SECRETARIAL SKILLS AND SECRETARIAL JOB EFFECTIVENESS IN PRIVATE ORGANIZATIONS IN OGUN STATE

Abstract

The paper examined the possession of secretarial skills and secretaries’ job effectiveness in private organizations in Ogun State. It was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. A correlation research design was used. The population comprised secretaries of selected private organizations in Ogun State. Using multi-stage sampling technique, a sample of 250 secretaries was selected across registered private organizations in the State. Two researcher-developed instruments; tagged: ‘Secretarial Skills Questionnaire (SSQ), and Secretaries Job Effectiveness Questionnaire (SJEQ) were used for data collection with 0.81 and 0.79 as reliability coefficients. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation were used for analysing research question 1. Research questions 2 was analysed using regression analysis. Hypotheses 1 and 2 were tested using t-test and PPMC respectively. The findings of the study revealed that communication skills, analytical/research skills, flexibility/adaptability/managing multiple priorities skills among others were among the indicators of secretaries’ job effectiveness in private organizations in Ogun State. The secretarial skill) was found to be significant and strongly predict job effectiveness of secretaries (β = .806, t = 21.409, P<.05). There was significant difference in the mean ratings of respondents on the indicators of secretaries’ job effectiveness in private organizations P = 0.04 < 0.05. There was significant relationship between secretarial skills and secretaries’ job effectiveness (r = 0.678, p>.05).  The study concluded that secretaries with requisite secretarial skills demonstrate higher job effectiveness and performance, which directly influences organizational outcomes.There should be periodic workshop and seminar training for secretaries to improve their secretarial skills.

Keywords: Secretarial Skills, Secretaries’ Job Effectiveness, Private Organization