BUSINESS ACUMEN COMPETENCY
t Which is the most effective way for HR Management to influence an organization's value chain?
Outsourcing support activities and functions with the highest overhead.
Creating universal training and development standards across the organization.
Setting budget requirements for growing the chain's primary activities .
Suggesting how to market new products and services to external customers. - Creating universal training
and development standards across the organization.
An organization wants to increase its workforce. As part of the analysis, what macroeconomic
information might be a red flag regarding this strategy?
Market prices for the organization's products are high now but are projected to fall.
Revenues will increase rapidly, but variable expenses will rise just as rapidly.
The organization will have greater access to quality human resources than its foreign competitors.
Financial projections indicate that expenses will increase faster than revenues but that this trend will
reverse itself in the long term. - Market prices for the organization's products are high now but are
projected to fall.
An HR director has been given a set of critical performance objectives for the upcoming year. How could
advance analytics help?
Online analytical processing (OLAP) could provide a deeper understanding of contributing factors.
A dashboard can highlight progress in these areas with timely data.
A relational database can be analyzed to determine functional area performance.
An automated alert can be texted when set tolerances are violated. - A dashboard can highlight progress
in these areas with timely data.
An organization has mature products and services, and HR believes that the organization has grown
somewhat complacent and is not learning or improving. What could HR recommend the organization
adopt to get it out of the status quo?
Value chains
Zero-based budgets
, Balanced scorecards
PESTLE analyses - Balanced scorecards
How would an organization's use of zero-based budgeting impact the HR budget planning process?
All expenditures must be justified; HR must compete with other departments for funding.
New projects must be postponed until the current projects are completed.
Balances for continuing projects from the previous period are carried over.
The function's budget would see no growth in the upcoming period. - All expenditures must be justified;
HR must compete with other departments for funding.
Which is a characteristic of activity-based budgeting?
Considering the cost and strategic significance of key tasks
Adjusting business unit funding based on a specific overall reduction
Increasing the prior budget by a set percentage
Ranking each business unit's goals to determine funding approvals - Considering the cost and strategic
significance of key tasks
In a casual conversation, an operations manager expresses concern to an HR manager about operations'
ability to argue persuasively for funding to develop a new order fulfillment system in the upcoming
budgeting cycle. Which approach should HR recommend to best demonstrate collaboration toward an
effective solution?
Coaching sessions with supervisors to improve operations' productivity
Training for operations personnel in new quality control techniques
Workshops in enhanced teamwork, motivation, and leadership techniques
Cost-benefit analysis of the new system's strategic impact - Cost-benefit analysis of the new system's
strategic impact
The VP of HR in a national construction and architectural firm is asked to develop a corporate social
responsibility (CSR) strategy to present to the CEO and the board of directors. The CEO tells the VP that
the strategy will be piloted in one region of the country, and, if it is successful, the VP will lead the
implementation of the CSR initiative in the other regions. The VP asks for input from the HR team when
drafting the strategy.
Which action should the VP take when drafting the company's CSR strategy?
t Which is the most effective way for HR Management to influence an organization's value chain?
Outsourcing support activities and functions with the highest overhead.
Creating universal training and development standards across the organization.
Setting budget requirements for growing the chain's primary activities .
Suggesting how to market new products and services to external customers. - Creating universal training
and development standards across the organization.
An organization wants to increase its workforce. As part of the analysis, what macroeconomic
information might be a red flag regarding this strategy?
Market prices for the organization's products are high now but are projected to fall.
Revenues will increase rapidly, but variable expenses will rise just as rapidly.
The organization will have greater access to quality human resources than its foreign competitors.
Financial projections indicate that expenses will increase faster than revenues but that this trend will
reverse itself in the long term. - Market prices for the organization's products are high now but are
projected to fall.
An HR director has been given a set of critical performance objectives for the upcoming year. How could
advance analytics help?
Online analytical processing (OLAP) could provide a deeper understanding of contributing factors.
A dashboard can highlight progress in these areas with timely data.
A relational database can be analyzed to determine functional area performance.
An automated alert can be texted when set tolerances are violated. - A dashboard can highlight progress
in these areas with timely data.
An organization has mature products and services, and HR believes that the organization has grown
somewhat complacent and is not learning or improving. What could HR recommend the organization
adopt to get it out of the status quo?
Value chains
Zero-based budgets
, Balanced scorecards
PESTLE analyses - Balanced scorecards
How would an organization's use of zero-based budgeting impact the HR budget planning process?
All expenditures must be justified; HR must compete with other departments for funding.
New projects must be postponed until the current projects are completed.
Balances for continuing projects from the previous period are carried over.
The function's budget would see no growth in the upcoming period. - All expenditures must be justified;
HR must compete with other departments for funding.
Which is a characteristic of activity-based budgeting?
Considering the cost and strategic significance of key tasks
Adjusting business unit funding based on a specific overall reduction
Increasing the prior budget by a set percentage
Ranking each business unit's goals to determine funding approvals - Considering the cost and strategic
significance of key tasks
In a casual conversation, an operations manager expresses concern to an HR manager about operations'
ability to argue persuasively for funding to develop a new order fulfillment system in the upcoming
budgeting cycle. Which approach should HR recommend to best demonstrate collaboration toward an
effective solution?
Coaching sessions with supervisors to improve operations' productivity
Training for operations personnel in new quality control techniques
Workshops in enhanced teamwork, motivation, and leadership techniques
Cost-benefit analysis of the new system's strategic impact - Cost-benefit analysis of the new system's
strategic impact
The VP of HR in a national construction and architectural firm is asked to develop a corporate social
responsibility (CSR) strategy to present to the CEO and the board of directors. The CEO tells the VP that
the strategy will be piloted in one region of the country, and, if it is successful, the VP will lead the
implementation of the CSR initiative in the other regions. The VP asks for input from the HR team when
drafting the strategy.
Which action should the VP take when drafting the company's CSR strategy?
