APPRAISAL OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF MODERN COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT TO JOB PERFORMANCE OF SECRETARIES IN SELECTED BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS

​​​​​​BACKGROUND OF STUDY: The speed at which modern office situation or work environment is changing has led to sustained radical shift from manual secretarial operations towards the use of information and communication technology equipment, in order to ease secretary’s work and enhance their performance; thereby leading to their greater performance in place of work.  On this basis, Nwogwugwu, (2008) said: “a revolutionary attempt is being made by educational authority, policy makers etc to inject into the teaching and learning processes in Nigeria skills, orientation and awareness of the very crucial information and communication Technology (ICT) which is now seen as the backbone and information super highway of the modern life”.

However, there are certain ICT skills required by secretaries.  They include skills and knowledge of computer hardware and software.  Skills on computer hardware includes; knowledge of keyboard, visual Display Unit (VDU), Central Processing Unit (CPU), knowledge of benefits of computer, knowledge on application of computer to secretarial profession etc. while software skills encompasses knowledge of operating system, utilities software and services programme.  Besides this, Nwogwugwu, (2008), stressed that there are certain ICT skills required by secretaries from employers of labor.  They includes; skill for creating e-mail message, address, username, password, skill for replying and sending e-mails, accessing attached file, skill for sourcing and reading daily news on the internet, skill for doing business online and delivering information online, skill for creating, saving, printing and publishing web pages, skill for using search engines to get diverse information on the websites etc.  It is believed that if secretaries acquired these skills, they will meet the demand of changing work environment and expectation of employers.

In the process of using ICT equipment by secretaries to perform their day to day assigned duties, they are faced with certain problems, which includes challenge of computer illiteracy, i.e. poor or no knowledge of computer, and its uses; challenges of changing work environment, i.e. changes in modern office situations seems to alter the skills already acquired by secretaries.  In this case, when new technologies are introduced into the office, they are expected to up-date their skills regarding such equipment.  In the same vein, paucity, of ICT equipment and lack of ICT technical personnel in an organization, levels of ICT skills of secretaries, that is the present knowledge of secretaries in ICT usage.  When these problems are not minimized, it makes it difficult for secretaries to handle ICT equipment in their place of work.  In the same line of thought, ICT has led to under-utilization of secretaries’ skill kin the sense that it does not allow them to utilize their mental capabilities in solving problems, but are glued to internet.  Also, network breakdown, ratio of people to computer, system contamination, communication barriers passed by internet, poor training background of secretaries on ICT uses, seduction and immoral behavior/information found in the internet, poor failure etc.  These are problems facing secretaries on the uses of ICT equipment.

Moreover, if the above problems are not controlled, corrected or minimized, it will disrupt work process, and this will lead to poor job performance.  This was supported by Okagbare, (2005), when she stated that “effective performance of secretaries may be disrupted if there is lack of necessary equipment and skills to operate them”, if available.  The speed, accuracy efficiency of work production will be disrupted, and thus affect organizational productivities, growth and development.

Meanwhile, application of ICT to secretary’s job will no doubt have a positive effect on their performance.  It enhances communication, productivities, eliminates time wastage on routine jobs such as record management, enhance effective maintenance, up dating and manipulating of records.   In addition, secretaries can now perform their functions from different locations including house, motorcars, or even airplanes.  This is a proof that ICT has made the world a global village.  With ICT in place, the retraining of traditional secretaries by organization is now guarantee, thereby widening their scope of knowledge of ICT usage.