Answer Questions from Managing Human Resources, 9th edition in A PA format. Cite outside sources.

2-1. Are managers likely to question the work commitment of their contingent

workers? What might be the consequences for management when the majority of a company's workforce consists of temporary employees and contract workers?

2-2. What are the drawbacks to using flexible work hours from the organization's perspective? Compressed workweeks? Telecommuting? How should the HR department deal with these challenges?

2-3. Some management experts do not agree that a virtual team is really a team at

all. Based on the definition of a team, what properties of a virtual team satisfy the definition of a team? Any aspects of a virtual team give rise to doubts over whether it satisfies the definition of a true team? Suppose you needed to organize a virtual team of consultants working in different cities to do an important project for a client. What human resource management practices could you apply that would influence the virtual team members to behave as if they were on a true team such as a self-managed or problem-solving team?

2-4. A recent trend is that more and more companies are embracing is to outsource all or most of their human resource management activities. Agree or disagree with this trend? What risks is a company taking when it decides to outsource its entire set of human resource management activities? Try to describe a situation where it is most beneficial to retain most of the human resource management activities within a company so that HR is provided by the human resource management department.

2-5 In recent years there has been an increase in the number of companies that have wrongly classified an "employee" as a "contract worker," and consequently were taken to court by workers who believed they were entitled to certain rights and privileges enjoyed by individuals who were given "employee" status. What are some of the rights and privileges that are given to employees and not to contract workers? What advantages do employers gain with contract workers over regular employees? How could a contract worker prove to the courts that he or she is really an employee and was wrongly classified as a contract worker?

5-1. Recent economic difficulties, restructuring, and plant closings have left many people without jobs and looking for new career paths. A hiring employer can now enjoy being able to select from among far more applicants than was typical. Unfortunately, many of these applicants lack qualifications for the jobs. How can a hiring employer avoid or deal with the glut of unqualified applicants? How could the problem be approached in recruitment? In selection, what tools would you recommend when large numbers of applicants need to be dealt with?

5-2. Should applicants be selected primarily on the basis of ability or on personality/fit? How can fit be assessed?

5-3. A company has come up with a new selection test and decides to try it out on some of its current workers before giving it to job applicants. A group of its current workers volunteered to take the test and 84 percent were male and 7 percent were over the age of 40. The scores on the test that each of the volunteers earned were correlated with the performance ratings each of the workers received in the company's annual performance review process. The sizable correlation between the two sets of scores let the company conclude that the test is valid. What type of validity evidence has the company generated? Are these potential problems with the company's estimate of the test? Describe these potential problems. How could the problem be avoided?

5-4. You have been asked by your company to hire a new worker for your unit. You have been given responsibility for conducting the recruitment and selection. How would you recruit for your new worker? Explain why you would use those particular methods and sources. How would you go about selecting the applicant who will actually get the job? Would you use some sort of tests and interview? If so, what kind and in what order?

5-5. Interviewing unqualified applicants can be a frustrating experience and a waste of time for managers, peers, or whoever is responsible for interviewing. How can the HR department minimize or eliminate this problem?

5-6. You work for a medium-sized, high-tech firm that faces intense competition on a daily basis. Change seems to be the only constant in your workplace, and each worker's responsibilities shift from project to project. Suppose you have the major responsibility for filling the job openings at your company. How would you go about recruiting and selecting the best people? How would you identify the best people to work in this environment?

5-7. Your boss has stated that he wants the hiring program to hire the best workers and to be legally defensible. Are those two compatible? What would be your basic recommendations to your boss to achieve those two goals?

6-1. After eight years as marketing assistant for the New York office of a large French bank, Sarah Schiffler was told that her job, in a non-revenue-producing department, was being eliminated. Her choices: She could either be laid off (with eight months of severance pay) or stay on and train for the position of credit analyst, a career route she had turned down in the past. Nervous about making mortgage payments on her new condo, Sarah agreed to stay, but after six months of feeling miserable in her new position, she quit. Was her separation from the bank voluntary or involuntary? Can you think of situations in which a voluntary separation is really an involuntary separation? What are the managerial implications of such situations?

6-4. In an age when more and more companies are downsizing, an increasingly trendy concept is the "virtual corporation." The idea is that a company should have a core of owners and managers, but that, to the greatest degree possible, workers should be contingenttemporary, part-time, or on short-term contracts. This gives the corporation maximum flexibility to shift vendors, cut costs, and avoid long-term labor commitments. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the virtual corporation from the points of view of both employers and workers?

6-5. Under what circumstances might a company's managers prefer to use layoffs instead of early retirements or voluntary severance plans as a way to downsize the workforce?

6-7. Carrying out terminations usually is the responsibility of the manager. However, the manager may not always be involved in determining who should be let go. Do you think direct managers should have input into which of their workers should be laid off? Why or why not? If a manager and HR staff disagree on who should be laid off, how do you think the disagreement should be resolved?

6-8. Managing survivors in a layoff is important. As a manager, what concerns would you have about the surviving workforce after a layoff? How can the HR management staff be of assistance in providing support for the survivors of a layoff?

6-10. The departure of senior workers through retirement can mean that years of experience and knowledge are walking out an organization's doors. This "brain drain" can cripple an organization's ability to remain competitive, particularly if it is difficult to regularly hire younger talent. What approaches would you recommend to reduce this problem?