Exam 13: Managing Human Resources

To use a physical exam as a selection device,a company must ________.

The Internal Hire (Scenario) Wade McKenzie is a new sales manager for The Medi-Mac Group, a medical supply company based in Ontario. Wade was hired from within the firm and he is now supervising many of the people he formerly worked with, including two friends with whom he competed for his new job. As a result, Wade is concerned about potential problems stemming from the performance evaluation process, and is conducting research on the advantages and disadvantages of various methods. -Wade is concerned about reports that his sales representatives are unreasonably demanding on sales administration staff and customer service personnel.Although Wade knows that one salesperson in particular can be very difficult to deal with,he believes that the rest are being unfairly portrayed.With management's approval Wade administers a survey to sales administration and customer service staff,asking them to respond to items that reflect the actual job behaviours of sales employees from all four regions.The surveys are randomized to eliminate potential biases.He then compares his region's evaluation against that of the others.This is most similar to which performance appraisal method?

________ is a pay system that rewards employees for the proficiencies and competencies they can demonstrate.

Written tests can be weak predictors of job performance because ________.

Human Resource Planning (Scenario) Steven is hired to manage the human resources department of a local manufacturing company. Unfortunately, the company has a reputation among workers of being the firm "where you work until you find your next job." Employee turnover is high and morale is low. Steven is determined to change the situation by turning the organization's human resources into a competitive advantage and a source of pride for the firm. -As one of his first tasks,Steven's boss asks him to develop a database of the education,special capabilities,and specialized skills of all the employees.This is known as a ________.

Human Resources Selection (Scenario) Denise has been asked by her boss, Stephen, the vice-president of human resources, to review the selection methods their firm has been using and to recommend improvements for future recruiting. It seems that recent hires have not been working out, and this has caused friction between the human resources department and the front-line managers who have to utilize the talent sent to them. In addition, there was currently a need to hire some top executives in the company, and due to the responsibility these positions carry, Stephen wanted to ensure they selected the best possible candidates. -Since ________ are essentially worthless as a selection tool,Denise will recommend that they stop using them.

Performance Appraisal Methods (Scenario) Carly has just returned from a conference on performance appraisal methods. It was an interesting conference and it generally confirmed what Carly had suspected about her company's performance management system—it required some drastic revision! The company's current method is to have the immediate supervisor write out an evaluation of each individual employee. This method is time-consuming for the supervisors, and is as much a test of their writing skills as it is an evaluation of actual employee performance. Carly considered three alternative methods to replace the current system. The first method was one of the oldest and most popular performance appraisals. It involved listing a set of performance factors such as quantity of work, quality of work, level of cooperation, etc., and then rating each factor on an incremental scale. The second alternative method involved a system that focused on specific and measurable job behaviours. It required appraisers to rate employees according to numbered items which each represented actual job behaviours, rather than general descriptions or traits. The third alternative method was very results-oriented and was often used to evaluate managers and professional employees based on their accomplishment of specific goals that had been jointly established with their superiors. -What is Carly's first alternative method?

Performance Appraisal Methods (Scenario) Carly has just returned from a conference on performance appraisal methods. It was an interesting conference and it generally confirmed what Carly had suspected about her company's performance management system—it required some drastic revision! The company's current method is to have the immediate supervisor write out an evaluation of each individual employee. This method is time-consuming for the supervisors, and is as much a test of their writing skills as it is an evaluation of actual employee performance. Carly considered three alternative methods to replace the current system. The first method was one of the oldest and most popular performance appraisals. It involved listing a set of performance factors such as quantity of work, quality of work, level of cooperation, etc., and then rating each factor on an incremental scale. The second alternative method involved a system that focused on specific and measurable job behaviours. It required appraisers to rate employees according to numbered items which each represented actual job behaviours, rather than general descriptions or traits. The third alternative method was very results-oriented and was often used to evaluate managers and professional employees based on their accomplishment of specific goals that had been jointly established with their superiors. -The primary disadvantage of using the second alternative method is that it ________.

The ________ creates four protected groups that must not be discriminated against by federally regulated employers.

An assessment that defines the jobs and behaviours necessary to perform the job is known as a ________.

Variable pay systems reward employees for the job skills and competencies they can demonstrate.

Terri has taken a skills inventory assessment test six different times and has received six different evaluations of where her job strengths are greatest.This test has low ________.

Which of the following selection devices is the best predictor for routine work positions?

________ is a method of setting work standards and measuring employee accomplishments.

What is one advantage of using professional recruiting organizations as a source of potential job candidates?

Which of the following training methods uses lateral transfers between jobs in a particular area to give workers exposure to a variety of tasks?

A labour union is an organization that represents workers and seeks to protect their interests.

A number of companies are adopting a new measure of recruitment effectiveness which looks at the contributions of good hires versus those of hires who have failed to live up to their potential.This measure is called ________.

Despite the legal framework in Canada,there continues to be disagreement as to what specifically constitutes sexual harassment.

Job descriptions focus on the job,while job specifications focus on the person.