Due in part to skills shortages, progressive organizations now understand that effective _______________ management is an integral strategic tool for enhancing competitiveness.

	a.	diversity
	b.	equipment
	c.	product
	d.	labor market

Wording from the text below:

Action Decisions with a Shortage of Employees When HR specialists comparing demand with supply find that the supply of workers is less than the demand, several possibilities are open to the organization. If the shortage is small and employees are willing to work overtime, it can be filled with present employees. If there is a shortage of highly skilled employees, training and promotions of present employ- ees, together with the recruitment of less-skilled employees, are possibilities. This decision can also include recalling employees who were previously laid off. Intense global competition, rapid technological change, and fears caused by recent workforce reductions have also led many organizations to increase their use of part-time workers, subcontractors, and independent professionals in response to changing demands. And, while the number of these contingent workers in the United States has declined slightly, they still constitute a sizable portion of the workforce. In 2009, some experts suggested that contingent workers made up approximately 31 percent of the U.S. labor force.20 Using contingent workers gives many organizations more flexibility in dealing with temporary shortages of labor than does maintaining more traditional full-time employees. From 1990 to 2008, the number of temporary workers in the United States has grown from 1.1 million to 2.3 million.21 More and more of these temporary jobs are in higher skill oc- cupations like in the legal, business and financial, and computer areas.