Competitiveness - Answers A company's ability to maintain and gain market share in its industry.
Human resource management (HRM)
. - Answers The policies, practices, and systems that influence employees' behavior, attitudes, and
performances.
Shared service model - Answers A way to organize the HR function that includes centers of expertise
or excellence, service centers, and business partners.
Self-service - Answers Giving employees online access to human resources information.
Outsourcing - Answers An organization's use of an outside organization for a broad set of services.
Evidence-based HR - Answers Demonstrating that human re-source practices have a positive
influence on the company's bottom line or key stakeholders (employees, customers, community,
shareholders)
HR or workforce analytics - Answers The practice of using data from HR databases and other data
sources to make evidence-based human resource decisions.
Big data - Answers Information merged from a variety of sources, including HR databases, corporate
financial statements, and employee surveys, to make evidence-based HR decisions and show that HR
practices can influence the organization's bottom
Sustainability - Answers The ability of a company to make a profit without sacrificing the resources of
its employees, the community, or the environment. Based on an approach to organizational decision
making that
Stakeholders - Answers The various interest groups who have relationships with and, consequently,
whose interests are tied to the organization (e.g., employees, suppliers, customers, shareholders,
community).
Intangible assets - Answers A type of company asset including human capital, customer capital, social
capital, and intellectual capital.
Learning organization - Answers An organization whose employees are continuously attempting to
learn new things and apply what they have learned to improve product or service quality.
Employee engagement - Answers The degree to which employees are fully involved in their work and
the strength of their job and company commitment.
Talent management - Answers Attracting, retaining, developing, and motivating highly skilled
employees and managers.
Alternative work arrangements - Answers Independent contractors, on-call workers, temporary
workers, and contract company workers who are not employed full-time by the company.
Balanced scorecard - Answers A means of performance measurement that gives managers a chance
to look at their company from the perspectives of internal and external customers, employees, and
shareholders.
Total quality management (TQM) - Answers A cooperative form of doing business that relies on the
talents and capabilities of both labor and management to continually improve quality and
productivity.
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award - Answers An award established in 1987 to promote quality
awareness, to recognize quality achievements of U.S. companies, and to publicize successful quality
strategies.
ISO 9000:2000 - Answers A series of quality assurance standards developed by the International
Organization for Standardization in Switzerland and adopted worldwide.
Six Sigma process - Answers System of measuring, analyzing, improving, and controlling processes
once they meet quality standards.
Lean thinking - Answers A way to do more with less effort, equipment, space, and time, but providing
customers with what they need and want.
Ethics - Answers The fundamental principles of right and wrong by which employees and companies
interact.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 - Answers A congressional act passed in response to illegal and unethical
behavior by managers and executives. The act sets stricter rules for business, especially accounting
practices including requiring more open and consistent disclosure of financial data, CEOs' assurance
that data are completely accurate, and provisions that affect the employee—employer relationship
(e.g., development of a code of conduct for senior financial officers).