Question: Of all the issues affecting HR practices

> An HR manager works at a company in a state that recently legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The company restricts the use of drug testing to employees on a probable cause basis, and tests are given to employees only when they have acci

> A technology company in California, a state that has legalized the use of medical marijuana, currently gives all newly hired employees a preemployment urine drug test. A failure to pass the drug test is grounds for canceling the job offer to an incoming

> Nurses have often reported high frequencies of incidents of incivility when they are working with doctors under stressful conditions in emergency rooms and during surgeries on patients. What effect would these incidents of incivility have on patients rec

> Do you agree or disagree with Bellow’s argument that relatives of company owners have a greater motivation to perform well and make sacrifices for the business to protect the family reputation than do nonrelatives? Explain.

> Costco has higher compensation expenses than Walmart as described in the case. What do you consider to be the rationale that Costco uses that justifies its policy of being a leader in pay and benefits in the retail industry?

> In groups of four or five students, meet with several administrators and faculty members in your college or university and, based on this, write a two-page paper on the topic “The faulty promotion process at our college.” What do you think of the process

> Some people believe that most employees will act ethically even though they have a chance to take advantage of an incentive system through inappropriate behaviors. Do you agree?

> What can an organization do to ensure that merit pay and other incentives are administered fairly? What kind of data would you gather to ensure that the pay-for-performance system is not biased in favor of any particular group? Explain.

> What are some of the pros and cons of linking pay to objective criteria that are important to the organization such as quality control measures, profitability, and low turnover?

> What is the common thread across the widely different examples of “merit pay” and “pay for performance” given in this case?

> As a small firm owner, do you think it is a good idea to distribute profit gains the board among all employees or would you rather distribute the profit gains based on individual contributions? Explain.

> Do you agree with the proposal being made by the consulting firm? Why or why not? Explain.

> Do you think a short pay-for-performance cycle would work for some jobs better than others? If so, for which kinds of jobs is it more appropriate? Provide examples and explain.

> According to Jim Kochanski, a compensation consultant at Sibson Consulting Co., there are four reasons to allocate scarce compensation dollars to reward key contributors: “it is considered ‘fair’ by most employees; it can motivate effort, focus, and coop

> Are there any potential problems with devoting most compensation dollars to rewarding top performers, even if this means neglecting investments to improve the welfare of all employees (such as day care or paid sick leave)? If you were asked the hypotheti

> Do you think offering incentives to key contributors motivates them as well as other employees to do a better job? Why or why not? If not, what alternative ways do you propose? Explain

> Explain the career-related factors to keep in mind when making the employee’s first assignments.

> What recommendations would you offer Alan Merton for redesigning Antle’s compensation system?

> What are the pros and cons of Antle’s compensation policies? Are they attuned to its new business strategies of fostering growth, increasing market share, and enhancing flexibility to respond to its competitors?

> Based on what you’ve read about Antle, do you agree with the problems identified by the committee? If not, what alternative set of problems or issues do you see?

> Based on the data collected by the faculty council, name three compensation problems that exist at Mountain States University.

> If you had a choice of working for a firm that offers you a higher wage but little in the way of family support services versus a firm that offers you a lower wage but better family support services, which one would you pick and why? Explain.

> Do you think employees who take advantage of these forms of family assistance support truly value these services more than they would an equivalent amount in take-home pay?

> Do you think that companies provide these types of family-oriented rewards for altruistic reasons? Do you see this as a trend? Explain.

> Do you think that one way to comply with the “compensation history ban law” would be to provide all candidates with a salary range for the job in question and see if they are still willing to continue the conversation? Would this tend to reduce the pay g

> Some states, such as Oregon, require that if a company violates the “compensation history ban law,” employees (mostly women) have to be reimbursed for any pay gaps that might be the result of asking compensation history questions. Do you agree? How would

> How do you think mentors and mentees should be matched? Should they be assigned or allowed to choose each other?

> Pick out some task with which you are familiar—mowing the lawn, tuning a car—and develop a job-instruction training sheet for it.

> Do you think that people should be required to serve as mentors? What characteristics should these mentors possess?

> Competencies are important to career success, but so, too, are career anchors. These two factors are analogous to ability and motivation being predictors of performance (see Chapter 5). Construct a parallel equation using competencies and anchors as pred

> The concept of career anchors indicates that there is more to career development than having and matching skills to competency requirements. Some managers view development as a moral imperative. That is, business is about making money, but it also should

> Opportunities and threats have to do with external factors. What sources could be useful for obtaining this information?

> Do you think that SWOT analysis is a useful tool for career development? Why or why not?

> Training for repatriation is also an important consideration. How do you think the effectiveness of training for repatriates should be measured?

> How do you think the effectiveness of training for expatriate positions should be measured?

> If time or budget were limited, what areas of training would be the top priority?

> Do you think that the three categories of potential training needs (country, job, and worker) should receive the same or different weights? That is, should a deficit in a job competency be viewed as more critical than a deficit in a cultural competency?

> How could you measure the training needs for each of the three areas of country, job, and worker characteristics?

> You’re the supervisor of a group of employees whose task is to assemble disk drives that go into computers. You find that quality is not what it should be and that many of your group’s devices have to be brought back and reworked; your boss says that “Yo

> Using the evaluation framework presented in Figure 8.5, which level would the challenge training attempt to improve?

> Assume that training results in a 10 percent reduction in your turnover rate. Also, assume that the cost of a turnover is 1.5 times the departing employee’s salary. For a given average employee salary of your choosing, estimate the reduced costs due to t

> Make assumptions about the costs in each of these categories and any other direct costs you can think of. Also assume that you can expect a 10 percent reduction in each of these categories. Generate the direct cost savings estimate due to the training.

> As you have read, training can increase revenue. The revenue could come from increased quality of the customer experience due to the impact of training. Consider, as an example, the table of customer survey responses before and after training. The number

> What recommendations would you make to improve the compensation system in a way that would likely improve customer satisfaction?

> In what ways might your group’s compensation plan contribute to the customer satisfaction problems?

> On what laws and legal concepts did the employer apparently base its termination of this 61-year-old attorney?

> Based on what laws or legal concepts could you take the position that it is legal to fire someone for poor performance even though there may be a discriminatory aspect to the termination (which is not to say that there necessarily was such a discriminato

> Do you think it is fair for a company to discipline employees by charging higher fees for those who show evidence of “unhealthy life styles”? According to Dr. Kevin Volpp, director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at the Unive

> In recent years there has been an increase in the number of companies that have wrongly classified an “employee” as a “contract worker,” and consequently were taken to court by workers who believed they were entitled to certain rights and privileges enjo

> Go back to the Manager’s Notebook “How Harley-Davidson Is Taking Advantage of a Diverse Customer Base.” If you were a HR manager of a company such as Harley-Davidson, what human resource programs would you put in place to help the company expand its cust

> Roughly two generations ago many HR articles decried problems with performance appraisal. A common complaint was that managers did not devote sufficient time to conducting the appraisals and that biases were rampant. Another common complaint was that mos

> Given your answers to the previous questions, estimate the combined impact of direct and indirect savings generated by training on the bottom line. Extrapolate this number over a one- or two-year time period.

> What do you see as the main advantages and disadvantages of Internet-based recruiting? Explain.

> U.S. law does not prohibit selection decisions based on marital status, as long as they are applied equally to men and women. Why might a company have such a policy? Is it ethical? Is it in the best long-term interests of the company?

> Reread the Manager’s Notebook “Learning How to Cope with Political Risks.” How do you think firms can better utilize HR practices to avoid the pitfalls illustrated in the Manager’s Notebook? Explain.

> Some people believe that U.S. MNCs should serve as vehicles for cultural change in developing countries by introducing modern U.S. HRM practices and instilling values (such as punctuality and efficiency) in the workforce that are necessary for industrial

> Reread the Manager’s Notebook “Toxic Factories Take Toll on China’s Labor Force.” Do you think it is fair for a company to take advantage of lax environmental standards in other countries? Should a multinational company take special care (even if it is m

> U.S. MNCs experience a much higher rate of early returns with their expatriate employees than European and Japanese MNCs do. What explains this difference? What HRM policies and procedures would you develop to reduce this problem?

> As noted in the chapter-opening vignette, Toyota ran into trouble for two reasons. One, was that the company centralized most decision making in its corporate headquarters. The second was that the CEO pressured top engineers to cut costs to improve profi

> It was argued in this chapter that an empowerment approach to improving safety could yield positive results. The operation of consultative safety teams including cleaning workers was used as an example. However, a participative approach to safety improve

> How can managers use the organization's reward system to encourage workplace safety?

> How could genetic testing be used to discriminate?

> If a worker has some weak areas that affect how well he or she performs aspects of the job, the traditional approach would be to provide evaluation and feedback to the worker to try to improve those deficiencies. How else could those deficiencies be impr

> If a job is potentially hazardous to the fetus of a pregnant employee, should it be legal for the company to restrict the job to men?

> What kind of policies do you think would work best to prevent workplace violence?

> Do you think social media is a useful way for offering a wellness program? Why or why not? What major characteristics do you think a social media– based wellness program should have?

> What is the difference between the objectives of workers’ compensation and the objectives of OSHA?

> Some experts in the field of labor relations believe that when a union can pose a credible threat of a strike to management in the collective bargaining process, both parties—union and management—are motivated to move in the direction of a settlement and

> Assume that a union has organized the faculty at the university or the college where you are a student. What impact would you expect the union to have on the faculty? Which faculty would you expect to support the union? To not support the union? How woul

> It is often said that "good pay and good management" are the keys to successful union avoidance. Spell out the kinds of policies and practices companies should develop if they want to keep their workers from unionizing. Do you think the employee relation

> How can management’s collective bargaining tactics be influenced by the company's labor relations strategy? Provide examples.

> Why have labor and management tended to treat each other as adversaries in the U.S. labor relations system?

> Can you think of a job-related reason why a company would decide to restrict dating between employees and enforce a no-dating policy? Do you think employers have a right to restrict any or all of the following off-duty conduct of their employees: (1) smo

> Motivating workers is an important goal for managers. Do you think that providing feedback on strengths helps accomplish this goal? Identify other purposes for performance appraisal. How well does a strength-based approach meet with those purposes?

> When a whistle-blower steps forward and discloses corruption or misconduct performed by a manager, how does a company benefit from this action? What can HR staff working with management do to reduce the fear and risk to employees from being a whistle-blo

> National Medical Enterprises, Inc., a $4 billion operator of hospitals and psychiatric treatment centers, faced criminal probes for practices such as widespread overbilling and fraudulent diagnoses to extend patients’ hospital stays. Investigators found

> Do employers have rights? If so, what are these rights?

> Why have managers needed to place greater emphasis on employee rights in recent years?

> A minority of employees are actually demotivated by being given public recognition in front of their coworkers. Why might some employees feel uncomfortable being recognized in a public ceremony? Do you think that this could be an issue related to diversi

> Some communication experts claim that men and women have different styles of communication that create barriers to decoding messages from a sender of the opposite sex. What do you think are the important differences between the way men and women communic

> Do you think most employees have reservations about using an appeals procedure such as an open-door policy? What can managers do to convince employees that the available procedures are fair and effective?

> Shelly Wexler tells her supervisor, Rob Levine, that having to care for her aging mother is forcing her to leave work early and is making her increasingly "stressed out." While Rob refers her to the company's EAP, he also tries to convince her to put her

> Employee privacy has been called “today’s most important workplace issue.” What kinds of dilemmas have the new technologies created regarding employee privacy? What other kinds of problems have the new technologies created in employee relations and commu

> Only a small percentage of part-time and temporary employees in the United States receive health insurance and retirement benefits compared to employees with full-time jobs. How serious a problem is this? Which people do you think are most likely to be a

> Not everyone can be good at everything about a job. Providing only positive performance feedback can give workers inaccurate pictures of their performance. What are the disadvantages of this inaccuracy?

> Why should younger employees (those in their 20s and 30s) care about retirement benefits?

> Paid time off (PTO) policies pool vacation, sick leave, personal days, and floating holidays into a bank of days that employees can have for personal use. Normally, the use of one of these days requires notification of the supervisor in advance. However,

> John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, keeps his pay low to keep staff morale high and donates half of his pay to charity. Most of his pay is based on Whole Foods’ performance. Mackey has blogged that stratospheric CEO pay is bad for business because it create

> Reread the Manager’s Notebook “High-Priced CEOs: Are They Worth It?” Develop a list of arguments in favor of the position of Prof. Desai (that CEO pay is irrational) and a list of arguments in favor of consultant Popelka (that CEO pay is rational). Which

> Some critics of pay-for-performance programs warn that incentive pay may promote unethical behaviors among employees. Do you agree? Why or why not? What system would you put in place, if any, to prevent this from happening? Explain.

> Reread the Manager’s Notebook “Incentives Come to Medicine: Do They Promote Unethical Behaviors Among Doctors?
” Do you agree that it is a good idea to offer incentives to doctors for better patient care? What are the drawbacks? Can these problems be avo

> One observer notes that "the problem with using pay as an incentive is that it is such a powerful motivational weapon that management can easily lose control of the situation." Do you agree? Why or why not?

> This chapter identifies three assumptions underlying pay-for-performance plans. Do you believe these assumptions are valid?

> Some people believe that the recent trend toward giving employees nonmonetary rewards is simply a way to save money by using a cheaper method to retain, attract, and motivate employees. Do you agree? Do you think this is fair? Explain.

> Fixed or assured pay is much less prevalent than it used to be. What impact do you think this has on employees’ outlook? What, if any, are the negative and positive aspects of this trend? Explain.

> What rational and political disadvantages are associated with the use of electronic performance review?

> Go to any of the salary survey sources listed in the Manager’s Notebook “How Much Is a Position Worth in the Marketplace?” and research the salary ranges of four to five positions of your choice. Assume that you are planning to recruit five individuals i

> In a feisty response to critics who accuse Wal-Mart of providing poverty-level wages (around $9.68 an hour on average) and few benefits, Wal-Mart Chief Executive H. Lee Scott Jr. said Wal-Mart offered good, stable jobs, noting that when it opens a store,

> Companies use various tactics to encourage managers to make employee development a top priority. What do you think of this policy of tying financial rewards to people development? What are some other ways companies can hold managers accountable for devel

> People who adopt a careerist strategy focus on career advancement through political machinations rather than excellent performance. Experts have pointed out four ways in which workers try to influence their superiors' opinions of them: favor doing (doing