ETHICAL COMPETENCIES REQUIRED BY OFFICE TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT GRADUATES FOR EFFECTIVE PERFORMANCE IN MODERN OFFICE ORGANIZATIONS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary, ethics simply means a system of moral principles that govern or influence person’s behavior. Every culture develops ethics of its own. Ethical competencies are basically good because they conform to a particular moral standard.

According to Ike (2015), ethics can be described as a moral judgment or standard of conduct of a society or profession. It has to do with the desirable and undesirable activities of a people or professional group. Ethics provides human with a moral mind and frame work that can be used to navigate or find a way through difficult issues.

Elegido (2010), sees ethics as a means of determining how to behave in order to ensure that life is flourishing. In other words, it is a way of knowing what is worth doing and what is not worth doing irrespective of the challenges one is faced with.

According to Njoku, Ahukannah,Ohiri and Nwos(2010) ethics is expected to be an open blue ended print inculcated in professional careers in various institution of learning and then in their professional competences.

Competence on the other hand is described as the knowledge, skills and behavioral attributes necessary for acceptable job performance. Here knowledge refers to previous education and experience. Skills refer to the technical or practical skills required to perform the job. And behavioral attributes refer to personality characteristics that are key to successful job performance. Competence is also a cluster of related abilities, commitments, knowledge, and skills that enable a person or an organization to act effectively in a job. Competence indicates sufficiency of knowledge and skills that enable someone to act n a wide variety of situations; because each level of responsibility has its own requirements, competence can occur in any period in a person’s life or at any stage of his or her career.

Ethical Competence is put forward as a key distinguisher between simply having skills and expertise, and having a true sense of professionalism. It is the stage beyond technical competence where ethical competence must be considered when extending policies to support skill and competences to training and education for professional occupations.

According to Andrew (2002/2007), professional ethical competence is the ability to work at an occupation in a manner as defined by professional ethical codes of conduct. This generally involves knowing when to apply and when to forbid from applying knowledge based on ethical principles; what is “right and what is wrong” taking into account client needs as well as what is morally correct and sensitive to the situation of clients and other stakeholders. Ethical competence highlights an extra element that be added to expertise in order for an expert to qualify as a professional, it concerns manner in which expertise is exercised and qualified in order to encourage trust. The competence of any professional depends on good evaluation of ethical principles and the level at which it is monitored and practiced.

In Secretarial profession; a good and wise secretary could from the rules and regulations, where there is none, and the ethics that would inform her behavior. Secretaries are ubiquitous Office workers needed in every type of office (big or small) to assist their superiors or executives in carrying out their responsibilities. Offices or establishment can hardly function without the services of a secretary. Graduate secretaries are produced from the Polytechnics, Universities and College of education in Nigeria. A trained secretary with good moral is always recognized and highly priced. A good secretary should be able to render satisfactory services to is employer. Some definitions of the term secretary are necessary at this stage to provide an insight as to who is truly a secretary.

Secretary is a person employed by an individual or in an office to assist with correspondence, make appointments, and carry out administrative tasks.

According to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary secretary is a person who works in an office, working for another person, dealing with letters and telephone calls, typing, keeping records, and arranging meetings with people.

Work such as making appointments and sending letters, or is an official who is in charge of a government department. The secretary has direct contact with people who visit the office for one transaction or the other and their contact with the secretary can mark their relationship with the organization. Secretaries have been accepted to be the ambassadors of their organization. A secretary is the image maker of any environment they find themselves. A secretary should be highly polished public relation officer not just for her office alone. The way she answer her own personal calls, level of acceptance of change, tactfulness, politeness, cheerfulness, discretion, initiative, adaptability, honesty and good time adds to her competence. They are very important and their services are sensitive and therefore, need a high level of competence. The real graduate secretary should posses these qualities. The qualities required by the graduate secretary have been outlined by whitehead (2012), thus a secretary should posses general education, secretarial skills, business knowledge and personal qualities. In Nigeria context, wide general education will include; University degrees, Higher National Diploma, National Diploma and generally acceptable certificates in secretarial skills includes; shorthand 100-120wpm, and typing 50-60wpm, accurate spelling, information and communication technology, with the above listed qualities, one can start to imagine the type of graduate secretary being described and his contribution to organizational prospect and success. They are not therefore referring to just anyone with basic secretarial or data entry skills, sitting behind the typewriter or computer when talking about graduate secretary who carries out executives duties. These are not graduate secretaries rather they are at best typist stenographers or data entry personnel. However, because of the inferior quality of some secretaries, their unethical behaviours, and non-existence of a council that monitors their activities in Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic Unwana, they tend to misbehave. It is important to note that professional ethics helps to provide their members with guidelines for monitoring professional attitudes and conducting them in a manner which enhances the status of their discipline.

Agbebiyi (2010), Stated that there is need for moral rules or principles to govern all practitioners or prospective and practicing secretaries to aid them towards their professional competence.

Njoku, Ahukannah, Ohiri and Nwos(2010), Stated that it is necessary for every staff to find out detailed information about the rules and regulation of your institutions, so is easier for institutions to see unethical behaviours as one of the offences of dealing with workers either by outright dismissal or suspension.

Statement of the problems

Because of the insatiable love for material things crave for wealth and get rich quickly syndrome among secretaries in Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic Unwana, some of them handle their job as no man’s business and take to receiving money or tips from clients, and visitors before rendering service for which they are employed and paid salaries, some are in the habit of keeping files of clients out of reach in order to extort money from them. While some sleep in the office while on duty. The study seeks to identify the ethical competencies necessary for secretaries in Akanu Ibaim Federal Polytechnic Unwana, to practice their professions as experts.

Purpose of the study

The main aim of this study is to identify the ethical competencies required for HND Office Technology and Management graduates to perform optimally in Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic Unwana,

The Study Specifically seeks to:-

Research Questions.

Significance of the Study

The study will be beneficial to the secretaries and secretarial students in Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechinc Unwana, Administrators, and managers of various establishments towards improving their ethical behaviors.

In addition the study will help the organization or institutions to identify the negative and positive attitudes of a secretary.

Finally it will be beneficial to an organization that employs secretaries as it will provide guidelines for providing ethical organizational environment.

Scope of the Study

This study is limited to ethical competencies required by HND Office Technology and Management graduates to perform optimally in Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic Unwana, Ebonyi State.

How does ethical principle affect the secretary’s competence?
What are the competencies needed by secretarial graduates?
What are the possible causes of unethical behavior?
To what extend does an ethical competencies enhances confidence, trust, and survival of any profession.
Determine how ethical principles affect Secretarial Competencies.
Highlight the competencies needed by Secretaries to perform optimally.
Identify the possible causes of unethical behaviours.
Access the extent to which ethical competence can enhance trust, confidence and survival of any profession.

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