MGT 4378 - Exam 1

CH 1-3

Implications of the emphasis on learning for companies

AI

* The work environment of companies needs to promote learning and help employees find ways to obtain learning on the job
* Companies need to support informal learning that develops through mentoring, social networks, and job experiences

Steps involved in the strategic training and development process with their corresponding examples

* Choosing strategic training and development initiatives → Enhancing customer service
* Creating training and development activities → Building websites for knowledge sharing
* Identifying measures or metrics → Improving performance

As firms grow in size there is a greater need to ___

provide current employees with more formalized training and development

T/F: The roles that employees have in a company do not influence the focus of training, development, and learning activity

FALSE

Strategic training and development initiatives are ___

learning-related actions that a company should follow to ensure it accomplishes its business strategy

Which of the following are the roles of the CEO of a company?

* Establishing a clear direction for learning
* Participating actively in government of learning

___ are business-level results selected to measure the overall value of training or learning initiatives

Metrics

Identify an implication of the emphasis on learning for human capital development in an organization

Learning has to be related to aiding the employee improve performance

Global Vision Inc., a retail chain, plans to expand to locations in foreign countries. It plans to train its employees based in different locations. Which of the following strategies would be helpful in achieving this goal?

Developing a standard global learning approach that is locally appropriate

Identify a true statement about companies in an unstable or recessionary business environment - one characterized by mergers, acquisitions, or disinvestment of business

Training may be abandoned or restricted to the decision of the manager

Arrange the steps involved in the strategic training and development process in the correct order.

1. Identify a business strategy
2. Choose strategic training and development initiatives that support a business strategy
3. Translate strategic training and development initiatives into concrete training and development activities
4. Identify measures or metrics

Identify the human resource management practices that influence the type of training and the resources devoted to training

* The strategic value of jobs and employee uniqueness
* Staffing strategy

In today’s world, employees’ work include ___

performing many roles once limited to management

The extent to which employees are rare and specialized and not highly available in the labor market is referred to as ___

uniqueness

The CEO, the top manager in a company, and other members of the executive team, play a key role in:

determining the importance of training and learning in the company

Identify a challenge in training for companies with global operations

Ensuring that the learning is effective for employees from different cultural backgrounds

When companies begin retraining and productivity-improvement efforts without involving unions, ___

the efforts are likely to fail

When unemployment is low and/or businesses are growing at a high rate and require more employees, companies often find it difficult to ___.

attract new employees

_____ practices include management activities dealing with investments in staffing, performance management, training, and compensation and benefits

Human Resource Management

The employee potential to improve company effectiveness and efficiency is referred to as ___

strategic value

Business strategies with the corresponding ways in which they are achieved

* Concentration strategy → By enhancing product quality
* Internal growth strategy → By expanding the global market
* External growth strategy → By acquiring business that can supply or buy products
* Disinvestment strategy → By redefining goals

____ means that training and development programs, resources, and professionals are primarily housed in a single location and that decisions about training investment, programs, and delivery methods are made from that department

Centralized training

Unions’ interest in training has resulted in ___

joint union-management programs developed to facilitate preparation of employees for new jobs

A ___ comprises employees, managers, and stakeholders outside the company, including community colleges, universities, high schools, and grade schools

corporate university

Different business strategies with their focuses

* Concentration strategy → Focuses on enhancing market share, limiting costs, or developing and maintaining a market niche for products and services
* Internal growth strategy → Focuses on new market and product development, innovation, and joint ventures
* External growth strategy → Focuses on acquiring vendors and suppliers or buying businesses that facilitate expansion into new markets
* Disinvestment strategy → Focuses on liquidation and divestiture of businesses

An advantage of a centralized training function is that it ___

gives the company a cost advantage in purchasing training from vendors and consultants

Arrange the steps involved in the creation of a corporate university in the correct order of occurrence

1. A governing body is created with the responsibility of developing a vision for the university
2. The vision statement is linked to the business strategy
3. The company determines how to fund the university
4. The company decides the degree to which all training will be centralized

Corporate universities can provide significant advantages for a company’s learning efforts by ___

limiting costs and maximizing the benefits of learning

TechLite IT, an IT consulting firm, outlines its business strategy and creates a new mission statement. It plans to ensure that its business strategy is supported by training. Identify a feature of the business-embedded learning function started by TechLite IT.

It provides customized training solutions based on customer needs

T/F: Companies always choose to entirely centralize training and learning

FALSE

Identify the conditions necessary for changes to occur in a company

* Organizational structures, such as compensation and performance management systems, must facilitate the change
* Employees must recognize the reasons for change and agree with those reasons

____ involves generating employees’ and managers’ interests about training and learning

Internal marketing

Which of the following is the last step in the creation of a corporate university?

Learning that occurs as a result of a corporate university is linked to performance improvement

Identify a reason why companies outsource training

Time savings that allows a company to focus on business strategy

Identify a feature of a learning function that is business-embedded

It decides when and how to deliver training based on customer requirements

Before implementation of a new training or development practice, trainers should consider ___

how they can increase the chances of its acceptance

Which of the following is a successful internal marketing tactic for creating a brand?

Demonstrating how a training and development program can solve specific business needs

The outsourcing of any business process, such as human resource management, production, or training, is referred to as ____

Business process outsourcing

Identify the components of an organization that interact to form the basis for the process of change in the organization

* Employees
* Task

___ involves generating employees’ and managers’ interest about training and learning

Internal marketing

Identify a true statement about the role of training and development in an organization

The overall purpose of training and development is learning

Which of the following reasons are often given for offshoring factory and other jobs?

* Lower labor costs
* Availability of a skilled workforce with a strong work ethic

Identify the trends in the demographics and diversity of the workforce in the United states

* Increase in the share of older workers
* Increase in racial diversity

____ refers to the organized and strategic effort by a company to utilize bundles of human resource management practices, including acquiring and assessing employees, learning and development, performance management, and compensation, to attract, retain, develop, and encourage well-skilled employees and managers

Talent management

Which of the following are training providers outside the company?

* Product suppliers
* Colleges and universities

Which of the following professionals are most likely to focus on job and task analysis, instructional system design, on-the-job training, and individual performance improvement?

Human resource development professionals

In an organizational context, identify the true statements about training department managers

* They devote considerable time to the roles of learning strategist and business partner
* The may be involved in the project management role while handling other responsibilities

T/F: There is only a single universally accepted instructional system development model that is used to develop training programs

FALSE

___ is a company-wide effort to constantly enhance the ways people, machines, and systems accomplish work

Total Quality Management

The knowledge (know what), advanced skills (know how), system understanding and creativity (know why), and motivation to deliver high-quality products and services (care why) is referred to as ___

human capital

The process of exporting jobs from developed countries, such as the United States, to countries where labor and other costs are lower is referred to as ____

offshoring

____ is the most significant factor in deciding the size and composition of the labor force, which comprises people who are working and those who are looking for work

Population

____ refers to the process where training and development activities are provided by a third party, which comprises individuals outside the company

Outsourcing

Which of the following are the core values of Total Quality Management?

* Quality is built into a service or product so that errors are prevented from occurring
* Processes and methods are designed to meet the requirements of internal and external customers

T/F: The highest amount of the learning content of training provided by companies concerns basic skills

FALSE - Managerial and supervisory, processes, procedures, and business practices, and mandatory and compliance training account for 37 percent of the learning content of the training provided by companies. The least amount of learning content concerns basic and other skills.

A company’s ability to maintain and increase its market share in an industry is referred to as ___

competitiveness

Identify a step that should be taken to overcome the flaws of the Instructional System Design model

The use of agile learning design should be started

Types of capital with their definitions

* Intellectual Capital → Refers to the codified knowledge that exists in a company
* Human Capital → Refers to the sum of the attributes, life experiences, knowledge, inventiveness, energy, and enthusiasm that a company’s employees invest in their work
* Social Capital → Refers to relationships in a company
* Customer Capital → Refers to the value of relationships with persons or other organizations outside a company for accomplishing the goals of the company

Which of the following are part of non traditional employment?

* The use of independent contractors
* The use of freelancers

Which of the following provides work teams maximum flexibility?

Cross training of team members

______ refers to the integrated use of training and development, organizational development, and career development to enhance individual, group, and organizational effectiveness

Human Resource Development

Which of the following strategies helps companies to gain a competitive advantage in a market?

Focusing on training practices

Which of the following is a flaw of the instructional system design model?

It adds time and expense to creating a training program

Types of training and development roles in an organization with their corresponding functions

* Learning Strategist → Decides how workplace learning can be used optimally to help meet the company’s business strategy
* Business Partner → Utilizes business and industry knowledge to create training that improves performance
* Project Manager → Strategizes, obtains, and monitors the delivery of learning and performance solutions to support the business
* Professional Specialist → Designs, develops, delivers, and evaluates learning and performance solutions

Which of the following are part of non traditional employment?

* The use of independent contractors
* The use of freelancers

Identify the assumptions shared by all Instructional System Design (ISD) approaches

* Training design is effective only if it facilitates employees to achieve instructional or training goals and objectives
* Evaluation has a major role in suggesting necessary alterations to the training design process

Which of the following trends are observed in investments in learning initiatives?

* Self-paced online learning is the most commonly used mode of technology-based learning
* Average training expenditures per employee have gradually increased over the last several years

Identify an accurate statement about intangible assets

They cannot be touched and are non-monetary

Companies that compete in the gig economy rely on ___

the services offered by non traditional employees to meet service and product demands

refers to training employees in an extensive range of skills so they can fill any of the roles required to be performed on a team

Cross training

In the context of employee training and development, the process used to determine wether training is necessary is referred to as ____

needs assessment

___ is the first step in the instructional design process

needs assessment

____ include people in an organization who have an interest in training and development and their support is vital for deciding its success (or failure)

Stakeholders

For mid-level managers, on which of the following does organizational analysis focus on?

* Identifying how much of their budgets they plan to allocate to training
* Determining for which jobs training can improve products or customer service

A way to ensure that stakeholders are involved in needs assessment is ___

through creating formal advisory groups that meet on a regular basis to discuss learning issues

A ___ is a group of key stakeholders, typically including executives, company leaders, and other important stakeholders who are asked to provide insight and recommendations about the company’s training needs

learning council

Parts of needs assessment with their descriptions

* Organizational analysis → Involves assessing the appropriateness of training, taking into consideration the company’s business strategy, its resources available for training, and encouragement by managers and peers for training activities
* Person analysis → Involves determining wether inadequacies in performance result from lack of knowledge, skill, or ability or from a motivational or work-design problem
* Task analysis → Identifies the significant tasks and knowledge, skills, and behaviors that require to be emphasized in training for employees to complete their tasks

T/F: Upper-level managers are predominantly involved in identifying which employees need training, the tasks for which training is needed, or the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics needed to complete those tasks

False

Which of the following situations could occur if a needs assessment is not properly conducted?

* Training programs may have inaccurate content, objectives, or methods
* Training may be wrongly used as a solution to a performance issue

A disadvantage of the needs assessment technique of using interviews is that it ___

consumes a lot of time

Company leaders are involved in the needs assessment process primarily to ____

recognize the role of training in relation to other human resource practices in the company

Which of the following are factors based on which a learning council considers training needs for the company?

• Financial results

• Business problems

_____ are employees, academics, managers, technical experts, trainers, and even customers or suppliers who are knowledgeable with regard to training issues, including tasks to be performed; the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for successful task performance; the necessary equipment; and the conditions under which the tasks have to be performed

Subject-matter experts

An advantage of the needs assessment technique is that it ____

provides data related to performance and practices in historical data reviews

Identify a true statement about surveys as a needs assessment method

It allows for the participation of many employees in the needs assessment process

For mid-level managers, on which of the following does organizational analysis focus?

• Determining for which jobs training can improve products or customer service

• Identifying how much of their budgets they plan to allocate to training

A ________ is a group of key stakeholders, typically including executives, company leader, and other important stakeholders who are asked to provide insight and recommendations about the company’s training needs

learning council

_____ refers to the method of needs assessment in which stakeholders are asked to provide information for needs assessment

Crowdsourcing

Which of the following questions should be asked by trainers in an organizational analysis?

• How might the training content influence employees’ relationship with customers?

• What is required from managers and peers for the training to succeed?

_______ refer to a type of subject-matter expert interview in which a face-to-face meeting with groups of subject-matter experts takes place where the questions asked relate to particular training requirements

Focus groups

Shop Vision Inc., a global retail store, plans to conduct needs assessment in the organization. As part of the process, Shop Vision asks employees to upload their suggestions and feedback on the company’s internal portal. This method of needs assessment is referred to as ______

crowdsourcing

Organizational analysis involves identifying _____

what training resources are available

An advantage of the needs assessment technique is that it _______

provides data related to performance and practices in historical data reviews

According to gap analysis, the need for training tends to result from such factors as ______

performance problems

____ facilitates determination of employees’ readiness for training

Person analysis

Factors that influence performance and learning in an organization with their descriptions

• Characteristic of a person → Refers to employee knowledge, skill, ability, and attitudes

• Input → Refers to the instructions that tell employees what, how, and when to perform

• Output → Refers to a job’s performance standards

• Consequence → Refers to the type of incentives that employees receive for performing well

• Feedback → Refers to the information that employees receive during the course of performance

_____ is trainees’ desire to learn the content of training programs

Motivation to learn

____ refer to skills that are important for employees to perform on the job and learn the content of training programs successfully

Basic skills

A _____ involves evaluating the cause for the difference between employees’ current and expected performance

gap analysis

_____ includes three dimensions: verbal comprehension, quantitative ability, and reasoning ability

Cognitive ability