WGU D351 QUESTIONS WITH VERIFIED ANSWERS
What role does the planning function of human resource management play within
organizations? - Answers - Aligns human resources directly with the organization's
overarching mission and strategically forecasts future workforce headcount and skill
needs.
What role does the staffing function of human resource management play within
organizations? - Answers - Handles recruitment, selection, and hiring processes to
effectively match candidate skills to open job positions.
What are the types of employee compensation? - Answers - Direct compensation (base
salary, hourly wages, and performance bonuses) and Indirect compensation (fringe
benefits, health insurance, and paid time off).
What are the four implicit HR objectives? - Answers - 1) Improve operational
productivity, 2) Improve the quality of work life (QWL), 3) Ensure strict legal compliance,
and 4) Foster ethical workplace behavior.
How can HR managers make a significant contribution toward productivity
improvements? - Answers - By focusing directly on effective work organization and
tactical job design.
How do organizations improve the quality of work life? - Answers - By providing
employees with task autonomy, expanding safe/healthy working environments, and
creating clear opportunities for greater worker involvement.
What are the six major trends influencing the work environment? - Answers - 1)
Increased global competition, 2) Skyrocketing costs and benefits of HR utilization, 3)
Rapid productivity changes, 4) Growing pace and complexity of legal/social changes, 5)
Workplace dysfunction systems, and 6) Broad 21st-century societal trends.
How does technology influence an organization's structure? - Answers - Technology
decentralizes operational hierarchies, alters data-driven communication workflows, and
automates routine administrative functions.
What are the five HRM strategies? - Answers - Staffing, Development, Compensation,
Relations, and Safety.
What are the four HRM Structures? - Answers - Centralized, Decentralized, Shared
Services, and Outsourced.
,What does SWOT stand for? - Answers - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats.
What are the six HR competencies? - Answers - Relationship Management,
Consultation, Leadership, Global Effectiveness, Communication, and Business
Acumen.
What knowledge of the Business and Industry must an HR professional possess? -
Answers - Understanding strategic planning models, corporate financial statements,
operational workflows (sales, marketing, production), and management information
systems (MIS).
Why is it important for an HR professional to understand economic phenomena? -
Answers - It allows them to anticipate macroeconomic trends to proactively align
staffing, budgeting, and corporate capacity with market drops or booms.
What is an HR Generalist? - Answers - An HR professional who provides a broad range
of support across multiple HR functional areas rather than focusing on just one.
What is an HR Specialist? - Answers - An HR professional who focuses deeply on one
highly specific discipline, such as compensation architecture, benefits administration, or
labor relations.
What are the roles of the HR Department? - Answers - Designing internal HR systems,
providing compliance guidance to management, ensuring legal alignment, and leading
organizational change.
What is 'employment at-will'? - Answers - A legal doctrine stating that an employer can
fire an employee at any time for any reason (or no reason) without warning, and an
employee is equally free to quit at any time.
What are the consequences to employees of 'employment at-will'? - Answers - Extreme
vulnerability to sudden job loss, reduced individual bargaining power, and a general lack
of long-term job security.
What are the three exceptions to 'employment at-will'? - Answers - Public-Policy
exception, Implied Contract exception, and Covenant-of-Good-Faith exception.
Give an example of the Public-Policy exception. - Answers - Firing a worker because
they refused to commit an illegal act ordered by a manager, or because they filed a
valid workers' compensation claim.
What is an implied contract? - Answers - An unwritten agreement that forms when an
employer's actions, oral promises, or written policies lead an employee to reasonably
expect long-term job security.
, How are implied contracts created? - Answers - Through verbal statements made by
managers during interviews, verbal performance assurances, or specific job-security
language found in company policy handbooks.
Give an example of the implied contract exception. - Answers - A manager telling a new
hire, 'As long as you hit your weekly production goals, you'll have a job here for life,' but
then firing them without cause despite them meeting the goals.
What is the Covenant-of-Good-Faith exception? - Answers - A legal exception requiring
honesty and fair dealing in employment, preventing bad-faith firings designed to cheat
an employee out of earned benefits like pensions or sales commissions.
What are the benefits of a diverse workforce? - Answers - Drives corporate creativity
and innovation, expands target talent pools, improves problem-solving capabilities, and
enhances customer market reach.
What is diversity management? - Answers - A strategic organizational process aimed at
creating, fostering, and maintaining a workplace environment that respects and includes
different employee backgrounds.
What is the result of diversity management within organizations? - Answers - Maximizes
team collaboration, drastically reduces employee turnover rates, and enhances
organizational market competitiveness.
What is the definition of diversity? - Answers - The physical, biological, and
demographic differences that exist among individuals within a workforce (e.g., race,
gender, age, ethnicity).
What is the definition of inclusion? - Answers - The operational practice of ensuring that
all individuals feel structurally welcomed, respected, supported, and valued as core
team members.
What is the Civil Rights Act? - Answers - A landmark piece of federal legislation that
outlawed major forms of discrimination across public and private institutions in the
United States.
What is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act? - Answers - The specific section of the act that
explicitly prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or
national origin.
What groups are protected under Title VII? - Answers - Individuals categorized by race,
color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), and
national origin.
How was the EEOC created? - Answers - It was established directly under federal law
by the passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
What role does the planning function of human resource management play within
organizations? - Answers - Aligns human resources directly with the organization's
overarching mission and strategically forecasts future workforce headcount and skill
needs.
What role does the staffing function of human resource management play within
organizations? - Answers - Handles recruitment, selection, and hiring processes to
effectively match candidate skills to open job positions.
What are the types of employee compensation? - Answers - Direct compensation (base
salary, hourly wages, and performance bonuses) and Indirect compensation (fringe
benefits, health insurance, and paid time off).
What are the four implicit HR objectives? - Answers - 1) Improve operational
productivity, 2) Improve the quality of work life (QWL), 3) Ensure strict legal compliance,
and 4) Foster ethical workplace behavior.
How can HR managers make a significant contribution toward productivity
improvements? - Answers - By focusing directly on effective work organization and
tactical job design.
How do organizations improve the quality of work life? - Answers - By providing
employees with task autonomy, expanding safe/healthy working environments, and
creating clear opportunities for greater worker involvement.
What are the six major trends influencing the work environment? - Answers - 1)
Increased global competition, 2) Skyrocketing costs and benefits of HR utilization, 3)
Rapid productivity changes, 4) Growing pace and complexity of legal/social changes, 5)
Workplace dysfunction systems, and 6) Broad 21st-century societal trends.
How does technology influence an organization's structure? - Answers - Technology
decentralizes operational hierarchies, alters data-driven communication workflows, and
automates routine administrative functions.
What are the five HRM strategies? - Answers - Staffing, Development, Compensation,
Relations, and Safety.
What are the four HRM Structures? - Answers - Centralized, Decentralized, Shared
Services, and Outsourced.
,What does SWOT stand for? - Answers - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats.
What are the six HR competencies? - Answers - Relationship Management,
Consultation, Leadership, Global Effectiveness, Communication, and Business
Acumen.
What knowledge of the Business and Industry must an HR professional possess? -
Answers - Understanding strategic planning models, corporate financial statements,
operational workflows (sales, marketing, production), and management information
systems (MIS).
Why is it important for an HR professional to understand economic phenomena? -
Answers - It allows them to anticipate macroeconomic trends to proactively align
staffing, budgeting, and corporate capacity with market drops or booms.
What is an HR Generalist? - Answers - An HR professional who provides a broad range
of support across multiple HR functional areas rather than focusing on just one.
What is an HR Specialist? - Answers - An HR professional who focuses deeply on one
highly specific discipline, such as compensation architecture, benefits administration, or
labor relations.
What are the roles of the HR Department? - Answers - Designing internal HR systems,
providing compliance guidance to management, ensuring legal alignment, and leading
organizational change.
What is 'employment at-will'? - Answers - A legal doctrine stating that an employer can
fire an employee at any time for any reason (or no reason) without warning, and an
employee is equally free to quit at any time.
What are the consequences to employees of 'employment at-will'? - Answers - Extreme
vulnerability to sudden job loss, reduced individual bargaining power, and a general lack
of long-term job security.
What are the three exceptions to 'employment at-will'? - Answers - Public-Policy
exception, Implied Contract exception, and Covenant-of-Good-Faith exception.
Give an example of the Public-Policy exception. - Answers - Firing a worker because
they refused to commit an illegal act ordered by a manager, or because they filed a
valid workers' compensation claim.
What is an implied contract? - Answers - An unwritten agreement that forms when an
employer's actions, oral promises, or written policies lead an employee to reasonably
expect long-term job security.
, How are implied contracts created? - Answers - Through verbal statements made by
managers during interviews, verbal performance assurances, or specific job-security
language found in company policy handbooks.
Give an example of the implied contract exception. - Answers - A manager telling a new
hire, 'As long as you hit your weekly production goals, you'll have a job here for life,' but
then firing them without cause despite them meeting the goals.
What is the Covenant-of-Good-Faith exception? - Answers - A legal exception requiring
honesty and fair dealing in employment, preventing bad-faith firings designed to cheat
an employee out of earned benefits like pensions or sales commissions.
What are the benefits of a diverse workforce? - Answers - Drives corporate creativity
and innovation, expands target talent pools, improves problem-solving capabilities, and
enhances customer market reach.
What is diversity management? - Answers - A strategic organizational process aimed at
creating, fostering, and maintaining a workplace environment that respects and includes
different employee backgrounds.
What is the result of diversity management within organizations? - Answers - Maximizes
team collaboration, drastically reduces employee turnover rates, and enhances
organizational market competitiveness.
What is the definition of diversity? - Answers - The physical, biological, and
demographic differences that exist among individuals within a workforce (e.g., race,
gender, age, ethnicity).
What is the definition of inclusion? - Answers - The operational practice of ensuring that
all individuals feel structurally welcomed, respected, supported, and valued as core
team members.
What is the Civil Rights Act? - Answers - A landmark piece of federal legislation that
outlawed major forms of discrimination across public and private institutions in the
United States.
What is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act? - Answers - The specific section of the act that
explicitly prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or
national origin.
What groups are protected under Title VII? - Answers - Individuals categorized by race,
color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), and
national origin.
How was the EEOC created? - Answers - It was established directly under federal law
by the passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
