Leadership& Job Design
Which leadership style gives employees significant freedom to make decisions about their work?
Laissez-faire leadership
What are the two main sources of recruitment?
Internal and external recruitment.
What is the difference between monetary and non-monetary rewards?
Monetary rewards provide financial benefits, such as bonuses. Non-monetary rewards provide benefits that are not directly financial, such as recognition or flexible working arrangements.
What are the three key global HRM factors?
Costs, skills and supply.
What is the first dispute-resolution strategy in this sequence?
Negotiation → ______ → Grievance procedures → Courts/tribunals
Mediation
What is the difference between autocratic and participative leadership?
Autocratic leadership involves the manager making decisions with little employee input, whereas participative leadership involves employees in decision-making.
A business promotes an existing employee to fill a vacant management position. Is this internal or external recruitment?
Internal recruitment
An employee receives a bonus when they personally exceed their sales target. Identify the type of reward.
Monetary, individual, performance pay, commission, incentives.
A business moves part of its operations overseas because labour costs are significantly lower. Which global HRM factor is influencing the decision?
Costs
What is the difference between negotiation and mediation?
Negotiation involves the parties attempting to reach an agreement themselves.
Mediation involves an independent third party assisting the parties to reach an agreement.
A business changes from an autocratic leadership style to a democratic style. Explain one possible effect on employee performance.
A democratic/participative leadership style may improve employee performance because employees have greater involvement in decision-making. This can increase their motivation and commitment, which may lead to increased productivity.
A business is introducing new technology next year. Should its training focus on current skills or future skills?
Future skills
What is the difference between developmental and administrative performance management?
Developmental performance management focuses on improving employee performance through feedback, coaching and development.
Administrative performance management uses performance information to make HR decisions such as promotion or remuneration.
A business cannot find enough workers with specialised IT skills in its domestic labour market. Which global HRM factor is most relevant?
Skills
An employee makes a formal complaint about an issue at work using the organisation's established complaint process. Which dispute-resolution strategy is being used?
Grievance procedures
A manufacturing business currently requires employees to perform only one repetitive task. Management wants employees to perform a wider variety of duties and develop a broader range of skills. Which job design approach should the business use, and why?
General tasks, because employees perform a broader range of duties rather than specialising in one narrow task. This can increase the range of skills employees develop and may reduce the monotony associated with repetitive work.
A rapidly expanding business cannot find enough employees with the skills required for its new stores. Identify one HRM strategy that could address this problem and explain how.
The business could implement training and development to provide existing employees with the skills required for the new stores. This increases the number of suitably skilled employees available, allowing the business to expand while reducing its reliance on external recruitment.
A food delivery business changes from fixed salaries to payment based on individual deliveries. Absenteeism decreases and deliveries increase, but worker satisfaction decreases. What HRM strategy is most likely responsible?
The HRM strategy is individual performance pay. Employees are paid according to their individual performance, in this case the number of deliveries completed. The increase in deliveries indicates higher productivity, while the decrease in worker satisfaction may indicate that the reward strategy has negatively affected employee satisfaction.
Explain how global recruitment could help a business experiencing a shortage of suitably skilled employees.
Global recruitment allows a business to access employees from overseas rather than relying only on the domestic labour market. This increases the supply of potential employees and may provide the business with access to specialised skills that are difficult to obtain domestically.
Explain how effective dispute-resolution strategies can improve worker satisfaction.
Effective dispute-resolution strategies allow workplace disagreements to be addressed fairly and efficiently. This can reduce ongoing conflict between employees and management, improve workplace relationships and increase worker satisfaction.
A business is experiencing low motivation because employees perform the same narrow task every day. Recommend an appropriate leadership style and job design strategy. Justify your answer.
A participative leadership style could involve employees in decision-making, increasing their sense of involvement and potentially improving motivation and job satisfaction. General tasks could give employees a wider range of activities, reducing the monotony of repetitive work and allowing them to develop additional skills. Together, these strategies could improve employee motivation and productivity.
A business is unable to fill a position because there are very few applicants with the required skills. What recruitment issue is being demonstrated, and how could HRM respond?
The business is experiencing a shortage of suitably skilled employees/applicants. HRM could respond through training and development to develop the required skills among existing employees. Alternatively, it could broaden its external recruitment search to access a larger pool of suitably skilled applicants.
A business wants to increase productivity but is concerned that individual performance pay could damage teamwork. Recommend a more appropriate reward strategy and justify your answer.
The business could introduce group performance pay, where employees receive a financial reward based on the performance of their team. This could motivate employees to improve productivity while encouraging cooperation because employees are rewarded for achieving a shared goal. This may reduce the negative effect that individual performance pay could have on teamwork.
A business is considering moving operations overseas because wages are lower. Explain one potential benefit and one potential disadvantage of this HRM strategy.
Benefit: Lower labour costs may reduce operating expenses and increase profitability.
Disadvantage: The business may face communication difficulties, cultural differences or challenges managing employees across different locations.
A business has frequent workplace disputes, high absenteeism and low worker satisfaction. Recommend two HRM strategies that could address these problems. Justify your choices.
Leadership style: Management could adopt a more participative leadership style, giving employees greater involvement in decisions. This may improve communication between employees and management, increase employee commitment and reduce conflict.
Workplace dispute resolution: The business could establish effective grievance procedures for raising and resolving workplace concerns. This could allow disputes to be addressed before they escalate, reducing workplace conflict and potentially improving worker satisfaction.
Other appropriate strategies could include training and development, rewards, performance management or job design, depending on the circumstances.