Exam 6: Applied Performance Practices

Balanced scorecards are used mainly to measure performance of production employees.

Job enlargement increases skill variety.

A unique feature of Herzberg's motivator-hygiene theory is that it:

When Adam Smith reported on how 10 pin makers working together could produce many times more pins than if they worked alone,Smith was describing the benefits of job enrichment.

ABC Ltd has a large secretarial pool on the third floor of company headquarters where professional and lower-level managers have their reports and other documents word-processed.The tasks are received by the secretarial pool coordinator and assigned randomly (on an availability basis)to secretaries in the pool.The secretaries often do not know the managers or professionals for whom the word-processing assignment is being completed.They rarely find out about the quality of their work because revisions are often sent to other secretaries in the pool due to the rotating work assignment system.Some assignments involve simple word-processing while others require complex formatting using more sophisticated word-processing software.Some secretaries don't mind working in the pool,but most are there because it represents the entry-level secretarial position.They resent the lack of control over work assignments and look forward to being transferred to other secretarial jobs in the firm where there is more freedom to schedule their own work activities.Turnover in the pool is much higher than for other support staff at ABC Ltd.What job design strategy would you recommend to improve employee effectiveness in ABC's secretarial pool?

The problem with membership and seniority-based rewards is that:

Motivator-hygiene theory suggests that people are mainly motivated by characteristics of the job itself,not by working conditions and other factors external to the job.

Steelweld,a car parts manufacturer,pays employees a higher hourly rate as they learn to operate more parts of the work process.Employees earn $10 per hour when they are hired and they can earn up to $20 per hour if they master all 12 work units in the production process.Steelweld is applying which of these reward systems?

Which of the following is LEAST likely to create an ownership culture?

XYZ Ltd has just introduced a performance-based reward system for all production employees.The plan pays employees a team-based bonus based on the reduction of labor costs per unit in the production department.Describe three strategies to ensure that this (and other)performance-based reward systems is effective.Your answer should also briefly state the type of reward system used by XYZ Ltd.

In 1436,the waterways of Venice were used to fully load 10 galleons with supplies in just six hours.As each vessel was towed along the narrow waterway,people at each house transferred munitions,cardage and other supplies to the passing vessel.By the end of the street,each vessel was fully loaded and ready for sailing.This event,known as the 'Arsenal of Venice',is an early example of:

A cable TV company redesigned jobs so that one employee interacts directly with customers,connects and disconnects their cable service,installs their special services and collects overdue accounts in an assigned area.Previously,each task was performed by a different person and the customer interacted only with someone at head office.This change is an example of:

ClamCo,a large energy company,was once a bureaucratic organization that valued long service and promotions through a steep hierarchy.After several years of difficult change,it is now a much flatter organization that places more responsibility with self-directed work teams.Explain what changes ClamCo probably made (or should have made)to align its reward system with this new corporate philosophy.

Which of the following is most consistent with employability -- namely,that employees are expected to continuously learn skills that will keep them employed?