Q&A Hero

Q: Profit sharing costs more when the organization experiences financial difficulties.

Q: Linking incentives to the organization's profits or stock price exposes employees to a high degree of risk.

Q: Generally, team awards do not use cost savings as a performance measure.

Q: Group bonuses typically reward the performance of all employees in an organization.

Q: Successful gainsharing plans include employee stock ownership plans.

Q: Gainsharing addresses the challenge of identifying appropriate performance measures for complex jobs.

Q: Retention bonuses are one-time incentives paid to top managers, engineers, top-performing salespeople, and information technology specialists in exchange for remaining with the company.

Q: Like merit pay, performance bonuses for individual performance are rolled into an employee's base pay.

Q: From employers' perspective, an advantage of merit pay is that it is cheap.

Q: Merit increase grids display an organization's policies for linking the size and frequency of pay increases to an individual's performance rating and position within the pay range.

Q: Standard hour plans are quality-oriented incentives for professional employees.

Q: Piecework rates are most suited for routine, standardized jobs with output that is easy to measure.

Q: Merit pay incentive system is usually used to attract employees who are more team-oriented.

Q: Incentive pay is influential because the amount paid is linked to certain predefined behaviors or outcomes.

Q: Which of the following statements is true of the FLSA requirements for overtime pay? A. The overtime rate is one and a half times the employee's hourly rate, excluding any bonuses or piece-rate payments. B. Time worked includes only hours spent on production or sales, but not on activities such as attending required classes, cleaning up the work site, etc. C. Overtime must be paid whether or not the employer specifically asked or expected the employee to work the extra hours. D. Everyone is eligible for overtime pay. E. Most workers paid on an hourly basis are exempt and therefore not subject to the laws governing overtime pay.

Q: An employee who earns a base rate of $10 an hour and receives a weekly attendance award of $20 works 50 hours this week (Overtime pay is required, whether or not the employer specifically asked or expected the employee to work more than 40 hours). His/her total compensation for the week will be: A. $550.00. B. $557.50. C. $570.00. D. $577.50. E. $505.00.

Q: Which of the following is a drawback of a minimum wage in terms of social policy? A. It assumes people will take differences in pay into account when they choose a career. B. It is only one and a half times the employees usual hourly rate. C. It applies only to the hours worked beyond 40 in one week. D. It places the employer at an economic disadvantage relative to employers that pay the living wage. E. It tends to be lower than the earnings required for a full time worker to rise above the poverty level.

Q: The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) includes provisions for: A. personal finance.B. minimum wage.C. wage discrimination.D. environmental hazards.E. retirement plans.

Q: Which of the following permits a lower training wage, which employers may pay to workers under the age of 20 for a period of up to 90 days? A. FLSA B. ADA C. FMLA D. ERISA E. ADEA

Q: From an economic standpoint, identify the drawback of a comparable-worth policy. A. A free-market economy assumes people will not take differences in pay into account when they choose a career. B. Employees may conclude that pay rates are unfair. C. The pay policy line reflects the pay structure in the market, which does not always match rates in the organization. D. Grouping jobs will result in rates of pay for individual jobs that do not precisely match the levels specified by the market and the organization's job structure. E. Raising pay for some jobs places the employer at a disadvantage relative to employers that pay the market rate.

Q: The comparable-worth policy: A. advocates remedies for any undervaluation of jobs based on market-pay data. B. is designed to reduce the wage gap between women and minority groups. C. has been consistently upheld in court rulings. D. uses job evaluation of an organizations jobs in terms of such criteria as their difficulty. E. is the only non-controversial pay policy.

Q: Which of the following statements is true of Equal Employment Opportunity laws? A. These laws guarantee equal pay for whites and minorities. B. The goal of these laws is for employers to provide equal pay for equal work. C. Job descriptions and job structures cannot help organizations demonstrate that they are upholding these laws. D. These laws guarantee equal pay for men and women. E. Under these laws, employers cannot tie differences in pay to business-related considerations.

Q: Identify the legal requirement(s) for developing a pay structure. A. Product markets B. High-quality workforce C. Equity and fairness D. Overtime pay E. Pay differentials

Q: Which of the following would act as a market force during the development of a pay structure? A. Restrictions on child labor B. Meeting principles of fairness C. Providing equal pay for equal work D. Paying atleast the minimum wage established by law E. Obtaining human resources in labor markets

Q: An organization's job structure and pay levels: A. reflect the organization's knowledge about inflationary pressures. B. reflect the decisions about how much to pay each employee. C. provide the total amount an organization pays for a particular job. D. are annual earnings of key employees in the organization. E. are policies of the organization.

Q: An organization's job structure consists of: A. the relative pay for different jobs within the organization. B. the average amount an organization pays for a particular job. C. the characteristics of jobs that the organization values and chooses to pay for. D. regular pay, overtime pay, and bonuses. E. the standard amount that employers must pay under federal and state law.

Q: The equity of executive pay does not affect other employees.

Q: Military pay often exceeds what service members would earn in their civilian jobs.

Q: Issues affecting an organization's pay structure do not affect its general reputation.

Q: A compa-ratio of 1 suggests that actual pay is not consistent with the pay policy.

Q: Skill-based pay systems support efforts to empower employees and enrich jobs.

Q: Broad bands increase the opportunities for promoting employees.

Q: The most common approach to pay differentials is to move an employee lower in the pay structure to compensate for increasing costs.

Q: Pay grades allow rates of pay for individual jobs to be more precisely matched to market rates and the organization's job structure.

Q: When job structure and market data conflict, organizations should base their pay only on market forces because this is the only approach that does not have any practical drawbacks.

Q: Key jobs have relatively unstable content and are uncommon to many organizations.

Q: Compensable factors are job characteristics that an organization values and chooses to pay for.

Q: Research suggests that employees in the lower tier of the pay structure are less satisfied than the top-tier employees.

Q: In a two-tier wage system, employees doing the same job are paid two different rates, depending on their technical background and training.

Q: According to equity theory, people measure outcomes such as pay in terms of their outputs.

Q: In terms of compensation, benchmarking involves the use of pay surveys.

Q: When labor costs are a large part of an organization's total costs, the organization responds by increasing pay levels.

Q: Product markets do not place any limit on the pay an organization will offer.

Q: Organizations in a product market compete to serve different customers.

Q: The 1938 FLSA requires federal contractors to pay local or area prevailing wage rates.

Q: Under the FLSA, children aged 14 and 15 may not be employed in any work associated with interstate commerce.

Q: Paying a salary does not necessarily mean a job is exempt.

Q: In states that have laws specifying minimum wages, employers must pay whichever rate is higherthe federal or state.

Q: The laws governing Equal Employment Opportunity guarantee equal pay for men and women, whites and minorities, and other groups within the United States.

Q: An organization's job structure and pay levels are policies of the organization, rather than the amount a particular employee earns.

Q: Pay level is the average amount (including wages, salaries, and bonuses) the organization pays for a particular job.

Q: How does equity theory justify the high pay of CEOs?

Q: How do organizations compare actual pay to pay structure?

Q: What is skill-based pay? What are its advantages and disadvantages?

Q: What are the limitations of using a job-based pay structure?

Q: According to the model of legitimacy or organizational influence, which areas have a high and low degree of legitimacy? Draw the diagram of the model to support your answer.

Q: Define hourly wage, piecework rate, and salary.

Q: How do employees judge the fairness of a pay structure?

Q: Why are transcultural employees needed?

Q: What is benchmarking?

Q: Write a brief note on high and low context cultures.

Q: Discuss the three major provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Q: How does fluency in the host language contribute to cultural adaptation?

Q: Define job structure, pay level, and pay structure.

Q: The _____ requires employers to make jobs available to their workers when they return after fulfilling military duties for up to five years. A. USERRA B. FLSA C. EEOA D. NLRB E. FMLA

Q: Explain briefly the reactions experienced by employees entering another country.

Q: What is the definition of cultural distance?

Q: Assuming that the pay structure is well planned to support the organization's goals, the compa-ratios should be close to: A. 0.5. B. 1.5. C. 2. D. 1. E. 0.

Q: The compa-ratio: A. measures the degree to which actual pay is consistent with the pay policy. B. is defined as average pay for the grade divided by the minimum pay for the grade. C. can range from 0 to 100 percent. D. uses data from market-pay surveys. E. measures the degree to which new skills learnt are consistent with the increases in pay.

Q: What is parochialism and how does it impact how the person views a new culture?

Q: Which of the following is true about skill-based pay? A. It provides a way to ensure that employees can use their new skills. B. Gathering market data about skill-based pay is easy. C. It ensures that the employer pays the employee for learning skills that benefit the employer. D. Skill-based pay does not necessarily provide an alternative to the bureaucracy and paperwork of traditional pay structures. E. Skill-based pay does not require records related to skills, training, and knowledge acquired.

Q: Why is the community role of an expatriate manager important?

Q: Which of the following is a disadvantage of skill-based pay systems? A. Lesser paperwork B. Reduced employee empowerment C. No guarantee that employees can use their new skills D. Reduced opportunities for promoting employees E. Discouraged job enrichment

Q: How does inflation impact workers lives?

Q: Which of the following is a disadvantage of broad bands? A. They reduce managers' flexibility in making assignments. B. They always result in pay decreases. C. They reduce the number of levels in the organizations job structure. D. They reduce the opportunities for promoting employees. E. They discourage employees from gaining valuable experience through lateral career moves.

Q: How are American workers protected from discrimination while working in a foreign US company?

Q: By combining more assignments into a single layer, organizations give managers more flexibility in making assignments and awarding pay increases which results in: A. outsourcing. B. broad bands. C. rightsizing. D. benchmarks. E. downsizing.

Q: Describe the concept of uncertainty avoidance.

Q: Reducing the number of levels in an organizations job structure is known as: A. outsourcing. B. delayering. C. rightsizing. D. benchmarking. E. whistle-blowing.

Q: Which of the following leadership styles is most universally acceptable and desired for adapting to a countrys cultural values? A) Transactional leadership B) Participative leadership C) Transformational leadership D) Autocratic leadership