In a recent survey, human resource directors were surveyed to find out attitude towards job candidates showing exposure to Ethics courses. In that survey, 36% of the directors identify as female. We also know that of the female directors, 90% think it is important to take an ethics course and 25% of the male directors did NOT think it was important.

a. What is the probability that out of everybody, a director is both female and does think it is important to have an Ethics course?

b. What is the probability that a director is both male and does not think it is important or both of these events occur?

c. What is the probability that a director identifies as female, given that they think an ethics course is unimportant?

Scenario A manufacturing company has been producing and selling industrial product (cannot consumed by human/animal) to its customers in West Malaysia. The company owns only one factory which consists of 5 departments: Storage, Production, Maintenance, Quality Control and Warehouse. During the last few months, the company has been experiencing the rapid increase in manufacturing costs despite of constant in production output. The Management has decided to engage you and your group as a consultant to investigate the problem.

Additional information: Fuctions of the departments:

a) Storage: receiving, storing and preparing raw materials before production.

b) Production: carrying out different stages of processes in converting raw materials to competed product.

c) Maintenance: focusing mainly on the machines/tools/equipment used in Storage and Production departments.

d) Quality Control: checking the completed product to meet customer expectation/quality standard.

e) Warehouse: receiving approved completed product from production department and preparing for shipment

1. Storage department: (The boss asks you: How do you know?)

1. How many types/volume of raw materials have been received/or rejected?
2. How to ensure the quality of the raw materials meet the standard upon receipt?
3. How many/types of raw materials are issued out to production?
4. How much wastes have occurred after the raw materials are being handled before storage?
5. Any delay of shipment?
6. How the waste is kept and disposed
7. How to maintain the quality of raw materials while they are still at storage?
8. Etc, etc

2. Production department: (The boss asks you: How do you know?)

1. How many types of work-in-progress have been completed?
2. How many machines/equipment break down?
3. How many types of raw materials sent from Storage department are defective?
4. How many types of work-in-progress become defective when the whole assembly line break down?
5. How much/many types of work-in-progress become defective due to machine failure and human error?
6. How is the defective work-in-progress disposed?
7. How many types/volume of raw materials sent from Storage department?
8. How is the rejected finished goods (rejected by quality control department) handled?

A Human Resources Director has created two different online training tutorials for newly hired employees. The employees must pass a test before they can work with clients. The director wants to know if one tutorial is more effective than the other. The director collects the following sample data for the test scores:

Test at the 5% level (with 80 degrees of freedom) if tutorial 1 leads to higher mean scores than tutorial 2.

1. What is the null hypothesis?
2. What is the alternative hypothesis?
3. What is the critical t value?
4. What is the test statistic (a.k.a. calculated value of the t-statistic)?
5. What is your decision? Fail to reject the null hypothesis or Reject the null hypothesis.
6. What is your conclusion? It is likely Tutorial 1 is equally effective as Tutorial 2; It is likely Tutorial 1 is less effective than Tutorial 2; or It is likely Tutorial 1 is more effective than Tutorial 2.

When Song Mei Hui moved from being Vice President for Human Resources at Pierce & Pierce in Shanghai to her international assignment in New York, she was struck by the difference in perception of Pierce & Pierce as an employer in China and the United States. Pierce & Pierce in China stands for an attractive and popular place to work, as opposed to its image as an employer in the United States, which was one of an unattractive, traditional, and uninspiring place of work. This difference in perception was bothering Song Mei Hui, because a strong and appealing ‘employer brand’ has the capacity to attract (and retain) talent as denoted by the number of university graduates aspiring to work for companies such as SAS, Google, Cisco, and the Boston Consulting Group.According to Song Mei Hui, the drivers of employer attractiveness have evolved into a complex and challenging set in this day and age. Even though she believes that the success of the organization itself is at the cornerstone of being an attractive employer (and Pierce & Pierce is flourishing indeed), she feels that a wide variety of factors contribute to being successful in attracting and retaining talent. “For many employees, being a part of a profitable, thriving corporation is a reward on its own,” she says. “However, this is obviously not enough. Opportunities for empowerment, a feeling of achievement, a substantial compensation package, and a culture of grooming and development also play a major role in the decision making process of today’s young professionals. Job candidates are looking for a career, and not just for a job.”Song Mei Hui has hired a graduate student in management, Timothy Brice, to develop and test a model of employer attraction. The results of Timothy’s study should help Pierce & Pierce to become more popular as an employer in the United States and hence to attract and retain talented young professionals. Timothy has conducted a literature review and in-depth interviews with graduate students and young professionals who have just started their careers in order to establish the drivers of employer attractiveness. Based on the results of the literature review and the qualitative study, he has developed the following model. he effect of Brand Image on Employer attraction Employer brand image can be defined as the potential applicants’ perceptions of instrumental and symbolic attributes of an organization (cf. Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004; Lievens and Highhouse, 2003; Lievens, 2007; Martin, Beaumont, Doig and Pate, 2005). The instrumental dimension includes tangible attributes related to the job and/or the organization such as ‘job opportunities’, whereas the symbolic dimension includes (the perception of) intangible attributes of an employer (as if it were a person) such as ‘sincerity’ and ‘being exciting’. Both instrumental and symbolic attributes have been found to affect applicant attraction to an employer (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004; Cable and Turban, 2001; Turban and Greening, 1997). Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed:H1a: The more positive the perception of instrumental attributes of an employer, the stronger applicant attraction to the organization. H1b: The more positive the perception of symbolic attributes of an employer, the stronger applicant attraction to the organization. Feelings of significant others.If significant others in someone‘s surrounding (e.g., family and friends) tell this person that a company is a much better employer than other employers, someone’s level of attraction to Instrumental attributes:-Workplace atmosphere-Job opportunities-Industry characteristicsEmployer attractionSymbolic attributes:-Excitement-Sincerity-PrestigeSubjective norms that particular organization will grow. It is generally recognized that potential applicants often consult other people (e.g., family, friends, and/or acquaintances) about jobs and organizations(e.g., Van Hoye and Lievens, 2007)”. What’s more, Turban (2001) found that university personnel’s beliefs about organizations affect students’ attraction to that organization. Kilduff (1990) also found that in the early stages of job search, college students are heavily influenced by the beliefs of their friends and classmates. These findings all point at the relevance of social influences to potential applicants in influencing the level of employer attraction. Hence, the following hypothesis is proposed: H2: The more positive significant others are about an organization, the stronger applicant attraction to the organization. To test these hypotheses, Timothy has undertaken a quantitative field study. He has collected data using a questionnaire measuring the variables in his model and a couple of respondent characteristics such as age, gender, and level of education with closed-ended questions.

Suppose that multicollinearty is a problem in this study. What can Timothy do about it?

Do you expect that multicollinearty is a problem? Explain

You manage Human Relations for your company. One of your sales managers has retired, leaving an opening. You are considering two different employees for the position. Both are highly qualified so you have decided to evaluate their sales performance for the past year.

Use the Week 4 Data Set to create and calculate the following in Excel^®:

Determine the range of values in which you would expect to find the average weekly sales for the entire sales force in your company 90% of the time.

Calculate the impact of increasing the confidence level to 95%?

Calculate the impact of increasing the sample size to 150, assuming the same mean and standard deviation, but allowing the confidence level to remain at 90%?   

Based on the calculated confidence interval for weekly sales on the sample of 50 reps at a 90% confidence level:

Calculate both Reps' average weekly performance and highlight if it is greater than the population mean.

You want to determine whether there is a statistically different average weekly sales between Sales Rep A and Sales Rep B.

Create Null and Alternative Hypothesis statements that would allow you to determine whether their sales performance is statistically different or not.

Use a significance level of .05 to conduct a t-test of independent samples to compare the average weekly sales of the two candidates.

Calculate the p-value?

Considering that individual you did not promote:

Determine whether this person's average weekly sales are greater than the average weekly sales for the 50 sales reps whose data you used to develop confidence intervals.

Create Null and Alternative Hypothesis statements that would allow you to determine whether the new Sales Manager's weekly average sales are greater than the sample of Sales Reps.

Use a significance level of .05 to conduct a t-test of independent samples to compare the average weekly sales of both.

Calculate the p-value?

Human Resource Management researchers examined the impact of environment on employee development. Employees were randomly assigned one of the following four workplace types/conditions: Impoverished (isolated cubicles each with bare minimum equipment - chair, desk & computer), standard (cubicles placed hear each other, equipped with a 'normal level' of office equipment - printer, shelves, manuals, stationery, etc.), enriched (standard cubicles plus regular work-related meetings), super enriched (enriched environment plus regular non-work-related social events).

Employees were also categorized by function they performed for the company (engineering, sales, manufacturing, etc.), because it's possible that functional background may have been a bigger association with test score than working condition.  

After two months, the employees were tested on a variety of work-relevant learning measures. Use the Microsoft Excel "Anova: Two-Factor Without Replication" Data Analysis tool to conduct a 2-way ANOVA test for the data in the following table:

1. What level of significance did you choose and why?
2. What are your F_crit values?
3. If there is a significant difference between working conditions, where specifically are the differences?
4. If there is a significant difference among employee functions, where specifically are the differences?

Assingment

Step One: Perform a library search and locate research studies performed on human ergonomics. Look for studies that would relate specifically to healthcare such as mobile carts, beside terminals, desk, chairs, computer screens, etc.

Step Two: As the HIM director, you have been informed that your department will be moved to a different location. As part of the move, your department will be given all new furniture and equipment. You have been asked for your recommendations.

Step Three: Create a 3-minute voice-over powerpoint presentation which outlines your choice of department equipment. Support the rational for your choice of equipment with the information that you learned about ergonomics. Your poweroint should contain:

Identify the equipment of your choice

The ergonomics support reasoning

Be at least 15 slides in length (not counting title and reference slides)

Case Analysis

The Senior Vice President of Human Resources has just informed you that she would like for you to research various HRM practices of Fortune 500 companies. This research will be presented to the board of trustees next month. They want to review other company’s best practices to help them realign their strategic initiatives. In organizational studies, the process of reviewing other organizations’ best practices and adapting them to one’s own organization is called “benchmarking.”

Begin by identifying 2 organizations listed in the current Fortune 500. Once you have identified those companies, research best practices used by those organizations, paying particular attention to these HRM functional areas:

·      Recruitment

·      Training & Development

·      Employee/Labor Relations

·      Performance Management

·      Compensation & Benefits

Research hints…

In addition to searching for the specific organization’s name “and best practices” or “best HRM practices,” you might find it helpful to search for the specific organization name “and recruitment.” “Specific organization name and training & development,” and so forth. For example, if CVS is one of your organizations, search terms could include:

·      CVS and best practices

·      CVS and best HRM practices

·      CVS and Recruitment

·      CVS and Training & Development

·      CVS and Employee Labor Relations

·      CVS and Performance Management

·      CVS and Compensation

·      CVS and Employee Benefits

You can follow the above search patterns for the other organizations you select.

As a result of your research, you should synthesize at least two best practices for each of the HRM functional areas.

To begin your paper, provide a summary of key details about the organizations you are using to benchmark HRM best practices. Who are the organizations? What do they do? Why are they a good candidate for benchmarking?

For the next section of your paper, evaluate the pros and cons of the best practices you have benchmarked in each functional area. For example, if CVS uses external recruitment, what are some advantages and disadvantages of external recruitment?

For the final section of your paper, justify the top best practices recommendation in each HRM functional area that you will make to the board of trustees. What type of recruitment, training, employee/labor relations, performance rewards, and compensation will you recommend based on the best practices of the two organizations presented in your paper?

Hint: Based upon your evaluation of those best practices in the earlier sections of the paper, summarize the key arguments and research support for your recommended practices to justify them to the board.

Your employer, a mid-sized human resources management company, is considering
expansion into related fields, including the acquisition of Temp Force Company, an
employment agency that supplies word processor operators and computer programmers
to businesses with temporary heavy workloads. Your employer is also considering the
purchase of a Biggerstaff & Biggerstaff (B&B), a privately held company owned by two
brothers, each with 5 million shares of stock. B&B currently has free cash flow of $24
million, which is expected to grow at a constant rate of 5%. B&B’s financial statements
report marketable securities of $100 million, debt of $200 million, and preferred stock of
$50 million. B&B’s WACC is 11%. Answer the following questions.
a. Describe briefly the legal rights and privileges of common stockholders.
b. (1) Write out a formula that can be used to value any stock, regardless of its dividend
pattern.
(2) What is a constant growth stock? How are constant growth stocks valued?
(3) What happens if a company has a constant g that exceeds its rs? Will many stocks
have expected g > rs in the short run (i.e., for the next few years)? In the long run
(i.e., forever)?
c. Assume that Temp Force has a beta coefficient of 1.2, that the risk-free rate (the yield
on T-bonds) is 7.0%, and that the market risk premium is 5%. What is the required
rate of return on the firm’s stock?
d. Assume that Temp Force is a constant growth company whose last dividend (D0,
which was paid yesterday) was $2.00 and whose dividend is expected to grow
indefinitely at a 6% rate.
(1) What is the firm’s current estimated intrinsic stock price?
(2) What is the stock’s expected value 1 year from now?
(3) What are the expected dividend yield, the expected capital gains yield, and the
expected total return during the first year?

Your employer, a mid-sized human resources management company, is considering expansion into related fields, including the acquisition of Temp Force Company, an employment agency that supplies word processor operators and computer programmers to businesses with temporary heavy workloads. Your employer is also considering the purchase of Bigger staff & McDonald (B&M), a privately held company owned by two friends, each with 5 million shares of stock. B&M currently has free cash flow of $24 million, which is expected to grow at a constant rate of 5%. B&M's financial statements report short-term investments of $100 million, debt of $200 million, and preferred stock of $50 million. B&M's weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is 11%. Using this information answer the following question:

You have just learned that B&M has undertaken a major expansion that will change its expected free cash flows to -10 million in 1 year, $20 million in 2 years, and $35 million in 3 years. After 3 years, free cash flow will grow at a rate of 5%. No new debt or preferred stock was added; the investment was financed by equity from the owners. Assume the WACC is unchanged at 11% and that there are still 10 million shares of stock outstanding.

(1) What is the company's horizon value (its value of operations at year3)? What is its current value of operations (at time 0)

(2) What is its estimated intrinsic value of equity on a price-per-share basis?