Directions (12-19): Read the following passage and answer the given questions based on the information provided in the passage.

New employee orientation programs have been shown to socialize newcomers and increase their knowledge, skills, and abilities upon completion. These types of programs are perhaps the most influential piece of an employee’s development. Although many organizations include orientation as part of their new employee development tactics, few truly utilize its full scope. New employee orientation programs are deliberate attempts by an organization to introduce a new employee to what working for the organization will be like. Although orientations can teach some important skills and abilities, they also teach new employees about the organization’s history, goals, values, people, politics, and language. Orientation programs start off the socialization process and help the new employee fit into his or her new surroundings. New employee orientation programs may sometimes feel like a stale period of high anxiety and stress while training takes place when these potentially harmful feelings have most likely been resolved. A great deal of time and money is spent every year socializing and technically training employees.
Making sure this investment is well spent should be a central concern. However, this is not always the case. Because training is expensive, organizations should make sure they are effectively preparing employees to run for on-the-job success by delivering the proper training content and teaching it the right way. Assessing the training needs of new employees consumes time and money, but it sends the message that the organization is committed to the development of its employees, to giving them the right tools to perform and putting them in a position where they can succeed, all of which are recognized goals of new employee orientation programs. Helping a new employee fit into his or her job and organization is important when considering job satisfaction, commitment, and retention.
Whether potential candidates accept the job or not is somewhat influenced by how well they believe they will fit into that company. Thus, developing an orientation program that will not only properly train new hires, but successfully introduce them to their new organization is extremely important.
The attributes an employee needs to succeed on the job, including those desired upon entry into the  job, can be found through an analysis of the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform the essential functions of the job. Since technical skills training is meant to enhance those skills and abilities needed for a job, it makes sense that training should have a close ___________(I)___________ to whether or not a new employee fits into his or her environment. A big difference between Japanese and western organizations is that orientation programs are much more important to Japanese organizations because they want to cement a lasting relationship with new employees. Thus, the Japanese approach to selection and recruitment also works hand in hand.

Japanese firms hire almost entirely at the entry-level. This is done so that the new arrival can be properly trained and socialized into the organization to be a good fit. The length of this process can vary from six months to three years, whereas in many western organizations a new employee merely completes the required HR paperwork and is then suddenly expected to execute the role for which he or she was hired.

Q:

Choose the most appropriate antonym of the word ‘STALE’, as highlighted in the given passage.

• 1
  noxious
• 2
  virulent
• 3
  rancid
• 4
  chipper
• 5
  None of these