Professional Diploma in Business

Part-time Intake 12 & 13 & 15 & 16

Personnel Management
Mid Term Quiz

Name of Student

Student No. Marks /40

Date of Examination : 3 August 2020

Quiz Duration : 3 hours
Weightage : 20%
Total Score : 40 marks

Instructions:

1. This is a online open-book quiz.

2. This paper consists of 2 sections with a total of 22 questions :

• Section A - 10 MCQs & 10 T/F Questions (20 marks)
• Section B - 2 short essay questions. (20 marks)
• Answer ALL questions.

3. This examination paper consists of ELEVEN (11) pages (including this cover page).
Check that you have all the pages.

4. Unauthorised materials are strictly prohibited.

THIS PAPER IS NOT TO BE TAKEN FROM THE

EXAMINATION ROOM
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Section A: Multiple Choice & True/False Questions (20 marks). Answer all.

Instructions: Each correct answer carries 1 mark. Please write your answers clearly
on the answer sheet provided.
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1. The policies, practices, and systems that influence employees' __________, attitudes,
and performance constitute personnel management.

A. Compensation
B. Recruitment
C. Selection
D. Behaviour

2. The danger of taking the __________ approach to HRM is that when all the employee
benefits are added up, the cost of the workforce leaves a business at a competitive
disadvantage.

A. Beneficial
B. Medium
C. Soft
D. Hard

3. The __________ approach in ethics is decisions that are concerned with respecting and
protecting individual liberties and privileges.

A. Utilitarianism
B. Individualism
C. Rights
D. Justice

4. Which of the following is NOT a supervisor’s involvement in personnel management?

A. HR planning
B. Making strategic decisions for the company’s long term goals
C. Play a key role in employee relations in terms of pay & benefits
D. Conduct performance appraisals

5. Increase on the number of older worker especially age of 55 years and above is referred
to as:

A. Aging workforce
B. Diverse workforce
C. Human 55 plus
D. Human capital

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6. Methods of staffing other than the traditional hiring of full-time employees for example
the use of independent contractors is:

A. Flexible staffing levels

B. Empowerment work arrangements
C. Empowerment work flexibility
D. Flexible work schedules

7. __________ identifies the essential duties of the job, including mental and physical tasks
and any methods and resources required.

A. Job methods
B. Job identification
C. Job specification
D. Job description

8. TDR’s in a job description are __________, __________ and __________ that a

particular job entails.

A. tools, duties and responsibilities

B. tasks, duties and responsibilities
C. tasks, design and responsibilities
D. tasks, duties and requirements

9. Human Resource planning __________.

A. Compares the future state of the organisation with its goals for the current
B. Is an approach over and above enriching individual jobs
C. Is an approach to attract individuals to apply for jobs
D. Compares the present state of the organisation with its goals for the future

10. When dealing with labour surplus based on downsizing, the speed of results is
__________ and amount of suffering caused is __________.

A. Slow, low
B. Fast, low
C. Fast, high
D. Slow, high

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11. Soft HRM treats employees as the most important resource in the business and a source
of competitive advantage.
A. True
B. False

12. Human capital refers to the knowledge, education, training, skills, and expertise of a
firm’s workers.
A. True
B. False

13. Electronic Human Resource Management (EHRM) is a computer system used to

acquire, store, manipulate, analyse, retrieve, and distribute information related to an
organisation’s human resources.
A. True
B. False

14. Downsizing presents a number of challenges and opportunities for PM, in terms of
challenges, the PM function must “surgically” reduce the workforce by cutting only the
workers who are less valuable in their performance.
A. True
B. False

15. Abilities is an individual’s level of proficiency at performing a particular task.

A. True
B. False

16. Design for motivation ensures that workers have a positive attitude toward their jobs so
that they show up at work with enthusiasm, commitment, and creativity
A. True
B. False

17. Job sharing is a work option in which 2 part time employees carry out the tasks usually
associated with a single job.
A. True
B. False

18. The second step of the human resource planning process is forecasting.
A. True
B. False

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19. The speed of results in outsourcing a company’s tasks to deal with labour shortage is
fast.
A. True
B. False

20. When evaluating success of the HR strategies, it is NOT important to benchmark

whether there are surpluses, shortages or equilibrium of human resources to support
business objectives
A. True
B. False

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Section B – TWO (2) Essay Questions (20 marks). Answer all. Please write your
answers clearly on the answer sheet provided.
______________________________________________________________________

Question 21

There are a number of critical trends affecting personnel management that influence how
organisations need to manage their employees. Some of these trends pertain to changes
taking place in the external environment of the organisation; others pertain to some of the
ways organisations are responding internally to such trends.

Personnel Management is playing an important role in helping organisations gain and keep
an advantage over competitors by becoming high-performance work systems. Explain in
detail a high performance work system.
(5 marks)

Explain the following THREE (3) key trends occurring in today’s high-performance work
systems:
a. Reliance on knowledge workers
b. The empowerment of employees to make decisions
c. The use of teamwork
(5 marks)

Question 22

Human Resource (HR) planning compares the present state of the organisation with its
goals for the future, and then identifies what changes it must make in its human resources
to meet these goals.

Explain the meaning of forecasting of labour demand in HR planning.

(2 marks)

Explain with an aid of an example each, the following TWO (2) methods of forecasting of
labour demand in HR planning.

a. Trend analysis
b. Leading indicators
(8 marks)

--- End of Paper ---

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 Personnel Management
Quiz – ANSWER SHEET

Section A - Please write your MCQ & T/F answers below:

Question Answer Question Answer

Q1 Q11

Q2 Q12

Q3 Q13

Q4 Q14

Q5 Q15

Q6 Q16

Q7 Q17

Q8 Q18

Q9 Q19

Q10 Q20

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SECTION B – Answer both Questions on spaces provided below.

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