Job competencies necessary for the functioning of school secretaries as perceived by school administrators, teachers, and secretaries in an urban school district, 1985

The study attempted to determine whether school secretaries, teachers and school administrators at the high and elementary school levels agree or disagree on competencies necessary for the job performance of school secretaries. The intention was to obtain the desired competencies for use in the training of secretaries. A Secretarial Competency Questionnaire consisting of forty-one (41) items was divided into general office competencies (23 items) and interpersonal competencies (18 items). A sampling of forty-seven (47) elementary administrators, fifty-six (56) elementary teachers, sixty-four (64) elementary secretaries, twenty-five (25) high school administrators, forty-three (43) high school teachers, and fifty-two (52) high school secretaries was asked to rate the competencies on a five point Likert-type scale ranging from unnecessary to extremely necessary. An Analysis of Variance indicated that at the .05 level of significance, there was no significant difference among elementary administrators, teachers, and secretaries regarding their perceptions of general office and interpersonal competencies. However, at the high school level there were significant differences among personnel regarding their perceptions on nineteen (19) of the twenty-three (23) general office competencies and on fourteen (14) of the eighteen (18) interpersonal competencies. Dependability on the part of school secretaries was the highest rated general office competency with the ability to use the dictaphone as the lowest rated general office competency. The ability to operate office equipment and the ability to file correctly were not as important to administrators, teachers, and secretaries as was the need for secretaries to get to work on time and to take and relay messages in an accurate manner. The highest rated interpersonal competencies were effective telephone etiquette and effective reception of visitors. These competencies were rated higher than 'must love work' and 'be willing to render services beyond the call of duty.' Personal and telephone communications were considered much more desirable inter�personal competencies than being overly dedicated to the job assignment. It is recommended that secretarial training institutions take into consideration the perceptions of school administrators, teachers and secretaries regarding the necessary competencies for school secretaries