Office manual

1. Meaning of office manual

An office manual means a handy form of book or booklet containing

information relating to the policy, organization system, routines and procedures
methods and standards and the rules and regulations regarding employment. An
office manual is prepared to help the employees know all relevant information
regarding the organization, its set up i.e. structure and how he fits into it.

Thus office manual is a guidebook consisting of authoritative guidelines that

are needed for the highest performance of the job. If Office employees are
supplied with copies of office manual they do not have to approach their
superiors again and again. Office manual is useful to the employees, especially
new joined, to understand the work without any difficulty.

The office manual contains the details of the whole office work such as standard
practices, current practices, instructions and organizational policies in such a
form that they are easily and readily available to the office personnel for
reference and guidance.

An office manual is prepared to help the employees know all relevant

information regarding the organization, its set up i.e. structure and how he fits
into it.

1.1Definition of office manual

According to George R. Terry, An office manual is a “written record of

information and instructions which concern and can be used to guide the
employee’s efforts in an enterprise”.

1.2QUALITIES REQUIRED OF AN OFFICE MANUAL

A large size organization has a number of branches and/or departments or

sections or divisions. Thousands of employees are employed in large size
organization. Hence it is very difficult to control the employees by the
management.

If instructions or guidelines are given in writing to the employees, the

management can control the employees very easily and avoid misunderstanding
of employees.
Conflicts among employees are also eliminated. In this way, office manuals
help the management and the employees in various ways.

1.3Importance/Need of Office Manual

1) Employees understand their position, duties and responsibilities in an

Organization.
2) Employees understand their role in the achievement of office Objectives.
3) There is a possibility of maintaining good relations among the employees by
themselves.
4) Both existing and new employees free the management in getting the same
information, explanations and instructions repeatedly.
5) The concerned employees are held responsible if the duties are not
performed by them in a specified manner.
6) Delegation of authority can be enhanced throughout the organization set up
without much difficulty.
7) Each employee can understand the extent of authority delegated to him.
8) New employees are getting training with the help of office manual by
knowing policies, practices, systems, routines and procedures.Office manual
is imparting refresher training to existing employees.
9) Some managers refuse the use of manuals on the basis that manuals cost too
much or too much work to be prepared and will not be effective.
10) Different offices have need for different manuals.

1.4Source of office manual

One of the best sources for manual is the manual used by other enterprises.

The following are the other sources.

1) Minutes of the board of directors meeting.

2) Reports of executive conference meeting.
3) Speech and published articles of executives.
4) Bulletins/News and company circulars.
5) Agreements with employees and contracts with trade unions.
6) It gives grievances record.
7) Company magazines and similar publications.
8) Interviews with management members.
9) Manuals are given by manufactures of machines.
-Experience shows that with time it will be desirable to eliminate certain
material and to add some other material.

-The additional material may be secured from the source mentioned above or it
is of unique nature it may be secured from a special source.

-For example: Instructions in the use of the office machines can be secured (fix)
from the manufactures or seller

1.5Distributions of office Manuals:

1) Office Manuals are useless unless they are properly distributed amongst
employees for whom they are meant.
2) In fact, it is they who would be responsible for carrying out the instructions
and ideas given in the manuals.
3) Organization manuals may be distributed only amongst the major executives
and in rare cases amongst those with lesser responsibility.
4) The length of distribution depends upon the size of the enterprise in most
case.
5) One copy of the manual should be ready for available for ready reference in
at least each department or division.
6) To readership of manual, it is something given to the employee only during
an interview.
7) In certain cases depending upon the type of the manual, it may be mailed to
the employee residence.
8) If manual is to be used as a subject for a forthcoming meeting or group
discussion, this should be informed to the employees as this encourage
effective readership.
9) In additions sometimes the employees are requested to sign and return an
enclosed card in the manual as an advice of reading the complete booklet.
10) It is to be retained in every department and it is to provide every
employee even it has to be given to trade union also.
11) And in many questions are asked to measure the employees
understanding of manual content.

1.6Types of office Manual (VERY IMPORTANT)

1. Manual Polices:
 a) Every organization has its own policy which is served as basic guide to
action.
b) The entire activities of an organization are fully guided by policy manual.
c) A policy manual contains decision, resolutions and directions of the
board of directors stating the policies of the company.
For example: Promoting employees only on the basis of merit is a
policy. It states the guideline and gives the boundaries for promoting but
does not tell who will be prompted.
Advantages.
 Written polices require managers to think through their courses of
action and to guide what action to be taken under various circumstances.
 A general programme of actions for many matters is provided and only
unusual or exceptional matter requires the attention of top managers.
 A frame work is provided, within which, the managers can operate
freely.
 Written polices helps to ensure equal treatment to all employees.

Disadvantages
 Policies are extremely difficult to write accurately and completely.
 Written policies may be difficult to keep polices flexible as it frequently
required by changing conditions
 Knowledge of polices is usually confirmed to those person of their
execution that is the top executive, department head, supervisors.

2. Organizational Manual:

a) The organizational manual describes the organization structure.

b) The duties and responsibilities of each employee in department wise or
section wise or division wise are explained along with the line of
authority and responsibilities connected with them.
c) Each employee can understand the relationship with others. Sometimes, a
separate manual is prepared for each department in case of multinational
companies.

3. Rules and Regulations Manual:

a) Rules and regulations are very much important to every office employee.
 b) Everybody should work according to the rules and regulations. Various
types of leave are availed (benefit) by the office employees.
c) The number of such leave and their availing procedure are given in this
manual.

4. Historical Manual:

a) An employee should know something about his enterprise.

b) This manual contains brief history of an enterprise. Name and address of
the enterprise, founders, objectives for establishing such enterprise,
circumstances under which the enterprise is established, capital required
and contributed by the founders, registration, coverage of law etc. are
briefly discussed.
c) This information is highly useful to new entrants (new comer) in an
office.

5. Multi-Purpose Manual or Hand Book

a) The company need, size, of the employees and philosophy of the top
management usually determine make up of multipurpose manuals.
b) The multipurpose manuals may include the introduction, table of content,
company history, office supplies and mentaince, personnel hiring,
promotion, termination, etc.
c) Some offices prefer to have a single manual instead of several manuals
such as discussed above.
d) If so, only relevant and important information are combined in the form
of a hand book. In such a way, multi-purpose manual is prepared.

6) Manual of operations:

a) The manual of operation can serve as a convenient source of information of

how the work can be done.

b) The authority steps can be listed. And supplementary information can be

given in form of diagrams, sketches, charts etc. to clarify the data.

1.7Steps in Preparation and Writing of Office Manuals:

A standard and an orderly procedure should be followed while preparing office

manuals. If so, the prepared manual can ensure complete, accurate and
comprehensive. The preparation is to be completed within a reasonable period
of time. The following steps may be taken while preparing an office manual:
1. Assigning an Individual or Formation of a Committee:

An individual is enough to prepare an office manual in small size organization.

A committee has to be formed to prepare an office manual in case of large size
organization. So, this formality is carried on according to the size of the
organization.

2. Preparing the List of Subjects Covered:

The responsible executives prepare the list of subjects to be covered in the

preparation of office manual. List of subjects vary according to the type of
manual preparation. The subjects and topics to be covered should be classified
and arranged into logical headings and sub-headings.

3. Receiving Ideas and Suggestions:

Ideas and suggestions have to be received from the managers of functional

departments and supervisors as per the subjects covered. A time schedule is to
be fixed for receiving ideas and suggestions.

Verification of Ideas and Suggestions: Received ideas and suggestions have to

be tabled and verify the same. Irrelevant and impracticable ideas and
suggestions have to be rejected with due care.

4. Classification and Arrangement of Information: The collected information

and data have to be classified and arranged under each subject and write them
up in subject-wise. The information and data included should be accurate and
complete in all aspects.

5. Prepare a Draft Manual: A draft manual is prepared by considering the

relevance of the concerned manual. A limited number of copies of such draft
manual is typed or cyclostyled (printed) for circulation.

A copy of draft manual is circulated among the office manager, functional

manager, union representatives and top management executives for their
criticism. Such criticism is used for the betterment of the preparation of office
manual.

6. Revision of the Draft Manual: Suggestions and criticism have been

incorporated in improving the manual by adding new points or deleting some
points. As for as possible, short sentences and words can be used. The language
should be simple and direct.

7. Submission for Approval of Top Management: The revised manual has

been placed before the top management for approval. Approval of top
management is necessary before the production of the manual.
8. Mechanical Production of the Manual; Arrangement for the production of
the manual should be made after the draft is approved by the top management.

The type of production of manual is depending upon the number of copies

required. Details regarding size, paper cover and binding should be considered
before the actual production of manual. The manual should preferably be in a
booklet form

9. Distribution of Office Manual: Copies of office manual are distributed

among the employees of an organization on need basis.

A few copies are maintained as spare copies which will be used for the future
reference and further revision of the manual.

1.8Manual Maintenance

Revision of Office Manuals:

1) Manuals must be revised from time to time. It is necessary to keep them up

to date. In revising manuals the following factors should kept in mind.
2) The responsibility of revising manual is in the hands of the department that
created it.
3) Where no provision has been made to revise manual and the responsibility
of revising them is not fixed, manuals should be discarded.
4) The problems of keeping the manual update are an ever present problem in
most enterprises. Because changes are taking place constantly owing to new
work being added or improvements are made in current work.
5) New pages must replace the old and be distributed to all the holders of the
manual.
6) Frequently amendments are written in colured ink to attract attention.
7) All changes should be process through a central unit, so that proper
authorisation and conformity in results are obtained.
8) If this is not done, confusions and misunderstanding will result.

The three Rs of manual are

 Easy reading
 Reference
 Revision.

Much emphasis is placed on the last “R” i.e. Revision. To help manual
maintenance, an excellent practice is to find out what users think of it.

For instance do they believe it is:

1. Readable has effective writing style, has good format and easy to read and
print.
2. IIustrated and has sufficient details.
3. Modern, attractive appearance and up to date and content.
4. Practical, titled properly, direction clearly given and adequate coverage of
materials and effectively indexed.

1.9Contents of office Manual:

a) General information :
Name, address, telephone number, fax and e-mail address of the
organization. If the organization has branches, the address, telephone
number, fax and e-mail address of the branches are also given in the office
manual.

b) General office, rules and regulations: Rules and regulation, hours, pay,
Structure, salary, pays days, leave rules, accidents, disciplinary action,
Retirement, lay off, dismissal etc.

c) General office facilities: The location of rest room, lunch rooms, recreation
facilities to rest, dispensaries supplies, telephone facilities, reading room

d) Safety instructions to be followed in the case of fine, accident, serious illness

or any other emergency. The name and address of the male and female doctors
and nurse who are rendering service on behalf of them are also mentioned.
Their phone numbers and cell numbers are also mentioned.

e) Organizational policies: These polices framed by the top management. Policy

covers credit sales, discount, training and development of employees, selection
of advertisement media, selection of employees, overtime and the like.

f) Job Descriptions: Clear and concise descriptions of each role within the
organization help employees understand their specific responsibilities and
expectations

g) General Instruction: In order to perform non-standard ( lack the job-

stability) work office manual contains general information.

h) Standard Practice Instruction: For handling incoming, outgoing mail,

replenishment of stationery, filing, indexing etc.
I) Executive Relationship: Fixing the relations between different
executives/departments or individual responsible for policy decision, the nature
of supervision and control.
J) Appendix: It contains various specimens used by different departments of the
office.

Advantages of Office Manuals:

1. It contains printed instructions and all the important decisions for the
execution of the work, so the employees don’t want explanation for the work
again and again.
2. It gives readily available printed instruction about system, procedure and
duties existing in the organization.
3. It is easy to train the employees.
4. In large organization which is having many branches, similar type or
uniformity of activities can be performed if they have manual.
5. When the employees are transferred from one office to another office, with
the help of manual they can start their work without delay.

Disadvantages of Office Manuals:

1. To keep the manual up-to-date is a difficult job

2. It is costly and time consuming process, so it is difficult to have manuals

in small firms.

3. If simple words are not used in manuals the employee reading can
misinterpret it.

Questions

1. Write the meaning of manual.

Ans: It is small book in which rules and regulations of a particular organisation

are written. This book guides officers, employees, and others in daily working.

2. Write a short note on multipurpose manual.

a) The Company need, size, of the employees and philosophy of the top
management usually determine make up of multipurpose manuals.
b) The multipurpose manuals may include the introduction, table of content,
company history, office supplies and maintenance, personnel hiring,
promotion, termination, etc.
c) It represents combinations of any two or all types of manuals.
d) It can be used for various purpose know rules and regulation, standard,
norms, work performance, table contents, company’s history.
3. Mention the content of office manual.

Ans: It consist of information about the history, polices, operations, procedures,

and rules and regulations. So that the employee can understand better.

4. Write the meaning of office manual

Ans: It is written record of information and instruction which concern and can
be used to guide employee efforts in the enterprise.

5. What do you mean by Distribution of manual?

Ans: It is to be retained in every department and it is to provide every employee
even it has to be given to trade union also.

6. What is office Manual? Explain the types of office manual?

7. Write four advantage and disadvantages of office manual. (2½)

8. With reference to your recent visit to an office.Expalin the content and types
of manual. (15marks)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------