HRM Revision
Chapters in focus








Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 13
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Examination Format
Section 1: Multiple-choice or True/False question
 There are 20 multiple-choice or True/False
questions in this section. ONE (01) mark for each
correct answer. MCQs are belonged to the chapters
of short and long answer questions.
Section 2: Short-answer question
 There are 5 short-answer questions in this section
and 8 marks for each correct answer.
Section 3: Situational question/ Case Study
 Tutorial activities
MCQs: all chapters



True or false
MCQs
MCQs on Situation
Short-answer


Focus on the key-term in the end of each
chapter.
Chapter 7,8, 10,11.
A case study


Similar to the tutorial activities.
Chapter 9, 13, 16
Sample






1. Employees’ total compensation consists of which
the following?
A. Base compensation, personnel costs, payroll
B. Payroll, base compensation, indirect
compensation
C. Benefits, pay incentives, personnel costs
D*. Base compensation, pay incentives, indirect
compensation
E. Payroll, pay incentives, base compensation






Cornilia is concerned that her roommate, who works
for a different company, does for a very similar
job,receives about 25% more pay and better
benefits than Cornilia. Cornilia’s concern reflects the
compensation issue of:
A. Job v.s individual pay
B. *External equity
C. Open v.s secret pay administration
D. Fixed v.s variable pay
E. a and D




Discuss plantwide incentive plans by explaining the
theory behind the plans, how they work, what the
disadvantages are, and under what conditions they
work best.
Answer: Definition of Plantwide plan, gainsharing,
Scanlon, Rucker, Improshare should be named.
Disads: carries poor performers, problems with
choosing criteria, can cause labor-management
conflict.
Work best in with small to mid-sized business where
technology can give gains. You need a participative
management philosophy and a relatively stable
market for your product.
Global Case 16.3
Mental Health: A Global Concern







Critical Thinking Questions
Mental health problems often have a negative stigma. What, if anything, do you think
companies can do to reduce this stigma?
Privacy issues should be mentioned here as well as the successful implementation of
diversity training and employee wellness programs.
Recognizing the importance of mental health in the workplace seems like the only
moral thing to do. Yet, employers face difficulties in effectively dealing with this
area. For example, mental health is less viable and apparent than physical health.
How can an employer be protected from feigning and fraud if it takes a liberal
approach to dealing with mental health?
Answers will very, but may include reference to the offer to seek outside services through a
list of recommended providers, implementation of an EAP program or flexible scheduling to
allow workers time off to tend to their mental health needs.
Mental health problems can be caused by many factors outside of the workplace.
For example, genetics and family life may predispose or cause mental health
difficulties. Nonetheless, these difficulties can show up in the workplace. Does the
employer have some responsibility for dealing with these mental health problems?
Explain.
Answers will vary, however it should be mentioned that employers can ultimately be held
responsible for what happens in the workplace.
Situational question


Millions of people use social networking Web sites, such as
Facebook and MySpace, to share personal information, including
photos and videos with their friends. Should companies use social
networking Web sites as a communications tool to build employee
networks? What are the advantages and the disadvantages of
using social networking Web sites as informal communication
channels for employees?
Answers will vary; however, it is important to note that social networking
sites are often a great way for companies to communicate with
employees as well as potential employees and add to the openness of
their culture. On the negative side, it is important for employees to
have some refuge from their day-to-day work. Social networking sites
sometimes contain information or images that companies might be best
served not being involved with and sometimes can create a forum
where an individual with questionable content them becomes
associated with that firm. In sum, the employee has full control over
site content but they are identified as an agent of the organization.
Sample situation of the mistake:Not
having clear standards
Why was it a mistake?
Workers need clear standards – they need to know what the manager’s
expectations are for a successful result. Look at the disagreement
between Larry and his manager, not because he didn’t perform but
because they each had a different standard for what would be
successful performance.
Sometimes measurements need to be very exact. EX: A workgoup that
produces spare parts for machinery needs to know the tolerances and
the tensile strength that the customer needs. It can err by producing
parts that fail to meet these tolerances and strength requirements. It
can err just as easily by wasting time crating closer tolerances and
higher tensile strength than the customer needs.
Even workers in whiter-collar or knowledge-work jobs need clear
standards, although they may not be as exact as those used in
manufacturing. Worker and manager can agree to a standard which
keep them both looking for the same range of result.

How can you recover from it quickly?
Be sensitive and flexible. You can turn the situation around
immediately, make it become a productive session between the
two of you. You should appreciate his improvement, anyway, he
did it, and you cannot change it, for him, that was good. The
importance is your relationship between you and him, as well the
motivation and satisfaction with the work. What happened,
happened, you cannot change it, but you can make the future
better.
To conclude, you should change the conversation, make it
productive by appreciate his improvement and remind him about
the standard, and have his promise on improvement from next
quarter.






How can you consistently do it right from now
on?
Be very clear about the objective/ standard
Identify the critical elements of a successful
result
Put together preliminary standards based on
the critical elements
Keep working with and improving the
standard





Your recommendation to managers: Whenever it’s possible,
there’s always one effective standard: customer satisfaction.
If your workgroup produces a product or service for identified
customers, always look to them for the basic standard. How
could you do this? (suggested activities)
Create a standard form to survey customers at the completion of
every project or job
Have workers visit customers o get their reactions
Call customers yourself, on a random basis or on a regular
schedule
Hold periodic focus groups with customers, preferable conducted
by individuals who have no connection with you and your
workgroup.