ABSTRACT
This
study investigated the role of the secretary in the image making of a business
organization with particular reference to Nigeria Breweries Plc Onitsha and our
Lady’s Industries Nkpor-Agu Anambra State. In pursuance of this objective, the
researcher presented and administered questionnaires to the secretaries of the
above named organizations.
The
theoretical frame work of the study was provided by review of related and
relevant literature. Both questionnaires and library books were used in data
collections.
Data
collected through the questionnaire were presented in tables and analyzed using
simple percentages. Form the data collected through questionnaire administered
to the secretaries, the researcher found out the following:
Firstly,
most secretaries at the above named organizations possess the standard speed of
100wpm in shorthand and that means that they are first class secretaries, while
most of then also have the speed of 50 and 60wpm in typewriting.
Secondly,
the secretaries confirmed that a better conclusive office will enhance their
performance, that they should be provided with conducive offices, which will
enhance their performance and promote the image of the company.
Thirdly,
most secretaries in the above named organization agreed that the possession of
personal and business attributes is very important to a secretary in the
discharging of her responsibilities and functions.
It was
also found out that the secretary is really the image maker of the
organization, a living dairy for his / her boss and as such it cannot be as
over statement to say that the efficiency of a an organization is judged
through the performance of the secretary.
Finally,
recommendations were made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE
PAGE
APPROVAL
PAGE
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TABLE
OF CONTENT
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
1.4 OF STUDY
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.1 WHO IS A SECRETARY
2.2 THE QUALIFIED SECRETARY
2.3 TYPIST V SECRETARY
2.4 IMAGE MAKING FUNCTION
2.5 BUSINESS ATTRIBUTES
2.6 PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES
2.7 SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEW
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
3.1 AREA OF STUDY
3.2 POPULATION AND SAMPLE SIZE DETERMINATION
3.3 METHOD OF COLLECTING DATA
3.4 QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN AND ADMINISTRATION
3.5 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 SUMMARY
OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND
5.1 RECOMMENDATION
5.2 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
5.3 RECOMMENDATION
5.4 CONCLUSION
5.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
5.6 SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
OF THE STUDY
Secretary-ship
is an important hub around which modern office and management revolves. Like
the heart which is involved in the manufacturing, pumping and distribution of
blood to various organs of the body, secretary-ship provides the bridge the
body, secretary-ship provides the bridge which links the functions of different
arm of an organization, creates a whole out of disjointed branches of activity.
The
history of the secretarial profession could be terraced back to the industrial
revolutions of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries which gave birth to record
keeping and the invention of the art of manuscripts. When it because imperative
that these two innovations could not provide a complete answer to smoother
take-off of business and full office operations, further inventions were made
and these were the art of typing and printing, with the resultant training of
the first batch of officers in the allied trades.
Because
of the free use of the word “secretary” by all and semidry, only a few people
have taken time to analyzed the important and concept of this essential
vocation. In modern terms, secretary has become an omnibus terminology
associated with a wide range of practitioners who have varying framework of
correspondence and record keeping. For instance, no reasonable employer can go
to the employment agency or put up an advert in the press today merely stating
secretary wanted, unless he specifies the type and peculiar qualification or
breed, the result is most likely to be negative. This confirms the age-long
omission of appropriate nomenclature for many classes of paper workers now
conglomerated under the tag secretary.
This
background now leaves us with the question. Who is a secretary? Secretary-ship
is a career, a vocation that has by its wide application and tendency
accommodate many breeds of seemingly related but differing groups of
correspondence workers almost lost its original identity. It has gradually
assumed the posture of a No man’s line.
Form
the professional term secretary-ship come the technical name secretary meaning,
the practitioner or operator of the secretarial careers. Secretary is not an
accidental appellation given merely to satisfy philological need. It is a
technical expression denoting job relativity and pointing to job motive.
The
word secretary is derived from the latin word secretaries menacing “a person
entrusted with secretes. According to Advanced English Learners Dictionary,
secret means (to be) kept form knowledge or view of others, to conceal. The
same Dictionary defined “secretary” as an employee in the office who deals with
correspondence, keeps records, make arrangement and appointments for a
particular member of the staff.
If the
secretary by derivation means “the keeper of secretes” (wide secret is a
fitting synonym for confidentiality) and the functions borders on handling of
correspondence and keeping of records, it follows therefore that while other
classes or species of record keepers and correspondence handlers may borrow the
title “secretary” for appropriate descriptive nomenclature. The fit and proper
class entitled to the appellation “secretary”, is that class which by training,
education and grooming in the art of record keeping, is secret or
confidentiality-oriented. It is that species which in actual work situation is
more seen than heard. In other words, secretary refers most appropriately to
that class of correspondence or records worker whom by training and orientation
assumes the posture of a repository of confidence.
Interestingly,
the traditional maltreatment and belief of people have deteriorated with time.
This is because training for the profession is not only emphasized but
sophisticated methods and materials, modern techniques and facilities have been
introduced and obviously this has evidently facilities the turn out of good and
qualified secretaries.
A
secretary is much more important nowadays than in the past. She is an
administrative officer of the company. As regards matters concerning
administration the secretary has ostensible authorities to sign contracts on
behalf of the company. The secretary within the capacity of the office portrays
a positive image of the employees in the organization. It is also observed that
the secretary, in the course of her daily business, associate with those above
her level and those on her level.
In his
book “the effective secretary” Onasanya stated that a secretary should be able
to dine with kings and mix with the commons.
Migini
(1982), while apprising the dynamic and tasking position of a secretary in the
office posited that the secretarial work is a career indeed. In the business
world and in the professional field, the not bother him with petty problems
that she can solve with little thoughts or research. These are the basic
ingredients to find out the whether the secretary is really the image-maker of
a business organization.
1.2 STATEMENT
OF PROBLEM
It has
been observed that despite all the duties performed by the secretary, business
organization and individuals have continued to under-rate the secretaries and
do not the organization. They see the profession as one for unintelligent
people their right positions. They believe that anybody who uses the typewriter
and takes dictations is a secretary, hence secretaries are paid very poorly.
This
study is aimed at investigating whether the secretary is really the image maker
of a business organization. It will
undertake to examine the roles of a secretary to see if these are enough to
describe her s the image maker of an organization.
In
solving this problem, the researcher would investigate the following areas:
i.
Her ability to compose and initiate
correspondence
ii.
How she answers telephone calls and receives
visitors
iii.
Whether a good image of the company is
portrayed through his / her activities
iv.
Whether the environment where he /she work is
conducive enough for the performance of his / her duties
v.
Whether the secretary possess these attributes:
punctuality, neatness, Tactfulness, confidentiality, courtesy, Royalty,
politeness, orderliness, reliability, Honesty etc.
vi.
Whether these attributes help him / her to
carry out his / her function efficiently and effectively
1.3 PURPOSE
OF THE STUDY
The
researcher effort on the project is geared towards the accomplishment of the
following goals:
i.
To find out who a secretary is
ii.
To find out whether the secretaries in the
Nigerian Breweries Plc Onitsha and the secretaries at our Lady’s Industries
Nkpor-Agu are doing their work effectively and efficiently.
iii.
To find out whether secretaries are really the
image-makers in a business organization; using NB Plc Onitsha and sour case
study Lay’s Industries as a case study
iv.
To find out whether these secretaries have
peculiar attributes in the discharge of their duties.
v.
To find out whether the secretaries are
provided with expected materials and conducive offices in the discharge of
their duties
vi.
And finally to suggest possible solution to any
perceived shortcoming.
Secretary
is an essential link in the diversified daily activities of the organization.
The pivot on which organizational activities rotate, the contract between the
organization and the outside world. The smooth and efficient running of the
organization depend solely upon the secretary’s ability and she has more to do
with the practical running of the organization then any other officer does.
To
those who regard on office clerk or typist to be the qualified secretary, the
national secretaries association of the United States of America, defined a
secretary “as an Executive assistant, who possesses a mastery of office skills,
who demonstrates the ability to assume responsibility without direct
supervision, who makes decision within the scope of an assigned authority.
The
secretary is employed initially because he / she possesses at least one office
skill which the company needs and from that point, it is up to her to grow in
knowledge and skill in order to aid in the systematization of her office.
The
position of a secretary in an organization is neither below nor on top of the
organization. Her office is used to build up staff requirements and staff
classification. By virtue of her work, she knows practically everything
relating to her organization. She is the first to come to work and the last to
go.
The
secretary is a public relations experts, a staff assistant, the boss’s office
memory. She must be able to carry out her duties without supervision and
direction. She represented the company and her employer and generates good
human relationship in working with all employee in the organization.
She is
almost the one who posses desirable qualities that promotes her professional
competence, accuracy, highly efficient, great and sound in judging when to use
her initiative and when to consult her employer about handling a job.
She
adjusts to the changing roles and situations, she can recognize and meet a
deadline. She informs her employer about developments that may effect office
efficiency but she does.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
i. The
Nigerian Breweries Plc Onitsha and our Lady’s Industries Nkpor-Agu Anambra
State will benefit from this study as they will learn of the important roles
their secretaries play to their image making.
ii. The
secretaries will as well realize their importance to the image making of the
organization and will be prepared to do their job better.
iii. The
study will be beneficial to students of secretarial studies and other
researchers as the study will add to the pool of knowledge in the field of
secretarial profession.
iv. Similarly,
the study will be very handy for different business organization that over took
the secretary under their employment took the secretary under their employment
as the image-maker of the organization and then devise means of making
effective utilization of their services.
1.5 SCOPE
OF THE STUDY
This
study will be limited to the secretaries that work in the Nigeria Breweries Plc
Onitsha and our Lady’s Industries Ltd Nkpor-Agu Anambra State.
1.6 RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
In
other to achieve a more purposeful and significant result form this study, the
researcher though it necessary to ask the following questions.
i.
Do secretaries require special training?
ii.
To what extent does secretary create an image
for a firm?
iii.
What are the duties of a secretary?
iv.
Are secretaries’ office conducive for the
performance of their duties?
v.
To what extent do the secretaries’ attribute
help them in discharging the duties creditably?
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