HC11 Separating and retaining employees

Organizations must try to ensure that good performers want to leave the company to look for better opportunities.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

Organizations must try to ensure that good performers want to stay with the organization and that employees whose performance is chronically low are encouraged—or forced—to leave.

Both involuntary and voluntary turnover are expensive.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

In general, organizations try to avoid the need for involuntary turnover and to minimize voluntary turnover, especially among top performers. Both kinds of turnover are costly.

What is a cost associated with voluntary turnover?

• loss of talented employees

• workplace violence

• lawsuits

• generations of unfavorable publicity

Answer explanation

When the employees initiate the turnover (often when the organization would prefer to keep them), it is voluntary turnover. Employees may leave to retire or to take a job with a different organization. Typically, the employees who leave voluntarily are either the organization’s worst performers, who quit before they are fired, or its best performers, who can most easily find attractive new opportunities.

A basis for outcome fairness is that everyone should know what to expect.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

A basis for outcome fairness is that everyone should know what to expect. Organizations promote outcome fairness when they clearly communicate policies regarding the consequences of inappropriate behavior.

In a progressive discipline system, measures are taken solely to punish an employee to rectify misconduct.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

A progressive discipline system seeks to prevent misbehavior (by publishing rules) and to correct, rather than merely punish, misbehavior.

Negative affectivity means pervasive high levels of satisfaction with all aspects of life, compared with other people’s feelings.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

Negative affectivity means pervasive low levels of satisfaction with all aspects of life, compared with other people’s feelings. People with negative affectivity experience feelings such as anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness more than other people do, at work and away.

The responsibility for positive relationships in the workplace is placed on the HR department.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

Negative behavior by managers and peers in the workplace can produce tremendous dissatisfaction. Often much of the responsibility for positive relationships is placed on direct supervisors.

One of the ways to publish rules that cover disciplinary problems includes

• constant examples set by the employers for their employees.

• the in-house radio station.

• sessions where the rules are demonstrated in the form of interactive games.

• displaying them on a bulletin board.

Answer explanation

Ways of publishing rules include presenting them in an employee handbook, posting them on the company’s intranet, and displaying them on a bulletin board.

After Kendell Corp. hired a new supervisor for the second shift, productivity fell and the shift did not meet its production targets three weeks in a row. The plant manager asks Sam, the human resource manager, to investigate, and he suspects the problem is job withdrawal. Which kind of job withdrawal is most likely occurring in this situation?

• Employees are experiencing role conflict, so they are arguing with each other.

• Employees are dissatisfied with the supervisor, so they are not working as hard.

• Employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, so they are requesting transfers.

• Role ambiguity is causing job involvement to fall and organizational commitment to rise.

Answer explanation

Job withdrawal may take the form of behavior change, physical job withdrawal, or psychological withdrawal. One of the causes of this type of dissatisfaction is an employee’s supervisors. Negative behavior by managers in the workplace can produce tremendous dissatisfaction. Often much of the responsibility for positive relationships is placed on direct supervisors. Employees want some evidence that the company’s leaders respect and care about them.

Walton Home Remodeling sets pay rates slightly above the local market rate, and it communicates this to employees. Which statement about job satisfaction supports the company’s use of this policy?

• Employees want supervisors to see them as individuals.

• Unaddressed conflicts between employees can cause dissatisfaction.

• Employees see the value of insurance benefits, which impacts satisfaction more than pay does.

• The amount of pay an individual receives is extremely important for job satisfaction.

Answer explanation

With regard to job satisfaction, the pay level—that is, the amount of income associated with each job—is especially important. Employers seeking to lure away another organization’s employees often do so by offering higher pay. Benefits, such as insurance and vacation time, are also important, but employees often have difficulty measuring their worth. Therefore, although benefits influence job satisfaction, employees may not always consider them as much as pay itself.