Final Examination

The final examination is required of all students in IRL 101. The examination is comprehensive and will cover reading and class materials from all sections of the course, both those which have already been tested and those which have not.  You do not have to complete those parts of the exam which cover reading material on which you have already been quizzed.  However, you can take those parts of the final exam in which case the grade on that part of the exam will replace your quiz grade. The examination will be given at 1:30 on Monday, May 13.

Sample Examination Questions – The instructions and questions which appeared on last semester’s final exam will soon posted below. These provide a good sample of the types of examination questions which you can expect to see on all of the quizzes and exams in this course. Students were given nine lines to answer each question except for the long essay on part D for which they were given about two-and-a-half pages.   The format for your exams will be different but all of these types of questions will appear during the semester.  I have provided answers to some of the questions so you can see what constitutes a good answer.

 

	Code Number ___________
IRL 101	Le Moyne College
Cliff Donn	May 2001

Final Examination

This examination has four parts. You must complete all four. Answer as completely as possible in the space provided but do not exceed that space. Give relevant examples wherever possible. PART A: Answer any three and only three of the four questions in this section. What are the components of an industrial-relations system.  Explain in as much detail as space allows. What are unfair labor practices?  Give an example. What are craft unions?  How do they differ from industrial unions?  Which approach did Gompers favor? What is arbitration?  Explain. PART B: Answer any three and only three of the following four questions. According to West and Patterson ("Profitable Personnel" in Maidment) what measure of employee satisfaction best predicts firm performance?  Explain. According to Glazer, ("In Defense of Preference" in Maidment) what are the main reasons to continue preferences for African-Americans?  Explain. According to the article by Hays, ("Pros and Cons of Pay for Performance" in Maidment), what is one of the most thoroughly replicated findings in social psychology and what are its implications for performance-based pay? Stout ("Interviewing in Japan") makes three suggestions for recruiting good managers in Japan.  What are they?  Explain. PART C: Answer any three and only three of the following four questions. What is the Fair Labor Standards Act?  What are two of the issues it regulates?  Explain. In performing performance appraisal, it is possible to focus on employee behavior or it is possible to focus on the outcomes generated by that behavior.  Explain one advantage of each approach. What is the principal determinant of the pay which a Japanese worker receives?  What role does the particular job the worker is doing play in determining current pay? How does German codetermination work at the level of the work place?  Explain. PART D: Answer the question below. It is sometimes said that unions have outlived their usefulness and are no longer relevant to the workplace of the 1990s.  Discuss that statement making sure to indicate whether you agree or disagree with it.  Make sure you consider issues and give examples related to worker satisfaction, labor, employment and discrimination law, recruitment, compensation, performance appraisal, collective bargaining, and industrial relations systems overseas.

 

SAMPLE ANSWERS : These are some of the answers to a couple of the questions from the final exam above.  Each answer appears with an explanation from me about what grade the answer received and why.  Before those answers, I have produced the grading scale used in the course.

Grading scale: The following scale (out of 100 points) applies: A   80 or above B   70 to 79.5 C   60 to 69.5 D   55 to 59.5 F   Below 55

According to the article by Hays, ("Pros and Cons of Pay for Performance" in Maidment), what is one of the most thoroughly replicated findings in social psychology and what are its implications for performance-based pay?

Correct Answer: The finding is that the more you reward people for doing something, the more they tend to lose interest in whatever they did to get the reward.  When they lose interest, quality declines.  This suggest that performance-based pay is unlikely to produce the desired results.

Actual answers given by students: 1. Hays reports that, according to Alfie Kohn, one of the most thoroughly replicated findings in social psychology is that the more one receives money for doing a certain task, the more one will lose interest in that task.  This has important implications for performance-based pay.  The more the worker is financially rewarded for doing a certain job, the more the worker will lose interest in that job.  The interest is lost, the more the quality of the product will diminish.  The diminishment of product quality has grave consequences for all concerned. This answer received an "A".  In fact it received full credit.  It not only covers all the major points correctly, but it adds additional (correct) information about what source the author was referencing.  The answer is also clearly and correctly expressed. 2. Performance based pay loses the interest of employees.  The employee often loses interest in the ability to work to full potential.  The employees often lose the cause for the gain in pay and this can weaken their on-going performance.  Employees can forget what they were doing for the gain and lose interest in doing high performance. This answer received a low "B".  It has the correct information about the implications for performance-based pay but it is poorly expressed and it doesn't explain the actual social-psychology findings clearly. 3. One of the most thorougly replicated findings in social psychology is that, the more you pay the worker, the less interest they have in their job or task.  Because they lose interest, this leads to a decrease in quality.  Peformance-based pay has implications.  One is that it could bring about competitiveness among employees.  If pay is based on performance, they are all going to try to be the best so they can get an increase in pay and be the best one.  This also eliminates teamwork.  Workers are not going to want to share their ideas if the whole group gets an incentive, not just him. This answer received a high "F".  The first sentence misunderstands the concept.  The fifth sentence says the opposite of what Hays is saying.  Finally the last sentence is just incorrect.  Still, this received some credit because the answer reflected familiarity with the topic the article addressed and contained some correct information.

In performing performance appraisal, it is possible to focus on employee behavior or it is possible to focus on the outcomes generated by that behavior.  Explain one advantage of each approach.

Correct Answer: It is possible to focus on the behavior of the employee.  This has the advantage of avoiding producing a mentality among employees of "the ends justify the means."  It is also possible to focus on the outcomes the employee achieves.  This has the advantage of drawing attention to the "bottom line" outcome which is desired and not focusing too much attention on behavior which, though desirable, ultimately doesn't enable the employee to get the job done.

Actual answers given by students: 1. An advantage of focusing on employee behavior is that the two parties can come up with suggestions on how to improve or enhance the employee's behavior, both with other employees and in terms of how the employee does his/her job.  Focusing on the outcomes generated by behavior allows the parties to see how well the behavior is contributing to meeting the goals of the workplace. This answer received a low "A".  It is fundamentally correct on both parts of the question although the first part doesn't identify the danger that can be avoided. 2. One advantage of focusing on employee behavior is it lets the employee know what they can do to improve.  For example, salespeople may not be generating enough sales because they don't act friendly toward customers.  Focusing on outcomes generated by the behavior allows employees to know the consequences of their behavior.  This makes improving performance seem more important.  The best solution is to combine both strategies. This answer received a "C".  The first example is poor and is poorly explained and the second explanation is not as clear and detailed as it might be.