THE IMPACT OF AUTOMATION ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SECRETARIES
ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to examine the impact of automation on the performance of secretaries using West African Examination Council (WAEC) Enugu State as case study. The survey design was adopted and the simple random sampling techniques were employed in this study. The population size comprise of secretaries and administrative staff in West African Examination Council (WAEC) Enugu State. In determining the sample size, the researcher conveniently selected 35 respondents and all were validated. Self-constructed and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected and validated questionnaires were analyzed using frequency tables, while the hypothesis were tested using Chi-square statistical tool, SPSS v23. The result of the findings reveals that; the use of automated office equipment aids secretaries to effectively manage their job role in the organization. The study also revealed that office automation increases the productivity of secretaries in the organization. The findings further show that the use of automated equipment influences secretaries in-job effectiveness and efficiency. Therefore it is recommended that the organization should organize in-service training for the secretaries to teach them newly automated machines. Institutions of higher learning should also train the would-be secretaries, practically-oriented courses using the modern office technologies. Also, employers of labour should engage secretaries that are vast with ICT competencies and skills in order to achieve administrative effectiveness in the organisation.