Fundamentals Of Human Resource Management 3rd Edition Raymond Noe - Solutions

3. Birth control is more widely available than before but is still considered unethical by some. What other kinds of medical treatment might raise ethical questions? In deciding which of these treatments a benefits package should cover, whose ethical principles should count—those of top
2. The reasons for covering certain treatments but not others in a health care plan may be based on business criteria (cost of the coverage, attractiveness to employees) or other criteria, such as judgment about whether a treatment is ethical. Which criteria are appropriate for an employer to use?
1.If a company decides not to offer certain benefits, such as insurance covering contraceptives, who is affected by this decision? Who is harmed? Who benefits?
2. Suggest one way for this manager to make the lunch benefit more valuable.
1. Do you think you would appreciate having lunch with your manager once a week?Why or why not? Do you think this manager was realistic to assume his employees would appreciate this benefit?
3. In employee-owned companies—notably, those using ESOPs—all the employee-owners see their earnings rise and fall with the stock market. If you were an HR manager at an employee-owned company, how would you recommend that the company handle the possible effects on employees' motivation?
2. The opposite is true, too: when the stock market is rising, most CEOs' compensation is growing, even if the CEOs are doing a mediocre or poor job. How can a compensation package that emphasizes stock be adjusted to keep executives motivated.7
1. According to the case, when stock prices in general are falling, the value of most CEOs' compensation drops, whether or not particular CEOs are effective.How do you think this affects CEOs' incentive to perform well? (For example, consider including other forms of performance-related pay.)
10. In a typical large corporation, the majority of the chief executive's pay is tied to the company's stock price. What are some benefits of this pay strategy?Some risks? How can organizations address the risks?
9. How can the way an organization creates and carries out its incentive plan improve the effectiveness of that plan?
8. Why might a balanced scorecard like the one in Question 7 be more effective than simply using merit pay for a manager?
7. Based on the balanced scorecard in Table 12.2, what would be the total incentive paid to a manager if the group's return on capital employed was 12 percent, customers returned 1 product out of every 1,200 products delivered, cycle time was reduced by 5 percent, and employee turnover was 4
6. Stock options have been called the pay program that"built Silicon Valley," because of their key role as incentive pay for employees in high-tech companies.They were popular during the 1990s, when the stock market was rising rapidly. Since then, stock prices have fallen.a. How would you expect
5. Why do some organizations link incentive pay to the organization's overall performance? Is it appropriate to use stock performance as an incentive for employees at all levels? Why or why not?
4. Suppose you are a human resource professional at a company that is setting up work teams for production and sales. What group incentives would you recommend to support this new work arrangement?
3. What are the pros and cons of linking incentive pay to individual performance? How can organizations address the negatives?
2. Consider your current job or a job that you have recently held. Would you be most motivated in response to incentives based on your individual performance, your group's performance, or the organization's overall performance (profits or stock price)? Why?
1. With some organizations and jobs, pay is primarily wages or salaries, and with others, incentive pay is more important. For each of the following jobs, state whether you think the pay should emphasize base pay (wages and salaries) or incentive pay (bonuses, profit sharing, and so on). Give a
3. Could an employee stock ownership plan also contribute to unethical conduct in an organization?Why or why not?
2. IMA president Bob Reiter explains employees'commitment to the company's values as being partly the result of their owning shares of IMA's stock. In what ways might employee stock ownership plans contribute to ethical conduct? In what circumstances would stock ownership plans effectively promote
1. How does this description of IMA's conduct compare with your own understanding of business ethics?
3. Imagine you are an HR manager in a company that has decided to create a formal policy for paying wage differentials and offering benefits to Army Reserve and National Guard members who are called to active duty.a. Summarize the message(s) you would communicate about this policy to the employees
2. Applying the principles of equity theory, how well do these pay policies meet the criteria for fairness?
1. Do the companies described in this case seem to have a solid business argument for paying differentials and other benefits to Reservists when they are called to active duty? Why or why not?
3. If you worked in the HR department of a software company that is concerned about ensuring it is complying with requirements for overtime pay, what actions would you recommend that the company take?
2. How can a carefully planned pay structure help an organization comply with legal requirements for overtime pay?
1. In today's fast-paced, high-tech, quality-driven business environment, is tracking employees' hours and paying overtime a reasonable requirement? Why or why not?
10. Do you think U.S. companies pay their chief executives too much? Why or why not?
9. Why do some employers subsidize the pay of military reserve members called up to active duty? If the military instead paid these people the wage they command in the civilian market (that is, the salary they earn at their regular jobs), who would bear the cost?When neither the reserve members'
8. Suppose the company in Question 1 wants to establish a skills-based pay structure. What would be some advantages of this approach? List the issues the company should be prepared to address in setting up this system. Consider the kinds of information you will need and the ways employees may react
7. What are the advantages of establishing pay ranges, rather than specific pay levels, for each job? What are the drawbacks of this approach?
6. Imagine that you manage human resources for a small business. You have recently prepared a report on the market rate of pay for salespeople, and the company's owner says the market rate is too high. The company cannot afford this level of pay, and furthermore, paying that much would cause
5. Summarize the way organizations use information about jobs as a basis for a pay structure.
4. Suppose you work in the HR department of a manufacturing company that is planning to enrich jobs by having production workers work in teams and rotate through various jobs. The pay structure will have to be adjusted to fit this new work design. How would you expect the employees to evaluate the
3. Why might an organization choose to pay employees more than the market rate? Why might it choose to pay less? What are the consequences of paying more or less than the market rate?
2. In gathering data for its pay policies, what product markets would a city's hospital want to use as a basis for comparison? What labor markets would be relevant?How might the labor markets for surgeons be different from the labor markets for nursing aides?
1. In setting up a pay structure, what legal requirements must an organization meet? Which of these do you think would be most challenging for a small start-up business? Why?
3. Suppose you are an HR manager for a restaurant chain. The company is concerned about rising food costs and wants to evaluate its pay policy to look for cost savings. What ethical criteria do you want to emphasize as you do so?
2. Is it ethical for business to expect employees will help cover business expenses? What do you think about the argument that servers think of themselves as "self-employed"?
1. How well do you think the policy of deducting a share of transaction fees from tips meets a restaurant's business, legal, and fairness requirements for pay?
3. Suppose you work in the HR department of a company considering a no-smoking policy. You have been asked to recommend the responses that managers should take if one of their employees is found to have been smoking. What would you recommend?
2. What specific aspects of job satisfaction does Miracle-Gro's policy affect? How could the policy be modified to improve job satisfaction?
1. Does the no-smoking policy at Scott's Miracle-Gro Company meet the principles of justice described in this chapter? If not, what could the company do to reduce unfairness without significantly increasing costs?
3. This case emphasizes methods for discouraging the behavior of absenteeism, rather than improving worker satisfaction in the hope that improved attendance will follow. If you were a manager, in what situations would you focus on detecting and punishing absenteeism, and when would you emphasize
2. For each example, describe one other action the company could take to reduce absences in a way that meets the principles of justice.
1. This case presents examples from Wal-Mart, Delphi, and an unnamed manufacturing company. Evaluate whether the company's actions in each example met the principles of justice described in this chapter.
7. What are the four factors that influence an employee's job dissatisfaction (or satisfaction)? Which of these do you
6. List forms of behavior that can signal job withdrawal.Choose one of the behaviors you listed, and describe how you would respond if an otherwise valuable employee whom you supervised engaged in this kind of behavior.
5. A risk of disciplining employees is that some employees retaliate. To avoid that risk, what organizational policies might encourage low-performing employees to leave while encouraging high-performing employees to stay? (Consider the sources of employee satisfaction and dissatisfaction discussed
4- The progressive discipline process described in this chapter is meant to be fair and understandable, but it tends to be slow. Try to think of two or three offenses that should result in immediate discharge, rather than follow all the steps of progressive discipline. Explain why you selected
3. For the situation in Question 2, how would a formal discipline policy help the organization address issues of fairness?
2. A member of a restaurant's serving staff is chronically late to work. From the organization's point of view, what fairness issues are involved in deciding how to handle this situation? In what ways might the employee's and other servers' ideas of fairness be different?
1. Give an example of voluntary turnover and an example of involuntary turnover. Why should organizations try to reduce both kinds of turnover?
3. Imagine that you are an HR manager for a company that plans to conduct time and motion studies to improve productivity. Suggest how you might help the company launch the program in a way that treats employees ethically. What business advantages are associated with this concern for ethics?
2. What measures of fairness could Sport Chalet's employees apply to the company's plans for improving productivity? From the evidence given, would you say the company treated these employees ethically?
1. For a company launching an effort to improve productivity, why is employee satisfaction important?What consequences could result from neglecting this issue?
3. How well does Ernst & Young's approach to development fulfill the steps and responsibilities of the career management process (see Figure 9.3)? Besides the efforts described in the case, what else should Ernst 6k Young and its accountants do to fulfill all these steps and responsibilities?
2. Which approaches to development does Ernst &Young use to address the challenge of the glass ceiling?
1. Why is breaking the glass ceiling a significant business consideration for Ernst & Young?
3. Do you think these development programs contribute to Toyota's strength as an automaker committed to continuous improvement and high quality? If you were an HR executive at a different auto company, would you suggest using similar approaches to development?Why or why not?
2. What advantages and disadvantages can you identify in Toyota's use of retired employees to coach people who are new in their positions?
1. Which of the four approaches to employee development(see Figure 9.1) are described in this case? Do you see any approaches that are missing?
12. Why might an organization benefit from giving employee development opportunities to a dysfunctional manager, rather than simply dismissing the manager?Do these reasons apply to nonmanagement employees as well?
1 1. What is the glass ceiling? What are the possible consequences to an organization that has a glass ceiling?How can employee development break the glass ceiling?Can succession planning help? Explain.
10. What are the manager's roles in a career management system? Which role do you think is most difficult for the typical manager? Which is the easiest role? List reasons why managers might resist becoming involved in career management.
9. Why should organizations be interested in helping employees plan their careers? What benefits can companies gain? What are the risks?
8. What are the three roles of a coach? How is a coach different from a mentor? What are some advantages of using someone outside the organization as a coach?Some disadvantages?
7. Many people feel that mentoring relationships should occur naturally, in situations where senior managers feel inclined to play that role. What are some advantages of setting up a formal mentoring program, rather than letting senior managers decide how and whom to help?
6. Many employees are unwilling to relocate because they like their current community and family members prefer not to move. Yet preparation for management requires that employees develop new skills, strengthen areas of weakness, and be exposed to new aspects of the organization's business. How can
5. In an organization that wants to use work experiences as a method of employee development, what basic options are available? Which of these options would be most attractive to you as an employee? Why?
4. A company that markets sophisticated business management software systems uses sales teams to help customers define needs and to create systems that meet those needs. The teams include programmers, salespeople who specialize in client industries, and software designers. Occasionally sales are
3. Recommend a development method for each of the following situations, and explain why you chose that method.a. An employee recently promoted to the job of plant supervisor is having difficulty motivating employees to meet quality standards.b. A sales manager annoys salespeople by dictating every
2. What are the four broad categories of development methods? Why might it be beneficial to combine all of these methods into a formal development program?
1. How does development differ from training? How does development support career management in modern organizations?
3. How might an HR department help to develop financial executives who are ethical leaders and mentors?
2. If you were an employee who contributed to preparing an organization's financial statements, would having a CFO who places a high priority on ethical behavior help you meet high ethical standards?Why or why not?
1. In general, how might a senior executive mentor junior employees in behaving ethically?
3. Besides coaching managers to use all live points of the rating scale and deliver better feedback, how else should Malfitano consider reforming the performance management system at Wayne Farms? What other aspects of performance management should he consider?
2. Could it be that managers weren't making rating errors, but all Wayne Farms employees actually were performing at a level 2 or 3? If so, why would the performance management system still need to be improved?What purposes of performance management has it been failing to achieve?
1. At Wayne Farms, employees are rated on a 5-point scale, but all employees had been rated either 2 or 3. What rating errors by managers might explain this pattern?
3. What are some risks of posting the rating results on HCL's intranet, where they are accessible to employees?How would you recommend that the company address these risks?
2. The reviews described in this case are ratings. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this method?What other methods, besides ratings, would you recommend for HCL to use for evaluating performance?
1. Based on the information given, discuss how well HCL's performance management system addresses the strategic, administrative, and developmental purposes of performance management.
10. Suppose you are a human resource professional help- ing to improve the performance management system of a company that sells and services office equipment. The company operates a call center that takes calls from customers who are having problems with their equipment. Call center employees are
9. Besides giving employees feedback, what steps can a manager take to improve employees' performance?
8. Continuing the example in Question 7, imagine that you are preparing for your first performance feedback ses- sion. You want the feedback to be effective-that is, you want the feedback to result in improved performance. List five or six steps you can take to achieve your goal.
7. Suppose you were recently promoted to a supervisory job in a company where you have worked for two years. You genuinely like almost all your co-workers, who now report to you. The only exception is one employee, who dresses more formally than the others and frequently tells jokes that embarrass
6. Would the same sources be appropriate if the store in Question 5 used the performance appraisals to support decisions about which employees to promote?Explain.
5. Imagine that a pet supply store is establishing a new performance management system to help employees provide better customer service. Management needs to decide who should participate in measuring the performance of each of the store's salespeople. From what sources should the store gather
4- Consider how you might rate the performance of three instructors from whom you are cunently taking a course.( If you are currently taking only one or two courses, consider this course and two you recently completed.)a. Would it be harder to rate the instructors' performance or to rank their
3. How can involving employees in the creation of performance standards improve the effectiveness of a performance management system? (Consider the criteria for effectiveness listed in the chapter.)
2. Give two examples of an administrative decision that would be based on performance management information.Give two examples of developmental decisions based on this type of information.
1. How does a complete performance management system differ from the use of annual performance appraisals?
3. Imagine that you are an HR manager at Dell. How can you help the company avoid similar ethical and legal problems in the future?
2. Do goals related to short-term profits—for this month or this quarter—ever conflict with longerterm goals? Explain. Do these goals conflict with ethical standards? Explain.
1. Who benefits when a company's employees are focused on making the company more profitable?
3. Do you think e-learning might be an appropriate training method at Wegmans? Why or why not?For what aspects of training might it be most beneficial?
2. According to the case, how does Wegmans measure the success of its training? What other measures might be important?
1. How is training at Wegmans related to its organizational needs?
3. How could you assess whether using Innov8 to train managers is improving leadership at your company?

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Fundamentals Of Human Resource Management 3rd Edition Raymond Noe - Solutions

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