Discussion Question 1_01
You are a newly promoted Human Resource manager for a high tech global company. You have resources to focus on three (3) primary initiatives within your HR Department during your first year of tenure. Among the objectives are improving employee engagement, improving productivity, and maximizing your company's diversity advantages while minimizing potential barriers. What three changes would you initiate to address these objectives? Explain what you would do in detail. (30 points) (A 2-page response is required.)
Discussion Question 1_02
Over the last 40 years, federal legislation has redefined personnel management in U. S. organizations. Discuss the following: (20 points) (A 1-page response is required.)
- Describe the effect of the following legislations on organizations: Title VII of 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
- Show how these changes are "good business," that is, how they benefit the organizations and not just the employees within those organizations.
Discussion Question 2_03
Discuss the following. (30 points) (A 2-page response is required.)
- Describe the six (6) steps in performing a job analysis.
- Describe how information from a job analysis might be effectively used in recruiting, appraising performance, training, making additional job assignments, and showing EEO compliance.
Discussion Question 2_04
Describe five (5) items one might find in a job description. (20 points) (A 1-page response is required.)
Discussion Question 3_06
Imagine that you have a 3-employee office/apartment management company. They have all asked for increases in base pay. Maureen, 42, is a part-time business contracts manager and secretary; she gets $2200 a month. Buzz, 28, oversees building maintenance and rentals for the 4-story family-owned business office directly above your office. He also manages nine apartment buildings within the area. He gets $4,750 a month. Margaret, 36, handles legal matters and has responsibility for resolving all escalated tenant complaints as well as evictions. She earns $6,400 a month. Respond to the following. (30 points) (A 2-page response is required.)
- Outline a formal pay plan for your three employees using Dessler's 5-step process. In Step 2, Job Evaluation, use the ranking method to evaluate compensable factors.
- Describe the five (5) methods Dessler presents to perform a job evaluation, highlighting the advantages of each method.
Discussion Question 3_07
Several trends in our culture and economy will surely affect employee compensation and benefits in the near future. Describe how you anticipate the following to impact employee compensation and benefits in the next ten (10) years. (20 points) (A 1-page response is required.)
- Rapid Growth of the 'Underemployed/Unemployable'
- Executive Compensation
- Health Care Costs
- The Rise of Competency-Based Pay Practices
Discussion Question 4_08
You have just finished designing a course on customer service for a retail chain. List and describe the four (4) categories of training outcomes that you would use to determine the course's success. (25 points) (A 1½-page response is required.)
Discussion Question 4_09
Your firm has been using a tried-and-true paper-based method of account management for 70 years. Upper management has determined that a new online version would be more effective. With training as one of your components, explain how you would bring about change in your organization using Lewin's 3-step model. (25 points) (A 1½-page response is required.)
Discussion Question 5_11
Discuss the following:
- Explain the following third-party interventions: mediation, fact-finder, and binding arbitration. Provide hypothetical examples of each.
- Compare four (4) tactics that a union might use to break an impasse. Do not discuss the three (3) interventions discussed in "a" above.
| Discussion Question 5_12 |
You are an employee relations manager. Your last employee values and behaviors survey showed low ratings in the following three (3) areas:
- A casual regard for company property and minor theft
- Among the salesforce, a lack of concern for and failure to apply ethical principles when dealing with clients
- A lack of familiarity with company ethics policy.
Respond to the following. (25 points) (A 1½-page response is required.)
- Access the Ashworth online library, ProQuest, and come up with three (3) creative initiatives to improve employee commitment to ethics in the workplace.
- Discuss three (3) methods to communicate your initiatives to employees. This item is "out of scope" for current budget, so you cannot use means beyond normal communication tools (weekly newsletter, etc.).
| Discussion Question 6_14 |
Discuss three (3) reasons why international business efforts fail. Then discuss the five (5) factors important in the selection of management staff for international assignments. Include coverage of three (3) components for each factor. (26 points)
Discussion Question 6_15
Describe the 4-Level training and development strategy to support expatriates in a start-up company that plans to sell American wine in France. (24 points) (A 1½-page response is required.)
Activity 2_05
Activity Instructions: Outside Sales Position
This activity is comprised of three (3) parts. Your Activity responses should be both grammatically and mechanically correct and formatted in the same fashion as the Activity itself. If there is a Part A, your response should identify a Part A, etc. In addition, you must appropriately cite all resources used in your response and document them in a bibliography using APA style. (100 points) (A 4-page response is required for the combination of Parts A, B, and C.)
| Part A | You are in the recruiting department of a fairly large national wholesale distributor of widgets. Examine the following job description for an outside salesperson to sell widgets to truckers in Alabama. Write four (4) effective, legal, behavioral questions that might be used in a job interview and explain why you would ask each particular question. (52 points) |
| Part B | You receive the following memo from your "politically incorrect" boss. While you do not expect him to stay with the company very long, he does make a couple of good points in the memo, if you can focus on them despite his personal bias. Write two (2) additional effective, legal, behavioral questions that might also be used in a job interview to address his legitimate concerns and explain how you made the question legal. (24 points) |
| Part C | Write a proposal that describes how and where you would advertise this position. Use at least four (4) different advertising methods. Your advertising budget is very small. (24 points) |
| Activity 4_10 |
Training Magazine reports that only 4% of the companies they surveyed do not provide new employee orientations. This activity deals with orientation and is comprised of two (2) parts. Your Activity responses should be both grammatically and mechanically correct and formatted in the same fashion as the Activity itself. If there is a Part A, your response should identify a Part A, etc. In addition, you must appropriately cite all resources used in your response and document them in a bibliography using APA style. (100 points) (A 4-page response is required for the combination of Parts A and B.)
| Part A | Through research, identify five (5) companies that provide new hire orientations and write a report that describes what each of the five (5) companies covers in its orientation. At least one (1) of the five (5) companies should be one that you research through a telephone interview, research through a personal visit, or know from personal experience. This report should include objectives, schedules/outlines, etc., to convey what these organizations stress in new employee orientations. In addition, include noted "best practices" activities that personally impress you. (55 points) | ||
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| Part B | Create a training program identifying the main topics that you think should be covered in a new employee orientation for an existing or imaginary company. Be specific. Your training program should include an outline of topics, schedule, five (5) course learning objectives, and what you consider the best delivery method. (45 points) | ||
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Activity 5_13 |
Your company has just decided to implement annual employee performance appraisals. This is a new process for all levels of employees and management feels there may be reluctance or hesitation to put much effort into this process. Your task is to create a PowerPoint presentation for those persons who will be administering the performance appraisals.
The following content should be present in the PowerPoint presentation.
- A discussion of four (4) common dangers in filling out rating-scale appraisals.
- Five (5) recommendations on how to avoid appraisal problems.
- Four (4) tips/techniques for delivering an employee performance appraisal, such as making some suggestions about how to have a performance appraisal meeting or interview with an employee.
In addition, the presentation should be interesting to the viewers, providing a pleasant viewing experience.
Your Activity responses should be both grammatically and mechanically correct and formatted in the same fashion as the Activity itself. If there is a Part A, your response should identify a Part A, etc. In addition, you must appropriately cite all resources used in your response and document them in a bibliography using APA style. (100 points) (A 10-slide PowerPoint presentation is required.)
| Activity 6_16 |
Your Activity responses should be both grammatically and mechanically correct and formatted in the same fashion as the Activity itself. If there is a Part A, your response should identify a Part A, etc. In addition, you must appropriately cite all resources used in your response and document them in a bibliography using APA style. (100 points) (A 4-page response is required.)
| Part A | You are the director of HR for a company that sells an upscale line of gourmet snack foods. Your company has a 30-employee call center that takes calls from customers about order and payment issues. Your boss talked to someone on the plane during a recent business trip and has become interested in outsourcing the call center to an off-shore firm in India. "We could save 80% on labor alone!" he exclaimed. You have heard that about half of outsourcing off-shore work is terminated fairly quickly. Write a paper outlining the pros and cons of off-shore outsourcing in this situation. Present at least three (3) positive and three (3) negative sides of the issue. In true, objective fashion, present the facts, but let your boss make up his own mind. (60 points) | ||
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| Part B | Discuss an example of one (1) company that is successfully outsourcing work offshore and one (1) company that tried outsourcing offshore but terminated the effort. (40 points) | ||
Stand-Alone Project: Strategic Cultural Change (300 points)
You are the Assistant Vice President of Carpetbagger's Chemicals, a sixty-year-old company that provides chemicals used to create and install indoor and outdoor carpet. Your company has thrived on a "good old boy" network based on relationship selling and personal delivery using a fleet of company-owned, light-utility trucks driven by members of your sales force.
Recently, your competition is threatening from several directions. Other chemical companies, using national and regional transportation carriers and Internet sales, are offering faster turn-around and lower prices. In addition, carpet made in Asia and Australia is gaining in popularity in the United States. Sales have been down for three years, and costs continue to rise.
The board of directors of Carpetbagger's Chemicals recently hired a new president to help turn the company around. He has determined that it is necessary to create radical change to make Carpetbagger's Chemicals profitable again. These changes will ultimately affect the very culture of your organization. There are three (3) top priorities for the new president.
1. Retool the sales force to be more aggressive.
2. Move delivery of products from the sales force to independent national transportation carriers (which will negate the need for the fleet of light utility trucks for the sales force).
3. Create a new, international sales division to explore marketing Carpetbagger's Chemicals to carpet makers in other countries.
Develop a plan to support this new strategy through human resources.
This Stand-Alone Project is comprised of four (4) parts. Your Stand-Alone Project responses should be both grammatically and mechanically correct and formatted in the same fashion as the project itself. If there is a Part A, your response should identify a Part A, etc. In addition, you must appropriately cite all resources used in your response and document them in a bibliography using APA style. (300 points) (A 10-page report, organizational chart, and 20-slide MS PowerPoint presentation are required for the combination of Parts A, B, C, and D.)
Part A Write a report detailing how each of the following will support the change. (120 points)
1. HR Strategy
The new president of Carpetbagger's Chemicals has communicated his three priorities. Now, you must decide how human resources will support those three priorities while staying within your current budget. What, specifically, should you start now, to support the change in your own department? Which HR functions will need to change to support the new priorities? Would it help to outsource any HR function or any portion of an HR function?
2. Recruiting
a) You may recall that the three priorities of your new company president are as follows.
1. Retool the sales force to be more aggressive
2. Move delivery of products from the sales force to the fleet of light independent national transportation carriers
3. Create a new, international sales division to market Carpetbagger's Chemicals to other countries
b) As you develop your plan, think about the following questions.
1. What new staffing and recruiting efforts will have to be made?
2. Will you need updated job descriptions?
3. Will you need new Job Analyses?
4. Will you need to hire/replace existing employees?
Begin the planning process now for the employees in your recruiting department. List specific deliverables that you will need from them before your company can move ahead. Also, consider the costs associated and how new staff will fit into the organizational chart.
3. Compensation and Benefits
Consider how your compensation and benefits teams will help support the new strategic initiatives of Carpetbagger's Chemicals. Specifically consider the following.
1. Should you implement a new salesforce pay plan?
2. Since Carpetbagger's will be taking salespeople out of the delivery business, should you adjust their compensation?
3. How will the international sales division be evaluated differently from the current national sales force?
4. How will in-country vs. international managerial jobs be priced?
Also, think about the costs associated with the above considerations and make notes of them for your Stand-Alone Project.
4. Training and Development
The new initiatives from upper management are going to require all sorts of training. The old sales force will need new sales training. Employees will need to know how to support the independent national transportation companies through Bills of Lading, Safety Information, and general expectation management. In addition, the new sales division will require product knowledge training and sales training. Create a proposal to provide training in all of the pertinent areas. Include plans for measuring training effectiveness.
5. Employee Relations
Change can be tough. These may be stressful times for employees at Carpetbagger's Chemicals. This is especially true for the sales staff. What will you do to help relieve the stress? Will your initiatives be formal or informal? Required or voluntary? Will you offer special contests or incentives? Consider how you will communicate the upcoming change to employees. What medium will you use? How will you handle grievances after the change? Prepare now for the massive changes soon to come.
6. Global HR
One of your corporate priorities is to create a new, international sales division to market Carpetbagger's Chemicals to other countries. Consider the following.
1. How would you recommend this new division operate?
2. Would you outsource the sales to overseas companies, move existing employees overseas, or move key managers overseas and hire locals to sell the product?
3. What challenges will you face?
4. What country should you begin your international business in?
Part B Create a new organizational chart for the company. (Both MS PowerPoint and MS Excel have functions that allow users to create organizational charts. You may also download organizational chart templates from http://www.office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/). (30 points)
Part C Since this initiative is new and not within scope of the current budget, you will need to provide a detailed proposal highlighting additional human resource department costs for communication, new staff (if necessary), training (design and delivery), employee relations, pilot programs, consultant fees, etc. By the way, the new Company President is a tightwad, so keep your costs low. (50 points)
Part D Prepare a 20-slide MS PowerPoint presentation to communicate your plans to the board of directors. (100 points)
