Microsoft Office Competencies Required of Secretaries in Postmodern Automated Offices: A Comparative Analysis of Classroom and Actual Office Practices

Abstract

This paper investigated the professional competencies required of secretaries using Microsoft Office and compared them to the current secretarial classroom training in Akademi Sekretari Manajemen Indonesia Klabat. Specifically, the study sought to determine competencies required of secretaries when using MS-Word, MS-Excel, MS-Power Points, MS-Access, and MS-Publisher. Data were collected using survey questionnaire and interview. A comparative analysis between classroom trainings and actual office practices were analyzed using paired-sample ttests of 36 students and office professionals. The findings showed that office professionals’ ratings are higher than students’ ratings and the most important skills a professional secretary must acquire are the ability to create document using MS Word (mean= 4.5625 & 4.4376), followed by Microsoft Power-points (mean= 4.2188 & 4.1146), Microsoft Outlook (mean= 4.0833 & 4.0313), Microsoft Excel (4.1094 & 3.7110) and Microsoft Access (mean= 3.7917 & 3.4688); however, the result also found  no significant differences between classroom trainings and office practices, except for the training in MS Power Point (p=0.037), MS Excel (p=0.01), and MS Access (p=0.03).