Management

Midterm 1 Study Guide

Overview: first midterm includes materials cover from Session1B to Session 3B

Cases:

Be familiar with the general message and situation in each case (know the themes of the stories)

• Delta Pride (catfish) Article

• Why do we hate HR?

Session 2A&B&C: Strategic HR

• Forms of relationships between HR & strategy – administrative linkage, one-way linkage, two-way linkage, integrative linkage (see textbook)

• Sustainable competitive advantage vs. operational effectiveness/efficiency

• what they mean, types of business actions that fall under each, role of strategy

• Procedure of strategy (see text for 4-5 steps and a diagram)

• Shifting focus of strategy – external to internal, tangible to intangible

• What the shifts consist of and why they happened

• Be familiar with strategically valuable characteristics of humans

• Resource-based View of the Firm (VRIN)

• Fit/alignment of HR practices to strategy and strategy to external environment

• What that means and why it’s important

• Dual nature of employment

• Discretionary effort – what it is, why its important, ways to encourage it

• Commitment vs control system, knowing what the characteristics of the systems are and how they differ from each other, and what are the possible case examples you can think of?

• Portable vs. firm-specific skills

• 3 views of HRM systems and performance

• Why do we hate HR? What are the common arguments about HR function? How can HR get themselves on the “seats”?

• Underutilization analysis

• Employment at will – pros, cons

• Pros and cons of employment law

• Ways to correct labor problems with employment law

Note: Topics in bold are the potential essay question topics.

Good luck!!!