Abstract
This study examined
the impact of office environment of office productivity professional. A
total of two hundred (200) respondents, comprising of ninety eighty (98) office
professionals and one hundred and two (102) executives Ire used. Moreover,
literature relevant to the topic by renowned authors and researchers provides
the secondary source of data, while the interview was used to obtain
background information of the
organization. From the data collected and analyzed, it was discovered that a good conducive
atmosphere makes the office professionals serves as an image maker of the
organization. It was also discovered that office environment has an impact on
the productivity of the office professional the study revealed that the
output of the office professional in a conducive environment is very
satisfactory. Recommendation made, included management should set up the office
environment in such a way that it would alloId proper ventilation and
lightening. And that management should provide proper office layout and a
conducive working atmosphere with consideration for cleanliness, sanitary
convenience s, health and safety for its worker and also human factor should be
taken into consideration as to provide workers with comfort towards the
attainment of organizational goals.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title
page - - - - - - - - - i
Approval
page - - - - - - - - ii
Declaration - - - - - - - - - iii
Dedication - - - - - - - - - iv
Acknowledgement - - - - - - - v
Abstract - - - - - - - - - vii
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction - - - - - -- - - 1
Background
of the study - - - - - - 1
Statement
of the Problem - - - - - - 5
Purpose
of the study - - - - - - - 6
Significance
of the study - - - - - - 7
Scope
of the study - - - - - - 8
Limitation
of the study - - - - - - - 8
Definition
of terms - - - - - - - 9
CHAPTER TWO
Literature
Review - - - - - - - - 11
Introduction
- - - - - - - - - 11
Conceptual
Framework - - - - - - - 11
Modern
Office Machine - - - - - - - 13
The
Physical Environment factors - - - - - - 15
Adequate
Remuneration of Office Professional - - - 25
Human
Relation Skills - - - - - - - - 28
Summary
of Review - - - - - - - - 32
CHAPTER THREE:
Research
Methodology - - - - - - - 33
Introduction - - - - - - - - - 33
Research
Design - - - - - - - - 34
Area
of the study - - - - - - - - - 34
Population
of the study - - - - - - - 34
Sample
size - - - - - - - - - 35
Method
of Data Collection - - - - - 35
Instrument
for Data Collection - - - - - 36
Validation
of the instrument - - - - - - 36
Administration
of Instrument - - - - - 36
Data
analysis - - - - - - - - 37
CHAPTER FOUR:
Data
Analysis and Interpretation - - - - - 38
Introduction
- - - - - - - - 38
Answer
Research questions - - - - - - 38
Interpretations - - - - - - - - 40
Summary
of Major findings - - - - - - 47
Discussion
of findings - - - - - - - - 49
CHAPTER FIVE
Summary,
Conclusion and Recommendation - - - 52
Introduction
- - - - - - - - 52
Summary
- - - - - - - - - 52
Summary
of Major findings - - - - - - 53
Conclusion - - - - - - - - - 53
Recommendation - - - - - - - - 54
Suggestion
for further studies - - - - - 55
References
Appendix A:
Letter of Introduction
Appendix B: Questionnaire
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Contemporary dictionary defines
environment as all the surrounding condition, which influence growth and
development. Environment can also be defined as the external and internal
surrounding of an office as it affects a secretary. According to Rwuaan (2010),
an office is a building where clerical work is done, where information is
received, conveyed, recorded processed and safeguard. An office is generally a
room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within
an organization with specific duties attached to it (see office, office holder,
official), the latter is an fact an earlier usage, office as place originally
referring to the location of one’s duty.
An office is an architectural and design
phenomenon and a social phenomenon, whether it is a small office such as a
bench in the corner of a “mom and pop shop” of extremely small size (see small
office home office) through entire floors of buildings up to and including massive
building dedicated entirely to one company. In modern terms an office usually
refers to the location where white-collar workers are employed.
Productivity has been generally defined
as a ration of a measure of output to a measure of some or all of the resources
used to produces these output. In this way, one or a number of input measures
can be taken and compared with one or a number of output measure. When attempt is
made to include all inputs and all output in a system, the measure is called a
Total Productivity Measure (TPM) Palik (2006) explains in his what that the
input used in a process can be hour of labour, unit of capital and qualities of
raw materials compared with the consequent output.
History has it that the background of
office professional dates back to the days when ancient office professionals
who were then called secretaries worked under the primitive circle of office
surroundings. Despite the fact that the importance of the early office
professionals was realized when the need for keeping, retrieving and
safeguarding confidential matters were needed. At that time, the duties and
responsibilities of office professionals was of much importance in terms of job
satisfaction the office profession. The duties and responsibilities of office
professional involves providing services relating to processing, documenting
and disseminating information, (Smith, 2008).
Today, the duties and responsibilities
of office professional in organization are very important that no organization
can survive without this class of workers. They are so important that the ill
conceived idea of the federal Government to right size and down size these
class of worker caused great set back in the discharge of office function which
made it imperative for all affected office professional to be recalled back to
their duties (BPSR, 2008).
The function of office professionals in
organizations have formed part of the cardinal roles stated in available
literatures. In consonance with the views expressed above. Omotosho (1990)
states that no business activity succeeds without an efficient office
professional. The office professional copes with all demands and stresses of
the office in the way that he enjoys leadership control of crisis that might
emanate from managing records, people communication, information and other resources
that are instinctively involved in making an office.
In most office today, two types of
office professionals are recognized and these are the personal or private and
confidential. For the purpose of updating the duties and responsibilities of
office professionals, MTU in Madelyn and Urwin (1980( defined office
professionals as one in charge of typesetting, recording and keeping vital or
confidential document of an organization that some executives may not be
allowed access to; while the private office professional is one who employed to
assist a member of staff at top level by undertaking some of his routine work
and ensuring the smooth running of the office.
Ceik and forti (2009) state that the
duties of office professional in organization includes organizing, coordinating
and implementing delicious for the day to day running of the organization.
Azuonge (2007) says executives in most organization are ignorant of the vital
roles performed by office professional for the growth of an organization as
such these class of worker are seen with little or no respect as clerks and mail runners by this officers. To achieve
any set objective by an organization in a work place, it require the complete
efforts of a team work. The office professional being part of this team plays
an important and essential function in bringing about the desired success in
every organization, irrespective of services it renders to the general public.
Jeffrey and Kevin, (2001) state that in this age of globalization,
characterized by computer and other office technology, as well as sophisticated
nature of office dealings, the duties and function of office professionals in
achieving organizational goals cannot be over emphasized.
Njoku (2003) opines that the duties of
office professionals vary and are often unspecified. However, the duties and
function of office professionals and the expectations of an employer. These
duties include taking down notes from the speech of the boss and producing a
mail able copy out of it, performing reception duties involving public
relations, clerical duties involving replying to correspondence, filling
operations, records management, other unspecified function such as booking
flights and accommodation, running specialized errands etc.
He adds that the functions of the office
professionals are ever expanding rapidly. However, the proper performance of
duties by office professional is a reliable avenue for the image making
profiles such office professional work with. It is with this in mind that the
research work is being carried out to identify the duties and responsibilities
of office professionals in Kaduna polytechnic.
Statement of the
Problem
The office environment is a determining
factor to office professionals performance and productivity but this has not
been achieved in modern day office as a result of the following problems such
as inadequate of modern office equipment, poor human relations, physical
environmental factors and poor remuneration of office professionals, all these
factors contribute to low performance of office professionals. It is not
uncommon to find some organizations still subjecting office professional to the
use of manual typewriters. When office professional are not provided with
efficient and effective working tools, productivity is definitely bound to be
low.
It is equally agreed that some office
professionals find it difficult to get along with their work as a result of
un-conducive environment in the office. this brings about other tendencies
among with include the inability to control staff under her or not giving
proper attention to visitors in the office .Overcrowding
and of clean office or environment especially in the office professional’s
office seriously have impacts in the productivity of the office professional
Purpose of the Study
The major purpose of this study was to
examine the impact of office environment on the productivity of office
professional. But in specific terms, the study was under taken to:
1.
find out the types of modern office
machines require for office professionals productivity.
2.
determine the physical environmental
factors that lead to the attainment of the organizational objectives
3.
to find out how adequate remuneration of
office professional improve office productivity in an organization.
4.
to find out how human relation skills
increase office professional productivity.
Research Questions
The following research questions and
hypotheses were posed and formulated for the study:
i.
What are the types of office equipment
require for office professionals productivity
ii.
What are the physical environmental
factors that lead to the attainment of organizational objectives
iii.
How does human relations skills
influence office professional productivity in an organization
iv.
How does remuneration influence office
professional productivity in an organization.
Significance of the
Study
The significance of this research can never be over
emphasized. It is only conducted to identify, the importance of office
environment on a office professions, the study will be of immense importance
for the following:
Office Profession: Office
professional as an individual who oversees the running of an organization, plan
coordinate and oversees various organizational function which are performed by
the other employee of the company.
Future References: To
service as a source of information for future researchers who which to gather
useful data pertaining to office profession.
Organizations: To
educate the organizations so that they can provide conducive environment to
secretaries work.
Scope of the Study
The study concentrated on the internal
segments of the office profession in order to determine the level of influence
it on the performance of the office profession. The scope of this study also
cover executives and office profession.
Limitation of the Study
The researcher intended to provide as
much material as possible with respect to the topic under study, but a lot of
limitation prevented him from doing so. Time proved to be a major limitation in
the conduct of this research topic. The problem was the combining of attendance
of lecturers and sourcing for data to writ the project.
Financial constraints also posed a
problem in the data collection during the course of survey research, as the
research did not have enough money to make calls on the respondents for data/
Definition of Terms
Impact:
Change produced by an action or cause, it may be negative or positive
Office:
Literally speaking an office is any given place where information is received,
sorted, recorded, rearranged, retrieved and kept for future reference.
Environment: This
relates to the physical condition in the working place of the secretary.
Organization:
Organization is the rational co-ordination of the activities of a number of
people for achievement of some common explicit purpose or goal, through division
of labour.
Secretary:
A secretary is defined as a keeper of secrets or any persons employed by
another person, society, enterprise, organization or co-operation for the purpose of conducting correspondence,
keeping business records and transacting other business.
Executive:
Person in business organization with administrative or managerial skills.
Colleagues:
Persons with whom one work within the office or organization.
Business Plan
Case study
Exam Preps
Feasibility Study
Login To Comment