A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF THE FACTORS THAT IMPROVE THE ADVANCEMENT OF SECRETARIES IN BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
- Recruitment & Selection Process and Advancement of secretaries
Organizations are facing major competition from their competitors due to globalization; human resourcemanagersareeverdevelopingpoliciestoensurethattheorganizationsremainoutstanding in the world market. Various organizations have set goals and objectives which employees work toward achieving them. The management has therefore designed job specifications and descriptions to ensure that there is clear accountability of each employee towards their performance in their daily activities. Advancement of secretaries is driven from the long-term goals of the firm as operationalized through annual, semi-annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily targets (Armstrong,2009).
The general theories of recruitment as highlighted by Armstrong (2009) pinpoint the fact that employees need to have a fit-in culture in order to survive in a new job environment puts pressure on the recruitment team to cultivate the organization culture that enhances good performance. Recruitment strategies by organizations should be tailored towards specific positions to be filled. These strategies in the modern global environment include advertisements in electronic and print media, agencies and services, schools and colleges/universities forum, professional associations and internal resources. All the strategies will produce particular varying performances (Ndlovu et al,2003).
Batt (2002) indicates that the common process by most organizations when carrying out recruitment will include a behavior-based interview which can help to some extent in predicting subsequent performance of employees better than let’s say situational interviews. Nwabuzor & Anyamele (2002) observes that the theory of recruitment is a scholarly body of work about how people can most effectively be persuaded to apply for a job. Under normal circumstances, an increaseinthepoolofapplicantswillimproveanemployer’sopportunitiesinselectingexactlythe right people for job vacancies. Both sides of the application process should and do concern themselves with“fit”.
Studies conducted by Kamoche & Kamoche (2004) shows that applicants will be attracted to the organization to the extent they see it as a good match for them, or what in the literature is known as “Person-Organization (P-O) “fit”. Potential applicants make an initial assessment of the likely P-Ofitthroughwhattheyunderstandoftheemployer’sculture.AccordingtoSoliman&Spooner (2000), recruitment is central to any management process and its failure can increase difficulties for any organization including an adverse effect on its profitability and inappropriate levels of staffing orskills.
- Training & Development and Advancement of secretaries
Since efficient manpower is considered as the most valuable resource of any organization, much of the investment is focused on manpower. "Education" is used to enable people to accomplish their tasks, in order to improve the quality of skills, knowledge, attitude and behaviors that are important for successful implementation of the work (Ghelich, 2007).
Effectivetrainingisconsideredtobeakeyfactorforimprovedperformance;asitcanenhancethe level of employee and firm competency. It supports to fill the gap between desired performance and actual advancement of secretaries. Particularly training develops skills, competency, and ability andultimatelyimprovesadvancement of secretariesandorganizationalproductivity(ElnagandImran, 2013). The result of Farooq. M, & Aslam. M. K (2011) study depicts the positive correlation betweentrainingandadvancement of secretariesasr=.233.Thus,wecanpredictfromthisfindingthat it is not possible for the firm to gain higher returns without best utilization of its human resource, anditcanonlyhappenwhenfirmisabletomeetitsemployee’sjobrelatedneedsintimelyfashion. Training is the only ways of identifying the deprived need of employees and then building their required competence level so that they may perform well to achieve organizational goals. Moreover, the result of the study of Sultana, Irum, Kamran & Mehmood. (2012), conducted in telecomsectorofPakistan,statestheR²as.501whichmeansthat50.1%ofvariationinadvancement of secretaries is brought by training programs. Further, the T-value was 8.58 that explains training is good predictor of advancement of secretaries.
Although the above literature provides the evidences regarding the benefits of training and its positive influence on advancement of secretaries, Cheramie, Sturman, & Walsh (2007) argued that, management, mostly feel hesitant while investing in its human resource due to various reasons. Sometime, in spite of receiving effective and timely training programs, employee are intended to cash it for the sake of their own market value and employment opportunity, or willing to change jobjustbecauseofhighersalaries,andthus,firminvestmentintrainingresultsasacostratherthan profit.Itisalsoobservedthatduetotheresistanceoftheorganizationtowardsofferingtraining, propels individuals to invest themselves for their career development and greater performance (Baruch, 2006).
- Reward Management and Advancement of secretaries
Increasingly, organizations are realizing that they have to establish an equitable balance between the employee’s contribution to the organization and the organization’s contribution to the employee.Establishingthisbalanceisoneofthemainreasonstorewardemployees.Organizations that follow a strategic approach to creating this balance focus on the three main components of a reward system, which includes, compensation, benefits and recognition. Studies that have been conductedonthetopicindicatesthatthemostcommonprobleminorganizationstodayisthatthey miss the important component of Reward, which is the low-cost, high-return ingredient to a well- balanced reward system. A key focus of recognition is to make employees feel appreciated and valued. Research has proven that employees who get recognized tend to have higher self-esteem, moreconfidence,morewillingnesstotakeonnewchallengesandmoreeagernesstobeinnovative (Puwanenthiren,2011)
Akerlof and Kranton (2010) reported that many organizations would be successful in their goals and purposes if they understand the identity economics. People's identity that is their conception of who they are, and of who they choose to be, may be the most important factor affecting their economic lives and may indicate what would be the most appropriate incentives for them to perform in their job. There seems to be evidence to confirm the positive relationship between financial factors and job performance in service organizations. Money is the fundamental inducement;nootherincentiveormotivationaltechniquecomesevenclosetoitwithrespecttoits influentialvalue.Allbusinessesusepay,promotion,bonusesorothertypesofrewardstomotivate and encourage high-level performances of employees. Reward management has the supremacyto magnetize,maintainandmotivateindividualstowardshigherperformance.AccordingtoLemieux, MacLeod, & Parent (2009), the existing evidence shows that when there is a good performance measures, performance-pay can enhance employee productivity and improve match quality. However, the use of performance-pay is constrained by the quality of availableperformance
- Management and Advancement of secretaries
Koontz (1978) defines management as the art of getting things done through others and with formallyorganizedgroups.Theterm‘managementstyle’canthereforebedefinedastheleadership methodamanagerusesinadministeringanorganization.Itincludesplanning,organizing,staffing, directing and controlling, indeed all techniques and methods used by leaders to motivate subordinates to follow their instructions. Robbins (2003), defines managers as ―individuals who achieve goals through other people, who oversee the activities of others and who are responsible for attaining goals in theseorganizations.
According to Kavanaugh & Ninemeier (2001), there are three factors that determine the type of management style: leader’s characteristics, sub-ordinate’s characteristics and the organization environment. Kavanaugh & Ninemeier (2001) suggested that employees who are more knowledgeable and experienced may work well under a democratic management style, while employees with different experiences and expectations require an autocratic management style. According to Wood (1994), some factors in the organization environment such as organizational climate, organization values, composition of work group and type of work can also influence leadership style. However, leaders can adapt their leadership style to the perceived preferences of their subordinates. Management styles can be classified according to the managers’ power, usage of such power and behavior as autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire, where styles are distinguished by the influence managers have on subordinates.
AccordingtoKavanaugh&Ninemeier(2001),anautocraticstyleisembeddedinleaderswhohave full organizational power and authority for decision making without sharing it with their subordinates,whileademocraticstyleimpliesthatleaderssharetheirauthorityofdecisionmaking withemployeesanddelegate,andfinallyalaissez-faireorfree-reinstyleexistswhereleadersgive their employees most of the authority over decision making. NEPA like many other Nigerian public sector organisations, has a functional management structure. The management structure withinthefunctionsisautocraticsuchthatassistantofficersreporttoofficerswhoreporttosenior officers who report to managers who report to general managers who report to director general who reports to the board who report to the cabinet secretary. Approvals for most of the decisions are a prerogative of the director general and the board. Decision points generated by an assistant officer have therefore to pass through atleast five to six levels before they getapproval.
- TheoreticalFramework
The concept of advancement of secretaries can be linked to a number of theoretical perspectives including: systems theory, psychological theory, economic theory, performance improvement theory, organizational learning theory among others. In general this study was closely linked to the performance improvement theory. This theory builds on the social learning theory and emphasizesthatanyhumanresourceanddevelopmentinitiativesmustbetiedtotheorganization’s strategic objectives as a method for improving performance (Swanson, 1995). This theory is related to the work of Gilbert (1978), whose writing on human competence noted that: human competenceisafunctionofworthyperformance;thathumancompetenceisinverselyproportional to the potential for improving performance; that for any accomplishment, a deficiency in performance always has, as its immediate cause, a deficiency in behavior and; that human accomplishments can be viewed at several levels of theorganization.
Supportingtheaboveassertions,Rosenberg(1996)explainsthattherearesixperformancefactors that can be manipulated to enhance individual, group and organization performance including: consequences, incentives and rewards; data and information; skills and knowledge; resources, tools and environmental support; individual capacity and; motives and expectations. Nadler, Gerstein&Shaw.(1992)proposedthathighperformanceworksystemisthemostimportantissue underlying this theory. They defined this as ‘an organizational architecture that brings together work, people, technology and information in a manner that optimizes performance in terms ofthe effectiveresponsestocustomerrequirementsandotherenvironmentaldemandsandopportunities. Highperformancesystemsaccordingtothistheoryinclude:awayofthinkingaboutorganizations; asetofprinciplesfordesigningorganizations;aprocessforapplyingthesedesignprinciples,and; a variety of specific organizational designfeatures.
In view of the above literature on the influences of advancement of secretaries, the body of literature that came to mind as closely related to this area of study was the performance theory and was therefore proposed as appropriate reference discipline.