Human Resources | OCR A-Level Business H431 (H431)

Human Resources

366 questions
24 subtopics
Assessed on all three papers
Component 01, Component 02 and Component 03

Human Resources is examined in all three written papers — the specification is assessed in full on every one of them, and they differ by the context questions are set in rather than by content.

It covers human resource objectives, chain of command, span of control and delegation, tall, flat, matrix and divisional structures, organisational culture and what shapes it, formal and informal communication and group norms, verbal, non-verbal and electronic communication, the communication model and barriers to communication, workforce planning, flexible working practices, recruitment and the choice between internal and external hiring, selection methods: interviews, tests and references, training methods and training needs analysis, appraisal: 360°, peer and self-assessment, measuring workforce performance: turnover, absenteeism and productivity, redundancy and fair dismissal, unfair dismissal, grievance procedures and employment tribunals, the functions of management, leadership theories and styles, Maslow, Herzberg and the theories of motivation, monetary and non-monetary motivation in practice, employee relations and employment legislation, trade unions and employee participation, external influences on human resources and the human resources strategy.

Sample questions from Human Resources

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Human resource objectives

Why does a business planning rapid expansion need human resource objectives as well as sales objectives?

Show the answer
Growth in sales cannot be delivered without the right number of trained staff in place, so the business must set objectives for recruitment, training and retention to support it.
Organisational culture and what shapes it

Name three factors other than leadership that influence a business' culture.

Show the answer
The national culture it operates in, the size and structure of the organisation, and the industry it competes in all influence its culture.
The communication model and barriers to communication

Give three examples of barriers to communication in a workplace.

Show the answer
Technical jargon the receiver does not understand, a language difference in an international team, and an atmosphere of distrust between managers and staff are all barriers.
Recruitment and the choice between internal and external hiring

Why does a person specification separate essential from desirable requirements?

Show the answer
It lets the business reject applicants who cannot do the job at all, then rank the remainder fairly on the extras, which speeds up shortlisting and makes it defensible.
Appraisal: 360°, peer and self-assessment

What is peer assessment?

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It is appraisal in which an employee's performance is judged by colleagues at the same level who work alongside them.
Unfair dismissal, grievance procedures and employment tribunals

What is meant by wrongful dismissal?

Show the answer
It is dismissal that breaches the contract of employment itself, most often by failing to give the notice the contract requires.
Maslow, Herzberg and the theories of motivation

Give three examples of hygiene factors in Herzberg's two-factor theory.

Show the answer
Pay, working conditions and company policy and administration are all hygiene factors.
Trade unions and employee participation

How can trade union membership disadvantage employees themselves?

Show the answer
Members pay subscriptions, may lose pay during industrial action, and a collective agreement can hold back a high performer whose pay is set by the group's deal.

The 24 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Human resource objectives	Recall questions on human resource objectives and examples of them, why they must be measurable, how they derive from corporate objectives and support expansion, labour cost and talent development objectives, the problems of vague objectives, conflicting objectives, judging a retention target, and cutting labour turnover.	13
Chain of command, span of control and delegation	Recall questions on organisational structure, line and staff relationships, the chain of command, span of control, authority and responsibility, delegation and its motivating effect and risks, centralisation and decentralisation, and delayering and its consequences for the managers who remain.	16
Tall, flat, matrix and divisional structures	Recall questions on tall and flat structures and their advantages and drawbacks, hierarchical structures, organising by function, product and system, divisional and matrix structures, choosing a structure for a retailer expanding abroad, and why structure matters to customers.	16
Organisational culture and what shapes it	Recall questions on organisational culture and how it differs from rules, how founders, reward systems, national culture, size and industry shape it, the threat from rapid growth, power, role, task and person cultures, the benefits and dangers of a strong culture, and changing culture after a takeover.	14
Formal and informal communication and group norms	Recall questions on formal and informal communication and the grapevine, their advantages and risks during restructuring, using informal channels, group norms and their effect on productivity, group and individual objectives, group loyalty between departments, encouraging co-operation, and how new employees adopt norms.	13
Verbal, non-verbal and electronic communication	Recall questions on verbal and non-verbal communication, communication media, written, face-to-face and telephone communication, social media and mass communication, electronic communication across sites, information overload, the factors behind choosing a method, remote workforces, announcing redundancies, and communicating with suppliers.	16
The communication model and barriers to communication	Recall questions on the six elements of the communication model, including the source, receiver and feedback, barriers to communication such as jargon, long chains of command and the wrong medium, the model's uses and limitations, the costs of poor communication, and ways to improve it.	15
Workforce planning	Recall questions on workforce planning, the demand for and supply of labour, the information a plan needs, sales forecasts and age profiles, planning in low unemployment, the benefits of accurate plans, avoiding redundancies, benefits to employees, why plans go wrong and need review, natural wastage, and a bakery's expansion.	13
Flexible working practices	Recall questions on flexible working, including part-time working, flexi-time, compressed hours, annualised hours, term-time working, time off in lieu, job sharing, zero hours contracts and home working, their benefits and drawbacks for employers and workers, and choosing a practice for a hotel.	16
Recruitment and the choice between internal and external hiring	Recall questions on recruitment and why businesses recruit, job descriptions and person specifications, essential and desirable requirements, job advertisements and age discrimination, internal and external recruitment and their advantages and disadvantages, recruitment agencies, the cost of poor recruitment, and employer reputation.	16
Selection methods: interviews, tests and references	Recall questions on selection, application forms, curricula vitae and letters of application, aptitude and psychometric tests, work trials, interviews and interviewer bias, making interviews reliable, references and their weakness, assessment centres, and choosing selection methods for graduate developers.	15
Training methods and training needs analysis	Recall questions on training and induction, on-the-job and off-the-job training and their advantages and disadvantages, academic and vocational training, apprenticeships, training needs analysis and its sources, how training reduces labour turnover, the risk of poaching, and training for new automated machinery.	16
Appraisal: 360°, peer and self-assessment	Recall questions on appraisal and its purposes, managerial assessment and its weakness, peer assessment, self-assessment, 360° assessment and its advantages and disadvantages, target setting, how appraisal supports training plans, linking appraisal to pay, and making appraisal more than a paper exercise.	14
Measuring workforce performance: turnover, absenteeism and productivity	Recall questions on calculating labour turnover, labour retention, absenteeism, labour productivity and lateness rates, the costs of high turnover and absence and their causes, statutory holiday entitlement, performance related pay, reading workforce measures together, and measuring an individual's contribution.	20
Redundancy and fair dismissal	Recall questions on redundancy and how it differs from misconduct, voluntary and compulsory redundancy, fair and unlawful selection criteria, dismissal and the reasons that make it fair, capability, gross misconduct, fair dismissal procedures, and the effects of redundancy on remaining staff and the local community.	15
Unfair dismissal, grievance procedures and employment tribunals	Recall questions on unfair dismissal and the reasons that make it automatic, whistleblowing, constructive and wrongful dismissal, the qualifying period of service, grievances and formal grievance procedures, employment tribunals, their purposes and remedies, settling claims, and how tribunals shape dismissal practice.	16
The functions of management	Recall questions on management and Fayol's five functions of planning, organising, commanding, co-ordinating and controlling, management against leadership, the constraints of budgets, law, culture and trade unions, measures of management success, and why profit alone is a poor measure.	13
Leadership theories and styles	Recall questions on leadership, Carlyle's great man theory and Galton's trait theory, Theory X and Theory Y managers, Blake and Mouton's managerial grid, Tannenbaum and Schmidt's continuum, Adair's three circles, autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire and paternalistic styles, and choosing a style.	18
Maslow, Herzberg and the theories of motivation	Recall questions on motivation at work, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Herzberg's hygiene factors and motivators, job enrichment and enlargement, McClelland's three needs, Vroom's expectancy theory, Locke's goal-setting theory, management by objectives, and Peters' excellence theory.	18
Monetary and non-monetary motivation in practice	Recall questions on monetary and non-monetary motivation, piece rate and its drawback, commission, calculating a performance bonus, performance related pay, profit sharing and employee share ownership, fringe benefits, recognition, empowerment, job rotation, and motivating call centre staff.	14
Employee relations and employment legislation	Recall questions on employee relations and their benefits and costs, contracts of employment and written statements, the national minimum wage, health and safety duties, equality law and direct and indirect discrimination, data protection, the benefits and costs of employment legislation, and flexible contracts.	16
Trade unions and employee participation	Recall questions on trade unions and their functions, collective bargaining, the advantages and disadvantages of union recognition, single-union agreements, falling union membership, employee participation, industrial democracy, participative decision making, works councils, and the benefits and risks of consultation.	16
External influences on human resources	Recall questions on how an ageing population, work-life balance, employment law and ethical choices such as zero hours contracts affect human resources, together with environmental concerns, recession, low unemployment, immigration and apprenticeship policy, automation, online recruitment, operating in several countries, and offshoring.	14
The human resources strategy	Recall questions on human resources strategy and how it differs from an objective, hard and soft human resource management and when each suits a business, aligning with corporate strategy, the core and peripheral workforce, effects on shareholders, why strategies fail, and a manufacturer moving into custom-built products.	13

Human Resources is 366 of the 2,384 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.