Questions 1 to 20: Select the best answer to each question. Note that a question and its answers may be split across a page
break, so be sure that you have seen the entire question and all the answers before choosing an answer.
1. Which of the following is a true statement about older employees?
A. Older employees typically can’t accept younger people as their managers.
B. Employing older people usually increases costs and provides no benefits.
C. Older people are often willing and able to learn new technology.
D. Older employees typically want to retire as soon as they near retiring age.
2. Which of the following is not an action that OSHA can take, under the Occupational Safety and Health
Act?
A. Issue citations and require that they be posted in a prominent place near the location of the violations
B. Close a workplace that represents an occupational hazard
C. Conduct unannounced workplace inspections
D. Assess fines ranging from $20,000 for violations that result in the death of an employee to $1,000 for less serious violations
3. People’s right to freedom of speech is the right to
A. criticize an organization’s ethics if they do it in good conscience.
B. refuse to do something that’s environmentally unsafe.
C. do as they wish in their private life.
D. be treated only as they knowingly and willingly consent to be treated.
4. For which of the following occupations would it be easiest to implement telework?
A. Quality management
B. Graphic designer
C. Production technician
D. Machine operator
5. Which of the following terms describes the best possible fit between a company’s social system and its
technical system?
A. Total quality management
B. High-performance work system
C. Outsourcing
D. Self-service system
6. Which of the following occupations is projected to add the most jobs before 2016?
A. Registered nurses
B. Janitors
C. Postsecondary teachers
D. Office clerks
7. What is the goal of ergonomics?
A. Reducing the complexity of the job
B. Reducing the memorization required by the job
C. Reducing the physical strain on employees
D. Increasing meaningfulness of the job
8. Which of the following managerial functions is often assumed by work teams?
A. Performing inspection and quality-control activities
B. Making strategy-related decisions such as areas to diversify in
C. Controlling finances allocated for the project
D. Conducting performance reviews
9. One of the most common grievances that employees at Craines Tech have is that they don’t get
performance feedback. That is, they don’t get proper information as to how they’ve performed and where
they need to improve, and the performance goals are vague and not measurable. Which HR function does
Craines Tech need to improve?
A. Performance management
B. Employee relations
C. Recruitment and selection
D. Training and development
10. Which of the following is a true statement about the composition of the U.S. labor force during the next
decade?
A. The largest proportion of the labor force is expected to be in the 16- to 25-year age group.
B. For the first time ever, the number of workers under 40 years of age will exceed the number of workers 40 years of age or
older.
C. In spite of the growing number of young workers, the overall workforce will be aging.
D. The labor force is expected to grow at a greater rate than at any other time in U.S. history.
11. Which of the following recommendations for job descriptions is not desirable?
A. Omit the phrase “and other duties as requested” from all job descriptions.
B. Use the same format for all job descriptions within the organization.
C. Use the annual performance appraisal process as an opportunity to update job descriptions.
D. Provide job descriptions to all newly hired employees.
12. Which of the following is a correct statement about the Americans with Disabilities Act?
A. The Americans with Disabilities Act covers disabilites such as obesity and drug abuse.
B. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to have a minimum of 15 percent of the workforce to be people with
disabilities.
C. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to take steps to accommodate people with disability so that they can
perform their duties without difficulty.
D. The Americans with Disabilities Act covers people who took mitigating measures that allow them to perform major life
activities with no difficulty.
13. The processing and transmission of digitized HR information, especially using computer networking and
the Internet, is known as
A. human resource information system implementation.
B. reengineering.
C. electronic human resource management.
D. e-business.
14. Which of the following is a false statement about the Occupational Safety and Health Act?
A. The act applies to organizations that employ 50 or more persons working 20 or more weeks a year and that are involved in
interstate commerce.
B. Enforcement responsibilities for the act are divided between the Department of Labor and the Department of Health.
C. Under the act, covered employers must keep records of work-related injuries and illnesses and post an annual summary of
these records.
D. It’s the most comprehensive U.S. law regarding worker safety.
15. Which of the following cases would most likely be filed under the theory of disparate impact?
A. A black employee is fired for testifying in a discrimination suit filed against an employer.
B. A white applicant is told he won’t be hired because the employer doesn’t like whites.
C. White applicants with high test scores are rejected due to an affirmative-action plan.
D. Black applicants are being disproportionately rejected relative to whites by a paper-and-pencil test.
16. How does a human resource information system help the organization?
A. Develops new line of products
B. Provides employee coaching
C. Avoids litigation and lawsuits
D. Scrutinizes balance sheets
17. Self-managing teams are likely to be more efficient if the
A. authority to make decisions remains with the manager.
B. team members are assigned tasks that are repetitive.
C. demand for a particular activity remains the same for the entire duration of the project.
D. team members can perform different skills associated with various tasks.
18. Managers and economists traditionally have seen HRM as a(n)
A. essential component of a high-performance work system.
B. source of value to their organization.
C. necessary expense.
End of exam
D. asset.
19. Which of the following approaches would be most appropriate when gathering information for jobs that
are repetitive and involve physical activity?
A. A job analyst questions the peers about a particular job.
B. A job analyst visits the workplace and videotapes an employee performing the job.
C. A job analyst visits the workplace and asks employees to show what the job entails.
D. A manager imagines what a well-done job would look like.
20. Which of the following categories of workers is not covered under OSHA’s Hazard Communication
Standards?
A. A technician servicing copy machines for most of the day
B. A receptionist changing the toner in a copier machine
C. Health-care workers exposed to latex and disinfectants
D. Production engineers manufacturing car batteries

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1. The long-term success of diversity training is characterized by
A. making sure that HRM practices meet standards of equal employment opportunity laws.
B. training that’s tied to business objectives, such as understanding customers.
C. the number of minority or disabled employees on staff within the organization.
D. unstructured programs.
2. Which of the following tests assesses how well a person can acquire skills and abilities?
A. Achievement
B. Cognitive ability
C. Aptitude
D. Personality inventories
3. Which of the following is a correct statement about executive search firms?
A. Executive search firms aren’t subject to the requirements of Title VII.
B. Executive search firms work almost exclusively with high-level, unemployed executives.
C. Executive search firms almost exclusively find new jobs for people who are already employed.
D. Executive search firms typically require the person being placed to make the initial contact with the prospective employer directly.
4. Which of the following is found in a typical behavior-modeling session?
A. Presentation of key behaviors, videotape of a model performing the key behavior, participation in a case study group, and
planning session
B. Videotape of a model performing the key behavior, planning session, coaching realistic game, and practice opportunities
C. Presentation of the key behaviors, videotape of a model performing the key behavior, role-plays, and a planning session
D. Lecture, videotape of a model performing the key behavior, on-the-job coaching, and practice opportunities
5. Which of the following correctly describes a phased-retirement program?
A. Giving lucrative incentives to a large number of older employees so that they voluntarily retire
B. Reducing the number of hours the older employees work
C. Giving older employees a certain time limit to voluntarily retire
D. Laying off older employees in small batches
6. Three of the following would enhance recruiter effectiveness. Which would not enhance recruiter
effectiveness?
A. Ensuring that recruiters provide applicants with timely feedback
B. Ensuring that recruiters are knowledgeable about company policies and procedures
C. Using realistic job previews as part of the recruitment process
D. Recruiting in teams rather than individually
7. Benefits of establishing objectives for a training program include three of the following. Which is not a
benefit of establishing objectives for a training program?
A. Establishing objectives provides a basis for measuring the success of the program.
B. Employees learn best when they know what the training is supposed to accomplish.
C. Objectives help HR professionals identify the situational constraints within the organization.
D. The training program will be more focused and more likely to succeed.
8. Which of the following is a permissible question for applications and interviews?
A. What schools have you attended?
B. When did you attend high school?
C. Do you have any disabilities?
D. Do you have children?
9. Should a former employer give a glowing statement about a candidate and the new employer later learn
of misconduct on the part of the employee during his or her previous employment, the new employer may
sue the former for
A. defamation.
B. negligent omission.
C. lack of validity.
D. misrepresentation.
10. In personnel forecasting, an effective HR professional tries to
A. anticipate trends within the HR field which are most likely to affect the success of current company operations.
B. develop HR policies and practices in response to anticipated moves by major competitors.
C. predict the number and types of legal challenges the company is likely to face within the year.
D. determine the supply of and demand for various types of human resources.
11. Which of the following personnel policies is not relevant to recruitment?
A. Administrative procedures
B. Lead-the-market pay strategies
C. Internal versus external recruiting
D. Image advertising
12. Three of the following statements about the effects of downsizing are true. Which one is false?
A. Downsizing efforts guarantee an increase in organization competitiveness.
B. Short-term cost savings often turn negative in the long term.
C. Employees who survive downsizing often become narrow-minded and risk-averse.
D. Downsizing efforts eliminate people who turn out to be irreplaceable assets.
13. Three of the following are reasons that employers use application forms. Which is not a reason for
which employers use application forms?
A. The forms ensure that the organization controls the content of the information received and the manner in which it’s presented.
B. The forms allow the employer to keep up-to-date records of job applicants.
C. The forms are a low-cost way to gather basic data from many applicants.
D. The forms aren’t subject to legal validation requirements.
14. According to the Training 2007 Industry Report, which training task was outsourced the most?
A. Learner support
B. Instruction
C. Custom content
D. Need analysis
15. At which stage in the selection process are supervisors and team members most involved?
A. Recruitment
B. Reference and background checks
C. Receiving résumés from job portals
D. Employment interviews
16. Predictive validation is better than concurrent validation because
A. the group is more likely to include people who perform poorly on the test.
B. job applicants’ performance on the tests is influenced by their firsthand experience with the job.
C. the research administers tests to people who currently hold the job.
D. it’s more time-consuming and difficult.
17. The general method of establishing the validity of a selection method by showing that there’s an
association between scores on the selection measure and scores for job performance is called
A. content validation.
B. split-half estimate of validation.
C. criterion-related validation.
D. reliability of the measurement and validation.
18. _______ identifies the tasks, knowledge, skills, and behaviors that training should emphasize.
A. Person analysis
B. Task analysis
C. Organizational analysis
D. Training-method analysis
19. Which of the following is a false statement about using simulations as a training technique?
A. Simulations are inexpensive to develop and maintain due to virtual-reality technologies.
End of exam
B. Simulations are used to teach production and process skills as well as management and interpersonal skills.
C. Simulations allow trainees to see the effects of their decisions in an artificial, risk-free environment.
D. Simulators need to have identical elements to those found in the work environment.
20. Imagine that you manage a car dealership affiliated with one of the big three U.S. automakers. Given
the increasing complexity and variety of today’s automobiles, it’s impossible to train your mechanics on the
details of every potential repair problem. Thus, in cooperation with corporate headquarters, you have a
training program whereby mechanics learn the basis of engine, emission, and other types of repair, but in
the case of a particular problem, seek expert advice through an online computer application program. This
approach is known as
A. an electronic performance support system.
B. an experiential behavior-modeling program.
C. a virtual-reality simulation training program.
D. e-learning.