Case Study: Human Resources Management in Action
1. In this case study you learned about different forms of direct, indirect, and non-financial compensation. Consider your own career. Which of these types of compensation is most important to you? Do you believe the same form(s) of compensation would be most important to those you will directly manage? Explain your answer.
2. Insurance benefits have traditionally been offered to employees and their immediate families. Today's employees, however, often define family in a much different manner than did previous generations of workers. The increase in openness of same-sex living arrangements has resulted in more employees seeking insurance benefits for their domestic (live-in) partners, regardless of their marriage status or their partner's gender. Some companies now offer insurance benefits to domestic partners, but others do not. Do you think companies should offer benefits to domestic partners? Why or not?
3. Finding affordable, quality day care is a challenge for many hospitality employ¬ees. In some cases, progressive hospitality employers have done a good job of securing reduced-cost services of this type, or even providing on-site day care for no- or low-cost to their employees. Assume you were an HR manager in such a progressive facility. How would you respond to a group of older employees who questioned the company's use of significant compensation resources directed at a targeted category of workers (those with young children)?
4. Describe the differences between extrinsic and intrinsic rewards as they relate to employee compensation programs.