Questions and Answers of Fundamentals Of Human Resource Management

Do you believe it is always necessary to provide incentives as part of a pay structure? Why or why not?
As the HR manager, would you pay more attention to expectancy theory or equity theory in designing your compensation system? Why?
If your company had promised an incentive program right before the recession of 2007–2008, and if the recession made it impossible for the company to pay employees what they had been promised, then
Would you rather have higher pay or better benefits? Why?
Would you ever consider paying below the market rate for employees if you had control of wages? Why or why not?
How would you approach a CEO or company president who insisted on classifying nonexempt workers as exempt? What would you say to get the CEO to stop this practice?
Do you think that comparable worth should be made federal law? Why or why not?
If you were the lead HR manager in your company, would you ever consider setting pay levels by just using external pay surveys and no internal analysis? What are the advantages and disadvantages of
As the head of HR, would you rather change narrow pay levels into broadbands? Can you think of any disadvantages to doing so?
Only Costco as a physical retailer can go toe-to-toe with Walmart in the wholesale market and come out on top. Operating more than 715 membership warehouse stores, Costco is the nation’s largest
Would you rather be given the opportunity to receive incentives based on individual performance or group performance? Does it depend on the situation? Why?
Would you rather work on a commission basis if you were in sales, or would you rather have a salary—or a combination of both? Why?
Would you personally rather participate in a profit sharing plan or a gainsharing plan? Why?
Do you think incentive programs in general really work? Why or why not?
Would you rather have better benefits and a modest salary or a high salary and lower levels of benefits? Why?
Based on what is in the chapter, should the ACA federal health care legislation remain in its current form, or should we rescind the requirement that employers and/or employees have to pay a fine if
Is the vesting requirement in ERISA too long, too short, or just about right? Why did you answer the way that you did?
Should the United States mandate a certain amount of paid time off per year as many other countries currently do? Why or why not?
Do you think that in today’s workforce it is becoming necessary to have a “full-choice” flexible benefits plan? Why or why not?
Best Buy is one of the largest consumer electronics outlets in the United States and across the world. Its stores sell a variety of electronic gadgets and wearables, tablets, movies, music,
Is some number of occupational illnesses and injuries an acceptable part of doing business? Why or why not? Explain your answers.
Do you foresee a situation in which you would ever refuse to allow an OSHA inspector on your worksite? Why or why not?
What actions would you take if you were the company representative accompanying an OSHA inspector who found a serious violation in your company? Explain your answer.
Do you think the OSHA and NIOSH occupational safety and health requirements generally make sense? Why or why not?
If you were in charge, would you put an EAP into place at your company? How about an EWP? Why or why not?
Do you think that you suffer from too much stress? Name a few things that you could do to minimize the dysfunctional stress in your life.
Go through the process of how you would train your employees on a new business continuity and disaster recovery plan. What do you think the most important part of the training would be? Why?
Should smoking be banned in all buildings where smokers and nonsmokers have to work together? Why or why not?
What programs would you put into effect as a leader in order to make your employees understand that occupational safety and health are critical to a modern company?
ActioNet was founded in 1998 by president and CEO Ashley Chen. Key customers have included Qwest, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Labor. ActioNet provides information technology
Do you think the term ethics is overused in today’s business environment? Justify your answer.
Will applying the golden rule always result in a decision that you can defend as “ethical”? Why or why not?
Can you think of situations where someone might violate the code of ethics in a company but should not be punished for it?Give examples.
Using the concepts of authority, responsibility, and accountability, can you explain what should happen to an individual who misuses company resources for personal gain?Provide an example.
Has affirmative action gone too far in creating a preference for historically underrepresented groups over other employees and applicants instead of treating everyone equally?
Do you agree that companies have a duty to stakeholders other than their shareholders? If so, justify who else they are obligated to and why.
Can you identify one case where you think the government(state or federal) is the most important stakeholder of a firm?(Do not use the government as a customer but as another external stakeholder.)
Is sustainability just a marketing tool to get people to “think green,” or is it a necessary business tool? Defend your answer.
How would you motivate people in your organization to practice sustainability? Be specific with the managerial tools that you would use.
It really does pay to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 firm, according to the AFLCIO.The average S&P 500 chief executive made $13.1 million in 2016, 347 times more than the average U.S. worker did, up from
Do you expect that globalization of business will continue to expand? Why or why not?
Is it fair to utilize the least expensive “capital resources,” no matter where they come from? Why?
Should tariffs and other trade barriers be increased in order to protect jobs in the home country? Why or why not?
Do you believe that Hofstede’s culture model is accurate? If not, what would you change to make it more useful in training people to work in a different culture?
Is knowing the local language always necessary when working internationally? Why?
Who would you rather assign to manage a foreign office of your business? Would you rather have a home-country, host-country, or third-country national? Why?
Should companies reshore more jobs that have been moved overseas? What are the pros and cons of doing so?
If you were the HR manager, would you ever consider sending someone to work in another country without providing them with cultural training? If so, in what circumstances?
Which option for compensation would you want if you were assigned by your company to work in another country? Why?
Singapore is an island of 646 square kilometers, about the size of Chicago. It is located at one of the crossroads of the world. Singapore’s strategic position has helped it grow into a major
Why is it important for all business majors to take HRM?
Are you interested in becoming an HR manager? Why or why not?
Do you agree with the statement “Effectively utilizing the human resources within the organization is one of the few ways to create a competitive advantage in a modern business”? Why or why not?
Is employee engagement possible in an age when people tend to have very little loyalty to their employers and vice versa? How would you work to increase employee engagement as a manager?
Can HRM really create revenue for the organization? If so, how?
Identify some things (other than increasing pay) that could be done by a manager to increase productivity and employee engagement and decrease absenteeism and turnover. Make a list for each item.
If you were the HR manager for your organization, what would you do to increase the number of applicants who apply for “knowledge worker” positions in your organization? Assume you can’t pay
Is there anything that an individual within an organization can do to help improve relations among diverse workers? If so, what?
Some say that for managers, hard skills (technical and business skills) are more important than soft skills (interpersonal skills and conceptual and design skills). What do you think, and why?
Are external certification programs (in all jobs) becoming more important? Why?
When oil hit $26.21 a barrel in 2016, down from nearly $100 a barrel from 5 years earlier, jobs in the oil service industry were rare and people out of work. “Everyone [was] so hungry, it [was]
Can you name a business that you know of in which competition has increased significantly in the past few years? Why do you think competition has increased in this case?
What are some of the ways in which the environmental factors that we discussed directly affect the organization?
Do you agree that every organization needs a strategic plan?Why or why not?
Think about the technological changes that have occurred since you were born. Do you think those changes have affected the strategic planning process? How?
What should a mission statement focus on—customers, competitors, products/services, the employee environment, or something else? Identify why you chose a particular answer.
We discussed the three major generic strategies.Can you think of examples of each of the three strategies in specific businesses you know of? In your opinion, how successful have these companies been
If you were going to design the structure for a new, innovative start-up company, what kind of structure would you try to create in regard to level of complexity, formalization, and
Name some situations in HRM when you would want to use either economic value added (EVA) or return on investment(ROI) as an analytical tool.
Catalya Hats, a millinery company, began from a simple design of a Panama hat in Ricardo Catalya’s home in Ecuador. Mr. Catalya had no idea that when he created his first Panama hat in 1906 to
Do you agree that applying the OUCH test to an employment situation will minimize illegal discrimination? Why or why not?
Are there any groups of people in the United States that you think should be covered by federal laws as a protected group but are not currently covered? Why or why not?
In your opinion, is most discrimination in the United States unintentional (disparate impact), or is most discrimination intentional (disparate treatment)? Why do you think so?
What is your opinion of organizations using bona fide occupational qualifications (BFOQs) to limit who they will consider for a job?
Do you agree that most employers probably want to obey the Americans with Disabilities Act but don’t know exactly what they are required to do under the law? Do you think that most employers would
How would you define the terms “reasonable accommodation” and “undue hardship” if you were asked by one of your company managers?
Do you think that sexual harassment in the workplace is overreported or underreported? Justify your answer.
The Loxedose Company near Chicago transfers computer models into hard physical copies. Computer programmers design the representation, and machines sculpt the product line by line from the bottom to
Think of something you could make or build. Now analyze the workflows to make that item, using the information in the book. Don’t forget to identify what you would need in each category of the 4 Ms.
Think of a job that you have held or that was held by someone you know. If you were going to analyze that job using one of the methods in the book, which method would you use and why?
Can more than one of the four main approaches to job design be used at the same time to design a job? Can you provide an example of how this could work?
Are there any situations in which you might design a job using the JCM and yet the job would still not be motivational? What circumstances might cause this to happen?
Do you think that using flextime, telecommuting, job sharing, or compressed workweeks is really going to motivate employees?Why or why not?
Have you seen job simplification, job rotation, or job expansion being used in your workplace? (If you aren’t currently working, use a workplace that you are familiar with.) Did it work to motivate
Which of the three quantitative forecasting methods do you think would give you the most accurate forecast? Explain your choice.
Is a layoff, or downsizing, ever the best option to resolve a projected surplus in an organization? Justify your answer.
How much overtime is reasonable in a week? How long can the company expect workers to continue to work overtime before they see employee stress levels getting significantly higher than normal?
Walmart is the world’s largest company by revenue and is the world’s top retailer with more than 2.3 million employees. In the United States, Walmart operates more than 5,300 stores, including
Should you “shop” for good employees who are out of work in a bad economy, and then should you terminate existing employees who aren’t doing their jobs very well after finding a good
If you were in charge of your company, would you rather recruit new employees, or would you rather use some of the other tools for addressing a shortage of employees that were discussed in this and
In your personal experience, do you think that internal recruiting really improves organizational engagement, job satisfaction, and productivity? Why or why not?
Do you think targeted or closed recruiting leads to the potential for discrimination in recruiting efforts? Why or why not?
When would you definitely use the Internet as a recruiting tool, and when would you definitely not use the Internet to recruit?Why?
What could an organization do to improve its image if it has a bad reputation with recruits? Categorize your efforts into immediate-term and longer-term items.
If you were in charge of your company, what would you tell recruiters to do or not do to enhance their recruiting efforts?Why?
Do you think that you are a good “active listener”? Why or why not, and what could you do to become better?
What options do you see as alternatives to recruiting globally for knowledge-based jobs in the coming years?
The U.S. residential construction contracting industry includes about 160,000 establishments (single-location companies and units of multilocation companies) with annual revenue of about $425
Do you agree that selection of a top-quality candidate is a critical process in organizations, or do you think intensive training after the person is selected is more valuable? Explain your answer.
Should organizations be held liable by the justice system for negligent hires? Why or why not?

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