SECRETARIAL COMPETENCIES REQUIRED OF A SECRETARY AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TOWARD THE PRODUCTIVITY IN GOMBE STATE POLYTECHNIC, BAJOGA
ABSTRACT
This research is aimed at identifying “Secretarial Competencies required of a Secretary and their Contribution toward the Productivity in Gombe state polytechnic, Bajoga”. The research carrying out in Gombe State Polytechnic, Bajoga as case study. 37 questionnaires were distributed and administered on secretaries in Gombe State Polytechnic, Bajoga were 35 respondent returns. Sample was not made due to small number of secretary’s. The researchers used rating questions using Likers style rating scale. Frequency tables, percentage and mean were used to analyze the data After the analysis of the data, the following were found, Poor job performance affects organizational negatively, poor job performance may lead to error in data processing in an organization, poor job performance may lead to dismissal of a secretary, poor job performance will lead to poor performance and hinders development in the organization, secretary need to be perfects in operating modern technology, secretary has to be more knowledgeable on shorthand and typewriter skills, improper usage of available skills possess by the secretary may lead to idleness and redundancy, inability to maintain confidential record affect his performance, inability to maintain confidential record reduce the personality of the secretary, secretary who cannot maintain confidential loss organizational confidence, inability of secretary to maintain confidential affect the productivity of the organization.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
For decades now, fast changes have been taking place in all facets of human life including the office environment. This is as a result of technological advancement. Every office in today’s business world, be it government, industry or other human endeavors, require facts and accurate information for quick decision-making. The office worker, including the secretary, expects certain support from the organization into which he/she is employed. This support can be technological (machines and equipment) and human. In offices of past, manager’s dictated memos and letters and secretaries typed them. Most recently, business have developed word processing centers and relied on personal computers and even electronic mail in an effort to lessen the need for secretarial support and make the employee-secretary very productive (Ezoem, 1995; Osuala, 2004).
The word secretary simply means a person who works in an office and manages the organization. Although a secretary is perceived more as a personal assistant or administrative assistant, the professional secretary is one of the most essential human resources in a business organization because he helps make the wheel of the organization to turn. Secretaries provide the unseen services which make the organizations to prosper. Secretaries according to Ahukannah and Ekelegbe (2008) are classified into four categories:
A secretary is a person, whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of professional ethics and communication and organizational skills. Wordnet (2008) defines secretary as a person who assists a member of staff or top management level, and who undertakes a lot of administrative tasks for the smooth running of the office. This definition was confirmed by wikipedia (2008) where a secretary is seen as a person employed to write orders, letters, dispatch public or private papers, records and the like, an official scribe, one who attends to correspondence and transacts other business for an association, a public body, or an individual. A secretary is an indispensable element in achieving organizational goals. He serves as a memory bank in his organization, scrutinizes visitors so as to give the executive enough time to do some other office activities, keep records so as to prevent embracement and the
loss of important document which could consequently have a negative effect to the organization.
McClelland’s (1973) view, Competency term that was defined by Boyatzis (1982) as an underlying characteristic that the person possesses lead to achieve outstanding performance. It is basically a mix of knowledge and skills that are needed for an effective performance, (Bhardwaj, 2013). Many studies showed that competencies is a cluster of the related knowledge, skills characteristics and attitudes that correlates with effective performance and are able to be measured evaluated, and strength through training and development programs it is consider as a common term for employees to assert their working and show the real activities (Berge et al., 2002),though, there are several definitions for competency, but basically, there are two definitions of competencies,
As a result of changes in technology, the role of secretaries in business has changed tremendously from that of typewriting and shorthand dictation, answering of telephone calls and processing of mails. Today’s secretaries are exposed to office technology including the internet that make work much easier and knowledge more accessible (Edwin, 2008). It is now easier to send messages by telex, electronic mails (e-mails), fax and telephones. Other office gadgets available to the secretary are photo-copy machines, duplicating machines, dictating machines, printers, among others. This is the era of computers and information technology which has become an enabler of greater convenience. Three of the most popular types of computer software programs are word processing, which help the user to write and edit memos, letters and reports, data management programs or databases, which help the user/ secretary to use long lists of data and spreadsheet programs, which handle tables and numbers (Dulek and Fielden, 1999).
The world of employment has radically changed in the last 10 years, and due of that, recently have being developed a new paradigm to improve human resources inside organizations: “Work Competencies for Professional Excellence”. To get on board on this major challenge, some relevant employ experts have produced models of application in Europe and United States: Bunk (1994), Mertens (1996; 1999; 2000), Echeverría (2001; 2002), SCANS (1992; 1993). Nevertheless these efforts have severe deficiencies inducing confusion on terrain.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The study focused on Secretary Competencies required and their contributions towards productivity in Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga. In an automated office undoubtedly secretaries need to increase their productivity which will lead to the achievement of the organizational goal/objectives. Such new roles presuppose that additional training and qualifications are required from the secretaries. These changes has affect the productivity and the competences of secretaries in the modern office which led to poor job performance, improper usage of the available skills by the secretary, inability to maintain good interpersonal relationship with a diverse workforce, customers, and visitors, inability to maintain confidentiality.
When secretaries are not provided with efficient and effective working tools, productivity is definitely bound to be low. There is continuous advancement in technology which has affected the secretarial profession in terms of the quality, speed and accuracy of works performed.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
The main aim of the study is to examine the Secretary Competencies required and their contributions towards productivity in Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga Due to this fact other aims are constructed as follows:
1. To determine how poor job performance affect the productivity of secretaries in the Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga.
2. To identify how improper usage of the available skills possess by the secretary affect their productivity in Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga.
3. To identify how inability to maintain good interpersonal relationship with a diverse workforce, customers, and visitors by secretaries affect their productivity in the Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga.
4. To determine how inability to maintain confidential record by the secretary affect their productivity in the Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION
In order to achieve the objectives of this study a number of questions would be explored. Consistent with the topic and objectives the following questions which will guide the study;
1. How does poor job performance affect the productivity of secretaries in the Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga?
2. How does improper usage of the available skills possess by the secretary affect their productivity in Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga?
3. How does inability to maintain good working relationship with a diverse workforce, customers, and visitors affect the competence and productivity of secretaries in the Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga?
4. How does inability to maintain confidential record by the secretary affect their performance in the Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga?
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research work is focused on the Secretarial Competencies required by secretaries’ contributions towards productivity in Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga. At the end of this study the beneficiaries of this research work are secretaries and students of office technology and management that want build themselves in achieving their dream of become secretaries, and this will be achieved by letting them to know their skills, duties and impact of being competent in carrying out their roles as secretaries. So also this project will serve as a reference material for all students and lecturers that want to conduct similar research on this topic.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study covers the Secretary Competencies required and their contributions towards productivity in Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga. The study focuses on secretaries’ competence and productivity and is limited to Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter reviewed the related literatures to the topic under study and the following were discussed: The Concept Secretary, The concept of competence, Secretarial Productivity, Job Performance and Job Satisfaction, Secretarial skills, Keeping of Electronic Records, Records Creation, Records Retention Skills, Records Disposition Skills, and Critical Secretarial Skills that Employers Demand As Stated by Careers.
2.1 THE CONCEPT SECRETARY
The word secretary simply means a person who works in an office and manages the organization. Although a secretary is perceived more as a personal assistant or administrative assistant, the professional secretary is one of the most essential human resources in a business organization because he helps make the wheel of the organization to turn. Secretaries provide the unseen services which make the organizations to prosper. Secretaries according to Ahukannah and Ekelegbe (2008) are classified into four categories:
i. Professional Secretary: This is the secretary by reason of training, ethics, orientation and skills. He must be an expert in shorthand writing, typewriting and use of computer and ability to deal with office routine activities. This category (in other words termed as confidential secretary) is the researcher area of concern.
ii. The Honorary Secretary: This is the one who is in charge of the correspondence, records and other business affairs of a society, club and other associations. He is not a professional secretary because he has not acquired the necessary skills/training.
iii. Private Secretary: This is an employee who deals with correspondence, keep records and files in the office.
iv. Corporate/Company Secretary: Companies established under the Companies Act 1990 are normally required by the statute to engage the services of a Company Secretary. He/ She takes charge of the administration of the company, as well as functions as secretary to the board of directors. Registrars of government establishment such as polytechnics, universities et cetera are the secretaries of their various institutions who take charge of general administration as well as cover the meetings of their various councils and produce the minutes.
A secretary is a person, whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of professional ethics and communication and organizational skills. Wordnet (2008) defines secretary as a person who assists a member of staff or top management level, and who undertakes a lot of administrative tasks for the smooth running of the office. This definition was confirmed by wikipedia (2008) where a secretary is seen as a person employed to write orders, letters, dispatch public or private papers, records and the like, an official scribe, one who attends to correspondence and transacts other business for an association, a public body, or an individual.
A secretary is an indispensable element in achieving organizational goals. He serves as a memory bank in his organization, scrutinizes visitors so as to give the executive enough time to do some other office activities, keep records so as to prevent embracement and the lost of important document which could consequently have a negative effect to the organization.
2.2 THE CONCEPT OF COMPETENCE
Competence is central to empirical studies dealing with the development of human resources and the productivity of education. Although it has been in use for decades, the term competence has enjoyed increasing currency in educational research, psychology and neighboring disciplines in the last few years (e.g., Csapó, 2004; Klieme, Funke, Leutner, Reimann, & Wirth, 2001; Klieme & Hartig, 2007, Rychen & Salganik, 2001, 2003; Sternberg & Grigorenko, 2003; Weinert, 2001).
Thus, the task view of competence omits higher level competences from the standards. Hence they are also omitted from any training programs and assessment strategies that are based on these narrow competence standards. One response is to view competence instead as possession of a series of desirable attributes including knowledge of appropriate sorts, skills and abilities such as problem solving, analysis, communication, pattern recognition, etc. and attitudes of appropriate kinds. On this generic approach, training and assessment will be seen in terms of strategies to train and assess candidates in each of these separate attributes. While this second approach looks more promising as a way of capturing the less predictable variety of non-routine work roles, it also has been widely criticized on the grounds that assessing attributes in isolation from actual work practice bears little relation to future occupational performance. In fact, attributes such as problem solving, analysis, pattern recognition, etc. are highly con- text dependent, so that attempts to teach and assess them out of context are largely misconceived. So training and/or assessing candidates in generic problem solving or communication skills sets up a further problem of how, if at all, candidates will learn to transfer this learning to actual work contexts.
Considerations such as these have led to a different approach, involving an integrated conception of competence, being employed by the Australian professions in establishing their competency standards. According to the integrated conception, competence is conceptualized in terms of knowledge, abilities, skills and attitudes displayed in the context of a carefully chosen set of realistic professional tasks which are of an appropriate level of generality (Gonczi et al., 1990; Hager, 1994; see also Biggs, 1994). A notable feature of this integrated approach is that it avoids the problem of a myriad of tasks by selecting key tasks or elements that are central to the practice of the profession. The main attributes that are required for the competent performance of these key tasks or elements are then identified. Attributes include cognitive skills (knowledge, critical thinking, problem-solving strategies), inter- personal skills, affective attributes and technical skills. Experience has shown that when both attributes and major tasks are integrated to produce competency standards, the results appear to capture the holistic richness of professional practice in a way that neither of the other two approaches could. The integrated approach to competence also overcomes the various difficulties posed by Ashworth & Saxton (1990) in their useful catalogue of the limitations of narrow competency standards (for discussion of this see Hager & Gonczi, 1991). This integrated approach to conceptualizing competence produces competency standards for occupations that go well beyond mere task skills. In short, the holistic and integrated view of competence situates attributes in the kinds of contexts in which they are employed in the practice of an occupation. This in turn helps to specify the kinds of training and assessment situations that are suited to effective learning and assessment.
2.3 SECRETARIAL PRODUCTIVITY
According to Baile (1986) productivity is often defined as a measurement of output relative to an input. At lower levels, various methods are used to track productivity performance and identify opportunities for productivity improvement, but there is still a wide gap between productivity measurement and managerial behavior. The output can be any outcome of the process, whether a product or service, while input factors consist of any human and physical resources used in a process. It follows that, in order to increase productivity, the system must either produce more or better goods from the same resources, or the same goods from fewer resources. Stated differently, productivity improvement refers to an increase in the ratio of produced goods or services in relation to resources used. Productivity is closely related to the use and availability of resources as well as to value creation. This means that a company’s productivity is reduced if its resources are not properly used or if there is a lack of resources.
Date: 2026-08-12 00:00:00.000000