Question 1. 1. (TCO 5). Consider this scenario: John Hopken
is the new supervisor of a team of 12 computer programmers. He has been in his
position for 10 months, after being promoted to his position from programmer
(where he had been in place for 8 years). The promotion was hard-won; four
others on his team also applied for the promotion, and when he got his
promotion, the other four employees who didn’t get the position were rather
disgruntled. One of them lashed out in a meeting early on and called him a
yes-man, but otherwise most of the issues have been undercurrents and rumor
based. These four employees are referred to as Competitors 1, 2, and 3 and
Competitor Yes-Man for the purposes of this question.
During the year, five older members of his team resigned,
four through regular retirements and one after being accused of falsifying
expense reports. None of the five were in the group of four who had competed
against him for his position. John filled all five position openings with
outside hires. Three of them had similar backgrounds to John’s—they all went to
his alma mater for their computer degrees and like basketball. In fact, last
week John and the three of them attended a Bulls game together. These employees
will be referred to as Bulls 1, 2, and 3. The other two employees were both
females he hired because HR told him he had to. (Up till now, there were no
females on the team.) We’ll call them Lady 1 and 2. They don’t like basketball.
Lady 1 was hired 6 months ago, and Lady 2 was hired last month.
Now, it is performance appraisal time. Assume each of these
employees does a similar amount of work, produces relatively similar amounts of
code, and does a good job. None of them create waves, and the new people have
gotten their work under way and are working hard. Other than the yes-man
meeting and one comment on the men’s room wall saying that “Hopken is a jerk,”
things have mostly gone smoothly. John figures that one of the Competitors
wrote that.
John is told by HR he has to do performance appraisals this
month. He is told to rate his people on a scale of 1–4, where 1 is “not meeting
expectations,” 2 is “too new to rate,” 3 is “meeting expectations,” and 4 is
“exceeding expectations.” HR said that he must have no more than two 4s, no
more than eight 3s, and at least two 1s or 2s. He asks an HR representative
what “too new” means, and she says it applies to anyone who has not been in the
position for 3 months or more.
He looks at the paperwork and his list, and 20 minutes later
has his ratings done with a paragraph scribbled out to provide to his workers.
Here are the ratings John gives his employees, as well as
his support paragraph.
Bulls 1: 4: What a great guy—always comes through, works
hard, fun loving, makes the day brighter for everyone
Bulls 2: 4: Team player; what a help—great worker and asset
to the company
Bulls 3: 3: Always there for the work group—works steady and
helpful to others, accurate coder
Lady 1: 3: Always there for the work group—works steady and
helpful to others, accurate coder
Other 1: 3: Always there for the work group—works steady and
helpful to others, accurate coder
Other 2: 3: Always there for the work group—works steady and
helpful to others, accurate coder
Other 3: 3: Always there for the work group—works steady and
helpful to others, accurate coder
Competitor 1: 3: Accurate coding and steady performer
Competitor 2: 3: Accurate coding and steady performer
Competitor 3: 3: Accurate coding and steady performer
Lady 2: 2: Too new to rate but next year should be great
Competitor YM: 1: Not a team player and can work harder to
prevent discord
Please answer the following questions.
The day after the PAs are delivered, HR receives appeals
filed by Bulls 3, Competitor 1, and Competitor YM. After listening to the
employees, HR decides to do a 360-degree appraisal of John Hopken.
(1) What is the 360-degree appraisal? What are the pros and
cons of this appraisal tool? (10 points)
(2) Let’s say you are told you must implement this
360-degree appraisal on John. How would you go about doing this? What kinds of
questions would you include on the appraisal, and who would you give it to? What
kinds of feedback might you expect, and how might you use that feedback to help
John with performance appraisals? (20 points)
(3) Would you have recommended the 360-degree appraisal as a
way to resolve this issue? Why or why not? (10 points) (Points : 40)
Spellchecker
Question 2.2. (TCO 4) Matt owns a ski instruction school in
the Berkshire Mountains, a dog training academy in Connecticut, and an
investment house in Boston. He just told Chet, one of his most promising
investment managers, to run the dog academy for 6 months. Which technique is
Matt using? (Points : 5)
Promotion
Job rotation
Adjusted
Committee assignment
Survival
training
Question 3.3. (TCO 4) Comparing employee development to
employee training, pick the best comparison. (Points : 5)
Development is
used for indoctrination; training is required for metamorphosis.
Training focuses on current job skills;
development focuses on personal growth.
Training is
intranet based; development uses Internet technology.
Training is
more complex than development.
Question 4.4. (TCO 4) Compare individual career development
to organizational career development. (Points : 5)
They are both
the responsibility of the individual.
Organizational
career development focuses on meeting organizational goals and needs.
Individual career development focuses on meeting individual goals and needs.
Individual
career development involves training. Organizational career development does
not.
They are
different terms for the same experience.
Individual
career development has a much shorter time frame than organizational career
development.
Question 5.5. (TCO 6) According to a TowersPerrin study,
which of the following managerial actions would most likely foster employee
engagement? (Points : 5)
Offering improved benefits packages
Conducting
regular performance appraisals
Linking
employee efforts to company goals
Providing
online training sessions to new hires
Question 6.6. (TCO 6) Which of these pieces of legislation
requires that initial job offers for jobs with the same attributes be equal,
regardless of gender? (Points : 5)
Comparable
Action and Worth Standard
Americans with
Disabilities Act
Fair Labor
Standards Act
Equal Pay Act
of 1963
Civil Rights Act
Question 7.7. (TCO 6) Which of the following is an extrinsic
source of employee motivation? (Points : 5)
Increased
responsibility
Impressive job
title
Participation
in decision making
Opportunities
for job growth
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