Human Resource Management Chapter 2 – Flashcards
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Summarize ways in which human resource management can support organizations expanding internationally.
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expanding into global markets U.S. businesses must develop global markets, keep up with competition from overseas, hire from an international labor pool, and prepare employees for global assignments. -operate on a multinational scale -have workforces and corporate cultures that reflect their global markets. -off shoring -expatriates
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Discuss how technological developments are affecting human resource management.
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Large quantities of employee data can easily be stored on personal computers and manipulated with user-friendly spreadsheets or statistical software. -cloud computing-arrangements in which remote server computers do the user's computing tasks. -intranet -self-service
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Explain how the nature of the employment relationship is changing.
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-Psychological Contract -employability -job hopping -flexibility
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Discuss how the need for flexibility affects human resource management.
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Alternative Work Arrangements independent contractors, on-call, temp workers, contract workers -to protect employees' free time, and to more productively use employees' work time
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Internal Labor Force
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An organization's workers (its employees and the people who have contracts to work at the organization).
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External Labor Market
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Individuals who are actively seeking employment.
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High-Performance Work Systems
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Organizations that have the best possible fit between their social system (people and how they interact) and technical system (equipment and processes).
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Knowledge Workers
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Employees whose main contribution to the organization is specialized knowledge, such as knowledge of customers, a process, or a profession.
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Employee Empowerment
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Giving employees responsibility and authority to make decisions regarding all aspects of product development or customer service. -can also extend to innovation
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Employee engagement
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full involvement in one's work and commitment to one's job and company—is associated with higher productivity, better customer service, and lower turnover.
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Teamwork
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The assignment of work to groups of employees with various skills who interact to assemble a product or provide a service. -agile
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virtual teams
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teams that rely on communications technology such as videoconferences, e-mail, and cell phones to keep in touch and coordinate activities.
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agile
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involves weaving the development process more tightly into the organization's activities and strategies. -Users of agile software development say it increases customer satisfaction and speeds up the time from concept to usable software.
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strategy
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its plan for meeting broad goals such as profitability, quality, and market share.
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Total Quality Management (TQM)
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A companywide effort to continually improve the ways people, machines, and systems accomplish work. •Methods and processes are designed to meet the needs of internal and external customers (that is, whomever the process is intended to serve).•Every employee in the organization receives training in quality.•Quality is designed into a product or service so that errors are prevented from occurring, rather than being detected and corrected in an error-prone product or service.•The organization promotes cooperation with vendors, suppliers, and customers to improve quality and hold down costs.•Managers measure progress with feedback based on data.
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Reengineering
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A complete review of the organization's critical work processes to make them more efficient and able to deliver higher quality. -results in employees being laid off or reassigned to new jobs, as the organization's needs change.
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Outsourcing
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The practice of having another company (a vendor, third-party provider, or consultant) provide services. -gives the company access to in-depth expertise and is often more economical
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Offshoring
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Moving operations from the country where a company is headquartered to a country where pay rates are lower but the necessary skills are available.
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Expatriates
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Employees who take assignments in other countries. -The failure rate for U.S. expatriates is greater than that for European and Japanese expatriates.
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Human Resource Information System (HRIS)
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A computer system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyze, retrieve, and distribute information related to an organization's human resources. -stores employee data, - training records, skills, compensation rates, and benefits usage and cost -can support strategic decision making, help the organization avoid lawsuits, provide data for evaluating programs or policies, and support day-to-day HR decisions.
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Electronic Human Resource Management (e-HRM)
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The processing and transmission of digitized HR information, especially using computer networking and the Internet.
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cloud computing
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arrangements in which remote server computers do the user's computing tasks.
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intranet
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network that uses Internet tools but limits access to authorized users in the organization.
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Self-Service
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System in which employees have online access to information about HR issues and go online to enroll themselves in programs and provide feedback through surveys.
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HR dashboard
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a display of how the company is performing on specific HR metrics, such as productivity and absenteeism.
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Psychological Contract
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A description of what an employee expects to contribute in an employment relationship and what the employer will provide the employee in exchange for those contributions.
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employability
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they want their company to provide training and job experiences to help ensure that they can find other employment opportunities.
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job hopping
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the intentional practice of changing jobs frequently—say, every year or two
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Alternative Work Arrangements
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Methods of staffing other than the traditional hiring of full-time employees (for example, use of independent contractors, on-call workers, temporary workers, and contract company workers).
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Independent contractors
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self-employed individuals with multiple clients.
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On-call workers
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persons who work for an organization only when they are needed.
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Temporary workers
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employed by a temporary agency; client organizations pay the agency for the services of these workers.
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Contract company workers
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employed directly by a company for a specific time specified in a written contract.
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crowdsourcing
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The act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined generally large group of people in the form of an open call.
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Which of the following authorities is responsible for tracking changes in the composition of the U.S. labor force and forecasting employment trends?
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Bureau of Labor Statistics
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Which of the following is a challenge for HRM during mergers?
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Developing conflict resolution skills among employees
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The HRM function during downsizing is to terminate the workers who:
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are less valuable in their performance
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Most organizations look for _____ to find employees who are capable of handling a variety of responsibilities, interacting with customers and thinking creatively.
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educational achievements
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A company that operates in the U.S.,shifts its warehouses and operations to a low rent area that is 50 miles away from town. This is an example of offshoring.
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False
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The use of independent contractors, on-call workers, temporary workers, and contract company workers, collectively constitute:
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alternative work arrangements.
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Which of the following is a trend that is seen in present day high-performance work systems?
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Employee empowerment in decision making
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Employees who take assignments in other countries are called _____.
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expatriates
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As a method of downsizing, early-retirement programs have been shown to be:
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humane.
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Which of the following statements about the composition of the U.S. labor force during the next decade is true?
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Despite a small increase in the number of young workers, the overall workforce will be aging.
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downsizing
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an important challenge for employers was how to maintain a reputation as an employer of choice and how to keep employees engaged in their work and focused on the organization's goals *challenges-reducing the workforce by cutting the workers who are less valuable. workers may leave voluntarily to avoid layoffs *opportunities-early retirement
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TQM
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a company wide effort to continually improve the ways people, machines, and systems accomplish work. TQM has several core values
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Reengineering 1
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adopting new processes to replace processes and procedures which no longer work efficiently
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International expansion
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offshoring-moving operations to another country
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outsourcing
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having another company (a vendor, third-party provider, or consultant) provide services.
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mergers and acquisitions
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*two companies becoming one *one company buying another -consolidation within an industry, meaning that two firms in one industry join to hold a greater share of the industry. -cross industry lines, banking/insurance
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Which of the follow statements is true about high-performance work systems?
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they provide the best possible fit between people and the equipment used.
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A company's plan for meeting broad goals such as profitability, quality and market share is referred to as its:
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strategy
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____ is the assignment of work to groups of employees with various skills who interact to assemble a product or provide a service.
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Teamwork
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____ is a system in which employees have online access to information about HR issues and go online themselves in programs and provide feedback through surveys.
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Self-service
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Which of the following is true about knowledge workers?
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Many of the fast-growing occupations in the U.S. require only on-the-job training
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_____ refers to a company wide effort to continually improve the ways people, machines, and systems accomplish work.
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Total Quality Management (TQM)
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The term "labor force" is a general way to refer to:
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all the people willing and able to work.
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Consolidation within an industry refers to:
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two firms in one industry joining to hold a greater share of the industry.
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Giving employees responsibility and authority to make decisions regarding all aspects of product development or customer service is known as:
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Employment Empowerment
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Which of the following is true about teams?
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Teams that rely on communications technology such as video conferences, e-mail, and cell phones to keep in touch and coordinate activities are known as virtual teams.
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A complete review of the organization's critical work processes to make them more efficient and able to deliver higher quality is known as:
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reengineering
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The _____ is an agency of the Department of Labor that tracks changes in the composition of the U.S. labor force and forecasts employment trends.
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Bureau of Labor Statistics
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A computer system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyze, retrieve, and distribute information related to an organization's human resources is known as:
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Human Resources Information System (HRIS)
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Today's employees must be able to handle a variety of responsibilities, interact with customers, and think creatively. Which of the following is a common method used by organizations to find employees with such skills?
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Organizations assess the educational achievements of potential candidates.
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Which of the following is true about the US labor force?
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Employers say they have difficulty finding enough qualified U.S. workers to fill technical jobs.
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