Difficulty: Hard
Chapter: 1
Objective: 2
AACSB: Application of Knowledge
Learning Outcome: 1.2 Briefly discuss and illustrate each of the important trends influencing human resource management.
84) On-demand workers are a developing part of the workforce. In a brief essay, explain what on-demand workers are and how they impact organizations.
Answer: Today, in more and more companies like Uber, Elance, and Airbnb, employees aren't employees at all. They are what are called on-demand workers, or freelancers and independent contractors who work when they can on what they want to work on when the company needs them. So, for example, Airbnb can run, in essence, a vast lodging company with only a fraction of the "regular" employees Hilton Worldwide or another hotel chain would need, as the lodgings are managed by the homeowners themselves. Other sites tapping on-demand workers include Amazon's Mechanical Turk, Elance-oDesk, TaskRabbit, and Handybook (which lets users tap Handy's thousands of freelance cleaners and furniture assemblers when they need jobs done). These short-term professionals can be viewed as "mobile, independent bundles of skills." Employers' increasing reliance on such Uber-like "extended workforces" has implications for HR. Companies that rely on freelancers, consultants, and other such nontraditional employees will need to create personnel policies on matters like compensation for these "nonemployees" and become more expert as talent brokers in matching specific workers with specific tasks that need to be done.
Difficulty: Hard
Chapter: 1
Objective: 2
AACSB: Application of Knowledge
Learning Outcome: 1.2 Briefly discuss and illustrate each of the important trends influencing human resource management.
85) How has increasing globalization affected business?
Answer: Globalization has impacted how and where companies do business. Free trade areas—agreements that reduce tariffs and barriers among trading partners—encourage international trade. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the European Union (EU) are examples. Globalization has boomed for the past 50 or so years. For example, the total sum of U.S. imports and exports rose from $47 billion in 1960, to $562 billion in 1980, to about $5.1 trillion recently. Changing economic and political philosophies drove this boom. Governments dropped cross-border taxes or tariffs, formed economic free trade areas, and took other steps to encourage the free flow of trade among countries. The fundamental economic rationale was that by doing so, all countries would gain, and indeed, economies around the world did grow quickly until recently. At the same time, globalization vastly increased international competition. More globalization meant more competition, and more competition meant more pressure to be "world class"—to lower costs, to make employees more productive, and to do things better and less expensively. As multinational companies jockey for position, many transfer operations abroad, not just to seek cheaper labor but to tap into new markets. For example, Toyota has thousands of sales employees based in America, while GE has over 10,000 employees in France. The search for greater efficiencies prompts some employers to offshore (export jobs to lower-cost locations abroad, as when Dell offshored some call-center jobs to India). Some employers offshore even highly skilled jobs such as lawyer. Managing the "people" aspects of globalization is a big task for any company that expands abroad—and for its HR managers.
Difficulty: Hard
Chapter: 1
Objective: 2
AACSB: Application of Knowledge
Learning Outcome: 1.2 Briefly discuss and illustrate each of the important trends influencing human resource management.
86) ________ involves formulating and executing human resource policies and practices that produce the employee competencies and behaviors the company needs to achieve its strategic aims.
A) Employee engagement
B) Data analytics
C) Strategic human resource management
D) Sustainability
Answer: C
Explanation: C) Strategic human resource management involves formulating and executing human resource policies and practices that produce the employee competencies and behaviors the company needs to achieve its strategic aims.
Difficulty: Moderate
Chapter: 1
Objective: 3
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Learning Outcome: 1.3 List and briefly describe "distributed HR" and other important aspects of human management today.
87) About what percentage of all job openings are now posted online?
A) 15%
B) 35%
C) 50%