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Glossary of Terms in Employment, Risk Management and Human Resources Development

123  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z


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360-degree feedback evaluation:
An increasingly popular appraisal method that involves evaluation input from multiple levels within the firm and external sources as well.
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401(k) plan:
A defined contribution plan in which employees may defer income up to a maximum amount allowed.
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A
Absolute judgment:
An appraisal format that asks supervisors to make judgments about an employee’s performance based solely on performance standards.
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Acceleration pools:
A management succession planning system that develops a group of high-potential candidates for undefined executive jobs and focus on increasing their skills and knowledge rather than targeting one or two people for each senior management position.
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Action learning:
A training technique by which management trainees are allowed to work full-time analyzing and solving problems in other departments.
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ADA and Rehabilitation Act:
Protects from employment discrimination those who are disables but can still perform a job, with or without the need for reasonable accommodation that does not cause the employer undue hardship. As long as an individual with a disability is otherwise qualified for a position, with or without reasonable accommodation, the employer may not make an adverse employment decision solely on the basis of the disability.
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Adverse employment action:
Any action or omission that takes away a benefit, opportunity, or privilege of employment from an employee.
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Adverse impact:
The overall impact of employer practices that result in significantly higher percentages of members of minorities and other protected groups being rejected for employment, placement, or promotion.
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Advertising:
A way of communicating the firm’s employment needs to the public through media such as radio, newspaper, or industry publications.
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Affinity orientation:
An attraction by one person to another for personal and intimate relationships.
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Affirmative action:
Steps that are taken for the purpose of eliminating the present effects of past discrimination. Stipulated by Executive Order 11246, it requires employers to take positive steps to ensure employment of applicants and treatment of employees during employment without regard to race, creed, color, or national origin.
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Affirmative action program (AAP):
A program that an organization develops to employ women and minorities in proportion to their representation in the firm’s relevant labor market. A strategy intended to achieve fair employment by urging employers to hire certain groups of people who were discriminated against in the past.
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AFL-CIO:
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations is a voluntary federation of about 100 national and international labor unions in the United States.
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Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1967):
The act prohibiting arbitrary age discrimination and specifically protecting individuals over 40 years old.
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Agency shop:
A labor agreement provision requiring, as a condition of employment, that each nonunion member of a bargaining unit pay the union the equivalent of membership dues, on the assumption that union efforts benefit all workers, as a service charge in return for the union acting as the bargaining agent.
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AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome):
A disease that undermines the body’s immune system, leaving the person susceptible to a wide range of fatal diseases.
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Alcoholism:
A treatable disease characterized by uncontrolled and compulsive drinking that interferes with normal living patterns.
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Alternation ranking method:
Ranking employees from best to worst on a particular trait.
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Alternative dispute resolution (ADR):
A procedure agreed to ahead of time by the employee and the company for resolving any problems that may arise.
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Americans with Disabilities Act (1990):
The act requiring employers to make reasonable accommodation for disabled employees. It prohibits discrimination against disabled persons.
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Anti-retaliation provision:
Provision making it illegal to treat an employee adversely because the employee pursued his or her rights under an employment law, e.g. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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Applicant tracking system (ATS):
A system that automates online recruiting and selection processes.
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Application form:
The form that provides information on education, prior work record, and skills.
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Appraisal interview:
An interview in which the supervisor and subordinate review the appraisal and make plans to remedy deficiencies and reinforce strengths.
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Apprenticeship:
A program in which promising prospective employees are groomed before they are actually hired on a permanent basis.
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Apprenticeship training:
A combination of classroom instruction and on-the-job training.
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Arbitration:
A process in which a dispute is submitted to an impartial third party for a binding decision.
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Assessment center:
A selection technique used to identify and select employees for positions in the organization that requires individuals to perform activities similar to those they might encounter in an actual job.
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Assumption of the risk:
A defense to a negligence action based on the argument that the injured party voluntarily exposed him/herself to a known danger created by the other party’s negligence.
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Attitude survey:
A survey of employees feelings about topics such as the work they perform, their supervisor, their work environment, flexibility in the workplace, opportunities for advancement, training and development opportunities, and the firm’s compensation system.
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Attrition:
An employment policy designed to reduce the company’s workforce by not refilling job vacancies that are are created by turnover.
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At-will-employment:
An employment relationship where there is no contractual obligation to remain in the relationship and either party may terminated relationship for any reason or without a reason as long as the reason is not prohibited by law or public policy, such as discrimination.
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Authority:
The right to make decisions, to direct the work of others, and to give orders.
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Authorization cards:
A document indicating that an employee wants to be represented by a labor organization in collective bargaining. In order to petition for a union election, the union must show that at least 30 percent of employees may be interested in being unionized. Employees indicate this interest by signing authorization cards.
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Autonomy:
The extents of individual freedom and discretion employees have in performing their jobs.
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Availability:
Minorities and women in a geographic area who are qualified for a particular position.
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Availability forecast:
A process of determining whether a firm will be able to secure employees with the necessary skills from within the company, from outside the organization, or from a combination of the two sources.
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B
Back pay:
Money awarded for time employee was not working (usually due to termination) because of illegal discrimination.
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Bargaining unit:
A group of employees, not necessarily union members, recognized by an employer or certified by an administrative agency as appropriate for representation by a labor organization for purposes of collective bargaining. The group of employees the union will be authorized to represent.
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Base compensation:
The fixed pay an employee receives on a regular basis, either in the form of a salary or as an hourly wage.
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Beachhead demands:
Demands that the union does not expect management to meet when they are first made.
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Behavior modeling:
A training technique in which trainees are first shown good management techniques in a film, are then asked to play roles in a simulated situation, and are then given feedback and praise by their supervisor. A training method that utilizes videotapes to illustrate effective interpersonal skills and the ways managers function in various situations.
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Behavioral appraisal rating scales (BARS):
A performance appraisal tool that asks managers to assess a worker’s behaviors on a sliding scale.
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Behavioral interview:
A structured interview where applicants are asked to relate actual incidents from their past relevant to the target job.
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Benchmark or key job:
A well-known job in the company and industry and one performed by a large number of employees.
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Benefits:
All financial rewards that generally are not paid directly to an employee. Indirect financial payments given to employees. They may include, for instance, health and life insurance, vacation, pension, education plans, and discounts on company products.
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BFOQ:
Bona Fide Occupational Qualification. Requirement that an employee be of a certain religion, sex, or national origin where that is reasonably necessary to the organization’s normal operation. A characteristic that must be present in all employees for a particular job. Bi-gender affinity orientation: Someone attracted to both genders. Bisexuality.
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Bi-gender affinity orientation:
Someone attracted to both genders. Bisexuality.
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Biofeedback:
A method of learning to control involuntary bodily processes, such as blood pressure or heart rate.
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Board interview:
A meeting in which several representatives of a company interview a candidate in one or more sessions.
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Bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ):
Legalized permissible discrimination based upon qualification to perform the job based upon the needs of the employer's particular business.
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Bonus (lump sum payment):
A one-time award that is not added to employees’ base pay. A financial incentive that is given on a one-time basis and does not raise the employee’s base pay permanently.
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Bottom-up approach:
A forecasting method beginning with the lowest organizational units and progressing upward through an organization ultimately to provide an aggregate forecast of employment needs.
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Boycott:
Refusal by union member employee to use or buy their firm’s (employer’s) products.
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Brain drain:
The loss of highly talented key personnel to competitors or start-up ventures.
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Brainstorming:
A creativity training technique in which participants are given the opportunity to generate ideas freely and openly without fear of judgment or criticism.
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Broadbanding:
A compensation technique that collapses many pay grades (salary grades) into a few wide bands in order to improve organizational effectiveness.
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Bureaucratic organizational structure:
A pyramid-shaped organizational structure that consists of hierarchies with many levels of management.
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Burnout:
A stress syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. The total depletion of physical and mental resources caused by excessive striving to reach an unrealistic work-related goal. An incapacitating condition in which individuals lose a sense of the basic purpose and fulfillment of their work.
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Business agent:
The representative of a union, usually craft.
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Business games:
Simulations, computer-based or non-computer-based, that attempt to duplicate selected factors in a particular business situation, which the participants manipulate.
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Business necessity:
Justification for an otherwise discriminatory employment practice provided there is an overriding legitimate business purpose.
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Business process reengineering (BPR):
A fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, service, and speed.
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Business unit strategy:
The formation and implementation of strategies by a firm that is relatively autonomous, even if it is part of a larger corporation.
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Byline strike:
Newspaper writers withhold their names from stories.
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C
Capitation:
An approach to health care in which providers negotiate a rate for health care for a covered life over a period of time.
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Career development:
An ongoing process whereby an individual sets career goals and identifies the means to achieve them.
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Career:
A general course that a person chooses to pursue throughout his or her working life.
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Career path:
A chart showing the possible directions and career opportunities available in an organization; it presents the steps in a possible career and a plausible timetable for accomplishing them.
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Career resource center:
A collection of career development materials such as workbooks, tapes, training materials, and texts.
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Career security:
Requires developing marketable skills and expertise that help ensure employment within a range of careers.
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Carpal tunnel syndrome:
A condition caused by repetitive flexing and extension of the wrist.
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Case study:
A training method in which trainees are expected to study the information provided in the case and make decisions based on it.
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Case study method:
A development method in which the manager is presented with a written description of an organizational problem to diagnose and solve.
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Cash balance plan:
A plan with elements of both defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans.
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Central tendency:
A common error in performance appraisal that occurs when employees are incorrectly rated near the average or middle of a scale. A tendency to rate all employees the same way, avoiding the high and the low ratings.
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Checkoff of dues:
An agreement by which a company agrees to withhold union dues from members’ paychecks and to forward the money directly to the union.
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Citations:
Summons informing employers and employees of the regulations and standards that have been violated in the workplace.
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Civil rights:
Those rights that belong to every citizen of the state or country, or, in a wider sense, to all its inhabitants. A term applied to certain rights secured by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Thirteenths and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution and by various acts of Congress. They include the rights of personal security, liberty, life, limb, body, health, reputation, property, protection by the laws, freedom of contract, and trial by jury.
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Civil Rights Act of 1964:
This act makes it an unlawful practice for an employer to discriminate against any individual with respect to hiring, compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of race, color, sex, or national origin.
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Civil Rights Act of 1991:
This act places the burden of proof back on employers and permits compensatory and punitive damages.
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Claimant or charging party:
The person who brings an action alleging violation of Title VII or some other anti-discrimination statute.
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Classification method:
A job evaluation method in which classes or grades are defined to describe a group of jobs.
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Closed shop:
A form of union security in which the company can hire only union members. This was outlawed in 1947, but still exists in some industries (such as printing). An arrangement making union membership a prerequisite for employment. Coaching / understudy method: A method of on-the-job training where an experienced worker, or the trainee’s supervisor, trains the employee.
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COBRA:
Legislation that gives employees the right to continue their health insurance coverage for 18 to 36 months after employment has terminated.
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Cognitive aptitude tests:
Tests that measure an individual’s ability to learn as well as to perform a job.
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Coinsurance or copayment:
Payment made to cover health care expenses that are split between the employer’s insurance company and the insured employee.
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Coinsurance or copayment:
Payment made to cover health care expenses that are split between the employer’s insurance company and the insured employee.
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Collective bargaining:
The performance of the mutual obligation of the employer and the representative of the employees to meet at reasonable times and confer in good faith with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment, or the negotiation of an agreement, or any question arising there under, and the execution of a written contract incorporating any agreement reached if requested by either party; such obligation does not compel either party to agree to a proposal or require the making of a concession. The process through which representatives of management and the union meet to negotiate a labor agreement.
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Common law:
Law made and applied by judges.
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Conciliation:
Attempt to reach agreement through discussion, without resort to litigation. An attempt to reach a negotiated settlement between the employer and an employee or applicant in an EEO case.
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Concurrent validity:
A validation method in which test scores and criterion data are obtained at essentially the same time.
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Comp time:
Compensatory time off given to an employee who works over a certain amount of hours given in lieu of overtime pay.
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Comparability:
In performance ratings the degree to which the performance ratings given by various supervisors in an organization are similar. Comparable worth:
A Title VII claim for pay discrimination based on gender, in which jobs held by women are compared with similar jobs held mostly by men who are paid more than the women, used to determine if there is gender discrimination.
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Compelled self-publication:
Occurs when an ex-employee is forced to repeat the reason for his / her termination and thereby makes a claim for defamation.
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Compensable factors:
A fundamental, compensable element of a job, such as skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. Work-related criteria that an organization considers most important in assessing the relative value of different jobs.
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Compensation:
The total of all rewards provided employees in return for their labor.
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Compensation policy:
Polices that provide general guidelines for making compensation decisions.
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Compensation survey:
A means of obtaining data regarding what other firms are paying for specific jobs or job classes within a given labor market.
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Compensatory damages:
Money awarded to compensate the injured party for direct losses.
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Competencies:
Characteristics associated with successful performance including a broad range of knowledge, skills, traits and behaviors that may be technical in nature, relate to interpersonal skills, or be business oriented.
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Competency-based pay:
A compensation plan that rewards employees for their demonstrated expertise.
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Competitive advantage:
Any factor that allows an organization to differentiate its product or service from those of its competitors to increase market share.
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Compressed workweek:
Any arrangement of work hours that permits employees to fulfill their work obligation in fewer days than the typical five-day workweek.
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Computer-based training:
A teaching method that takes advantage of the speed, memory, and data manipulation capabilities of the computer for greater flexibility of instruction.
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Conciliation:
Attempt to reach agreement through discussion, without resort to litigation.
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Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA):
Legislation that gives employees the right to continue their health insurance coverage for 18 to 36 months after employment has terminated.
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Conspiracy:
The combination of two or more persons who band together to prejudice the rights of others or of society (such as by refusing to work or demanding higher wages).
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Construct validity:
A test validation method to determine whether a selection test measures certain traits or qualities that have been identified as important in performing a particular job.
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Constructive discharge:
Occurs when the employee is given no reasonable alternative but to terminate the employment relationship because of illegal activity toward the employee. The ‘I quit’ is considered an involuntary act on the part of the employee.
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Content validity:
A test validation method whereby a person performs certain tasks that are actual samples of the kind of work a job requires or completes a paper-and-pencil test that measures relevant job knowledge. A test that is content-valid is one in which the test contains a fair sample of the tasks and skills actually needed for the job in question.
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Contingency search firms:
A search firm that receive fees only upon successful placement of a candidate in a job opening.
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Contingent workers:
Workers hired to deal with temporary increases in an organization’s workload or to do work that is not part of its core set of capabilities. Employees who work as part-timers, temporaries, or independent contractors.
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Continual training requirement:
OSHA requires that the employer provide safety training to all new employees and to all employees who have been transferred into new positions.
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Contract:
A legally binding promise between two or more competent parties that the law will enforce and for the breach of which the law provides a remedy.
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Contractual right:
A right based on the law of contracts.
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Contributory negligence:
A defense to a negligence action based upon the injured party's failure to exercise reasonable care for his / her own safety.
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Controlled experimentation:
Formal methods for testing the effectiveness of a training.
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Corporate labor campaigns:
Labor maneuvers that do not coincide with a strike or organizing campaign to pressure an employer for better wages, benefits, and the like.
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Corporate management compliance evaluation:
Evaluation of mid- and senior-level employee advancement.
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Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA):
Pay raises, usually made across the board, that are tied to such inflation indicators as the consumer price index. An escalator clause in a labor agreement that automatically increases wages as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ cost-of-living index rises.
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Country’s culture:
The set of values, symbols, beliefs, languages, and norms that guide human behavior within a country.
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Covenant of good faith and fair dealing:
Implied contractual obligation to act in good faith in the fulfillment of each party's contractual duties of employment.
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Craft union:
A bargaining unit, such as the Carpenters and Joiners union, which is typically composed of members of a particular trade or skill in a specific locality.
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Criterion validity:
A type of validity based on showing that scores on the test (predictors) are related to job performance.
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Criterion-related validity:
A test validation method that compares the scores on selection tests to some aspect of job performance determined, for example, by performance appraisal.
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Critical incident method:
A performance appraisal technique that requires a written record of highly favorable and highly unfavorable employee work behavior. Keeping a record of uncommonly good or undesirable examples of an employee's work-related behavior and reviewing it with the employee at predetermined times.
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Cross-functional training:
Training employees to perform operation in areas other than their assigned job.
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Culture shock:
The inability to adjust to a different cultural environment.
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Cumulative trauma disorder (CTD):
An occupational injury that occurs from repetitive physical movements, such as assembly-line work or data entry.
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Cyberwork:
A possibility of a never-ending workday created through the use of technology.
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D
De novo review:
Complete new look at an administrative decision by the reviewing court.
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Debar:
Prohibit a federal contractor from further participation in government contracts due to some serious violation of employment or labor law or serious misconduct on a prior project.
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Decentralization:
Transferring responsibility from a central office to people and locations closer to the situation that demands attention.
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Decertification:
Election by a group of employees to withdraw a union’s right to act as their exclusive bargaining representative; the reverse of the process that employees must follow to be recognized as an official bargaining unit.
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Deductible:
An annual out-of-pocket expenditure that an insurance policyholder must make before the insurance plan makes any reimbursements.
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Defamation:
An intentional tort involving the publication of false statements about a person.
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Defendant:
A party against whom a case is brought before the court.
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Defined benefit pension or plan:
A retirement plan that promises to pay a fixed dollar amount of retirement income based on a formula that takes into account the average of the employee’s last three to fives years’ earnings prior to retirement. A plan that defines in advance the amount to be paid to a retiree upon retirement. A retirement plan in which an employer agrees to provide a specific level of retirement income that is either a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of earnings.
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Defined contribution health care system:
A system where companies give each employee a set amount of money annually with which to purchase health care coverage.
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Defined contribution pension or plan:
A retirement plan in which the employer promises to contribute a specific amount of funds into the plan for each participant. A plan that defines the amount of the employee contribution, without a specific amount to be paid at retirement. A retirement plan that requires specific contributions by an employer to a retirement or savings fund established for the employee.
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Demotion:
The process of moving a worker to a lower level of duties and responsibilities; typically involves a pay cut.
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Development:
An effort to provide employees with the abilities the organization will need in the future. Learning that goes beyond today’s job and has a more long-term focus.
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Dimension:
An aspect of performance that determines effective job performance. Direct financial compensation: Pay that a person receives in the form of wages, salary, bonuses, and commissions.
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Disability:
A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of an individual; a record of such impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment.
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Disciplinary action without punishment:
A process in which a worker is given time off with pay to think about whether he or she wants to follow the rules and continue working for the company.
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Disciplinary action:
The invoking of a penalty against an employee who fails to meet organizational standards or comply with organizational rules.
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Discipline:
A procedure that corrects or punishes a subordinate because a rule of procedure has been violated.
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Discrimination:
The making of distinctions. In HR context, the making of distinctions among people based on belonging to a certain group or having certain attributes including race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, or disability.
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Dismissal:
Involuntary termination of an employee’s employment.
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Disparate impact / adverse impact:
Effect of facially neutral policy that is nevertheless harmful to a group protected by a labor or employment law or public policy.
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Disparate treatment:
Treating similarly situated employee differently because of prohibited Title VII factors.
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Disparate impact / Adverse impact:
Effect of facially neutral policy that is nevertheless harmful to a group protected by a labor or employment law or public policy.
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Diversity:
Any perceived difference among people: age, functional specialty, profession, sexual orientation, geographic origin, lifestyle, tenure with the organization, or position.
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Human characteristics that make people different from one another.
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Diversity audit:
A review of the effectiveness of an organization’s diversity management program.
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Diversity management:
Ensuring that factors are in place to provide for and encourage the continued development of a diverse workforce by melding these actual and perceived differences among workers to achieve maximum productivity.
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Diversity training:
A program that provides diversity awareness training and educates employees on specific cultural and sex differences and how to respond to these in the workplace. Attempts to develop sensitivity among employees about the unique challenges facing women and minorities that strives to create a more harmonious working environment.
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Downsizing:
A reduction in the number of people employed by a firm (also known as restructuring, and rightsizing); essentially the reverse of a company growing and suggests a one-time change in the organization and the number of people employed. A company strategy to reduce the scale and scope of its business in order to improve the company’s financial performance. Refers to the process of reducing, usually dramatically, the number of people employed by the firm.
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Dual-career family:
A situation in which both husband and wife have jobs and family responsibilities.
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Due process:
Equal and fair application of a policy or law both in terms of substance and procedure.
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Duty to reasonably accommodate:
The employer's duty to try to find a way to avoid conflict between workplace policies and an employee's religious practices or beliefs or disability.
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E
Economic strike:
A strike that place when and agreement is not reached during collective bargaining.
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EEOC:
The commission, created by Title VII, is empowered to investigate job discrimination complaints and sue on behalf of complainants.
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EEOC investigators:
Employee of the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission who reviews complaints to determine merit.
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E-learning:
An umbrella term describing online instruction.
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Electronic mail (e-mail):
A form of electronic communication that allows employees to communicate with other via electronic messages sent through personal computer terminals or hand-held communication devices such as a cell phone, or PDA, Blackberry which are connected or linked by a network.
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Eligibility testing:
Test an employer administers to ensure that the potential employee is capable and qualified to perform the requirement of the job.
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Employee assistance program (EAP):
A comprehensive approach that many organizations have taken to deal with burnout, alcohol and drug abuse, and other emotional disturbances. A company-sponsored program that helps employees cope with personal problems that are interfering with their job performance.
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Employee attitude survey:
A formal anonymous survey designed to measure employee likes and dislikes of various aspects of their jobs.
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Employee benefit plans:
A plan, fund or program that has been established by an employer to cover benefits for its employees during a medical.
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Employee equity:
A condition that exists when individuals performing similar jobs for the same firm are paid according to factors unique to the employee, such as performance level or seniority.
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Employee feedback program:
A program designed to improve employee communications by giving employees a voice in policy formulations and making sure that they receive due process on any complaints they lodge against managers.
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Employee handbook:
A collection of the terms, conditions or privileges of employment, including pay, work breaks and lunch periods, vacation, medical or sick leave, work assignments, and misconduct, anti-harassment policies, and grievance procedures.
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Employee orientation:
A procedure for providing new employees with basic background information about the firm.
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Employee recognition program:
A program that rewards employees for their ideas and contributions.
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Employee relations policy:
A policy designed to communicate management’s thinking and practices concerning employee-related matters and prevent problems in the workplace to become serious.
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Employee relations representative:
A member of the HR department who ensures that company policies are followed and who consults with both supervisors and employees on specific employee concerns.
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Employee requisition:
A document that specifies a particular job title, the appropriate department, and the date by which an open job should be filled.
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Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA):
This act allows a firm to borrow against employee stock held in trust and then repay the loan in pretax rather than after-tax dollars, which is another tax incentive for using such plans.
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Employee separation:
The termination of an employee’s membership in the employer’s organization.
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Employee stock option (stock ownership) plan (ESOP):
A corporate pay-for-performance plan that rewards employees with company stocks, either an outright grant or at a favorable price that may be below market value. A defined contribution plan where a firm contributes shares of its own stock to a trust into which additional contributions are made annually. The trust distributes the stock to employees on retirement or separation from service.
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Employment agency:
An organization that assists firms in recruiting employees and also aids individuals in their attempts to locate jobs.
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Employment at will:
An unwritten contract created when an employee agrees to work for an employer but no agreement exists as to how long the parties expect the employment to last.
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Employment contract:
A contract that explicitly spells out the terms of the employment relationship for both employee and employer, and generally used to document the employment relationship of the company with higher level executives or key talent.
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Employment interview:
A goal-oriented conversation in which an interviewer and an applicant exchange information.
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Empowerment:
Providing workers with the skills and authority to make decisions that traditionally would be made my managers. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): The federal agency responsible for enforcing equal opportunity and anti-discrimination laws and policies.
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Equal Pay Act of 1963:
The act requiring equal pay for equal work, regardless of sex. An amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act designed to require equal pay for women doing the same work as men.
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Equitable relief:
Relief that is not in the form of money damages, such as injunction, reinstatement, promotion, based upon a concept of justice and fairness.
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Equity:
The perception by workers that they are being treated fairly.
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Ergonomics:
The study of human interaction with tasks, equipment, tools, and the physical work environment.
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Essay method:
A performance appraisal method in which the rater writes a brief narrative describing an employee’s performance.
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Essential functions of a position:
Under ADA, those tasks that are fundamental, or not marginal or unnecessary, to the fulfillment of the job's objectives.
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Ethics:
The discipline dealing with what is good and bad, or right and wrong, or with moral duty and obligation.
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Ethics:
The principles of conduct governing and individual or group.
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Ethnocentric staffing:
A staffing approach that assumes that home-office perspectives and issues should take precedence over local perspectives and issues and that expatriates will be more effective in representing the views of the home office.
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Exclusive provider organization (EPOs):
A managed care option that offers a smaller preferred provider network and usually provides few, if any, benefits when an out-of-network provider is used.
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Executive:
A top-level manager who reports directly to a corporation’s chief executive officer or to the head of a major division.
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Executive order:
A presidential directive that has the force of law. In the HR context, a policy with which all federal agencies, and organizations doing business with the federal government must comply.
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Executive search firms:
Organizations retained by a company to search for the most qualified executive available for a specific position.
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Exempt employees:
Employees who are not covered by the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Those categorized as executive, administrative, or professional employees and outside salespersons.
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Exit interview:
An employee’s final interview following separation. The purpose of the interview is to find out the reasons why the employee is leaving (especially if the separation is voluntary) or to provide counseling and / or assistance in finding a new job. A means of revealing the real reasons employees leave their jobs, providing the organization with information on how to correct the causes of discontent, and reducing employee turnover. The aim is to elicit information that might give the employer a better insight into what is right - or wrong - about the company.
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Expatriate:
An employee who is not a citizen of the country in which the firm is located but is a citizen of the country in which the organization is headquartered.
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Expectancy theory:
A theory of behavior holding that people tend to do those things that are rewarded.
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Exporting:
Selling abroad, either directly or indirectly, by retaining foreign agents and distributors.
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Extended leave:
A benefit that allows an employee to take a long-term leaved from the office, while retaining benefits and a guarantee of a comparable job upon return.
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External environment:
The factors that affect a firm’s human resources from outside the organization’s boundaries.
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External equity:
Payment of employees at rates comparable to those paid for similar jobs elsewhere.
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F
Face validity / facial validity:
An employer-administered test or an employer-mandated rule or policy that looks fair and well suited to its purpose.
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Facially neutral policy:
Workplace policy that applies equally to all appropriate employees.
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Factor comparison method:
A job evaluation method in which raters need not keep an entire job in mind as they evaluate it; instead, they make decisions based on separate aspects or factors of the job.
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Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA):
The fundamental compensation law in the United States. Congress passed this act in 1936 to provide for minimum wages, maximum hours worked by all covered employees, overtime pay, and child labor protection. The law has been amended many times and covers most employees. It defines two categories of employees: exempt and nonexempt.
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Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA):
A federal law that requires employers to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to eligible employees for the birth or adoption of a child, to care for a sick parent, child, or spouse, or to take care of health problems that interfere with job performance. Upon returning from the leave, the employee has the right to return to the same position at the same rate of pay.
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Federal agency guidelines:
Guidelines issued by federal agencies charged with ensuring compliance with federal equal employment legislation explaining recommended employer procedures in detail.
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Federal Violence Against Women Act of 1994:
This act provides that a person who commits a crime of violence motivated by gender and thus deprives another of her rights shall be liable to the party injured.
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Feedback:
The amounts of information employees receive about how well they have performed the job.
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Fellow servant rule:
An employer's defense to liability for an employee's injury where the injury occurred on the job and was caused by the negligence of another employee.
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Fetal protection policies:
Policies an employer institutes to protect the fetus or reproductive capacity of employees.
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Fiduciary:
One who holds a position of trust or confidence for another; one that holds money or property in trust for another.
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Flat organizational structure:
An organizational structure that has only a few levels of management and emphasizes decentralization.
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Flexible compensation plan:
A method that permits employees to choose from among many alternatives in deciding how their financial compensation will be allocated.
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Flexible or cafeteria benefits plan:
A benefits program that allows employees to select the benefits they want or need most from a menu of choices.
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Flextime or flexible work hours:
The practice of permitting employees to choose, with certain limitations, their own working hours. It gives employees control over the starting and ending times of their daily work schedules.
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Flooding the community:
The process of the union inundating communities with organizers to target a particular business.
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Forced distribution method:
An appraisal approach in which the rater is required to assign individuals in a workgroup to a limited number of categories similar to a normal frequency distribution. Similar to grading on a curve; predetermined percentages of the persons rated are placed in various categories.
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Forced-choice performance report:
A performance appraisal technique in which the rater is given a series of statements about an individual and indicates which items are most or least descriptive of the employee.
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Four-fifth rule:
Minority applicants must do at least 80 percent or four-fifths as well as majority on screening test or device or presumption of disparate impact arises and then test or device must then be shown to be job related.
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Franchising:
A multinational option whereby the parent company grants another firm the right to do business in a prescribed manner.
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Free riders:
Bargaining unit employees who do not pay dues but the union is still obligated to represent them.
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Front pay:
Money awarded for time a claimant would have been in a job had illegal discrimination had not occurred to keep him or her out.
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Functional job analysis (FJA):
A comprehensive approach to formulating job descriptions that concentrates on the interactions among the work, the worker, and the work organization.
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Fundamental right:
A right that is guaranteed by the Constitution.
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G
Gainsharing:
Plans designed to bind employees to the firm’s productivity and provide an incentive payment based on improved company performance.
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Gainsharing plan:
An incentive plan that engages employees in a common effort to achieve productivity objectives and share the gains. A pay-for-performance plan in which a portion of the company’s cost savings is returned to workers, usually in the form of a lump sum bonus.
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Gender dysphoria:
The psychological condition of a person's gender being at odds with his or her emotional / psychological gender.
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Gender reassignment / sexual reassignment surgery:
The surgery performed to change a person's gender.
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Gender stereotypes:
The assumption that most or all members of a particular gender act in a certain way.
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General duty clause:
A provision of the OSHA law requiring that employers furnish to teach employee employment and a place of employment free from recognized hazards that cause or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to the employee.
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Generalist:
A person who performs tasks in a variety of human resource-related areas.
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Genetic testing:
Testing that can determine whether a person carries the gene mutation for certain diseases, including heart disease, colon cancer, breast cancer, and Huntington’s disease.
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Geocentric staffing:
A staffing approach that uses a worldwide integrated business strategy.
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Glass ceiling:
The intangible barrier in an organization that prevents female and minority employees from rising to positions above a certain level and achieving top-level management positions.
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Global corporation (GC):
An organization that has corporate units in a number of countries; the units are integrated to operate as one organization worldwide.
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Global human resource management (GHRM):
The use of global human resources to achieve organizational objectives without regard to geographic boundaries.
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Golden parachute contract:
A perquisite provided for the purpose of protecting executives in the event their firm or they are forced to leave the firm for other reasons.
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Good faith bargaining:
A term that means both parties are communicating and negotiating and that proposals are being matched with counterproposals with both parties making every reasonable effort to arrive at agreements. It does not mean that either party is compelled to agree to a proposal.
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Good faith effort strategy:
One of two basic affirmative action plan strategies. This emphasizes identifying and eliminating the obstacles to hiring and promoting women and minorities on the assumption that eliminating these obstacles will result in increased utilization of women and minorities.
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Graphic rating scale:
A scale that lists a number of traits and a range of performance for each. The employee is then rated by identifying the score that best describes his or her performance for each trait.
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Greater hazard doctrine:
Employer’s defense to an OSHA violation where the hazards of compliance are greater than the hazards of non-compliance, where alternative means of protection are unavailable, and where a variance was not available.
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Grievance procedure:
A systematic step-by-step process designed to settle disputes regarding the interpretation of a labor contract.
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Grievance:
An employee’s dissatisfaction or feeling of personal injustice relating to his or her employment.
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Group interview:
A meeting in which several job applicants interact in the presence of one or more company representatives.
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Guaranteed fair treatment:
Employer programs that are aimed at ensuring that all employees are treated in a fair and equitable manner.
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Guidelines-oriented job analysis (GOJA):
A method that responds to the growing amount of legislation affecting employment decisions by utilizing a step-by-step procedure to describe the work of a particular job classification.
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H
Halo effect:
In performance appraisal, the problem that occurs when a supervisor's rating of a subordinate on one trait biases the rating of that person on other traits.
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Halo error:
The perception by an evaluator that one factor is of paramount importance and then gives a good or bad overall rating to an employee based on this particular factor.
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Hay guide chart-profile method (Hay Plan):
A highly refined version of the point method of job evaluation that uses the factors of know-how, problem solving, accountability, and additional compensable elements.
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Hazard pay:
Additional pay provided to employees who work under extremely dangerous conditions.
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Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA):
A federal law that protects an employee’s ability to transfer between health insurance plans without a gap in coverage due to a preexisting condition.
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Health maintenance organizations (HMOs):
A health-care plan that provides comprehensive medical services for employees and their families at a flat annual rate. Insurance programs provided by companies that cover all services for a fixed fee but control is exercised over which doctors and health facilities may be used.
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Health:
An employee’s freedom from physical or emotional illness.
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Hiring freeze:
An employment policy designed to reduce the company’s workforce by not hiring any new employees into the company.
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HIV:
Human immunodeficiency virus; the virus that causes AIDS.
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Host-country national (HCN):
An employee who is a citizen of the country in which a subsidiary is located, not of the country where the organization is headquartered.
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Hostile environment sexual harassment:
Sexual harassment in which the harasser creates an abusive, offensive, or intimidating environment at work for the victim.
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Hot-stove rule:
A model of disciplinary action that holds that discipline should be immediate, provide ample warning, and be consistently applied to all employees.
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HR audit:
A periodic review of the effectiveness with which a company uses its human resources. Frequently includes an evaluation of the HR department itself.
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Human capital management (HCM):
The task of measuring the cause and effect relationship of various HR programs and policies on the bottom line of the firm.
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Human resource development (HRD):
A major HRM function that consists not only of training and development but also of individual career planning and development activities, organization development, and performance appraisal, an activity that emphasizes T&D needs.
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Human resource information system (HRIS):
A system used to collect, record, story, analyze, and retrieve data concerning an organization’s human resources. Any organized approach for obtaining relevant and timely information on which to base human resource decisions.
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Human resource management (HRM):
The staffing function of the management process. Policies and practices needed to carry out the  people or human resource aspects of a management position, including recruiting, screening, training, rewarding, and appraising. The utilization of a firm’s human resources to achieve organizational objectives.
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Human resource managers:
Individuals who normally act in an advisory (or staff) capacity when working with other (line) managers regarding human resource matters.
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Human resource planning (HRP):
The process of systematically reviewing human resource requirements to ensure that the required numbers of employees, with the required skills, are available when they are needed.
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Human resource strategy:
A firm’s deliberate use of human resources to help it gain or maintain an edge against its competitors in the marketplace.
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Hypnosis:
An altered state of consciousness that is artificially induced and characterized by increased receptiveness to suggestions.
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I
Illegal bargaining items:
Items in collective bargaining that are forbidden by law; for example, the clause agreeing to hire  union members exclusively would be illegal in a right-to-work state.
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Illegal nor mandatory:
Neither party can be compelled against its wishes to negotiate over those items.
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Impairment:
Any physiological disorder or condition & affecting one or more of the following body systems: neurological; musculoskeletal; special sense organs; respiratory, including speech organs; cardiovascular; reproductive; digestive; genitourinary; hemic and lymphatic; skin and endocrine; or any mental or psychological disorder which substantially limits one of life's major activities. (From the EEOC's ADA regulations).
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Implied contract:
A contract that is not expressed, but, instead, is created by the conduct of the parties involved.
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In-basket training:
A simulation in which the participant is asked to establish priorities for and then handle a number of business papers or e-mail messages such as memoranda, reports, and telephone messages, that would typically cross a manager’s desk.
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Incentive plan:
A pay plan that uses variable pay to motivate or give incentive to employees.
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Independent contractor:
Generally, a person who contracts with a principal to perform a task according to his / her own methods, using own machinery, equipment or tools, and who is not under the principal's control regarding the physical details of the work.
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Indexed stock option plan:
A stock option plan that holds executives to a higher standard and requires that increased stock compensation be tied to outperforming peer groups or a market index.
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Indirect financial compensation:
All financial rewards that are not included in direct compensation.
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Individual representation:
A situation in which people prefer to bargain for themselves and ignore the interests of the collective members of the workforce.
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Industrial union:
A bargaining unit that generally consists of all the workers in a particular plant or group of plants.
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Industrial union:
Union with branches at particular workplaces.
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Informational picketing:
The use of union members to display place cards and hand out leaflets usually outside their place of business depicting information the union wants the general public to see.
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In-house development centers:
A company-based method for exposing prospective managers to realistic exercises to develop improved management skills.
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Injunction:
A court order requiring individuals or groups of persons to not perform certain acts that the court has determined will do irreparable harm.
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Injunction:
A prohibiting legal procedure used by employers to prevent certain union activities, such as strikes and unionization attempts.
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Insubordination:
Either a deliberate refusal to obey a direct order from a supervisor or verbal abuse of a supervisor by a worker.
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Insubordination:
Willful disregard or disobedience of the boss’s authority or legitimate orders; criticizing the boss in public.
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Interest arbitration:
Arbitration that involves disputes over the terms of proposed collective bargaining agreements.
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Internal employee relations:
Those human resource management activities associated with the movement of employees within the organization.
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Internal equity:
Payment of employees according to the relative values of their jobs within an organization.
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Internal Revenue Code (IRC):
The code of tax laws that affects how much of their earnings employees can keep and benefits are treated for tax purposes.
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Internet recruiter:
Also called cyber recruiter, is a person whose primary responsibility is to use the Internet in the recruitment process.
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Internship:
A special form of recruitment that involves placing students in temporary jobs with no obligation either by the company to hire the student permanently or by the student to accept a permanent position with the firm following graduation.
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Interview:
A procedure designed to solicit information from a person’s oral responses to oral inquiries. A selection interview is a selection procedure designed to predict future job performance on the basis of applicants’ oral responses to oral inquiries.
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Involuntary separation:
A separation that occurs when an employer decides to terminate its relationship with an employee due to (1) economic necessity, or (2) a poor fit between the employee and the organization.
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IRS test:
List of 20 factors to which the IRS looks to determine whether someone is an employee or an independent contractor
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J
Job:
A group of tasks that must be performed if an organization is to achieve its goals.
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Job aids:
External sources of information, such as pamphlets and reference guides that workers can access quickly when they need help in making a decision or performing a specific task.
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Job analysis schedule (JAS):
A systematic method of studying jobs and occupations; developed by the U.S. Department of Labor.
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Job analysis:
Information regarding the nature of the work associated with a job and the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform that work. Job analysis identifies the tasks, duties and responsibilities of a particular job. The procedure for determining the duties and skill requirements of a job and the kind of person who should be hired for it. The systematic process of determining the skills, duties, and knowledge required for performing specific jobs in an organization.
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Job banding:
The practice of replacing narrowly defined job descriptions with broader categories (bands) of related positions, tasks, duties, and performance objectives.
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Job bidding:
A technique that permits individuals in an organization who believe that they possess the required qualifications to apply for a posted job. Job characteristics theory: Employees experience intrinsic compensation when their jobs rate high on five core job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback.
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Job description:
A written document that identifies, describes, and defines a job in terms of its duties, tasks, responsibilities, working conditions, and specifications.
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Job design:
A process of determining the specific tasks to be performed, the methods used in performing these tasks, and how the job relates to other work in an organization.
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Job enlargement:
A change in the scope of a job so as to provide greater variety to a worker. The process of expanding the duties of a job.
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Job enrichment:
The restructuring of the content and level of responsibility of a job to make it more challenging, meaningful, and interesting to a worker. The process of putting specialized tasks back together so that one person is responsible for producing a whole product or an entire service that gives greater satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment to the employee.
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Job evaluation:
A formal and systematic comparison of jobs to determine the worth of one job relative to another. The process of evaluating the relative value or contribution of different jobs to an organization’s business objectives. That part of a compensation system in which a company determines the relative value of one job in relation to another.
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Job evaluation ranking method:
A method in which the raters examine the description of each job being evaluated and arrange the jobs in order according to their value to the company.
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Job fair:
A recruiting method engaged in by a single employer or group of employers to attract a large number of applicants for interviews.
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Job group analysis:
Combines job titles with similar content, wage rates, and opportunities.
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Job hazard analysis (JHA):
A multi-step process designed to study and analyze a task or job and then break down that task into steps that provide a means of eliminating associated hazards.
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Job hierarchy:
A listing of jobs in order of their importance to the organization, from highest to lowest.
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Job knowledge tests:
Tests designed to measure a candidate’s knowledge of the duties of the job for which he or she is applying.
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Job overload:
A condition that exists when employees are given more work than they can reasonably handle.
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Job posting:
A system in which an organization announces job openings to all employees on a bulletin board, in a company newsletter, or through a phone recording, or computer system. A procedure for communicating to company employees the fact that a job opening exists. Posting notices of job openings on company bulletin boards is an effective internal recruiting method.
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Job pricing:
Placing a dollar value on the worth of a job.
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Job rotation:
The process of rotating workers among different narrowly defined tasks without disrupting the flow of work. A form of OJT management training technique that involves moving a trainee from department to department, from one job to another to broaden his or her experience and identify strong and weak points.
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Job security:
Implies security in one job, often with one company.
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Job sharing:
A work arrangement in which two or more employees divide a job’s responsibilities, hours, and benefits among themselves. The filling of a job by two part-time people who split the duties of one full-time job in some agreed-on manner and are paid according to their contributions.
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Job specification:
A document that outlines the minimum acceptable qualifications a person should possess to perform a particular job. A list of a job’s  human requirements, that is, the requisite education, skills, personality, and so on another product of a job analysis. The worker characteristics needed to perform a job successfully.
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Job underload:
Occurs when employees are given menial, boring tasks to perform.
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Joint venture:
In business the formation of a new firm by two or more companies to undertake a large or complex project requiring many resources.
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Judicial affirmative action:
Affirmative action ordered by the court rather than arising from Executive Order 11246.
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Judicial review:
Court review of an agency’s decision.
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Just-in-time training:
Training provided anytime, anywhere in the world and just when it is needed.
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K
Knowledge worker: A worker who transform information into a product or service.
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Knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs):
The knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform a job successively.
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Knowledge-based pay or skill-based pay:
A pay system in which employees are paid on the basis of the jobs they can do or talents they have that can be successfully applied to a variety of tasks and situations.
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L
Labor contract:
A union contract that spells out the condition of employment and work rules that affect employees in the unit represented by the union.
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Labor demand:
The size of workforce the organization will need in the future.
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Labor market:
The geographic area from which employees are recruited for a particular job.
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Labor relations specialist:
Someone, often a member of the HR department, who is knowledgeable about labor relations and can represent management’s interests to a union.
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Labor supply:
The availability of workers with the required skills to meet the firm’s labor demand.
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Landrum-Griffin Act (1959):
A law designed to protect union members and their participation in union affairs.
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Layoff:
A situation in which there is a temporary shortage of work, and employees are told there is no work for them but that management intends to recall them when work is again available.
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Learning organization:
An organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights. Firms that recognize the critical importance of continuous performance-related training and development and takes appropriate action.
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Leniency:
Giving an undeserved high performance appraisal rating to an employee.
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Licensing:
A global arrangement whereby an organization grants a foreign firm the right to use intellectual properties such as patents, copyrights, manufacturing processes, or trade names for a specific period of time.
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Line employee:
An employee involved directly in producing the company’s good(s) or delivering the service(s).
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Line manager:
Authorized to direct the work of subordinates–they’re always someone’s boss. In addition, line managers are in charge of accomplishing the organization’s basic goals.
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Liquidated damages:
A predetermined amount of damages. As used in the ADEA, liquidated damages are equal to the unpaid wage and are available in cases involving  willful violations of the statute.
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Local union:
The basic element in the structure of the U.S. labor movement.
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Lockout:
A management decision to keep employees out of the workplace and to operate with management personnel and/or temporary replacements.
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Lockout:
A refusal by the employer to provide opportunities to work. Management does not allow employees to come to work.
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M
Major life activities:
 functions such as caring for one’s self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning and working. (From the EEOC’s ADA regulations).
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Make-whole relief:
Attempts to put claimant in the position he or she would have been had there been no discrimination.
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Management assessment center:
A situation in which management candidates are asked to make decisions in hypothetical situations and are scored on their performance. It usually also involves testing and the use of management games.
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Management by objectives (MBO):
A goal-directed approach to performance appraisal in which workers and their supervisors set goals together for the upcoming evaluation period Involves setting specific measurable goals with each employee and then periodically reviewing the progress made.
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Management by walking around (MBWA):
A technique in which managers walk around and talk to employees informally to monitor informal communications, listed to employee grievances and suggestions, and build rapport and morale among the workers.
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Management development:
Any attempt to improve current or future management performance by imparting knowledge, changing attitudes, or increasing skills.
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Management development:
Learning experiences provided by an organization for the purpose of upgrading skills and knowledge required in current and future managerial positions.
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Management games:
A development technique in which teams of managers compete with one another by making computerized decisions regarding realistic but simulated companies.
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Management position description questionnaire (MPDQ):
A form of job analysis designed for management positions that use a checklist method to analyze jobs.
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Manager:
A person who is in charge of others and is responsible for the timely and correct execution of actions that promote his or her unit’s success.
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Mandatory arbitration agreement:
Agreement an employee signs as a condition of employment requiring that any workplace disputes be arbitrated rather than litigated.
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Mandatory bargaining issues:
Bargaining issues that fall within the definition of wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment; refusal to bargain in these areas is grounds for an unfair labor practice charge.
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Mandatory bargaining items:
Items in collective bargaining that a party must bargain over if the other party introduces them–for example, pay.
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Mandatory retirement:
Employee must retire upon reaching a specified age.
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Mandatory subjects of bargaining:
Wages, hours and other conditions of employment, which, by law, must be negotiated between labor and management if there is a union representing employees.
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Market (going) rate:
The average pay that most employers provide for the same job in a particular area or industry.
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Mediation:
A process in which a neutral third party enters and attempts to resolve a labor dispute when a bargaining impasse has occurred.
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Medical savings accounts:
A system that allows employees to set aside pretax money (taken out through payroll deductions throughout the year) to pay for medical bills in the coming year that aren’t covered by their regular health insurance, including costs like deductibles and co-payments.
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Medicare:
A part of the Social Security program that provides health insurance coverage for people aged 65 and over.
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Mentoring:
A developmentally oriented relationship between senior and junior colleagues or peers that involves advising, role modeling, sharing contacts, and giving general support. An approach to advising, coaching, and nurturing, for creating a practical relationship to enhance individual career, personal, and professional growth and development.
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Merit pay:
Any salary increase awarded to an employee based on his or her individual performance. Pay increase given to employees based on their level of performance as indicated in the appraisal. An increase in base pay, normally given once a year The increase is added to the employee’s base pay.
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Minimum wages:
The least amount a covered employee must be paid in hourly wages.
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Modified retirement:
An option that permits older employees to work fewer than their regular hours for a certain period of time proceeding retirement.
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Motivation:
That which energizes, directs, and sustains human behavior. In HRM, a person’s desire to do the best possibly job or to exert the maximum effort to perform assigned tasks.
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Multimedia technology:
A form of electronic communication that integrates voice, video, and text, all of which can be encoded digitally and transported on networks or over the internet.
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Multinational corporation (MNC):
An organization that conducts a large part of its business outside the country in which it is headquartered and has a significant percentage of its physical facilities and employees in other countries
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N
National emergency strikes:
Strikes that might  imperil the national health and safety.
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National Labor Relations Board (NLRB):
Created by the Wagner Act to investigate unfair labor practice charges and to provide for secret-ballot elections and majority rule in determining whether a firm’s employees want a union.
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National Labor Relations Board (NLRB):
The independent federal agency created by the Wagner Act to administer U.S. labor law.
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National origin:
Individual’s ancestor’s place of origin (as opposed to citizenship), or physical, cultural, or linguistic characteristics of the place of ancestry.
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National original discrimination protection:
It is unlawful for an employer to limit, segregate, or classify employees in any way on the basis of nation origin that would deprive them of the privileges, benefits, or opportunities of employment.
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National union:
An organization composed of local unions, which it charters.
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Negligence:
Failure to meet the appropriate standards of care for avoiding unreasonable harm to others.
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Negligent hiring:
Hiring an employee with a history of violent of illegal behavior without conducting background checks or taking proper precautions and then assigning such potentially dangerous person to a position where he or she can inflict harm.
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Negligent referral:
When a former employer fails to offer a warning about a particularly severe problem with a past employee.
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Negligent retention:
When a company keeps persons on the payroll whose records indicate strong potential for wrongdoing.
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Nepotism:
The practice of favoring relatives over others in the workplace in hiring, training, promotions, perks and advancement opportunities.
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No fault:
Liability for injury imposed regardless of who was at fault.
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No reasonable cause:
EEOC finding that a reasonable basis for illegal discrimination exists.
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Noncompete agreement:
An agreement signed by the employee agreeing not to disclose the employer’s confidential information or enter into competition with the employer for a specified period of time and / or within a specified region.
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Nonexempt employee:
An employee who is covered by the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
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Nonfinancial compensation:
The satisfaction that a person receives from the job itself or from the psychological and/or physical environment in which the job is performed.
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Norm:
A frame of reference for comparing an applicant’s performance with that of others.
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Norris-LaGuardia Act:
This law marked the beginning of the era of strong encouragement of unions and guaranteed to each employee the right to bargain collectively  free from interference, restraint, or coercion.
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No-strike, no lock-out clause:
Clause in a collective bargaining agreement that labor and management agree that labor will not strike and management will not stage a lockout.
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O
Objectivity:
The condition that is achieved when all individuals scoring a given test obtain the same results.
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Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA):
A federal law that requires employers to provide a safe and healthy work environment, comply with specific occupational safety and health standards, and keep records of occupational injuries and illnesses.
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Occupational Safety and Health Act:
A law passed by Congress in 1970 “to assure so far as possible every working man and woman in the nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources.”
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Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA):
The agency created within the Department of Labor to set safety and health standards for almost all workers in the United States.
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OFCCP:
This office is responsible for implementing the executive orders and ensuring compliance of federal contractors.
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Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP):
The federal agency responsible for monitoring and enforcing the laws and executive orders that apply to the federal government and its contractors.
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On-the-job training (OJT):
An informal approach to training in which an employee learns job tasks by actually performing them.
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On-the-job training (OJT):
Training a person to learn a job while working at it.
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Open door policy:
An invitation to employees to voice their concerns and complaints about the organization or its policies to upper management and executives without fear of reprisal, retribution or retaliation.
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Open shop:
Employment that is open on equal terms to union members and nonmembers alike. Perhaps the least attractive type of union security from the union’s point of view, the workers decide whether or not to join the union; and those who join must pay dues. Operative employees: All of the workers in a firm except managers and professionals, such as engineers, accountants, and professional secretaries.
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Opinion surveys:
Communication devices that use questionnaires to regularly ask employees their opinions about the company, management, and work life. Organization development (OD): The planned process of improving an organization by developing its structures, systems and processes to improve effectiveness and achieving desired goals.
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Organizational career planning:
The planned succession of jobs worked out by a firm to develop its employees. Organizational challenges: Concerns or problems internal to a firm that impact upon its competitive position in the marketplace or profitability.
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Organizational development (OD):
A method aimed at changing the attitudes, values, and beliefs of employees so that employees can improve the organization. Organizational fit: Management’s perception of the degree to which the prospective employee will fit in with the firm’s culture or value system.
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Organizational profile:
Staffing patterns showing organizational units, relationships to each other, and gender, race and ethnic composition. Generally for affirmative action plan purposes.
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Orientation:
The guided adjustment for new employees that strives to inform them about the company, the job, and the work group.
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Outplacement:
A company procedure that assists a laid-off employee in finding employment elsewhere.
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Outplacement counseling:
A systematic process by which a terminated person is trained and counseled in the techniques of self-appraisal and securing a new position.
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Outsourcing:
The process of transferring responsibility for an area of service and its objectives to an external provider.
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P
Paid time off (PTO):
A means of dealing with the problem of unscheduled absences by providing a certain number of days each year that employees can use for any purpose they deem necessary.
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Paired comparison method:
Ranking employees by making a chart of all possible pairs of the Employees for each trait and indicating which is the better employee of the pair.
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Paired comparison:
A variation of the ranking method of performance appraisal in which the performance of each employee is compared with that of every other employee in the group.
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Pay compression:
A situation that occurs when workers perceive that the pay differential between their pay and that of employees in jobs above or below them is too small.
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Pay followers:
Companies that choose to pay below the going rate because of a poor financial condition or a belief that they simply do not require highly capable employees.
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Pay grade:
The grouping of similar jobs to simplify the job-pricing process.
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Pay incentive:
A program designed to reward employees for good performance.
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Pay leaders:
Those organizations that pay higher wages and salaries than competing firms.
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Pay policy:
A firm’s decision to above, below, or at the market rate for its jobs.
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Pay range:
A minimum and maximum pay rate for a job, with enough variance between the two to allow for a significant pay difference.
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Pay-equalization rules:
Rules under which every worker is rewarded equally when pay or benefit gains are realized, based on seniority rather than worker productivity.
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Peer review:
A performance appraisal system in which workers at the same level in their organization rate one another.
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Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC):
The government agency that provides plan termination insurance to employers with defined benefit retirement progrmans.
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Perception set:
A fixed tendency to interpret information in a certain way.
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Performance analysis:
Careful study of performance to identify a deficiency and then correct it with new equipment, a new employee, a training program, or some other adjustment.
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Performance appraisal (PA):
A formal system of review and evaluation of individual or team task performance. The identification, measurement, and management of human performance in organizations. Periodic assessment of an employee’s performance, usually completer by his or her immediate supervisor and review, at times, by others in the workplace.
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Performance management:
A process that significantly affects organizational success by having managers and employees work together to set expectations, review results, and reward performance.
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Permissive bargaining issues:
Issues that may be raised by management or a union; neither side may insist that they be bargained over. Permissive subjects of bargaining: Non-mandatory subjects that can be negotiated between labor and management but are not required.
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Perquisites (“perks”):
Special benefits provided by a firm to key executives to give them something extra.
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Personality tests:
Self-reported measures of traits, temperaments, or dispositions.
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Personnel file:
A file maintained for employee, containing the documentation of critical HR-related information, such as performance appraisal salary history, disciplinary actions, and career milestones.
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Personnel replacement charts:
Company records showing present performance and promotability of inside candidates for the most important positions.
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Picketing:
The carrying of signs, which tell of an unfair labor practice or strike, by union members, in front of the employer’s business.
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Piecework:
A system of pay based on the number of items processed by each individual worker in a unit of time, such as items per hour or items per day. An incentive pay plan in which employees are paid for each unit produced.
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Placement goal:
Percentage of women and / or minorities to be hired to correct underrepresentation, based on availability in the geographic area under an affirmative action plan.
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Plaintiff:
The person who brings a civil action in court.
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Point method:
An approach to job evaluation in which numerical values are assigned to specific job components, and the sum of these values provides a quantitative assessment of a job’s relative worth.
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Point-of-service (POS):
A managed care option that permits a member to select a health care provider within the network, or, for a lower level of benefits, choose one outside the network.
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Polycentric staffing:
When more host-country nationals are used throughout the organization, from top to bottom.
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Polygraph:
A device that measures biological reactions to individuals when questioned to determine they are telling the truth; lie detector.
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Position analysis questionnaire (PAQ):
A structured job analysis questionnaire that uses a checklist approach to identify job elements.
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Position:
The tasks and responsibilities performed by one person; there is a position for every individual in an organization. Preexisting condition: A medical condition treated while an employee was covered under a former employee’s health plan and requires treatment under a new employer’s different health plan.
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Predictive validity:
A validation method that involves administering a selection test and later obtaining the criterion information.
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Preemployment testing:
Testing that takes place before hiring, or sometimes after hiring but before employment, in connection with such qualities as integrity, honesty, drug and alcohol use, HIV, or other characteristics.
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Preferred provider organization (PPO):
A flexible managed care system in which incentives are provided to members to use services within the system; out-of-network providers may be utilized at greater cost.
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Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA):
An amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits sex discrimination based on “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.”
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Premium pay:
Compensation paid to employees for working long periods of time or working under dangerous or undesirable conditions.
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Prima facie case:
Alleging facts that fit each requirement of a cause of action in litigation.
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Privacy Act of 1974:
Guarantees the privacy or personnel files for employees of the U.S. federal government.
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Private sector:
Companies that are not owned or managed by the government or one of its agencies.
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Productivity:
A measure of how much value individual employees add to the goods or services that the organization produces.
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Professional employer organization (PEO):
Off-site human resources department that puts a client firm’s employees on its payroll then leases the employees back to the company.
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Profit sharing:
A compensation plan that results in the distribution of a predetermined percentage of the firm’s profits to employees.
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Profit-sharing plan:
A plan whereby most employees share in the company's profits.
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Progressive disciplinary action:
An approach to disciplinary action designed to ensure that the minimum penalty appropriate to the offense is imposed. A series of management interventions that gives employees opportunities to correct undesirable behaviors before being discharged.
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Prohibited bargaining issues:
Issues that are statutorily outlawed from collective bargaining.
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Promotion from within (PFW):
The policy of filling vacancies above entry-level positions with employees presently employed by a company.
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Promotion:
The movement of a person to a higher-level position in an organization.
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Protected class:
A group of people who suffered discrimination in the past and who are given special protection by the judicial system. Persons such as minorities and women protected by equal opportunity laws including Title VII.
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Psychomotor abilities tests:
Aptitude tests that measure strength, coordination, and dexterity.
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Public policy:
A legal concept intended to ensure that no individual lawfully commit an act which has a tendency to be injurious to the public or against the public good.
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Public sector:
That segment of the workforce represented by governmental employers and governmental agency employers. In some situation, this term may include federal contractors.
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Punitive damages:
Money damages over and above compensatory damages, intended to punish flagrant wrongdoers and to deter them and others from engaging in similar conduct in the future.
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Q
Qualifications inventories:
Manual or computerized systematic records listing employees’ education, career and development interests, languages, special skills, and so on, to be used in forecasting inside candidates for promotion.
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Qualified for the position:
Able to meet the employer’s legitimate job requirements.
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Quality circles:
Groups of employees, who voluntarily meet regularly with their supervisors to discuss problems, investigate causes, recommend solutions, and take corrective action when authorized to do so.
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Quality of work life:
A measure of how safe and satisfied employees feel with their jobs. Quid pro quo sexual harassment: Sexual harassment in which the harasser requests sexual activity from the harassee in exchange for workplace benefits.
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Quota strategy:
One of two basic affirmative action plan strategies. This strategy mandates bottom-line results by instituting hiring and promotion restrictions. Strict quotas are not advisable and may be illegal.
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Quotas:
Policies that limit the number or value of goods that can be imported across national boundaries.
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R
Railway Labor Act:
A law designed to regulate labor relation in the transportation industry.
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Ranking method:
A job evaluation method in which the rater simply places all employees from a group in rank order of overall performance.
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Ranking method:
The simplest method of job evaluation that involves ranking each job relative to all other jobs, usually based on overall difficulty.
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Rating errors:
An error in performance appraisals that reflects consistent biases or mistakes on the part of the rater. Rating scales method: A widely used performance appraisal method that rates employees according to defined factors.
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Ratio analysis:
A forecasting technique for determining future staff needs by using ratios between sales volume and number of employees needed.
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Realistic job preview (RJP):
A method of conveying both positive and negative job information to an applicant in an unbiased manner. Reasonable accommodation: An accommodation to the individual’s disability that does not place an undue burden on the employer, as determined by the size of the employer, cost to the employer, type of employer, and impact of the accommodation on the employer’s operations.
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Reasonable cause:
EEOC finding that basis for discrimination exists.
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Reasonable person standard:
Viewing the harassing activity from the perspective of a reasonable person in society at large.
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Reasonable victim standard:
Viewing the harassing activity from the perspective of a reasonable person experiencing the harassing conduct.
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Recklessness:
Conscious disregard for the safety, well being, and rights of another; conscious and deliberate failure to use due care. Recordkeeping and reporting requirements: Certain employment and discrimination prevention laws require that certain documents must be maintained and periodically reported to the EEOC.
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Recruitment methods:
The specific means by which potential employees are attracted to an organization.
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Recruitment sources:
Various locations in which qualified individuals are sought as potential employees.
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Recruitment:
The process of attracting individuals on a timely basis, in sufficient numbers and with appropriate qualifications, and encouraging them to apply for jobs with an organization.
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Reengineering:
The fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service, and speed.
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Reference checks:
A way to gain additional insight into the information provided by an applicant and to verify the accuracy of the information provided.
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Reliability:
The characteristic that refers to the consistency of scores obtained by the same person when retested with the identical or equivalent tests.
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Reliability:
The extent to which a selection test provides consistent results.
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Relocation benefits:
Company-paid shipment of household goods and temporary living expenses, covering all or a portion of the real estate costs associated with buying a new home and selling the previously occupied home.
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Repatriation:
The process of bringing expatriates home. Requirements forecast: An estimate of the numbers and kinds of employees an organization will need at future dates to realize its stated objectives.
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Respondent or responding party:
Person to whom an EEOC or other regulatory agency claim is directed, usually the employer.
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Retained search firms:
Search firms that are considered as consultants to their client organization and serve on an exclusive contract basis. Retirement or savings fund is specified.
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Retroactive seniority:
Seniority that dates back to the time the claimant was treated illegally.
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Reverse discrimination:
Lawsuit or claim brought by non-minority worker who feels adversely affected by the use of an affirmative action plan.
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Reverse mentoring:
A process where the older employees learn from the younger ones.
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Right:
The ability to engage in conduct that is protected by law or social sanctions, free from interference by another person.
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Rights arbitration:
Arbitration involving disputes over the interpretation and application of the various provisions of an existing contract.
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Right-to-sue letter:
Letter given by EEOC or comparable state agency to claimants, permitting them to pursue their claim in court instead of the administrative proceeding.
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Right-to-work laws:
Laws that prohibit management and unions from entering into agreements requiring union membership as a condition of employment. Permits employees to choose not to become members of the union.
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Rightsizing:
The process of reorganizing a company’s employees to improve their efficiency
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Role ambiguity:
A condition that exists when employees lack clear information about the content of their jobs.
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Role conflict:
A condition that occurs when an individual is placed in the position of having to pursue opposing goals.
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Role playing:
A training method in which participants are required to respond to specific problems they may actually encounter in their jobs.
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S
Safety:
The protection of employees from injuries caused by work-related accidents.
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Salary survey:
A survey aimed at determining prevailing wage rates. A good salary survey provides specific wage rates for specific jobs. Formal written questionnaire surveys are the most comprehensive, but telephone surveys and newspaper ads are also sources of information.
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Scanlon plan:
A gain sharing plan that provides a financial reward to employees for savings in labor costs that result from their suggestions.
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Scanlon plan:
An incentive plan developed in 1937 by Joseph Scanlon and designed to encourage cooperation, involvement, and sharing of benefits.
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Screening device:
Factor used to weed out applicants from the pool of candidates.
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Search:
A physical invasion of a person’s space, belongings, or body by someone in actual or apparent (ostensible) authority looking for something.
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Secondary boycott:
A union’s attempt to encourage third parties (such as suppliers and customers) to stop doing business with a firm.
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Secondary boycott:
Work stoppage by employees who are not directly involved in the labor dispute, done to show union solidarity.
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Selection ratio:
The number of people hired for a particular job compared to the total number of individuals in the applicant pool.
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Selection:
The process of choosing from a group of applicants those individuals best suited for a particular position and organization.
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Self-managed team (SMT):
A team responsible for producing an entire product, a component, or an ongoing service without interference from other management personnel.
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Seniority:
The length of time that an employee has worked in various capacities with the firm.
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Sensitivity training:
A method for increasing employees’ insights into their own behavior through candid discussions in groups led by special trainers.
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Sensitivity training:
An organization development technique that is designed to help individuals learn how others perceive their behavior (also known as T-group training).
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Severance pay:
A one-time payment some employers provide when terminating an employee.
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Severance pay:
Compensation designed to assist laid-off employees as they search for new employment.
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Severe and pervasive activity:
Harassing activity that is more than an occasional act or is so serious that it is the basis for liability.
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Sexual harassment:
Harassment on the basis of sex that has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with a person’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.
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Shared service centers (SSCs):
Centers that take routine, transaction-based activities dispersed throughout the organization and consolidate them in one place.
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Shareholders:
The owners of a corporation.
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Shift differential:
Additional money paid to reward employees for the inconvenience of working undesirable hours.
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Shop steward:
Union member chosen as intermediary between the union and employees.
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Simulation:
A technique for experimenting with a real-world situation by means of a mathematical model that represents the actual situation.
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Simulations:
Training approaches that utilize devices or programs replicating tasks away from the job site.
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Skill variety:
The extent to which work requires a number of different activities for successful completion.
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Skill-based pay:
A system that compensates employees on the basis of job-related skills and the knowledge they possess.
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Social Security:
A government program that provides income for retirees, the disabled, and survivors of deceased workers, and health care for the aged through the Medicare program.
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Socialization:
The process of orienting new employees to the organization or the unit in which they will be working; the third step in the hiring process.
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Social responsibility:
The implied, enforced, or felt obligation of managers, acting in their official capacity, to serve or protect the interests of groups other than themselves.
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Specialist:
An individual who may be a HR executive, a HR manager, or non-manager, and who is typically concerned with only one of the five functional areas of HRM.
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Special-purpose team:
A team or task force consisting or workers who span functional or organizational boundaries and whose purpose is to examine challenging and complex situations.
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Staff employee:
An employee who supports line employees.
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Staff manager:
Authorized to assist and advise line managers in accomplishing these basic goals. HR managers are generally staff managers.
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Staffing:
The process through which an organization ensures that it always has the proper number of employees with the appropriate skills in the right jobs at the right time to achieve the organization’s objectives.
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Standardization:
Uniformity of the procedures and conditions related to administering tests.
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Status symbols:
Organizational rewards that take many forms such as office size and location, desk size and quality, private secretaries, floor covering, and title.
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Statutory right:
A right protected by specific laws.
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Stock option plan:
An incentive plan in which managers can buy a specified amount of stock in their company in the future at or below the current market price.
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Strategic human resource to management:
The linking of HRM with strategic goals and objectives in order improve business performance and develop organizational cultures that foster innovation and flexibility.
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Strategic planning:
The determination of overall organizational purposes and goals and how they are to be achieved.
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Stress interview:
A form of interview that intentionally creates anxiety to determine how a job applicant will react in certain types of situations.
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Stress:
The body’s nonspecific reaction to any demand made on it.
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Strictness:
Being unduly critical of an employee’s work performance.
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Strike:
An action by union members who refuse to work in order to exert pressure on management in negotiations.
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Structured interview:
A process based on a thorough job analysis in which an interviewer consistently presents the same series of job-related questions to each applicant for a particular job.
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Subordinate review:
A performance appraisal system in which workers review their supervisors. Substantially limits” “unable to perform a major life activity that the average person in the general population can perform; or significantly restricted as to the condition, manner, or duration under which an individual can perform a major life activity.” (From the EEOC’s ADA regulations.)
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Succession planning:
The process of ensuring that qualified persons are available to assume key managerial positions once the positions are vacant.
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Supplemental unemployment benefit:
Benefits given by a company to laid-off employees over and above state unemployment benefits.
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Support group:
A group established by an employer to provide a nurturing climate for employees who would otherwise feel isolated or alienated.
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Survey feedback method:
A process of collecting data from an organizational unit through the use of questionnaires, interviews, and objective data from other sources such as records of productivity, turnover, and absenteeism.
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Survey feedback:
A method that involves surveying employees’ attitudes and providing feedback to department managers so that problems can be solved by the managers and employees.
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Sympathy strike:
When one union strikes in support of another.
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T
Taft-Hartley Act (1947):
Also known as the Labor Management Relations Act, this law prohibited union unfair labor practices and enumerated the rights of employees as union members. It also enumerated the rights of employers.
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Tariffs:
Taxes collected on goods that are shipped across national boundaries.
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Task analysis:
A detailed study of a job to identify the skills required so that an appropriate training program may be instituted.
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Task identity:
The extent to which the job includes an identifiable unit of work that is carried out from start to finish.
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Task significance:
The impact that the job has on other people.
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Team building:
A conscious effort to develop effective workgroups throughout an organization.
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Team building:
Improving the effectiveness of teams such as corporate officers and division directors through use of consultants, interviews, and team-building meetings.
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Team equity:
Payment of more productive teams in an organization at a higher rate than less productive teams.
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Telecommuting:
A procedure allowing workers to remain at home or otherwise away from the office and perform their work over data lines tied to a computer.
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Teleconferencing:
The use or audio and video equipment to allow people to participate in meetings even when they are a great distance away from the conference location or one another.
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Termination interview:
The interview in which an employee is informed of the fact that he or she has been dismissed.
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Test validity:
The accuracy with which a test, interview, and so on, measures what it purports to measure or fulfills the function it was designed to fill.
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Third-country national (TCN):
A citizen of one country, working in a second country, and employed by an organization headquartered in a third country.
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Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act:
The section of the act that says an employer cannot discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin with respect to employment.
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Total compensation:
The package of rewards an employee receives for his or her labors and includes three components: base compensation, pay incentives, and indirect compensation / benefits.
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Total quality management (TQM):
An organization-wide approach to improving the quality of all the processes that lead to a final product or service with the goal of reducing and eliminating errors, waste, and defects in design, manufacture or service.
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Tort:
Private (civil) wrong against a person or his / her property or business interest.
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Training and development:
The heart of a continuous effort designed to improve employee competency and organizational performance.
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Training:
Activities designed to provide learners with the knowledge and skill needed for their present jobs. The process of teaching new employees the basic skills they need to perform their jobs.
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Transcendental meditation (TM):
A stress-reduction technique in which an individual, comfortably seated, mentally repeats a secret word or phrase (mantra) provided by a trained instructor.
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Transfer:
The lateral movement of a worker within an organization.
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Transsexual / transgender:
Someone who undergoes an operation to change from gender to the other.
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Trend analysis:
Study of a firm’s past employment needs over a period of years to predict future needs.
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Turnover rate:
The rate of employee separations in an organization through voluntary or involuntary severance such as retirement, quitting, layoff, termination or other means of leaving the employer.
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U
Under color of law:
Government employee is illegally discriminating against another during performance of his or her duties; acting wrongfully but claiming that it is permitted by law.
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Underrepresentation or underutilization:
Significantly fewer minorities or women in the workplace than relevant statistics indicate are available.
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Undue hardship:
Burden imposed on an employer, by accommodating and employee’s religious conflict or disability that would be too onerous for the employer to bear.
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Unemployment insurance:
A program established by the Social Security Act of 1935 to provide temporary income for people during periods of involuntary unemployment.
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Union:
An organization that represents employees’ interests to management team of the employer on such issues as wager, work hours, benefits and working conditions. Labor organization whose members are skilled in a trade or craft and not tied to a particular employer’s location.
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Union acceptance strategy:
A labor relations strategy in which management chooses to view the union as its employees’ legitimate representative and accepts collective bargaining as an appropriate mechanism for establishing workplace rules.
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Union avoidance strategy:
A labor relations strategy in which management tries to prevent its employees from joining a union, either my removing the incentive to unionize or by using other disincentive tactics.
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Union salting:
A term referring to a union organizing tactic by which workers who are in fact employed full-time by a union as undercover union organizers are hired by unwitting employers. The process of training union organizers to apply for jobs at a company and, once hired, work to unionize employees.
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Union shop:
A requirement that all employees become members of the union after a specified period of employment (the legal minimum is 30 days) or after a union shop provision has been negotiated. Union and management agree that employees must be a member of the union.
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Union shop clause:
Provision in a collective bargaining agreement allowing a union shop.
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Union steward:
An advocate dedicated to representing an employee’s case to management in a grievance procedure.
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Unstructured interview:
A meeting with a job applicant during which the interviewer asks probing, open-ended questions.
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Utilization review:
A process that scrutinizes medical diagnoses, hospitalization, surgery, and other medical treatment and care prescribed by doctors.
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V
Validation:
Evidence that shows a test evaluates what it says it evaluates.
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Validity:
The extent to which a test measures what it purports to measure.
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Valuing diversity:
Learning to accept and appreciate those who are different from the majority and value their contributions to the workplace rather than view them as a negative.
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Vested:
Provision that money placed in a pension fund cannot be forfeited for any reason.
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Vesting:
A guarantee that accrued retirement benefits will be give to retirement plan participants’ when they retire or leave the employer.
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Vestibule or simulated training:
Training employees on special off-the-job equipment, as in airplane pilot training, whereby training costs and hazards can be reduced. Training that takes place away from the production area on equipment that closely resembles the actual equipment used on the job.
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Vicarious liability:
The imposition of liability on one party for the wrongs of another. Liability may extend from and employee to the employer on this basis if the employee is acting within the scope of his / her employment at the time the liability arose.
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Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Act–1974:
The act that requires employers with government contracts of $10,000 or more to take affirmative action to employ and advance disabled veterans and qualified veterans of the Vietnam era. The act is administered by the OFCCP.
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Virtual reality:
The use of a number of technologies to replicate the entire real-life working environment in real time. A unique computer-based approach that permits trainees to view objects from a perspective otherwise impractical or impossible.
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Vocational interest tests:
A method of determining the occupation in which a person has the greatest interest and from which the person is most likely to receive satisfaction.
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Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973:
The act requiring certain federal contractors to take affirmative action for disabled persons.
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Voluntary bargaining items:
Items in collective bargaining over which bargaining is not compelled by the terms of the labor contract between employer and the union.
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W
Wage curve:
Shows the relationship between the value of the job and the average wage paid for this job.
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Wage curve:
The fitting of plotted points on a curve to create a smooth progression between pay grades (also known as the pay curve).
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Wagner Act: / National Labor Relations Act (1935):
A federal law designed to protect employees’ rights to form and join unions and to engage in such activities as strikes, picketing, and collective bargaining. This law banned certain types of unfair labor practices and provided for secret-ballot elections and majority rule for determining whether a firm’s employees want to unionize.
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Waiver:
The intentional relinquishment of a known right.
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Wellness program:
a company-sponsored program that focuses on preventing health problems, sickness, or illness to employees.
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Whistle-blowing:
Employee disclosure of an employer’s illegal, immoral, or illegitimate practices to persons or organizations that may be able to take action against the company.
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Wildcat strike:
An unauthorized strike occurring during the term of a contract.
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Wildcat strike:
Strike not sanctioned by the union.
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Work flow:
The way work is organized to meet the organization’s production or service goals.
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Work flow analysis:
The process of examining ho work creates or adds value to the ongoing processes in a business.
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Work rules:
Any terms or conditions of employment, including pay, work breaks and lunch periods, vacation, work assignments, and grievance procedures.
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Work standards method:
A performance appraisal method that compares each employee’s performance to a predetermined standard or expected level of output.
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Workaholic:
A person who constantly strives to obtain work-related goals to the exclusion of almost all outside interests.
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Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) of 1988:
A federal law requiring U.S. employers with 100 or more employees to give 60 days’ advance notice to employees who will be laid off as a result of a plant closing or downsizing and mass separation of 50 or more workers from the workforce.
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Worker involvement programs:
Programs that aim to boost organizational effectiveness by getting employees to participate in planning, organizing, and managing their jobs.
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Workers’ compensation:
A legally required benefit established and administered under state laws that provide medical care, income continuation, and rehabilitation for people who sustain job-related injuries or sickness regardless of fault. Also provides income to the survivors of an employee whose death is job related.
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Workload variance:
Both job overload and job underload.
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Work-sample tests:
Tests requiring the identification of a task or set of tasks that are representative of a particular job.
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Wrongful discharge:
An employee dismissal that does not comply with the law or does not comply with the contractual arrangement stated or implied by the firm via its employment application forms, employee manuals, or other promises. Termination of an employee for reasons that are either illegal, contrary to public policy, or inappropriate.
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X

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Y
Yellow dog contract:
Agreement employer requires employee to sign stating employee does not belong to a union and will not join one (it is now illegal).
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Yellow-dog contract:
A written agreement between an employee and a company made at the time of employment that prohibits a worker from joining a union or engaging in union activities.

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Z
Zero-base forecasting:
A method for estimating future employment needs using the organization’s current level of employment as the starting point.
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