CH-7-9 Managing Employee Retention and Separation – Human Resource Management: Linking Strategy to Practice : Chapter Notes

This Document Contains Chapters 7 to 9 Chapter 7 Managing Employee Retention and Separation Chapter 7 Learning Objectives 1. Explain how employee retention and separation align with overall HR strategy. 2. Explain the employee turnover process and describe methods that an organization can use to reduce undesirable turnover. 3. Discuss the potential benefits and problems associated with employee layoffs. 4. Describe effective methods of employee discipline, including the principles of due process and the actions of progressive discipline. 5. Describe effective methods for dismissing employees from an organization. Chapter 7 Outline 7.1 How Are Employee Retention and Separation Strategic? • Employees are a primary asset of almost every organization.  Replacing an employee who quits costs an organization between one and two times the annual salary of the position.  Employee retention is a set of actions designed to keep good employees.  Ensuring that nonproductive employees don’t continue with the organization is often just as important as retaining productive workers.  Changes in economic conditions and product demand sometimes force organizations to reduce size of workforce.  Employee separation is the process of efficiently and fairly terminating workers. • Strategic Emphasis on Employee Retention  Retaining good employees is the essence of internal labor orientation.  Competitive advantage comes from developing loyal workforce that consistently excels at satisfying customer demands.  Loyal Soldier HR strategy: Internal labor orientation and cost reduction strategy.  Committed Expert HR strategy: Internal labor orientation and differentiation strategy.  Employee retention is not as critical for external labor orientation.  For Bargain Laborer HR strategy, separations are seen as necessary consequence of combining entry-level work with relatively low wages.  For Free Agent HR strategy, those who leave can be replaced by individuals with more up-to-date knowledge and skills. • Strategic Emphasis on Employee Separation  Employee separations are an important part of differentiation strategy.  Differentiators rely on highly skilled employees.  Committed Expert HR strategy focuses on terminating low performers.  Free Agent HR strategy benefits from frequently replacing employees with others who bring new skills and a fresh perspective.  Managing employee separation is not as important as cost reduction strategies: Loyal Soldier HR and Bargain Laborer HR strategies. 7.2 How Can Undesirable Employee Turnover Be Reduced? • From the organization’s standpoint, the effect of employee’s departure depends on whether the employee is a high or a low performer.  Voluntary turnover: employee decides to leave.  Involuntary turnover: organization terminates the employment.  Functional retention: high-performing employees remain employed.  Functional turnover: low-performing employees voluntarily quit.  Dysfunctional retention: low-performing employees remain with the organization. • Recognizing Paths to Voluntary Turnover  Quick Decision to Leave: begins with external event that causes employee to rethink the employment relationship.  Calculated Decision to Leave: an event causes individual to begin thinking about leaving the organization.  Comparison with Other Alternatives: some external event initiates thoughts about leaving the organization such as a job offer from another firm.  Sense of Dissatisfaction: no specific event causes employee to think about quitting. • Understanding Decisions to Quit  Important part of each path to turnover is lack of satisfaction.  Low Job Satisfaction  Job satisfaction represents a person’s emotional feelings about his or her work.  Employees often make an overall assessment of their job satisfaction.  Satisfaction can be divided into: empowerment, job fulfillment, pay, work group, security, and work facilitation.  Different values and perceptions mean that job satisfaction represents a complicated mix of feelings. ° Employee who is satisfied with one aspect of the job may not be satisfied with others. ° Not every aspect of job satisfaction is equally important to every employee. ° Some people may value empowerment more than security, whereas others will place greater value on security.  Satisfaction with compensation is often dimension most strongly related to overall perceptions of job satisfaction.  Overall job satisfaction varies among organizations as well as among individuals.  Withdrawal from the Organization  Withdrawal is a progressive process whereby an employee who is dissatisfied pulls away from the organization over time.  Early signs of withdrawal include ° increased lateness and absenteeism; ° giving less input to the organization; ° being less helpful toward coworkers. • Exit from the Organization  One important factor that determines whether workers continue in undesirable jobs is the availability and desirability of alternative jobs.  Dissatisfied employees are likely to stay with an organization when they perceive that it will be difficult to find another job.  People are also more likely to stay with their current jobs when they perceive that switching will have high economic and psychological costs.  Some people are predisposed toward either high or low levels of satisfaction regardless of the work environment.  Some are dissatisfied no matter how good a job is.  People with chronically low job satisfaction tend to experience negative moods in all aspects of their lives.  Some people tend to have dysfunctional characteristics such as perfectionism that undermine their feelings of self-worth.  Individuals who are low on agreeableness often leave a job because they like doing things their own way.  Individuals who are highly open to experience tend to leave to seek out new adventures • Organizational Practices that Reduce Turnover  Work to ensure that employees’ needs are being met continuously.  Need good HRM practices related to staffing, career planning, training, compensation, and workforce governance.  Effective organizations develop ongoing procedures to find out why individuals leave. • Assessing Employee Satisfaction  Organizations seek to reduce turnover by frequently measuring employees’ job satisfaction.  Done through surveys that ask employees about facets of work experience.  Common survey is Job Descriptive Index which assesses satisfaction with work tasks, pay, promotions, co-workers, supervision, demographic characteristics, work positions, and locations.  Job satisfaction surveys are best when they ask interesting questions. ° Topics expected to be most important to employees should be placed at the beginning of the survey. ° Routine questions such as length of time worked and department should be placed at the end. ° Value of employee surveys can be increased by including items measuring how well the organization is meeting its strategic objectives.  One problem with job satisfaction surveys is that the least satisfied employees are not likely to respond to the survey.  These employees have already started to withdraw from the organization.  They see little personal benefit in completing the survey.  They see things as too negative to fix.  They no longer care about the work environment of the company they are planning to leave.  Human Resource Practices that Reduce Turnover  HR Practice Example of Effective Tactics ° Staffing • Use realistic job previews. • Provide growth and promotion opportunities. • Select employees who fit with the organization. ° Training and development • Offer educational programs such as MBA. • Provide sabbaticals and other learning opportunities. ° Career planning • Specify clear career paths. ° Compensation • Maintain competitive pay. • Develop fair pay practices. • Pay for learning new skills. ° Labor relations • Establish quick and fair grievance procedures. • Facilitate conflict resolution among employees.  HR Practices that Reduce Turnover  Staffing (e.g., realistic job previews, growth and promotion opportunities, and select employees who fit with the organization)  Training and development (e.g., educational programs and sabbaticals)  Career planning (e.g., specify clear career paths)  Compensation (e.g., competitive pay and fair pay practices)  Labor relations (e.g., quick and fair grievance procedures) • Socializing New Employees  Process of acquiring knowledge and behaviors needed to be member of organization.  A key to effective socialization is interacting with coworkers and leaders. • Building Perceptions of Organizational Support  Those who feel supported reciprocate with feeling of obligation toward organization.  Obligation results from better compensation practices, better designed jobs, fairness of procedures, and absence of politics. • Selecting Employees Who Are Likely to Stay  Employees who have more realistic expectations about the job are less likely to quit.  Can reduce turnover by directly assessing individual differences related to turnover. • Promoting Employee Embeddedness  Can reduce dysfunctional turnover by insulating employees against shocks.  People are more embedded when:  they have strong connections to others,  they have values and goals that fit with their environment,  they feel that leaving would result in monetary or psychological losses.  People are less likely to leave when they are embedded in either the specific organization or the surrounding community.  Organizations promote embeddedness by providing:  Enjoyable work,  Desirable work schedules,  Good promotional opportunities,  Good benefits,  Encouraging employees to build positive social relationships with coworkers,  Encouraging employees to work in teams.  Company sponsored service projects and athletic teams build similar relationships. 7.3 How Do Layoffs Affect Individuals and Organizations? • Terminations of employment (unrelated to job performance) are known as layoffs. • The Effect of Layoffs On Organizations  Many organizations lay off employees as part of an overall change effort.  Downsizing: widespread layoffs intended to permanently reduce size of workforce.  Effects of downsizing on organizations are not altogether clear. ° Financial performance of organizations that downsized is similar to performance of those that have not downsized. ° Effect of downsizing is not same for all organizations. ° Most problems occur when an organization reduces its workforce by more than 10 percent and makes numerous announcements of additional layoffs. ° Firms that downsize to change before problems become serious are generally valued more by investors.  Effective strategic planning can help an organization avoid layoffs. • The Effects of Layoffs On Individuals  The impact of downsizing goes beyond those who lose their jobs.  Widespread layoffs can have a negative effect on employees who remain.  Layoff victims—individuals who lose jobs—experience problems.  Consequences for Layoff Survivors – individuals who continue to work for an organization when their coworkers are laid off react similarly to victims. • Reducing The Negative Impact Of Layoffs  Best method for reducing the negative impact of layoffs is to avoid them.  Have clear plan and accurately forecast labor needs.  Laying off low performers is generally more effective than laying off employees across the board.  Encourage early retirement and/or reduce or eliminate overtime.  Ask employees to share jobs.  Employees might be transferred to other parts of organization experiencing growth. • Effective communication of downsizing decisions and plans is critical. • Understanding legal issues is also important for successful downsizing. 7.4 What Are Common Steps in Disciplining Employees? • Sometimes employees fail to carry out their duties in an acceptable manner.  Usually wrong to terminate problem employees without giving chance to improve.  Discipline: process whereby management takes steps to help employee overcome problem behavior • Principles of Due Process  Due process: set of procedures carried out in accordance with established rules and principles to make sure employees are treated fairly.  Employees have a right to know expectations and what will happen if they fail to meet them.  Effective discipline requires that organizations communicate clear expectations for acceptable behavior.  Disciplinary actions carried out only after careful investigation of the facts and circumstances.  Fair investigations involve obtaining testimonial evidence  Employees should have right to present their case and appeal decisions.  Another person should evaluate facts of case and decision of supervisor.  Any punishment should be consistent with the nature of the offense. • The Process Of Progressive Discipline  Some forms of misconduct are so serious that they result in immediate termination.  Most offenses not serious enough to warrant immediate dismissal, and in these cases, due process requires the organization to allow employees to correct misbehavior.  Progressive discipline process: management provides successively more severe punishment for each occurrence of negative behavior. ° A supervisor meets and discusses company policy with an employee the first time an unacceptable behavior occurs. ° No further action is taken if misbehavior is not repeated. ° Subsequent instances of misbehavior are met with harsher punishment that eventually results in termination.  Although number of steps and actions differ by organization, most progressive discipline systems include at least four steps. ° Step 1: Verbal Warning ° Step 2: Written Warning ° Step 3: Suspension ° Step 4: Dismissal  Supervisors are sometimes unwilling to take the first step in the process.  Many supervisors seek to avoid conflict and so often ignore misbehavior.  Managers reluctant to discipline when they perceive disciplinary process is unfair.  Managers are most likely to discipline employees when ° they know they will be supported by leaders above them in organization. ° they have been trained to deliver discipline properly. ° there is a pattern of constructive discipline within organization. 7.5 How Should Employee Dismissals Be Carried Out? • Having to dismiss employees is one of the most difficult tasks that a manager faces. • Outplacement Services provide assistance in helping dismissed employees find jobs. • The Dismissal Meeting  Managing this event in the right way is critical if the organization is to show respect for employees and maintain a good reputation.  Face-to-face meetings are best and employees should not be dismissed on Fridays.  Key principles should guide communication during dismissal meeting. ° Best to have third person present to serve as witness. ° Tell employee directly that he/she is being dismissed. ° Meeting should be brief. ° If principles of due process have been followed, employee should already know why being fired. ° Once bad news is delivered, manager should listen to dismissed employee. ° Do not argue or to defend the action. ° Present written summary of meeting to dismissed employee.  Dismissal meeting should include discussion of severance compensation if offered.  Safety of supervisor and other workers is important consideration.  When possible, security personnel should be alerted.  Security can provide assistance if person becomes violent or makes threats.  Dismissed employee may need to be escorted from the work site if the organization works with highly sensitive information or if the employee is being terminated for offenses such as theft or violence with coworkers. Chapter 7 Teaching Notes The following presents suggestions designed to help you utilize the special features and cases found in Human Resource Management: Linking Strategy to Practice. Concept Checks Answers to each of the four sets of Concept Checks are presented at the appropriate points in the chapter outline. The pre- and post-quiz questions also address the Concept Checks. Tables and Figures The table and figures presented in the chapter help illustrate the concepts of the chapter. They should be brought to the attention of the students and, perhaps, included in the exams. A Manager’s Perspective, What do you think?, And A Manager’s Perspective Revisited The chapter starts with a short scenario where April is thinking about her new position as restaurant manager. She recalls how three people in two months have quit with little or no advance notice. She is also dreading a discipline meeting that might result in her firing a worker. Five true/false questions related to this scenario and the chapter topics are noted on page 243 and answered on page 271. Discussion of the chapter could start by posing these questions and asking for the class to vote on which questions are true through a show of hands, thumbs-up/thumbs-down, clickers, or paper copies of the questions. To keep student interest, the methods for identifying true answers should be varied. The activity could be repeated near the end of the chapter discussion. At that time, students could be asked if they agree with the answers. The students also could be asked to identify what additional questions April should ask. During the discussion of the chapter material, you could refer to the questions noting that a certain section or discussion point addresses one or more of the questions. For some chapters, you may wish to address the questions at the end of discussing the chapter. In this case, you may want to bring the students’ attention to these questions informing the students that they will be asked to answer the questions near the end of the chapter discussion. At that time, students (individually or in groups) could be asked to explain why the answers are true or false. Students also could add questions to the list and briefly explain why they think a new question should be asked. This could be done as a class or in smaller groups. If done in smaller groups, each group could be asked to briefly report on an aspect of their discussion. Of course, one or more of the questions or more detailed versions of the questions could be included in an exam. If included in an exam, students should be warned that these questions might be part of the exam. Building Strength through HR: SAS Institute, Inc. This special feature (page 245) highlights several issues noted in this opening case regarding SAS Institute, Inc. (refer to pages 244-6). This case illustrates how HRM can help build an organization’s competitive strength by retaining productive employees. The inset box (refer to page 245) presents some of the HR practices mentioned in the case but not all. Therefore, you could ask the students what other HR practices SAS employs to retain productive workers (e.g., all professional workers have private offices, employees are encouraged to spend dinnertime with families). You also could ask if these are HR practices that most organizations could or would do and what other HR practices a different organization could implement to retain their productive employees. This discussion could be supplemented by students familiar with the SAS organization. Additional information may be found on SAS Institute’s webpage that briefly describes their philosophy regarding work-life balance: http://www.sas.com/corporate/worklife/index.html. In addition, there is a link to a short article from Fortune Magazine describing why SAS has been listed as one of the Best Companies. Supplemental information could be provided by a student responsible for updating the case and finding relevant information from the organization’s website or other sources. You should inform the students of any school policies that address contacting organizations. Building Strength through HR: Convergys Corporation This inset box (on page 250) is briefly mentioned on the previous page in the chapter. Convergys uses an “early warning system” in which team leaders provide weekly assessments of each employee’s probability of quitting. These employees are offered alternative work schedules and many are referred to health and benefit programs. The students could be encouraged to read the details in the inset box and read more by accessing the 2006 article. The website is listed in the inset box to facilitate this. During the lecture or class discussion of the chapter, the brief information presented in the inset box could be summarized. You also may want to pose the following questions: (1) Why might the company ask for a weekly assessment? (2) Is a weekly assessment realistic for most organizations? If not, what might be a more reasonable timeframe? (3) Is it fair for those receiving a “red rating” to be offered alternative work schedules? If we can assume that this is valued by the employees, should Convergys make this alternative scheduling available to all employees? Do you think that the offer of alternative work schedules to all employees might reduce the percentage of employees who receive a red rating? Why or why not? A web-based activity is described at the end of this chapter in the Instructor’s Manual. How Do We Know? Does A New Job Increase Worker Satisfaction? This inset box (on page 254) is briefly mentioned above the box. This gives a good reason to elaborate on the information presented in the box. A recent study is briefly described that tracked job changes for 538 high-level managers for five years. The researchers concluded that the more dissatisfied managers were more likely to change jobs. They also concluded that the sense of satisfaction in the new job was temporary. The class could be encouraged to read the details in the inset box. During the lecture or class discussion of the chapter, the study, conclusions, and recommendations could be summarized. This could be accomplished through your lecture (asking for student input) or by assigning the box to an individual student. You or the student could lead a brief class discussion after presenting the facts. Students could be asked what other factors may lead to decreased dissatisfaction with a new job. They also could be asked what organizations might do to give managers more realistic expectations of a new job and, supposedly, to retain them longer. Other ways to address this information could be through a short written assignment or a more in-depth research paper on the topic. Technology in HR: Computerized Orientation Programs This inset box (refer to page 257) briefly addresses costs and benefits of computerized orientation programs. The brief information presented in this box could be referred to during a lecture. Students can be asked for their experiences with online orientation or training. The students could be asked to speculate on reasons for the lower job satisfaction and organizational commitment of those employees who received the computer-based orientation and how these negative outcomes could be reduced. The effectiveness of orientation programs (e.g., computerized, live, hybrid) could be researched by students. Building Strength through HR: FreshDirect This inset box (refer to page 258) briefly addresses how FreshDirect (an online grocer) reduced their turnover rate of over 200 percent to 75 percent. After summarizing the information from the inset box, the students could be asked the following questions: (1) is it realistic to tie a portion of the managers’ pay to turnover rates in their departments? (2) what behaviors might Fresh Direct be expecting from managers when a portion of their pay is linked to turnover rates in their departments? and (3) should managers be held responsible for turnover that is not directly attributable to organizational factors (e.g., family moves, illness, internal transfers)? How could employee reasons for turnover be tracked if some types of turnover will not adversely affect managers? How Do We Know? Do Managers Think Discipline Is Fair? This inset box (found on page 268) is mentioned on the earlier page of the text. Researchers asked 62 experienced HR managers to rate whether instances of discipline familiar to the managers were fair. The researchers conclude that managers perceive discipline as fair when the employee knew the offending behavior was wrong and expected punishment. The managers also felt that the discipline was fair when the consequence was appropriate. The information reported in the inset box could be part of a lecture or class discussion. Students could be asked to speculate Other ways to address this information could be through a short written assignment or a more in-depth research paper on disciplining and its impact on employee and organizational performance. One written assignment could involve the students contrasting and comparing progressive discipline and positive discipline approaches. Among other differences, positive discipline advocates replacing the term “warning” with “reminder” and the supervisor counsels the employee during the first three steps. The final step (termination) is the same as progressive discipline. Sources include: D. Grote, “Discipline without Punishment,” Across the Board, September 2001), pp. 52-57, and J. Kay, “Vantage Point,” Nursing Management, UK, (June 2004), p. 8. KEY TERMS Discipline Downsizing Due process Dysfunctional turnover Embeddedness Employee retention Employee separation Exit interview Involuntary turnover Layoff survivors Layoff victims Outplacement services Perceived organizational support Progressive discipline Severance compensation Socialization Voluntary turnover Withdrawal Chapter 8 Measuring Performance and Providing Feedback Chapter 8 Learning Objectives 1. Describe how merit-based and parity-based performance management systems relate to overall HR and competitive strategy. 2. Describe the three dimensions of job performance. 3. Explain differences among and common problems with various types of performance measures. 4. Explain the value of using multiple sources to obtain performance appraisal ratings. 5. Describe effective methods for providing feedback to employees. Chapter 8 Outline 8.1 How Is Performance Management Strategic? • Underlying purpose of performance management is to encourage employees to perform at the highest possible level. • Emphasizing Either Merit or Parity  Merit-Based Systems  Basic objective is to recognize high performance in order to achieve superior outcomes.  Success at work is defined as doing better than others.  Managers are also frequently required to place a certain percentage of employees in each rating category, which is called a forced distribution.  Parity-Based Systems  Basic objective is to encourage cooperation and allow everyone who meets a certain standard to be classified as a high performer.  Parity-based performance measures frequently focus on processes rather than outcomes.  High performance is defined as following guidelines and performing behaviors assigned by supervisors.  Usually involves absolute measures that compare employees with an established benchmark rather than with each other.  Most parity-based systems also adopt a free distribution: o Allows any percentage of employees to be placed in a particular category. o Does not separate people into categories of high and low performance; encourages all employees to perform above a certain standard. • Linking Merit and Parity Systems to HR Strategy  Merit Systems and Differentiation Strategies most beneficial for Free Agent and Committed Expert HR strategies  Parity Systems and Cost Strategies most beneficial for Loyal Soldier and Bargain Laborer HR strategies 8.2 What Is Performance? • Job performance represents the contribution that individuals make to the organization.  Task performance occurs when employees perform actions that transform raw materials into goods and services.  Employees are most likely to make significant contributions when they have appropriate procedural knowledge, skill appropriate declarative knowledge, and motivation • Citizenship Performance  Employees are good citizens when they willingly go beyond minimum expectations to cooperate and help others.  Citizenship performance can be pursued to help organization or specific individuals.  Interpersonal citizenship behavior is the effect of benefiting specific people.  Likelihood that employees will engage in helpful behavior differs depending on whether behavior is intended to aid overall organization or some individual.  Employees engage in more organizational citizenship behavior when they feel that they receive reasonable pay, are praised for doing good job, and have pleasant working conditions. • Counterproductive Performance  Organizations whose employees engage in counterproductive behavior have been found to have lower productivity.  Counterproductive behavior can be directed toward organization or specific individuals.  Negative actions directed toward the organization include production and property deviance.  Counterproductive behaviors targeted toward specific individuals include political deviance and personal aggression.  Organizations can reduce counterproductive behavior by communicating an interest in well-being of employees and providing developmental opportunities.  More conscientious, more agreeable, and less anxious employees do not indulge in counterproductive behavior, even if they do not feel support from organization. 8.3 How Is Performance Measured? • Starting point for thinking about performance measures is to consider ways in which evaluations can be inaccurate. • Contamination and Deficiency as Sources of Inaccuracy  Contamination: things that should not be measured are included in employee’s performance evaluation  Deficiency: things that should be included in employee’s performance evaluation are not measured.  A good appraisal system minimizes contamination and deficiency. • General Types of Performance Measures  Objective performance measures: numerical and based on counts of behaviors or outcomes. o Most people believe that objective measures are best. o Objective measures seem more consistent and fair. o Objective measures also have problems.  Subjective performance measures: judgments made by raters.  Assessments of performance should include objective and subjective measures.  Outcome versus Behavioral Measures  Outcome measures assess end results. o Most common for Committed Expert and Free Agent HR strategies. o High-performing employees are expected to use unique knowledge and skills to produce the desired outcome of delivering superior goods and services.  Behavioral measures place more emphasis on the actions of employees. o Behavioral measures are most often linked with Loyal Soldier and Bargain Laborer HR strategies. o Desirable outcomes will result when representatives engage in desired actions.  Outcome and behavioral measures can suffer from deficiency and contamination, suggesting that both should be assessed in most situations. • Common Problems With Performance Measures  For subjective measures, bias can be introduced when humans provide ratings; ratings based on human judgments are often contaminated and deficient.  Objective and outcome measures hold employees accountable for things they cannot control.  Finally, all types of performance ratings can suffer from inconsistency because performance at one point in time is likely different from performance at another time.  Rater Errors  Central tendency error – pattern of placing almost everyone in middle of scale.  Contrast error – raters compare people with one another.  Halo error – assessment is based on general impression of employee rather than on employee’s specific contributions.  Recency error – place too much emphasis on recent behaviors and outcomes.  Primacy error – place too much emphasis on behavior that is first observed.  Frame-of-reference training – build consistency how different raters observe and evaluate employee behaviors and outcomes.  Rater Bias – rater unfairly provides lower ratings to certain groups of people.  Raters give higher ratings to employees whose race is the same as theirs.  Ratings can vary for men and women. Stereotypes about who should perform job seem to sway rater evaluations.  Citizenship performance has different effects for men and women. o When women engage in citizenship behavior by helping others, performance ratings don’t necessarily improve, but ratings go down when they withhold help. o In contrast, men don’t get lower ratings when they withhold help, but get higher ratings when they engage in citizenship behavior.  Situational Influences – factors that affect performance but are outside the control of employee being rated.  Research suggests that subjective ratings are frequently contaminated and deficient because raters fail to account for situational influences.  Raters can adjust subjective evaluations to control for situational factors.  Situational influences present a greater problem for objective, outcome-oriented performance measures.  Steps can be taken to minimize the biases outside influences create. o Raters can be trained to take situational influences into account. o Consistent biases can be identified and assessed to get clearer picture of impact on objective, outcome-oriented measures. o Combining information from a number of different measures reduces the contamination present in any single measure.  Changes over Time – performance can vary over time  Most common pattern for someone new to job is period of rapidly increasing performance followed by fairly stable plateau.  Performance for people with certain characteristics, such as conscientiousness, tends to increase more rapidly than performance of others.  Differences in performance across time have potential to decrease accuracy of appraisal process, which causes problems in other areas of HRM. o Changes in performance across time may reduce effectiveness of selection measures. o The benefits of hiring people with high cognitive ability might go away after people have been on the job for a certain period of time. o Using appraisal results to determine training needs. o Poor decisions about training may be made if the performance measure fails to capture aspects of performance that change over time.  Organizations can deal with appraisal issues related to variability of performance over time by: o Obtaining performance measures at many different times. o Using measure that reflects what is most important to organization. • Rating Formats  Rating format concerns the type of instrument used to obtain ratings.  Key to successful appraisal is to choose format that best accomplishes purpose of appraisal.  Narrative ratings – raters provide written description of employee’s performance.  Supervisors or other raters to provide written description of performance.  Benefit is that they can be tailored to describe specific, and perhaps unique, aspects of performance.  Lack of consistent measurement o makes it difficult to determine which employees are high and low performers. o creates problems for training and compensation. • Graphic ratings – raters provide numerical score for employee on each of several dimensions of performance.  Most common rating format uses graphic scales.  Raters provide numerical rating for number of dimensions of work performance.  Graphical ratings can be designed to measure either outcomes or behaviors.  Common dimensions of performance include quality of output, quantity of output, cooperation with others, and skill development.  For each performance dimension, rater is asked to place employee in a specific rating category.  Most scales have between three and seven numerical rating categories.  Benefit is that all employees are rated on common set of dimensions, which makes it easy to compare employees.  Problems:  Performance dimensions may not apply to some employees.  Raters who use graphical scales are prone to rater errors.  In many cases, raters end up giving most employees similar score (central tendency error)  Best suited for organizations pursuing cost-reduction strategies and encouraging employee parity. • Forced ranking – raters directly compare contribution of employee with contribution of other employees.  Eliminates central tendency error and provides clear guidance for organizations that want to give promotions and pay raises to top performers.  Many supervisors are uncomfortable with rankings because high proportion of employees perform at essentially the same level.  Best for organizations that encourage competition among employees and when using merit-based performance management to pursue differentiation strategies. • Forced Distributions – format that combines the graphic rating with the forced rating.  Allows rater to give groups of employees same rating but also forces separation of the employees into categories.  Represents compromise between the graphical format and forced ranking format.  Emphasizes merit; most suitable for differentiation strategies. 8.4 Who Should Measure Performance? • Multisource Performance Ratings  Employee ratings usually come from supervisors.  Supervisors are in a good position to evaluate what tasks need to be done, whether employee is performing right tasks, and how well tasks are being performed.  However, supervisors may not see the complete picture: o May have biases that can unfairly influence ratings. o Ratings can suffer from deficiency and contamination.  Gathering information and ratings from multiple sources is key to effective performance appraisal.  Process of obtaining performance ratings from multiple sources is known as multisource ratings or 360-degree appraisal.  Multisource performance ratings seek to evaluate performance by obtaining information from multiple raters who have different perspectives. • Rating Source Differences  Measures from different sources often do not agree.  Self assessments tend to differ from ratings provided by others. o In some cases, self-ratings can be lower than ratings by others. o In most cases, self-ratings are higher than ratings provided by supervisors and peers. o Self-ratings are more similar to ratings provided by others for women, as well as for employees who are younger, less experienced, more educated, and white. o Ratings from others tend to be lower for older and less educated employees.  Self-ratings and ratings from others differ for several reasons: o People generally have a self-serving bias. o They have more opportunities to observe their own work contributions. o There may be disagreement over standards.  Ratings from peers and supervisors tend to be quite similar. o The one exception occurs when the person being rated performs very poorly. o Many peers are not willing to give low ratings to people with whom they work closely, even when those people might deserve low ratings. 8.5 How Should Feedback Be Provided? • Effective performance management requires more than simply measuring employee contributions.  Employees receive information about how well they are performing. • Providing Positive and Negative Feedback  Messages communicating high performance convey positive feedback.  Positive feedback leads to higher motivation when employees expect to receive benefits from continued high performance.  This suggests positive feedback increases motivation when linked to future goals.  Messages communicating low performance and need to improve convey negative feedback.  Influence of negative feedback on performance is somewhat less clear.  Employees who perceive negative feedback as criticism become less motivated  Employees are more likely to experience conflict with others.  The basic problem is that people become defensive when they hear that they are not performing as well as expected.  Building Strength Through HR improves performance when people are confident that they can do what is necessary to improve. • Effective Communication Methods For Improvement  Feedback should thus be communicated in ways that increase the likelihood that employees will actually change their behavior.  People are most likely to accept and act on feedback when they perceive that it is accurate, suggesting that the person giving the feedback must be seen as credible.  The first key to effectively communicating feedback is thus to build a relationship so that the receiver has confidence in the supervisor’s ability to provide advice.  Feedback is also improved when supervisors clarify the behaviors they are looking for when they evaluate employees.  Supervisors also communicate effectively when they continue to build relationships by treating employees as individuals and taking into account personal circumstances.  The importance of providing clear direction is captured in the principle of feedback specificity, which concerns the level of detail in the message.  Specific feedback provides detailed descriptions of actions and outcomes and is good for communicating what someone has done to achieve success.  Specific feedback is not always optimal, however. o Less specific feedback encourages people to explore and try alternative methods for accomplishing tasks. o In some cases, giving very specific feedback can inhibit learning.  Specific feedback is best for communicating how to do clearly defined tasks that do not change. However, specific feedback may discourage employees from learning that extends beyond knowing how to follow prescribed procedures.  Another factor that influences whether someone benefits from feedback is the extent to which the receiver can do what is necessary to improve.  Feedback is more likely to be accepted when it focuses on things that an individual can actually change.  Focusing on factors outside the control of the employee increases frustration and does not provide path for improving future performance.  Supervisors are most effective when they communicate about issues employee can control. • Reducing Negative Emotional Responses  People who receive feedback experience a wide range of emotions.  Feedback channeled through positive emotions generally improves performance; feedback channeled through negative emotions often causes worse performance.  Feedback is most likely to lead to better performance when presented in ways that do not bring out negative emotions.  Effective leaders who have good relationships with employees are able to give feedback that doesn’t make recipients feel negative.  Positive emotions that accompany feedback generally focus on learning and skill development.  Feedback that teaches new skills can be effective for showing employees what they can do to improve future performance.  Organizations that develop a culture of providing ongoing feedback that emphasizes improvement rather than criticism are most effective in communicating methods for enhancing performance.  Individuals who approach life with an orientation toward learning and improving themselves benefit most from receiving feedback.  People with positive self-concepts are more likely to react positively to feedback.  Hiring skilled workers who have a desire to continuously improve is one way to ensure successful performance management. • Building High Expectations  Pygmalion effect – high expectations lead to better performance.  Studies show that Pygmalion effect operates in organizations where high expectations translate into improved job performance.  Supervisors who perceive their employees as having exceptional ability communicate greater confidence which, in turn, raises employees’ performance. Chapter 8 Teaching Notes The following presents suggestions designed to help you utilize the special features and cases found in Human Resource Management: Linking Strategy to Practice. Concept Checks Answers to each of the four sets of Concept Checks are presented at the appropriate points in the chapter outline. The pre- and post-quiz questions also address the Concept Checks. Tables and Figures The table and figures presented in the chapter help illustrate the concepts of the chapter. They should be brought to the attention of the students and, perhaps, included in the exams. A Manager’s Perspective, What do you think?, And A Manager’s Perspective Revisited The chapter starts with a short scenario where Jacques is thinking about the performance reviews that he gave after being a manager for two weeks. He has mixed emotions and thoughts on the upcoming reviews. Five true/false questions related to this scenario and the chapter topics are noted on page 281 and answered on page 309. Discussion of the chapter could start by posing these questions and asking for the class to vote on which questions are true through a show of hands, thumbs-up/thumbs-down, clickers, or paper copies of the questions. To keep student interest, the methods for identifying true answers should be varied. The activity could be repeated near the end of the chapter discussion. At that time, students could be asked if they agree with the answers. The students also could be asked to identify what additional questions Jacques should ask. During the discussion of the chapter material, you could refer to the questions noting that a certain section or discussion point addresses one or more of the questions. For some chapters, you may wish to address the questions at the end of discussing the chapter. In this case, you may want to bring the students’ attention to these questions, informing the students that they will be asked to answer the questions near the end of the chapter discussion. At that time, students (individually or in groups) could be asked to explain why the answers are true or false. Students also could add questions to the list and briefly explain why they think a new question should be asked. This could be done as a class or in smaller groups. If done in smaller groups, each group could be asked to briefly report on an aspect of their discussion. Of course, one or more of the questions or more detailed versions of the questions could be included in an exam. If included in an exam, students should be warned that these questions might be part of the exam. Building Strength through HR: General Electric This special feature (page 283) highlights several issues noted in this opening case regarding General Electric (GE; pages 282-3). This case outlines GE’s performance management system, and the inset box (refer to page 283) presents most of the highlights of the performance management system that are mentioned in the case. (NOTE: GE’s website provides only general information that does not add much to the case.) If you wished to discuss various aspects of this case, you could ask the students the following questions: (1) Is it possible that every year GE has exactly 10% of their employees who are low performers who need to leave or improve? Is it possible that a smaller percent actually might fit this category? If so, is it fair to put people in this category just because GE has mandated that 10% of the employees must be categorized as low performers? (2) Is it possible that once one is categorized in the lowest category that managers will not recognize performance improvement or have the managers categorized these 10% as poor performers? What could managers do so that they do not doom a person who is in this category one year but improves his/her performance the next years? (3) Would you want your performance to be rated in this performance management system? Why or why not? You also could ask if any of the students set goals in their jobs and if their performance is measured by those goals. Some of the students may have experience in this forced distribution that they want to discuss. Technology in HR: Monitoring Electronic Activity This inset box (refer to page 290) briefly addresses software that is able to monitor cyberloafing. Suggestions are provided that should improve the chances of employee acceptance of such monitoring. The brief information presented in this box could be referred to during a lecture. Students can be asked for their experiences with monitoring of their internet activities at home, office, school, etc. You could ask them if it is fair and ethical for an organization to monitor their surfing of the net during work hours. You also could ask if it should be acceptable if one is surfing the net or e-mailing friends who do not work for the company if one is on break. The author suggests using monitoring to show employees how they can improve rather than to wield punishment. You could ask the students how this could be accomplished. A web-based activity is described at the end of this chapter in the Instructor’s Manual. Building Strength Through HR: Intelligent Finance As noted prior to this inset box (found on page 292), this box notes how Intelligent Finance (phone and internet bank) uses software to track a number of measures of employee performance. You could briefly mention this inset as an example of how objective measures of performance can be monitored through software. You could ask the students to discuss the following questions: (1) Is this computerized system enough to motivate high performance? (2) What other aspects of a performance management system might reinforce this computerized system? (answers could include such techniques as individual goals, BARS, employee competitions, formal and informal recognition of high performers) (3) How do you think this system helps Intelligent Finance reduce problems such as a customer on hold for too long? How might the software prevent the need to repeat details to more than one customer service representative? (4) Some standardized tests (such as driver’s license tests) provide immediate feedback of the correctness of your answer and your score to date. Does this help you perform better? Why or why not? (5) Would you want the opportunity to access this type of quick feedback regarding your performance? Why or why not? (6) How might this type of quick feedback regarding student work be accomplished? How Do We Know? Does performance change over time? This inset box (on page 297) is briefly mentioned above the box. This gives a good reason to elaborate on the information presented in the box. You could ask the students to summarize the main points. The box presents research findings that performance of some professional baseball players varied over time and some showed little change. You could ask the following questions of the students: (1) Why might performance of some baseball players vary over time while others’ performance is more steady? (2) Are the conclusions of this study relevant to business and other non-sports-related organizations? (3) Regardless of the students’ answers to the earlier questions, what might cause performance to vary over time for some experienced employees but not for others? (4) Do the results of this study imply that performance appraisals are worthless due to the possible variations in performance? (5) What do these findings suggest about measuring performance? Is this realistic? Building Strength Through HR: Whirlpool Corporation As noted prior to this inset box (found on page 304), Whirlpool found that it was ineffective to provide performance feedback through e-mails. Thus, they revised their performance feedback process to include more face-to-face interactions. You or a student could briefly mention the highlights of this box. Then the students could be asked to discuss the following questions: (1) Why do they think the e-mailed feedback exchanges were so ineffective? (2) If not addressed in earlier answers: Why might face-to-face feedback be more effective? (3) How does a manager determine whether or not an employee’s personal goal is a stretch for exceptional performance? How might the manager and organization reconcile different levels of difficulty among employees’ stretch goals when it comes time for merit increases? (4) Whirlpool managers are required to formally provide feedback to employees at least four times a year. Does four or more times a year seem to be a reasonable use of every manager’s and employee’s time? (5) Do you think that managers put the same amount of effort and time into each of these feedback sessions? Why or why not? (6) Would you want to be involved in this type of performance management system as a manager documenting and giving feedback? As an employee receiving formal feedback? Why or why not? How Do We Know? Do high expectations improve performance? This inset box (found on page 307) is mentioned on the next page of the text chapter. This box describes the effects of leader expectations on military performance. The research found that the soldiers whose leaders had been told that they had high ability actually performed better on the skills they had been taught. After summarizing the findings of this study, students could be asked to explain whether or not the findings of this study are relevant to business. Then they could be asked how these findings illustrate the Pygmalion Effect and what the leaders/trainers might have done differently when they thought their trainees have more potential than other trainees. KEY TERMS absolute measures central tendency error citizenship performance contamination contrast error counterproductive performance declarative knowledge deficiency feedback feedback specificity forced distribution forced ranking frame-of-reference training free distribution general performance factor graphic ratings halo error interpersonal citizenship behavior job performance merit-based system multisource performance ratings narrative ratings negative feedback objective performance measures organizational citizenship behavior parity-based system performance appraisal performance management personal aggression political deviance positive feedback primacy error procedural knowledge and skill production deviance property deviance Pygmalion effect rater bias recency error relative measures situational influences subjective performance measures task performance Chapter 9 Training for Improved Performance Chapter 9 Learning Objectives • Explain how employee training practices can be aligned with an organization’s competitive strategy. • Describe how partnering and using a systematic process for developing training can help assure that an organization benefits from training. • Discuss how a needs assessment process can help an organization make efficient use of its training-related resources. • Describe the variety of training methods available, and explain how to make those methods more effective. • Explain why the purpose of a training evaluation should be used as a guide in designing the evaluation process. Chapter 9 Outline 9.1 How is Employee Training Strategic? • Differentiation versus Cost Leadership Strategy  Cost leadership strategy (e.g., Bargain Laborer and Loyal Soldier strategies)  Requires employees to have knowledge, skills, and attitudes that help reduce costs and improve efficiency.  Training employees on quality control principles and practices allows companies to become more efficient.  Differentiation strategy (e.g., Free Agent and Committed Expert strategies)  Requires employees to be able to deliver services or make products that are superior to the services or products offered by competitors.  Teamwork training is useful to help employees.  Internal versus External Labor Orientation  A company with an internal labor orientation seeks to make its own talent, whereas a company with external labor orientation seeks to buy talent.  Companies with internal labor orientation spend time and money to train current employees whereas companies with external orientation tend to hire new employees to fill their needs. 9.2 What are Key Principles for Getting Benefits from Training? • Three benefits an organization can gain from training its employees:  Increase employees’ commitment and motivation.  Enable employees to perform better.  Help the organization meet its strategic objectives.  To achieve these three benefits, training must result in learning and transfer of training (i.e., trainees apply what they learn in training to jobs).  Managers, employees, and HR professionals must work in partnership.  Use systematic process for designing and developing training. • Partnership  Operate training as a partnership among employees, their managers, and HR professionals.  Managers set clear expectations about employees’ performance  Managers provide appropriate support (e.g., equipment, supplies, etc.)  Managers provide feedback indicating whether employees are exceeding, meeting, or failing to meet expectations.  Managers set appropriate consequences, which means rewarding effective performance and, if necessary, punishing ineffective performance.  Ineffective performance may be function of manager’s failure to ensure that these factors are in place. • Systematic Process.  Most ways to develop training have three fundamental components:  Needs assessment to determine who should be trained and what the training should include.  Design and delivery to ensure that training maximizes learning and transfer.  Evaluation to determine how training can be improved, whether it worked as intended, and whether it should be continued.  Traditional model of instructional design  Begin with needs assessment followed by design, delivery, and evaluation.  Process is never complete because training needs are always changing.  Organizations may use this version of process when need to speed up time from identified need to delivery of training.  Rapid model  Training design begins while needs assessment continues.  Just as important, training begins before the program design is completely finished, and evaluation is used to modify training as it is developed.  Whether traditional or rapid model is appropriate depends on nature of the training; training that must be right the first time should not use the rapid model. • 9.3 How are training needs determined? • Needs assessment – determines what training to offer and for whom.  Proactive needs assessment  Needs assessments may be done regularly as training programs are planned and budgets are set.  Three distinct steps.  Organization analysis requires information about the organization’s strategic goals, environment, resources, and characteristics. • Organization analysis requires an understanding of environment within which organization functions. • Organizations that support training are considered to have a positive transfer of training climate.  Task analysis – form of job analysis that involves identifying tasks performed by trainees and knowledge and skill needed. • Most common process:  Groups of job incumbents develop lists of tasks performed.  HR professionals group tasks into clusters based on similarity.  Groups of managers generate knowledge and skill statements for each task cluster.  Surveys verify task, task cluster, knowledge, and skill lists. • Three common variations of task analysis:  Competency modeling is similar to task analysis but results in a broader, more worker-focused (as opposed to work-focused) list of training needs.  Most frequently used with managerial jobs.  Benefit is lower cost.  Related drawback is result may not have sufficient detail to guide training for any one particular job.  Cognitive task analysis examines employees’ goals, decisions, and judgments.  Team task analysis examines task and coordination requirements of a group of individuals.  Use where performance of interest to organization is largely determined by coordinated efforts.  Identifies knowledge and skills that underlie these exchanges.  Person analysis involves answering three questions:  Is training necessary to ensure that employees can perform tasks effectively?  If training is needed, who needs the training?  Are potential trainees ready for training?  Reactive Needs Assessment – needs assessments may be done in reactive fashion in response to requests for particular training programs.  Deals with situations that involve a specific performance problem, such as low sales or high turnover.  Is a problem-solving process that begins with defining the problem and then moves to identifying the root cause of the problem and designing an intervention to solve the problem.  Some organizations follow a three-step process conducted by an HR professional. The steps are:  Problem definition • Begins with the identification of a business need. • State problem as gap between desired and actual performance.  Causal Analysis • Determine why the gap exists. • To determine the underlying cause of poor performance, organizational leaders explore what employees are doing and why.  Solution Implementation – selecting and implementing the appropriate solution or solutions.  Prioritizing and Setting Objectives  Determining Priorities.  Different training needs – usually more than can be covered given training budget and time employees can be away from work.  Ways to prioritize include ratings and interviews; but no one best method  Once all ratings are collected, summed to create composite list. • List is rank-ordered from highest to lowest. • Needs that come to the top are most relevant to organization’s strategy and required early on job.  Creating Objectives  Two most critical types of objectives are learning objectives and organizational objectives. • Learning objectives are the intended individual learning outcomes.  Performance identifies what trainee is expected to do.  Conditions describe important circumstances of performance.  Criteria describe acceptable performance in quantifiable and objective ways. • Organizational objectives are intended results of training for company.  Help ensure that training provides value to the organization as a whole and each program is linked to firm’s strategy.  Setting organizational objectives can help in prioritizing. • 9.4 How is Effective Training Designed and Delivered? • Content is material covered in training.  Training objectives are used to determine what content is needed.  Person responsible for training can select content in several ways.  Training vendors – companies whose business is to design and deliver training programs. Management asks prospective vendors series of questions.  Training Methods – ways of organizing content and encouraging trainees to learn.  More passive methods can be useful and seldom used without addition of at least one more active method.  Selected based on usefulness in helping achieve training program’s objectives.  Presentation – primary passive method of instruction. • Lectures are efficient way for many learners to receive same content and knowledge. • Disadvantage is learners not given formal opportunity to apply skills learned. (Thus, seldom helps trainees gain skills.)  Discussions – represent a more active training method. • Increase trainees’ involvement through two-way communication. • Can be used to build knowledge and critical-thinking skills. • Best used to help improve motivation and change attitudes. • Must be facilitated by trainer to allow all to participate.  Case Analysis – active training method in which trainees discuss, analyze, and solve problems based on real or hypothetical situations. • Develops skill in analysis, communication, and problem solving. • Used to teach basic principles and improve motivation.  Discovery – active method that involves presenting trainees with a task that offers rich opportunities to learn new skills. • Experimentation in a controlled training environment. • Can be highly motivating for trainees. • Without any guidance from the instructor it has serious drawbacks. • A more efficient approach is discovery coupled with guidance.  Role Playing – participants act out parts in a simulated situation. • Offers opportunity to practice new skills • Used to help trainees acquire interpersonal and human relations skills. • Role playing typically has three phases:  Development involves preparing and explaining the roles and the situation that will be used in role playing.  Enactment involves the time that trainees take to become familiar with the details of the role and then act them out.  Debriefing – trainees discuss their experiences.  Simulations – active methods that reproduce events, processes, and circumstances that occur in trainee’s job. • Give trainees opportunity to experience some aspects of job in a safe and controlled environment • Can involve role playing with actors or interactive technology. • Design to replicate physical and psychological job conditions.  Behavior Modeling – draws together principles of learning from many different areas. • Trainer lectures and performs tasks while trainees observe. • Trainees practice performance while trainer observes. • Trainer provides feedback to trainees. • Works well when model is someone trainees see as credible and when model shows both positive and negative behavioral examples.  On-the-Job Methods – Inexperienced employees watch and learn from experienced employees.  Training Media – means by which content and methods are delivered.  Many ways to deliver each passive and active training method. • Trend is toward using technology to deliver training. • E-learning is training delivered on-line.  No powerful research results suggest that only one or two media work for delivering training.  Media Requirements: • Research has demonstrated that carefully designed training can be equally effective whether presented via technology or face to face • Some studies have shown technology-delivered training can be more effective than traditional face-to-face instruction. • Training using guided discovery, role playing, simulations, or behavior-modeling exercises requires instructor or computer program. • Cost and Accessibility.  Transfer Enhancement Techniques  Before Training • Managers can build transfer into such things as:  Employees’ performance standards,  Offering rewards to trainees who demonstrate transfer,  Involving employees in planning training,  Briefing trainees on importance of training,  Sending co-workers to training together,  Encouraging trainees to attend and actively participate in all training sessions. • When managers work in partnership with trainers and trainees, transfer is much more likely  During Training • Trainer can use at least two different approaches to foster transfer.  Structure training in ways that will help trainees to generalize what they learn back on the job.  Relapse prevention training  Add discussion of transfer process to training, including potential obstacles and strategies to overcome them.  Can be beneficial if transfer of training climate is poor.  Downsides are that it requires extra training time and may not work effectively if the transfer of training climate is positive.  After Training • Manager and trainee should work together to ensure transfer. • Techniques managers can use include giving positive reinforcement for using trained skills, arranging for practice sessions, supporting trainee reunions, and publicizing successes in the use of trained skills. • Consider reducing job pressures for a few days after training  Opportunity to perform is essential because, without an opportunity to use the new knowledge or skill, it will decay. • Putting It All Together  Select objectives, content, methods, media, and transfer enhancements.  Prepare training materials (effective training can take a long time to develop). 9.5 How do Organizations Determine Whether Training is Effective? • Training effectiveness refers to the extent to which trainees (and their organization) benefit as intended from training.  The training evaluation process typically involves four steps:  Purpose  Training content and design (assessed for feedback to designers and trainers),  Changes in learners (measured for feedback and to make training decisions),  Organizational payoffs (can be used for all purposes).  Outcomes  Training outcomes can be roughly divided into four categories:  Reactions – how the trainees felt about training: Did they like it? Did they think it was interesting and useful?  Learning – measure knowledge, skills, or attitudes.  Transfer – application of learning to behavior on job.  Organizational Results – outcomes that accrue to group or organization.  Organizational results can be made even more informative by taking into account the resources required to achieve those results. • Training efficiency – analyze costs of training along with benefits. • Return on investment (ROI).  Evaluating organizational results • Requires more resources than evaluating reaction and learning outcomes. • Evaluate for most high-profile and expensive programs.  Design  Evaluation designs differ in timing when data are collected and from whom.  Some evaluation designs provide greater certainty about the results of training, but these same designs are more resource intensive.  Post-test Only.  Pre-test and Post-test with Control Group  For greater certainty about whether training was effective, evaluators can test employees at start and end of training (to look for change).  Can compare trained employees with untrained employees with similar characteristics (to verify that training caused the change).  Results  Data collected must be analyzed and reports generated.  Important to revisit purpose of evaluation and make sure the right people see the report so information gained from evaluation is used as intended. • Chapter 9 Teaching Notes The following presents suggestions designed to help you utilize the special features and cases found in Human Resource Management: Linking Strategy to Practice. Concept Checks Answers to each of the four sets of Concept Checks are presented at the appropriate points in the chapter outline. The pre- and post-quiz questions also address the Concept Checks. Tables and Figures The table and figures presented in the chapter help illustrate the concepts of the chapter. They should be brought to the attention of the students and, perhaps, included in the exams. A Manager’s Perspective, What do you think?, And A Manager’s Perspective Revisited The chapter starts with a short scenario where Quinetta is reflecting on a poorly implemented training session on time and stress management. Five true/false questions related to this scenario and the chapter topics are noted on page 321 and answered on page 355. Discussion of the chapter could start by posing these questions and asking for the class to vote on which questions are true through a show of hands, thumbs-up/thumbs-down, clickers, or paper copies of the questions. To keep student interest, the methods for identifying true answers should be varied. The activity could be repeated near the end of the chapter discussion. At that time, students could be asked if they agree with the answers. The students also could be asked to identify what additional questions Quinetta should ask. During the discussion of the chapter material, you could refer to the questions noting that a certain section or discussion point addresses one or more of the questions. For some chapters, you may wish to address the questions at the end of discussing the chapter. In this case, you may want to bring the students’ attention to these questions, informing the students that they will be asked to answer the questions near the end of the chapter discussion. At that time, students (individually or in groups) could be asked to explain why the answers are true or false. Students also could add questions to the list and briefly explain why they think a new question should be asked. This could be done as a class or in smaller groups. If done in smaller groups, each group could be asked to briefly report on an aspect of their discussion. Of course, one or more of the questions or more detailed versions of the questions could be included in an exam. If included in an exam, students should be warned that these questions might be part of the exam. Building Strength through HR: Rockwell Collins This special feature (page 324) highlights several issues noted in the opening case regarding Rockwell Collins. This example (found in the three paragraphs above the inset box) describes how Rockwell used training to resolve an electromagnetic interference (EMI) problem and save $1 million in annual equipment losses. The inset box (refer to page 324) mentions various stages Rockwell implemented that resulted in a successful training program. You could ask the students how Rockwell might have done their quick investigation of the problem. If they do not mention selection tests, supervisory observation, performance appraisals, and similar HR practices, probe for these answers. Then you could ask the students what they think of a 12-hour CD-ROM course that the engineers did on their own time. Answers should address the length of the course, if CD-ROM is appropriate medium for this issue, and whether the engineers be paid for the training that is necessary to do well in their jobs. Building Strength Through HR: General Mills As noted above this inset box (refer to page 326), General Mills uses training and creativity to improve the success of cross-functional product development teams. One of General Mills’ greatest successes was due to a training program on product innovation. You could briefly mention this inset as an example of the importance of training in key areas. You could ask the students the following questions: (1) Why would this type of training be important for a differentiator? (2) Could a cost leader benefit from training on product innovation? Why or why not? (3) On what topics/areas would cost leaders most likely train? (4) If cost leaders wish to train, how can they keep their training costs low yet have highly effective training programs? How Do We Know? Is there one best way to train for computer sales? This inset box (on page 344) is briefly mentioned on the previous page in the chapter. Steven Simon and Jon Warner investigated if there is a best way to train computer skills. They concluded that the learning and satisfaction with the computer system were higher when the training utilized behavior modeling. The class could be encouraged to read the details in the inset box. During the lecture or class discussion of the chapter, the study’s finding could be mentioned by you or a student. Most business students will have had at least one computer skills course. Therefore, they should be able to relate to this study. You or the student could lead a brief class discussion after presenting the facts that includes the following questions: (1) Why was behavior modeling more effective than other training techniques? (2) What methods have the students been exposed to when learning computer skills? Which were effective and why? Which were ineffective and why? (Note: recognize that all students might not agree on which methods were effective and ineffective for them.) (3) What impact might the type of training have on the satisfaction with the application of the training (e.g., computer system) on the job? Other ways to address this information could be through a short written assignment or a more in-depth research paper on effective ways to train for computer and other skills. Technology in HR: Benefits and drawbacks of e-learning This inset box (refer to page 345) briefly addresses some of the costs and benefits of e-learning. The information presented in this box could be referred to during a lecture. Students can be asked for their experiences with e-learning which includes on-line courses. If few have experience, you could ask why not and whether it is due to unavailability of such training opportunities or other more personal reasons. Students also could discuss the benefits and obstacles they have experienced and whether (or when) e-learning is effective and useful for their needs. They also could be asked to identify which purposes, knowledge, and skills are better suited to e-learning. E-learning could be further researched by the students and orally presented to the class or in a written assignment. The web-based exercise noted at the end of this Instructor’s Manual chapter could be focused on e-learning. How Do We Know? Can transfer be enhanced through relapse prevention? The inset box (found on page 349) is referred to on the previous page. Lisa Burke and Timothy Baldwin investigated whether it was possible to enhance transfer of trained skills through relapse prevention. The researchers conclude that relapse prevention was useful when the work environment was not conducive to transfer of training. However, the opposite was true when the work environment did support the use of the newly acquired skills. The information reported in the inset box could be part of a lecture or class discussion. Students could be asked to describe the factors that can make a work environment unsupportive to transfer of training. Then they could discuss whether it would be better and more cost effective to address those factors and not bother with relapse prevention. This is a concern because relapse prevention has a negative effect in positive work environments. You may want the students to address which aspects of a negative work environment might be more easily changed than the others. Finally, the students could speculate on why relapse prevention hinders transfer of training in more positive work environments. KEY TERMS attitude behavioral contract causal analysis e-learning informal learning methods knowledge learning needs assessment opportunity to perform organization analysis person analysis proactive needs assessment problem definition rapid model of instructional design reactive needs assessment relapse prevention training return on investment (ROI) skills task analysis traditional model of instructional design training training effectiveness training efficiency training media training method training vendors transfer of training transfer of training climate Instructor Manual for Human Resource Management: Linking Strategy to Practice Greg L. Stewart, Kenneth G. Brown 9780471717515