Attitude Of Secretaries Towards The Use Of Modern Office Machines

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
A lot of people’s imagination about the concept of electronic office and media has given the topic a wide coverage in both civil service and business circles. Major changes n the office work have been affected by technological innovations, right from the days of industrial revolution from the idea of an automatic electronics and paperless office is still currently challenging many of the traditionally accepted practices of office work.
Today, we live in computerized or technological era and there are a lot of changes in the equipment used in the modern office and this brought about the belief by some people that these modern office machines such as telex machines, electronic typewriters etc. serve as a threat to secretarial profession and may tend to erase completely the secretary from the business and civil service industries.
With this assertion, we want to find out what actually is the attitude and reactions of secretaries towards the use of these modern office machines, if they have negative attitude towards the use of these modern office machines, then it is obvious that the work in the office will not be perfectly and efficiently done and the companies or government parastatals will suffer because of the inability of the secretary to handle these modern machines, where they have positive attitude towards the use of these modern office machines, it will yield good results to the companies and parastatals. This will then show that the secretaries will gain a lot from the use of these modern machines and that these machines are mere robots and can only do work when being operated by the secretary.
This project also proposes to uncover the fact that the use of modern office machines is indispensable to secretary and that this does not pose a threat to the secretarial profession and that despite the use of such machines the secretary will still be in demand in an organization. At attempt is also made in this work to establish the fact that these machines serve as an aid to the secretary and as well exist to help her achieve her approved services and better performance on the job.
An evidence is presented in this project to support the fact that the elimination of the secretary completely form the industry may not be possible in the near future. Such human resources are still the major factors in improving a satisfactory secretarial services and machines cannot perform duties like taking down minutes at a meeting, use of initiative to tackle problems in the office work etc.
Data collection is being carried out by distributing questionnaire to both male and female secretaries in some selected commercial banks in Enugu urban and some of the executives of these banks are interviewed to find out actually their views about the attitude of the secretaries towards the use of modern office machines.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:
Nowadays, the jobs which are done by human beings have been taken over by computers and this is as a result of technological development. Some people also believe that modern office machines which came as a result of technology have displaced the secretary from her work.
The problem now is – what is the attitude of the secretaries towards the use of modern office machines? Has these machines been favourable or unfavourable to the secretary? These questions are important because the attitude of secretaries to modern office machines could affect their job performance and subsequently industrial and national growth and development of our country Nigeria.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY:
The major purpose of this study is to find out the attitude of secretaries towards the use of modern office machines. Specifically, the study seeks to:
1. Find out the effects of these modern office machines on the productivity of the secretary.
2. Examine the attitude of secretaries towards the use of these modern office machines.
3. Examine whether secretaries are employed towards the use of modern office machines.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY:
This study will be useful in the following areas:
1. It will promote better understanding of the problems that hinges on the use of modern office machines.
2. It will help in bringing out properly the line of action that will facilitate solving the identified problems.
3. It will serve as a useful price growth for the development of secretarial studies in IMT, Enugu and the public at large.
4. It will also serve as a resource material for the department/school library.
The student will benefit from the study because after knowing everything concerning the modern office machine and the attitudes of the secretaries towards them, he/she will be able to take corrections where necessary and get herself prepared for future work on the office modern machines.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
1. What are the effects of the modern office machines on the productivity of the secretary?
2. What are the attitudes of secretarial towards the use of modern office machines?
3. To what extent are secretaries employed towards the use of modern office machines?

SCOPE OF THE STUDY:
This research work covers four banks that employed qualified secretaries and the top executives from these banks in Enugu urban.