APHR Exam 2024: Employee Relations | Comprehensive Questions and Answers Latest Updated 20, Exams of Human Resource Management

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APHR Exam 2024: Employee Relations | Comprehensive Questions and Answers Latest

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Pregnancy Discrimination Act - ✔✔The federal law that amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by barring discrimination on the basis of pregnancy related medical conditions. Childbirth and pregnancy must be treated the same as any other temporary disability. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act) - ✔✔The federal law that requires employers with 100 or more employees to give 60 days advance notice of a plant closing or large-scale layoff to all employees affected by the layoff. National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)/Wagner Act - ✔✔The federal law that grants employees of covered employers broad rights to form or join unions and to engage in collective activity. This law covers almost all private-sector employers. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) - ✔✔Oversees and enforces compliance with the NLRA in the U.S. Hard Human Resource Management (HRM) - ✔✔This is a human resources management style that treats employees as simply a resource of the business. Soft Human Resource Management (HRM) - ✔✔This is a human resources management style that treats employees as the most important asset in the company. Hard HRM - ✔✔1) Autocratic leadership style

2. Appraisals are focused on performance evaluation
3. Pays only enough to attract and retain a staff
4. Short term focus on staffing levels - very reactionary
5. Strong link with corporate business planning in regards to their availability and cost
6. Minimal communication from top down
7. Little focus on employee engagement
8. Pyramid management structure
9. Identifies the needs of the business and staffs accordingly (hiring, laying off, etc.)

Soft HRM - ✔✔1) Democratic or Theory Y leadership style

2. Appraisals are focused on professional development
3. Competitive pay with performance related rewards such as profit-sharing, bonuses, etc.
4. Strategic focus on long-term staffing levels - proactive approach
5. Employees are valued for their individuality and their needs are accommodated
6. Two-way communication system is established and used
7. Employees are engaged and empowered
8. Decentralized and flattened management structure
9. Concentration on the needs of the employees Psychological Contract - ✔✔The unwritten relationship between the employee and the employer that binds them together in the pursuit of both organizational and personal success. In its simplest form, the employer expects the employee to perform well in return for being treated and paid well. This sense of expectation creates an unwritten and undefined bond between both parties. This bond is a tenuous relationship that can be shattered when one or the other breaks the rules. Vroom's Expectancy Theory - ✔✔The psychological contract relates to this theory. Employees who perform well expect to be treated and rewarded well. Employees who perform poorly should expect poor relations with their employer. In other words, the more the employee puts into the job, the higher the expectation for favorable treatment by the employer. Individuals make choices based on what they anticipate will give them the greatest payoff. Defamation - ✔✔When an individual or business makes false accusations or statements that are potentially harmful to another individual or business.
10. Slander & 2) Libel - ✔✔There are two types of defamatory statements... Slander - ✔✔If the rumors about ABC Corp. are spread verbally, this is... Libel - ✔✔If the rumors about ABC Corp. are printed, for example in a news paper, this is...

Employment-at-Will Doctrine - ✔✔In some states employers can fire employees at any time and for any or no reason under this. It presumes that both employee and employer are free agents who may terminate their relationship at any time for any reason. Just-Cause-Standard - ✔✔In other states, they require the employer to prove they had a reasonable explanation for the dismissal.

1. Breach of Contract
2. Violation of Public Policy
3. Discrimination - ✔✔Employees retain most of their rights under the employer-at-will doctrine, while employers have lost many of their freedoms to terminate employees at-will. These legal restrictions allow employees to challenge employment-at-will policies under three broad claims... Complaint - ✔✔Often addressed in numerous manners from verbal to non-verbal regarding something negative. Grievance - ✔✔Not necessarily a complaint. Someone may have this negative emotion, but may not make a complaint.
4. NLRA: Protects the right of unionized and non-unionized employees to present work-related complaints to their employer on behalf of a group of employees and to be free of any employer discipline for doing so.
5. Most collective bargaining agreements contain formal grievance procedures that expand the right to present grievances. Contractual grievance procedures typically state how the parties are to handle grievances. Labor contracts usually provide the option of initiating a third-party dispute resolution procedure such a mediation or arbitration if the parties are unable to resolve a grievance by its final step. This process is known as the formal steps grievance system. - ✔✔In the labor relations area, the term grievance is used in two different contexts...
6. Determine it is necessary to conduct an investigation

2. Once you have determined that an investigation is necessary, choose who will be doing the investigation. This should be someone who is not immediately related to the incident
3. The investigator should develop a plan on how the investigation will be conducted. Some companies have an established process and checklist.
4. The investigator should conduct interviews of anyone involved in the incident and any witnesses. Questions should be direct but non-threatening or accusatory.
5. The investigator must collect other documents and evidence as it relates to the investigation. They may look for emails, video or surveillance files, voicemails, etc.
6. Once all interviews are completed and all evidence gathered, the investigator must evaluate the information and make a recommendation to management. At this point, it is up to management to take action, like rep - ✔✔The steps and methods of investigating a complaint/grievance... Focus Group - ✔✔This type of survey can help an employer determine what is going good and bad in a company. It is useful for:
7. Investigating complex behavior.
8. Discovering how different groups within the company think and feel about current policies.
9. Identify changes in behavior.
10. Investigate the use, effectiveness, and usefulness of a particular initiative
11. Verify or clarify the results from surveys.
12. Suggest potential solutions to problems identified. Exit Interviews - ✔✔This type of survey can help determine if there are problems in the company and why an employee may be leaving the company. Employee Attitude Survey - ✔✔This type of survey is both a tool for collecting information and a way to facilitate strategic decision-making.
13. Gather data on attitudes to use as a yardstick in measuring change

2. Identify the causes and solutions for problems such as an increase in turnover or a downturn in productivity
3. Give meaning to the phrase "employees are our most valuable resource", by showing employees their opinions count - ✔✔Surveying employees enables management to... Action Research - ✔✔A method of improving organizational effectiveness through surveys. It is a developmental process that uses employee attitude surveys to provide a framework for action planning, implementation, and change management.
4. Design Phase. The research begins by defining objectives, determining priorities, establishing realistic expectations, and custom-developing a questionnaire that covers a limited set of relevant topics.
5. Data Collection Phase. Once the questionnaire has been developed and the decision made to proceed, data collection begins. During the data collection phase, the questionnaire is administered, data is processed and analyzed, results are interpreted, and the findings are presented to management.
6. Deployment Phase. The most important part of a successful action research program is using the results to put words into action. Deployment begins with a feedback process that includes refining the results (i.e. looking behind numbers) and continues through the action planning process. - ✔✔An entire survey project cycle consists of three sequential phases... Employee Engagement - ✔✔The extent to which workforce commitment, both emotional and intellectual, exists relative to accomplishing the work, mission, and vision of the organization.
7. Employee Commitment
8. Degree of Employee Participation in Work
9. Employee Longevity - ✔✔The three commonly accepted components of employee engagement are... As much as half of the variance in customer satisfaction scores - ✔✔It has been routinely found that employee engagement scores account for...

Misconduct - ✔✔Refers to any violation of the employer's rules. The term is also being used when an employee has engaged in criminal activity or disruptive behavior at the workplace, even if the employer's policies are silent on the specific kind of wrongdoing. Failure to Perform Satisfactorily - ✔✔Another reason for disciplinary action that is not treated as misconduct. With additional training, or a change in assignments, the employee has an opportunity for success.

1. Poor Attendance
2. Lying on a Job Application
3. Insubordination
4. Failure to Meet New Policy Standards - ✔✔Violation of basic conditions of employment... Sexual Harassment - ✔✔A form of sex discrimination and includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:
5. The employee is expected to submit to the conduct as a condition of employment
6. An employee's submission or rejection of the conduct is used as a basis for promotions, evaluations, and treatments
7. The purpose of the conduct is to interfere with the employee's work performance or create an intimidating hostile, or offensive working environment Quid Pro Quo - ✔✔When job benefits are made contingent on the provision of sexual favors. Hostile Environment - ✔✔Occurs when there is discriminatory conduct or behavior in the workplace that is unwelcome and offense to an employee or group of employees based on their sex. The individual who is committing the harassing behavior. In quid pro quo, it is normally someone in a supervisory position who is abusing the power of their position to obtain sexual favors. In a hostile environment, it is usually a coworker who is the offending party. - ✔✔One of the main differences between quid pro quo harassment and hostile environment is...

Progressive Discipline - ✔✔A means by which an employer can discipline an employee for repeated offenses on a graduated scale. An employer will benefit from having a written policy describing potential ramifications for insubordination or misconduct. Corrective Action - ✔✔Working with an employee when there appears to be a problem can help the employee find a solution and help the employer retain a good employee.

1. Severance Pay
2. Workers' Compensation
3. Unemployment Compensation
4. Continuation of Benefits
5. Pensions - ✔✔Determining the cause of a termination is essential for HR practitioners to carry out company and legal policies governing...
6. Misconduct
7. Unsatisfactory Performance
8. Resignation
9. Death - ✔✔Reasons for termination...
10. Discharging an employee before the expiration of a fixed-term employment contract and entitles the fired individual to unpaid compensation for the portion of the term not served under contract.
11. Collective bargaining agreements often restrict the employer's right to discharge a covered employee without cause. Under the NLRA, unions employees are also protected from discharge for concerted activity or the exercise of other rights covered under the act.
12. Some state courts view a commitment by an employer not to discharge employees without good cause the same as creating an implied contract.
13. In some other states, the courts hold onto the belief that all employment relationships are an implied contract in good faith. - ✔✔Breach of contract includes...

1. Employers cannot fire an employee to prevent the individual from exercising a right
2. Most states and some federal laws protect employees against discharge for whistleblowing
3. Various state courts make a public policy exception to at-will employment and prohibit firing employees who refuse to perform an illegal act requested by the employer - ✔✔Public policy violations include... If the affected employee is female, belongs to a member of an ethnic or religious minority, is older than age 40, or has a disability, an arbitrary discharge could lead to claims of illegal discrimination - ✔✔Discrimination violation includes... Implied Contract Theories - ✔✔Written or oral communications stating that the employer will follow certain discharge procedures or will terminate employees only for good cause can create an employment contract that discharged employees can use to challenge the employer's claim of at-will employment. Courts typically examine an employer's:
4. Written personnel rules as expressed in handbooks, policy statements, or letters to employees
5. Oral promises of job security or fair treatment Just Cause Standard - ✔✔A burden of proof or standard that an employer must meet to justify discipline or discharge. Some companies allow an implied contract to be formed based on a handbook. Implied Covenant of Good Faith - ✔✔A presumption that all parties involved will deal with a situation honestly, fairly and in good faith. Some courts recognize this as limiting an employer's right to arbitrarily discharge employees. This theory encompasses a range of discharges involving bad faith, some of which are protected under implied contract or public policy theories. Constructive Discharge - ✔✔A type of firing that occurs when an employee resigns to avoid involuntary termination or is forced out due to poor treatment. An employer may offer this if it lacks solid grounds for dismissal but feels the employee can no longer function effectively. This leaves an employer open to a wrongful discharge suit. Another form is when an employee resigns because a supervisor has imposed intolerable conditions on employment. Retaliation can be considered a part of this.

Diversity Programs/Inclusion Programs - ✔✔These programs help a company tap into the strengths of their workforce. Many companies develop these programs that are all encompassing and help reduce prejudice and discrimination in the workplace. Other programs may be more specific and focus on bringing women into leadership positions or expanding racial diversity in the workplace. Special Events - ✔✔Companies can use these types of programs to recognize employee relations and diversity. These may include bringing in guest speakers and having displays in the workplace that promote recognition of various cultures or women. They may also include allowing employees to attend special events in the community that promote diversity and foster employee relations. Change Agent - ✔✔This is usually HR. HR is usually responsible for communicating and selling the changes to the workforce. Organizational Development (OD) - ✔✔A systems approach based on valid information to help organizations and teams manage change and reinvent themselves. It uses behavioral science knowledge and experiential methods to help teams and organizations learn how to become more effective and to improve organizational effectiveness. The organization improves itself by developing its employees with new KSAs. A planned, structured approach to managing the process of change in order to accomplish the organization's goals.

1. Training or Education
2. Coaching/Facilitating
3. Data Gathering/Feedback
4. Confrontation
5. Planning
6. Problem Solving/Decision-making
7. Technical/Structural - ✔✔An organizational development effort can include multiple strategies. Proven strategies include... Participative Management - ✔✔This approach encourages the involvement of employees in decision- making at all levels of the organization. An organization that uses this will use employees as part of the analysis, strategic development and implementation of solutions.
8. Positions are eliminated

2. Employees' knowledge, skills, abilities, and/or attitudes do not meet job demands after a reorganization or a change in control - ✔✔Permanent layoffs occur when...
3. Layoffs
4. Reductions in Force (RIFs)
5. Downsizing - ✔✔These terms are sometimes referred to as reorganizations and are terms for employment terminations for economic reasons. Clayton Antitrust Act - ✔✔The federal law that was the first to outlaw practices harmful to consumers and workers (anti-competitive agreements). It prevents employers from price fixing wages and benefits and creates rules for mergers and acquisitions that would harm free-trade compeititon. Federal Arbitration Act - ✔✔The federal law that allows for the private resolution of disputes through arbitration. This act requires that when the parties have agreed to arbitrate, they must do so in lieu of going to court, and the resolution is binding on both parties. Railway Labor Act - ✔✔The federal law that is the oldest of the labor relations act. This was the first to allow employees to organize and to form a union. Railway and Airline workers covered by this law are not subject to the National Labor Relations Act. Norris-LaGuardia Act/Anti-Injunction Act - ✔✔The federal law that limits the jurisdiction and authority of the courts of the United States to issue restraining orders and injunctions in cases involving labor disputes. It also outlawed the practice of forcing new hires to sign yellow dog contracts (employer/employee agreements where the employee agrees not to join a union as a condition of employment). Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) - ✔✔The federal law that establishes the rights and obligations of employers, employees, and unions with respect to collective bargaining. The law 1) outlawed the Closed Shop; 2) Instituted an 80-day cooling-off period for strikes threatening national security; 3) Prohibited unions from using union monies for national elections; 4) Allowed suits for Breach of Contract against unions; 5) Defined Unfair Labor Practices of unions. Violating employees'/employers' rights is committing an unfair labor practice. Labor Management Reporting/Disclosure Act (LMRDA)/Landrum-Griffith - ✔✔The federal law that enacted to ensure basic standards of democracy and fiscal responsibility in labor organizations

representing employees in private industry. This law establishes a "Bill of Rights" for union members to combat wrongdoing and to limit control of union leadership. It provides for 1) Equal rights; 2) Freedom of speech and assembly; 3) Limits dues, fees, and assessments; 4) Provides union members the right to sue if not represented fairly. Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) - ✔✔The federal law guarantees certain privileges to federal employees who exercise their statutory right to become a member of a union representing federal employees. The Federal Labor Relations Act (FLRA) - ✔✔The federal law which establishes collective bargaining rights for most federal employees in the United States. It encourages collective bargaining between federal employees and their employers. It is patterned to the National Labor Relations Act. Exceptions include non-negotiability of wages, no union or agency shops, and no strikes. Labor Union - ✔✔An organization of workers who band together to protect their interests and to improve wages, hours, and working conditions. Collective Bargaining - ✔✔Trade unions can operate openly, are recognized by employers, and may negotiate with employers over wages and working conditions (per the NLRA) Industrial Action - ✔✔Trade unions may organize strikes or resistance to lockouts in an effort to further employee goals. Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) - ✔✔This is a negotiated agreement between a labor union and an employer that sets terms of employment for members of that union, and provisions for wages, hours, conditions, benefits, etc. After it is signed, neither side can change any details of the agreement without both representative's approval. It lasts for a set period of time (usually years). 50% + 1 vote - ✔✔Unions hold elections to select officers who will make decisions and represent the members. All major decisions require a simple majority of support, aka... Craft Unions/Industry Unions - ✔✔Unions that seek to unify workers in a particular industry along the lines of the particular craft or trade they work in.

Industrial Unions - ✔✔Unions that seek to unify workers in a particular industry, such as the United Automotive Workers Union. The workers are organized into the same union regardless of skill or trade. Union Security Agreement - ✔✔This is a contractual clause, in which an employer and a union agree on the extent to which the union may encourage employees to join the union, and/or whether the employer will collect dues, fees, and assessments on behalf of the union (aka checkoff) Closed Shop - ✔✔When employees at unionized workplaces were required to be members of the union as a condition of employment. An employee who ceased being a member of the union for whatever reason (i.e failure to pay dues or expulsion from the union as an internal disciplinary punishment) would usually be fired, even if the employee did not violate any of the employer's rules. Agency Shop - ✔✔Employees must pay the equivalent of union dues, but are not required to formally join the union. Right to Work Rule (via Taft-Hartley Act) - ✔✔Some states can outlaw the union shop and agency shop for employees working in their jurisdiction. Open Shop Rule - ✔✔An employee cannot be forced to join a union or pay dues to the employer equivalent to the dues paid to an existing union, nor can the employee be fired if they join the union. In other words, the employee has the right to work, either as a union member or not, whether they contribute financially to the union or not.

1. Union Shop States 2) Right to Work States 3) Open Shop/Right to Work Rules 4) Union Shop Rules - ✔✔Half the states are...and the other half are...The federal government operates under...Professional sports leagues operate under... Electromation - ✔✔A landmark decision by the NLRA that considered the legality of modern employee participation effort in a nonunion workplace.
2. Employee participation programs should stay away from traditional bargaining issues
3. Be aware that unions or disgruntled workers may target committees that are questionable

3. Do not force employees to form or participate in committees dealing with working conditions - ✔✔The board's objections to particular aspects of Electromation's committees do offer some guidance in that...
4. NLRB needs to determine whether a union election can be held by reviewing the appropriate bargaining unit, who is eligible to vote, and whether a contract or former election serves as bar to an election.
5. Once a union has filed a petition and the NLRB has approved a representation election, many employers wage an organized attempt to persuade employees to vote against union representation. Employers do not have to run an opposing campaign, they simply need to acknowledge an election will take place.
6. If the union wins the election and is certified by the NLRB, it has the authority to engage in collective bargaining on behalf of the members of the bargaining unit. - ✔✔The union election campaign process... Concerted Activity - ✔✔This organized group effort protects union members (or union supporters) and nonunion members (anti-union supporters) Supervisors - ✔✔This group of employees is not covered by the NLRA... Excelsior List - ✔✔A list filed by the employer within two days after a union election has been directed by the NLRB, stating the names and addresses of all eligible bargaining unit employees as well as personal phone numbers and email addresses. Employers must also include job category, shift and work location. 30% of the potential bargaining unit - ✔✔A petition cannot be filed without a showing of support from...
7. Voluntary recognition of a union by the employer based on union authorization cards signed by a simple majority (50% + 1) of affected employees

2. Election of a union by a simple majority (50% + 1) of employees voting in an election conducted by the NLRB. this is the most commonly used method.
3. Involuntary recognition ordered by the NLRB to remedy the employer's egregious unfair labor practices that may have cost the union the election - ✔✔Unionization of a workplace under the NLRA can occur in three ways... A petition for a representation election can be filed with the NLRB - ✔✔Once 30% of the bargaining unit employees have signed authorization cards...
4. Restrictions on firings
5. Strikes
6. Company disloyalty
7. Criticism of management
8. Limits on scope of jobs
9. Violence against employees/property
10. Boycotts
11. Limits open communication
12. ULPS (unfair labor practice) and frivolous lawsuits
13. De-emphasis on merit and emphasis on seniority - ✔✔Reasons for maintaining nonunion status... Union Busting - ✔✔A practice undertaken by an employer or their agents to prevent employees from joining a labor union, or to dis-empower, subvert, or destroy unions that already exist.
14. Try to negotiate a settlement
15. Wait out the strikers
16. Break the strike
17. Act in some combination of these options - ✔✔Employers faced with a strike have a number of options...

T.I.P.S - ✔✔A handy acronym for prohibited activity with managerial rights in regard to a union and an election which encompasses Threats, Interrogation, Promise, and Surveillance Primary Activity - ✔✔Involving a direct dispute between employees and their employer, is protected by the NLRA. Secondary Activity - ✔✔In which workers pressure an employer that is not directly involved in a dispute, is unlawful. The employer has the right to hire permanent replacements for the strikers - ✔✔If a strike is an economic strikes such as terms and conditions of employment then... An employer may not permanently replace employees - ✔✔If the strike is over unfair labor practices then... Unfair Labor Practices (ULPs) - ✔✔Should either the employer or the union violate any of the NLRA's provisions, it is called... Procedural Justice - ✔✔This approach is concerned with providing employees a structured system for resolving disputes that is considered to be fair and impartial. The idea of due process fair treatment through the judicial system is a critical concept in this approach/system. The progressive disciplinary process of one form of this as is formal steps, mediation or arbitration, and other alternative dispute resolution systems. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) - ✔✔A general term used to describe problem-solving mechanisms other than lawsuits or government agency investigations. It is a method for resolving employer and employee grievances. Employers using this approach typically have two goals 1) To prevent lawsuits and

2. To minimize the time and expense of resolving employees' complaints. Mediation - ✔✔A non-binding dispute resolution technique in which parties discuss their disputes with a trained, impartial outsider who assists them in attempting to reach a mutually acceptable agreement. Those who conduct this do not have the authority to impose a settlement on the parties.

Arbitration - ✔✔A semi-formal trial before one or more trained arbitrators who receive testimony and evidence from the parties. The arbitrator can make factual determinations and award relief. Usually, the arbitrator's decision is binding on the parties. To get an idea of how an arbitrator works, watch Judge Judy. Ombudsman - ✔✔This is a corporate representative who is appointed to investigate internal complaints, report findings, and facilitate equitable settlements. This is the preferred form of ADR. This individual's tasks are to listen, decide whether and how to intervene, and provide feedback. This individual is neutral unlike HR. The President - ✔✔The only entity to stop a legal strike deemed to affect national security... Outside Arbitration - ✔✔Conflict resolution system most independent of managers... Retail - ✔✔The NLRB only cover this industry... Two (2) - ✔✔Number of employees for concerted activity per the NLRA. Excelsior List. - ✔✔The NLRB views this as a way to ensure that employers are informed about the arguments both for and against electing a particular bargaining represenative. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) - ✔✔This was created as an independent agency of the U.S. government to help mitigate the impact of union disputes on the economy by providing mediation, conciliation, and voluntary arbitration Bumping - ✔✔Usually occurs during a reduction in force in a union or civil service setting and results when a more senior employee's job is eliminated and instead of that employee losing employment, he or she bumps a less senior employee and takes that employee's job. Counseling/Coaching - ✔✔The first step in improving employee performance...

Pattern Bargaining - ✔✔When the union tries to apply identical terms, conditions or demands to a number of employers in an industry although the employers act individually rather than a group. Turnover Rate - ✔✔Calculate the average of employees by adding number of employees at the beginning and end of the month divided by two and then divide the number of employees who termed by that average and then multiply by 100 to get a rate. Sit Down Strike - ✔✔This is a work action which is currently illegal in which strikers refuse to leave the employer's premises. Fair Share - ✔✔Under a union security clause of a union contract, this states the amount a nonunion member must contribute to a union to support collective bargaining activities. (This arrangement is justified on the grounds that the union is obliged to represent all employees faithfully). Confidential Employee - ✔✔Defined as someone who assists and acts in a confidential capacity to the management personnel. They are excluded from the bargaining unit membership. Written legal contract - ✔✔Collective bargaining agreement analogy.

1. Closed shop clauses
2. Union shop clauses in right-to-work states
3. Hot Cargo clauses
4. Provisions that violate NLRA - ✔✔Illegal subjects of bargaining... Field Examiner - ✔✔The NLRB representative that works union elections and ULP investigations. 5 Days - ✔✔Grievances with respect to transfers, promotions, demotions, discipline, layoffs or discharges shall be presented to the company in writing within...from the date of the action. Hot Cargo - ✔✔The NLRA prohibits unions from engaging in strikes or refusing to handle, sell, or otherwise deal in goods when the unions objective is to force a person to stop doing business with another person.

The employee(s) concerned, as well as a union representative, will address the matter with their supervisor - ✔✔The first step of the grievance procedure... Retaining and promoting employees from within - ✔✔The most important goal of employee attitude surveys...