Chapter 2 - Strategy and Human Resources

Question 1

Strategic planning

Answer 1

involve a set of procedures for making decisions about the organizations long-term goals and strategies
- Focuses on how the organization will position themselves relative to its competitors to ensure its long-term survival, create value, and grow

Question 2

Human resources planning (HRP) -

Answer 2

the process of anticipating and providing for the movement of people into, within, and out of an organization
- Help managers deploy their human resources as effectively as possible, where and when they are needed, to accomplish the organizations goals

Question 3

High-Performance Work Systems

Answer 3

Group of human resource practices that have been proven to increase an orgnizations ability to attract, select, hire, develop, and retain highpreforming employees

• Good HR managers “marry” the HRP to the strategic planning process for their organizations as a whole
  Focuses on strategy formulation and strategy implementation

Question 4

steps

Answer 4

Step 1: Mission, Vision, and Values
Step 2: External analysis
Step 3: Internal Analysis
Step 4: Formulating Strategy
Step 5: Strategy Implementation
Step 6: Evaluation and Assesment

Question 5

Mission

Answer 5

the basic purpose of the organization as well as its scope of operations
Purpose of org, comp advantage, customers, how fulfill needs

Question 6

Strategic vision

Answer 6

a statement about where the company is going and what is can become in the future; clarifies the long-term direction of the company and its strategic intent

Question 7

Core values -

Answer 7

the strong enduring beliefs and principles that the company uses as a foundation for its decisions

Question 8

Step 2: External analysis
Environmental Scanning

Answer 8

systematic monitoring of the major external forces influencing the organization
Changes in the labour supply can limit the strategies available to firms

Question 9

The Business Environment

Answer 9

consists of all external factors in the general environment - factors that a firm cannot directly control but can affect its strategy

Question 10

Economical and Ecological changes -

Answer 10

all firms must react to changes in the economy, including general, regional, and global conditions - economic booms, recessions

Question 11

Technological changes

Answer 11

tech changes such as automation have a broad effect on business changes that they have had to adapt strategically

Question 12

Demographic changes

Answer 12

changes in labour supply can limit the strategies available to firms - high growth companies may find it difficult to find the talent they need to expand their business

Question 13

Social changes

Answer 13

societal attitudes are constantly changing the business landscape for firms in all industries

Question 14

Legal and Regulatory Changes

Answer 14

government and legislative issues, including laws, have a broad effect on the remote environment

Question 15

Competitive Environment - five forces:

Answer 15

Customers
rival firms
new entrants
substitutes
suppliers

Question 16

customers

Answer 16

firms strategy should focus on creating value for customers, who often want different things

Question 17

Rival firms -

Answer 17

examining the nature of the competition - who is the competitor

Question 18

New Entrants

Answer 18

companies can establish barriers to keep new firms out of the industry
Substitutes - sometimes, the biggest opportunity or threat in an industry is not from direct competion but from buyers substituting other products

Question 19

Suppliers

Answer 19

organizations rarely create everything on their own, they have suppliers that provide them with key inputs - inputs can be raw materials for production, money (from banks and stockholders), information and people/labour

Question 20

Stakeholders

Answer 20

key people and groups that have an interest in a firms activities and that can either affect them or be affected by them

Primary - direct stake in the firm and its success
Secondary - have less of a stake but can be affected by the company - community in which the firm operates, the government, business groups, and the media

Question 21

Step 3: Internal Analysis
Core Capabilities

Answer 21

integrated knowledge sets within an organiztion that distinguish it from its competition and deliver value to customers

Question 22

Value creation -

Answer 22

what the firm adds to a product or service by virtue of making it; the amount of benefits provided by the product or service once the costs of making it are subtracted

Differentiate from competitors - processes, systems (technologies), and people

Question 23

Competitive advantage through people

Answer 23

resources must be rare/valuable, difficult to imitate, organized

Question 24

Types of Talent and Their Composition in the Workforce
Strategic knowledge workers

Answer 24

have unique skills that directly linked to the companys strategy and are difficult to replace

Question 25

Core employees

Answer 25

skills are quite valuable to a company but not particularly unique or difficult to replace

Question 26

Supporting workers -

Answer 26

typically have skills that are less strategic value to the firm and are generally available in the labour market

Question 27

External partners -

Answer 27

skills are unique but frequently are not directly related to a company’s core strategy

Question 28

Corporate Culture Cultural audits

Answer 28

- audits of the culture and quality of work life in an organization - Examine the values, assumptions, beliefs, and expectations of their workforce

Question 29

Conducting a Cultural Audit

Answer 29

surveys the employees to learn how they feel about a number of issues by askung them questions

Question 30

Types of corporate culture

Answer 30

- clan - adhocracy - marker - hierarchal

Question 31

clan

Answer 31

employees are closely knit and exhibit great concern for one another and their customers and loyalty and cohesion are highly valued

Question 32

adhocracy

Answer 32

culture characterized by risk taking, innovation, and spirit of entrepreneurship

Question 33

market

Answer 33

encourages competitive, result-oriented behaviours

Question 34

hirearchal

Answer 34

characterized by formal structures and procedures and in which efficiency and stability are greatly valued

Question 35

Forecasting

Answer 35

Internal analysis of an orgnaization can revel a great deal about where it stands today Managers must continually forecast borth the needs and the capabilities of the firm for the future to do an effective job strategic planning

Question 36

Three elements of forecasting

Answer 36

Forecastig the demand of labour Forecasting the supply of labour Balancing supply and demand considerations

Question 37

Forecasting a Firm’s Demand for Employees Techniques

Answer 37

- trend analysis - management forecasts

Question 38

Trend analysis

Answer 38

a quantitative approach to forecasting labour demand based on an organizational index such as sales - relies on a single factors to predict employment needs

Question 39

Management forecasts -

Answer 39

the opinions (judgements) of supervisors, department managers, experts, or others knowledgable about the organizations future employment needs

Question 40

Forecasting the supply of employees

Answer 40

- markov analysis - staffing tables - skill inventories - replacement charts

Question 41

Staffing tables

Answer 41

graphic representations of all organizationla jobs, along with the number of employees currently occupying those jobs and future employment requirements

Question 42

Markov analysis -

Answer 42

a method for tracking the pattern of employee movements through various jobs

Question 43

Skill inventories

Answer 43

files of personnel education, experience, interests, and skills that allow managers to quickly match job opening with employee backgrounds

Question 44

Replacement charts

Answer 44

listing of current jobholders and people who are potential replacements if an opening occurs

Question 45

Succession planning

Answer 45

the process of identifying, developing, and tracking key individuals for executive positions

Question 46

Human capital readiness

Answer 46

the proces of evaluating the availability of critical talent in a company and comparing it to the firms supply

Question 47

Step 4: Formulating Strategy SWOT analysis

Answer 47

a comparison of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for strategy formulation purposes

Question 48

Corporate Strategy

Answer 48

markets to compete in, against who, and how

Question 49

Growth and Diversification

Answer 49

as companies grow, their strategic choices tend to focus on geogrpahic, volume, and expansion

Question 50

Growth hinges on three related elements

Answer 50

Increased employee productivity A greater number of employees Employees developing or acquiring new skills

Question 51

Mergers and Acquisitions

Answer 51

- coming together with other companies

Question 52

Strategic Alliances and Joint Ventures -

Answer 52

Hr assists in selecting executives and developes teamwork across the respective workforces

Question 53

Business Strategy -

Answer 53

how the company will compete against rival firms to create value

Question 54

Low-Cost Strategy: Compete on Productivity and Efficiency -

Answer 54

low cost strategy means keeping your cosrs low enough that you can offer an attractive price to customers (relative to competitors) Produce more from the workforce they have, or they can produce the same with a smaller workforce outsourcing

Question 55

Differentiation Strategy: Compete on Unique Value Added -

Answer 55

provides something unique and distictivbe to customers - often based on high product quality, innovate features, speed to market, or superior service

Question 56

Functional Strategy: Ensuring Alignment Vertical fit/ alignment -

Answer 56

focuses on the connection between the business objectives and the major initiatives in HR

Question 57

Horizontal fit/ alignment -

Answer 57

ensure their HR practices are all aligned with one another internally to establish a configuration that is mutually reinforcing

Question 58

Step 5: Strategy Implementation Taking Action: Reconciling Supply and Demand Dealing with Surplus Employees - Layoffs

Answer 58

decisions are based on seniority and/or ability

Question 59

Attrition

Answer 59

- a natural departure of employees from organizations through quits, retirement, and deaths

Question 60

Hiring freeze -

Answer 60

a practice whereby new workers are not hired as planned or workers who have left the organization are not replaced

Question 61

Termination

Answer 61

practice initiated by an employer to separate an employee from the organization permanently

Question 62

Severance pay

Answer 62

a lump sum payment given to terminated employees by an employer at the time of an employer-initated termination

Question 63

Step 6: Evaluation and Assesment Evaluation and Assement Issues - benchmarking

Answer 63

the process of measuring ones own services and practice against the recognized leaders to identify areas for improvement

Question 64

Measuring A Firm’s Strategic Aligment Strategy aligment and the balanced scorecard -

Answer 64

a measurement framework that helps managers translate strategic goals into operational objectives 1. Financial 2. Customer 3. Process 4. Learning

Question 65

Measuring horizontal fit

Answer 65

dentify the key workforce objectives they hope to achieve, identify each of the HR practices used to elicit or reinforce those workfocie objectives, evaluate each HR practice on a scale of -5 (not supportive) to 5 (supportive)

Question 66

Ensuring Strategic Flexability for the Future Organizational capability -

Answer 66

the capacity of the organization to act and change in pursuit of sustainable competitive advantage