Sphr Strategic Business Mgmt 1.1 Progress Check

Front 1

Which of the following activities illustrates the advisory role assumed by an HR professional?

a. Filling out EEO reports
b. Protecting whistleblowers from discharge.
c. Evaluating the bottom-line contribution of HR programs.
d. Conducting an interviewing seminar for line managers.

Back 1

d. Conducting an interviewing seminar for line managers.

Front 2

Despite progressive disciplinary actions, an employee has continued to violate company policy on attendance. The employee must now be terminated, but the employee's manager has never terminated anyone. In this situation, HR should:

a. handle the termination
b. observe how the manager handles the termination
c. review and approve the manager's documentation
d. train the manager to handle terminations.

Back 2

d. train the manager to handle terminations.

Front 3

Of the management functions, which of the following illustrates the control step?
a. Assigning resources among three departments developing a new work procedure
b. Developing a system to track the number of people leaving the organization
c. Comparing the ROI for a training initiative to the plan
d. Forecasting the number of employees needed for a department

Back 3

c. Comparing the ROI for a training initiative to the plan

Front 4

Which of the following statements about SOX is true?

a. It applies to all companies, no matter their size or whether they are publicly or privately held.
b. It relates primarily to compensation for high-level executives.
c. It has little direct effect on HR.
d. It addresses both insider trading and whistleblowing activities.

Back 4

d. It addresses both insider trading and whistleblowing activities.

Front 5

A software company is considering the acquisition of a training company that will provide documentation and training support for its key customers. The company begins a due diligence investigation. Which of the following items will have the LEAST impact on the due diligence process?

a. Obligations to retirement plans
b. History of OSHA complaints
c. Strategies to integrate compensation and benefit systems
d. Cultural fit of the two companies

Back 5

b. History of OSHA complaints

Front 6

HR can best prepare for a strategic role by:

a. enhancing its ability to demonstrate return on investment
b. expanding the size of the HR function
c. focusing on ways to cut production costs throughout the organization.
d. centralizing HR activity for greater consistency and control.

Back 6

a. enhancing its ability to demonstrate return on investment

Front 7

The peak effort in a project's life cycle occurs during which phase?

a. Conception
b. Selection
c. Planning
d. Evaluation

Back 7

c. Planning

Front 8

The PRIMARY priority of a project manager who is exhibiting the interpersonal role is:

a. disseminating information and helping team members.
b. building team norms and fostering harmony.
c. allocating resources
d. negotiating differences and monitoring project progress.

Back 8

b. building team norms and fostering harmony.

Front 9

Which of the following is the MOST important role HR can play in a major change initiative?

a. Communicate regularly with employees.
b. Assume responsibility for implementing the change.
c. Question whether the change is needed.
d. Counsel people who are upset by the change.

Back 9

a. Communicate regularly with employees.

Front 10

What is the FIRST step in locating a third-party contractor to handle an employee assistance program?

a. Payroll administration
b. Creation of online employee manuals
c. Relocation programs for employees
d. Development of goals and strategies for improving workforce skills.

Back 10

d. Development of goals and strategies for improving workforce skills.

Front 11

Accounts payable

Back 11

Money an organization owes its vendors and suppliers.

Front 12

Action plans

Back 12

Detailed steps a unit, department, or team will take in order to achieve short-term objectives.

Front 13

Assets

Back 13

Financial, physical, and sometimes intangible properties an organization owns.

Front 14

Balanced scorecard

Back 14

Measurement approach that provides an overall picture of an organization's performance as measured against goals in finance, customers, internal business processes, and learning and growth.

Front 15

Accounts receivable

Back 15

Money an organization's customers owe the organization.

Front 16

Amendment

Back 16

Modification of the Constitution or a law; modification may be either formal (written) or informal (unwritten).

Front 17

Balance sheet

Back 17

Statement of a firm's financial position at a particular time.

Front 18

Bill

Back 18

Proposal presented to a legislative body for possible enactment as a law.

Front 19

Break-even analysis

Back 19

Analysis that shows point in time at which total revenue associated with a program is equal to the total cost of the program.

Front 20

Centralization

Back 20

Degree to which decision-making authority is restricted to higher levels of management in an organization.

Front 21

Control

Back 21

To an operations department, an after-the-fact evaluation of a company's ability to meet its own specifications and its customers' needs.

Front 22

Cost-benefit analysis

Back 22

Ratio that allows management to determine the financial impact particular activities and programs will have on a company's profitability.

Front 23

Capacity

Back 23

To an operations department, the ability to yield output.

Front 24

Code of ethics

Back 24

Principles of conduct within an organization that guide decision making and behavior.

Front 25

Correlation

Back 25

Measure that indicates the relationship between two variables.

Front 26

Decentralization

Back 26

Degree to which decision-making authority is given to lower levels in an organization's hierarchy.

Front 27

Deductive reasoning

Back 27

Involves applying specific premises to a given situation to develop certain predictions about or understanding of the situation.

Front 28

Divisional structure

Back 28

Organizational structure in which segments are separated by product, customer or market, or region.

Front 29

Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA)

Back 29

Act that makes it unlawful to intercept messages in transmission, access stored information on electronic communication services, or disclose this information.

Front 30

Equity

Back 30

Amount of owners' or shareholders' portion of a business.

Front 31

Divestiture

Back 31

Sale by a company of an asset that is not performing well, that is not core to the company's business, or that is worth more as a separate entity.

Front 32

Due diligence

Back 32

Process of conducting an intensive investigation of a corporation as one of the first steps in a pending merger or acquisition.

Front 33

Environmental scanning

Back 33

Process that involves a systematic survey and interpretation of relevant data to identify external opportunities and threats.

Front 34

Ethics

Back 34

System of moral principles and values that establish appropriate conduct.

Front 35

Experiment

Back 35

Research in which the researcher controls and manipulates elements of the research environment to measure the impact of each variable.

Front 36

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)

Back 36

Prohibits American companies from making corrupt payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or keeping business.

Front 37

Functional structure

Back 37

Organizational structure that defines departments by what services they contribute to the organization's overall mission.

Front 38

Generation X

Back 38

Group of people born roughly between the years of 1965 and 1980.

Front 39

Extended organization

Back 39

Alliance between organizations to create processes and information channels that allow communication and collaboration.

Front 40

Formula budgeting

Back 40

Form of budgeting in which an average cost is applied to comparable expenses and general funding is changed by a specific amount.

Front 41

Gantt chart

Back 41

Project planning tool that graphically displays activities of a project in sequential order and plots them against time.

Front 42

Generation Y

Back 42

Group of people born after 1980.

Front 43

Gross domestic product (GDP)

Back 43

Estimate of the total value of goods and services produced in a country in a given year.

Front 44

HR audit

Back 44

Process to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of HR programs and positions.

Front 45

Human resource information system (HRIS)

Back 45

Systematic tool for gathering, storing, maintaining, retrieving, and revising HR data.

Front 46

Hypothesis

Back 46

Specific, testable prediction that is derived from a theory and describes a relationship between two variables.

Front 47

Gross profit margin

Back 47

Measures the difference between what it costs to produce a product and the selling price.

Front 48

Human capital

Back 48

Combined knowledge, skills, and experience of a company's employees.

Front 49

Human resource management (HRM)

Back 49

Design of formal systems in an organization that ensure the effective and efficient use of human talent to accomplish organizational goals.

Front 50

Income statement

Back 50

Statement explaining revenues, expenses, and profits over a specified period of time, usually a year or a quarter.

Front 51

Incremental budgeting

Back 51

Form of budgeting in which the prior budget is the basis for allocation of funds.

Front 52

Inventory

Back 52

To an operations department, an organization's major asset after physical buildings and equipment.

Front 53

Line units

Back 53

Work groups that conduct the major business of an organization.

Front 54

Marketing

Back 54

Process of planning, pricing, promoting, and distributing goods and services to satisfy organizational objectives.

Front 55

Inductive reasoning

Back 55

Involves looking at a set of observations and designing a rule that characterizes or explains a pattern underlying the observations.

Front 56

Liabilities

Back 56

Organization's debts and other financial obligations.

Front 57

Long-term objectives

Back 57

Specific results, accomplished in three to five years, that an organization seeks to achieve in pursuing its mission.

Front 58

Matrix structure

Back 58

Organizational structure that combines departmentalization by division and function to gain the benefits of both.

Front 59

Mean

Back 59

Average score or value in a set of data.

Front 60

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A)

Back 60

Combination of two separate firms either by their joining together as relative equals (merger) or by one acquiring the other (acquisition).

Front 61

Mission statement

Back 61

Specifies what the company does, who its customers are, and the priorities it has set in pursuing its work.

Front 62

Normal distribution

Back 62

Expected distribution given a random sampling across a large population.

Front 63

Median

Back 63

Middle point above and below which 50% of scores in a set of data lie.

Front 64

Mid-term objectives

Back 64

Serve a purpose similar to short-term objectives but are completed in one to three years.

Front 65

Mode

Back 65

Value that occurs most frequently in a set of data.

Front 66

Offshoring

Back 66

Relocation of processes or functions from a "home" country to another country.

Front 67

Percentile

Back 67

Specific point in a distribution of data that has a given percentage of cases below it.

Front 68

Primary research

Back 68

Involves data that is gathered firsthand for a specific evaluation.

Front 69

Program evaluation and review technique (PERT) chart

Back 69

Project management tool used to schedule, organize, and coordinate tasks within a project.

Front 70

Promotion

Back 70

Techniques for communicating information about products to consumers.

Front 71

Population

Back 71

Group of persons or objects or a complete set of observations or measurements about which one wishes to draw conclusions.

Front 72

Product

Back 72

What an organization sells to make a profit.

Front 73

Project

Back 73

Series of tasks and activities that has a stated goal and objectives, a schedule with defined start and end dates, and a budget that sets limits on the use of monetary and human resources.

Front 74

Public comment period

Back 74

Time allowed for the public to express its views and concerns regarding an action of a regulatory agency.

Front 75

Qualitative analysis

Back 75

Based on research that uses open-ended interviewing to explore and understand attitudes, opinions, feelings, and behavior.

Front 76

Quorum

Back 76

Number of members of an organization that have to be present before official business may be conducted.

Front 77

Regression analysis

Back 77

Statistical method used to predict a variable from one or more predictor variables.

Front 78

Reliability

Back 78

Ability of an instrument to measure consistently.

Front 79

Quantitative analysis

Back 79

Seeks to obtain easily quantifiable data on a limited number of measurement points.

Front 80

Range

Back 80

Distance between highest and lowest scores in a set of data.

Front 81

Regulation

Back 81

Rule or order issued by a government agency; often has the force of law.

Front 82

Request for proposal (RFP)

Back 82

Written request asking contractors to propose solutions and prices that fit customer's requirements.

Front 83

Resolution

Back 83

Legislative measure limited in effect to either the Congress or one of its chambers.

Front 84

Sales

Back 84

Business function responsible for selling an organization's product to the marketplace.

Front 85

Sandwich generation

Back 85

Portion of silent and baby boom generations that is simultaneously caring for their own children and one or more elderly family members.

Front 86

Scheduling

Back 86

To an operations department, the act of detailed planning; based upon incoming orders, order history, and forecasts of future demand.

Front 87

Return on investment (ROI)

Back 87

Calculation that measures the economic return on a project or investment.

Front 88

Sample

Back 88

Portion of a population used to draw conclusions regarding an entire population.

Front 89

Scatter diagram

Back 89

Diagram that shows the relationship between data items using x and y axes.

Front 90

Scientific method

Back 90

Research method in which certain factors (variables) are manipulated and the results are examined.

Front 91

Secondary research

Back 91

Uses data already gathered by others and reported in various sources.

Front 92

Social capital

Back 92

Interaction among employees toward meeting objectives.

Front 93

Staff units

Back 93

Work groups that assist line units by providing specialized services, such as HR.

Front 94

Standards

Back 94

For an operations department, provide the yardstick by which the amount and quality of output are measured.

Front 95

Short-term objectives

Back 95

Milestones that must be achieved, usually within six months to one year, in order to reach long-term objectives.

Front 96

Span of control

Back 96

Refers to the number of individuals who report to a supervisor.

Front 97

Standard deviation

Back 97

Measure that indicates how much scores in a set of data are spread out around a mean or average.

Front 98

Strategic business management

Back 98

Processes and activities used to formulate HR objectives, practices, and policies.

Front 99

Strategic planning

Back 99

Process that helps an organization focus on how to succeed in the future by evaluating the organization's current status, where it would like to be, and how to get there.

Front 100

Supply chain

Back 100

Global network that delivers products and services from raw materials to end customers through an engineered flow of information, physical distribution, and cash.

Front 101

Validity

Back 101

Ability of an instrument to measure what it is intended to measure.

Front 102

Veto

Back 102

Action of canceling or postponing a decision or bill.

Front 103

Strategies

Back 103

Provide the direction that enables an organization to achieve its long-term objectives.

Front 104

SWOT analysis

Back 104

Process for evaluating an organization's current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Front 105

Values

Back 105

Describe what is important to an organization, dictate employee behavior, and create the organization's culture.

Front 106

Vision statement

Back 106

Vivid, guiding image of an organization's desired future.

Front 107

Zero-based budgeting

Back 107

Form of budgeting that requires that expenditures be justified for each new period.