SPHRi Mock Exam Two 1

Refer to the following scenario for the next 6 questions. The sales division of a small, privately owned business is managed by the son of the owner. The sales manager reports directly to the owner. The manager has risen rapidly through the ranks of the organization, in large part due to the fact that he is the owner’s son. While personable, he is not particularly effective as the leader of the sales force. The sales force is relatively young, made up predominantly of men, and racially and ethnically mixed. The sales manager does not pay any attention to the compliance aspects of his division. He simply focuses on having a good time at work and loves to “wine and dine” the customers. The employees within his division can do or say whatever they want with no consequences. Such activities among and between the employees include teasing, viewing inappropriate websites, and referring to themselves and each other with derogatory nicknames (racial, sexual, etc.). The sales manager also pays no attention to the sales performance of his subordinates. When issuing performance reviews, he routinely rates them all as excellent, despite the fact that some of the employees are clearly substandard in their sales performance and productivity data is poor. The exception to the positive reviews is a female employee. The manager recommends placing her on a performance improvement plan (PIP), allowing her 30 days to improve her sales performance or she will be terminated from employment. No other employee has been placed on a PIP, even though some have similar performance deficiencies. The HR director is aware of the behavior through informal channels, having heard comments between some of the manager’s subordinates or witnessed behavior while walking through his division. HR staff members have asked whether some of the manager’s behavior violates the company’s professional conduct policies. The HR director is hesitant to interject and respond appropriately because of the familial relationship and the fact that there have been no formal or informal complaints made to HR. She is also well aware of the fact that the manager does not regularly and accurately assess individual job performance. What are the HR director’s obligations in this case?

What could the HR director do from an organizational perspective to address the issues presented as a result of the management challenges within the sales division?

How should the HR director proceed regarding the interpersonal comments in the sales division?

How might the HR director address the issue of the misaligned performance assessments in the sales department?

How should the HR director advise the sales manager on the issue of placing the female salesperson on a PIP?

What is the best way for the HR director to communicate the company’s position on behavior like that of the sales manager?

What type of growth strategy would protect an acquiring company from structural risks like underfunded pension obligations?

An organization competes through a strategy of “lead through innovation.” Which HR objectives should receive highest priority.

Refer to the following scenario for the next 2 questions. A manufacturing company has secured a significant contract from a large retailer. The retailer has described steps in the manufacturing process that it expects, and the manufacturing company has contractually committed to these steps. The supervisor and employees of the unit primarily responsible for the manufacture of the product have discovered that they can skip one of the steps in the retailer’s defined process without any material change in the final product. The supervisor and employees do not try to hide the fact that they skip this step, but they don’t affirmatively reveal this to the client. The client accepts the finished product as meeting specifications. The senior HR manager discovers this change to the prescribed process during a routine exit interview with one of the employees from this unit. The departing employee says that only those within his department know of this skip in procedure. No one above his supervisor is aware, including the division manager. The unit had agreed to keep this fact from the division manager in large part because it is well known on the plant floor that the division manager has an ownership interest in the retailer that he did not reveal during contract negotiations because he didn’t want to appear biased. From an ethical perspective, what should the HR manager do?

How should the HR manager manage the potential conflict-of-interest situation?

What is an example of a plausible job specification for a line supervisor?

HR meets with team leaders to analyze the pros and cons of a suggested change. As a group, they brainstorm on factors that could influence the outcome of the change in both a positive and negative way. The factors are assigned weights in order to quantify the pros and cons and assist the leaders in their decision making. What type of analysis is the group using in this situation?

Which information-gathering and analysis tool provides both an internal and external snapshot of the organization?

Refer to the following scenario for the next 6 questions. An organization has business units in the U.K., the U.S., and Australia, but its strategic focus is now in expanding its presence in the developing markets in Southeast Asia and Africa. The strategy is to identify and acquire formerly strong but now faltering domestic companies with solid brand value in their countries. If successful, the organization will become the largest foreign-owned entity in that country in that particular industry. In each location, the existing business unit and the newly acquired units will be combined to form a new “third company.” Due diligence has been performed, and six organizations in six countries have been identified for acquisition. Business cases have been submitted to the government for each of the desired entities. HR is asked to represent the “people perspective” on a strategy team and to be ready with an integration plan so the strategy can move quickly once government approval is secured. The goal is to retain talent, build capacity to handle the new business potential, and drive the business to be profitable at the end of the first year following the acquisition. HR decides that it will use a “SWAT” or special purpose team made up of representatives from its business units. HR must also decide how to integrate this strategy into its own ongoing employee engagement strategy; this project has been under way for a while. Materials are being produced to describe the organization’s culture and identify the competencies as well as skills needed for success across the organization. What step should HR take first as they approach this assignment?

Will this idea of a “SWAT” or special purpose team be effective, given this organization’s past and its desired future?

How should HR and the business act to pull the right talent into positions on the integration team?

In structuring the integration team, what step could HR take that would most support the initiative’s successful outcome?

What actions related to training or communication would be most essential to integrate new employees in acquired companies?

Given the cultural diversity in this new organization, how could HR ensure that there is alignment in ethical understanding throughout the business units?

What is a critical HR goal in considering globalization forces?

The HR department is instructed to fill a critical management position as quickly as possible. Using multiple agencies will produce more candidates more quickly but will increase the cost by several times. What critical direction does HR need from management before deciding how to proceed?

A large and growing health-care insurer is reluctant to increase staff size because of volatility in its market. The HR department, however, is so busy that staff finds it difficult to accomplish more than basic administrative tasks. What HR task would be the best candidate for outsourcing?

HR is noticing a higher-than-normal rate of voluntary terminations. They determine that this warrants investigation and so make plans to survey the employees. What type of survey should they conduct?

Analyzing gaps and creating tactical objectives are activities that occur primarily during which stage of global staffing?

The workforce planning process involves the following steps: (1) Conducting a gap analysis comparing current staff and future staff; (2) Forecasting the future composition of the workforce; (3) Determining how to best meet the needs through redeployment, training, recruiting, or outsourcing; (4) Deciding how to close any gap. What represents the optimal order of these steps?

A family-owned business with 100 employees wants to set up a retirement plan. If the organization sets up a qualified defined contribution plan, what restrictions, if any, does the Employee Retirement Income Security Act impose on the investment of the assets?

Which OSHA standard is known as the Employee Right-to-Know Law?

An advertising firm has experienced significant turnover among its creative writers. During exit interviews, the writers have expressed dissatisfaction with rigid starting times, a lack of recognition for their work, and poor communication between managers and employees. How can managers establish a more participative climate?

What is a key outcome of the final Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruling implementing the employment provisions of the ADA Amendments Act?

A cross-functional team analyzes the customer experience in comparison to upcoming product development initiatives. One set of recommendations from this team identifies several changes to manufacturing and shipping processes that could reduce the overall delivery cycle time by 10%. If the organization decides to act on this team’s recommendations, what could HR do to promote implementation of this process change?

What must a recruiting website for a global enterprise be particularly aware of?

When an employer is charged with intentionally discriminating against employees on the basis of race or national origin, which statement is true about the maximum amount of individual punitive damages?

A small, privately held consulting company provides accounting services to organizations that are too small to have their own accountant or CFO. For the first time, the company decides to implement a strategic planning process. During the strategic planning process, the team disagrees over whether the organization should add a new division responsible for providing HR services to its clients. What is the best way to resolve this disagreement?

Refer to the following scenario for the next 5 questions. A male Japanese HR director working for a Japanese global trading conglomerate is mediating a conflict between two of his subordinate HR managers. One is a male Japanese national; the other is a female Australian national. All three work together in the organization’s 150-person Singapore office, where the staff is 60% Japanese, 25% Singaporean, and 15% a diverse mix of nationalities. Though the parent company is of Japanese origin, English is the organization’s official workplace language. The organization considers itself global, although a recent audit indicated an organizational problem with ethnocentrism. The two managers disagree about changing the performance management review process. The Japanese HR manager argues for a standardized competency model and goal-setting checklist, while the Australian HR manager wants to introduce a BARS process including self-appraisals. Their discussion becomes increasingly confrontational. Under the stress, the Japanese manager starts to struggle with his English, while the Australian manager emphasizes, repeatedly, that the Japanese manager’s lack of international experience is limiting his understanding of global best practices. At this point the Japanese HR manager turns to face the Japanese HR director and starts to speak in Japanese, a language that the Australian HR manager does not understand. The Australian manager abruptly stands up and walks out of the meeting room. The Japanese HR manager comments to his boss in Japanese, “You see, this is what happens when you put foreigners in management roles.” How should the HR director respond to the Australian manager abruptly leaving the meeting room?

How should the HR director respond to Japanese manager’s final comment about hiring “foreigners”?

How should the Australian manager have handled the situation when the two men started talking in Japanese?

If you were hired as an external consultant to this Singapore office to advise on updating their performance appraisal process and system, what would you recommend?

How might the HR director address the apparent issue of ethnocentric behavior in the Singapore operations?

The owner of a small chain of clothing stores that has been in business for three years decides to formalize performance standards and make salespeople accountable for results. Which of the following short-term objectives could best help employees focus their efforts in the same direction?

What practice would have the best potential to favorably impact talent acquisition costs and an organization’s ability to compete for skilled employees?

Refer to the following scenario for the next 3 questions. A global oil and gas company specializes in the construction and maintenance of offshore oil platforms. The work is highly specialized and physically demanding and can require significant time away from family. Roughly 10% of the company’s 10,000 employees are petroleum engineers: highly coveted, highly compensated key persons in the success and sustainability of the company. The average age of the company’s petroleum engineers is 48, and approximately half are scheduled to retire in the next five to ten years. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the educational and safety training requirements for petroleum engineers was increased, extending the job-readiness period for new graduates to an average of two years. The company is holding its annual strategic workforce planning meeting to assess the risks associated with their current workforce demographic. The CEO has been given a mandate from the board of directors to incorporate unconventional strategic thinking in order to address the pending risk of a severe key person talent shortage. What is the most immediate known risk the company currently faces?

Which offers the best, high-risk, high-reward strategic option for the company to retain maximum control over any pending petroleum engineer shortages?

What is a low-risk, best-potential-return strategy for improving the company’s pending talent gap?

Refer to the following scenario for the next 6 questions. The state legislature has introduced a new law that requires oil and gas companies to bank the royalty monies that cannot, for whatever reason, be paid directly to royalty beneficiaries on all royalties earned from state drilling. The funds must be deposited in interest-bearing accounts. No product is currently available to support the requirements of the law and the oil company customers. At the weekly executive team meeting, a discussion about what, if anything, should be done about this law takes place. The executive VP of administration is tasked with creating a new product. Since there are many stakeholders in this activity, a team approach will be best. So he invites the VP of HR to support the effort with a people and project plan. The VP of HR has been a member of the team for three years; she knows the players and the current business. The company has most of the major oil companies as clients and is already aware that this product could result in sizable deposits. However, there is no history to project with any certainty how long the deposits would remain in the company or how much activity the account would experience. What initial technique would help the HR VP start this project successfully?

What would be the best way to gain early buy-in and support for the project?

Once the overall strategy and long-term objectives have been identified, how should HR plan to be involved in this strategic initiative?

All the key internal stakeholders will be in the midst of their already agreed annual strategy. How can HR motivate the business leaders and their teams to take on this new initiative in addition to their already full workloads?

What HR activity will be most effective in ensuring that employees are actively engaged in this strategy’s success?

What should HR include in the implementation plan to ensure that the strategy’s activity stays on course to meet its objectives?

An organization has hired a new HR director. What is the first thing the director should do after meeting and getting to know the HR staff?

A review of the organization’s cash flow statement shows that cash outflow has increased over the previous year. How will this most likely affect the HR function?

A firm begins operating in a new country where obtaining necessary permits requires making donations to orphanages and schools named by local officials. Is it ethical for the firm to make these donations?

An international organization has announced a commitment to a growth strategy. How can an HR leader best prepare the function for this strategy?

Which is the most low-risk strategy for global market expansion?

A task assessment identifies that data entry employees are making too many input errors and are handling data improperly, putting customers at risk. What is the first action HR should take?

A successful beverage production company controls key activities in its value chain so that they can maintain uninterrupted production; this is the key to their profitability. From an HR perspective, what should managers of this organization focus on?

An organization has struggled to launch a new HR management system with higher integration and more functionality. The new user requirements are very different, and the beta test was problematic. The vendor fixed the problems, but the staff’s nervousness about having to learn a new system has combined with the poor beta test experience to create resistance to bringing the final product online. What can the HR manager do now to help implement this initiative?

An HR manager implements new, more cost-effective health benefits coverage that transfers more responsibility to employees. In announcing the plan, the manager explains the dramatic rise in premiums and the organization’s need to control spending and distributes plan information. There is substantial resistance to the change, which seriously affects employee attitudes and productivity. How could the manager have transitioned to the new plan more effectively?

How should the SVP HR respond to the request of the Netherlands employees?

How should the SVP HR respond to the news about the threatened work actions?

How should the SVP HR communicate information about the merger’s effect on the workforce?

While developing the HR function’s business plan, an HR manager is informed that organizational budget constraints have led to an organization-wide hiring freeze. The manager has also been told to plan for conducting at least one major round of workforce reductions. What would be a reasonable objective for the coming year’s business plan?

Refer to the following scenario for the next 4 questions. The CEO of a publicly held automotive supplier asks the senior vice president of HR to design a new executive compensation approach for the senior leaders of the organization. Current corporate strategy is focused on lagging sales and increased competition, which also motivates the CEO to introduce an executive reward that is specifically “performance-based.” The SVP of HR suggests to the CEO some potential alternatives, including: (i) Incentive pay with a short-term focus, usually in the form of a bonus; (ii) Incentive pay with a long-term focus, usually in some combination of stock awards, option awards, and non-equity incentive plan compensation; (iii) An enhanced benefits package that usually includes a supplemental executive retirement plan (SERP); (iv) Extra benefits and perquisites, such as cars and club memberships; (v) Deferred compensation earnings. The SVP meets with the CEO one week after reviewing, analyzing, and sharing her recommendations. The CEO appreciates her due diligence; however, he does not support the recommendations she has made. How should the SVP of HR make use of the organizational strategy to arrive at a reward recommendation for the executives?

Given the CEO’s rejection of the SVP of HR’s proposed recommendations, what other considerations should the SVP incorporate?

How should the SVP incorporate external data and information as part of her recommendations?

How should the SVP of HR incorporate compliance considerations into her recommendation to the CEO?

An organization is considering adding HR responsibilities for its line managers. What is the first thing that HR must do to make this strategy work?

HR has been directed to review the company’s talent management plan in order to make recommendations for possible improvements. What is the first thing HR should do?

What is the primary barrier to transfer of training?

A business providing cloud computing services intends to distribute its server centers in different time zones to protect against risks of local outages and to save cooling energy by moving the bulk of processing to centers operating at night. How will this affect the business’s human capital needs?

Refer to the following scenario for the next 3 questions. You work in the HR department, and your coworkers have expressed concerns about the process used for selecting new hires. In the current process, interviewers ask their own questions and use their own criteria for assigning letter grades. This system has resulted in poor hiring decisions, a lack of consistency across departments, and a lack of diversity in certain departments. You are not confident that the organization is hiring the right people, but each department still thinks it can handle its own hiring better than HR can, and they are not interested in trying a new process. What is the best way to handle concerns about the current hiring process?

What is the best way to address the lack of diversity within certain departments?

What is the best way to convince the department heads to use a new hiring process?

An organization is researching labor costs for similar operations and Bureau of Labor Statistics projections on the availability of certain types of skilled employees. In what stage of the workforce analysis process is the organization?

A manager uses his skill with people to smooth over problems and to make his employees feel secure in their positions. According to the Blake-Mouton theory, what leadership style is the manager using?

Refer to the following scenario for the next 6 questions. A newly hired vice president (VP) of human resources is still learning a great deal about the organization. She currently has a staff of six HR professionals, five of whom have been with the organization for ten or more years. The sixth HR professional is an HR generalist who was promoted into his position two months ago following his graduation from college. He had served as an HR intern for the organization during his final semester of college this past spring. He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in management; he has no HR experience other than his internship. The CEO tells the VP of HR that her predecessor had some performance deficiencies. To learn more about the organization, the VP asks the HR generalist to conduct a routine audit of all aspects of the human resources function. At the conclusion of the audit, he reports to the VP that, among other things, many employees whose jobs contain the title of manager or supervisor may be inappropriately classified as exempt. Which statement best describes the VP’s selection of the generalist as the individual to conduct the HR audit?

What effect will the organization’s employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) have on employees’ potential wage-hour claims?

Why is the exempt/nonexempt distinction important?

What is the primary requirement of the payroll department for complying with FLSA requirements as related to paying these newly reclassified nonexempt employees?

What requirements does the FLSA mandate to employers relative to payment to nonexempt employees for breaks and lunches?

How should the VP of HR proceed with the report of the audit?

The primary reason that global organizations may not excel at performance management is because

Of the following possibilities, what is the best action for an HR director to take to prepare for an organization’s strategic planning sessions?

Leadership proposes an organizational effectiveness and development (OED) initiative and asks HR to plan the steps needed to implement the initiative. What is the first thing HR should do?

What is the primary purpose of a mission statement?

For training professionals, understanding their own learning style is important because

Due diligence calls for an intensive investigation of an organization being considered for a merger or acquisition to understand the risks that could be associated with the deal. What is an example of a cultural risk?

Refer to the following scenario for the next 4 questions. A multinational company with a strong presence in Latin America is headquartered in Chile. After acquiring a rival in Brazil, leadership decided to integrate the procurement function in a single department based in Chile. As a result, top talent executives from the Brazilian company were identified and received the proposal to relocate to Chile. It was a highly visible and costly strategic decision. Within two years, however, most of the Brazilian executives had left the company. In their most recent performance reviews, they were rated as ineffective, with poor leadership and personal styles. The situation was somehow overlooked until this month, when five executives resigned almost at the same time and returned to Brazil. HR was not included in the decision because the financial analysis and strategy seemed to clearly support the initiative. It was, however, assigned later to identify key talent and to provide legal and logistic support for the transfers. At the outset, the HR manager in Brazil had some concerns about the plan but failed to express them or thought it was too late. As these talented employees began to leave, the HR manager in Chile did not believe there was an issue and thought that the problem was with the “Brazilians.” Some metrics indicated that international assignees from other nationalities were leaving the company as well. In a traditional annual e-mail message to all employees, management describes goals and initiatives for the next year. One item in the list is in-depth study of talent retention throughout the organization. What do you think is most likely causing the loss of talent in this organization?

What action should the HR manager in Brazil have taken to manage this situation more effectively?

What would be the best way for the Brazilian HR manager to engage the Chilean HR manager in trying to solve the problem of loss of talent?

How could management have communicated its response to this issue more effectively?

A consulting company knows that its primary advantage lies in the expertise and commitment of its people. As a result, what practice should HR focus on?

Adult learners differ from younger learners by the fact that they

What is the relationship between the level of economic development of a country and the amount of paid time off provided to employees?

How can HR best assist in creating an ethical organization?

HR metrics are generally either activity-based or outcomes-based. What is a danger of focusing too much on outcomes?

Which of the following anticipates changes to the business environment?

What is a characteristic of an HR practitioner who has mastered systems thinking?

An organization has been forced to hire new employees at higher pay rates than usual due to a tight labor supply. Employees who have been with the organization one to three years are earning the same or only slightly more than the new hires they have to train. What is the organization experiencing?

What does an organizational needs assessment identify?

When administered in the same way in different countries, what assessment approach would provide the most consistent results in collecting information on job candidates?

Marketing and IT are collaborating on a new system that will allow customer service representatives to access and change customer accounts directly (for example, to create credits). What would be HR’s most valuable contribution to this effort?

In a merger, what is the first thing an HR manager should do?

What is a trait of an effective leader?

Management has asked for HR guidance in selecting a benefit plan that manages increased costs without sacrificing employee morale. What should HR suggest?

A software company is opening a plant in China. Some U.S. management and key personnel will be transferred; however, most new employees will be hired in China. Company executives want more information, including a projection of the economic value of each employee’s work. Which external environmental scanning factors should the company examine?

Under deadline pressure, a global team leader grows angry with workers from one region, resorting to threats and accusations. Realizing that her behavior is counterproductive, she apologizes and sets up a meeting to determine the source of the delays and how she can best help. What critical quality has she acquired?

Refer to the following scenario for the next 6 questions. A senior vice president of HR (SVP HR) has been hired by a global health-care organization. Shortly after being hired, the SVP HR participates in due diligence for acquiring a faltering division of another organization. The new SVP HR faces issues in both the acquired and existing HR functions. The acquired company has been struggling. Morale is low in HR, which has had to deliver services to both direct employees and partners (clinicians employed by organizations contracted to provide services to patients). The job is complex; the staff feels that they have been pulled in many directions and that they have received little direction from managers. As a result, turnover within HR has been significant—an average of 32% per year over the last five years. Of the approximately 110 HR employees, only 30 have been with the organization for more than five years. Within the merged organization, the SVP HR notes that the HR team does not focus on quality delivery. As a result, rework of many activities occurs on a frequent basis. There are no standards or metrics in place, and feedback and reporting mechanisms are antiquated. The SVP HR brings these concerns to the HR leadership team that directly reports to her. The SVP HR is concerned that they will continue to see this pattern of a highly disengaged HR group and a loss of institutional knowledge, which will result in an even greater challenge to deliver HR services. The HR leadership team responds to these concerns with equal frustration, sharing that they have been trying their best to respond to employee needs and they have not had the tools in place to do so. They do not think that employee engagement is a great concern within the HR group and think that the turnover has been healthy by bringing in a fresh perspective when they hire new people. The team decides to implement an employee engagement survey in the HR function, the first survey in a long time for either of the merged operations. The president of the division has supported the SVP HR’s efforts to improve the engagement of her HR team, and, if she is successful, he has agreed to look at launching a broader engagement strategy division-wide. The SVP HR is hopeful for turning things around until an individual on the leadership team warns her that one of the team members believes that he would have been SVP HR if the acquisition had not happened. He has been working against the SVP HR’s objectives in separate conversations throughout HR. What course of action should the SVP HR and the HR leadership team start with?

How should the SVP HR and the HR leadership team resolve the differences in how they view the issues?

The results of the HR leadership team’s engagement survey are very poor, and the team’s commentary on the results cites the SVP HR as a prime issue. The SVP HR is scheduled to meet with the president of the division to discuss the results and propose expanding the engagement initiative. How should the SVP HR approach this meeting?

If an employee engagement strategy is developed and implemented, what is the best way to communicate the strategy to the HR team?

The performance of the assistant to the SVP HR has been declining. She has been tardy and vocal about frustration with her work. Her behavior is influencing the atmosphere in the office as she is a popular employee and had worked for the acquired company for the past six years. What actions should the SVP HR take?

How should the SVP HR deal with the challenge of the direct report who may be actively undermining her?

What changes might a corporation make in the way it does business to create a “sustainability sweet spot”?

What role do high-potential employees have in succession planning and management?

The HR director and the management team of a small resort hotel are developing a strategy to remain union-free. A union’s representatives are talking with the employees. What action should management take?

According to the Hersey-Blanchard theory, what is generally the most suitable situational leadership approach for entry-level employees?

A key advantage that market-pricing (external) job evaluation provides organizations over job-content-based (internal) job evaluation is

What HR task is typically required by a multi-domestic corporation?

What is the primary advantage of a knowledge management system for a global organization?

Refer to the following scenario for the next 6 questions. A company operates domestically and has approximately 5,000 employees. It has been in operation for over 30 years and is very ethnocentric in its decision-making approach. The company’s HR team is made up of a head of HR, three HR directors, three HR managers, three HR business partners, and COEs for total rewards, employee relations, and recruitment. When the head of HR joined the organization four years ago, she was able to convince the senior leadership team, which she is a part of, to support a shared services model that would help her revolutionize the way that HR does business and would better support the organization in its goals and objectives. The implementation has taken close to two years, and, after the first full year of operation, there has been a dramatic increase of 25% in the number of complaints from the business leaders as well as the employees. The head of HR is determined to get to the bottom of the increase in complaints and demonstrate the value of HR activities in supporting organizational success. She also wants to be able to confirm to the leadership team that they made the right choice in switching to a shared services model, as a few are now questioning the change. What steps should the head of HR take to address the concerns from the business leaders and employees?

How should the head of HR include the HR team in helping to identify the issues that are a cause for concern?

How should the head of HR communicate the plan to resolve the issues to the rest of the organization?

How should the head of HR validate that the shared services structure is still the best HR structure for the organization?

Credibility appears to be a significant concern for the head of HR and her team. How should she and the HR team go about repairing this credibility?

What should the head of HR do in regard to the current HR structure?

Which laws must be considered when administering return-to-work programs?

What strategy best positions an organization to handle the departure of key leaders?

What is one of the biggest challenges in retaining key leadership staff in a merger?

A fitness organization requires its employees to wear technology that tracks wellness bio-data. What challenges to this technology are likely to emerge?

A security-conscious organization requires all new hires to complete training on security policies and conducts annual “armed intruder” drills for all employees. What risk management strategies is this company using?

HR needs to assess employee interest in a possible new benefit quickly. What would be the best vehicle?

How can HR professionals involved in the strategic planning process best serve their organization?

A knowledge-based organization is highly decentralized, with many small offices and many employees working remotely. Employees are task-oriented. What would be the best way to measure employee attitudes here?

How can companies best determine if changes to their emergency response plans are needed?

An HR director advises a staff member, “Sometimes it is best to ignore a conflict in your team and not get involved.” When would this be a good conflict management strategy?

A company has developed a new performance evaluation tool that it plans to roll out within the next couple of months. Who would most likely be the best people to explain the change to the employees?

What is the typical relationship of the strategic planning process to the environmental scan?

What would be considered attorney work product?

The KPMG “Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting” is, as its title suggests, not a guideline or set of principles but an overview of current practices. What is its practical value for an organization devising its corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy?

What is a possible problem a company could face when using a joint venture growth strategy?

How does management use tools like the Growth Share Matrix?

What is most likely to occur in a company with a geocentric approach to management?

Obtaining full “C-level” (CEO, CFO, COO) commitment is critical to any comprehensive diversity and inclusion strategic initiative. What must be demonstrated to gain that executive commitment?

How does management differ from leadership?

A company conducts a sexual harassment training program for first-line supervisors and managers due to the unacceptable level of complaints. What is the best way to show the effectiveness of the training?

What is an accurate characterization of the correct role for HR in managing organizational risk?

Factory workers who usually work in the assembly department are assigned to the shipping department every other week. What type of career development program are these workers participating in?

What tool would be best for analyzing and presenting data about the relationship between years of education and amount of income?

New leadership is in place at a large retailer. All departments are undergoing detailed reviews of their support of organizational strategy and effectiveness. The benefits department has just completed its review, and leadership believes benefit offerings are not reflective of the organization’s total rewards philosophy. A gap analysis yields overlapping benefits. What action should be taken to remedy the situation?