The Vice chancellor, Prof. Anthony Akinlo represented by the Deputy vice- chancellor, Prof. Adebola Adebileje has charged the secretaries to embrace the ethos and tenets of secretarial administration for good performance during the recently held one-day workshop themed, ‘Professionalism in Secretarial Administration.’ He stated that the secretaries’ roles are seen as strategic. He however commented the Registrar for convening such programmes and welcomed the newly recruited secretaries.
The Registrar, Mr. Olukayode Akindele while giving his opening remarks, mentioned that those in house training are with no less value and he hoped that the attendees will unlearn, learn, and relearn. As one of the facilitators at the training, he spoke on the “The Roles of Secretaries/ Personal Assistant in the Sustainable Development of the University”. He enjoined them to value and magnify themselves not allowing anyone to look down on them; He also stated that the summary of a secretary’s job is to manage people, information and things; and to make a difference wherever they are or find themselves.
In addition, the Deputy Registrar, Human Resources, Mrs. M.O Oje spoke on “Work Ethics, Attitudinal Change and Personal Effectiveness”. She mentioned that work ethics is simply the values, principles, attitudes, standards, behaviors and beliefs in a work place. She also explained the code of conduct/ ethical standards and the key words contained in her speech. She encouraged the senior confidential secretaries to pray for the courage to change the things they can and the wisdom to know the difference as put forward by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971); and the newly recruited secretaries to put in their best and recognise the responsibility to make things happen in the university having the mindset of “I can”.
Dr. O. Oyinloye spoke on “The Roles of Secretaries in Building Strong Relationships among Bosses, Colleagues and Subordinates in the University System”. He discussed extensively using several models where he pointed out that individuals can be understood by what they have or lack. He further stated that in building strong boss-subordinate relationship, people must learn to discover the law of the situation and to accept the orders given by the situation.
“Professionalism and Rigors of Secretarial Services to the Superiors” was discussed by Mrs O.P. Raji and Mr. R.A. Adebayo. Mrs O.P. Raji admonished the attendees to understand their bosses as much as possible, win their bosses’ confidence and be loyal to their bosses. She also mentioned that they should manage themselves, their offices and information. Mr. R.A. Adebayo added that they should manage time, multitask and correspondence. He concluded with, “You have chosen your profession, own up to it”.
In conclusion, representing Dr. (Mrs) O.O. Olaniyan, Dr. T. Olowookere addressed the topic, “Electronic Information Management for Effective Performance”. He stated that secretaries are information managers and as such make use of software tools to secure information. He admonished them to align themselves with current information system.