MGMT 471 Vocab

Annualized Loss Expectancy

Expected monetary loss for an asset due to a risk over a one-year period; calculated by multiplying single loss expectancy by annualized rate of occurrence; also called ALE.

Applicant Tracking System

Software application that automates organizations’ management of the recruiting process (such as accepting application materials, screening applicants, etc.); also known as ATS.

Assignees

Employees who work outside their home countries.

Balanced Scorecard

Performance management tool that depicts an organization’s overall performance, as measured against goals, lagging indicators, and leading indicators.

Benchmarking

Process by which an organization identifies performance gaps and sets goals for performance improvement, by comparing its data, performance levels, and/or processes against those of other organizations.

Big Data

High-volume, high-velocity, and high-variety information assets that require innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision making.

Bona Fide Occupational Qualification

Factor (such as religion, gender, national origin, etc.) that is reasonably necessary, in the normal operations of an organization, to carry out a particular job function.

Code of Conduct

Principles of conduct within an organization that guide decision making and behavior; also known as code of ethics.

Compensation Philosophy

Short but broad statement documenting an organization’s guiding principles and core values about employee compensation.

Compliance

State of being in accordance with all national, federal, regional, and/or local laws, regulations, and/or other government authorities and requirements applicable to the places in which an organization operates.

Conflict of Interest

Situation in which a person or organization may potentially benefit, directly or indirectly, from undue influence, due to involvement in outside activities, relationships, or investments that conflict with or have an impact on the employment relationship or its outcomes.

Contingency Plan

Protocol that an organization implements when an identified risk event occurs.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Concept that a corporation has an impact on the lives of its stakeholders and the environment, encompassing such areas as corporate governance, philanthropy, sustainability, employee rights, social change, volunteerism, corporate-sponsored community programs, and workplace safety; also called CSR.

Cosourcing

Arrangement in which an enterprise and a vendor share different tasks within a larger complex, often strategic responsibility.

Cost-benefit Analysis

Approach to determining the financial impact of an organization’s activities and programs on profitability, through a process of data or calculation comparing value created against he cost of creating that value; also called CBA.

Dashboards

Reporting mechanisms that aggregate and display metrics and key performance indicators.

Data Analytics

Process of studying data to detect patterns and relationships that can be used to make predictions and improve decisions.

Dedicated HR

HR structural alternative that allows organizations with different strategies in multiple units to apply HR expertise to each unit’s specific strategic needs.

Diversity

Differences in people’s characteristics (such as socioeconomic status, beliefs, personality, thought processes, work style, race, age, ethnicity, gender, religion, education, job function, etc.).

Diversity Council

Task force created to define a diversity and inclusion initiative and guide the development and implementation process.

Duty of Care

Principle that organizations should take all steps that are reasonably possible to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of employees and protect them from foreseeable injury.

Employee Resource Group

Voluntary group for employees who share a particular diversity dimension (race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.); also known as affinity group or network group; also known as ERG.

Employee Value Proposition

Employee’s perceived value of the total rewards and tangible and intangible benefits they receive from the organization as part of employment, which drives unique and compelling organizational strategies for talent acquisition, retention, and engagement; also known as EVP.

Employees

Individuals who exchange work for wages or salary; in the U.S., workers who are covered by Fair Labor Standards Act regulations as determined by the IRS.

Employment at-will

Principle of employment in the U.S. that employers have the right to hire, fire, demote, and promote whomever they choose for any reason unless there is a law or contract to the contrary and that employees have the right to quit a job at any time; abbreviated as EAW.

Enterprise Resource Planning

Business management software, usually a suite of integrated applications, that a company can use to collect, store, manage, and interpret data from many business activities; also known as an ERP.

Environmental Scanning

Process that involves a systematic survey and interpretation of relevant date to identify external opportunities and threats and to assess how these factors affect the organization currently and how they are likely to affect the organization in the future.

Essential Functions

Primary job duties that a qualified individual must be able to perform, either with or without reasonable accommodation.

Ethics

Set of behavioral guidelines that an organization expects all of its directors, managers, and employees to follow, in order to ensure appropriate moral and ethical business standards.

Force-field Analysis

Type of analysis in which factors that can influence an outcome in either a negative or positive manner are listed and then assigned weights to indicate their relative strengths.

Front-back Structure

Organizational structure that divides an organization into “front” functions, which focus on customers or market groups, and “back” functions, which design and develop products and services.

Functional HR

HR structural alternative in which headquarters HR specialists craft policies and HR generalists located within divisions or other locales implement the policies, adapt them as needed, and interact with employees.

Functional Structure

Organizational structure in which departments are defined by the services they contribute to the organization’s overall mission, such as marketing and sales, operations, and HR.

Geographic Structure

Organizational structure in which geographic regions define the organizational chart.

Global Integration Strategy

Globalization strategy that emphasizes consistency of approach, standardization of processes, and a common corporate culture across global operations; also called GI.

Global Remittances

Monies sent back home by migrants working in foreign countries.

Globalization

Status of growing interconnectedness and interdependency among countries, people, markets, and organizations worldwide.

Glocalization

Characteristic of an organization with a strong global image but an equally strong local identity.

Governance

System of rules and processes set up by an organization to ensure its compliance with local and international laws, accounting rules, ethical norms, internal codes of conduct, and other standards.

Hazard

Potential harm, often associated with a condition or activity that, if left uncontrolled, can result in injury or damage to persons or property.

HR Audit

Systematic and comprehensive evaluation of an organization’s HR policies, practices, procedures, and strategies.

Human Resource Information System

Information technology framework and tools for gathering, storing, maintaining, retrieving, revising, and reporting relevant HR data; also known as an HRIS.

Hybrid Structure

Organizational structure that mixes elements of the functional, product, and geographic structures.

Identity Alignment

Extent to which diversity is embraced in management of people, products/services, and branding.

Incentives

Payments in return for the achievement of specific, time-limited, targeted objectives.

Inclusion

Extent to which each person in an organization feels welcomed, respected, supported, and valued as a team member.

Independent Contractors

Self-employed individuals hired on a contract basis for specialized services.

Information Management

Use of technology to collect, process, and condense information, for the purpose of managing the information efficiently as an organizational resource; also called IM.

Key Risk Indicators

Metrics that provide an early signal of increasing risk exposures for an enterprise; also known as KRIs.

Lagging Indicator

Type of metric describing an activity or change in performance that has already occurred.

Leading Indicator

Type of metric describing an activity that can change future performance and predict success in the achievement of strategic goals.

Local Responsiveness Strategy

Globalization strategy that emphasizes adapting to the needs of local markets and allows subsidiaries to develop unique products, structures, and systems; also called LR strategy.

Matrix Structure

Organizational structure that combines departmentalization by division and function to gain the benefits of both; results in some employees reporting to two managers rather than one, with neither manager assuming a superior role.

Mission Statement

Concise outline of an organization’s strategy, specifying the activities it intends to pursue and the course its management has charted for the future.

Moral Hazard

Situation in which one party engages in risky behavior knowing that it is protected against the risk because another party will incur any resulting loss.

Multi-criteria Decision Analysis

Decision-making tool in which a team determines critical characteristics of a successful decision; a matrix is used to score each alternative and compare results; also known as MCDA.

Multinational Enterprise

Organization that owns or controls production or services facilities in one or more countries other than the home country; also called MNE.

Near-shoring

Practice of contracting a part of business processes or production to an external company in a country that is relative close (e.g., within the same own region).

Offshoring

Method by which an organization relocates its processes or production to an international location through subsidiaries or third-party affiliates.

Onshoring

Relocation of business processes or production to a lower-cost location inside the same country as the business.

Organizational Development

Process of enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization and the well-being of its members through planned interventions.

Organizational Values

Beliefs and principles defined by an organization to direct and govern its employees’ behavior.

Outsourcing

Process by which an organization contracts with third-party vendors to provide selected services/activities, instead of hiring new employees.

Principal-agent Problem

Situation in which an agent (e.g., an employee) makes decisions for a principal (e.g., an employer) potentially on the basis of personal incentives that may not be aligned with he principal’s incentives.

Process Alignment

Extent to which underlying operations such as IT, finance, or HR integrate across locations.

Product Structure

Organizational structure in which functional departments are grouped under major product divisions.

Regression Analysis

Statistical method used to predict a variable from one or more predictor variables.

Residual Risk

Amount of uncertainty that remains after all risk management efforts have been exhausted.

Reverse Innovation

Innovations created for or by emerging-economy markets and then imported to developed-country markets.

Risk

Uncertainty that has an effect on an objective, where effect outcomes may include opportunities, losses, and threats.

Risk Appetite

Amount of uncertainty an organization is willing to pursue or to accept to attain its risk management goals.

Risk Control

An action taken to manage a risk.

Risk Management

System for identifying, evaluating, and controlling actual and potential risks to an organization, and which typically incorporate mitigation and/or response strategies, including the use of insurance.

Risk Position

An organization’s desired gain or acceptable loss in value.

Risk Scorecard

Tool used to gather individual assessments of various characteristics of risk (e.g., frequency of occurrence; degree of impact, loss, or gain for the organization; degree of efficacy of current controls).

Risk Tolerance

Amount of uncertainty an organization is willing to pursue or to accept to attain its risk management goals.

Service-level Agreement

Part of a service contract where the service expectations are formally defined; abbreviated as SLA.

Shared Services HR Model

HR structural alternative in which centers with specific areas of expertise develop HR policies in those areas; each unit can then select what it needs from a menu of these services.

Single Loss Expectancy

Expected monetary loss every time a risk occurs; calculated by multiplying asset value by exposure factor; also known as SLE.

Software as a Service

Software that is owned, delivered, and managed remotely and delivered over the Internet to contracted customers on a pay-for-use basis or as a subscription based on use metrics; abbreviated as SaaS.

Span of Control

Refers to the number of individuals who report to a supervisor.

Staffing

HR function that acts on the organizational human capital needs identified through workforce planning and attempts to provide an adequate supply of qualified individuals to complete the body of work necessary for the organization’s financial success.

Strategic Fit

A state in which an organization’s strategy is consistent with its external opportunities and circumstances and its internal structure, resources, and capabilities.

Strategic Management

System of actions that leaders take to drive an organization toward its goals and objectives.

Strategic Planning

Process of setting goals and designing a path toward organizational success.

Strategy

Plan of action for accomplishing an organization’s overall and long-range goals.

Sustainability

Practice of purchasing and using resources wisely by balancing economic, social, and environmental concerns, with the goal of security the interests of present and future generations.

SWOT Analysis

Method for assessment of an organization’s strategic capabilities through use of the environmental scanning process, by which internal and external factors affecting achievement of organizational goals are identified and considered.

Systems Thinking

Process for understanding how seemingly independent units within a larger entity interact with and influence one another.

Triple Bottom Line

Economic, social, and environmental impact metrics used to determine an organization’s success.

Value Drivers

Actions, processes, or results that are needed to deliver a desired value.

Vision Statement

Description of what an organization hopes to attain and accomplish in the future, which guides it toward that defined direction.

Workforce Planning

Strategic process by which an organization analyzes its current workforce and determine the steps required to prepare for its future needs.