The business world has changed so
much since the heyday of secretary in the 1960s. Back then, bosses would
dictate letters and memos; there were no hand phones, personal digital
assistants, e-mail or the internet.
Shorthand and copy-typing are terms
that now sound antiquated in an era where the virtual digital office extends
beyond the four walls of the traditional panelled room.
Also the need to do more with fewer
staff is gaining momentum throughout the world and Malaysia is no exception.
Periods of protection from a
competitor’s response to product innovations are shorter today then they were
yesterday, and will be shorter still tomorrow.
Companies are already seeking to
shorten innovation cycles by organizing large sections of their workforce
around temporary projects rather than personal assignments.
These groupings are constantly
changing in composition in order to rapidly rearrange skill concentrations.
This is aggravated by the increase use of part-timers, tele-workers and
temporary workers in such groupings. Economists label such staff as
“disposable” or “throwaway” employees.
Secretaries must now move away from
the one-secretary-one-boss mentality and accept the fact that they are
increasingly being called upon to serve groups of globe-trotting bosses who are
often away in different parts of the world.
These bosses could come from
different nations, as well as have different cultural backgrounds and work
attitudes.
Secretaries may also need to be able
to handle a diversity of accents, languages and time zones,
While secretaries continue to try to
keep their offices running smoothly, many are realizing that the word
“secretary” itself conjures up the images of skilled sets that are completely
out of place with a modern office.
Job advertisements for secretaries
are getting less and this indicates that it is long overdue for the secretarial
profession to undergo a complete change to fit into the new business
environment of the globalise knowledge-driven economy.
This change cannot be in short incremental
steps; it will have to be a quick transformation. It will mean the death of
this traditional job, but from its ashes will rise a new carrier – the
professional administrator.
A New Role
The secretary cannot evolve into an
administrator- she must undergo a metamorphosis into a professional
administrator; just the way a caterpillar enters a cocoon and emerges a
butterfly.
Only then will she be able to take
on this role, created by the new economy.
There is a big difference in the
role of traditional administrator and that of a professional administrator.
Many traditional administrator actually evolved into the function, mainly
through experience, and have seen the office environment evolve from that of
standalone typewriters to one with a network of personal computers spanning the
globe.
Where the traditional administrator
just sees an arrangements of personal computers, a professional administrator
sees a technology platforms that unites a global network of workers who may be
located in all corners of the world.
And while a traditional
administrator sees a task as a standalone assignment, a professional
administrator sees the need to integrate that task as part of a process flow.
The professional administrator is
therefore a unique professional with system skills that will help unify job
processes and various work flows, to maintain the smooth running of a virtual
office.
These skills cannot be found in a
traditional administrator because she is not trained to see beyond the
physical.
Today’s new office environment have
both physical and virtual dimensions to it. An administrator who sees just one
dimension will cause the organization to operate below it’s full potential.
The Right Training
Information and office technologies
have changed the role of the administrator tremendously and professional
administrator must understand the changed paradigms that drive an organisation.
Running an office that is
knowledge-driven requires different hands-on and conceptual competencies from
that of running a traditional office organised around physical resources.
A traditional administrator’s
emphasis is to complete tasks manually; a professional administrator ensures
that task are done through systems that are set up.
The professional administrator will
need presentation, communication and relational, financial,
computer systems, and
knowledge management skills.
All these core skills are required
because she must move between disciplines and functions in the running of a
virtual office. Managing the knowledge base that drives the entire organisation
will also mandate that a professional administrator have the capability to
systemise.
These go beyond the superficial
hands-on skills that most office workers posses. To be a knowledge
worker will require the learning of those skills.
Knowledge workers are defined as: “ workers are computer literate and who are able to choose the most
suitable IT tool from a range of current available IT and technology tools, to
increase their effectiveness and to shorten traditional job processes.
The workers (must) posses the
hands-on competency to operate these tools fluently and in a collaborative and
cooperative manner. Knowledge workers are multi-disciplined and perpetually
monitor and upgrade their skills to remain relevant to the company they are
currently serving.”
This means that the core skills if a
professional administrator must be at a depth where the transformational
process changes will occur, which would result in shorter job process.
These core skills must be interwoven
into the being of a professional administrator and must operate in unity,
providing opportunities for her to join the different parts of the organisation
and the various processes into a seamless whole.
In the new economy, the joins holding
the parts together may be more important than the parts themselves. Everything
moves in breakneck speed in the new economy. It is a seamless tightly
integrated organisation that will ensure that the organisation stays intact as
it speeds towards the knowledge-driven economy.
End of an era.
The Malaysian Association of
Secretaries has acknowledged this changed role and have renamed itself the
Malaysian Association of Professional Administrator (MPSA). Including
“administrator” in its name will help to start the metamorphosis of secretaries
into professional administrators, I believe.
The association has also now swapped
Secretaries Week to World Administrative Professional Week (celebrated at the
Westin Hotel in Kuala Lumpur
on April 14 and 15). Perhaps this is the year we cut ties with the past and
usher in the professional administrator.
Call MAPSA at (03)2282-8308
Adapted
from Ushering in the professional administrator by J.Phang. Published in In
Tech 29/3/2005
