Part One.True/False: State whether the following statement is true or false and provide a brief substantive explanation to justify your answer (you must do more than simply re-state the question in the affirmative or negative).
1. The process employed to select employees is essentially the same regardless of industry or organization.
2. Laws related to equal employment opportunity have an impact on the kinds of information an
organization can collect from prospective employees during the hiring process from applications and interviews through making an offer.
3. If an organization seeks to hire employees of a certain type to fulfill its preferred branding and
image, it may request information regarding an applicant’s race, nationality and marital status, provided it explains the purpose for doing so.
4. Employers use of non-directive interviews typically result in the most successful hires.
5. Supervisors typically make the final hiring decision by selecting from a pool of candidates.
6. The design of a training program begins with the identification of available resources to conduct
the training.
7. Training is most effective when the objectives of the training are measurable.
8. An experiential program is a type of internship used to instruct new student employees.
9. Training is most effective when all of the material to be covered is presented straight through in a
linear fashion.
10. The process of sending employees directly into communities where they have to interact with
persons from different cultures, races, and nationalities is known as cultural immersion.
11. Most jobs of today and the future are likely to be considered protean – static and focused on a
particular aspect of the organization’s objectives and mission to ensure greater efficiency.
12. The Myers-Briggs test is very popular because there is ample evidence that the results of the
type indicator are closely correlated with success on the job.
13. Most employee development occurs through formal education programs.
14. Job rotation is typically employed to remove ineffective employees from positions of authority
and provide them with training in areas that may be more suitable.
15. Succession planning focuses on identifying low-cost replacements for more experienced, and
therefore more expensive, retiring employees.
16. Incentive pay influences employee performance because the amount paid is directly linked to
certain predefined behaviors or outcomes.
17. A merit pay system provides permanent salary increases based on ratings and performance
appraisals.
18. Linking incentives to the organization’s profits or stock price exposes employees to a high
degree of risk.
19. In order to ensure success and avoid heightened levels of suspicion and jealousy among staff,
details regarding an incentive plan should not be disclosed to employees.
20. Incentive pay for executives lays the groundwork for significant ethical issues.
Part Two.Essay Questions: answer the following questions in your own words (approximately 50-100 words).
1. Why are drug tests a controversial component of the personnel selection process? What are some of the ways in which organizations can avoid problems associated with drug testing?
2. What should managers do to support training?
3. What is 360-degree feedback? What are its advantages and disadvantages?
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a merit pay system?
Sample Solution
Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell.
In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.
God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.
Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.
To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.
References
Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.
Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.
Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.
