Office Skill Competencies and Job Performance of Office Administrators in Tertiary Institutions in Rivers State
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are;
- To ascertain the relationship between office skill competencies and office administrators’ job performance in tertiary institutions in Rivers state
- To ascertain the prospect of office skill competencies in office management
- To identify present and future job titles of administrative professionals in tertiary institution
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Competency
The term competency was probably first introduced to psychology literature in 1973 when David McClelland argued in his article ‘Testing for competence rather than for intelligence’ that traditional tests of academic aptitude and knowledge content in fact predicted neither job performance nor success in life. Thus, the quest for theory and tools that could reliably predict effectiveness in the workplace began (McClelland, 1973). In 1982 it was Boyatzis who first drew together comprehensive data that had been collected in the USA using the McBer & Company ‘Job Competence Assessment’ method. Since then, competency has become a significant factor in HR development practices (Simpson, 2002). The word competency comes from a Latin word meaning “suitable” (Bueno & Tubbs, 2004). Boyatzis (1982) defines a competency as “an underlying characteristic of a person which results in effective and/or superior performance in a job” (p. 97). According to Boyatzis (1982) a job competency represents ability. An individual’s set of competencies reflect their capability or what they can do. A job competency may be a motive, trait, skill, aspect of one’s self-image or social role, or a body of knowledge that an individual uses, and the existence and possession of these characteristics may or may not be known to the individual. Similarly, Mitrani et al. (1992) state that competencies could be motives, traits, self-concepts, attitudes or values, content knowledge, or cognitive or behavioral skills. A competency is an individual characteristic that can be measured or counted reliably and that can be shown to differentiate significantly between superior and average performers, or between effective and ineffective performers. Meanwhile, competency can be described as a set of behavior patterns that an incumbent needs to bring to a position in order to perform its tasks and functions in the delivery of desired results or outcomes (Bartram, et. al, 2002; Woodruffe, 1992). Spencer and Spencer (1993) viewed competency as “an underlying characteristic of an individual that is causally related to criterion-referenced effective and/or superior performance in a job or situation” (p. 9). They identified five types of competency characteristics consisting of motives, traits, self-concept, knowledge and skills. First, motives are the things that an individual consistently thinks about or wants that stimulate action. Motives drive, direct and select behavior toward certain actions or goals and away from others. Second, traits are physical characteristics and consistent responses to situations or information. Third, self-concept is an individual’s attitudes, values or self-image. Fourth, knowledge is the information that an individual has in specific content areas. Finally, skill is the ability to perform a certain physical or mental task. Knowledge and skill competencies tend to be visible and relatively surface characteristics, whereas self-concept, traits and motive competencies are more hidden, deeper and central to personality. Surface knowledge and skill competencies are relatively easy to develop and training is the most cost-effective way to secure those employee abilities (Spencer & Spencer, 1993). In other words, visible competencies such as knowledge and skills may be somewhat technical competencies basically required by the job, whereas hidden competencies such as self-concept, traits and motives are behavioral competencies that drive an individual’s performance in the job.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study Office skill competencies and office administrators job performance in tertiary institutions in rivers state
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information Office skill competencies and office administrators job performance in tertiary institutions in rivers state. 200 staff of selected tertiary institution in Rivers state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain Office skill competencies and office administrators job performance in tertiary institutions in rivers state
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of Office skill competencies and office administrators job performance in tertiary institutions in rivers state
Summary
This study was on Office skill competencies and office administrators job performance in tertiary institutions in rivers stat. Three objectives were raised which included: To ascertain the relationship between office skill competencies and office administrators job performance in tertiary institutions in Rivers state, to ascertain the prospect of office skill competencies in office management, to identify present and future job titles of administrative professionals in tertiary institution. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staff of selected tertiary institutions in Rivers state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made up secretaries, HODs, lecturers and junior staff was used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
The competency model and implications derived from the findings of this study should be valuable to the tertiary institutions or others concerned in developing the competence of job incumbents and maximizing competent performance in an organization. In order to obtain effective performance at this position level, the institution needs to have job incumbents well equipped with these competencies. The office activities is centered on communication of one form or the other either orally or written. A communicatively competent person knows what to say and how to do it in order to optimize the conditions of a dialogue. To this end there is the requirement of communicative competence, emphasizing the abilities to adapt messages appropriately to the interaction context, identify preferred communication channels for example telephone hotlines, radio announcements, news conferences, and faxes to communicate with the organization publics. Ability to relate information appropriately to receivers, choose the right media for sending information, word information appropriately, address callers with appropriate politeness, display good listening skills on the job, interpret messages correctly.
Recommendation
The ministry of Education may use the findings of this research to organize seminars, conferences and workshops for retaining of teachers in office education field.
Facilities provided in the various institutions should also embrace the present state of information technology such that the transition from school to work place by the graduates will be easy. This supports one of the theories of vocational education that effective training will take place only where the training jobs are carried out in the same way, with the same operations, the same tools and the same machines as in the occupation itself
REFERENCES
- Abiola M.K.O. (1992) Management: People, performance and Results. Journal of Nigerian Institute of Management. 28 (2)
- Achilike, A.N. (2004) Challenges of reforms in information and communication technology. The secretarial verbal communication competencies perspectives. A Paper presented at the Annual Conference of NABE Calabar.
- Adeniran A.O. (1996) The Secretary as an organization Image Maker. Technical Education Today. Kaduna: National Board for Technical Education.
- Agbamu T.P. (2007) ICT competencies required by employers of NCE business education graduates. An Unpublished M.Sc Thesis Awka: Nnamdi Azikwe University.
- Aghenta J.A. (1989) Education Today. Lagos: A Journal of Ministry of education. 2(3)
- Aghenta J.A. (1982) Training as a factor of Job performance. The casa of vocational School leavers in Nigeria, “ A Journal of the Nigeria Careers Council Ibadan (6) 2,26.
- Agomuo E.E and Isu C.O. (2002) Secretarial Job-Tasks Required in Modern Business Offices in Abia State: Implication for improved Secretarial Education. Business Education Journal Vol 111 No 5.
- Agomuo E.E. (1997) in Agomuo, E.E and Isu, C.O. (2002) Secretarial Job Tasksrequired in Modern Business Offices in Abia State: Implications for improved Secretarial Education. Business Education Journal III (5)
- Akume B.C. (2006) Towards Enhancing the Managerial Competencies of NCE Business Education Graduate Entrepreneurs. Business Education Journal Vol. V (2) pp82-89
- Bartram, D. (2004). Assessment in Organizations. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 53(2), p. 237-259.
- Bartram, D., Robertson, I. T., & Callinan, M. (2002). Introduction: A Framework for Examining Organizational Effectiveness. In I.T. Robertson, M. Callinan, & D. Bartram (Eds.), Organizational Effectiveness: The Role of Psychology (p. 1-12).
