OFFICE MANAGEMENT

 OFFICE MANAGEMENT

This subject office management remains as ever because of its breath and constant development. The study of office management is gradually becoming more recognized as an essential component of the executive team. The change has occurred through upsurge and complexity in office management and its vital effects in the survival of a concern and in a rigidly evolving and increasing competitive business world skillful office administrative are vital to every dynamic successful enterprises. The ever-increasing size of business organization has forced the development of new techniques in office administration as a result of the ever-changing nature of business and the growth in mechanization managing. An office has become a specialist functions, no longer can it be viewed as a sidelines by any person occupying an administrative position.

Office management can thus defined as the organization of an office in order to achieve a specific purpose and to make best use of the personnel by using the most appropriate machine a'd equipment, the best possible methods and by providing the most suitable environment.

OFFICE

OFFICE: The term office is defined by Geoffrey whitehead as a room of building where clerical processes are carried out. Ronald Wastson et'al, defined the office as the place place where information is received, sorted, field and passed on. It further, defined office as a building or part of part of a building or the purpose of which is to carry out administrative and  clerical duties of an organization.

FUNCTIONS OF AN OFFICE

1. Receiving information
2. Recording information 
3. Arranging information
4. Giving or communicating information
5. Storing of information
6. Safe guarding of assets

1. Receiving information: This could be in various ways namely: answering telephone calls in the office, receiving letters and memoranda, orders etc.

2. Recording of information: Messages received either by phone or letters and memoranda are first of all recorded in office on the relevant forms, before passing them to the appropriate person. The office records forthcoming events or visits a diary.

3. Arranging of information: Data received are arranged in the office to enable actions to be taken on it. Such information can be sent to other official or department where it can be put to the appropriate use as in accounting jobs.

4. Giving or Communicating information: information can be given or communicated in the office orally through the telephone, or written through letters, memoranda, invoice, quotations, reports, statement and advertisements.

5. Storing of information: information is to be stored when it is necessary to refer to it at a later date e.g. letters, memoranda, price list, invoices. Storing of information could be done in form of filling. Now that modern business offices use computer such information could be stored in computers.

6. Safe Guarding of Assets: This caring for the cash of the business and its stocks, when once they are purchased. The cash could be supervised to ensure its constant flow as to meet the expenses of the business office at all times. All doubtful and bad debts are watched and reported, records of contract must be safe guarded and so protected in the office.

IMPORTANCE OF THE OFFICE

The office is regarded as important because of the service that it renders to the business. These could be summarized thus:

1. The office is a store house of information. It has been seen, that every office maintains records in connection with correspondence, sales, invoices, purchase requisition, contracts.
2. The office service as an intermediary between the various sections in the business set up. It renders this service because of its key location as an information center for the organization. The office, in effect, is the medium through which the various function of business are fused together.
3. The office serves as a coordinator of the work performed in different sections of department of the organization. To emphasize on this statement, we say that stock control cannot be maintained without coordinating current records of sales volume and inventory balances as well as current production schedules which could be kept in various departments in the organization.
4. The business office acts as a public contact for the organizations. It is in the office that every contact with the public takes place. All information needed are given in the office to whom-so-ever wants it. All enquirers about the organization are made in the office by all those who have business with the organization.
5. The office if the administrative nerve center and policy planning center of the organization. The office is the focal points for information that is needed to. improve operation, reduce cost, plan future operations, and carry on various activities of the modern business organization.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE OF AN OFFICE

Office organization in itself means the allocation of duties, authority and responsibilities to individuals working as a team in an office in order to achieve the objectives of the organization. In trying to organize the office, the office manager must know about the existing organization of the office, know the faults in it that ought to be corrected:

1. Delays in treating matters
2. Lack of authority necessary to perform the duties of a particular job.
3. Lack of coordination 
4. Slow communication
5. Difficulty in reaching at information stored in the office.

GENERAL PRINCIPLE OF ORGANISATION

In attempting to organize an office the following general principles may be adopted.

• Responsible to a superior: The office manager or supervisor must make sure that every person working in the office is made to be response to one Boss. The office worker should not be made to be responsible to many Bosses or Supervisor. Attached to many officers causes confusion and likely to be receiving conflicting instructions from the various supervisors he/she working under.
• Delegating of Authority: The authority given to an office worker should be equal to his responsibilities. Absence of this will lead to frustration and less productivity.
• Span of Control: The number of subordinates under a superior should be limited so that he will be able to exercise effective supervision over them.
• Flexibility: The organization must be flexible so that if changes are experienced there could be reorganization meant to take care of the changes.
• Specialization: Workers who are specialist should be properly utilized.
• Level of management: should as mush as possible be reduced to a minimum to ensure that communication does not suffer. Channels of communication should be available strictly followed to ensure efficiency.
• Distributing of work: There should be fair distribution of work. No worker should bee over worked.
• Ability utilization: Employees abilities should be adequately utilized.

TYPES OF ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

1. Mine organization
2. Functional Organization
3. Line and Staff organization
4. Committee Organization

1. Line Organization:- This is the most common of all types of organization structure it is an organization in which authority and responsibility flows directly from the top executive to the lowest worker or subordinate. Here authority is greater at the top and admonished at the lower level.

ADVANTAGES:

• It is simple and easily understood
• Authority and responsibility are clearly defined 
• Disciple id easier to maintained 
• It is easier to make decision
• It is right to obey orders given by the Executives
• Know your duties and responsibilities; understand who you are in the organization.

DISADVANTAGES:

• Its tends to be rigid and inflexible
• It concentrates authority at the top
• Coordination could be difficult in a large organization
• The business can be hurt when the key man is death or felt ill.
• The chief Executive will be ever loaded with duties.

2. Functional Organization: In this type of organization, experts or specialist are appointed to advice or administer a certain kind of work in the organization. This type of organization makes greater use of specialization.

ADVANTAGES:

• Best use of specialist or experts
• There is an improved central control
• Good coordination is ensured.

DISADVANTAGES:

• There may be too many experts and too many bosses
• Supervisors many find it difficult to take initiative
• The worker thus becomes confused at times 
• There is overlapping of authority and lack of fixed line of responsibility.

3. Line and staff Organization: This is a combination of both line and function structure. In these types of organization the line is supported with staffs who are specialists the knowledge and advises of the specialists are considered by the management before taken a decision. The Final decision are implemented through the line organization.

ADVANTAGES 

• It encourages the line of delegation
• There is efficiency through specialization
• It allows experts knowledge to be interdepartmentally utilized.

DISADVANTAGES:

• Line supervisor may ignore the activities of the staff officers
• Since expert information reaches the workers through the line officer, such information may likely be misunderstood.
• To the worker, arrangement tends to cause confusion unless are well defined.

4. Committee Organization: Committee is a group of people who have a specific duty as sing to them. When a committee is constituted it replace the individual at any level of supervision. This type of organization is used as a modification of the line and staff type. This arrangement may be seen in hospitals and local government authorities.

ADVANTAGES:

• It helps to bring various opinion together
• Decision making is likely to be free from personal biases 
• It makes decision taking to be a joint responsibility
• It makes use of experts or specialists.

DISADVANTAGES:

• Decision are slow to implement
• It may weakens the authority of the offices
• An influence individual may dominate the committee
• Member may be unfamiliar with the practical details of problems brought before them.

ORGANIZATION CHART

Organizational chart is a graphic representation of an organizational structure. The chart can be regarded as the chart which shows the arrangement of the separate parts of the organization. It is a line of responsibility, accountability and communication in an organization. It also illustrates the relationship between jobs and individuals in the firm or company.

TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

• Vertical chart
• Horizontal chart
• Circular chart

Vertical chart: is a direct line of authority from top to bottom.

Horizontal chart: The chart is read from left to right with most senior member on the left. The information is horizontal instead of vertical.

Circular chart: The information provided is in a circular or spherical form.

ADVANTAGESI

1. It is an aid portraying the types of organization. 
2. It helps in defining the extent of the authority of the supervising staff officer
3. It shows clearly various levels of management and their relationships with one another especially when they are on the same level.
4. A newly employed worker is made to know the type of organization he is working and the part he has to play through the organization chart.
5. The faulty of management set up could be easily seen through the chart.

DISADVANTAGES

1. It is difficult to design
2. It does not show the authority or responsibility allocated to workers.
3. The organization chart is likely to make the officers at the different level to have the' feeling of unjustified superiority inferiority.
4. The chart is too rigid and therefore makes people to be conscious of the boundaries of their own areas.

CENTRALIZATION AND DISCENTRALIZATION  

Centralization: is refers to an arrangement whereby office services which are used by all departments or sections (e.g computing, filling mail handing typing, word and data processing) are organized at some central points, usually under the direction of a supervisor or manager.

ADVANTAGES:

• Staff become more specialized, skilled and efficient
• Noisy machinery is located in one place
• Specialist equipment does not need to be duplicated
• More expensive equipment can be purchased
• The workload can be spread more evenly among specially trained personnel 
• Administrative control can be more effective.

DISADVANTAGES:

• The repetitive nature of work in centralized services can be boring for staff
• There is some loss of contact between those working in specialized services and the other workers.
• Time is wasted when staffs have to leave their departments to visit centralized  service areas.

Decentralization: Is refers to a situation whereby various office services that support the organization's operations are located in each department throughout the company. A disadvantage of decentralization is that it can create a duplication of equipment and labour which can be a drain on the resources of the organization and untrained users can cause breakdowns.

FACTORS AFFECTING LOCATION OF AN OFFICE

Location of the office is an important decision that must be taken by the office manager. It must be borne in mind that environment of the office can facilitate or ruin business. The environment should permit easy flow of activities in the office if want to achieve success.

1. Proximity to facilities: The office must be near enough to the customers, transport, post office, hotels and banks.
2. Available facilities in the building to be used in the office must be considered e.g writing toilets, lighting  (natural or artificial).
3. The building to be used as an office must be free from dirt and noise. The environment should be clean and quite.
4. It must be convenient to the customers
5. Accessibility to roads.

OFFICE LAYOUT

Layout of an office is refers to the available office floor space meant to be occupied by the workers and equipment.

IMPORTANCE OF PLANNING LAYOUT OF AN OFFICE

• The easy flow of work performance is assured.
• Supervision of workers could be facilitated.
• Communication is most likely to be sped up
• It could lead to the comfort of the workers and consequent increase in production.
• Better use could be made of office equipment/machines.
• Proper utilization of available floor space.

PLANING LAYOUT OF AN OFFICE

In planning the layout of the office, the following should be borne in mind by the office manager:

• Every office worker should be allowed working space.
• Desks should be arranged in a manner that supervision of the office worker could be enhanced. Enough spaces should be provided for the gangways to make for easy movement of workers.
• Ventilation should be ensured
• There should be good lightening
• File cabinet and other equipment should be positioned where there use will not disrupt the work of others or their movement.
• Officers whose work are related should as much as possible be near one another.
• The layout should be balanced and pleasing in appearance

TYPES OF OFFICE LAYOUT

Three are two types of office layout:

• Opened office
• Close office

Open office: The office is referred to as general office in this type of office, a large open floor space is made available and used by the office staff. This means that the space is open and never partitioned. All staff working in the office easily seen and there is no privacy. 

ADVANTAGES:

• All staff are easily seen I.e. they are in view.
• Much is not spent in the decoration, cleaning other service in the office.
• In the open office workers are easily and better supervised 
• There is easy communication between staff in deferent departments.
• Equipment and machines could be scared by the different sections.
• Available space could be put into maximum use 
• The movement of workers in minimized.

DISADVANTAGES:

• The workers attention is must likely to distract by visitors and this effect the I productivity.
• No privacy for confidential discussion.
• Noise made by workers can hamper the progress of work done: 
• It encourages gossip.
• Workers can easily have infection
• Psychologically many people do not like working in an open office.

Close office: is referred to as private office. It is the opposite of the open office. It is a small room occupied by one officer and it is meanly for those who handle confidential matters holds frequency interview with people who have business to transact with the organization:

ADVANTAGES:

• It provides privacy for staff.
• Wide spread of infection diseases are reduced.
• Better security for equipment and machines
• It encourages high concentration on the part of the worker which result to high productivity.

DISADVANTAGES:

• Supervision of staff is not easy
• It is more costly to build and maintained.
• It encourages laziness and redundancy when staff is not within view of other supervisors.
• Office equipment could be duplicated.

OFFICE ENVIRONMENT

It is not enough for an office to be properly located and laid out. It is also highly necessary to ensure that good physical conditions are provided and at the same time well maintained. Where the appropriate physical conditions are lacking work performance has been very poor.

1. Office lighting
2. Noise reduction devices
3. Ventilation
4. Cleanliness
5. Decoration
6. Floor covering materials
7. Health and safety.
8. Fire precautions.

Office Lighting: it so important that work cannot be carried out effectively without it. Where the lighting is poor, it causes eye strain to the workers and consequently they produce inferior quality work.

Noise Reduction Devices: Noise can be external or internal. Noise use must understand affects the efficiency of an average office worker. When noise is deadened in the office through any device errors in clerical work are reduced the volume of work increased and its quality also improve.

There are two types of noise:

• External
• Internal

External:- Noise coming from outside the floor to avoid it the following must be taken into consideration careful citing of the office building should be far away from the main road and close to operation departments.

Internal:- This is the noise that comes from within the departments or office premises.