Human Resource Management
Human Resource Management (HRM) definitions or guide at a glance:
Term
|
Definition
|
Person-organization fit:
|
The congruence between individuals
and organizational factors
|
Phased retirement:
|
Approach in which employees reduce
their workloads and pay
|
Physical ability tests:
|
Tests that measure individual
abilities such as strength, endurance, and muscular movement
|
Physiological symptoms
|
Characteristics of stress that
manifest themselves as increased heart and breathing rates, higher blood pressure,
and headaches
|
Placement:
|
Fitting a person to the right job
|
Plant Closing Bill
|
Also known as WARN, requires
employers to give sixty days’ advanced notice of pending plant closings or
major layoff
|
Plant closing law
|
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining
Notification Act, which requires notifying employees in the event an employer
decides to close its facility
|
Plant-wide incentives
|
An incentive system that reward all
members of the plant based on how well the entire group performed
|
Plateauing
|
A condition of stagnating in one’s
current job
|
Point method
|
Breaking down jobs based on
identifiable criteria and the degree to which these criteria exist on the job
|
Policies:
|
General guidelines that focus
organizational actions
|
Portability:
|
A pension plan feature that allows
employees to move their pension benefits from one employer to another
|
Position Analysis Questionnaire
|
A job analysis technique that rates
jobs on 194 elements I six activity categories
|
Positive Reinforcement
|
Providing a pleasant response to an
individual’s actions
|
Post-training performance method
|
Evaluating training programs based on
how ell employees can perform their jobs after they have received the
training
|
Prearrival stage
|
The socialization process stage that
recognizes individuals arrive in an organization with a set of organizational
values, attitudes, and expectations
|
Predictive validity:
|
Measured when test results of
applicants are compared with subsequent job performance
|
Preferred provider organization
(PPO):
|
A healthcare provider that contracts
with an employer group to provide healthcare services to employees at a
competitive rate
|
Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA)
|
An amendment to Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act that prohibits sex discrimination based on “pregnancy, childbirth,
or related medical conditions”
|
Pre-post training performance method
|
Evaluating training programs based
the difference in performance before and after one receives training
|
Pre-post training performance with
control group
|
Evaluating training by comparing pre-
and post training results with individuals who did not receive the training
|
Preretirement counseling
|
Employer-sponsored counseling aimed
at providing information to ease the passage of employees into retirement
|
Primacy effect:
|
Information received first gets the
most weight
|
Primary research:
|
Research method in which data are
gathered firsthand for the specific project being conducted
|
Privacy Act
|
Requires federal government agencies
to make available information in an individual’s personnel file
|
Procedural justice:
|
The perceived fairness of the process
and procedures used to make decisions about employees
|
Procedural justice:
|
Perceived fairness of the process
used to make decisions about employees
|
Procedures:
|
Customary methods of handling activities
|
Production cells:
|
Groupings of workers who produce
entire products or components
|
Productivity:
|
A measure of the quantity and quality
of work done, considering the cost of the resources used
|
Profit sharing:
|
A system to distribute a portion of the
profits of the organization to employees
|
Programmed instruction
|
Material is learned in highly
organized, logical sequence, that requires the individual to respond
|
Protected class:
|
Individuals within a group identified
for protection under equal employment laws and regulation
|
Psychological contract:
|
The unwritten expectations employees
and employers have about the nature of their work relationships
|
Psychological symptoms
|
Characteristics of stress that
manifest themselves as tension, anxiety, irritability, boredom, and
procrastination
|
Psychomotor tests:
|
Test that measure dexterity hand-eye
coordination, arm-hand steadiness, and other factors
|
Public policy violation
|
Prohibiting the termination of an
employee for refusing to obey an order the employee considered illegal
|
Qualifications inventories
|
Manual or computerized systematic
records listing employees’ education, career and development interests,
languages, special skills, and so on to be used in forecasting inside
candidates for promotion
|
Quality circle:
|
Small group of employees who monitor
productivity and quality and suggest solutions to problems
|
Quid pro quo:
|
Sexual harassment in which employment
outcomes are linked to the individual granting sexual favors
|
Quota strategy
|
Employment strategy aimed at
mandating the same results as the food faith effort strategy through specific
hiring and promotion restrictions
|
Railway Labor Act
|
Provided the initial impetus to
widespread collective bargaining
|
Ranking method
|
The simplest method of job evaluation
that involves ranking each job relative to all other jobs, usually based on
overall difficulty
|
Ranking method
|
Rating employees from highest to
lowest
|
Ranking:
|
Listing of all employees from highest
to lowest in performance
|
Rater bias:
|
Error that occurs when a rater’s
values or prejudices distort the rating
|
Ratification:
|
Process by which union member vote to
accept the terms of a negotiated labor agreement
|
Realistic job preview
|
A selection device that allows job
candidate to learn negative as well as positive information about the job and
organization
|
Realistic job preview (RJP):
|
The process through which a job
applicant receives an accurate picture of a job
|
Reasonable accommodation:
|
A modification or adjustment to a job
or work environment for a qualified individual with a disability
|
Recruiting:
|
The process of generating a pool of
qualified applicants for organizational jobs
|
Red-circled employee:
|
An incumbent who is paid above the
range set for the job
|
Reduced work hours
|
A downsizing concept whereby
employees work fewer than forty hours and are paid accordingly
|
Reengineering
|
Radical, quantum change in an
organization
|
Regency effect:
|
Error in which the rater gives
greater weight to recent events when appraising an individual’s performance
|
Reinforcement:
|
People tend to repeat responses that
give them some type of positive reward and avoid actions associated with
negative consequences
|
Reject errors
|
Rejecting candidates who would later
perform successfully
|
Relative standards
|
Evaluating an employee’s performance
by comparing the employee with other employees
|
Reliability:
|
Consistency with which a test
measures an item
|
Replacement charts
|
HRM organizational charts indicating
positions that may become vacant in the near future and the individuals who
may fill the vacancy
|
Representation certification
|
The election process whereby union
members vote in an union as their representative
|
Representation decertification
|
The election process whereby union
members vote in a union as their representative
|
Responsibilities:
|
Obligations to perform certain tasks
and duties
|
Responsibilities:
|
Obligations to be accountable for
actions
|
Restricted policy
|
An HRM policy that results in the
exclusion of a class of individuals
|
Retaliation:
|
Punitive actions taken by employers
against individuals who exercise their legal rights
|
Return on investment (ROI):
|
Calculation showing the value of
expenditures for HR activities
|
Reverse discrimination:
|
When a person is denied an
opportunity because of preferences given to protected-class individuals who
may be less qualified
|
Right to privacy:
|
Defined for individuals as the
freedom from unauthorized and unreasonable intrusion into personal affairs
|
Rights:
|
That which belongs to a person by
law, nature, or tradition
|
Rightsizing
|
Linking employee needs to
organizational strategy
|
Right-to-sue letter:
|
A letter issued by the EEOC that
notifies a complainant that he or she has 90 days in which to file a personal
suit in federal court
|
Right-to-work laws:
|
State laws that prohibit requiring employees
to join unions as a condition of obtaining or continuing employment
|
Roles
|
Behaviors that job incumbents are
expected to display
|
Rules:
|
Specific guidelines that regulate and
restrict the behavior of individuals
|
Sabbatical leave:
|
Paid time off the job to develop and
rejuvenate oneself
|
