Exam 8: Motivation: From Concepts to Applications

Which of the following represents a pay plan that rewards employees for recent performance rather than historical performance?

In which of the following variable-pay programs is the pay level based on how many skills employees have or how many jobs they can do?

Telecommuting is an option that suits professionals like ________.

Which of the following statements is true regarding a merit-based pay plan?

Andrew is a software tester. He runs through the same types of programs day after day looking for bugs and reporting them. He is taking night classes on programming. Often, he knows the best solution to many of the bugs, but he is still learning to code. Describe two job characteristics that Andrew is striving to improve, and explain two ways that Andrew's manager can redesign his current job to help him reach his goals.

Jobs with high autonomy give workers a feeling of personal responsibility for the results.

Which of the following statements is true regarding the job characteristics model?

Exsell is a popular consumer goods company known for hiring the best resources and using the best technology to produce an extensive range of goods. The manufacturing units consider productivity to be the only criterion; targets are upgraded, supervised, and rewarded amply. The groups with the highest productivity in each manufacturing unit owned by Exsell are incentivized using a substantial monthly monetary reward program. Of late, there have been some rumors about the company not doing very well in the market. Many claims of defective quality, declining market share, and employee unrest have been doing the rounds. However, the CEO of Exsell recently held a conference with the organization and the media to share its expansion plans for the coming year. He ended the conference with a discussion of how the profit margin of the company had grown substantially but many employees were left in doubt. Which of the following, if true, would indicate the need for Exsell to replace gainsharing with profit sharing as a variable pay program for its employees?

With reference to the job characteristics model: -Which of the following defines task identity?

Individualized rewards that allow each employee to choose the compensation package that best satisfies his or her current needs and situation are called ________.

Job enrichment is the process of ________.

The option of working at home at least twi days a week on a computer linked to the employer's office is termed as ________.

After the training and development manager at Add Worth, Nicole Hayes, resigned, the CEO has made it a priority that the position be filled soon by someone of equal expertise and experience as Nicole. To locate the right candidate, Jennifer Ray, the HR manager, has been contacting recruitment firms, checking job sites, and pushing for referrals from the employees. However, she has only found candidates with little or no experience in the field who were willing to work full time for the position. At the next meeting with the CEO, Jennifer proposes an alternative strategy; she suggests hiring two experienced candidates who are open to the idea of handling the training needs on a part-time basis as a team. The CEO listens to her proposal but is not too convinced by it. Which of the following, if true, would strengthen Jennifer's proposal to use job sharing for the vacant position?

Which of the following alternative work arrangements enables the organization to draw on the talents of more than one individual in a given job?

At Esco Retail, all employees are constantly driven to work hard. The company places maximum emphasis on stocking high quality goods and providing high quality service to retain the edge they have in the retail industry. To promote organizational commitment further, the company incentivizes employees by enabling them to purchase company shares at below-market prices as a part of their benefits. This mode of providing incentives represents the use of ________.

The external competitiveness of an organization's pay relative to elsewhere in the industry is measured by its ________.

________ is a formula-based group incentive plan that uses improvements in group productivity from one period to another to determine the total amount of money allocated.

What is employee involvement and why is it important? What are the two major forms of employee involvement?

The job characteristic model fails to consider the role ________ plays in employee motivation.

Daichi Inc. is a Japanese software development firm known for its high quality products. Recently, the company held its annual conference and awarded all those employees who were in the top five percent with substantial monetary rewards. Their performance was evaluated on the basis of target achievement, client feedback, and quality ratings. Employees whose performance had not changed drastically were given a minor raise and those who fared badly received no incentives. Many employees blamed the company for creating differences among employees because they felt that it would harm the company in the long run, but Daichi Inc. truly believes that to retain and motivate its best performers, a large incentive is a good step. Daichi Inc. is using a(n)________ here.