Exam 6: Applied Performance Practices

Employees assembling complete computer modems would have higher task identity than those assembling only one component and passing it along to others for further assembly.

Which of these statements about empowerment is FALSE?

Which core job characteristics affect experienced responsibility for work outcomes?

A mid-sized city introduced a reward system whereby employees would find ways to reduce costs and increase work efficiency.Every employee would receive a portion of the surplus budget resulting from these cost savings.This city is using:

Mental imagery helps employees to:

Normal Technologies Corp.(NTC)offers superb fitness facilities,flexible work hours,a gourmet restaurant with company-subsidized meals and a workplace with security systems for high physical safety.According to Herzberg's motivator-hygiene theory,these conditions will:

Frederick Herzberg's motivator-hygiene theory casts more of a spotlight on the job itself (rather than the work environment)as an important source of employee motivation.

When applied to non-management employees,which of these has a relatively WEAK connection between the reward and individual effort?

Competency-based rewards pay employees based on their performance results.

Employee share ownership plans:

XYZ Ltd.has just introduced a performance-based reward system for all production employees.The plan pays employees a team-based bonus based on the reduction of labour costs per unit in the production department.Describe three strategies to ensure that this and other performance-based reward systems are effective.Your answer should also briefly state the type of reward system used by XYZ Ltd.

Gainsharing and share-ownership reward plans create an "ownership culture" that is good for owners,but bad for employees.

People are empowered when they feel self-determination,meaning,competence,and impact regarding their role in the organization.

ABC Ltd.has a large secretarial pool on the third floor of company headquarters where professional and lower-level managers have their reports and other documents word-processed.The tasks are received by the secretarial pool coordinator and assigned randomly (on an availability basis)to secretaries in the pool.The secretaries often do not know the managers or professionals for whom the word-processing assignment is being completed.They rarely find out about the quality of their work because revisions are often sent to other secretaries in the pool due to the rotating work assignment system.Some assignments involve simple word-processing while others require complex formatting using more sophisticated word-processing software.Some secretaries don't mind working in the pool,but most are there because it represents the entry-level secretarial position.They resent the lack of control over work assignments and look forward to being transferred to other secretarial jobs in the firm where there is more freedom to schedule their own work activities.Turnover in the pool is much higher than for other support staff at ABC Ltd.What job design strategy would you recommend to improve employee effectiveness in ABC's secretarial pool?

A gainsharing plan:

The economic benefits of job specialization were discovered in the 1950s.

A job in which employees are able to complete something from beginning to end or there is a visible outcome of the work is called:

Skill-based pay plans:

Which of the following is an advantage of job specialization?

Employees are empowered when they: