Free SHRM-CP Knowledge Items Questions and Answers — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which selection tool should be used to fill a vacancy that requires managing multiple priorities and working under pressure?
- Cognitive ability test
- Background check
- Behavioral assessment (Correct answer)
- Academic transcript
Correct answer: Behavioral assessment
Explanation: <br> Behavioral assessments provide a systematic evaluation of candidate personality profiles used to gauge the viability of a candidate based on things like work style and potential, which are useful when trying to gauge whether a candidate can manage multiple priorities and work under pressure. This is based on the assumption that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.
Question 2: Which action best fosters high ethical standards in an organization?
- Establishing an anonymous reporting hotline
- Adopting a corporate social responsibility policy
- Providing manager training on codes of conduct (Correct answer)
- Distributing the employee handbook annually
Correct answer: Providing manager training on codes of conduct
Explanation: <br> Training managers on codes of conduct helps managers understand and promote ethical behavior and therefore foster high ethical standards.
Question 3: When developing an emergency disaster plan, which activity occurs during a vulnerability analysis?
- Determining the likelihood of potential hazards and their effects on the business (Correct answer)
- Identifying key products, services, and operations and evaluating their reinforcements
- Assessing available internal and external resources and establishing emergency contacts
- Working with an insurance carrier to analyze exclusions and areas of exposure
Correct answer: Determining the likelihood of potential hazards and their effects on the business
Explanation: <br> To conduct a vulnerability analysis, a company must examine the hazards within the company and the community in which the business is located and consider crises that have occurred in the past or that may result from the geographic location of the business or from technological or human error. Businesses should then determine the likelihood of facing those hazards and the severity of the consequences they would have on the business.
Question 4: Several raters evaluate job descriptions and arrange them according to their value to the company. Which job evaluation method are the raters using?
- Classification
- Ranking (Correct answer)
- Point factor
- Market-pricing
Correct answer: Ranking
Explanation: <br> Ranking is a qualitative job evaluation method that places jobs in a hierarchy of their value to the company.
Question 5: Which strategy best facilitates internal transfers and maximizes flexibility when assigning pay levels?
- Adjusting pay based on comparable worth of jobs
- Minimizing overlap between pay grades
- Implementing a broadband pay system (Correct answer)
- Adopting a seniority-based pay system
Correct answer: Implementing a broadband pay system
Explanation: <br> The large pay ranges in a broadband system facilitate internal transfers because this strategy greatly increases the probability that one’s current job and alternate position are in the same large pay range. It also gives organizations maximum flexibility in assigning pay levels to jobs.
Question 6: Which activity best exemplifies job enrichment?
- An IT employee researches how to resolve a software problem.
- A marketing employee spends extra time developing new branding ideas.
- A billing department employee is given the added responsibility of calculating payroll.
- A sales employee is selected by a supervisor to mentor junior employees. (Correct answer)
Correct answer: A sales employee is selected by a supervisor to mentor junior employees.
Explanation: <br> Selecting a sales employee to mentor junior employees is an example of job enrichment because it gives the employee the opportunity to learn new skills that will provide a deeper purpose or meaning to the job. It is a “vertical” expansion of a job.
Question 7: If a manager issues a written warning to an employee who comes in late to work because he concludes that the employee just wants to exert the least amount of effort to remain employed, which theory of motivation is he is utilizing?
- Attribution theory (Correct answer)
- Self-determination theory
- Trait theory
- Contingency theory
Correct answer: Attribution theory
Explanation: <br> According to the attribution theory of motivation, individuals judge people based on how they view the reason for their behavior. If the manager believes that the lateness is due to an external factor beyond the late employee's control (such as a labor strike that shuts down the public transportation the employee uses), then the manager may impose a lesser form of discipline or none at all. Here, because the manager attributes the lateness to a factor within the employee's control, he judges the conduct harshly.
Question 8: If three companies merge, what does it mean when a number of employees' salaries are red-circled?
- The employees will be prohibited from receiving any further salary increases.
- The employees are paid over the rate of others at the company in the same role but their rates will continue to be paid. (Correct answer)
- The employees are paid over the rate of others at the company in the same roles so their rates will gradually be decreased to align with their counterparts.
- The employees are paid under the rates of others at the company and the rates will be gradually increased to match their counterparts.
Correct answer: The employees are paid over the rate of others at the company in the same role but their rates will continue to be paid.
Explanation: <br> Red circling is used to indicate that an employee is overpaid but that they will continue to be paid at this rate. There are a number of reasons why a rate may be red-circled.
Question 9: If a group of hotel employees is on strike and a group of delivery workers joins the strike in support of the hotel employees this is called:
- A support strike
- A sympathy strike (Correct answer)
- A secondary strike
- A boycott
Correct answer: A sympathy strike
Explanation: <br> A sympathy strike occurs when a group of non-striking employees joins the strike as a way to show support for their cause. Many collective bargaining agreements contain contract language that prohibits employees working under it from participating in a sympathy strike.
Question 10: If an executive starts a bargaining session by stating that the best base compensation offer they can offer is $175,000 and the candidate responds that the lowest base salary he will accept is $192,000, what type of bargaining is this?
- Principled bargaining
- Auction bargaining
- Position-based bargaining (Correct answer)
- Interest-based bargaining
Correct answer: Position-based bargaining
Explanation: <br> In position-based bargaining, both sides state their position, and they view the process as a zero-sum game where one person "wins" and one person "loses." When parties engage in position bargaining, both sides usually state their opening positions, then both sides offer concessions, and the agreement generally, but not always, is reached when the parties agree upon a figure that is somewhere in the middle of the two opening positions.
Question 11: If you are reviewing the three levels of needs for your department (organizational, take, and individual) then you are in which stage of the ADDIE process?
- Design phase
- Evaluation phase
- Implementation phase
- Analysis phase (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Analysis phase
Explanation: <br> The first phase of the ADDIE process, the analysis phase, involves a collection of information to identify gaps. This analysis of needs is followed by the other stages of the process.
Free SHRM-CP Knowledge Items Questions and Answers
Which selection tool should be used to fill a vacancy that requires managing multiple priorities and working under pressure?
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