Deck 7: Employee Relations

Question 1

Which of the following is not likely to be an effect of workforce reduction?

A) Employee compensation usually increases when fewer employees are working for a company.
B) Job satisfaction and loyalty often decrease after a company experiences a workforce reduction.
C) Former employees may begin receiving unemployment benefits.
D) Remaining employees begin to take on more responsibilities and workload.
E) Remaining employees are anxious about job security after they survive a round of layoffs.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following is least likely to be an example of a work/life program arrangement?

A) Satellite offices of a large company are opened in various locations around large cities to reduce the stress associated with long commutes employees must make to get to the downtown office.
B) A mother needs to work approximately the same hours as school is in session so that she is able to take her children to school and pick them up from their after-school activities.
C) An employee is allowed to take the one-week of vacation time he has earned.
D) An employee is allowed to work from home three days a week during the hours that are most convenient for the employee.
E) An employee is allowed to come into work early and leave early two days a week in order to attend his son's basketball games and daughter's soccer games.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following terms is not commonly used to describe the elimination of employment positions?

A) Workforce reduction
B) Rightsizing
C) Downsizing
D) Erosion
E) Layoffs

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following types of employees must be paid for overtime work under governmental labor standards and pay provisions?

A) Administrators
B) Outside sales people
C) Secretaries
D) Executives
E) Professionals

Question 5

What did the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 do?

A) It set uniform minimum standards to assure that employee benefit plans are established and maintained in a fair and financially sound manner.
B) It mandated that companies create a financially sound employee pension plan for full- and part-time employees.
C) It developed standards for the minimum wages a company could pay its employees in order to fulfill Social Security retirement obligations.
D) It detailed what benefits a company must offer its employees.
E) It implemented a plan for job-sharing and flextime arrangements with employees who are paid on an hourly basis.

Question 6

Initiatives in workplace diversity focus on

A) meeting the legal guidelines of equal opportunity.
B) developing a workforce that is 50 percent men and 50 percent women.
C) understanding the ways in which people from different generations communicate and make decisions.
D) reducing lawsuits related to affirmative action.
E) recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce as a business imperative.

Question 7

In which decade was much of the employment law in the United States enacted?

A) 1890s
B) 1930s
C) 1850s
D) 1970s
E) 1990s

Question 8

What is the main purpose of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration?

A) To conduct surprise inspections of businesses to see what laws they are violating
B) To oversee the regulations intended to ensure safe and healthy working conditions for all employees.
C) To help employees seek restitution if they have suffered as a result of poor working conditions
D) To threaten all companies with the possibility of fines and other punishment if any employees are injured or killed
E) To improve the overall quality of the workforce in the United States and to increase global competitiveness

Question 9

In the ACORN model for handling generational diversity in the workplace, the "N" stands for

A) not limiting employees' right to speak out.
B) noticing the problems when generations talk to one another.
C) never forgetting that all employees are valuable.
D) nourishing retention to keep the best employees.
E) notifying people early of workplace reduction plans.

Question 10

What does the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) require of certain employers?

A) Provide 12 weeks of paid leave to an employee with a special family or medical circumstance.
B) Allow employees up to a year of unpaid leave to attend to a family medical emergency without the loss of their jobs.
C) Provide all employees with 10 weeks of job-protected leave for certain family and medical emergencies.
D) Provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to eligible employees for certain family and medical reasons.
E) Provide 12 weeks of leave at 50 percent of the employee's normal salary for a family or medical reason.

Question 11

Which of the following is an example of external factors affecting the perception of a firm's decision to downsize?

A) The downsizing corporation does not offer any kind of career or employment assistance to the employees that are being laid off.
B) A company begins assisting its employees who will be affected by the workforce reduction as soon as it is aware of potential reductions.
C) Other companies in the area quickly hire the employees laid off from the downsizing company.
D) The company considers how it will function after the workforce reduction has taken place.
E) External factors do not play a role in the perception of a company's downsizing decision; only internal factors are important.

Question 12

The design, arrangement, and use of equipment to maximize productivity and minimize fatigue and physical discomfort are known as

A) comfort engineering.
B) chiropractics.
C) preventative health.
D) massagonics.
E) ergonomics.

Question 13

By the 1980s, what type of analogy was being used to describe the workplace?

A) Master-servant
B) Athletic team
C) Social club
D) Prison
E) Family

Question 14

Which of the following categories of employment discrimination is not covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

A) National origin
B) Gender
C) Religion
D) Disabilities
E) Race

Question 15

Until the early 1900s, how could the relationship between employer and employee best be characterized?

A) Teamwork
B) Master-servant
C) Father-son
D) Mother-daughter
E) Supportive

Question 16

What concept governed employment up until the early 1900s?

A) Master-servant
B) Employment at will
C) Vesting
D) FLSA
E) Labor unions

Question 17

What is the psychological contract between an employee and his or her employer?

A) Terms of employment including the salary and benefits associated with an employee's position
B) Employee's perception about how the company should treat him or her as an employee
C) Beliefs, perceptions, expectations, and obligations that comprise an agreement between individuals and their organizations
D) Formal contract between individuals and their employer that details the beliefs and obligations of both parties
E) Contract an employee signs to verify that he or she is of sound mind to serve in the capacity outlined by his or her job title

Question 18

What is an employee who reports individual or corporate wrongdoing to either internal or external sources known as?

A) Tattletale
B) Ethics officer
C) Whistle-blower
D) Retaliator
E) Hostile worker

Question 19

What experiences effectively ended the loyalty and commitment-based contract that employees had developed with employers?

A) Employers took steps to cut costs through workforce reduction as the demands for global competitiveness increased.
B) Employers began to say that employees were not that valuable to the company's success.
C) Employees' desire for job security changed, and they no longer had a psychological need for security.
D) Employers began to offer work-life balance perks to lure talented workers away from their current employers, and loyalty suffered.
E) Employers felt that employees were not living up to the conditions of their psychological contracts.

Question 20

Which of the following situations may constitute quid pro quo sexual harassment?

A) Many male employees of a company make repeated remarks about how men are more intelligent than women, which makes the environment difficult for female employees.
B) A male coworker makes unwelcomed sexual advances toward a female coworker, which causes her to feel that her job is threatened.
C) A female employee asks one of her subordinates out to dinner over and over again even though he always tells her no, and he is beginning to feel uncomfortable around her.
D) A male manager suggests to one of his female employees that she will receive a raise if she wears shorter skirts and works "overtime" once a week.
E) A male employee often disseminates e-mails of a sexual nature to his coworkers that creates an awkward atmosphere for a couple of his female coworkers.

Question 21

Why would an organization strive to become an employer of choice?

Question 22

How does the level of job-related stress and fatigue in the United States generally compare to that in Japan?

A) The United States experiences a much higher level of stress-related symptoms from work than does Japan.
B) Due to the relatively slack work effort in both the United States and Japan, work-related stress and fatigue are uncommon.
C) Both countries experience nearly the same high levels of work-related stress and fatigue problems.
D) The overall work-related stress and fatigue levels in the United States are moderate compared to the high levels in Japan.
E) Although they are quite comparable, the United States workers experience slightly more stress-related problems than Japanese workers.

Question 23

Describe the transformation of the employee-employer contract over the past century.

Question 24

How can an individual employee potentially mitigate the onset and effects of downsizing?

Question 25

What are the three types of workplace violence?

Question 26

What is workplace diversity, and why might a firm embrace diversity?

Question 27

How is quid pro quo sexual harassment different from hostile work environment harassment?

Question 28

What are some issues to be considered before embarking on the downsizing process?

Question 29

Which of the following is least important in becoming an employer of choice?

A) The employer offers the highest pay in the industry.
B) The employer values the human component of business.
C) The employer maintains a proper balance between work and personal life.
D) The employer provides opportunities for training and personal development.
E) The employer provides competitive compensation and strong benefits.