Exam 10: Managing Human Resources

What pay systems seem to be more successful in manufacturing organizations than in service organizations and organizations pursuing technical innovations?

A Sign of the Times (Scenario) After hearing of the threat for a long time, Lina's company had finally decided that it must "right-size," and this meant coming up with a plan for reducing the current size of the workforce at her manufacturing plant. The job was left to her, and as much as she hated doing this part of her job, it was necessary for the survival of the company and not just an effort to inflate their stock price. She also appreciated that her company was willing to try many different routes to decrease their labor costs, which was consistent with the positive way the company had treated their employees in the past. -Lina suggests to management that by not filling openings created by voluntary resignations or normal retirements, the organization may avoid much of the pain associated with workforce reduction. This option is known as ________.

In Lebanon, labor laws ________.

The Internal Hire (Scenario) Wael is a new sales manager for The Nile Group, a healthcare finance consulting firm. Wael was hired from within the firm and he is now supervising many of the people he had formerly worked with, including two friends with whom he competed for his new job. Thus, Wael is especially aware of potential problems stemming from the performance evaluation process and is conducting lengthy research on the advantages and disadvantages of the various methods. -Over the course of the year, Wael had taken some time to compile and write down a series of anecdotes about his employees. Some reflect particularly superior or ineffective performance, others are just plain funny. All the anecdotes describe specific behaviors of his employees. During the national sales meeting, time is provided for a break-out session for each region to meet separately. Wael presents these stories, not revealing the identity of the salesperson. The salespeople all enjoy the funny stories. Wael makes a point of commending the superior performance behaviors. After each of the anecdotes reflecting ineffective behaviors, he asks the group to suggest ideas for handling the situation differently. This is most reflective of what appraisal technique?

________ is the term used to define planned elimination of jobs in an organization.

Six months into Wael's tenure as regional sales manager, he hosts his first regional sales meeting. During the course of the meeting, Wael meets individually with his employees and shows them a chart of their sales numbers for each month compared to their budgeted quota for the year to date. Additionally, Wael and each employee set mutually agreed-upon, off-budget goals for the remaining six months of the fiscal year. This is most representative of what performance evaluation method?

Recruitment (Scenario) Karim's company was expanding. After a period of downsizing, the company had decided to increase organizational profitability by gaining market share, which meant a need for more people. As assistant manager of human resources, he was in the process of evaluating what would be the most effective means of gaining new employees who were qualified, were cost efficient, and could help maintain the company's commitment to a diversified workforce. -Karim should consider ________ as a source of potential candidates because it reaches large numbers of people and he could get immediate feedback. The problem with this source is that it may generate many unqualified candidates.

A selection device is valid if it measures the same thing consistently.

The human resource management (HRM) process consists of 10 activities necessary for staffing the organization and sustaining high employee performance.

The New Human Resources Manager (Scenario) Mustafa is hired to manage the human resources department of a local manufacturing company. this company has the reputation of being the firm "where you work until you find another job." Employee turnover is high and morale is low. Mustafa is determined to change the situation and make the organization's human resources a competitive advantage and source of pride for the firm. -Mustafa recommends a (an) ________ pay system that rewards employees for learning more job skills and competencies.

Labor laws tend to be similar among different Arab countries.

A performance appraisal method that allows the evaluator to rate employees on an incremental scale is called a ________.

Firing and early retirements are two decruitment options.

The first ________ activities of the human resource management (HRM) process ensure that competent employees are identified and selected.

Recruitment (Scenario) Karim's company was expanding. After a period of downsizing, the company had decided to increase organizational profitability by gaining market share, which meant a need for more people. As assistant manager of human resources, he was in the process of evaluating what would be the most effective means of gaining new employees who were qualified, were cost efficient, and could help maintain the company's commitment to a diversified workforce. -A major source of potential employees is ________, which has a large, centralized pool of candidates, but tends to only be good for entry-level positions.

The New Human Resources Manager (Scenario) Mustafa is hired to manage the human resources department of a local manufacturing company. this company has the reputation of being the firm "where you work until you find another job." Employee turnover is high and morale is low. Mustafa is determined to change the situation and make the organization's human resources a competitive advantage and source of pride for the firm. -Mustafa believes that achieving competitive success in business today requires that managers change how they think about their employees and how they view the work relationship. He hopes to initiate workplace programs geared toward improving organizational commitment to improving the knowledge, skills, and abilities of employees, increasing employee motivation, and enhancing retention of quality employees. These traits have been found to be consistent with ________.

In a short essay, discuss what is meant by a labor union and the situation of labor unions in the Arab region.

To help survivors of downsizing cope with their new stress, managers might want to ________.

Recruitment is the process of ________.

"Nationalization" programs pose significant challenges to HR managers in Arab gulf countries.