Strategic Staffing, 2e (Phillips/Gully)

Chapter 6 Sourcing: Identifying Recruits

1) Internal recruiting sources locate people who currently work for the company who would be
good recruits for other positions.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 141
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1

2) Passive job seekers can be easy to find as they are constantly on the lookout for a better
opportunity.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 141
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1

3) Recruiting sources should be prioritized based on staffing goals and the results of the
recruiting source effectiveness analysis.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 141
Skill: Concept
Objective: 2

4) Succession management is the ongoing process of recruiting, evaluating, developing, and

preparing employees to assume positions in other firms in the future.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 142
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

5) For firms whose talent philosophy supports promotion from within, internal sourcing is the
core of the staffing system.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 142
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

6) Nepotism is illegal.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 144
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

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7) Job fairs are best for finding passive job seekers.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 146
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

8) Career sites are cost-effective and enable an organization to communicate its job requirements
and values to all applicants.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 148
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

9) Internet data mining involves searching the Internet to locate active job seekers with the
characteristics and qualifications needed for a position.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 150
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

10) Employee profiling identifies what the firm's successful current employees like to do and
how people like them can be recruited.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 155
Skill: Concept
Objective: 4

11) Applicant flow is the number and type of applicants coming from each recruiting source.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 156
Skill: Concept
Objective: 4

12) Sourcing nontraditional applicant pools often requires more creative sourcing activities than
does sourcing traditional applicant pools.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 158
Skill: Concept
Objective: 5

13) A persistent problem that prevents most firms from hiring people with disabilities is the lack
of affordable technologies that could enable firms to accommodate them at a low cost.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 159
Skill: Concept
Objective: 5

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14) Differentiation refers to the coordination of a single global staffing strategy with the
organization retaining adequate controls over local operations.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 161
Skill: Concept
Objective: 6

15) Geographic targeting can help an organization reduce turnover.

Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 162
Skill: Concept
Objective: 6

16) An employee who is currently employed but occasionally visits online job boards "just to see
what's out there" in case he can identify a better job opportunity is called a(n) ________.
A) active job seeker
B) passive job seeker
C) latent job seeker
D) non-active job seeker
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 141
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1

17) A successful executive, who is happy with her current position, does not look for information
about other jobs, but might be tempted by a great opportunity is a(n) ________.
A) active job seeker
B) passive job seeker
C) semi-passive job seeker
D) non-active job seeker
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 141
Skill: Concept
Objective: 1

18) Which of the following is an internal recruiting source?

A) succession management
B) career fairs
C) boolean searching
D) college recruiting
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 142
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

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19) SteelMakers Inc. (SMI) is in urgent need of senior sales executives. Sales have declined in
the last three quarters while the market share of their leading competitor, Steelworld, has steadily
increased. SMI has realized that they are not losing out because of inferior products, but because
they have not been able to pitch their products as well as Steelworld. After careful observation of
the sales efforts of the latter, the SMI management has decided to offer extremely lucrative, hard
to refuse, deals to one or two selected members of Steelworld's sales team. Which of the
following modes of sourcing is SMI using in this case?
A) ambushing
B) employee referrals
C) poaching
D) pull-up hire
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 142
Skill: Application
Objective: 3
AACSB: Analytic skills

20) The ongoing process of recruiting, evaluating, developing, and preparing employees to
assume other positions in the firm in the future is ________.
A) a qualifications inventory
B) succession management
C) a job posting system
D) resume database building
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 142
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

21) Which of the following recruitment strategies can reduce the possibility of overlooking
qualified internal talent?
A) employee development
B) talent inventories
C) internal job posting systems
D) employee referrals
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 143
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

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22) The management at Ajax Corporation believes that internal recruiting sources are the best,
especially when it comes to filling vacant positions higher up in the hierarchy. Team leaders and
managers at Ajax regularly update the internal records of all employees and their performances,
promotability, career interests, etc. This allows the company to quickly and cheaply source
qualified internal candidates who can be contacted whenever a position needs to filled. Most of
Ajax's managers were promoted to their respective positions with the help of this internal
database. Which of the following methods of internal sourcing does Ajax use?
A) succession management
B) employee referrals
C) internal job posting system
D) talent inventories
Answer: D
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 143
Skill: Application
Objective: 3
AACSB: Analytic skills

23) Publicizing open jobs to employees is known as ________.

A) employee development
B) succession planning
C) external job posting
D) internal job posting
Answer: D
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 143
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

24) Which of the following refers to the training of employees to extend their capabilities and
prepare them to assume other jobs and roles in the firm?
A) leadership development program
B) internal job posting
C) employee development
D) succession management
Answer: C
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 143
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

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25) An HR manager trying to recruit for a number of key positions in a firm asks the best talent
to recommend the best people they've worked with in the past or people they feel would be good
performers. This is an example of ________.
A) networking
B) internal job posting
C) referrals
D) external job posting
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 143
Skill: Application
Objective: 3
AACSB: Analytic skills

26) An organization that is currently composed of primarily white males may discriminate
against minorities and women if it uses which recruiting source?
A) employee referrals
B) job fairs
C) search firms
D) college recruiting
Answer: A
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 144
Skill: Application
Objective: 3
AACSB: Analytic skills

27) Why is it more likely that employee referral programs are effective and successful?
A) Employees who refer applicants are given a reward.
B) Applicants hired through this method low high turnover.
C) Employees generally provide accurate information about referrals.
D) Heterogeneity of a firm is affected positively by this method.
Answer: B
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 144
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

28) People who rely on their own contacts and research and the organization's database of
potential applicants to find recruits are known as ________.
A) headhunters
B) in-house sourcers
C) employee referees
D) ex-employees
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 145
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

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29) Which of the following recruitment strategies can help an organization reduce labor costs
and improve customer service together with pursuing top talent?
A) resume databases
B) offshoring
C) observation
D) trade fairs
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 148
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

30) Retainer firms are ________.

A) firms that require a large group of new recruits within a short period of time
B) search firms who charge employers a fixed fee in advance of placement
C) sites that allow employers to post job vacancies
D) organizations that keep in-house sourcers
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 148
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

31) Which of the following means of sourcing talent is sometimes considered unethical?
A) transitional talent deployment
B) data mining
C) raiding
D) acquisitions and mergers
Answer: C
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 149
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

32) An engineering firm is looking for a civil engineer to head their new project to build a
highway. Unable to find the right candidate for the job, the firm resorts to scouting for potential
candidates among the employees of rival firms. It offers the assistant chief engineer of its rival
firm an extremely lucrative package and the chance to manage greater responsibilities. This
practice is known as ________.
A) pull-up hire
B) tracking
C) data mining
D) flip searching
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 149
Skill: Application
Objective: 3
AACSB: Analytic skills

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33) Hiring top talent away from another company is an example of using which recruiting
source?
A) raiding competitors
B) employee referrals
C) internet data mining
D) networking
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 149
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

34) ABZ Corp. has tried to fill the post of a senior project engineer for a while but has been
unable to find a suitable candidate. To avoid further delay in the execution of a major project,
ABZ Corp. decides to target Julian Patterson, rival firm Telstra Inc.'s junior project engineer. On
getting an offer that not only pays substantially more than what he currently gets, but also offers
greater responsibilities and more learning opportunities, Julian accepts the position. Which of the
following is most similar to the sourcing strategy used in the example above?
A) A company, keen on hiring Alex, increases its initial offer after hearing that other firms are
offering him better pay packages.
B) James, a project leader with 10 subordinates, accepts an offer from a rival firm to lead a group
of 20 people.
C) Maria Luis, an economics professor at Brown University, is hired to head the Economics
Department of Cornell University.
D) Laura Jones, a corporate lawyer, accepts an offer from the country's leading corporate law
firm that offers more money.
Answer: C
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 149
Skill: Critical thinking
Objective: 3
AACSB: Reflective thinking skills

35) Which of the following external recruiting sources is useful for finding semi-passive and
passive job seekers?
A) walk-ins
B) military transition services
C) online job boards
D) internet data mining
Answer: D
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 150
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

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36) Web sites that continually search the Web for information about people with desirable talents
and sell access to their database of potential recruits are called ________.
A) career sites
B) web crawlers
C) job boards
D) career fairs
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 151
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

37) Which of the following is a benefit of social networking as a sourcing method?

A) It takes longer than external sourcing.
B) It is more effective than external sourcing.
C) It increases diversity of talent available.
D) It promotes employee retention.
Answer: C
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 152
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

38) Which of the following external recruiting sources is fast, cheap, and useful for finding
active job seekers?
A) career sites
B) walk-ins
C) schools
D) creative sourcing
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 155
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

39) A new college graduate looking for his or her first job is a(n) ________.
A) active job seeker
B) passive job seeker
C) semi-passive job seeker
D) non-active job seeker
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 158
Skill: Concept
Objective: 4

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40) Angstrom is a company that produces electronic goods. In the past, Angstrom used
newspaper advertisements as the only method to recruit engineers. Recently it used college
hiring, career sites, and employee referrals in addition to its usual method. Which of the
following would be the most likely result of this?
A) The company will spend less on recruitment.
B) The heterogeneity of the workforce will increase.
C) The effectiveness of newspaper adverts will decrease.
D) The turnover rate of employees will decrease.
Answer: B
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 158
Skill: Application
Objective: 4
AACSB: Analytic skills

41) Which of the following are considered to be an underutilized labor source?

A) career fairs
B) written job advertisements
C) qualified persons with disabilities
D) employee referrals
Answer: C
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 159
Skill: Concept
Objective: 5

42) The need to acknowledge and respect the diversity of local cultures when sourcing and
managing a global workforce is called ________.
A) integration
B) diversification
C) localization
D) differentiation
Answer: D
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 161
Skill: Concept
Objective: 6

43) In geographic targeting, the labor market used to source lower-level positions in a firm is
most likely to be ________.
A) local
B) regional
C) national
D) international
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 161
Skill: Concept
Objective: 6

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44) Filling lower-level positions from the local labor market and higher-level positions from the
regional or national labor market is an example of ________.
A) labor market analysis
B) job fairs
C) global staffing
D) geographic targeting
Answer: D
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 161
Skill: Concept
Objective: 6

45) Firms operating globally often need to give some latitude to their local managers to tailor
their strategies and practices to meet the needs of their locations. This highlights the ________
aspect of global sourcing.
A) integration
B) differentiation
C) standardization
D) specialization
Answer: B
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 161
Skill: Concept
Objective: 6

46) Axis Partners, a Canadian mutual fund, recently expanded its operations by opening a branch
in Shanghai, China, to handle market analysis. The company used an integration strategy for
staffing its new office. Entry-level positions in Shanghai were filled by recruiting graduates from
local campuses. However, they soon realized that this strategy was not as successful in China as
it was in Canada. Which of the following, if true, could explain the reason for this?
A) Employee turnover rates in the financial services industry in China is one of the lowest in the
world.
B) The employees in Shanghai were being paid lesser than their counterparts in Canada.
C) Some of its successful competitors in China use a differentiation strategy.
D) Few students in Shanghai chose finance as their subject of specialization.
Answer: D
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 161
Skill: Critical thinking
Objective: 6
AACSB: Reflective thinking skills

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Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
47) Axis Partners, a Canadian mutual fund, recently expanded its operations by opening a branch
in Shanghai, China, to handle market analysis. The company used an integration strategy for
staffing its new office. Entry-level positions in Shanghai were filled by recruiting graduates from
local campuses. However, they soon realized that this strategy was not as successful in China as
it was in Canada. Which of the following, if true, could explain the reason for this?
A) Employee turnover rates in the financial services industry in China is one of the lowest in the
world.
B) The employees in Shanghai were being paid lesser than their counterparts in Canada.
C) Some of its successful competitors in China use a differentiation strategy.
D) Few students in Shanghai chose finance as their subject of specialization.
Answer: D
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 161
Skill: Critical thinking
Objective: 6
AACSB: Reflective thinking skills

48) What is meant by employee profiling in sourcing?

Answer: Just as marketers use customer behavior profiles to better position products in the
market, talent sourcers use "employee profiles" to identify effective ways of reaching desirable
talent. Employee profiling identifies what desirable talent and successful current employees in
targeted jobs like to do and how you might reach them if you were to try to recruit them now.
This information is then used to source similar people. Choosing recruiting sources that would
reach current high performing employees increases the chances that the recruiting message will
reach comparably skilled and talented people. Identifying the sources for which top performers
differ from poorer performers can help prioritize recruiting sources for the position. Then
evaluate which sources attract applicants and particularly high quality new hires to further refine
the sourcing strategy.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 154
Skill: Concept
Objective: 3

49) What is employee profiling? How can it be used to create a sourcing plan?
Answer: Employee profiling identifies what the firm's successful current employees like to do
and how people like them can be recruited. To accomplish this, a firm can use a survey or focus
group whereby the firm's top performers are asked about where they like to go, what media they
use, what organizations they belong to, what events they attend, and how it's easiest for them to
be reached. Identifying how top performers differ from poorer performers can also help a firm
prioritize its recruiting sources.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 155
Skill: Concept
Objective: 4

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50) Explain in brief, with reference to any nontraditional applicant pool, how an organization can
attempt to effectively recruit such candidates.
Answer: Temporary staffing agencies are one way to effectively source people with disabilities
because they focus on the individual abilities, job skills, and interests of all job seekers. Staffing
services use job assessment services, temporary job assignments, and skills training to help
individuals with and without disabilities find appropriate employment. These services provide
job seekers with opportunities to build a work history, experience different types of jobs, and
increase their employment marketability and earning potential.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 159
Skill: Concept
Objective: 5

51) Explain the role of geographic targeting in the sourcing process.

Answer: Geographic targeting means sourcing recruits based on where they live. Lower-level
positions in an organization are typically filled from the local labor market, and the geographic
boundaries for a sourcing effort tend to widen as the position moves up the organization's
hierarchy. Sourcing strategies that target applicants likely to find the organization's location
attractive are likely to be strategic from the perspective of being able to hire a greater number of
job applicants and subsequently lower recruiting costs as well.

Geographic targeting can be done by focusing on the local labor market, focusing on labor
markets in locations similar to the organization's location in terms of city size, cost of living, etc.,
or targeting individuals likely to find the organization's location attractive. Individuals tend to
have preferences for communities with specific characteristics, and to be more willing to relocate
to areas with these desired characteristics. Identifying communities similar to an organization's
own location on characteristics including population density, recreational and cultural
opportunities, cost of living, and climate and targeting recruiting efforts in these areas may
generate promising sourcing strategies.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 161-162
Skill: Concept
Objective: 6

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52) What is global sourcing? Explain in brief the primary challenge of global sourcing.
Answer: Global sourcing is the sourcing of employees on a global basis. Global sourcing
requires planning, developing, implementing, and evaluating staffing initiatives on a worldwide
basis to ensure that staffing goals and objectives are met. Sourcing and staffing a global
workforce offers a substantially different set of challenges than does sourcing and staffing a
domestic workforce. Implementing recruiting and staffing policies across a range of countries,
each with its own cultural, legal, economic, and political characteristics is much more complex.

One of the primary challenges of sourcing and managing a global workforce is the need to strike
a balance between two competing objectives: integration and differentiation. Integration refers to
the coordination of a single global staffing strategy that gives the organization adequate control
over its local operations. Differentiation refers to the need to acknowledge and respect the
diversity of local cultures and a firm's employees' expectations in those cultures.
Diff: 2 Page Ref: 161
Skill: Concept
Objective: 6

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