Chapter 01 Human Resource Management: A Strategic Function
Chapter 01
Human Resource Management: A Strategic Function
True / False Questions
1. Human resource management (HRM) encompasses those activities designed to provide for and coordinate the human resources of an organization.
True False
2. The Human Resource (HR) function in an organization represents one of the organization's largest investments.
True False
3. Human resource development is concerned with designing and implementing compensation and benefit systems for all employees.
True False
4. Human resource management is seen as being much narrower and more clerically oriented than personnel management.
True False
5. One of the human resource functions is to provide assistance to employees with personal problems that influence their work performance.
True False
6. The primary function of a human resource department is to provide support to operating managers on all human resource matters.
True False
7. A human resource generalist is a manager who performs human resource functions in addition to his normal managerial activities.
True False
8. A human resource department normally acts in an advisory capacity and does not have authority over operating managers.
True False
9. Today HRM is clearly divorced from the management and the strategic planning process of the organization, and occupies a purely administrative role.
True False
10. The age of retirement has been gradually decreasing over the last ten years.
True False
11. Downsizing is the laying off of large numbers of managerial and other employees.
True False
12. Fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, service, and speed is known as outsourcing.
True False
13. Telecommuting is becoming more popular in today's organizations.
True False
14. It is desirable for human resource managers to become well-rounded businesspeople.
True False
15. HR managers should take a moralistic approach when dealing with operating managers, ceasing to focus on the importance of increasing profits.
True False
16. The level of communication should be determined by the instigator of the communication.
True False
17. The HR scorecard system uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures to evaluate performance.
True False
18. Information is the raw material from which data is developed.
True False
19. The Web-based human resource systems (eHR) that many organizations have implemented have not really helped to communicate human resource programs.
True False
Multiple Choice Questions
20. When an organization is sold, the purchase price may be higher than the total value of the physical and financial assets. This difference is sometimes called ____.
A. virtual value
B. goodwill
C. level price
D. potential value
21. Which of the following major HR functions would include forecasting HR requirements of the organization?
A. Compensation and benefits
B. Development
C. Employee and labor relations
D. Planning, recruitment, and selection
22. Which of the following major HR functions would include providing assistance to employees with personal problems?
A. Development
B. Employee and labor relations
C. Research
D. Safety and health
23. Which of the following major HR functions would include designing discipline and grievance handling systems?
A. Safety and health
B. Employee and labor relations
C. Planning, recruitment, and selection
D. Research
24. Which of the following major HR functions would include providing a human resource information base?
A. Compensation and benefits
B. Development
C. Employee and labor relations
D. Research
25. Which of the following major HR functions would include building effective teams within the organization?
A. Development
B. Employee and labor relations
C. Research
D. Safety and health
26. The major functions of human resource management include all of the following EXCEPT:
A. Human resource selection
B. Financial management
C. Compensation and benefit administration
D. Safety and health
27. A human resource generalist is:
A. an HR professional who works on a freelance basis with several small companies.
B. one who devotes most of his time to HR issues but does not specialize in any one area.
C. a person specially trained in one or more areas of human resource management.
D. a manager who performs HR functions in addition to his normal managerial activities.
28. _____ refers to the broad spectrum of HR activities involved in obtaining and managing the organization's human resources.
A. Human resource development
B. Human resource research
C. Talent management
D. Employee and labor relations
29. In small organizations, most human resource functions are performed by the owner or by ____.
A. human resource generalists
B. operating managers
C. human resource specialists
D. talent managers
30. The text identifies the primary function of the human resource department as that of:
A. maintaining personnel records and engaging in human resource research.
B. hiring and firing employees.
C. providing support to operating managers on all human resource matters.
D. administering payroll.
31. The age of the American workforce on average is:
A. decreasing.
B. increasing.
C. remaining constant.
D. impossible to predict.
32. Which of the following is NOT an advantage of an older workforce?
A. Adaptability
B. Experience
C. Reliability
D. Stability
33. According to a survey published in Monthly Labor Review, November 2009, almost half the new entrants during the 2008 – 2018 time span will be ____.
A. men
B. women
C. white men
D. Hispanic women
34. The _____ labor force is the smallest group in the U.S. labor force.
A. Hispanic
B. White
C. Asian
D. Black
35. Which of the following is a disadvantage in increasing organizational diversity?
A. Wider viewpoints
B. Tolerance of behavioral variety
C. Responsiveness to diverse customer base
D. More time required to deal with interest groups
36. Continuous and proactive assessment of mission-critical work and its staffing requirements is known as ____.
A. reengineering
B. rightsizing
C. downsizing
D. outsourcing
37. The laying off of large numbers of managerial and other employees is known as:
A. downsizing.
B. outsourcing.
C. rightsizing.
D. reengineering.
38. Subcontracting work to an outside company that specializes in that particular type of work is known as ____.
A. rightsizing
B. downsizing
C. outsourcing
D. reengineering
39. Fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, service, and speed is known as ____.
A. downsizing
B. reengineering
C. rightsizing
D. outsourcing
40. 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. employees report to a single manager.
D. workers are involved in telecommuting.
41. Empowerment is a management approach which involves:
A. giving managers the power to hire and fire employees.
B. giving subordinates substantial authority to make decisions.
C. subcontracting the work to an outside company.
D. centralization of power in the hands of top management.
42. Working at home by using an electronic linkup with a central office is known as ____.
A. reengineering
B. outsourcing
C. empowerment
D. telecommuting
43. In the majority of Fortune 500 companies, the head of the human resource department, usually a vice president, answers to the 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 HR managers:
A. are continuing to occupy a largely administrative role in most modern organizations.
B. are dealing with a shrinking role in most organizations today.
C. today need to possess competencies far less sophisticated than their predecessors.
D. are increasingly involved in the organization's strategic and policy-making activities.
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 to help HR managers to:
A. become more familiar with their businesses.
B. learn more about present and future trends in HR.
C. take a moralistic approach when dealing with operating managers.
D. view their role in the organization primarily as transactional.
45. Metrics refers to _____ used to assess workforce performance.
A. any set of qualitative measures
B. any set of quantitative measures
C. any online database
D. any set of qualitative and quantitative measures
46. The HR scorecard system:
A. uses largely quantitative measures.
B. is the predecessor of the balance scorecard system.
C. measures the overall contribution of the HR function to the well-being of the organization.
D. relates specifically to measures about people in the organization and their performances.
47. Which of the following is a measurement and control system that uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures to evaluate performance?
A. Metrics
B. Business intelligence
C. HR scorecard
D. Dashboarding
48. 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. Avoid interpreting data when transmitting it.
49. Which of the following can be defined as "the raw material from which information is developed; it is composed of acts that describe people, places, things, or events that have not been interpreted"?
A. Communication
B. Data
C. Knowledge
D. Perception
Essay Questions
50. What are the six major functions of human resource management as identified by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)?
51. Explain the human resource development function carried out by the human resource management.
52. Explain the terms human resource generalist and human resource specialist.
53. Identify the three types of assistance provided by human resource departments, giving an example of each.
54. What are the various advantages and disadvantages of diversity in the workforce?
55. What are the various factors which cause structural changes in an organization?
56. What is telecommuting?
57. Explain the term empowerment.
58. Point out at least five different ways in which human resource managers can have a direct impact on organizational performance.
59. List the various guidelines to be followed for communicating human resource programs.
Chapter 01 Human Resource Management: A Strategic Function Answer Key
True / False Questions
1. (p. 3) Human resource management (HRM) encompasses those activities designed to provide for and coordinate the human resources of an organization.
TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
2. (p. 3) The Human Resource (HR) function in an organization represents one of the organization's largest investments.
TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
3. (p. 4) Human resource development is concerned with designing and implementing compensation and benefit systems for all employees.
FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
4. (p. 4) Human resource management is seen as being much narrower and more clerically oriented than personnel management.
FALSE
Difficulty: Medium
5. (p. 4) One of the human resource functions is to provide assistance to employees with personal problems that influence their work performance.
TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
6. (p. 5) The primary function of a human resource department is to provide support to operating managers on all human resource matters.
TRUE
Difficulty: Medium
7. (p. 5) A human resource generalist is a manager who performs human resource functions in addition to his normal managerial activities.
FALSE
Difficulty: Medium
8. (p. 6) A human resource department normally acts in an advisory capacity and does not have authority over operating managers.
TRUE
Difficulty: Medium
9. (p. 6) Today HRM is clearly divorced from the management and the strategic planning process of the organization, and occupies a purely administrative role.
FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
10. (p. 7) The age of retirement has been gradually decreasing over the last ten years.
FALSE
Difficulty: Medium
11. (p. 9) Downsizing is the laying off of large numbers of managerial and other employees.
TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
12. (p. 9) Fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, service, and speed is known as outsourcing.
FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
13. (p. 10) Telecommuting is becoming more popular in today's organizations.
TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
14. (p. 11) It is desirable for human resource managers to become well-rounded businesspeople.
TRUE
Difficulty: Medium
15. (p. 11) HR managers should take a moralistic approach when dealing with operating managers, ceasing to focus on the importance of increasing profits.
FALSE
Difficulty: Medium
16. (p. 13) The level of communication should be determined by the instigator of the communication.
FALSE
Difficulty: Medium
17. (p. 13) The HR scorecard system uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures to evaluate performance.
TRUE
Difficulty: Medium
18. (p. 14) Information is the raw material from which data is developed.
FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
19. (p. 14) The Web-based human resource systems (eHR) that many organizations have implemented have not really helped to communicate human resource programs.
FALSE
Difficulty: Medium
Multiple Choice Questions
20. (p. 3-4) When an organization is sold, the purchase price may be higher than the total value of the physical and financial assets. This difference is sometimes called ____.
A. virtual value
B. goodwill
C. level price
D. potential value
Difficulty: Easy
21. (p. 4) Which of the following major HR functions would include forecasting HR requirements of the organization?
A. Compensation and benefits
B. Development
C. Employee and labor relations
D. Planning, recruitment, and selection
Difficulty: Medium
22. (p. 4) Which of the following major HR functions would include providing assistance to employees with personal problems?
A. Development
B. Employee and labor relations
C. Research
D. Safety and health
Difficulty: Medium
23. (p. 4) Which of the following major HR functions would include designing discipline and grievance handling systems?
A. Safety and health
B. Employee and labor relations
C. Planning, recruitment, and selection
D. Research
Difficulty: Medium
24. (p. 4) Which of the following major HR functions would include providing a human resource information base?
A. Compensation and benefits
B. Development
C. Employee and labor relations
D. Research
Difficulty: Medium
25. (p. 4) Which of the following major HR functions would include building effective teams within the organization?
A. Development
B. Employee and labor relations
C. Research
D. Safety and health
Difficulty: Medium
26. (p. 4) The major functions of human resource management include all of the following EXCEPT:
A. Human resource selection
B. Financial management
C. Compensation and benefit administration
D. Safety and health
Difficulty: Easy
27. (p. 5) A human resource generalist is:
A. an HR professional who works on a freelance basis with several small companies.
B. one who devotes most of his time to HR issues but does not specialize in any one area.
C. a person specially trained in one or more areas of human resource management.
D. a manager who performs HR functions in addition to his normal managerial activities.
Difficulty: Medium
28. (p. 5) _____ refers to the broad spectrum of HR activities involved in obtaining and managing the organization's human resources.
A. Human resource development
B. Human resource research
C. Talent management
D. Employee and labor relations
Difficulty: Easy
29. (p. 5) In small organizations, most human resource functions are performed by the owner or by ____.
A. human resource generalists
B. operating managers
C. human resource specialists
D. talent managers
Difficulty: Medium
30. (p. 5) The text identifies the primary function of the human resource department as that of:
A. maintaining personnel records and engaging in human resource research.
B. hiring and firing employees.
C. providing support to operating managers on all human resource matters.
D. administering payroll.
Difficulty: Medium
31. (p. 6) The age of the American workforce on average is:
A. decreasing.
B. increasing.
C. remaining constant.
D. impossible to predict.
Difficulty: Medium
32. (p. 7) Which of the following is NOT an advantage of an older workforce?
A. Adaptability
B. Experience
C. Reliability
D. Stability
Difficulty: Medium
33. (p. 7) According to a survey published in Monthly Labor Review, November 2009, almost half the new entrants during the 2008 – 2018 time span will be ____.
A. men
B. women
C. white men
D. Hispanic women
Difficulty: Medium
34. (p. 7) The _____ labor force is the smallest group in the U.S. labor force.
A. Hispanic
B. White
C. Asian
D. Black
Difficulty: Medium
35. (p. 8) Which of the following is a disadvantage in increasing organizational diversity?
A. Wider viewpoints
B. Tolerance of behavioral variety
C. Responsiveness to diverse customer base
D. More time required to deal with interest groups
Difficulty: Medium
36. (p. 9) Continuous and proactive assessment of mission-critical work and its staffing requirements is known as ____.
A. reengineering
B. rightsizing
C. downsizing
D. outsourcing
Difficulty: Easy
37. (p. 9) The laying off of large numbers of managerial and other employees is known as:
A. downsizing.
B. outsourcing.
C. rightsizing.
D. reengineering.
Difficulty: Easy
38. (p. 9) Subcontracting work to an outside company that specializes in that particular type of work is known as ____.
A. rightsizing
B. downsizing
C. outsourcing
D. reengineering
Difficulty: Easy
39. (p. 9) Fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, service, and speed is known as ____.
A. downsizing
B. reengineering
C. rightsizing
D. outsourcing
Difficulty: Easy
40. (p. 10) 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. employees report to a single manager.
D. workers are involved in telecommuting.
Difficulty: Medium
41. (p. 10) Empowerment is a management approach which involves:
A. giving managers the power to hire and fire employees.
B. giving subordinates substantial authority to make decisions.
C. subcontracting the work to an outside company.
D. centralization of power in the hands of top management.
Difficulty: Medium
42. (p. 10) Working at home by using an electronic linkup with a central office is known as ____.
A. reengineering
B. outsourcing
C. empowerment
D. telecommuting
Difficulty: Easy
43. (p. 10-11) In the majority of Fortune 500 companies, the head of the human resource department, usually a vice president, answers to the 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 HR managers:
A. are continuing to occupy a largely administrative role in most modern organizations.
B. are dealing with a shrinking role in most organizations today.
C. today need to possess competencies far less sophisticated than their predecessors.
D. are increasingly involved in the organization's strategic and policy-making activities.
Difficulty: Medium
44. (p. 11) 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 to help HR managers to:
A. become more familiar with their businesses.
B. learn more about present and future trends in HR.
C. take a moralistic approach when dealing with operating managers.
D. view their role in the organization primarily as transactional.
Difficulty: Medium
45. (p. 12) Metrics refers to _____ used to assess workforce performance.
A. any set of qualitative measures
B. any set of quantitative measures
C. any online database
D. any set of qualitative and quantitative measures
Difficulty: Medium
46. (p. 13) The HR scorecard system:
A. uses largely quantitative measures.
B. is the predecessor of the balance scorecard system.
C. measures the overall contribution of the HR function to the well-being of the organization.
D. relates specifically to measures about people in the organization and their performances.
Difficulty: Medium
47. (p. 13) Which of the following is a measurement and control system that uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures to evaluate performance?
A. Metrics
B. Business intelligence
C. HR scorecard
D. Dashboarding
Difficulty: Easy
48. (p. 14) 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. Avoid interpreting data when transmitting it.
Difficulty: Medium
49. (p. 14) Which of the following can be defined as "the raw material from which information is developed; it is composed of acts that describe people, places, things, or events that have not been interpreted"?
A. Communication
B. Data
C. Knowledge
D. Perception
Difficulty: Medium
Essay Questions
50. (p. 4) What are the six major functions of human resource management as identified by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)?
The six major functions of human resource management as identified by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) are:
1) Human resource planning, recruitment, and selection.
2) Human resource development.
3) Compensation and benefits.
4) Safety and health.
5) Employee and labor relations.
6) Human resource research.
Difficulty: Medium
51. (p. 4) Explain the human resource development function carried out by the human resource management.
The human resource development function involves the following activities:
( 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.
Difficulty: Easy
52. (p. 5) Explain the terms human resource generalist and human resource specialist.
A human resource generalist is a person who devotes a majority of working time to human resource issues, but does not specialize in any specific areas of human resource management. A human resource specialist is a person specially trained in one or more areas of human resource management (e.g., labor relations specialist, wage and salary specialist).
Difficulty: Easy
53. (p. 6) Identify the three types of assistance provided by human resource departments, giving an example of each.
The human resource department can be seen as providing three types of assistance:
1) specific services, like maintaining employee records and handling initial phases of employee orientation;
2) advice, as in disciplinary matters and equal employment opportunity matters; and
3) coordination, for example of performance appraisals and compensation matters.
Difficulty: Medium
54. (p. 8) What are the various advantages and disadvantages of diversity in the workforce?
Diversity in the workforce encompasses many different dimensions, including sex, race, national origin, religion, age, sexual orientation, and disability.
Greater diversity will not only create certain specific challenges but also make some important contributions. Communication problems are certain to occur, including misunderstandings among employees and managers as well as the need to translate verbal and written materials into several languages. Solutions to these problems will necessitate additional training involving work in basic skills such as writing and problem solving. An increase in organizational factionalism will require dedicating increasing amounts of time to dealing with special interest and advocacy groups.
In addition to creating the above challenges, greater diversity presents new opportunities.
Diversity contributes to creating an organizational culture that is more tolerant of different behavioral styles and wider views. This often leads to better business decisions. Another potential payoff is a greater responsiveness to diverse groups of customers.
Difficulty: Medium
55. (p. 9) What are the various factors which cause structural changes in an organization?
Structural changes in an organization are caused by downsizing, outsourcing, rightsizing, and reengineering. Downsizing involves laying off large numbers of managerial and other employees. As a result of downsizing and/or attempts to reduce costs, many companies are outsourcing services that the human resource department previously provided. Outsourcing entails subcontracting work to an outside company that specializes in that particular type of work. Rightsizing is the continuous and proactive assessment of mission-critical work and its staffing requirements. Rightsizing differs from downsizing in that it is an ongoing planning process to determine the optimal number of employees in every area of the organization. Reengineering is a fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, service, and speed. In essence, reengineering usually results in sweeping changes in management and organizational structures.
Difficulty: Hard
56. (p. 10) What is telecommuting?
Telecommuting refers to working at home by using an electronic linkup with a central office. More and more frequently, companies are using telecommuting. Options range from allowing employees to work at home one day a week to running entire projects, or even firms, through electronic communication, with employees all over the country or even on different continents working closely together, yet never meeting face to face.
Difficulty: Easy
57. (p. 10) Explain the term empowerment.
Empowerment is a form of decentralization that involves giving subordinates substantial authority to make decisions. Under empowerment, managers express confidence in the ability of employees to perform at high levels. Employees are also encouraged to accept personal responsibility for their work.
Difficulty: Easy
58. (p. 12) Point out at least five different ways in which human resource managers can have a direct impact on organizational performance.
Human resource managers can have a direct impact on organizational performance in the following ways:
( Reducing unnecessary overtime expenses by increasing productivity during a normal day.
( Staying on top of absenteeism and instituting programs designed to reduce money spent for time not worked.
( Eliminating wasted time by employees through sound job design.
( Minimizing employee turnover and unemployment benefit costs by practicing sound human relations and creating a work atmosphere that promotes job satisfaction.
( Installing and monitoring effective safety and health programs to reduce lost-time, accidents and keep medical and workers' compensation costs low.
( Properly training and developing all employees so they can improve their value to the company and do a better job of producing and selling high-quality products and services at the lowest possible cost.
( Decreasing costly material waste by eliminating bad work habits and attitudes and poor working conditions that lead to carelessness and mistakes.
( Hiring the best people available at every level and avoiding overstaffing.
( Maintaining competitive pay practices and benefit programs to foster a motivational climate for employees.
( Encouraging employees, who probably know more about the nuts and bolts of their jobs than anyone else, to submit ideas for increasing productivity and reducing costs.
( Installing human resource information systems to streamline and automate many human resource functions.
Difficulty: Hard
59. (p. 13-14) List the various guidelines to be followed for communicating human resource programs.
The following are some of the guidelines HR managers can follow to effectively communicate human resource programs:
( Avoid communicating in peer group or "privileged-class" language.
( Don't ignore the cultural and global aspects of communication.
( Back up communications with management action.
( Periodically reinforce employee communications.
( Transmit information and not just data.
( Don't ignore the perceptual and behavioral aspects of communication.
Difficulty: Medium
................
................
In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.
To fulfill the demand for quickly locating and searching documents.
It is intelligent file search solution for home and business.
Related searches
- human resource management pdf download
- human resource management pdf book
- human resource management dessler pdf
- human resource management plan sample
- human resource management plan
- human resource management ppt
- human resource management books free download
- human resource management metrics
- why is human resource management important
- human resource management functions
- human resource management system
- human resource management 13th edition pdf