Quiz of Human Resource Management Answer Key

QUIZ A. Choice Questions 1) The basic functions of the management process include all of the following EXCEPT ________. A) planning B) organizing C) outsourcing D) leading Answer: C Explanation: C) The five basic functions of the management process include planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. Outsourcing jobs may be an aspect of human resources, but it is not one of the primary management functions. 2) Which of the following is the person responsible for accomplishing an organization's goals by planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling personnel? A) manager B) entrepreneur C) generalist D) marketer Answer: A Explanation: A) The manager is the person responsible for accomplishing an organization's goals by planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling the efforts of the organization's people. An entrepreneur may manage people or may hire a manager to do so instead, but entrepreneurs are defined as individuals who start their own businesses. 3) Which of the following includes five basic functions—planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling? A) job analysis B) strategic management C) management process D) adaptability screening Answer: C Explanation: C) The management process includes five basic functions—planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. Strategic management refers to the process of identifying and executing the organization's mission by matching its capabilities with the demands of its environment. 4) Which function of the management process requires a manager to establish goals and standards and to develop rules and procedures? A) planning B) organizing C) staffing D) leading Answer: A Explanation: A) Planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling are the five main functions of management. The planning function involves establishing goals and standards, developing rules and procedures, and forecasting. 5) Celeste spends most of her time at work establishing goals for her staff of fifty employees and developing procedures for various tasks. In which function of the management process does Celeste spend most of her time? A) leading B) controlling C) organizing D) planning Answer: D Explanation: D) The planning function of the management process requires managers to establish goals and standards, develop rules and procedures, and develop plans and forecast. Leading involves motivating staff, while controlling requires a manager to set standards, such as sales quotas. Assigning tasks to employees is an aspect of the organizing function. 6) Jolene, a manager, delegates the authority for a project to Lee, her subordinate. Jolene is most likely involved in which function of the management process? A) staffing B) organizing C) motivating D) leading Answer: B Explanation: B) The organizing function of the management process includes delegating authority to subordinates and establishing channels of communication. The organizing function also includes establishing departments and coordinating the work of subordinates. 7) What is a company's plan for how it will match its internal strengths and weaknesses with external opportunities and threats to maintain a competitive advantage? A) strategic plan B) situation analysis C) SWOT analysis D) tactical plan Answer: A Explanation: A) A strategic plan is a firm's plan for assessing internal strengths and weaknesses with external opportunities and threats. The essence of strategic planning involves asking, "Where are we now as a business and where do we want to be?" Managers then develop specific strategies for taking a firm where it wants to be. 8) A course of action that a firm can pursue to achieve its strategic aims is known as a ________. A) vision B) goal C) strategy D) mission Answer: C Explanation: C) A strategy is a course of action taken by a firm to achieve strategic aims. For example, if Yahoo! decides it needs to raise money and focus on its applications, one strategy of the firm would be to sell Yahoo! Search. 9) )Strategic management is best defined as the process of identifying and executing the organization's strategic plan by matching the company's capabilities with its ________. A) environmental demands B) competitive standards C) natural resources D) hierarchical AACSBs Answer: A Explanation: A) Strategic management is the process of identifying and executing the organization's strategic plan, by matching the company's capabilities with the demands of its environment. Industry standards, resources, and corporate hierarchies are less relevant. 10) What is the first step in the strategic management process? A) formulating a strategy B) defining the current business and its mission C) translating a mission into goals D) implementing an environmental scan Answer: B Explanation: B) The first step in the strategic planning process is defining a firm's current business situation, which involves assessing where are we now as a business. B. True or False 11)Setting standards such as sales quotas, quality standards, or production levels is part of the leading function of human resource management. Answer: F Explanation: Setting standards such as sales quotas, quality standards, or production levels is part of the controlling rather than the leading function of human resource management. Leading involves maintaining morale and motivating workers. 12）Hiring the wrong person for the job, committing unfair labor practices, and having your people not doing their best are personnel mistakes that hinder firms from achieving positive results. Answer: T Explanation: Common HRM mistakes include hiring the wrong people, having your people not doing their best and committing unfair labor practices. The primary goal of HRM is to help the firm achieve its goals, and such HRM mistakes hinder that process. 13) The basic steps in the management planning process include setting objectives, determining alternative courses of action, and evaluating which options are best. Answer: T Explanation: Setting objectives, making forecasts, determining and evaluating alternatives, and implementing and evaluating the final plan constitute the basic steps of the management planning process. 14) Managers engage in three levels of strategic planning. Answer: T Explanation: Managers use three types of strategies planning. There is corporatelevel strategic planning, business unit (or competitive) strategic planning, and functional (or departmental) strategic planning. 15) The specific human resource policies and practices used to support a firm's strategic goals are known as human resource strategies. Answer: T Explanation: Human resource strategies are the policies and practices developed in order to produce personnel with the skills, competencies, and behaviors needed to achieve a firm's objectives. C. Explain the concept. 16) Human resource management The process of acquiring, training, appraising, and compensating employees, and of attending to their labor relations, health and safety, and fairness concerns. 17) Strategic Management The process of identifying and executing the organization's strategic plan by matching the company's capabilities with the demands of its environment. 18) SWOT SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and so a SWOT Analysis is a technique for assessing these four aspects of your business. You can use SWOT Analysis to make the most of what you've got, to your organization's best advantage. D.Questions & Answers 19) Why is human resource management important to all managers? HR management is important to all managers because managers can do everything else right—lay brilliant plans, draw clear organization charts, set up world-class assembly lines, and use sophisticated accounting controls—but still fail, by hiring the wrong people or by not motivating subordinates. On the other hand, many managers —presidents, generals, governors, supervisors—have been successful even with inadequate plans, organizations, or controls because they had the knack of hiring the right people for the right jobs and motivating, appraising, and developing them. 20) Identify the three levels of strategic planning and describe the function of each level. What is the relationship between human resource strategy and a firm's strategic plans? The three levels are corporate-level, business/competitive-level, and functional-level strategies. Corporate-level strategy identifies the portfolio of businesses that comprise the company and the ways in which these businesses relate to each other. The business-level strategy is the next level. It identifies how to build and strengthen the business's long-term competitive position in the marketplace. The lowest level is the functional-level strategies. Functional strategies identify the basic course of action that each department will pursue in order to help the business attain its competitive goals. HR strategies are a type of functional strategy. Every company needs its human resource management policies and activities to make sense in terms of its broad strategic aims. Strategic human resource management means formulating and executing human resource policies and practices that produce the employee competencies and behaviors the company needs to achieve its strategic aims. The basic idea behind strategic human resource management is simple: In formulating human resource management policies and activities, the manager's aim must be to produce the employee skills and behaviors that the company needs to achieve its strategic aims. Management formulates a strategic plan. That strategic plan implies certain workforce requirements. Given these workforce requirements, human resource management formulates HR strategies (policies and practices) to produce the desired workforce skills, competencies, and behaviors. Finally, the human resource manager identifies the measures he or she can use to gauge the extent to which its new policies and practices are actually producing the required employee skills and behaviors.