Impact of Shorthand on Office Technology and Management Students Communication Skill a Case Study of Fpi Otm Students
CHAPTER ONE
PREAMBLE TO THE STUDY
Shorthand, sometimes called stenography, is a system of writing by sound; that is photography. The New Age Encyclopaedia (1977:455) defined shorthand as “an abbreviated system of writing that utilizes symbols or short alphabetic combinations to facilitate rapid recording of the spoken word”. It is thus the system of using signs and symbols to represent sounds. This has succeeded in promoting fast writing, labour saving and time-saving phenomena. As the adage says “time is business”. Shorthand writing facilities speed and saves a lot of time when taking down spoken words. It also makes possible a verbation record of spoken words as much the same time as the speaker speaks. The benefits of shorthand writing have enhanced its general acceptability and popularity in the world of business.
With the growing interest in efficient system of business management, he inventors of shorthand feel it necessary to develop a system that would facilitate speed writing and help to reduce the problem of communication for management. They made a close study of the phonetic structure of the English language and this formed the basis of the various shorthand system in existence.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Shorthand
Students otherwise known as administrative assistants are employed personnel responsible for performing a wide range of jobs that vary greatly in an organisation. According to Amoor and Magaji (2015), students are responsible for managing records and information, answer telephones calls, handle correspondence, schedule appointments, make travel arrangements, and sort mail in an organisation. The authors stressed that the ancient students were then more or less stereotyped as the person in the office who types, files correspondence, takes of minutes and correspondence with speed and accuracy. This therefore means that the task of students in an organisation is great, enormous and time consuming; hence the need to develop methods of taking abbreviated notes so that they could capture as much as possible of their employers’ words at reasonable time become very important. To enable the students meet up with the work challenges, sufficient speed and accuracy, the modern precursor of the shorthand was developed in 16th Century (Amoor, 2014). This explained why Sholagbade (2012) maintained that the competency of a student was then hinged on her ability to take shorthand notes as dictated by the executive and transcribed same accurately. By implication, excellent knowledge, understanding and demonstration of shorthand skills guaranteed job as professional student in an organization.
Shorthand also called stenography is one of the core subjects to all students that opted for secretarial studies in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The Pitman shorthand new course, new Era Edition (1979) defines shorthand as a way of representing every sound heard in English words with signs and symbols. Osuala (2004) highlighted that the primary objectives of shorthand is to develop in the students the ability to take dictation with sufficient speed and accuracy to produce amiable transcript. According to Amoor and Magaji (2015), the knowledge of Shorthand aids in the development of skills related to listening, focus, organization, attention to detail and accuracy. Okoro (2017) opined that the knowledge of shorthand enhances vocabulary, reading, phonetics, spelling and other language skills. It is assumed that knowledge and skills in short hand enable students to become proficient in their duties, increase their writing skills, facilitate the taking of minutes and transcription of the spoken word. Consequently, shorthand was allocated three credit units in every semester in the curriculum of students opting for office option in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The design used in this study was descriptive survey. Survey research design according to Amoor (2014) is concerned with the collection of data for the purpose of describing and interpreting existing conditions, prevailing practices, beliefs and attitudes. The design is one of the most convenient ways to obtain facts and figures needed for a study in which the results of the analyses will be used for decision- taking and generalization. The use of the survey design is based on the advice of Jubrin (2011) who stated that, when a study involves a population or a sample of respondents from whom information is obtained either verbally or through questionnaire, the ideal design method to be adopted is the survey design. This design was considered appropriate for this study because it allowed the researcher to collect data from respondents and subject it statistical analysis.
Population and Sample of the Study
The population for this study comprised of the entire 203 professional students who had Shorthand skills in public universities in Enugu, Nigeria. The population was drawn from establish office in the public universities in Enugu, Nigeria. Due to manageable size of the population, the researcher adopted Total Population Sample (TPS) for the study. Total population sample is the sample whereby the entire population will be used for the study (Crossman, 2018). Total population sampling a researcher chooses to examine the entire population that has one or more shared characteristics. The decision is based on recommendation of Glenn (2009) recommended that at Precision level of ±3%, if the sample is ≤ 1,000, Total Population Sample should be used for the study as seen in Appendix IV. Based on this submission, the entire population of 203 professional students in an automated office was used for the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
CHAPTER FIVE
FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Discussion of the Major Findings
The result of research question one and test of corresponding null hypothesis revealed that Shorthand skill is not relevant on Students report writing in modern offices operation. The result agrees with the report of Dulek and Fielden, (1999) which states that students now have many technologically advanced office gadgets to ease their jobs and enhance proficiency such as computer software programmes which helps the student to write and edit memos, letters and report, data management programs or data bases, which help the student to use long list of data and spreadsheet programs which handle tables and numbers. Hensan and Means (2009) reported that, electronic organizer or dictating machine takes down speeches through a microphone that is connected to a recorder, record speeches and then reproduces it like a photograph at a higher speed than with shorthand. Contrary to the finding, the study conducted by Sunday (2005) revealed that Shorthand is indispensable to secretarial profession, since Shorthand helps Students in developing their Written and Oral English. Ademiluyi (2014), while assessing the continued relevance of the secretarial profession in the age of office technology, viewed effective secretarial practitioner as one who is able to arrange meetings, compile minutes and reports. In their reports, they concluded that secretarial practitioners are still needed in the office for taking telephone messages, taking dictations, recording minutes of meetings and receiving information in different formats. Since the abbreviated system of writing i.e. shorthand, is used where accurate and immediately legible recording of spoken English is required as is still the case in the contemporary office, it was concluded that Shorthand would still be relevant in office management.
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