CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
A major problem encountered by the management is to know what will motivate office professionals and its implementation. The question why people work is a controversial one because of the increasing complexity of industrialization in the society.
William (1984) opines that motivating staff does not end or stop at mere giving out of rewards and incentives but to be effective and consistence in maintaining the rewards system. Although, it has been the practice of most organizations to ensure that rewards provided are ones which are highly demanded and utilized, since the behavior and attitude put into production depending largely on the kind of rewards and incentives existing in the organization.
Porter and Lawler (1984) state that the first step in building effective reward practice is for the organization to ensure that rewards provided are ones which are widely desire by the office professionals on the day-to-day operation. This suggests that the reward and employer considers highly positive for certain office professionals may not be regarded by another set of office professionals in the same organization.
Eugene
(2007) postulates that the first step towards achieving and maintaining the morale of the workforce lies in understanding the differencing factors which motivated individuals within a team. (i.e. some factors regarded as inspirational force to one team- member, may attempt to another team-member). This mean that there are many or numerous ways of determining factors that can highly motivate and influence the morale of office professionals but the most successful way is simply ask them what their desires are.
Mullins (1989) postulates that office professionals are experts of their own. The formal organization is now constantly changing with interested members and the individuals are central features of the organizational behaviors, and a necessary part of any behavioral situation, whether acting in isolation or as a part of a group, in response to expectation of the organization.
Productivity is the amount of output per unit of input (labor, equipment and capital). There are many different ways of measuring productivity. For example, in a factory productivity might be measured based on the number of hours it takes to produce a good, while in the service sector, productivity might be measured based on the revenue generated by an employee divided by his/her salary.
Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input. Productivity is a measure of output from a production process, per unit of input (Onasanya 1990).
Productivity is a process of combining various material inputs and immaterial inputs (plans, know-how) in order to make something for consumption (the output). The methods of combining the inputs of production in the process of making output are called technology. Technology can be depicted mathematically by the production function which describes the relation between input and output. The production function can be used as a measure of relative performance when comparing technologies.
Office professional is an occupation or vacation carrier where specialized knowledge of a subjects, field or science is applied. Office professional is a member of vacation founded upon specialized educational training. The term is used more generally to denote a white collar workers or a person who performs commercially in a field typically reserved for amateurs.
Office professional may also refer to a person having impression competence in a particular activity.
The secretary has extremely vast and varied significance. He/she plays or functions as an office manager and combines his/her varied skills, good human relation, supervisory competence, creative and initiative to ensure a more productive and perfect organization of work-force in the office.
Onasanya (1990) states that, a secretary carryout the functions of communication in an organization. That is to say, the process by which information is disseminated between individuals, personnel in an organization is entirely necessitated by the secretary in that organization. A very efficient secretary is conscious of the importance of conveying the desired message in effective and appropriate manner, which in a way facilitates organizational productivity.
Hornby (1995) opines that, Human Relation is one of the core functions of a secretary in an organization. It is the wholesome responsibility of a secretary to tactfully and wisely exhibit the role of Human Relations in order to create hard work.
Melvin (1990) said that as occasion demands, the secretary may be required to stand in for the executive when the Executive is indisposed and perform or carryout a general supervision in an organization.
A trader has little of no need at all for effective management of correspondences. However, as business expands, the need for paper work arises. Letters would have to be written and received, stored, processed and disseminated to the appropriate quarters for consumption. These documents may be needed for future references, which could only be formed or retrieved if they are properly kept.
Nwosu (1997) defines storage of filling as the process of sorting documents or correspondences into appropriate headings, which enables easy location. This practice is good so long as it does not allow dust and insect to destroy or muddle up the documents. But advances filing tools for long-lasting preservation of documents has been carried out for effective and efficiency secretarial work or function. This implies that organization is enriched with more information both the past and present via this function, performed by secretary.
It is also worthy of note that, secretarial functions have significantly enhanced the organizational administration operation. Whitehead (2001) states that, a secretary today the power behind the “throne” in many Executive situations. That is to say, behind every successful administration, a first class secretary acts as effective administration nerve.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Experiment has shown that most techniques adopted or deplorable by the employers is void of appeal to encourage and influence the morale of the office professionals, and by extension could hamper the best of the office professionals working ability and productivity. This is because employers of labour have not taken into cognizance of those factors that boost efficiency and effective performance which ordinarily could yield high productivity in organization.
More so, it is obvious that there is negative impression such as fear of reward system, which affects grossly the morale of the office professionals in achieving organizational goals. Some employers do not see the need of improving the staff welfare or give a better remunerations and incentives to them, and thereby has demoralize the morale of the workforce in the organization and has in turn reduced productivity of the office professionals.
In addition, some employers of labor erroneously believe that by showing, swearing and treating office professionals with termination of their contract or employment would propel them to perform their duties. Whereas, this factor could yield “good” results in a short-term and in the long run, the office professionals will likely contemplate on either to keeping the job or quitting.
Furthermore, the management in most cases are careless about what their workers feel productive or unproductive at work, and these have resulted to lateness, absenteeism, truancy, theft etc. all these are factors that have culminated to poor exhibition of attitudes toward work or performance.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The general objective of the study is to identify the effect of morale on an office professionals productivity in an organization, while the specific objective are as follows:
1. To find out the effects of leadership style on the morale of office professionals.
2. To identify the techniques used for boosting the morale of office professionals and their productivity in an organization.
3. To find out the impact of good environment on office professionals morale and productivity in an organization.
4. To investigate the ways in which effective communication of office professionals morale and productivity.
1.4 Research Questions
The following research questions have been formatted in order to help find out solutions to the problems under study.
1. What are the effects of different leadership styles on the productivity of office professionals?
2. What are the techniques used to boost office professional morale and productivity in an organization?
3. What impact does work environment have on office professional morale and productivity in an organization?
4. In what ways does effective communication influence workers morale and productivity in an organization?
1.5 Significance of the Study
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