Midterm Exam

Question 1 (1 point)

What do compensation managers use to recognize differences in the relative net worth of jobs and to establish pay differentials based upon management priorities?
Question 1 options:
Job analysis
Internal consistency
Strategic analysis
Job evaluation

Question 2 (1 point)

A company using this competitive strategy seeks to offer a product or service that is completely unique from other competitors in their market segment.
Question 2 options:
Prospector strategy
Differentiation strategy
Lowest-cost strategy
Defender strategy

Question 3 (1 point)

This law made it illegal to pay women less for performing equal work as men.
Question 3 options:
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
Equal Pay Act of 1963
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Davis-Bacon Act of 1931

Question 4 (1 point)

Southwest Airlines uses this competitive strategy by keeping overhead low, thus passing a price advantage on to consumers.
Question 4 options:
High quality strategy
Lowest-cost strategy
Differentiation strategy
Brand notoriety

Question 5 (1 point)

Which of the following would be an example of a non-monetary reward?
Question 5 options:
Day care assistance
Medical insurance
All of the above
Vacations

Question 6 (1 point)

This term suggests that a loss is likely for the firm, and that the individual will be left with little control.
Question 6 options:
Negative equity
Reverse opportunity
Foreclosure
Threat

Question 7 (1 point)

What US federal law established a national minimum wage for employees involved in commerce (rather than just those employed by companies working for the US government), as well as prohibit most employment of minors in oppressive child labor?
Question 7 options:
The Equal Pay Act of 1963
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Question 8 (1 point)

What represents the pay rate differences for jobs and employee contributions of unequal worth to a company?
Question 8 options:
Incentive pay
Pay structures
Retention pay
Merit pay

Question 9 (1 point)

Which of these is a company sponsored program that provides income to workers throughout their retirement?
Question 9 options:
Severance plans
Loyalty plans
Pension plans
Longevity plans

Question 10 (1 point)

Which of these actions would HR seek to encourage in attempting to create a lowest-cost competitive strategy?
Question 10 options:
High concern for the quantity of output
High concern for the quality of output
An employee long-term focus
Unpredictable employee behavior

Question 11 (1 point)

Saved
Which of the following is NOT a protected characteristic by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
Question 11 options:
Sexual orientation
Gender
National origin
Race

Question 12 (1 point)

This amendment to the US Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, individual states, and Indian Tribes.
Question 12 options:
The Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1
The First Amendment
Article I, Section 8
The Fifth Amendment

Question 13 (1 point)

This provision mandates that federal government agencies take affirmative action in providing jobs for individuals with disabilities?
Question 13 options:
ADA
Executive Order 11478
The Government Employee Rights Act of 1991
The Rehabilitation Act

Question 14 (1 point)

Intentionally treating women less favorably than men solely based upon their gender would be what form of discrimination?
Question 14 options:
Disparate causality
Disparate impact
Disparate treatment
Situational discrimination

Question 15 (1 point)

What governmental agency enforces the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (in addition to enforcing many other employment discrimination laws)?
Question 15 options:
ATF
NAACP
EEOC
WWE

Question 16 (1 point)

Which of these was given as a reason why union influence has diminished?
Question 16 options:
All of the above
Union companies demonstrating lower profits than non-union companies
Foreign automobile manufacturers producing higher quality vehicles
Technological advances

Question 17 (1 point)

This type of bargaining occurs when unions shift from bargaining for large pay increases to simply bargaining for greater job security.
Question 17 options:
Guarded
Concessionary
Compensatory
Heightened

Question 18 (1 point)

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA. applies to companies that employ at least how many workers?
Question 18 options:
50
25
100
15

Question 19 (1 point)

These types of jobs are subject to the FLSA overtime provisions?
Question 19 options:
Exempt
Equal
Nonexempt
Nonequal

Question 20 (1 point)

Which of the following is NOT a branch of the federal government?
Question 20 options:
Executive branch
Legislative branch
Service branch
Judicial branch

Question 21 (1 point)

This term refers to a difference between the output of a human judgment processes and that of an objective, accurate assessment. This difference could be due to bias, prejudice, or other subjective, extraneous influences.
Question 21 options:
Content validity
Rating error
The performance appraisal process
A first-impression effect

Question 22 (1 point)

The collective bargaining system was established by passage of which federal Act?
Question 22 options:
National Labor Relations Act
National Labor Regulations Act
Union Labor Relations Act
Union Labor Regulations Act

Question 23 (1 point)

Which comparison system requires the rater to place a specific number of employees into groups that represent the entire range of performances?
Question 23 options:
The critical incident technique
Hierarchical
Forced distribution
Paired comparison

Question 24 (1 point)

Similar-to-me effects and halo effects are part of which type of rater’s errors?
Question 24 options:
Errors of strictness
Contrast errors
Illegal discriminatory bias
Bias errors

Question 25 (1 point)

Which of the following is an advantage of seniority pay systems?
Question 25 options:
They encourage employees to continue to increase their skill sets
They help to promote product quality
They reward employees on an objective basis
They reward exemplary performance

Question 26 (1 point)

This performance appraisal system relies on many appropriate sources of information and works well for team-based work teams.
Question 26 options:
Trait systems
360-degree performance appraisal
Critical incident technique
Comparison system

Question 27 (1 point)

This performance appraisal system is based on employees and supervisors identifying on-the-job behaviors and behavioral outcomes that distinguish successful from unsuccessful performances.
Question 27 options:
Behavioral observation scales
Critical incident technique
Forced distribution system
Behaviorally anchored rating scales

Question 28 (1 point)

With these errors, supervisors tend to rate employees’ performances lower than they would be if compared against objective criteria.
Question 28 options:
Leniency errors
Critical errors
Contrast errors
Strictness errors

Question 29 (1 point)

In 2011, employees were expected to earn average merit increases of what percent?
Question 29 options:
2.9%
5.2%
8.3%
1.3%

Question 30 (1 point)

This occurs when a rater generalizes good performance behavior in one aspect of the job to all aspects of the job.
Question 30 options:
Negative halo effect
Positive halo effect
Similar-to-me effect
First-impression effect

Question 31 (1 point)

Which of the following is true about the level of risk involved with incentive pay?
Question 31 options:
The level of risk depends on the extent to which employees control the attainment of a desired goal.
The level of risk decreases as incentive pay represents a greater proportion of total core compensation.
The level of risk is dependent on subjective performance appraisals.
The level of risk is lower for higher-level employees than those who are lower in the job structure.

Question 32 (1 point)

Which type of individual incentive plan focuses on accomplishments such as improving attendance or safety records?
Question 32 options:
Referral plans
Piecework plans
Behavior encouragement plans
Management incentive plans

Question 33 (1 point)

The concept that a hard working employee is likely to stay at an incentive pay position is better known as this.
Question 33 options:
Structural effect
Output effect
Sorting effect
Representative effect

Question 34 (1 point)

This incentive plan uses a value-added formula to measure productivity.
Question 34 options:
Scanlon Plan
Improshare
Piecework plan
Rucker Plan

Question 35 (1 point)

This group incentive system was designed to provide employees with financial incentives for increasing customer satisfaction, increasing productivity, lowering costs, or improving safety.
Question 35 options:
Profit sharing
Gain Sharing
Team based
Small group

Question 36 (1 point)

Which of the following is true of incentive pay?
Question 36 options:
Incentive pay is considered part of an employee’s fringe compensation.
Award levels are subjective.
The criteria for judging an award tends to be objective, such as quantity produced.
The amount of the award paid for attainment of goals is not communicated in advance.

Question 37 (1 point)

Profit sharing plans and employee stock option plans are incentives on what level?
Question 37 options:
Group
Companywide
Individual
Executive

Question 38 (1 point)

Which gain sharing program measures productivity physically rather than in terms of dollar savings, and emphasizes the rapid completion of products by employees?
Question 38 options:
Improshare
Rucker
The Scanlon Plan
Management incentive plan

Question 39 (1 point)

The general rule of thumb is that short-term company goals last less than how long?
Question 39 options:
1 year
1 month
6 months
5 years

Question 40 (1 point)

This formula for determining the amount available for profit sharing uses a specific percentage of annual profits contingent upon the successful attainment of a specified profit goal.
Question 40 options:
Differed first-dollar-of-profits
Graduated first-dollar-of-profits
Fluctuating first-dollar-of-profits
Fixed first-dollar-of-profits

Question 41 (1 point)

This term refers to the degree to which the job enables the employee to work on it from start to finish.
Question 41 options:
Feedback
Task significance
Skill variety
Task identity

Question 42 (1 point)

Employees would need to learn these types of skills in order to develop self-managed work teams.
Question 42 options:
Depth
Vertical
Breadth
Horizontal

Question 43 (1 point)

This term reflects an approach to job design that results in the development of more intrinsically motivating and interesting work.
Question 43 options:
Job security
Job variety
Job enrichment
Job identity

Question 44 (1 point)

This type of pay system rewards employees for successfully acquiring new job-related knowledge.
Question 44 options:
Person-focused pay
Competency-based pay
Merit pay
Incentive pay

Question 45 (1 point)

Which pay model promotes learning and skills development for a wide variety of jobs from different job families?
Question 45 options:
Skill blocks
Cross-departmental
Job-point accrual
Stair-step

Question 46 (1 point)

Which company emphasizes globalization, product services, and six sigma quality improvements for corporate growth? This company also offers a renowned two-year global program for high potential HR professionals that includes the opportunity for cross-functional experience.
Question 46 options:
General Electric
Wal-Mart
Lincoln Electric
Nabisco

Question 47 (1 point)

In this pay-for-knowledge model, employees are rewarded for increasing their skills within a single job family, even if the skills do NOT build on each other.
Question 47 options:
Job-point accrual
Skill blocks
Stair-step
Cross-departmental

Question 48 (1 point)

Which of the following is a main reason for the increased costs associated with pay-for-knowledge programs?
Question 48 options:
Higher training costs
All of the above
Increased overhead costs
Higher payroll costs

Question 49 (1 point)

This term refers to the degree to which the job requires the person to do different tasks that involves the use of a number of different skills, abilities, and talents.
Question 49 options:
Task variety
Skill variety
Job flexibility
Task flexibility

Question 50 (1 point)

What is one of the main differences between a skill blocks model and a stair-step model?
Question 50 options:
The skill blocks model only emphasizes horizontal skills.
Stair-step models do not apply to jobs within the same family.
Employees do not progress to more complex jobs in the stair-step model.
The stair-step model addresses depth, while the skill blocks model emphasizes both horizontal and vertical skills.

Question 51 (1 point)

Market-based job evaluation uses which method to collect data to determine prevailing pay rates?
Question 51 options:
Surveys
Observations
Interviews
Questionnaires

Question 52 (1 point)

These indicate the name of each job within a company’s job structure.
Question 52 options:
Job titles
Job specifications
Job summaries
Position headings

Question 53 (1 point)

These are the salient job characteristics that are the general basis for job evaluations and are used to establish relative pay rates.
Question 53 options:
Compensable factors
Job descriptions
Ranking plans
Occupation descriptions

Question 54 (1 point)

This clearly defines the relative value of each job among all jobs within a company.
Question 54 options:
Intra-organizational job markers
Internally consistent compensation system
Market comparison standards
Generalized work activities

Question 55 (1 point)

Which of the following are the four “universal compensable factors?”
Question 55 options:
cognitive ability, effort, skill, and responsibility
skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions
skill, effort, cognitive ability, and working conditions
cognitive ability, effort, responsibility, and working conditions

Question 56 (1 point)

This overview concisely summarizes the job with two to four descriptive statements.
Question 56 options:
Job duties
Job preview
Job titles
Job summary

Question 57 (1 point)

What source is generally able to provide the most extensive and detailed information about how job duties are performed?
Question 57 options:
Benchmark jobs
Job incumbents
Job analysts
Supervisors

Question 58 (1 point)

This evaluation method uses quantitative methods to assign numerical values to compensable factors that describe jobs.
Question 58 options:
Point method
Market-based evaluation
Classification plan
Paired comparisons

Question 59 (1 point)

A job analysis method is this if it yields the kind of information that it was designed to provide and accurately assesses each job’s duties.
Question 59 options:
Market-based
Valid
Reliable
Complete

Question 60 (1 point)

In the job analysis process this term represents a group of positions that are identical with respect to their major tasks.
Question 60 options:
Element
Job family
Job
Occupation

Question 61 (45 points)

Explain the job characteristics theory. How does it tie in with intrinsic compensation?
Question 61 options:

Question 62 (45 points)

Compare and contrast the various multi skill-based pay systems – the stair-step model, the skill blocks model, the job-point accrual model, and the cross-departmental model.
Question 62 options:

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