| Course | WMBA 6615 Building Organizational Culture: Leaders as Architects |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 8 |
| Paper type | Onboarding design |
| Length | About 1,010 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | Master of Business Administration (MBA) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for WMBA 6615 Week 8
A First Week That Teaches the Right Lessons on Purpose: An Onboarding Design for New Engineers at Cedar Fork, Built on What the Current Week Teaches by Accident, With a Five-Day Schedule and a $2,900 Cost per Hire
Student Name
Walden University
WMBA 6615: Building Organizational Culture: Leaders as Architects
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
A First Week That Teaches the Right Lessons on Purpose: An Onboarding Design for New Engineers at Cedar Fork, Built on What the Current Week Teaches by Accident, With a Five-Day Schedule and a $2,900 Cost per Hire
What the Current First Week Teaches
New engineers at Cedar Fork Engineering, the invented firm used through this course, currently spend their first week this way: a laptop and an eight-hour nonbillable code on Monday, a safety video, the employee handbook, then assignment to a billable project by Wednesday. That week teaches three lessons nobody intended.
The first is that time spent learning the firm counts as waste. The eight-hour cap and the senior engineer's standard advice, "get on a project by Wednesday," tell a newcomer that time spent understanding the work is time stolen from clients. The second is that the written promises are not real. A mentor is promised in writing within thirty days; human resources records show only 9 of last year's 31 new engineers got one, and newcomers find out by the second month. The third is that the field is a separate world. New engineers design roads and drainage from survey data without meeting the crews who collect it, and some do not visit a site in their first year.
These lessons have costs. Nearly one in five early-career engineers leaves the firm each year, and exit interviews mention "no one to learn from" more than any other reason. Bauer et al. (2007), in a meta-analysis of newcomer adjustment, found that newcomers who understood their roles and felt accepted were more satisfied and committed and less inclined to quit. Cedar Fork's first week supplies neither.
Design Principles
The new week is built on three principles. Newcomers should learn the firm's work before they bill to it. They should meet the people they will depend on, including the field crews, in the first week. And every promise made in the first week should be kept by a named person. Klein et al. (2015) found that specific onboarding practices, such as orientation that explains how the work is done and who to go to, were more strongly linked to newcomer outcomes than general welcome activities, which supports a schedule built around concrete work rather than presentations.
The Schedule
Table 1
First-Week Schedule for New Engineers
| Day | What happens | Who runs it | Lesson the newcomer should take | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday morning | Welcome from the group leader; tour of the office, the field room and the plan room | Group leader | You belong to a group, and the group leader knows your name on day one | |
| Monday afternoon | Assigned mentor introduced; mentor walks through one completed project from proposal to closeout | Mentor | Projects have a whole life, and you will learn it from someone who has done it | |
| Tuesday | Full day in the field with a survey crew, from the 6:30 briefing to the last shot | Survey crew chief | The design starts on the ground, and the crews are colleagues | |
| Wednesday morning | Quality control review: newcomer reviews a past plan set with a licensed engineer using the 46-item checklist | Senior engineer | Quality is checked, item by item, and errors are caught before they leave | |
| Wednesday afternoon | Timesheet, utilization and budget training, including how the firm earns money | Office finance lead | Billable time matters, and here is why, explained openly | |
| Thursday | Shadow a project manager through client calls, a design meeting and a budget review | Project manager | This is what the job looks like on an ordinary day | |
| Friday morning | First small assignment on a live project, with the mentor reviewing | Mentor | You can contribute in your first week, with support | |
| Friday afternoon | Thirty-minute check-in with the group leader: what surprised you, what is unclear | Group leader | Questions are expected and someone will answer them | |
Total nonbillable time for the newcomer: about 32 hours.
Cost
The design costs time, mostly from people who would otherwise bill. Group leader time is about 2.5 hours; mentor time about 6 hours in the first week; survey crew chief time about 2 hours of extra explanation during a working day; senior engineer about 3 hours; finance lead 1.5 hours; project manager about 2 hours of extra explanation during shadowing. That is about 17 hours of others' time, which at an average billing rate of about $130 an hour represents roughly $2,200 of forgone billing. The newcomer's own nonbillable time rises from 8 to about 32 hours, but a new engineer's billable output in week one is low regardless, so the real additional cost is perhaps $700 of billing at junior rates. The total is about $2,900 per new engineer, or about $90,000 a year at 2025's hiring level of 31 engineers.
Against that, replacing an engineer who leaves within two years costs the firm recruiting fees, lost productivity and supervisor time that the human resources department estimates at about $40,000 per departure. If the new first week prevented three early departures a year, it would more than pay for itself.
What Changes for the Billable Target
The new week only works if group leaders are not penalized for it. Today, a newcomer's nonbillable hours reduce the group's utilization rate on the dashboard every morning. The design therefore requires a new timesheet code, "first-week onboarding," excluded from group utilization calculations for the newcomer, the mentor and the other contributors for that week. Without that change, group leaders will quietly shorten the schedule, and the old lessons will return. Saks et al. (2007) found that structured, institutionalized socialization is associated with better newcomer adjustment, and the timesheet code is part of that structure.
Measures
Three figures will be reported twice a year: the share of new engineers with an assigned mentor by day one, which should be 100 percent; newcomers' answers at 90 days to two questions, whether they know who to ask about their work and whether they feel part of their group; and first-year and second-year retention of engineers hired under the new design compared with the 2023 to 2025 cohorts.
References
Bauer, T. N., Bodner, T., Erdogan, B., Truxillo, D. M., & Tucker, J. S. (2007). Newcomer adjustment during organizational socialization: A meta-analytic review of antecedents, outcomes, and methods. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(3), 707-721. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.3.707
Klein, H. J., Polin, B., & Sutton, K. L. (2015). Specific onboarding practices for the socialization of new employees. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 23(3), 263-283. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsa.12113
Saks, A. M., Uggerslev, K. L., & Fassina, N. E. (2007). Socialization tactics and newcomer adjustment: A meta-analytic review and test of a model. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 70(3), 413-446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2006.12.004
WMBA 6615 Week 8 instructions, in plain terms
The onboarding design asks students to build a newcomer's first week deliberately. Instructors expect a design document of about twelve hundred words centered on a schedule, usually a table covering five days, with each block showing what happens, who runs it and the lesson a new hire should take from it. A diagnostic section comes first, naming what the current first week teaches by accident, with evidence. Supporting sections follow: a cost line covering hours pulled from managers and peers, a paragraph on what must change in surrounding systems for the design to survive and measures of success. Research on newcomer socialization should inform the design.
How this WMBA 6615 Week 8 example is built
The diagnosis describes the current week and its three accidental lessons, connects them to early-career attrition and cites Bauer and colleagues on role clarity and acceptance. Design principles follow, supported by Klein and colleagues on specific onboarding practices. A schedule table covers eight blocks across five days with the activity, the person responsible and the intended lesson. A cost section prices about 17 hours of others' time and the newcomer's added nonbillable hours, compared with the cost of an early departure. A section requires a new timesheet code so groups are not penalized, citing Saks and colleagues. Three success measures close the document. Margin comments flag the diagnosis and the cost line. The schedule keeps the newcomer's total nonbillable time near 32 hours for the week.
Reading the WMBA 6615 Week 8 rubric
Graders reward a design that starts from evidence about what the current onboarding teaches. A schedule that names activities, owners and intended lessons for each block carries significant weight. A realistic cost line, including hours from managers and peers, shows practical judgment. Addressing the systems that could undermine the design, such as performance metrics, demonstrates understanding of how culture is sustained. Measures that can be checked within months show accountability. Research support, clear tables and concise writing complete the expectations. Designs that name who owns the schedule after launch, so it does not fade, show the strongest practical judgment.
Common WMBA 6615 Week 8 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Start by describing what new hires experience now and what that experience teaches them. Then decide what lessons the first week should teach instead. Build a schedule in which every block has a purpose, a person and a lesson. Count the hours it takes from others and price them. Ask what in the organization's systems would push managers to shorten the week, and change it. Students often lose marks by designing a welcome event instead of a week of work, by ignoring cost or by omitting measures. Another common gap is a schedule with no owners. If you would like a custom sample onboarding design for your organization, send us how the current first week works.
Get a WMBA 6615 Week 8 example written to your instructions
What starts this one is the Week 8 brief and rubric, plus the current onboarding outline if the organization has one. The design returns with its schedule, owners, cost line and measure inside 24 to 48 hours, the first one free. Anything proprietary belonging to an employer stays out of what the desk writes.
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WMBA 6615 Week 8 questions, answered
Where can I find a free WMBA 6615 Week 8 sample paper?
The new engineer onboarding design with its five-day schedule is reproduced on this page.
What does the current first week teach?
That learning is a cost, written promises are not real and the field is separate.
What is in the new schedule?
A mentor on day one, a day with a survey crew, a quality review, finance training, shadowing and a first assignment.
What does it cost?
About $2,900 per new engineer, mostly hours from managers and peers.
What must change for it to work?
A timesheet code so onboarding hours do not lower group utilization.