MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS – STUDENTS
Human resource management
1. The main aims of HRM are to:
(a) ensure that both the needs of the business and the needs of its people are
catered for
(b) contribute to business success
(c) provide cost-effective services to the business
(d) look after the interests and well-being of people in organizations
2. The Harvard framework:
(a) is an approach to personnel management devised in the Harvard Business
School
(b) is the theory of the human side of enterprise developed by Douglas McGregor
(c) defines human resource management as an integrated system
(d) recognizes a range of stakeholder interests in HRM
3. Which of the following quotations represents the most valid view of HRM?
(a) ‘There is a disjunction between rhetoric and reality in the area of human resource
management between HRM theory and HRM practice’ (Gratton et al, 1999)
(b) ‘HRM is an unfinished product informed by a self-fulfilling vision of what it should
be’ (Caldwell, 2004)
(c) ‘The soft version of HRM may be an irrelevancy while the hard version is likely to
be an uncomfortable experience’ (Legge, 1998)
(d) ‘HRM is a form of deceit, using subtle approaches to incorporate workers in an
organizational way of thinking and in effect brainwashing them to become willing
slaves’ (Scott, 1994)
Strategic human resource management
4. Strategy is essentially about:
(a) forecasting future events
(b) long-range planning
(c) making declarations of intent
(d) allocating resources to opportunities
Multiple Choice Questions – Students
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5. Best practice strategic HRM:
(a) means basing HR practices on those adopted successfully by other
organizations
(b) is based on the fallacy that there is such a thing as best practice
(c) involves benchmarking what other organizations do
(d) means constantly seeking to improve HR performance
Human capital management
6. Human capital management is:
(a) another term for human resource management
(b) mainly concerned with measuring the impact of HR practices
(c) an approach to managing people which treats them as assets rather than costs
(d) mainly concerned with reporting on the use of human capital
Knowledge management
7. Knowledge management is primarily concerned with:
(a) storing information or data
(b) collecting and disseminating data
(c) classifying information
(d) ensuring that knowledge is shared
8. The best way to make use of knowledge is to:
(a) adopt a personalization/codification strategy
(b) develop a comprehensive database
(c) issue regular bulletins summarizing key items of information
(d) set up communities of interest
Characteristics of people
9. Personality is a product of both nature and nurture:
(a) true? or
(b) false?
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10. The best known personality model is:
(a) Richard’s model
(b) the introversion/extroversion framework
(c) cyber-personality
(d) the big five
11. The term ‘emotional intelligence’ was first used by:
(a) Goleman
(b) Gardner
(c) Salovey and Mayer
(d) Drucker
Motivation
12. Which step in the motivational process follows after identification of a need and a
means of satisfying a need:
(a) performance
(b) goal-directed behaviour
(c) rewards or punishments
(d) reassessment of needs
13. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is founded on rigorous research:
(a) true? or
(b) false?
14. The concept that performance is a function of motivation and ability was first
formulated by:
(a) Lawler and Porter
(b) Purcell
(c) Vroom
(d) Lathom and Locke
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Organizational culture
15. Organization culture is:
(a) another term for organizational climate
(b) the ‘way things are done around here’
(c) mainly about the values in use in organizations
(d) mainly about the behavioural norms accepted in an organization
16. Organization climate is:
(a) the perceptions of people about the organization
(b) another term for organizational culture
(c) the pervading atmosphere in an organization
(d) the approach to leadership adopted by the management of the organization
Human resource planning
17. A formal approach to human resource planning does not take place in many
organizations because:
(a) it is not considered necessary
(b) it is already being done informally
(c) it takes too much time and effort
(d) it is difficult to forecast future demands for people
18. The use of managerial judgement in human resource planning:
(a) is the best because most convenient approach
(b) is largely guesswork
(c) will only work if there is reliable evidence available on future activity levels
(d) puts an unreasonable burden on line managers
19. A ‘flexible firm’ is one in which:
(a) rigid demarcation between jobs has been abolished
(b) rapid responses are made to changing circumstances
(c) there is a core of permanent workers and a periphery of sub-contracted or
temporary workers
(d) flexible working hours are available to all or most staff
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Recruitment and selection
20. Online recruitment:
(a) is the most cost-effective method of reaching applicants
(b) enables organizations to target specified categories of potential applicants
(c) speeds up the whole recruitment process
(d) can produce too many irrelevant or poor applicants
21. A structured interview is one:
(a) which is biographical
(b) which has a clearly defined beginning, middle and end
(c) which requires the candidate to answer a set of questions issued in advance
(d) built around a set of predetermined questions
22. Biodata is:
(a) the information obtained from a biographical interview
(b) used to specify the abilities and experience required to carry out a role
(c) biographical data which is criterion based
(d) the information set out on an application form
23. Which of the following selection techniques are most effective as indicated by the
research conducted by people such as Schmidt and Hunter (1998)?
(a) assessment centres
(b) structured interviews and intelligence tests
(c) a combination of intelligence and personality tests
(d) structured interviews and personality tests
24. What is the most important factor to be considered when choosing a selection test:
(a) it should be easy to use
(b) it should be both valid and reliable
(c) it should not cost too much to purchase or administer
(d) it should be specially tailored to meet the needs of the organization
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Performance management
25. The most important aim of performance management is to:
(a) clarify objectives
(b) align individual and organizational objectives
(c) inform performance pay decisions
(d) improve individual and organizational performance
Learning and development
26. The learning organization:
(a) has been implemented effectively in many companies
(b) is fundamentally aspirational
(c) suggests that organizations have a life of their own and are in themselves
capable of learning
(d) provides an essential guide to the formulation and implementation of learning
and development strategies
27. e-learning is the most effective way of developing knowledge and skills;
(a) true? or
(b) false?
28. The most important requirement when planning a learning programme or event for a
group of people is:
(a) to take account of the principles of learning as explained by learning theory
(b) to understand the individual learning needs of participants
(c) to understand the learning styles of participants
(d) to consider how an appropriate blend of training techniques can be deployed
29. The concepts of organizational learning and the learning organization refer to the
same thing.
(a) true? or
(b) false?
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30. Which, if any, of the following quotations accurately describes the learning
organization concept?
(a) ‘The learning organization has not delivered its full potential or lived up to all our
expectations’ (Burgoyne, 1999)
(b) ‘The dominant perspective of the learning organization concept is that of
organization systems and design. Little attention seems to be paid to what
individuals want to learn or how they learn’ (Scarborough et al, 1999)
(c) ‘Attempts to create a single best practice framework for understanding the
learning organization are fundamentally flawed’ (Easterby-Smith, 1997)
(d) ‘As usually defined, it (the learning organization concept) suggests that
organizations have a life of their own and are themselves capable of learning,
which is not the case’ (Harrison, 2005)
Employee reward
31. Job evaluation:
(a) provides information on levels of pay
(b) provides guidance on internal relativities
(c) is a completely objective method of grading jobs
(d) ensures that equal pay is achieved
32. A job family structure:
(a) provides for greater flexibility in rewarding people
(b) consists of separate grade structures for different job families
(c) consists of different levels of pay for job families
(d) provides for greater flexibility in rewarding people
33. Contribution-related pay:
(a) relates pay to both outputs (results) and inputs (levels of competency)
(b) relates pay to individual contribution
(c) is another name for performance-related pay
(d) relates pay to the achievement of agreed objectives
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Multiple Choice Questions – Students
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Employee relations
34. Conjunctive bargaining takes place when:
(a) the aim is to reconcile differences between employers and employees
(b) joint meetings with union representatives take place
(c) a friendly approach to collective bargaining exists
(d) the bargaining process converges on an agreement
35. Unitarism is:
(a) the belief that management is the sole rule-making authority
(b) the expectation on the part of management that employees will be loyal to the
organization
(c) the belief that management and employees share the same concerns and that it
is therefore in both their interests to work together
(d) the situation in which only one trade unions is recognized
36. The Central Arbitration Committee (CAC):
(a) pronounces on issues concerning union recognition and the provision of
information for collective bargaining
(b) intervenes to resolve industrial disputes
(c) carries out compulsory arbitration at the request of either party
(d) mediates in disputes referred to it by both parties
37. Participation is likely to be most successful when:
(a) it is based on formal joint consultation arrangements
(b) an effective process of two-way communication exists
(c) it is backed by the trade union(s)
(d) a climate of mutual trust exists in the organization
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Multiple Choice Questions – Students
9
Answers
1. (a)
20. (d)
2. (d)
21. (d)
3. (a)
22. (c)
4. (c)
23. (b)
5. (b)
24. (b)
6. (c)
25. (d)
7. (d)
26. (c)
8. (a)
27. (b)
9. (a)
28. (a)
10. (d)
29. (b)
11. (c)
30. (a, b, c, d)
12. (b)
31. (b)
13. (b)
32. (c)
14. (c)
33. (a)
15. (b)
34. (d)
16. (a)
35. (c)
17. (a)
36. (a)
18. (c)
37. (d)
19. (c)
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