CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Ministries of Commerce and Industry and , Ministries of Education is indeed  among the best ministries in Imo state Civil Service that propels the development of Imo state. Vision without action remains merely a dream and it is a vision with action that brings hope and succor to the society, it is the role of management to transform vision into reality. In Imo State Civil service is the management arm of government, and if the civil service performs below the standard expected of them, all the dream and vision will be in vein.

According to Olusanya (1997:3) even the secretary who is looked upon as the pivot of any organization cannot perform effectively in the government ministry.

To achieve growth in the organizational setup, the management required people who are creative, so as to assist the various organizational heads in turning their priorities into concrete realities. This can only be done if people who are involved in the skill of co-ordinating the development of people, information resources and technology. People who play the role of linking their bosses and the outsiders, by dealing with businesses that are transacted over telephone, manage and co-ordinate the executives appointments and prepare, preserve and transmits all types of communication and are ready to keep accurate and up to date records and information are employed. By virtue of his training, the secretaries are expected to posses mastery of the office skills (Ohakwe 2005).

This according to the National Secretary Association is that what makes an efficient secretary. In our present day office, the secretarial staff performs an important role in the realization of organizational goals and objectives. The occupies a leading role position in the operating and functioning of the organization. The secretary in any organization is of great importance as they embraces and cut across every sphere in life of the organization. They must ensure efficient use of resources and at the same time, the long time effectiveness in a changing environment, including being able to ensure flexibility and adaptability necessary for changes to be achieved. In this era of information and communication technology, the secretary should be compliant and keep at pace with all the changes around then, since change is a constant thing. Okoye (2000) stated that secretaries are important members of the management team in business, industries, government, education, communication media and other areas of human endeavours. This implies that secretaries duties are mult-dimensional and they occupies a strategic and challenging positions in the organization. Their ability to perform creditably or not, depends on a long way to make the business of the organizations.

Despite the roles and importance of the secretarial staff in an organization, there are also some factors which are militating against the performance of secretaries in an organization, particularly of secretaries in an organization, particularly, the Ministries of Commerce and Industry and, Ministries of Education . These factors make it difficult for the secretary staff to meet up the demands by the organization. Secretarial profession is being erroneously relegated to the background, probably due to varied opinions attached to it by some un-informed people.

There is therefore the need to systematically investigate dominant problems posing threat to effective performance of secretaries in Ministries of Commerce and Industry and , Ministries of Education . Against this background, the question is, what factors are responsibly for ineffective performance of secretaries in the Ministries of Commerce and Industry and , Ministries of Education

Statement of the Problem    

In every organization, the secretary’s looked upon as the administrative live wire, the hob and the image maker. According to Elendu (1990:2). This because of the important role they played in the realization of the organization goals and objectives. Over the years, however, most secretaries have failed to measure up with the demand by organizations as they are seen to be inefficient and ineffective in the performance of the roles expected of them.

Due to the innovations of computers of various designs with different operating systems. Most secretaries have also failed in their job performance, since they are not acquired knowledge in various fields of study and they still find it difficult to adapt to changes.

The researcher is therefore, spurred into carrying out this study to know what could affect the effective performance of the secretaries in the selected ministries in Owerri, Imo State capital, in order to determine whether this ugly trend contributed to the quality of their training, socio-political and organizational environment.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to discover those factors associated with the performance of the secretaries in the Ministries of Commerce and Industry and , Ministries of Education 

Specifically, the study attempted to:

1.        Identify the factors that affect the performance of secretaries

2.        Determine the type of equipment and level of their adequacy for the effective performance of secretaries.

3.        Determine the difficulties encountered by secretaries in the operation of the equipments.

4.        Determine the place of secretaries in terms of their physical and social-political environment.

Significance of the Study

The main objectives of this study is to determine the factors that affect the performance of secretaries in the  Ministries of Commerce and Industry and , Ministries of Education especially in Nigeria and also make suggestions to solutions that will ensure that these factors doesn’t affect the performance of secretaries negatively, but improve the positive performance of the secretaries.

This research will be beneficial to the students of school of business and management technology in Federal Polytechnic, Nekede towards improving their performance, such that, they will not be affected in the practice of their professions. The study will also enable institutions of higher learning to engage in the training of future secretaries and administrators to enrich their course in the training of effective performance.

This study will help in identifying the factors that affect the performance of secretaries both positively and negatively in the organization, especially secretaries in Imo State Civil Service. It will also be a source of information that researcher will rely on in future. However, this research will provide additional information that researchers need, that will extends the frontier of knowledge in secretaries profession as well as education. It is expected tat if the findings from the research is applied, it will go a long way to affect the performance of secretaries positively.

Therefore, it is importance to give attention to this problem. The following are expected from the research.

·         It will provide institution, professional bodies and the civil service information on the positive and negative effect of the subject matter.

·         It will widen the researcher, knowledge on how to handle some of the factors affecting the performance of secretaries.

·         It will exposes the leaner’s and management in terms of identifying the training needs of secretaries in the area of effective performance.

·         It will also exposes the secretaries to the need for self improvement, so that they can fit in this era of information and communication technology.

Research Question

This study seeks to answerer the following questions.

1.        What factors affects performance of secretaries in Ministries of Commerce and Industry and , Ministries of Education?

2.        How does it expose the secretaries to need for self improvement in Ministries of Commerce and Industry and , Ministries of Education ?

3.        What training needs of secretaries in the area of effective performance?

4.        What problems do secretaries encounter in handling the machines or equipments in Ministries of Commerce and Industry and , Ministries of Education ?

5.        What physical and social environments affect the positions of secretaries in Ministries of Commerce and Industry and , Ministries of Education

Delimitations

The research work will lay emphasis on factors that affects the effective performance of secretaries, in Imo State Civil Service. It will also identify the areas of this effective and determine the extent to which these factors are effective.

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