1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
Stresses encountered by secretaries in the field of their jobs in business organization are numerous to mention. Stress can be defined as the non-specific reaction of the body to the demand made on it by external or internal stimulus events called stressors. Stress as emotional process has psychological and physiological implications, Han Seyle, (2000).
ABC Transport Plc has made life miserable for some secretaries working in them for their inability to meet up with one demand or other. Many professional secretaries experience conflicts because of office demands which is consuming most of their time, thereby neglecting their home duties to the background. Conflicts occur because the person want to devote adequate attention to both family and office work, Lazarus, (2006).
The causes of this stress emanates from poor conduct of the managers who do forget that the secretary is the heart beat of an organization. Before any firm or organization attain its aim, their secretaries must be kept abreast and be involved in everything going on in the organization.
The roles and functions of the secretaries are basic to the organization, this range from covering meetings, taking care of all office routine duties, keeping schedules in both her's and her boss's desk dairies for complete and effective job performance up to date and supervising subordinates as well as keeping other general information in the office. in the organization, she is also important because of her ability to remain calm under extra-ordinary condition of work pressures and human demands.
John and Micheal (2007), opined that the work of secretaries are stressful in the sense that they the head and eye of the organization. Sometimes secretaries feel depressed and discourages because of the work fully packed for them and there is inadequate time to tackle all these jobs, even at that, the manager will shouting on them to hurry up, and as the secretary looks around and finds no help, stress arises.
As mentioned earlier, secretaries are the heart beat of any organization; therefore organizations should sit up to make life meaningful for the secretaries working in them to achieve their aim.
1.2 Statement of the problem
Stress comes as a result of overworking oneself. Over work may emanate from the manager of an organization or the secretary herself. A situation where the manager fails to recruit more workers in the organization, this will generate many stressful conditions for secretaries working in them, running helter skelter which may lead to frustration, tension and anxiety and as a result implicates her to various forms of problems.
The secretary herself causes stress in the job, as a result of her inability to schedule her time according to her engagements, that is, using her limited time to cover a lot of things.
Hence the sources of stress have been measured, it is now left for both managers and secretaries to come together and share their time according to their engagements in order to curb stress on that job.
1.3 Purpose of the study
The major purpose of this study was to find out the causes and effects of stress on the job performance of secretaries. Specifically, the study sought to:
- Discuss the concept of stress
- Find out causes of stress on the secretaries
- Identify effects of stress on job performance of the secretaries
- Ascertain problems arising from secretary's stress on the achievement of organizational goal.
- Find out measures to curb stress on the job performance of the secretary.
1.4 Significant of the study
The research was of great importance to the society, it was useful to professional secretaries. It was hoped that after some findings of this work, secretaries will be in a better position to find out causes of stress and avoid them whenever possible and control the effect on their performance. This should lead to a better job performance.
Ignorance of how to treat a secretary in order to get her best performance maybe one of the reasons the secretary is subjected to stressful condition at the place of work. It is hoped that after going through this work, the boss will be better informed as to handle a secretary to get maximum performance.
Sometimes, professional secretary trainers are hopelessly out to conduct with what is required of secretary at the place of work so that training programmes are not up to what they should be. This will help trainers to identify vital training areas on which to lay emphasis and from time to time improve on facilities to meet with modern office procedures.
1.5 Research questions
To achieve the purpose of the study, the following research questions were formulated as a guide;
- What are the concepts of stress?
- What are the secretarial functions that are most stressful?
- What are the various kinds of stress?
- What are the causes and effects of stress on the secretary's performance?
- What are the effects of stress on the secretaries?
