Unit 2

Question 1

Def. manager

Answer 1

Responsible for setting objectives, organising resources and motivating staff so that the organisation’s aims are met.

Question 2

What do managers do?

Answer 2

CPLOC
Coordinating - ensuring consistency between different parts of each firm
Planning - Setting objectives and preparations
Leading - directing and motivating staff
Organising - resources to meet the objectives
Controlling - managements by objectives to establish targets and measure performance.

Question 3

Def. Leadership

Answer 3

The art of motivating a group of people towards achieving a common objectives

Question 4

What are the four important leadership positions in business?

Answer 4

• Directors
• Managers
• Supervisors
• Worker’s representatives

Question 5

Autocratic- main features? drawbacks? possible applications?

4 1 1

Answer 5

~~~
Main features:
•Leaders make all decisions
•Gives little information to staff
•Supervises workers closely
•Only one way communication
Drawbacks:
•Demotivates staff who want to contribute and accept responsibility
Possible applications:
•Defence forces and police
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Question 6

What are the four types of leadership styles?

Answer 6

• Autocratic
• Democratic
• Paternalistic
• Laissez-faire

Question 7

Democratic- main features? drawbacks? possible applications? (3 2 2)

Answer 7

Main features:
•Participation encouraged
•Two way communication
•Workers are informed about the business
Drawback:
•Time consuming
•The level of involvement with sensitive issues for eg. having put staff on redundancy.
Possible application:
•With an experienced and flexible workforce
•In situations that demand a new way of thinking or a new solution

Question 8

Paternalistic- main features? drawbacks? possible applications? ( 3 1 1)

Answer 8

Main features:
•Managers do what they think is the best for the workers
•There is no true participation in decision making, they always end up making the decision
•Managers want workers to be happy
Drawbacks:
•Some workers will be dissatisfied with not having any power or influence
Possible applications:
•When workers are young or inexperienced

Question 9

Laissez-faire- main features? drawbacks? possible application? (2 2 2)

Answer 9

Main features:
•Managers delegate nearly all authority and decision making powers.
•Very broad limits established for staff.
Drawbacks:
•Lack of structure may lead to loss of job security of employees
•The lack of feedback may be demotivating
Possible applications:
•When managers are too busy or lazy
•In research institutions for experts.

Question 10

What are Henry Mintzberg’s 3 groups of management roles?

Answer 10

• Interpersonal roles - dealing with and motivating staff at all levels of organisation
• Informational roles - acting as a source, receiver and transmitter of information
• Decisional roles- taking decisions and allocating resources to meet the organisation’s objectives.

Question 11

What are the Mintzberg’s 3 roles of management from interpersonal roles?

Answer 11

1) Interpersonal roles
•Figurehead: Symbolic leader of the organisation undertaking duties of social or legal nature eg. opening factories, giving important presentation.
•Leader: motivation subordinates; selection and training other managers/staff
•Liaison: Linking with managers and leaders of different divisions of organisations

Question 12

What are the Mintzberg’s 3 roles of management from informational roles?

Answer 12

2) Informational roles
•Monitor (receiver): collecting data relevant to the business’s operations e.g attending seminars
•Disseminator: Sending information collected from external and internal sources e.g communicating with staff
•Spokesperson: Communicating information about the organisation to external stakeholders. e.g presenting reports to shareholders.

Question 13

What are the Mintzberg’s 4 roles of management from decisional roles?

Answer 13

3) Decisional roles
•Entrepreneur: looking for new opportunities to develop the business e.g encouraging new ideas
•Disturbance handler: responding to stimuli that may put the business at risk, and assuming responsibility for threatening factors develop e.g responding to new competitors.
•Resource allocator: Allocating financial, physical and human resources e.g drawing up budgets.
• Negotiator: representing the organisation in negotiations e.g with government

Question 14

What is McGregor’s Theory X?

Answer 14

Theory X: managers believe that workers dislike work, will avoid responsibility and are not creative. Leaders with this point of view tend to adopt autocratic style of management: have control, close supervision and no delegation of authority.

Question 15

What is McGregor’s Theory Y?

Answer 15

Theory Y: Managers believe that workers can derive as much enjoyment from work as from rest and play, will accept any responsibility and are creative to contribute ideas. Leader with this point of view tend to adopt democratic or laissez faire style of management and give power and authority.

Question 16

What does the best leadership style depend on?

Answer 16

• Training and experience of the workforce and the degree of responsibility they are prepared to take on
• the amount of time available for consultation and participation
• The attitude of managers or management culture e.g have they always worked as autocratic managers.
• The importance of issues when under consideration - how quickly decisions have to be made.

Question 17

Style of managements in A Level questions?

Answer 17

There is no RIGHT or WRONG style of managements, there is only an APPROPRIATE one.

Question 18

Def. Informal Leader

Answer 18

A person who has no formal authority but has the respect of colleagues and some power over them. They are people who can lead without formal power, perhaps because of their experiences, personality or knowledge.

Question 19

Def. Emotional intelligence (EI)

Answer 19

The ability of managers to understand their own emotions, and those of the people they work with, to achieve better business performance.

Question 20

What are the four main EI factors?

Answer 20

• Self awareness- knowing what you feel is important and using that to guide decision making, having a realistic view of your abilities and having self confidence.
• Self management- being able to recover quickly from stress, being trustworthy, having self control and showing initiative.
• Social awareness- sensing what other people are feeling, being able to take their views into account and being able to get on with wide range of people.
• Social skills- Understanding different social situations, being persuasive, being able to negotiate and lead.

Question 21

Def. HRM

Answer 21

Human Resource management: the strategic approach to the effective management of an organisation’s workers so that they help business gain competition.

Question 22

HRM focuses on? (6)

Answer 22

• Planning the workforce needs
• Recruiting and selecting staff
• appraising, training and developing staff
• Preparing contracts of employment for all staff (permanent, temporary, full- or part-time).
• developing appropriate pay systems
• measuring and monitoring staff performance

Question 23

Def. workforce planning

Answer 23

Analysing and forecasting the number of workers and the skills of those workers that will be required by the organisation to achieve its objectives

Question 24

What is the starting point of workforce planning?

Answer 24

Workforce audit: a check on the skills and qualifications of all existing workers/managers

Question 25

Def. Labour turnover

Answer 25

Measures the rate at which employees are leaving an organisation. number of staff leaving in 1 year/ avg number of staff employed (all) x100

Question 26

What does the number of staff required in the future depends on? (5)

Answer 26

* Forecast demand for the firm's product: influenced my external conditions. Might recruit temporary or part-time staff with the flexible hours contracts * The productivity levels of staff: the higher the productivity the less staff needed * The objective of the business: such as wanting to expand => more employees needed. * Changes in the law regarding worker's rights: such as introduce minimum wage level * The labour turnover and absenteeism rate: if more employees leave, more needed to be recruited.

Question 27

What does the skills of staff required if based on?

Answer 27

* The pace of technological change in the industry such as machinery used. * The need for flexible or multi-skilled staff as businesses try to avoid specialisation.

Question 28

When is workforce planning effective?

Answer 28

Only if it is linked in closely with the firm's long term objectives

Question 29

Def. Recruitment

Answer 29

The process of identifying the need for a new employee, defining the job to be filled and the type of person needed to fill it, attracting suitable candidates for the job and selecting the best one.

Question 30

What are the 5 stages of recruitment?

Answer 30

1. Establishing the exact nature of the job vacancy and drawing up a job description 2. Drawing up person specification 3. Preparing a job advertisement 4. Drawing up shortlist of applicants 5. Conducting the interviews

Question 31

Step 1: drawing up a job description | Def + What it includes + What for

Answer 31

Job description: A detailed list of the key points about the job to be filled - stating all its key tasks and responsibilities. i) job title ii) details of the tasks to be performed iii) responsibilities involved iv) place in the hierarchical structure v) working conditions vi) how the performance is assessed Used for attracting the right type of people

Question 32

Step 2: Drawing up person specification | Def + What for

Answer 32

Person specification: A detailed list of the qualities, skills and qualifications that a successful applicant will need to have. -Helps eliminate applicants

Question 33

Step 3: Preparing a job advertisement

Answer 33

self explanatory

Question 34

Step 4: Drawing up shortlist of applicants

Answer 34

self explanatory

Question 35

Step 5 Conducting interviews | What are the types of interviews? (3)

Answer 35

- Methodical: assessed according to achievements, intelligence, skills, appearance... - Aptitude: to assess abilities in certain tasks - Psychometric: assess character, attitude, personality

Question 36

Advantages of internal recruitment (6)

Answer 36

- Saves cost for induction training - Quicker - Saves cost for advertising - Applicant knows the culture, doesn't take long to get used to - Provides motivation from promotion - The assessor is aware of applicant's abilities

Question 37

Advantages of external recruitment (4)

Answer 37

- External applicants bring in new ideas and practices - Wider choice of potential - Avoids resentment within the business - Standards of applicants may be higher

Question 38

What are the three types of training?

Answer 38

- Induction training - On-the-job training - Off-the-job training

Question 39

What is induction training? (5)

Answer 39

- Given to all new recruits - Introducing them to co workers - Explaining internal organisational structure - Outline the premises - Making clear of health and safety issues

Question 40

What is on-the-job training? (3)

Answer 40

- Training at the place of work - Cheaper - Content of training is controlled by the business

Question 41

What is off-the-job training? (3)

Answer 41

- Training away from place of work e.g university - Expensive - Brings in new ideas

Question 42

Disadvantages of training. (2)

Answer 42

- Expensive | - "Poaching" - well qualified staff leaving for better businesses

Question 43

Disadvantages of not training. (5)

Answer 43

- Less productivity in staff - Inflexibility in variety of tasks - Poor quality - Demotivation due to boredom (lack of challenge) - Accidents may occur

Question 44

Def. Staff appraisal | Why is it important?

Answer 44

The process of assessing the effectiveness of an employee judged against preset objectives -To enable a worker to continuously achieve a sense of self-fulfilment.

Question 45

Why should the HRM involve all managers in staff development?

Answer 45

-To ensure that the training and development needs are well coordinated between all departments.

Question 46

Def. Employment contracts | What does it include?

Answer 46

A legal document that sets out the terms and conditions governing a worker's job. -Employee's working hours, rate of pay, holiday entitlement, the employer.

Question 47

Def. Dismissal

Answer 47

Being dismissed or sacked from a job due to incompetence or breach of discipline. An employer must give warning before dismissal can take place, however in cases such as stealing, the organisation can dismiss with immediate effect.

Question 48

Def. Redundancy

Answer 48

When a job is no longer required, so the employee doing this job becomes redundant through no fault of his or her own.

Question 49

How can redundancy be carried out?

Answer 49

* Often follows "last in, first out" because there would be smaller redundancy pay, and these employees would have less experience in the business * Voluntary redundancy. However employees who are easily employed elsewhere may be the ones to leave

Question 50

What are the effects of redundancy?

Answer 50

* Employees loose job security | * the firm is seen as acting in an unethical manner => external stakeholders may react negatively.

Question 51

How do HRM make sure of employee welfare?

Answer 51

•Offer counselling or other services where staff need support for example for family or financial problems => would lead to higher sense of loyalty and motivation to do well in the business

Question 52

Possible reasons for dismissal could be:

Answer 52

* Inability to do the job * Continuous negative attitude * Continuous disregard to health and safety procedures * deliberate destruction of an employer's property * bullying

Question 53

Advantages of part time and flexible contracts for employees?

Answer 53

* Suitable for certain types of workers like students, or elderlies * Adds variety to their working lives

Question 54

What are the 6 types of employment contracts and definitions of them?

Answer 54

* Temporary employment contract: lasts for a fixed time period e.g 6 months * Permanent employment contract: last forever until dismissal or redundancy * Full time employment contract: for a fixed hours and time of the days or the week. * Part time employment contract: for a less than the normal full working week e.g 8 hours per week * Flexi-time contract: employment contract that allows staff to be called in at times most convenient to employers and employees e.g at busy times of the day * Outsourcing: not employing staff directly, but using other agencies

Question 55

Advantages of part time and flexible employment for the business?

Answer 55

* Staff can be required to work on busy periods * Available staff if another is absent * The efficiency of staff can be assessed before offered full time * 'teleworking' saves overheads

Question 56

Disadvantages of flexible and part time employment for the business?

Answer 56

* More staff to manage * Hard to establish effective communication -meetings are hard to plan * Motivation may be less because of lack of involvement of the staff w the business

Question 57

Disadvantages of flexible and part time employment for the workers?

Answer 57

* Earn less * Paid at lower rate * Less rights

Question 58

Def. teleworking

Answer 58

Staff working from home but keeping contact with the office by means of modern IT communication

Question 59

Def. Soft HRM

Answer 59

An approach to managing staff that focuses on developing staff so that they reach self-fulfilment and are motivated to work hard and stay in the business.

Question 60

Disadvantages of hard HRM?

Answer 60

* May increase recruitment and induction training cost as temporary workers have to be frequently recruited * Demotivated workers from little job security * Bad publicity

Question 61

What are core and peripheral workers?

Answer 61

Core: Full-time, Permanent Peripheral: Temporary, Part-time, Self-employed.

Question 62

What are the 6 types of employment?

Answer 62

* Temporary employment contract * Permanent employment contract * Part time employment contract * Full time employment contract * Flexi-time contract * Outsourcing

Question 63

Def. Unfair dismissal

Answer 63

Ending a worker's employment contract for a reason that the law regards as being unfair.

Question 64

Def. Hard HRM

Answer 64

An approach to managing staff that focuses on cutting costs e.g temporary and part-time employment contracts, offering max flexibility but with min training cost.