Fundamentals of Human Resource Management - Chapters 1-4

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering key concepts, processes, legal frameworks, and landmark court cases from Chapters 1 through 4 of Fundamentals of Human Resource Management (15th Edition).

Five Main Goals of HR

The core objectives of human resource management: attract employees, hire employees, train employees, motivate employees, and retain employees.

Knowledge Workers

Workers who use technology to acquire and apply information, requiring technology skills across a wide variety of job roles.

Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS)

Software systems that automate HR tasks including payroll, benefits access, applicant tracking, orientation, training, development, and performance management.

Continuous Improvement

An organizational process driving ongoing product and service quality enhancement through focus on customer, concern for continuous improvement, quality of everything, accurate measurement of efforts, and employee empowerment.

Scientific Management

A management approach pioneered by Frederick Taylor that focuses on worker screening, structured training, and productivity tracking.

Strategic Management Process

A three-stage process consisting of Strategic Analysis (mission, core values/culture, environment analysis), Strategy Formulation (corporate, business, functional strategies), and Strategy Implementation (implementing strategies and evaluating results).

Cost Differentiation Strategy

A strategy emphasizing low-cost materials, streamlined processes, waste reduction, and efficiency maximization, requiring HR to structure jobs for knowledge sharing and reward cost savings.

Product Differentiation Strategy

A business strategy emphasizing creativity and innovation to make products or services stand out from competitors, requiring HR compensation systems that reward innovation.

Strategic HR Work

HR responsibilities aimed at aligning human resource functions directly to support overall organizational goals and strategy, as opposed to transactional or tactical work.

Key HR Metrics

Quantitative assessments used to measure HR performance across areas such as HR department efficiency, compensation, and employment practices, comparing results to benchmarks.

HR Dashboard

An HRIS visual interface that graphically represents HR metrics such as turnover rates, termination reasons, and employee demographics.

Four Basic HR Functions

The primary operational functional areas of HR consisting of Staffing, Training and Development, Motivation, and Maintenance.

Human Resource Planning

The process by which an organization ensures it has the right number and kinds of people, at the right place, and at the right time, capable of effectively completing strategic objectives.

Succession Planning

The process of developing replacement charts that portray middle- to upper-level management positions likely to become vacant and identifying qualified individuals to fill them.

Job Analysis

The systematic process of defining and documenting the duties, responsibilities, accountabilities, and working conditions of a job to determine required knowledge, skills, and abilities.

O*NET

The Occupational Information Network; an online framework providing job-oriented and worker-oriented descriptors across cross-occupational and occupation-specific domains.

Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)

A structured job analysis instrument rating jobs on $194$ elements grouped into six major divisions and $28$ sections to facilitate quantitative job comparisons.

Job Enlargement

The process of adding related tasks to a position to make work more interesting, though sometimes perceived by employees as simply additional work.

Job Enrichment

A job design technique that enhances employee motivation by providing skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback from the job itself.

Telecommuting vs. Remote Work

Telecommuting involves occasional workplace presence, local residency, and optional status, whereas remote work involves rare or no workplace presence, global location flexibility, and permanent condition of employment.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Federal legislation outlawing discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.

Civil Rights Act of 1991

Federal legislation that reinforced Title VII, returned the burden of proof in discrimination cases back to the employer, established the Glass Ceiling Commission, and allowed punitive damages suits.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

The federal agency created by the EEOA to enforce Title VII and other discrimination laws, comprising five presidentially appointed commissioners who process workplace discrimination charges.

Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)

Federal law protecting workers aged $40$ and older from employment discrimination and prohibiting mandatory retirement ages.

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

Legislation amending the Equal Pay Act that allows workers to file pay discrimination claims within $180$ days of receiving any discriminatory paycheck.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990

Civil rights law prohibiting employment discrimination against qualified individuals with physical or mental impairments that substantially limit major life activities.

Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA)

Federal law requiring employers with at least $50$ employees within a $75\,\text{mile}$ radius to grant qualified employees up to $12$ weeks of unpaid leave in a $12\text{-month}$ period.

Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA)

Law prohibiting employment and insurance discrimination based on genetic information or family health history, such as predisposition to breast cancer or Alzheimer's Disease.

Griggs v. Duke Power (1971)

Landmark Supreme Court decision establishing that employment tests must fairly measure the knowledge or skills required for a job and validating job-related testing requirements.

Adverse Impact

An HR policy or practice that neutral on its face has an unintentional discriminatory effect on a protected demographic group.

Disparate Treatment

Intentional discrimination occurring when an HR policy or practice explicitly treats individuals in protected groups differently from others.

4/5ths Rule (80% Rule)

A selection rate guideline stating that a protected group's selection rate must be at least $80\%$ ($0.80$) of the group with the highest selection rate to avoid indicating potential adverse impact.

Affirmative Action Plans

Programs designed to correct past hiring injustices by actively recruiting minority applicants so that an organization's workforce reflects the community demographic composition.

Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment

A form of sexual harassment where submission to sexual behavior is explicitly or implicitly required as a condition of employment, promotions, or benefits.

Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment

A form of sexual harassment where unwelcome workplace conduct creates an intimidating, offensive, or hostile environment that interferes with an employee's work performance.

Comparable Worth

The principle that jobs requiring equal skills, responsibilities, effort, and working conditions should receive equal compensation, regardless of traditional gender dominance in those roles.

Glass Ceiling

An invisible barrier created by organizational bias that prevents women and minority group members from advancing to top-level executive positions.