MGT 643 Final Exam Study Guide

MGT 643 Final Exam Study Guide Ch. 1 Questions 1. Describe each step of the employee life cycle, in order. What types of activities take place at each step? - Forecasting o Prior to beginning of life cycle o Establish need and labor demand o Some strategy involve to decide who you need to hire o Tracking the attrition rates you anticipate losing at the end o Essential to move on to recruiting - Recruitment o Begins life cycle o Trying to bring people into the organization (external recruiting) or internal recruiting o People are recruited and move to selection process - Selection o Starts when they apply for the job o Once applied there are a series of steps o Starts with prescreening questions ▪ Determine if the applicant meets the essential qualifications for the job o Hiring manager who looks at resumes, conducts interviews, gathering background information etc o We want the hire the best person for the job - Training and Development o Once we have them, we want to train and develop them. o Starts with orientation o Provide them with opportunities (leadership workshop, feedback) ▪ Helps them grow within the company - Performance Management o We must gage their performance at some point o Determine that they are meeting the capacity that we established they had o Often tied to compensation ▪ Raises, movement, disciplinary action - Attrition o When the employee leaves the company ▪ Voluntarily-leaving at their own time ▪ Involuntary- being fired o We cannot always control when someone leaves ▪ Retirement ▪ Higher job at another company 2. How HR is typically structured? What trends have been happening in HR that affects the types of activities we do in HR? A generic structure - Center for expertise usually consists of functional specialists in the traditional areas of HRM such as recruitment and selection and training and development o Act as consultants in the development of state of the art systems and process for use in the organization - Business partners are HR staff members who work with business-unit managers on strategic issues such as creating new compensation plans or development programs for preparing high level managers o These individuals usually have dual reporting relationships to both the need of the line business and the head of HRM - The service center consists of individuals who ensure that the transactional activities are delivered throughout the organization o Often leverage information technology to efficiently deliver employee services - The role of HRM in administration is decreasing as technology is used for many administrative purposes. The availability of the internet has decreased the HRM role in maintaining records sand providing self-service to employees. The shift to self-service means that HR can focus more time on consulting with managers on important employee issues and less time on day-to-day transactional tasks. 3. What are the changing trends in the workforce and how can HR address these? a. Aging of the Workforce i. Workers 55 years and older are expected to participate more due leading healthier and longer lives, provided the opportunity to work more years, the high cost of health insurance and decrease in health benefits to keep working to keep their health insurance ii. the trend toward pension plans based on individuals contributions to them rather than years of service provides an incentive for older people employees to continue working iii. An emerging trend is for qualified older workers to ask to work part time or for only a few months at a time as a means to transition to retirement iv. Companies are offering special programs to capitalize on older employees’ skills and accommodate their needs b. Generational Differences i. Because employees are working loner in the workforce there is now 5 generations with similar characteristics 1. Traditionalist a. Grew up during the great depression b. Lived during WWII c. Frugality d. Patriotic e. Loyal f. Adhere to rules g. Responsible h. Sacrifice for the good of the company 2. Baby boomers a. Me generation b. Marched for establishment of equal rights c. Value social conscientiousness and independence d. Competitive e. Hard working f. Want fair treatment g. Workaholics h. Rigid in conforming to rules 3. Gen x a. Grew up when divorce rate doubled b. Women worked outside of the home more c. Personal computers were invented d. Left on their own after school often i. Latchkey kids e. Value skepticism, informality, practically, seek work/life balance, dislike close supervision f. Impatient and cynical 4. Millennials / gen y/ echo boomers a. Grew up with access to computers at home and school and access to the internet b. Diversity in school c. Coached, praised and encouraged for participation rather than accomplishment by BB parents d. Optimistic, willing to work and learn, eager to please, self-reliant, globally aware and value diversity and teamwork e. High levels of self-esteem and narcissism 5. Gen z/ digital natives ii. Generational differences exist, members of the same generation are no more alike than members of the same gender or race. iii. Managers should be cautious in attributing differences in employee behaviors and attitudes to generational differences or expecting all employees of a generation to have similar values c. Gender and Racial Composition of the workforce i. The diversity of the workforce is expected to increase by 2022 ii. Immigration contributes to the diversity of the U.S. population and workforce iii. U.S. law requires employers to verify that any job candidate who is not a u.s. citizen has received permission to work in the U.S. as an immigrant or with a temp permit iv. Diversity is important for tapping all employees creative, cultural and communication skills and using those skills to provide competitive advantage v. Bottom line is that to gain a competitive advantage, companies must harness the power of this diverse workforce 1. These practices are needed not only to meet employee needs but to reduce turnover costs and ensure that customers receive the best service possible Ch. 2 Questions 1. What is strategy and what is the difference between a cost leadership and differentiation strategy? a. Strategy: the skillful employment and coordination of tactics and as artful planning and management b. Companies engaged in cost strategies, because of the focus on efficient production, tend to specifically define the skills they require and incest in training employees in these skills areas. They seek efficiency through worker participation, soliciting (=verzoeken) employees’ ideas on how to achieve more efficient production. c. Employees in companies with a differentiation strategy need to be highly creative and cooperative; to have only a moderate concern for quantity, a long-term focus, and a tolerance for ambiguity; and to be risk takers. Differentiation companies will seek to generate more creativity through broadly defined jobs with general job description. 2. What is the goal of having a strategy? a. The goal of having a strategy is address the competitive challenges an organization faces. b. Managing the patter or plan that integrates an organization’s major goals, policies, and action sequences into a cohesive whole. 3. Describe how you would conduct a SWOT analysis. a. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats i. Combination of External and Internal Analysis ii. External Analysis- identifies the Opportunities and Threats by examining the companies operating environment. (opportunities: customer services, technology advances, labor pools. Threats: potential labor shortages, new competitors) iii. Internal Analysis: identifies strengths and weaknesses. Focuses on quantity and quality and quality of resources available to the organization –financial capital, technology and human resources. 1. Gives the strategic planning team all the information they need to generate a number of strategic alternatives 4. What levels of strategy integration exist within HR? Make a business case for why HR should connect their activities with their organization’s strategy. a. Administrative linkage i. Lowest level of integration ii. HRM function is focused on day to day activities iii. No strategic outlook toward HRM issues iv. HRM departments is divorced from any component of the strategic i process in both strategy formulation and strategy implementation v. Department does admin work unrelated to the company’s business b. One-way linkage i. The functions develops the strategic plan and then informs the HRM function of the plan ii. Role is to design systems and/ or programs that implement the strategic plan iii. Does not recognize the importance iv. It precludes the company from HR issues while formulating v. Leads to strategic plans that re not successful c. Two-Way Linkage i. 3 steps 1. Strategic planning team informs the HRM function of the various strategies the company is considering 2. The HRM analyzes the HR implications of the various strategies, presenting the results of this analysis to the strategic planning team 3. After the decision has been made the strategic plan is passed onto the HRM executive who develops programs to implement it ii. Strategic planning and HRM are interdependent in two-way linkage d. Integrative linkage i. Dynamic and multifaceted ii. Based on counting rather than sequential interaction iii. HRM Functions built right into the strategy formulations built right into the strategy formulation and implementation processes iv. Helps top managers choose the best strategy because it can determine how well each alternative would be implemented Ch. 3 Questions 1. What are the protected classes under the EEO laws and their later amendments? What does it mean to be a “protected class”? a. The groups protected from the employment discrimination by law. These groups include men and women on the basis of sex; any group which shares a common race, religion, color, or national origin; people over 40; and people with physical or mental handicaps. Veteran Status, pregnancy 2. What is a BFOQ? Give an example of a BFOQ. 3. What is the difference between disparate treatment and disparate impact? How is an AI ratio used in determining disparate impact? a. For there to be discrimination under disparate treatment there has to be intentional discrimination. Under disparate impact, intent is irrelevant. The important practice is discriminatory. b. Al ratio states that a test has disparate impact if the hiring rate for the minority group is less than four-fifths (80%) of the hiring rate for the majority group. 4. What does it mean to be “underutilized”? Describe what the EEOC would do to correct “underutilization.” a. The utilization anaylsis compares the race, sex, and ethnic composition of the employer’s workforce with that of the labor supply. For each job group, the employer must identify the percentage of its work-relevant labor market with the characteristic. If the percentage in the employer’s workforce is much less than the percentage in the comparison group, then that minority group is considered to be “underutilized.” b. The employer must develop specific goals and timetables for achieving balance in the workforce concerning these characteristics (for underutilization) c. Federal contracts must develop a list of action steps they will take toward attaining their goals to reduce underutilization. Ch. 4 Questions 1. What is a job analysis, and what aspects of the employee life cycle does it relate to? a. Job analysis has focused on analyzing existing jobs to gather information for other human resource management practices such as selection, training, performance appraisal, and compensation b. Forecasting-understand the requirements of the job. Helps identify our exceptions for the labor demands c. Recruitment-be more strategic d. Selection-form the basis of what we design in our selection workflow e. Training & Development-evaluate our employee, skills gap f. Performance Management- compensation, has the employee completed all tasks g. Attrition-gather feedback through exit surveys 2. Describe how you would create a task and KSAO list and how they connect to a job description and job specification. • KSAOs are not directly observable; they are observable only when individuals are carrying out the TDRs of the job. o Knowledge = factual or procedural information that is necessary for successfully performing a task. o Skill = individual’s level of proficiency) at performing a particular task. o Ability = a more general enduring capability that an individual possesses. o Other characteristics = personality traits • Job description = a list of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities (TDR) that a job entails. TDRs are observable actions. • Job specification = a list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that an individual must have to perform a job. 3. Compare and contrast the following methods of job analysis: PAQ, O*NET, Job Observation a. PAQ is standardized job analysis questionnaire containing 194 items. These items represent work behaviors, work conditions, job characteristics that can be generalized across a wide variety of jobs i. Information input ii. Mental processes iii. Work output iv. Relationships with other persons v. Job context vi. Other characteristics vii. Knowing the dimersions scores provides some type of guidance regarding the types of abilities that are necessary to perform the job viii. Provides information about those jobs performed in a format that allows for compansions across jobs, whether those jobs are similar or dissimilar ix. Covers the work context as well as inputs, outputs, and processes b. O*NET-uses a common language that generalizes across jobs to describe the abilities, work styles, work activities, and work context required for various occupations that are more broadly defined i. Helps job seekers a. Ch. 5 Questions 1. Describe the role that labor demand and labor supply play in the HR staffing planning process. How does staffing planning relate to the employee life cycle? Forecasting • Attempts to ascertain the supply of and demand for various types of HR’s • Goal • Predict areas within the org where there will be future labor shortages or surpluses • Due to strengths and weaknesses companies use balance approach Goal setting and strategic planning • To focus attention on problem and provide a benchmark for determining the relative success of programs redressing labor shortage or surplus • Should come from analysis for both supply and demand • Include specific figure for what should happen with job category or skill area and specific time table • Critical stage • Because the many options available to the planned differ widely in their expense, speed, effectiveness, human suffering and revocability Recruiters • Organizationmust choose whether recruiter is specialized in Human Resources or specific jobs • Two traits o Warmth ▪ The degree then recruiter seems to care about the applicant and is enthusiastic about her potential to contribute to the company o Informativeness • Recruiters who are warm and informative • Timing is important • Applicants are sensitive to negative comments but too much positive can mislead the applicants • Can lead to unmet expectations and high turnover rate • Lead to being seen as deceitful employer • Recruiters can provide timely feedback • Recruiting can be done in teamsrather than by individual Program implementation • This makes sure that some individual is held accountable for achieving the stated goals and has the necessary authority and reasons to accomplish this goal • Have regular progress reports to ensure all programs are placed by specific time and early returns from these programs are in line with projections Evaluate results Determine Demand o Demand forecasters are developed around specific job categories or skill areas relevant to the company’s current and future state o Determine if the need for people in those areas will increase or decrease o Leading indicator o An objective measure that accurately predicts future labor demands o Statistical planning models o Used to reliably detect relationship among variables o Have to complemented by subject matter experts judgements of people Determine labor supply o Once the company has projected labor demand, it needs to get an indicator of the firm’s labor supply o Needs detail analysis of how many people are currently in job categories or skill areas within company o Modified to show future changes caused by retirement, transfers etc o Derived from historical statistical model or judgment techniques o Transitional matrix o Shows the proportion (number) of employees in different job category o Useful for charting historical trends o If constant it is used for future plans o Labor supply needs to be complemented with judgemental methods a. Advantages and disadvantages of statistical versus judgment methods • Use statistical methods o Capture historic trends in company’s demand for demand for labor o Give more precise predictions than judgements of human o Disadvantage ▪ Many important events that occur in the labor market have no historical precedent; hence , statistical methods that work from historical trends are of little use in such cases • Or judgemental methods ○ Some events don’t have historic precedent o They use judgement of experts and use their best guesses to make inferences about the future o Capture historic trends in company demand for labor o Disadvantage ▪ Typically, because of the complementary strengths and weaknesses of the two methods, companies that engage in human resource planning use a balanced approach a. 2. What does it mean to have a labor surplus? Compare and contrast the following methods of dealing with a labor surplus: downsizing, work sharing, and natural attrition. Typical response to surplus is downsizing or early retirement buyouts a. Downsizing i. Planned elimination of large numbers of personnel designed to enhance organization effectiveness ii. Not just done because of recession or poor performance. Do it to • Reduce costs • Introduced new technologies or robots that reduce need for a lage number of employees • For economic reasons, many firms change locations of their businesses • Has negative effect on long term organizational effectiveness • Also affects performance when efforts are not complemented with changes iii. Failure of downsizing 1. Initial costs may cause a short term plus but in the long run efffect could be negative if the downsizing is not properly managed 2. Downsizing campaigns let go of people who turn out to be irreplaceabe assets 3. Employees who survive the purges often become narrow-minded, self-absorbed and risk averse. No motivation. o Look for alternative job o Ruin image of company through word of mouth and social media 4. Key to successful downsizing o Avoid indiscriminate across the bord reductions and instead perform surgical strategic cuts that not only reduce costs, but also improve the firms competitive positions 1. Can freeze hiring and then just let natural attrition adjust the size pf the labor force. If successful, an organization may be avoid layoffs altogether, so that no one has to lose their job. iv. iv. 3. What does it mean to have a labor shortage? Compare and contrast the following methods of dealing with a labor shortage: overtime, temporary employees, turnover reduction. • Employing temporary workers o Afford firms the flexibility needed to operate efficiently in the face of swings in the demand for goods and services o Advantages ▪ The use of temporary workers frees the firm from many administrative tasks and financial burdens associated with being the “employer of record” ▪ Small companies that cannot afford their own testing programs often get employees who have been tested by a temporary agency ▪ Many Temporary agencies train employees before sending them to employers, which reduces training costs and eases the transition for both the temporary worker and the company ▪ Because the temporary worker has little experience in the host firm, the person brings an objective perspectives to the organization’s problems and procedures that is sometimes valuable o Many employers hire temps full time after a probation period of time o Disadvantages ▪ Low levels of commitment to the organization and its customers from temps often spill over and reduces the level of customer loyalty ▪ Instead of replacing long term employees with temp employees, many organizations try to buffer their core employees from wild swings in demand by supplementing their core staff with a small set of temporary workers. ▪ Often tension between the temps and full time employees a. 4. What is the advantage of internal recruiting as opposed to external recruiting? List three external sources that can be used and discuss their advantages/disadvantages. a. Internal Advantages i. Generates a sample of applicants who are well known in the firm ii. Applicants are Knowledgable about vacancy, which minimizes the possibility of inflated expectations about the job iii. Cheaper and faster iv. Internal out performs external b. External advantages i. May not be any internal recruits to draw entry level or some top level positions from ii. Outsiders bring new ideas or new ways of doing business iii. Strengthens company’s and weakens competition c. External Sources i. Direct Applicants and Referrals 1. Direct applicants a. People who apply for a vacancy without promoting from the organization b. Many direct applicants are to some extent already sold on the organization. c. Most have done their homework and concluded that there is enough fit between themselves and the vacancy to warrant their submitting an application d. Called self-selection 2. Referrals a. People who are prompted to apply by someone within the organization b. A form of aided self-selection occurs with this c. Many job seekers look to friends, relatives and acquaintances to help find employment and evoking those social networks can greatly aid the job search process for both the job seeker and the organization d. Current employees research the vacancy and sell the job to the person e. Called word of mouth 3. Disadvantages a. Some employers try to entice one new employee from a competitor will often try to leverage that one person to try to entice even more people away b. Lift out i. Trying to recruit a whole team ii. Are seen as valuable because you get the dynamics of the whole team ii. Advertisements in Newspapers and Periodicals 1. Advertisements are ubiquitous(found everywhere) ▪ They generate less desirable recruits than direct applications or referrals ▪ Because few employers can fill all their vacancies with direct applications and referrals, advertising is usually needed ▪ Questions to ask when creating advertisements must ask two questions ● What do we need to say? ● To whom do we need to say it? ▪ Most company’s fail to communicate specifics of the vacancy ▪ Readers reading the ad should get enough information to evaluate the job and requirements to see if they are qualified for the job ● Could mean running longer advertisements, which costs more ● These additional costs should be evaluated against the costs of processing a huge number of applicants who are not reasonably qualified or who would not find the job acceptable once they learn more about it. ▪ In terms of whom to reach with this message, the organization placing the advertisement has to decide which medium it will use. ▪ The classified section of the newspaper ● Inexpensive means of reaching many people within a specified geographic area who are currently looking for work ● Downside this medium does not allow an organization to target skill levels very well ● Typically read by those either way over qualified or those underqualified ▪ Specially targeted journals and periodicals may be better than general newspapers at reaching a specific part of the overall labor market o Electronic Recruiting o E-cruiting ▪ Using own website to solicit applications ▪ Organizations can tune their message and focus on specific people ▪ The interactive nature of this medium allows individuals to fill out surveys that describe what they are looking for and what they have to offer the organizations. ● Easily graded and fast feedback on how well they fit the organization ▪ Customizing e-recruiting sites maximizes their targeted potential for helping people effectively match their values to the company’s values ▪ Employers will pay to have their sites rise to the top of the list ▪ Interact with well-known job sites ● M ● H ● Lack of differentiation and sheer size ▪ Podcasts ● Ipods, ipads and iphones ● Audio or audio/visual program that can be placed on the web by an employer ● Reaches out to a large number of people ▪ Social Networking sites ● Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin ● None allow employers to create pages as members, but it does allow them to purchase pages in order to create a sponsored group ▪ Disadvantages ● As with any new and developing technology, all of these approaches present some unique challenges. ● From employer’s perspective, the interactive, dynamic and unpredictable nature of blogs and social networking sites means that sometimes people who have negative things to say about the organization join in on conversations and this can be difficult to control. ● The biggest liability from the applicant’s perspective is the need to protect his or her identity. iii. Identity thieves who post false openings in the hope of getting some applicant to pride personal information Ch. 6 Questions 1. Define reliability and validity and describe one way to measure each for a selection test. • Reliability = the consistency of a performance measure; the degree to which a performance measure is free from random error. o If a measurement device is perfectly reliable, there are no errors of measurement. o Correlation coefficient = measure of the degree to which two sets of numbers of related. +1.0  perfect positive relationship  as one goes up, so does the other. The plot shows a straight line at a 45-degree angle. -1.0  perfect negative relationship  as one goes up, the other goes down. 0.00  no relationship between the set of numbers. o When assessing the reliability of a measure, for example, we might be interested in knowing how scores on the measure at one time relate to scores on the same measure at another time  test-retest reliability. o There are many ways to increase the reliability of a test, including writing clear and unambiguous items and increasing the length of the test. In addition, new technologies that allow for the development of computer adaptive testing can generate highly reliable tests by tailoring the item sequencing and selection process differently for each individual. • Validity = the extent to which a performance measure assesses all the relevant – and only he relevant – aspects of job performance. o When a measure is valid, the measure must be reliable. o If there is a substantial correlation between test scores and job-performance scores, criterion- related validity has been established. o Criterion-related validity = a method of establishing the validity of a personnel selection method by showing a substantial correlation between test scores and job-performance scores. o Predictive validation = a criterion-related validity study that seeks to establish an empirical relation-ship between applicants’ test scores and their eventual performance on the job. o Concurrent validation = a criterion-related validity study in which a test is administered to all the people currently in a job and then incumbents’ scores are correlated with existing measures of their performance on the job. o If the best performers currently on the job perform better on the test than those who are currently struggling on the job, the test has validity. o Disadvantage of predictive validation: extra effort and time. o Advantages of predictive validation (over concurrent validation): ▪ Job applicants (because they are seeking work) are typically more motivated to perform well on the tests than are current employees (who already have jobs). ▪ Current employees have learned many things on the job that job applicants have not yet learned. The correlation between test scores and job performance for current employees may not be the same as the correlation between test scores and job performance for less knowledgeable job applicants. ▪ Current employees tend to be homogeneous (=similar to each other on many characteristics). ▪ Bigger correlations are better, but the size of the sample on which the correlation is based plays a large role as well. ▪ When samples are small, content validation can be used. ▪ Content validation = a test-validation strategy performed by demonstrating that the items, questions, or problems posed by a test are a representative sample of the kinds of situations or problems that occur on the job. ▪ Two limitations of content validation: • 1. One assumption is that the person who is to be hired must have the knowledge, skills, or abilities at the time she is hired. • 2. Because subjective judgment plays such a large role in content validation, it is critical to minimize the amount of inference involved on the part of judges. 2. What is an assessment center? What are the various uses of an assessment center in HR? ▪ Work-sample tests are typically the cornerstone in assessment centers. ▪ Assessment center = a process in which multiple raters evaluate employees’ performance on a number of exercises. ▪ Because assessment centers employ multiple selection methods, their criterion-related validity tends to be quite high. 3. Describe the various types of interviews. If you were designing an interview, what type of rating format would you suggest? ▪ Selection interview = a dialogue initiated by one or more persons to gather information and evaluate the qualifications of an applicant for employment. o Disadvantages of a selection interview: ▪ Unreliable ▪ Low in validity ▪ Biased against a number of different groups ▪ Costly ▪ Subjectivity o Increase the utility of the personnel selection interview: o Keep the interview structured, standardized, and focused on accomplishing a small number of goals  quantitative ratings. o Ask questions dealing with specific situations that are likely to arise on the job, and use these to determine what the person is likely to do in that situations  types of situational interview items. ▪ Situational interview = an interview procedure where applicants are confronted with specific issues, questions, or problems that are likely to arise on the job. o These items have quite high predictive validity. o Two types of situational judgment items: o Experience-based items  requires the applicant to reveal an actual experience he or she has in the past when confronting the situation. o Future-oriented items  ask what the person is likely to do when confronting a certain hypothetical situation in the future. o Situational interviews are effective when assessing sensitive issues dealing with the honesty and integrity of candidates. o Use multiple interviewers who are trained to avoid many of the subjective errors that can result when one human being is asked to rate another. 4. Compare and contrast the following selection tools: work samples, cognitive ability tests, biodata. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of each in your answer. ▪ Cognitive ability tests = tests that include three dimensions: verbal comprehension, quantitative ability and reasoning ability. ▪ Verbal comprehension = refers to a person’s capacity to understand and use written and spoken language. ▪ Quantitative ability = concerns the speed and accuracy with which one can solve arithmetic problems of all kinds. Reasoning ability = refers to a person’s capacity to invent solutions to many diverse ▪ Work-sample tests attempt to simulate the job in a prehiring context to observe how the applicant performs in the simulated job  role plays. ▪ Drawbacks: 1. Generalizability is low 2. Tests are relatively expensive to develop. 3. The utility of cognitive ability tests is rated higher than work-sample tests, despite the latter’s higher criterion-related validity. ▪ Work-sample tests are typically the cornerstone in assessment centers. ▪ One of the best combinations of selection methods includes work-sample tests with a highly structured interview and a measure of general cognitive ability. 5. Compare and contrast the following selection tools: interviews, personality tests, and integrity/honesty tests. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of each in your answer. a. Selection interview = a dialogue initiated by one or more persons to gather information and evaluate the qualifications of an applicant for employment. i. Disadvantages of a selection interview: ii. Unreliable iii. Low in validity iv. Biased against a number of different groups v. Costly vi. Subjectivity b. Increase the utility of the personnel selection interview: i. Keep the interview structured, standardized, and focused on accomplishing a small number of goals  quantitative ratings. ii. Ask questions dealing with specific situations that are likely to arise on the job, and use these to determine what the person is likely to do in that situations  types of situational interview items. c. Situational interview = an interview procedure where applicants are confronted with specific issues, questions, or problems that are likely to arise on the job. i. These items have quite high predictive validity. ii. Two types of situational judgment items: 1. Experience-based items  requires the applicant to reveal an actual experience he or she has in the past when confronting the situation. 2. Future-oriented items  ask what the person is likely to do when confronting a certain hypothetical situation in the future. d. Situational interviews are effective when assessing sensitive issues dealing with the honesty and integrity of candidates. e. Use multiple interviewers who are trained to avoid many of the subjective errors that can result when one human being is asked to rate another. • • While ability tests attempt to categorize individuals relative to what they can do, personality measures tend to categorize individuals by what they are like. There are five major dimensions of personality, known as “the Big Five”: o Extroversion i. Adjustment ii. Agreeableness iii. Conscientiousness  one of the most important characteristics managers look for in employees. People high in conscientiousness show more stamina at work, which is helpful in many occupations. iv. inquisitiveness f. Team contexts require that people create and maintain roles and relationships, and several traits like agreeableness and conscientiousness seem to promote effective role taking. When there is a strong team culture, everyone shares the same views and traits, promoting harmony and cohesiveness g. Putting people on the team that have different values and personalities  diversity of opinion that promotes internal debate and creativity. h. The concept of “emotional intelligence” is used ti describe people who are especially effective in fluid (=flexible) and socially intensive contexts. Emotional intelligence is traditionally conceived of having five aspects: i. Self-awareness (knowledge of one’s strength and weaknesses ii. Self-regulation (the ability to keep disruptive emotions in check iii. Self-motivation (how to motivate oneself and persevere in the face of obstacles iv. Empathy (the ability to sense and read emotions in others v. Social skills (the ability to manage the emotions of other people The validity for the Big Five factors in terms of predicting job performance also seems to be higher when the scores are not obtained from the applicant but are instead taken from other people. i. The lower validity associated with self-reports of personality can be traced to three factors. i. People sometimes lack insight into hat their own personalities are actually like (or how they are perceived by others), so their scores are inaccurate or unreliable. j. People’s personalities sometimes vary across different contexts. Thus, someone may be very conscientious (=plichtsgetrouwheid) when it comes to social activities such as planning a wedding or a party, but less conscientious when it comes to doing a paid job. Unlike intelligence tests, people are much better at “faking” their responses to personality items. k. Honesty Tests i. Some directly emphasize questions dealing with past theft admissions or associations with people who stole from employers ii. Less direct and tap more basic traits such as social conformity, conscientiousness, or emotional stability 1. Can predict both theft and other disruptive behaviors 2. The reported correlations tend to be higher when the research studies were conducted by test publishers who market the tests relative to outside, objective parties with a less obvious conflict of interest. a. Good idea for organizations to check the predictive accuracy of these kinds of tests for themselves and not rely solely on the results reported by test publishers. iii. As is the case with measures of personality, some people are concerned that people confronting an honesty test can fake their way to a passing score. iv. The evidence suggests however that people instructed to fake their way to a high score (indicating honesty) can do so tests. v. It seems that despite this built-in bias, scores on the test still predict future theft. The effect of faking bias is not large enough to detract from the test’s validity l. Drug Tests i. Main controversies surrounding drug tests involve not their reliability and validity but whether they represent an invasion of privacy, an unreasonable search and seizure, or a violation of due process. ii. The tests are invasive procedures, accusing someone of drug use is a serious matter. iii. Test results should be reported back to the applicant, who should allowed an avenue of appeal or retesting Ch. 7 Questions 1. Why are training and development activities important to an organization? How can (and why should) training connect to business strategy? a. Training is used to improve employee performance, which leads, to improved business results. b. There is both a direct and an indirect link between training and business strategy and goals. Training can help employees develop skills needed to perform their jobs, which directly affects the business 2. What is a needs assessment and how is it used to design training initiatives? Needs assessment = the process used to determine if training is necessary. Pressure points suggest that training is necessary: • Performance problems • New technology • Internal or external customer requests for training • Job redesign • New legislation • Changes in customer preferences • New products • Employees’ lack of basic skills Support for the company’s business strategy Needs assessment involves: • Organizational analysis = a process for determining the business appropriateness of training. It considers the context which training will occur. • Person analysis = a process for determining whether employees need training, who needs training, and whether employees are ready for training. It helps identify who needs training. • Task analysis = the process of identifying the tasks, knowledge, skills, and behaviors that need to be emphasized in training. Needs assessment shows who needs training and what trainees need to learn, including the tasks in which they need to be trained plus knowledge, skill, behavior, or other job requirements. 3. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of virtual training methods compared with traditional face-to-face methods. E-learning = instruction and delivery of training by computers through the Internet or company intranet. ▪ Three characteristics: 1. E-learning involves electronic networks that enable information and instruction to be delivered, shared, and updated instantly. 2. E-learning is delivered to the trainee via computers with Internet technology. 3. It focuses on learning solutions that go beyond traditional training to include information and tools that improve performance. • Features of e-learning: o Collaboration and sharing o Learner control o Link to resources o Content o Administration o Delivery Learning is enhanced through e-learning because trainees are more engaged through the use of video, graphics, and text, which appeal to multiple senses of the learner. Also, e-learning requires that learners actively participate in practice, questions, and interaction with other learners and experts. Moreover, e-learning brings training to geographically dispersed employees at their locations, reducing travel costs. Presentation methods = training methods in which trainees are passive recipients of information. • Instructor-led classroom instruction. o It is one of the least expensive, least time-consuming ways to present information on a specific topic to many trainees. o Distance learning currently involves two types of technology: • Teleconferencing = synchronous exchange of audio, video, or text between individuals or groups at two or more locations. • Individualized, personal-computer-based training. Employees participate in training anywhere they have access to a personal computer. This type of distance learning may involve multimedia training methods such as Web-based training. • Webcasting = classroom instruction provided online via live broadcasts. • Audiovisual techniques • Mobile technologies: iPods and PDAs. Hands-on methods = training methods that actively involve the trainee in learning. • On-the-job training • Simulations • Business games and case studies • Behavior modeling • Interactive video • Web-based training On-the-job training (OJT) = peers or managers training new or inexperienced employees who learn the job by observation, understanding, and imitation. It can be used for: • training newly hired employees; • upgrading experienced employees’ skills when new technology is introduced; • cross-training employees within a department or work unit; • Orienting transferred or promoted employees to their new jobs. Various forms of OJT: • Apprenticeship = a work-study training method with both on-the-job and classroom training. o Advantages: ▪ Learners earn pay while they learn. Programs can last several years and learners’ wages usually increase automatically as their skills improve. ▪ It is an effective learning experience because it involves learning why and how a task is performed in classroom instruction provided by local trade schools, high schools, ir community colleges. ▪ It results in full-time employment for trainees when the program is completed. ▪ It meets specific business needs and help to attract talented people. o Disadvantages: ▪ Limited access for minorities and women. ▪ There is no guarantee that jobs will be available when the program is completed. ▪ It prepares trainees who are well trained in one craft or occupation. • Self-directed learning = a program in which employees take responsibility for all aspects of learning. o Because the effectiveness of self-directed learning is based on the employee’s motivation to learn, companies may want to provide seminars on the self-directed learning process; self- management; and how to adapt to the environment, customers, and technology to better facilitate the process. o Advantages ▪ It allows trainees to learn at their own pace and receive feedback about the learning performance. ▪ It requires fewer trainers. ▪ It reduces cost associated with travel and meeting rooms. ▪ It makes multiple=site training more realistic. ▪ It is easier for shift employees to fain access to training materials. o Disadvantage ▪ trainees must be motivated to learn. OJT must be structured to be effective. Because OJT involves learning by observing others, successful OJT is based on the principles emphasized by social learning theory: use of a credible trainer, a manager or peer who models the behavior or skill, communication of specific key behaviors, practice, feedback, and reinforcement. a. Ch. 8 Questions 1. What are the five criteria for designing an effective PM system? Once the company has determined, through job analysis and design, what kind of performance it expects from its employees, it needs to develop ways to measure that performance. Criteria to use to evaluate performance management systems: • Strategic congruence = the extent to which the performance management system elicits job performance that is consistent with the organization’s strategy, goals, and culture. Critical success factors (CSF’s) are factors in a company’s business strategy that give it a competitive edge. Companies measure employee behavior that relates to attainment (=kundigheid) of CSF’s, which increases the importance of these behaviors for employees. • Validity = the extent to which a performance measure assesses all the relevant – and only the relevant – aspects of job performance. a. Validity is concerned with maximizing the overlap between actual job performance and the measure of job performance. • Reliability = the consistency of a performance measure; the degree to which a performance measure is free from random error. a. Interrater reliability = the consistency among the individuals who evaluate the employee’s performance. A performance measure has interrater reliability if two individuals give the same evaluations of a person’s job performance. b. Internal consistency reliability = the extent to which all the items are rated are internally consistent. c. Test-retest reliability = the measure is reliable over time. • Acceptability = the extent to which a performance measure is deemed (=achten) to be satisfactory or adequate by those who use it. o Acceptability is affected by the extent to which employees believe the performance management system is fair. Three categories of perceived fairness: procedural, interpersonal, and outcome fairness. • Specificity = the extent to which a performance measure gives detailed guidance to employees about what is expected of them and how they can meet these expectations. o Specificity is relevant to both the strategic and developmental purposes of performance management. 2. Compare and contrast the following approaches to performance management: comparative, attribute, behavioral, results, and quality approach. (consider the five critiera for effective PM). Give an example of each approach in your answer. The comparative approach • The comparative approach to performance measurement requires the rater to compare an individual’s performance with that of others. At least three techniques fall under the comparative approach: • Ranking o Simple ranking = rank employees within their departments from highest performer to poorest performer (or best to worst). o Alternation ranking = looking at a list of employees, deciding who is the best employee, and crossing that person’s name off the list. From the remaining names, the manager decides who the worst employee is and crosses that name off the list, etc. • Forced distribution  put certain percentages of employees into predetermined categories. Employees are ranked in groups. This method helps managers tailor (=aanpassen) development activities to employees based on their performance. o Disadvantages: ▪ In many systems an unintended consequence is the bottom category tends to consist of minorities, women, and people over 40 years of age, causing discrimination lawsuits. ▪ It is difficult to rank employees into distinctive categories when criteria are subjective or when it is difficult to differentiate employees on the criteria. • Paired comparison  compare every employee with every other employee in the work group, giving an employee a score of 1 every time he or she is considered the higher performer. This method is time- consuming and will become more so as organizations become flatter with an increased span of control. o Advantages: It is an effective tool in differentiating employee performance. o Disadvantages: ▪ The common failure to be linked to the strategic goals of the organization. ▪ Because of the subjective nature of the ratings, their actual validity and reliability depend on the raters themselves. ▪ It lacks specificity for feedback purposes. • Many employees and manager are less likely to accept evaluations based on comparative approaches. The attribute approach ▪ This approach focuses on the extent to which individuals have certain attributes (characteristics or traits) believed desirable for the company’s success. o Graphic rating scale o dive=point rating scale. o Mixed-standard scale ▪ To create a mixed-standard scale, define the relevant performance dimensions and then develop statements representing good, average, and poor performance along each dimension. The rater is asked to complete the rating instrument by indicating whether the employee’s performance is above (+), at (0), or below (-) the statement. ▪ Mixed-standard scales were originally developed as trait-oriented scales. However, this same technique has been applied to instruments using behavioral rather than trait-oriented statements as a means of reducing rating errors in performance appraisal. • These methods are used because of the ease in developing them and because the same method (list of traits, comparisons) is generalizable across any organization and any strategy. In addition, these methods usually have very vague performance standards that re open to different interpretations by different raters. Because of this, different raters often provide extremely different ratings and rankings. The result is that both the validity and reliability of these methods are usually low. The behavioral approach ▪ Five techniques that rely on the behavioral approach: o Critical incidents - keep a record of specific examples of effective and ineffective performance on the part of each employee. The described incidents give specific feedback to employees about what they do well and what they do poorly, and they can be tied to the company’s strategy by focusing on incidents that best support that strategy. o Behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS)  specifically define performance dimensions by developing behavioral anchors associated with different levels of performance. ▪ Advantage: behavioral anchors can increase interrater reliability by providing a precise and complete definition of the performance dimension. ▪ Disadvantage: they can bias information recall – that is, behavior that closely approximates the anchor is more easily recalled than other behavior. o Behavioral observation scale (BOS)  like a BARS, a BOS is developed from critical incidents. ▪ It differs in two ways: • Rather than discarding (=wegdoen) a large number of the behaviors that exemplify (=illustreren) effective or ineffective performance, a BOS uses many of them to more specifically define all the behaviors that are necessary for effective performance (or that would be considered ineffective performance). • Rather than assessing (=schatten, beoordelen) which behavior best reflects an individual’s performance, a BOS requires managers to rate the frequency with which the employee has exhibited each behavior during the rating period. The BOS is often preferred for differentiating good from poor performers, maintaining objectivity, providing feedback, suggesting training needs, and being easy to use among managers and subordinates. o Organizational behavior modification (OBM)  managing the behavior of employees through a formal system of behavioral feedback and reinforcement. The techniques vary, but most have our components: ▪ They define a set of key behaviors necessary for job performance. ▪ They use a measurement system to assess whether these behaviors are exhibited (=tonen). ▪ The manager or consultant informs employees of those behaviors, perhaps even setting goals for how often the employees should exhibit those behaviors. ▪ Feedback and reinforcement are provided to employees. o Assessment centers = a process in which multiple raters evaluate employees’ performance on a number of exercises. ▪ Advantage: it provides an objective measure of an individual’s performance at managerial tasks. In addition, they allow specific performance feedback, and individualized developmental plans can be designed. • Most of the techniques rely on in-depth job analysis, so the behaviors that are identified are measured are valid. Because those who will use the system develop the measures, the acceptability is also often high. Finally, with a substantial investment in training raters, the technique are reasonably reliable. The results approach ▪ This approach focuses on managing the objective, measurable results of a job or work group. ▪ Two performance management systems that use results: o Management by objectives (MBO) the top management team first defines the company’s strategic goals for the coming year. The goal-setting process cascades (=vallen) down the organization so that all managers set goals that help the company achieve its goals. These goals are used as the standards by which an individual’s performance is evaluated. o Productivity measurement and evaluation systems (ProMES)  motivate employees to higher levels of productivity. It is a means of measuring and feeding back productivity information to personnel. ▪ Four steps: • People in an organization identify the products, or the set of activities or objectives, the organization expects to accomplish (=volbrengen). • The staff defines indicators of the products. Indicators are measures of how well the products are being generated by the organization. • The staff establishes the contingencies between the amount of the indicators and the level of evaluation associated with that amount. • A feedback system is developed that provides employees and work groups with information about their specific level of performance on each of the indicators. ▪ Advantages: • The results approach minimizes subjectivity, relying on objective, quantifiable indicators of performance. • It links an individual’s results with the organization’s strategies and goals. ▪ Disadvantages: • Objective measurements can be both contaminated (=verontreinigen) and deficient. • Contaminated because they are affected by things that are not under the employee’s control, such as economic recessions. • Deficient because not all the important aspects of job performance are amenable (=benaderbaar) to objective measurement. • Individuals may focus only on aspects of their performance that are measured, neglecting (=verwaarlozen) those that are not. • Although results measures provide objective feedback, the feedback may not help employees learn how they need to change their behavior to increase their performance. The quality approach • Two fundamental characteristic: o Customer orientation o Prevention approach to errors • Improving customer satisfaction is the primary goal of the quality approach. • Sales, profit margins, and behavioral ratings are often collected by managers to evaluate employees’performance. • Quality advocates (=voorstander) suggest that the major focus of performance evaluations should be to provide employees with feedback about areas in which they can improve. Two types of feedback are necessary: o Subjective feedback from managers, peers, and customers about the personal qualities of the employees. This should be based on such dimensions as cooperation, attitude, initiative, and communication skills. o Objective feedback based on the work process itself using statistical quality control methods. • Statistical process control techniques are very important in the quality approach. These techniques provide employees with an objective tool to identify causes of problems and potential solutions. o These techniques include: ▪ Process-flow analysis  identifies each action and decision necessary to complete work. This is useful for identifying redundancy (=ontslag) in processes that increase manufacturing or service time. ▪ Cause-and-effect diagrams  events or causes that result in undesirable outcomes are identified. ▪ Pareto chart  highlights the most important cause of a problem. Causes are listed in decreasing order of importance, where importance is defined as the frequency with which they cause resulted in a problem. The assumption is that the majority of problems are the result of a small number of causes. ▪ Control chart  involve collecting data at multiple points in time. By collecting data at different times, employees can identify what factors contribute to an outcome and when they tend to occur. ▪ Histogram  displays distributions of large sets of data. Data are grouped into a smaller number of categories or classes. Histograms are useful for understanding the amount of variance between an outcome and the expected value or average outcome. ▪ Scattergram  shows the relationship between two variables, events, or different pieces of data. It helps employees determine whether the relationship between two variables or events is positive, negative, or zero. • The quality approach relies on a combination of the attribute and results approaches to performance measurement. However, traditional performance appraisal systems focus more on individual employee performance, while the quality approach adopts a system-oriented focus. 3. From what sources is performance information collected during a 360-degree feedback process? What are the advantages and disadvantages to the information gathered from each source? • 360-degree appraisal = a performance appraisal process for managers that includes evaluations from a wide range of persons who interact with the manager. The process includes self- evaluations as well as evaluations from the manager’s boss, subordinates, peers, and customers. o Advantage-provides a means for minimizing bias in an otherwise subjective evaluation technique. o Not anonymous 4. Describe three types of rating errors that occur in the performance management process. How can we minimize them? • Rater errors: o “Similar to me”  when we judge those who are similar to us more highly than those who are not? o Contrast error  when we compare individuals with one another instead of against an objective standard. o Distributional errors  rater’s tendency to use only one part of the rating scale. ▪ Leniency  when a rater assigns high (lenient (=goedaardig)) ratings to all employees. ▪ Strictness  when a manager gives low ratings to all employees. ▪ Central tendency  when a manager rates all employees in the middle of the scales. • Two problems • It makes it difficult to distinguish among employees rated by the same person. • It creates problems in comparing the performance of individuals rated by different raters. o Halo error  when one positive performance aspect causes the rater to rate all other aspects of performance positively. o Horns error  one negative aspect results in the rater assigning low ratings to all the other aspects. • Appraisal politics = a situation in which evaluators purposefully distort ratings to achieve personal or company goals. o Appraisal politics are most likely to occur when: o raters are accountable to the employee being rated; o there are competing rating goals; o a direct link exists between performance appraisal and highly desirable rewards. • Two training approaches to reduce rating errors: o Rater error training  make managers aware of rating errors and help them develop strategies for minimizing those errors. o Rater accuracy training = frame-of-reference training  emphasize the multidimensional nature of performance and thoroughly familiarize raters with actual content of various performance dimensions. o Calibration meetings = meetings attended by managers in which employee performance ratings are discussed and evidence supporting the ratings is provided. The purpose of the meetings is to reduce the influence of rating errors and politics on performance appraisals. • In addition to rater training and calibration meetings, to minimize appraisal politics, managers should keep in mind the characteristics of a gain appraisal system. Ch. 9 Questions 1. What are some examples of activities that fall under employee development, and what are the benefits to the employee and the organization? a. Formal education i. Formal education programs = employee development programs, including short courses offered by consultants or universities, executive MBA programs, and university programs. ii. Often companies rely on in-house programs because they can be tied directly to business needs, can be easily evaluated using company metrics, and can get senior- level management involved. iii. Enrollment in executive education programs or MBA programs may be limited to managers or employees identified to have management potential. As a result, many companies also provide tuition) reimbursement as a benefit for all employees to encourage them to develop. b. Assessment i. Assessment = collecting information and providing feedback to employees about their behavior, communication style, or skills. ii. Assessments are used for several reasons: 1. Assessment is most frequently used to identify employees with managerial potential and to measure current managers’ strengths and weaknesses. 2. Assessment is used o identify managers with the potential to move into higher-level executive positions, and it can be used with work teams to identify the strengths and weaknesses of individual team members and the decision processes or communication styles that inhibit the team’s productivity. 3. Assessments can help employees understand their tendencies, needs, the type of work environment they prefer, and the type of work they might prefer to do. iii. Popular assessment tools: 1. Personality tests a. Tests are used to determine if employees have the personality characteristics necessary to be successful in specific managerial jobs or jobs involving international assignments. b. Personality tests typically measure five major dimensions: i. Extroversion; ii. Adjustment; iii. Agreeableness; iv. Conscientiousness; v. inquisitiveness. 2. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Personality Inventory (MBTI) = a personality assessment tool used for team building and leadership development that identifies employees’ preferences for energy, information gathering, decision making, and lifestyle. 3. Energy dimension  determines where individuals gain interpersonal strength and vitality. a. Extroverts (E)  gain energy through interpersonal relationships. b. Introverts (I)  gain energy by focusing on personal thoughts and feelings. 4. Information-gathering preference  actions individuals take when making decisions. a. Sensing (S)  gather facts and details. b. Intuitives (I)  focus less on facts and more on possibilities and relationships between ideas. 5. Decision-making preference  amount of consideration the person gives to others’ feelings in making a decision. a. Thinking (T)  objective in making decisions. b. Feeling (F)  evaluate the impact of potential decisions on others, more subjective in making a decision. 6. Lifestyle preference  individual’s tendency to be flexible and adaptable. a. Judging (J)  focus on goals, establish deadlines, preference to be conclusive. b. Perceiving (P)  enjoy surprises, like to change decisions, and dislike deadlines. iv. Sixteen unique personality types result from the combination of