2-1. Are managers likely to question the work commitment of their contingent workers? What might be the consequences for management when the majority of a company’s workforce consists of temporary employees and contract workers?

2-2. What are the drawbacks to using flexible work hours from the organization’s perspective? Compressed workweeks? Telecommuting? How should the HR department deal with these challenges?

2-3. Some management experts do not think that a virtual team is really a team at all. Based on the definition of a team, what properties of a virtual team satisfy the definition of a team? Do any aspects of a virtual team give rise to doubts over whether it satisfies the definition of a true team? Suppose you needed to organize a virtual team of consultants working in different cities to do an important project for a client. What human resource management practices could you apply that would influence the virtual team members to behave as if they were on a true team, such as a self-managed or problem-solving team?

2-4. A recent trend that more and more companies are embracing is to outsource all or most of their human resource management activities. Do you agree or disagree with this trend? What risks is a company taking when it decides to outsource its entire set of human resource management activities? Try to describe a situation in which it is more beneficial to retain most of the human resource management activities within a company so that HR is provided by the human resource management department.

2-5. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of companies that have wrongly classified an “employee” as a “contract worker” and, consequently, were taken to court by workers who believed they were entitled to certain rights and privileges enjoyed by individuals who were given “employee” status. What are some of the rights and privileges that are given to employees but not to contract workers? What advantages do employers gain with contract workers over regular employees? How could a contract worker prove to the courts that he or she is really an employee and was wrongly classified as a contract worker?