Lesson 3.6.5

3.6.5 Making HR decisions: improving employer-employee relations Quiz: AQA Business, Unit 6

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 3.6.5, Making HR decisions: improving employer-employee relations: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA Business (7132), Unit 6: Human resource management, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Which body represents workers in negotiations with employers over pay and conditions?

    • A trade union
    • A board of directors
    • A works council
    • A government regulator

  2. What is a works council?

    • A body of elected employee representatives who are consulted by management on workplace issues
    • A team of managers who set the corporate objectives that the whole business must follow
    • A committee of shareholders who approve major decisions made by the board of directors each year
    • An external regulator that sets wage levels for all workers in a particular industry sector

  3. Which is an example of a method of improving employer-employee communication?

    • Regular team briefings and two-way meetings that let staff raise concerns and receive news
    • Holding all significant decisions only at board level and sharing outcomes after they are final
    • Keeping pay details secret from staff so that disputes about pay are less likely to arise
    • Reducing the number of team briefings so that managers spend more time on operational work

  4. Which is a benefit of good employer-employee relations for a business?

    • Lower absenteeism and a reduced risk of disputes, which can protect output and reputation
    • Higher staff turnover, because employees feel more free to leave a business they dislike
    • Less willingness to accept change, because staff trust managers less and resist new ideas
    • More frequent strikes and disputes, which increase the chance of lost production and costs

  5. Which term describes employees taking part in management decisions?

    • Cost leadership, where a firm aims to be the lowest-cost producer in its industry
    • Worker participation, where employees have a voice in decisions that affect their work
    • Vertical integration, where a firm takes over businesses at different stages of production
    • Market penetration, where a firm sells existing products more heavily in existing markets

  6. Collective bargaining is best described as:

    • Shareholders voting on directors' salaries at the annual general meeting of the company
    • Government setting a national minimum wage that applies to every worker in the whole economy
    • Individual staff negotiating pay privately with a manager, with each deal kept confidential
    • Unions and employers negotiating pay and working conditions on behalf of a group of workers

  7. Which type of communication flows from employees up to managers?

    • Horizontal communication only
    • Upward communication
    • Downward communication
    • External communication

  8. A firm has 500 staff. Each year it loses 40 staff and each replacement costs 3,000 pounds. What is the annual cost of this staff turnover?

    • 12,000 pounds
    • 1,200,000 pounds
    • 120,000 pounds
    • 40,000 pounds

  9. A firm has 500 staff and absenteeism of 6% across 220 working days a year. How many staff-days are lost to absence?

    • 660
    • 11,000
    • 6,600
    • 3,300

  10. A dispute stops production for 3 days. Output would have been 2,000 units a day, each with a contribution of 15 pounds. What is the contribution lost?

    • 30,000 pounds
    • 900,000 pounds
    • 90,000 pounds
    • 6,000 pounds

  11. Before making redundancies, a firm consults its works council. What is the most likely benefit to the firm?

    • Staff are more likely to accept the decision and trust is maintained, which reduces the risk of disputes
    • Trade unions are removed from the business, so that future pay talks take place only with managers
    • Redundancies become legally unnecessary, so the firm can avoid any further consultation with staff
    • Costs fall to zero immediately, because consultation removes all of the redundancy payments

  12. A pay dispute is ongoing between management and staff. Which method is most likely to produce a negotiated agreement covering the whole workforce?

    • Ending the dispute by dismissing union members, so that the remaining staff accept the firm's offer
    • Ignoring staff and imposing a rate, so that the firm avoids any negotiation or delay in reaching a decision
    • Collective bargaining through a recognised trade union, which covers the whole workforce in one agreement
    • Individual private deals with each employee, so that each person negotiates their own pay separately

  13. Which pair correctly describes two-way communication in a business?

    • Sales targets and budgets, which set the financial plans that managers use to monitor performance
    • Upward feedback from employees and downward instructions from managers, in both directions
    • Email and memos only, which give managers a written record but do not allow staff to reply
    • Advertising and public relations campaigns that are aimed at customers and the wider public

  14. Why can greater employee involvement in decisions improve the quality of decisions?

    • Employees always agree with the most expensive option, so involving them raises the costs of the business
    • Employees have detailed knowledge of day-to-day operations that managers may lack, so involvement can improve decisions
    • It guarantees that profits will rise, because staff who are consulted always work harder afterwards
    • It removes the need for managers altogether, because staff can take all decisions on their own

  15. Which is a potential drawback of extensive employee involvement in decision making?

    • Costs are always reduced
    • Employees will never question management
    • Trade unions become unnecessary
    • Decisions may take longer to reach

  16. Why are good employer-employee relations especially valuable when a business is going through rapid change?

    • Managers can ignore feedback from staff, since rapid change makes employee views less relevant
    • Strategic plans become unnecessary, because staff can adapt to change without any plan from managers
    • Staff are less likely to resist change and are more willing to adapt when they trust management
    • Change is never resisted by employees, so relations matter less during periods of rapid change

  17. Which best distinguishes formal from informal communication?

    • Formal communication uses official channels such as memos and reports; informal communication is unofficial talk between colleagues
    • Informal communication is legally required, while formal communication is optional for managers
    • Formal communication is always spoken and informal communication is always written down for records
    • Formal communication is only used with customers, while informal communication is used only with suppliers

  18. A firm ignores repeated recommendations from its works council on working hours. What is the most likely consequence?

    • Competitors are forced to leave the market, because a firm that ignores its workforce will dominate it
    • Productivity rises automatically, because a firm that ignores its works council will still see output increase
    • Shareholders receive higher dividends at once, because ignoring the works council cuts wage costs
    • Trust declines and the risk of disputes or lower morale increases, which can reduce output and raise costs

  19. A firm gives a 3% pay rise to 150 staff with an average salary of 24,000 pounds. What is the total extra annual wage cost?

    • 720,000 pounds
    • 72,000 pounds
    • 108,000 pounds
    • 10,800 pounds

  20. Which argument is the strongest evaluation against extensive employee involvement?

    • It always leads to higher productivity, so there is no real argument against involving employees
    • Consultation can slow decisions and may create conflict if expectations are not met by management
    • It removes the need for trade unions, so the firm no longer has to negotiate with any representative body
    • It makes all decisions cheaper to implement, because staff who are involved never need further training

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