B) Reduced creativity among employees
C) Lack of responsiveness to diverse groups of customers
D) Additional time required to deal with special interest groups

Question 33

Which of the following major human resource functions would include providing a human resource information base?

A) Compensation and benefits
B) Human resource development
C) Employee and labor relations
D) Human resource research

Question 34

Fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost,quality,service,and speed is known as ____.

A) reverse mentoring
B) reengineering
C) rightsizing
D) outsourcing

Question 35

The primary function of the human resource department within an organization has been identified as that of:

A) financing the investment activities of the organization.
B) defining the mission and vision of the organization.
C) providing support to operating managers on all personnel matters.
D) designing and administering work processes.

Question 36

Which of the following major human resource functions would include forecasting the human resource requirements of an organization to achieve its objectives?

A) Compensation and benefits
B) Human resource training and development
C) Employee and labor relations
D) Human resource planning, recruitment, and selection

Question 37

The laying off of large numbers of managerial and other employees is known as:

A) downsizing.
B) outsourcing.
C) rightsizing.
D) crowdsourcing.

Question 38

The ____ labor force is the smallest group in the U.S.labor force.

A) Hispanic
B) white
C) Asian
D) black

Question 39

In small organizations,most human resource functions are performed by the owner or by ____.

A) chief ethical officers
B) operating managers
C) human resource specialists
D) talent managers

Question 40

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of an older workforce?

A) Adaptability
B) Experience
C) Reliability
D) Stability

Question 41

____ can be defined as "the raw material from which information is developed and it is composed of acts that describe people,places,things,or events that have not been interpreted."

A) Communication
B) Data
C) Knowledge
D) Metrics

Question 42

MR Systems Inc.has undergone certain structural changes in the recent years.These changes are posing new challenges to the human resource managers of the company.Describe some of the causes that can be attributed to such changes?

Question 43

Identify the three types of assistance provided by human resource departments with the help of examples.

Question 44

Spending more time with the line people,keeping a hand on the pulse of the organization,and learning to calculate costs and solutions in hard numbers are all suggestions that help human resource managers:

A) become more familiar with their businesses.
B) focus solely on their functional area.
C) play a limited role in strategic and policy-making activities.
D) take a moralistic approach when dealing with operating managers.

Question 45

What is telecommuting?

Question 46

In organizations using self-managed work teams:

A) employees are not responsible for their actions.
B) groups of peers are responsible for a particular area or task.
C) groups of employees report to a single manager.
D) employees lack the ability to make decisions.

Question 47

Which of the following is a measurement and control system that uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures to evaluate performance within organizations?

A) HR metrics
B) Gap analysis
C) Balanced scorecard
D) SWOT analysis

Question 48

What are the various advantages and disadvantages of diversity in the workforce?

Question 49

Metrics refers to:

A) any set of qualitative measures used to evaluate employees' productivity.
B) any set of quantitative measures used to assess workforce performance.
C) psychological tests used to evaluate the skills of an employee.
D) behavioral measures used to assess workforce knowledge.

Question 50

Explain the terms human resource generalist and human resource specialist.

Question 51

What are the six major functions of human resource management as identified by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)?

Question 52

Serena is a human resource manager at Alta Technologies Inc.What measures should she take to have a direct impact on the organizational performance?

Question 53

Explain the term empowerment.

Question 54

The HR scorecard system:

A) uses only quantitative measures to assess the profits generated by the human resource department.
B) is the predecessor of the balance scorecard system.
C) measures the contribution of the human resource function to the well-being of a firm.
D) is limited specifically to measures about people in an organization.

Question 55

Empowerment is a management approach which involves:

A) giving managers the power to fire their subordinates without a valid reason.
B) giving subordinates substantial authority to make decisions.
C) subcontracting work to an outside company.
D) concentrating the power to make decision in the hands of top management.

Question 56

Explain the human resource development function in human resource management.

Question 57

Which of the following is a guideline for effectively communicating human resource programs?

A) Avoid communicating in peer group or "privileged-class" language.
B) Disregard the cultural and global aspects of communication.
C) Ignore the perceptual and behavioral aspects of communication.
D) Transmit data instead of information.

Question 58

List the various guidelines to be followed for communicating human resource programs.

Question 59

In the majority of Fortune 500 companies,the head of the human resource department,usually a vice president,answers to the chief executive officer (CEO)of the company.In many companies,the head of the human resource department sits on the board of directors,the planning committee,or both.These trends are indicative of how human resource managers are:

A) expected to become more specialized in their specific area of function.
B) constantly dealing with a shrinking role in most organizations today.
C) required to possess competencies that are far less sophisticated than their predecessors.
D) increasingly involved in their organization's strategic and policy-making activities.

Question 60

Working at home by using an electronic linkup with a central office is known as ____.

A) reengineering
B) outsourcing
C) crowdsourcing
D) telecommuting