Oxford University Press | Online Resource Centre

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Question 1

The creation of personnel as a specialist function dealing with people issues from the latter part of the twentieth century has been responsible in part for:

a) Disenfranchising line managers in dealing with key aspects of people management

b) Reducing the stress and work load of line managers

c) Creating greater workplace efficiency

d) Bureaucratising the people function in workplaces

Question 2

The origins of Personnel Management was an outcome of:

a) Welfare workers

b) Legislation relating to factory reform

c) The work of nineteenth century social reformers and Quaker employers

d) The government

Question 3

Scientific management contributed to the development of a more rational approach to management by developing which characteristics?

a) The planning and organisation of work based on scientific principles

b) Time and motion studies

c) Standardised pay

d) The encouragement of trade unions

Question 4

One final development influencing the practice of Personnel Management in the 1960s was:

a) The effect of recession

b) Powerful trade unions

c) Globalisation

d) Growing importance of training

Question 5

A distinction can be made between 'hard' and 'soft' types of HRM. Soft HRM can be characterized by:

a) Seeing people as organisational assets

b) A quantitative approach to HRM

c) A mutual commitment of employees and employers to the goals of the organisation

d) Being driven by costs

Question 6

The resource based view of the firm is one that believes the key human resources are:

a) Those employees not members of trade unions

b) Knowledge workers

c) Used to create new capabilities that help achieve organisational success

d) Those willing to work overtime

Question 7

SHRM is also about strategic choice, which refers to:

a) The processes and decisions that shape the organisation's philosophy towards its employees

b) Managerial prerogative in decision making

c) Negotiating with trade unions or employee associations over the direction of the organisation

d) Giving employees their 'say' in organisational concerns

Question 8

Do HR activities have an effect on employee and managerial behaviour?

a) Yes, but these effects can be negative as well as positive

b) HR has limited impact on either employee behaviour or managerial

c) HR impacts on employee behaviour but not on managerial

d) No, it is managerial behaviour which impacts on HR

Question 9

The view that employees are critical to organisational success is now generally accepted. Does this mean that:

a) All employees have the same value or potential for the organisation

b) It reflects the unprecedented success of HR practitioners to deliver

c) Good management of people will prevail

d) Managing the human resource has become even more important because it is the one resource most difficult to replicate

Question 10

The most common activities performed by HR, which are often outsourced, are:

a) Recruitment an selection

b) Occupational health, payroll, pensions and training

c) Human resource planning

d) Assessment centres

Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Chapter 02.

Chapter 02

Instructions