Capitulo 1 - The HR Environment Flashcards

1. Define human resource management and explain how HRM contributes to an organization's performance. 2. Identify the responsibilities of HR departments. 3. Explain the role of supervisors in HRM 4. Describe trends in the labor force composition and how they affect HRM. 5. Explain how the nature of the employment relationship is changing

1
Q

What is human resources Management?

A

Human resources management is the policies, practices and systems that influence employees’ behavior, attitudes and performance
This implies that the employees are resources of the employer

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2
Q

What is human capital?

A

Is an Organization’s employees described in terms of their:
Types of Human Capital:
- training
- experience
- judgement
- intelligence
- relationships
- insight
Behavior of Human Capital:
- motivation
- effort

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3
Q

What human resource management practices are relevant to company performance

A
  • Analysis and design of work
  • HR planning
  • Recruiting
  • Selection
  • Training and development
  • Compensation
  • Performance management
  • Employee relations (Human capital -> Type and behavior of Human capital)
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4
Q

How Human Resources can be beneficial to a company’s success ?

A

An organization can succeed if it has sustainable competitive advantage. Based on the theory resourced-based firm’s sustainable competitive advantage is based on its valuable, rare, imitable and non-substitutes.
Human Resources have the necessary qualities to help give organizations this advantage since:
- HR are valuable
- HR with needed skills and knowledge are sometimes rare.
- HR cannot be imitated.
- HR have no good substitutes.

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5
Q

What characteristics a human asset has?

A
  1. Cannot quit and move to a competing firm.
  2. Cannot demand higher or more equitable wages.
  3. Cannot reject the firm’s authority or be unmotivated.
  4. Need to be satisfied with supervision, coworkers and advancement opportunities.
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6
Q

What are the High-Performance work practices? And what is the positive impact? (HPWP)

A

The High-Performance work practices are:
- HR practices that SHRM theorists consider performance enhancing(improvement).
- Impact on employee skills and organizational structures.
- Impact on employee motivation.

Positive impact:
- Intermediate employees outcomes (turnover and productivity).
- Short- and long-term measures of corporate financial performance.

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7
Q

What are the High-Performance Work Systems? (HPWS)

A

An organisation in which technology, organisational structure, people, and processes all work together to give an organization an advantage in the competitive environment.

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8
Q

What are the responsibilities of HR Departments

A
  • Analysis and design of work (work analysis; job analysis; job description)
  • Recruitment and Selection (Recruiting; job postings; interviewing; testing; coordinating use of temporary labor)
  • Training and development (orientation; skills training; career development programs)
  • Performance management (Performance measures; preparation and administration of performance appraisals; discipline)
  • Compensation and benefits (Wage and salary administration; incentive pay; insurance; vacation leave administration; retirement plans; profit sharing; stock plans)
  • Employee relations (Attitude surveys; labor relations; employee hand books; company publications; labor low compliance; relocation and outplacement services)
  • Personnel policies (Policy creation; policy communication; record keeping; HR information systems)
  • Compliance laws (Policies to ensure lawful behavior; reporting posting information; safety inspections; accessibility accommodations)
  • Support for strategy (Human resource planning and forecasting; change management)
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9
Q

What is job analysis?

A

The process of getting detailed information about jobs.

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10
Q

What is job design?

A

The process of defining the way work will be performed and the tasks that a given job requires.

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11
Q

What is recruitment?

A

The process through which the organisation seeks applicants for potential employment.

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12
Q

What is selection?

A

The process by which the organisation attempts to identify applicants with the necessary knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that will help the organisation achieve its goals.

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13
Q

What is training?

A

A planned effort to enable employees to learn job-related knowledge, skills, and behaviour.

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14
Q

What is development?

A

The acquisition of knowledge, skills, and behaviours that improve an employee’s ability to meet changes in job requirements and in customer demands.

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15
Q

What is performance management?

A

The process of ensuring that employees’ activities and outputs match the organisation’s goals. The human resource department may be responsible for developing or obtaining questionnaires and other devices for measuring performance.

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16
Q

What is the planning pay & benefits?

A

How much to offer in salary and wages; how much to offer in bonuses, commissions, and other performance-related pay; which benefits to offer and how much of the cost will be shared by employees.

17
Q

What is administering pay & benefits?

A

Systems for keeping track of employee’s earnings and benefits are needed; employees need information about their benefits plan; extensive record keeping and reporting is needed.

18
Q

How do we maintain positive employee relations?

A

Preparing and distributing employee handbooks and policies;
Dealing with and responding to communications from employees;
Collective bargaining and contracts administration.

19
Q

How do we establish and administer personnel policies?

A

Organizations depend on their HR department to help establish and communicate policies.
All aspects of HRM require careful and discreet record keeping.

20
Q

How do we ensure compliance with labor laws?

A

Government requirements include filling reports, displaying posters, avoiding unlawful behaviour.

21
Q

How do we support the organisation’s strategy?

A

Human resource planing;
Change management;
Evidence-based HR.

22
Q

What is human resource planning?

A

Identifying the numbers and types of employees the organisation will require to meet its objectives.

23
Q

What is evidence-based HR?

A

Collecting and using data to show that human resource practises have a positive influence on the company’s bottom line or key stakeholders.

24
Q

What are the roles of supervisors in HRM?

A
  • Motivate with support from pay, benefits and other awards
  • Help define jobs
  • Forecast HR needs
  • Provide training
  • Interview (and select) candidates
  • Appraise performance (avaliar desempenho)
  • Recommend pay increases and promotions
  • Communicate policies
25
Q

What are the three HRM ethics?

A
  • Fundamental principles of right and wrong
  • Ethical behavior is behavior that is consistent with those principles
  • Many ethical issues in the work place involve HRM
26
Q

What are the employees rights?

A
  • Right of free consent
  • Right of privacy
  • Right of freedom of conscience
  • Right of freedom of speech
  • Right to due process
27
Q

What is internal labor force?

A

An organisation’s workers (its employees, the people who have contracts to work at the organization)
The internal labor force has been drawn from the external labor market.

28
Q

What is external labor market?

A

Individuals who are actively seeking employment
The number and kinds of people in the external labor market determine the kinds of Human Resources available to an organisation.

29
Q

What are the three causes of changes in Labor Force

A

(1) An aging workforce
(2) A diverse workforce
(3) Skill Deficiencies of the workforce

30
Q

What are the HRM implication of the aging workforce? (1)

A

HR professionals will spend much of their time on concerns related to retirement planning, retraining older workers, and motivating workers whose careers have reached a plateau.
Organizations will struggle with the ways to control the rising costs of health care and other benefits.
Many of tomorrow’s managers will supervise employees much older than themselves.
Organizations will have to find ways to attract, retain, and prepare the youth labor force.

31
Q

Give an example of how to overcome the aging workforce (1)

A

As more and more of the workforce reaches retirement age, some companies have set up mentoring programs between older and younger workers so that knowledge is not lost but passed on.

32
Q

What are the HRM practices that support diversity management? (2)

A
  • Communication: communicate with employees from a variety of backgrounds
  • development: provide career development for employees with different backgrounds and abilities.
  • performance appraisal: provide feedback based on objectives outcomes (Avaliação de desempenho)
  • employee relations: create a work environment that is comfortable for all and fosters creativity (promover criatividade)
33
Q

What are the skills deficiencies of the workforce? (3)

A

Today, employers are looking for: Mathematical skills; verbal skills; interpersonal skills; computer skills.
The gap between skills needed and skills available has decreased companies’ ability to compete.
They sometimes lack the capacity to upgrade technology, reorganize work, and empower employees.

34
Q

What are the strategic business issues affecting HRM?

A
  • Total quality management
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Reengineering
  • International Expansion
  • Downsizing
  • Outsourcing
35
Q

What are the changes in employment relationship? And describe each

A
  • A new psychological contact: describes what employees and employers expect from the employment relationship.
    Trend: From relational to transactional
  • Flexible staffing levels: alternatives to the traditional employment relationship: outsourcing, temporary, and contract workers.
  • Flexible work schedules: Shortened work weeks allowing employees to adjust work hours to meet personal and family needs.