MODERN OFFICE TECHNOLOGIES AND CHALLENGES FACING SECRETARIES IN EDO NORTH SECRETARIES

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This chapter presents an exploration of the various perspectives on the subject of modern technology and secretaries’ productivity. The first part of the review will focus defining a secretary and evaluating the functions and roles associated with this practice. The second part will address the concept of new or modern office technologies and their impact on performance and the last part will discuss productivity and how it can be measured. This review is intended to provide a theoretical framework that will shape data to be gathered from the primary sources.

2.2 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.

2.3 The Functions of a Secretary

A thorough review of the duties and roles perform by secretaries requires a classification or categorization of these functions. This classification allows a better understanding of the job the secretaries perform. For the purpose of this discussion, a number of classifications of function shall be reviewed below.

2.3.1 Administrative Functions of Secretary

An administrative function of a secretary involves organizing and controlling the organizational activities in order to achieve the objectives of the organization. It also includes supervision of junior staff and ensuring that schedules of work are being accomplished, directives and assigned tasks completed within the time span, and ensuring that all the materials needed for performing any particular job are available at the right time.

Ekwue (2009) advanced that a secretary must perform a variety of secretarial and office management duties, composes, types and files letters and inter-office memos, receives calls and interviews persons calling in office and makes referrals, prepares departmental records and disciplinary notices. Performing any or all of the mentioned duties depicts that a secretary is involved in an administrative function. Odiaua (2010) on his part included some duties like maintaining files and personal records, reviews, organizes and maintains files, monitors attendance including sick leave, annual leave and vacation leave, compiles and records data for computer files, develops and implements new departmental forms, recommends and implements changes in correspondence sent to public. All these as identified by Odiaua, save time for the executive/boss and make job easier. For secretary to effectively perform these duties, he must be conversant with the policy of the organization.

2.3.2 Personnel Functions of a Secretary

The personnel roles of a secretary include membership of interview panels for junior staff and assigning job schedules to staff. It also involves receiving, sorting and distributing mails within the organization, composing replies to correspondences on behalf of the executive, identifying and solving routine and non-routine problems by applying professional skills and techniques in order to develop the variety of ideas and modify situations (Shuaibu, 2009).

Secretary relieves his employer the task of determining the organizational staff strength due to the fact that he controls skills inventory, he does manpower forecasting (junior staff) and arrange for the staff selection and assign job schedules. Bashar (2007) stated that skill inventory by a secretary are the assessment of personnel currently within the organization by using skill inventory data card. This determines the staff strengths or otherwise of the organization.

On the other hand, he states that manpower forecasting by a secretary is concerned with the determination of manpower needs of the organization. The secretary through this process, estimates the number and types of junior staff currently on the payroll who will be available in the future (that is taking note of retirement, possible death and other opportunities in the environment); and determining the number of staff that would be recruited externally.

A mail service in form of incoming and outgoing mails is another important personnel role of a secretary. Ikelegbe and Miller (2011) opined that secretary must be conversant with the rules of incoming mails/correspondences, rules/procedures for outgoing mails and ability to compose replies on behalf of their executives on any matter. This office function saves the executive/boss time and lifts the goodwill of the organization.

Secretary must be skillful in written communications, as he will often be called upon to draft and edit correspondence on behalf of the organization to outside groups as well as internal members. The secretary must therefore be fluent in the organizations jargons, and be familiar with organizations communications style requirements.

2.3.3 Records Keeping Functions

Another fundamental function of a secretary is records keeping. Records of staff, assets, impress et cetera must be properly kept for future references or until when they are needed. Aminu (2009) maintained that secretary is responsible for establishing and maintaining his organizational records and documents including meeting minutes, reports and other important documents. Where necessary, he must create appropriate and logical filing systems to ensure that organization’s needs are easily accessible by the relevant staff and/or members.

Proper filing of documents constitutes other record keeping roles of a secretary. A popular adage states that “we file to find and not to file away” should always be the genesis of a secretary. Amavu (2009) stated that the position of a secretary is key to an organization’s success. The role of filing document requires commitment, abilities and enthusiasm. The secretary has the primary responsibility of maintaining good filing system capable of providing an accurate data/information needed at any point in time.

In present day office works, records could be maintained manually, that is in a file folder and stored in file cabinets, or computerized system, where records of the organizations are stored in computers and flash drives. Secretaries in modern offices even maintain web sites for the organization. Moreover, a secretary maintains organizational history and procedures. Frank (2009) stated that secretary serve as the central repository of information for his respective organization, given their exposure to and attendance at, most if not all of the meetings held.

The secretary must therefore be knowledgeable in his organization’s history, by-laws, leadership and other policies and procedures. He may also maintain an up dated list of all staff and members, their contact information and other data relevant to the organization’s mission. Secretaries opportune to serve in multi-national companies, apart from all the record roles mentioned above, are also responsible for keeping all official records. Harding (2005) stated that secretaries keep the following official records: indemnities, service contracts debenture holders, registers of directors, register of members and records of resolution. He maintains that secretaries must adopt effective records and administration which includes keeping up-to-date contact details that is names, addresses and telephone numbers for management committee, filing minutes and reports, compiling lists of names and addresses that are useful to the organization, including those of appropriate officials or officers of voluntary organizations, keeping record of the organizations activities and keeping a diary of future activities.

With regards to taking and keeping minutes of meeting, Bacchino (2003) stated that secretary should document actions that determine the fulfillment of legal duties, records proceedings of a meeting including how decisions are made, the resulting actions and persons responsible for it, clarify clearly what actually happened at a meeting and records all resolutions adopted.

As a result of modernization in office routine, secretary is expected to develop a meeting “minute template”. May (2007) described meeting “minute template” as a sort of a standardized minute content used in retrieving information and helping to reduce error. He maintained that it has three sections as follows:

i. Logistics: includes date, time, list of those present and absent, name of the meeting chair and recorder of the minutes;

ii. Minutes: a place where the actual minutes are noted.

iii. Actions : completed as the minutes are written and includes a list of the actions committed to during the meeting with columns for actions to be taken, persons responsible, time lines and dates completed.

Every organization needs a secretary who is committed, determined and courageous due to the fact that record keeping is a tedious work. The secretary must have a good writing, note-taking, summarizing and public speaking skills as well as some knowledge of procedures. Kauchal (2006) maintained that secretaries are responsible for ensuring the following record keeping tasks:

a) Keeping an accurate set of minutes of each meeting in the records of the organization.

b) Keeping an up-to-date membership list.

c) Keeping a list of all committees and members.

d) Handling the organization’s correspondence, distributing minutes to members and notifying them of coming meeting.

e) Keeping necessary files for the organization’s archives

2.3.4 Human Relations Functions

Ahukannah and Ugoji (2009) defined human relations as the relationship which subsists among people employed and working in an organization. A human relation depicts the formal and informal activities and relationships resulting from the interaction of two or more people in an organization. It determines the degree of team spirit among workers.

A secretary must be conversant and apply human relations in carrying out his duties due to its importance as advocated by Ahukannah and Ekelegbe (2008) that human relations promotes team spirit and serves as an important tool for harmony and a great source of strength to the organization. It enhances staff motivation resulting in high productivity. It also creates and sustains job satisfaction thereby reducing absenteeism, truancy and inefficiency and promotes discipline among staff and checks conflicts. Secretary must maintain good human relations with his executive/boss, with other executives, with colleagues and with other employees.

2.4 The Modern Office and Technologies

The modern office has changed dramatically since the 1990s. Offices in today's society are transmitting information via electronic mail (e-mail), electronic calendars, and teleconferencing, as well as other electronic devices. Communication via technology is just as important as oral and written communication in the work environment. Technology continues to play a vital role in transforming the business environment.

Today’s modern offices are substantially different from the office environment of 20 years ago. Sweeping changes have occurred at the workplace as a result of new office technology and automation of office equipment. New technology is changing the scope of what's considered an office. Offices inevitably adopt newer technologies that get more work done with fewer people, and there's pressure to keep a modern, professional image by staying on top of the latest tech trends.

The need for high productivity and maximization of profit has led to the wide use of modern machines in most offices. There has never been a greater need for efficiency in business than there is today. All kinds of business must employ modern methods of gadgets or equipment in offices to meet the challenges of today’s world. As an office staff, the secretary who is the image maker of the organization and from whom most information emanates, requires a great knowledge of Information and Communication Technology to perform efficiently on the job which would influence the speed of information delivery, production of job requested by the boss or organization within a short space of time, make less mistakes and high productivity on performance of job.

This mechanization of office work has come as a result of need for greater speed and accuracy. The characteristic picture of modern office is the successful integrated use of machines and equipment into what is called system. New information systems can be powerful instruments for organization change enabling organizations to redesign their structure, scope, power relationships, workflows, products and services. These machines and equipment are grouped or linked together to achieve a common purpose.

2.4.1 Brief Overview of Office Equipments

Office equipment refers to the machines used for the efficiency of workers in the office. Office equipments free workers from many of the routines and time-consuming tasks done manually. These are categorized into three accounting, secretarial, and general.

Accounting Machines

They are either operated manually or electrically. Accounting machines are used for posting the ledger cards, writing cheques, receipts and preparing the payroll. Some accounting machines are calculators, electronic calculators, adding machines other basic accounting machines are book-keeping, electronic billing, and electronic alpha-numeric accounting machines.

Secretarial Machines

They are machines used for secretarial office routine. They include typewriters, franking, and reprographic machines. Others are Dictaphone, automatic time-and-date stamping machines envelope sealing machine, jogger, shredder, etc.

Typewriters are either manually or electrically operated. Franking machine is used to print stamp impression on envelopes without the use of adhesive stamps. Reprographic machines are photocopier, spirit or ink duplicating machines.

Chief executives make use of Dictaphone to dictate messages for secretaries to type on either computer or typewriter. The automatic time and data stamping machine is used to print the impression of the time and date of receipt on office correspondence. The envelope sealing machine moisturizes the flap of envelope before sealing it. The jogger is used to collate papers before binding. A shredder is used to destroy unused office document into unreadable forms.

General Office Machines

These are generally used in the office. They include computers, fax, offset litho and laminating machines. Computer processes data and it is most commonly used in offices. There are desktop laptop and series of other forms of computers in offices today. The fax or facsimile facilitates the dissemination of information and diagrams over telephone wires through facsimile telegraphy. Documents are scanned by a beam of light and an identical image is reproduced on the other fax machine operated by another subscriber at the other end. The offset litho is more of printing machine. It is good for producing staff magazine, inter-office memoranda, etc. The laminating machine is used for protecting documents against moisture, dirt, creasing and tampering by the use of cellophane. This is done through the heat process. The machine seals the document automatically for durability.

2.4.2 Brief List of Modern Office Technologies

The computer

Everybody knows what a computer is. It can simply be defined as an accurate electronic device that performs calculations and processes information at great speed.

Computers come in different sizes, shapes, capacities, etc. We have desktops, laptops, and palmtops. The computer is used in medicine, engineering, architecture, education, banking, etc.

Telephones – mobile and land

The land line is the most basic office communications tool used by secretaries. The most popular mobile phone used in the business place is the GSM Global Systems for Mobile Communication.

Fax Machine

Just like the telephones, the fax machine transmits information, but in text or document format

Internet (www, e-mail, search engine, etc.)

This is an intangible facility on the computer. WWW stands for worldwide web and it is a collection of information in multimedia form on the internet. This information is stored at locations, called websites, in the form of web pages. Websites are an effective way of distributing information, such as advertisements, technical information, comments, ideas, etc. Other applications on the internet are chatting for simultaneous communication between people and the use of a web camera for seeing while chatting. Search engines like Google, yahoo, msn, etc. are used to find information on the internet – looking through millions of sources all over the world

Teleconferencing

This facility, usually embedded in the telephone technology, allows more than two people to communicate via phone at the same time. This makes it possible for people in different cities to hold meetings together.

Video Conferencing

This facility usually makes use of the internet with or without the telephone and allows visual and speech communication among several people at the same time. Like teleconferencing, it enhances remote communication. For example, your colleague in America can remotely participate in a meeting held in Nigeria whereby he sees and hears everybody who attends the meeting in Ghana as he makes his own contributions.

Scanner

This machine is used to convert hard copy documents into soft copies to later be transmitted from one place to the other via the internet. This format can include colors, unlike the typical fax machine.

Printers and Photocopiers

Printers are used to convert our documents from soft copy formats to hard copies and photocopiers are used to make additional copies of such documents.

2.4.3 Summary of the Advantages of Office Equipment

Information that is the most important to the office can be stored, processed, and retrieved by computer facilities.

They can be used to produce fast and accurate information.

They provide very cheap services.

Messages can be sent to many people simultaneously.

Security of information is assured.

Time, effort and money are saved.

Stress is minimized.

Space is saved as little or no paper is used in the office.

2.5 Understanding Employee (Secretary) Performance

Many business executives are under the mistaken impression that the level of employee (secretaries) performance on the job is proportional to the size of the employee’s compensation package. Although compensation package is one of the extrinsic motivation tools, it has a limited short term effect on employees’ performance. A widely accepted assumption is that better workplace environment motivates employees and produces better results (Leblebici, 2012).

Essentially, an elegant and functional workplace environment often culminates in improved employee efficiency and productivity. In recognition of this fact, most offices are now designed and furnished with the employee in mind to ensure that his workplace environment including furniture and equipment adequately supports and induces high performance. The quest to equip employees and workers with most suitable workplace environment, furniture, equipment, tools and techniques to discharge their duties efficiently and effectively is the fundamental philosophy behind the development and growth of ergonomics. The performance of an employee is measured actually by the output that the individual produces and it is related to productivity. At corporate level, productivity is affected by many factors such as employees, technology and objectives of the organization. It is also dependent on the physical environment and its effect on health and employees’ performance (Al-Anzi, 2009).

Statt (1994) as cited by Leblebici (2012) argues that, the modern work physical environment is characterized by technology; computers and machines as well as general furniture and furnishings. To enhance employee performance therefore, it is imperative that the organization’s physical environment is fashioned to support employee in their quest to attain organizational objectives.

2.5.1 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.

Allen et al. view productivity measurement is the quantification of both the output and input resources of a productive system. The intent is to come up with a quantified monitoring index. The goal of productivity measurement is productivity improvement, which involves a combination of increased effectiveness and a better use of available resources. While productivity can be given the sort of shorthand definition as the ratio between output and input, what productivity really is as well as how it can be measured has always provoked a great deal of controversy among experts. In essence, it can be said that the measurement of productivity is only simple conceptually. In practice, however, both measurements of outputs and inputs involves aggregation problem, and this problem alone has situated productivity measurement in the realm of complexity.

The concept of secretarial productivity can be seen the level of performance of secretaries in relation to their tasks. This study advocates the level of modern secretaries’ performance is far greater than those of the previous generation.

A study conducted by study mode, a web researcher concluded that the factors that affected the performance include the following,

• equal pay for all employees according to the level of responsibility and work done

• secretaries be taken for further training and only employ those with enough skills and qualifications,

• working relations be encouraged at all levels

• physical working environment be improved and equipment be purchased

• the use of modern equipment

The focus of this study is to examine the relationship between secretaries’ productivity and their use of modern equipment. A number of study present successful experiences of how the introduction of modern office technologies led to tremendous benefits. For example, an Administrative Management article (Hansen, 1977) reports surveying a number of companies that had installed word processing systems; all indicated "productivity gains and cost effectiveness" with the system. Another study (Anderson, 1978) finds that computer-based message systems improve productivity by saving time, by increasing the volume of work performed, and by more efficient problem-solving. Specific positive accounts range from a pharmaceutical firm (Clutterbuck, 1978) whose office system had saved time at both the managerial and secretarial levels (increasing productivity at the latter level as well) to a life insurance firm (McCormick, 1980) whose introduction of minicomputers and distributed processing had cut proposal preparation time from days to half an hour.

2.6 Framework of the Study

Discourse on the impact of office technology on work pivots around labor process theory as articulated by Braverman (1974). The theory, roughly, states that the basic purpose of introducing technology into workplaces is to foster transference of skill from labor to capital, thereby affording management greater control of the labor process. With the transference of skill comes a loss of worker efficacy. The study intends to establish a correlation between the existence of modern office equipments and secretarial productivity.