A well thought out orientation program is essential for all new employees, whether they have experience or not. Explain why you agree or disagree with this statement.

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

“A well thought out orientation program is essential for all new employees, whether they have experience or not”. Explain why you agree or disagree with this statement.

The Orientation Program anticipated the new employee will feel more at home with the organization in a shorter period of time. This program relatively straightforward query regarding basic operational issues is dealt with in a timely and non-bureaucratic manner. Other orientation activities such as classroom and on-the-job training can be related to actual workplace activities. The new employees have an opportunity to adjust in a supportive and risk-reduced environment. The manager or supervisor time with new employees is freed up to deal with added value issues. In this orientation program also the new employee begins to add value more quickly, leading to increased confidence and self-esteem and new employee are more actively involved in making the organization a better and more productive place to work.

I agree with the above statement that state “A well thought out orientation program is essential for all new employees whether they have experience of not”. One of the least used, but most effective tools an organization can use to retain good employees is a New Employee Orientation (NEO). With more and more organizations doing “more with less,” the high cost of turnover and the rapidly changing workforce, a consistent, systemized process for orienting employees to the organization is critical to the success of that employee and the uninterrupted production of the organization product or service.

Orientation program help new employees understand the organizational structure and operations. By providing immediate access to operationally necessary information, orientation program accelerates the new employee's ability to deal with early confusing issues and becoming comfortable in the new work place. Questions about “normal protocol” in the organization, getting around the complex, finding the right people to go to for information, correct procedures, and learning what is “right” and “wrong” can easily be answered in the orientation program. As a result, managers and supervisors should find that their interaction with new employees is less about low level, operational issues, and more about adding value to the organization.

Lastly, orientation program provide new employees with a point of contact for general inquiries regarding day-to-day matters such as the location of facilities, information processing requirements, and relevant organization policies it also help new employees become comfortable in their new job by familiarizing them with the organizational structure and operations.

Difference between strategy, a vision and a mission?

Sources of Stress

Stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.

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Difference between strategy, a vision and a mission?

Sources of Stress

Stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.

Stress is a part of every people daily life. Leaving home or commuting daily, managing finances, living with roommates, juggling work, and relationships all contribute to the normal stress of being a human. In addition, it is not uncommon for human being to feel stressed and anxious about wasting time, meeting high standards, or being lonely. Stress can also come from exciting or positive events. Falling in love, preparing to study abroad, or buying a car can be just as stressful as less-happy events.

Stress because of job comes in different forms and affects the worker mind and body in different ways. Small things can make worker feel stressed, such as a copy machine that never seems to work when he or she need it or phones that won't quit ringing. Major stress comes from having too much or not enough work or doing work that doesn't satisfy the employee. Conflicts with boss, coworkers, or customers are other major causes of stress.

It's normal to have some stress. Stress releases hormones that speed up the heart, make the breathe faster, and give the worker a burst of energy. Stress can be useful when you need to focus on or finish a big project. But too much stress or being under stress for too long isn't good for employee. Constant stress can make worker more likely to get sick more often. It can also lead to long-term health problems such as , , back problems, and .

How does it affect workplace?

Workplace stress is the harmful physical and emotional response that occurs when there is a poor match between job demands and the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker.

The health effects of stress in the workplace have become a cause of serious concern – not only for employees, but for the employers as well. Stress prompts the body to prepare itself and fight away the factors causing stress. This is a normal reaction of body for any stress producing condition, and triggers many changes in the body –also called fight or flight syndrome. The body bounces back to normal after these episodes of stress.

However, when such conditions are faced at the workplace, stress is endured by employees for long periods as job conditions don’t change immediately and stress in the workplace carries on for long periods of time. Such prolonged periods of stress affect the health of employees adversely and may cause some serious chronic diseases.

How does stress effect health?

Cardiovascular Disease – The jobs that place employees under immense psychological pressure and where employees have little or no control over the work processes make them prone to Cardiovascular Disease.
Musculoskeletal Disorders – Prolonged conditions of workplace stress increase the chances of employees developing musculoskeletal disorders of back and upper extremities.
Psychological Disorders – Workplace stress causes burnout, anger, disturbed relations and other undesirable psychological conditions.
Cancer, Ulcer and Impaired immune function – Going through long periods of stress in the workplace may give rise to Cancer, Ulcer and Impaired immune function.
Injury at the workplace – Chances of workplace injury are more for the employees who are working under stressful job conditions.

Select a company and identify departmentation structure it use. Draw an organizational chart for the company.

The company that I was chosen is using a Divisional Structure. A divisional structure that overlays functional groupings allows an organization to coordinate intergroup relationships more effectively than does a functional structure. Each product division contains the functions necessary to that service the specific goods or services it produces.

The advantage of this Divisional Structure is:

Quality products and customer service - Functions are able to focus their activities on a specific kind of good, service, or customer. This narrow focus helps a division to create high-quality products and provide high-quality customer service.

Facilitates teamwork - People are sometimes able to pool their skills and knowledge and brainstorm new ideas for products or improved customer service.

The disadvantage of the Divisional Structure is:

Poor communication between divisions - Divisional structures normally have more managers and more levels of management than functional structures have, communications problems can arise as various managers at various levels in various divisions attempt to coordinate their activities.

Conflicts among divisions - divisions may start to compete for organizational resources and may start to pursue divisional goals and objectives at the expense of organizational ones

The Matrix Organization.

Matrix organizational structure is a technique of managing an organization or more commonly, part of an organization through a series of dual-reporting relationships instead of a more traditional linear management structure. In contrast to most other organizational structures, which arrange managers and employees by function or product, matrix management combines functional and product departments in a dual authority system. In its simplest form, a matrix configuration may be known as a cross-functional work team, which brings together individuals who report to different parts of the company in order to complete a particular project or task. The term "matrix" is derived from the representative diagram of a matrix management system, which resembles a rectangular array or grid of functions and product or project groups.

In a matrix organization, each project manager reports directly to the vice president and the general manager. Since each project represents a potential profit centre, the power and authority used by the project manager come directly from the general manager.

At a more detailed level the advantages that most organizations seek through using a matrix organization structure include

Improved ability to access resources across the old functional and geographic silos.
better coordination on shared technologies across the organization (such as IT)
Improves access to a diverse range of skills and perspectives.
improved global or regional projects
increased communication and coordination across the business
reflects the needs of global or regional customers
Ideal for project based organization
Resource sharing
Better coordination between the team
Better balance between time, cost and performance
Shared authority and responsibility
Minimization of project costs, due to sharing of resources.
Minimization of conflicts
Balance between time, cost and performance
Sharing of authority and responsibility
Stress distribution between the team