HRM 300T Wk 1 – Practice: Week 1 Practice Assignment

Complete the Wk 1 Practice Assignment in myEducator.

Many employees are taking a more active role in managing their own careers. However, what is something the HR department must do rather than individual employees?

Assess their own needs and values

Design their own jobs

Ensure that career development plans align with organizational objectives

Determine their own performance standards and goals

In the changing world, what term is now being used to describe the traditional work environment?

Excitement

Flexibility

Openness

Worker alienation

HR was traditionally limited to attracting and hiring employees, but today, HR has many more functions and competencies. Which of the following is not a new category of competencies for HR in today’s organizations?

Strategic competencies

Communication competencies

Global competencies

Retention competencies

Although HR generalists and specialists should possess many of the same qualities, which of the following is correct about the level of expertise they should have?

HR specialists need less expertise than HR generalists.

HR generalists and specialists should have the same level of expertise.

HR specialists must have a more in-depth level of expertise.

HR generalists need more in-depth expertise than specialists.

Top management has a great influence on the HR manager and the department. How does top management influence the HR department the most?

By the managers top management hires

By the salaries they are willing to pay

By the roles they allow the department to play

By the employees top management hires

When working to improve the organization’s quality of work life, it is important to look at which part of the organization?

The bonuses paid to the CEO

The physical health environment at work

The compensation packages offered by competitors throughout the world

The product materials in manufacturing

Ungraded / 2

Although employees are starting to take a more active role in managing their own careers, the HR department still plays a significant role. What is that role?

The HR department makes the goals and the performance standards for employees.

The HR department decides the salaries.

The HR department will decide who is hired and laid off.

The HR department guides the process to make sure the employees’ plans line up with the company’s objectives.

Ungraded / 2

Which of the following is true of HR’s responsibility for employee safety?

Health and safety concerns arise mainly from the physical work environment.

Occupational diseases are rare, so HR safety programs should focus mainly on preventing workplace injury.

Neglecting safety procedures can result in substantial costs to an organization.

The responsibility rests solely on employees to maintain a safe work environment.

Employees and employers should work together to maintain a safe environment.

Which of the following roles of HR managers involves designing an intervention to better align an organization with its goals, then implementing and evaluating the intervention?

Employee training and development

Organizational development and change

Employee-employer relations

Performance management

The area of organizational development (OD) is an HR function that assesses the need for change, designs an intervention or process, helps management introduce the change, and then evaluates the effectiveness of the change. Organizational development typically takes a long-term approach to change and uses change to overcome problems and challenges within the firm, as well as to capitalize on strategic opportunities.

Predicting the human resource needs of an organization is commonly known as ____________.

Organizational development

Forecasting and planning

Performance management

Recruitment and selection

Which of the following is an example of an employee benefit?

A yearly salary

Hourly wages

Sales commissions

Vacation time

Which of the following is a primary role of HR managers?

Forecasting financial needs

Preparing payroll for employees

Determining organizational strategy

Selecting and testing job applicants

Human resource managers are tasked with a number of important roles, and perform many important functions, within the organization. These roles and functions include ensuring compliance with local laws and regulations (the legal environment), engaging in human resource planning (also known as forecasting and planning), recruiting qualified applicants for potential job openings, selecting and testing those applicants that will best meet the strategic needs of the organization, engaging in employee training and development, ensuring performance management (including performance appraisals), managing organizational development and change, managing the compensation process including employee benefits, maintaining employee safety by creating a safe working environment, and managing the employee-employer relationship (including working with unions).

Which of the following is considered an HR planning activity?

Complying with safety regulations

Evaluating an employee’s abilities

Budgeting

Redesigning jobs

Ungraded / 2

All of the following are competencies that HR professionals should look for in potential international employees except _________.

Previous overseas experience

Cultural adaptability

Competitive wages

Technical skills

Which of the following are true of international compensation packages? (Select all that apply.)

They must be creative.

They must be similar to domestic compensation packages.

They must be diversified.

They must be the same for every international employee.

The economic climate is changing so quickly that HRM must be creative and diversified in developing compensation packages. The balance sheet approach is commonly used to equalize the purchasing power of employees regardless of the country of employment.

What is another way to refer to local nationals when discussing international HR?

Host-country nationals

Impatriates

Third-country nationals

Expatriates

Why are third-country nationals typically selected for hire in an international company?

Because they have specific and necessary technical or professional skills

Because they are mobile and can work in any country they are sent to

Because they come from the parent country, so they know how the company works

Because they come from the host country and so are easily hired

Which of the following features or constraints does not need to be considered when completing the performance appraisals for managers of multinational corporations?

Local labor laws and import tariffs may distort outputs of the company.

Managers need to focus on global performance and the subsidiary simultaneously.

Comparing data for international subsidiaries may be difficult.

Developing a market in the foreign subsidiary is often quicker and easier to achieve.

When conducting appraisals of managers of multinational corporations, the following major features (or constraints) should be considered:

Focusing on global performance and subsidiary or regional market performance of the unit must be simultaneous.

Comparing data for subsidiaries may not be easy to achieve, since import tariffs, local labor laws, and market conditions may distort the outputs.

Developing a market in the foreign subsidiary may be slower and more difficult to achieve, depending on the supporting infrastructure of the parent company.

What is the term for an employee who works for an international company and is assigned back to work in his or her home country?

Local national

Impatriate

Expatriate

Third-country national

Ungraded / 2

What is the most common reason that expatriates return early from international assignments?

Family difficulties

Technical difficulties

Skills difficulties

Work-related difficulties