Q&A Hero

Q: Research has shown that there is_____ between HR metrics and business success metrics such as productivity, customer satisfaction and sales. A) a quantifiable connection B) not a connection C) a temporary connection D) not a permanent linkage E) only a negative relationship

Q: A popular defined-contribution plan whereby employees contribute pretax dollars which are then matched by the employer is known as: A. money purchase plans. B. Section 401(k) plans. C. profit-sharing plans. D. ERISA benefit plans. E. employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs).

Q: Highlight the types of violations that may be cited and the penalties that may be proposed.

Q: Which one of the following is an example of a defined-contribution pension plan? A. Consumer-driven pension plan B. Money purchase plan C. Gainsharing plan D. Flexible spending account plan E. Unfunded PBGC plan

Q: HRM is concerned with ensuring that ___________. A) employees are happy and pampered and offered benefits above market B) employees that are engaged and productive are retained C) employees are given extra benefits if they are in a particular demographic group D) technology is used in a minimal way when it comes to managing employee performance E) increases in employee compensation is based strictly on seniority

Q: List the activities a COSHO is authorized to carry out.

Q: If an organization identifies a function that is not a core competency, they may consider _____. A) increasing funding to that function B) hiring more employees to increase the efficiency of the function C) increasing the compensation for the employees in that function D) outsourcing that function to an outside company that specializes in that function E) dedicating more managerial talent to that function

Q: Which of the following is true of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation? A. It was created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974. B. It provides a supplemental income if the employee is temporarily unemployed. C. It provides employee protection for only defined-benefit pension plans. D. It is funded by a payroll tax imposed on each plan participant. E. It guarantees retirees a basic benefit only if the employer is in a sound financial position.

Q: The following is not a characteristic of a HPWP: A) Large number of highly qualified applicants for each strategic position B) Extensive training and development of new employees C) Low differential in pay between high and low performers D) Low percentage of employees covered by union contract E) Above market compensation for key positions

Q: Discuss some of the major responsibilities of OSHA.

Q: Which of the following is true of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974? A. The act established certain rights related to vesting. B. The act required employers to offer supplemental retirement plans. C. The act barred portability of retirement savings. D. The act reduced the responsibility of pension plan trustees. E. The act guaranteed retirees a pension equivalent to their last drawn salary.

Q: Graphology was not found to be a(n) _____ method to predict future employee _______, A) valid, demographics B) valid, success C) formal, success D) technological, flexibility E) formal, demographics

Q: What is the purpose of OSHA?

Q: Which of the following federal laws increased the responsibility of pension plan trustees to protect retirees? A. The COBRA B. The ADEA C. The ADA D. The FLSA E. The ERISA

Q: It is necessary to use quantitative analysis to determine the ______ of HRM methodology. This allows managers to know if a methodology is predicting something important. A) validity, B) efficiencies C) scorecard D) global reach E) expectations

Q: Highlight the conditions under which the law does not provide compensation.

Q: Which of the following is a typical factor used to determine retirement benefit levels under a defined benefit retirement plan? A. The state where the person was employed during the retirement year B. Number of dependents C. Age D. Average earning during the last 20 years of employment E. Number of unused leaves at the end of the retirement year

Q: Highlight some of the Workers Compensation law applying to employers.

Q: The value chain analysis can be used to: A) refocus the organization on its core competencies and the requirements of the customer base. B) focus on understanding customer needs and expectations. C) describe the extent to which a business has a competitive advantage. D) formulate strategies that place it in a favorable position relative to other companies in the industry. E) understand customer needs and expectations.

Q: Which type of retirement plan guarantees a specified level of retirement income? A. 401(k) plan B. Profit sharing plan C. Money purchase plan D. Defined benefit plan E. Employee stock ownership plan

Q: You have been hired as a consultant to reduce your clients potential for workplace violence. You could suggest all of the following except A) Increase role ambiguity B) Introduce predictive selection methodology C) Develop policies outlining a zero tolerance for violence D) Conduct background checks on all new employees E) Provide training to your managerial staff

Q: Which two major principles describe the extent to which a business has a competitive advantage? A) Strategic goals and sound measurement B) Strategic goals and workforce C) Quantity and quality of products/services D) Sound measurement and uniqueness E) Perceived customer value and uniqueness

Q: Which of the following sources do most retirees (65 and older) receive most of their income? A. Social Security B. Private pensions C. Earnings from personal assets D. Disability insurance E. Private investments

Q: If a company is able to offer a higher quality product at a lower price than its competition because of a well designed employee selection process and incentive system, their A) competitive advantage will decrease B) customer value will increase C) corporate sustainability will decrease D) vulnerability to lawsuits will increase E) financial performance will decrease

Q: An employee uses potentially hazardous chemicals in the course of doing their work. As a result, the employee occasionally contracts a minor rash. In this situation, according to OSHA the employer must A) transfer the employee to a job without the harmful chemical. B) inform the employee of the hazards associated with the job. C) require the employee to secure a doctors permission to continue on the job D) provide that employee to take special protection clothing. E) fire the employee and pre-screen all candidates with a medical examination.

Q: Active employee wellness programs: A. rely on employees to identify and obtain the services they need. B. are health education programs that provide information and services, but no formal support or motivation to use the program C. have not been successful in reducing risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease. D. assume that behavior change requires not only awareness and opportunity, but support and reinforcement. E. cost less than passive wellness programs.

Q: When an employee cuts a finger after removing the safety guard from his equipment to be able to cut faster, this is an example of an? A) Unsafe working environment B) Unrecognized hazard C) Unsafe act D) Observable bias E) Unsafe work assignment

Q: ______ is measured by, the level of employee satisfaction regarding working conditions, recognition and encouragement for good work, opportunities to perform well, and commitment to quality. A) Validity B) 360 degree feedback C) Meta-analysis D) Engagement E) Social responsibility

Q: Employers that offer medical insurance must meet the requirements of the _____. A. Employee Retirement Income Security Act B. Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act C. Glass-Steagall Act D. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act E. SarbanesOxley Act

Q: The __________ challenge ascertains if the managers have identified and collected the right measures of success. A) metrics B) perspective C) execution D) validation E) Globalization

Q: Which of the following has the top priority for OSHA inspection? A) Random inspections B) Re-inspections C) High hazard industries D) Imminent danger E) Employee complaints

Q: Which of the following is true of flexible spending accounts? A. They may be used to cover only employees' and not dependents' health-care expenses. B. They do not permit pretax employee contributions. C. Contributions to the accounts may exceed $5,000 per year but must be designated in advance. D. Funds must be used by the plan's year end or they revert to the employer. E. The money in the flexible spending account is taxed and it reduces an employee's take home pay.

Q: The __________ challenge ascertains whether management fully understands how workforce behaviors affect strategy execution. A) metrics B) perspective C) execution D) validation E) globalization

Q: According to OSHA, which of the following needs to be recorded? A) A disabled employee working in a potentially hazardous job. B) An employee who trips and falls in the parking lot and requires the use of the first aid kit before going back to work. C) When an employee suffers and injury at work that requires the employee to transfer to another job. D) If an employee is new to a job and is at greater risk to injury than an employee with longer tenure. E) Due to an employees overwhelming number of allergies they are sensitive to non- hazardous smells in the workplace.

Q: Which of the following is a difference between PPOs and HMOs? A. PPOs provide benefits at a reduced fee rather than on a prepaid basis as in HMOs. B. HMO employees are not required to use only preselected plan service providers, as in PPOs. C. PPOs are less expensive plans than HMOs if the employee goes out of the PPO network. D. HMOs have more in common with traditional fee-for-service plans than do PPOs. E. Unlike HMOs, payments to PPO physicians are made on a flat salary basis.

Q: A textile mill in its efforts to launch a wellness program for its employees should follow all of the following EXCEPT: A) Launch simple programs such as blood pressure and cholesterol screening or distribute information about nutrition to employees. B) Schedule events before work, during lunch, or after work so the activities do not take employees away from their regular duties. C) Take advantage of community services. D) Disallow employees to plan and implement activities and conduct a survey to assess employees health and recreational interests. E) Find out what other firms in the area or industry have done and learn from their experiences.

Q: The Valley National Bank exercise demonstrated that A) An employees length of service should not be considered when making employment decisions. B) Issues such as discrimination suits should never be talked about directly with the employee making the claim. C) Understanding an organizations goals, strengths and weaknesses is critical to managing human resources in order to gain a competitive advantage. D) Compensation issues have no impact on employee morale. E) Career planning is the sole responsibility of the employee, managers should never interfere.

Q: Which one of the following is true of health maintenance organizations? A. It's costs tend to be more than the cost for traditional health insurance. B. It's services are provided on a postpaid basis. C. It's patients are allowed to select physicians of their choice. D. It pays physicians on a flat salary basis. E. It pays physicians a fee-per-service rather than a flat salary.

Q: Which act prohibits job discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, or national origin? A) Civil Rights Act of 1964 B) Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 C) Fair Labor Standards Act D) National Labor Relations Act E) Employee Retirement Income Security Act

Q: Which of the following is true regarding ergonomics? A) Employers need not worry about ergonomics issues because the standard was repealed by Congress. B) Employers should take steps to solve ergonomics issues under the general duty clause. C) Elder care programs are available under the standard. D) Management need only spend 10% of the operating budget on ergonomic remedies. E) Ergonomics is the process of handling injury cases that have resulted in loss of consciousness.

Q: Employers that offer medical insurance must meet the requirements of the _____. A. Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 B. Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 C. Social Security Act of 1935 D. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 E. Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985

Q: Which domain would include assessment of an individual, or a departments, degree of success in meeting or exceeding predetermined levels of productivity and/or quality. A) Organizational design B) Staffing C) Performance management D) Employee training and organizational development E) Reward systems, benefits, and compliance

Q: Which of the following does NOT lead to job stress? A) Organizational downsizing B) Job demands C) Role ambiguity D) Family responsibilities E) Telecommuting

Q: The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 exempts which of the following companies? A. Companies with less than 50 employees B. Companies with less than 100 but more than 50 employees C. Companies with more than 50 employees D. Companies with more than 100 employees E. Companies with more than 1000 employees

Q: Which HRM domain includes affirmative action/diversity, promotion/separation, and orientation? A) Organizational design B) Performance management and appraisal C) Staffing D) Reward systems and compliance E) Employee training and organizational development

Q: __________ is defined as a situation where job-related factors affect a workers psychological and/or physiological condition such that the person deviates from normal functioning. A) Work sickness B) Job stress C) Job burnout D) Environmental illness E) Employee withdrawal

Q: How does allowing employees to participate in pay-related decisions affect the incentive process?

Q: HPWP stands for: A) high-performance work practices B) high-productivity work practices C) high-profit work practices D) high-paying work practices E) high-product work practices

Q: __________ is now a very common workers compensation claim in jobs involving essentially the same movements over and over again. A) Rorschach Survey Interest B) Research Survey Interest C) Repetitive Stretch Injury D) Repetitive Strain Injury E) Research Safety Institute

Q: What is balanced scorecard? What is its purpose? What are the advantages of using a balanced scorecard?

Q: Prolonged (20 hours or more) exposure to video display terminals has been associated with: A) High levels of drug abuse. B) Higher risks of miscarriage. C) Hearing problems. D) Speech problems. E) Alcoholism.

Q: Which of the following is one of the six general steps that an organization must take to develop a workforce scorecard: A) View a workforce in terms of cost rather than contribution. B) Establish a uniform incentive system. C) Identify low performers to reduce variance in the system. D) Translate measures into specific actions and accountabilities E) Provide employees with brief descriptions of what is expected

Q: Which of the following is an indicator of highly injurious level of workplace violence? A) Pushing, fistfights B) Theft C) Sabotage D) Psychological trauma E) Major violations of company policy

Q: Which of the following challenge for successful workforce measurement and management asks whether managers have the access, capability, and motivation to use measurement data to communicate strategy and monitor progress? A) Metrics B) Perspective C) Execution D) Validation E) Quality workforce

Q: The Guide to Workplace Smoking Policies recommends that employers should: A) Ban smoking entirely from the workplace due to its negative consequences. B) Not hire job applicants who smoke. C) Create separate ventilated smoking areas. D) Punish those employees who do not quit smoking within a six-month period. E) Offer incentives to employees who try to quit smoking.

Q: Graphology is associated with: A) quality analysis. B) behavioral analysis. C) appraisal process analysis. D) handwriting analysis. E) actuarial model analysis.

Q: What are group bonuses and team awards? What are their advantages and disadvantages?

Q: Companies should make sure that their drug testing policy includes all of the following EXCEPT: A) Notice to employees (or applicants) that drug testing will be conducted and the procedures to be used. B) A careful chain of custody to ensure that samples are not lost, mixed up, or switched. C) A dignified but secure method of collecting samples. D) Confirmation of all positive drug results with more sensitive tests. E) Opportunity for the individual to not disclose which prescription or over-the-counter drugs he/she uses.

Q: In their research, Huselid, Becker and Beatty found that traditional financial performance measures such as return on equity, and ROI are ________ and can be predicted by the way a company conducts its HR practices which are ___________. A) Opportunities, strengths B) Lagging indicators, leading indicators C) Qualitative, subjective D) Measures of marginal productivity, lagging indicators E) Leading indicators, lagging indicators

Q: The right-to-know provision of OSHA specifies employees right to know if: A) Someone they work with has a communicable disease. B) Someone they work with has a violent history. C) They are working with unsafe substances. D) They are working with a sex offender. E) They are working with unsafe machinery.

Q: The major domains of HRM are: A) selection, training, performance management, and compensation. B) human resources planning, job and work analysis, organizational restructuring, job design, team building, computerization, and worker-machine interfaces. C) organizational design, staffing, performance management and appraisal, employee training and organizational development, and reward systems, benefits, ad compliance. D) HR design, planning, downsizing, and restructuring. E) recruitment, employee orientation, selection, promotion, and termination.

Q: You are looking for a way to reduce or eliminate higher accident rates among younger workers. What is a safety intervention you might consider? A) Hiring only candidates between the ages of 35 and 39. B) Provide mandatory safety training for hazardous jobs. C) Ensure that pay for performance plans only focus on quantity of work. D) Provide training only post-accident. E) Initiate a team based competition to increase production.

Q: Measurement and ________ are key to achieving organizational effectiveness and gaining and maintaining a competitive advantage. A) intuitive decision making B) subjective decision making C) a focus on short term consequences D) Data-driven decision making E) a focus on organizational strengths

Q: Employee rights under OSHA include all of the following EXCEPT: A) Filing safety or health grievances. B) Complaining to an employer, union, OSHA, or any other government agency about job safety and health hazards. C) Provide medical examinations when required by OSHA standards. D) Participating on a workplace safety and health committee or in union activities concerning job safety and health. E) Participating in OSHA inspections, conferences, hearings, or other OSHA-related activities.

Q: __________ involves the arrangement of work tasks based on the interaction of people, technology, and the tasks to be performed in the context of the mission, goals, and the strategic plan of the organization. A) Employee and organizational development B) Organizational design C) Staffing D) Performance management E) Organizational development

Q: Employer responsibilities under OSHA include all of the following EXCEPT: A) Refrain from discriminating against employees who properly exercise their rights under the act. B) Employ color codes, posters, labels, or signs in several languages to warn employees of potential hazards. C) Request a closing discussion with the compliance officer following an inspection. D) Examine workplace conditions to ensure they conform to applicable standards. E) Minimize or reduce safety and health hazards.

Q: Which of the following does not offer sources of uniqueness? A) Financial or economic capability B) Product capability C) Technical capability D) Equal employment capability E) Organizational capability

Q: Merit Voluntary Protection Programs: A) is the most demanding and most prestigious of the OSHA voluntary protection programs. B) are designed for worksites with Star level quality safety and health protection to test alternatives to current Star eligibility and performance requirements. C) motivate other companies to achieve excellent safety and health results in the same outstanding way. D) is by far the most effective employee approach to safety. E) is required under Workers Compensation.

Q: The products or services of HRM include all of the following EXCEPT: A) organizational restructuring B) job design C) personnel planning D) evaluating E) manufacturing

Q: How does linking executive pay to stock performance lead to unethical behavior? A. Executives can use the advantage of knowing the company's inside information to buy or sell stock and create huge personal gains. B. Executives can roll in the stock price into their base pay to avoid paying a huge tax. C. Executives do not inflate the stock price in order to enjoy bonuses. D. Executives can use the employee stock ownership plan to buy their company if it is experiencing financial problems. E. The executives can obtain as many shares as they need at a price that is much lower than the market rate.

Q: In Marshall v. Barlows Inc. (1978), the Supreme Court ruled that: A) employers with 25 or more employees must maintain records of occupational injuries and illnesses as they occur. B) pre-employment screening for accident proneness is illegal. C) the employer must develop job safety and health standards. D) all public-sector employers must maintain safety records. E) OSHA may not conduct warrantless inspections without an employers consent.

Q: The following are examples of current HR trends. Increased globalization of the economy Technological changes Decreased litigation Stagnation in the labor force

Q: The _____ has required companies to more clearly report executive compensation levels and the company's performance relative to that of competitors. A. National Credit Union Administration B. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority C. Commodity Futures Trading Commission D. The Securities and Exchange Commission E. Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act

Q: Occupational injuries must be recorded in all of the following instances EXCEPT when the injury results in: A) a restriction of motion. B) first aid treatment. C) transfer to another job. D) one or more lost workdays. E) loss of consciousness.

Q: Fair treatment of workers results in lower performance and increased costs.

Q: How does the balanced scorecard help organizations deal with unethical behaviors of executives? A. It allows companies to deduct executive pay that exceeds $1 million. B. Rewarding the achievement of a variety of goals reduces temptation on the executive's part to gain bonuses by manipulating data. C. It encourages executives to hold on to their stock options when the company is undergoing financial problems. D. It forces executives to focus on company's long-term success because funds in ESOP are guaranteed by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation. E. In a balance scorecard, maximum points are given to ethical behavior.

Q: Under OSHA requirements: A) employers with 8 or more employees must maintain records of occupational injuries and illnesses as they occur. B) all employers irrespective of the size of their organization must maintain records of occupational injuries and illnesses as they occur. C) employers with 11 or more employees must maintain records of occupational injuries and illnesses as they occur. D) employers in only those industries listed as most hazardous must keep records of occupational injuries and illnesses as they occur. E) all unions must maintain safety records.

Q: Which of the following is a long-term incentive? A. Commission B. Group bonus C. Merit pay D. Stock option E. Piece rate

Q: HPWP includes HRM practices that motivate employees to put forth discretionary effort.

Q: OSHA does NOT have responsibility for which of the following? A) Developing enforceable standards. B) Record keeping and reporting. C) Inspection of the workplace. D) Inspection of record-keeping forms. E) Inspection of employee payslips.