Determinants of Secretarial Effectiveness and Performance of State Corporations in Kenya

Abstract

Secretarial effectiveness and performance of organizations has been an area if interest in academia and in the world although there has been limited studies in Africa and particularly in Kenya. In the light of advancement of computers there has been a misunderstanding around the professional role of secretaries and their contribution to the overall performance of organizations. The study examined the determinants of the effectiveness of secretaries and their influence on the performance of state parastatals in Kenya. The objectives of the study were to evaluate the role of secretarial training and experience, job specific competencies and desirable Information Technology (IT) skills on the performance of state parastatals in Kenya. The research used both quantitative and qualitative data which was collected from the research respondents. Documents from the selected parastatals were studied with the aim of generating qualitative data. Questionnaires were issued to 384 respondents who were the secretaries and office administrators in different cadres in state parastatals. Descriptive survey design was used. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists. The questionnaire was tested for reliability and established that it had a value coefficient which was larger than R>0.7 establishing its reliability. The regression results established that secretarial training had a significant and positive influence on the performance of state parastatals, Job specific qualities revealed that they were significantly increasing state parastatals performance while desirable IT skills influenced performance of state parastatals positively and significantly. The study recommended that Secretaries should be given training on communication skills to enhance their performance, secretaries required job specific skills to perform specialized duties effectively and that IT was key in enhancing the performance of secretaries. Keywords: Performance of state parastatals, Secretarial Effectiveness, Secretaries, Office Administrators

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