|
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 25, 2000—
Over 70% of secretaries believe their role is changing to include more
managerial skills, according to a survey by AMA. AMA released these results
today to over 1,700 office professionals at American Management Association’s
8th Annual Executive Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
Conference.
The study, AMA’s annual survey on "Challenges
and Dynamics for the Office Professional," polled more than 2,000
secretaries and administrative assistants and their managers. It asked
respondents to rank specified tasks according to their current and future
importance.
The survey showed that secretaries and their managers
generally agree on the specific function of today’s office professional.
The only gap between the two groups surveyed occurs on skills and competencies
that apply to managerial tasks. While most secretaries believe that they
have and perform management functions for their work group and organization,
managers continue to perceive secretaries as primarily carrying out individual
isolated tasks.
American Management Association recognizes the
changing role of administrative professionals and has developed a variety
of programs and courses tailored to preparing them for the new millennium.
In addition to the annual four-day secretaries conference, AMA conducts
a concentrated series of workshops and events during "Secretaries
Week" in its Executive Conference Centers and offers hundreds of
seminars on dozens of key topics to administrative professionals, year-round.
In addition, AMA offers a special Certificate Program for Administrative
Professionals.
"In order for an administrative assistant
to be most efficient, he or she should be able to work as independently
as possible to achieve the group objectives set by the manager,"
said Andrea Iadanza, practice leader for general management and office
support at AMA. "AMA is committed to the training needs of administrative
professionals and now offers an advanced curriculum to meet their changing
needs with courses in management skills, project management, meeting planning,
and business writing."
For a complete summary of survey results please
visit AMA’s Web site at www.amanet.org/research.
About AMA
American Management Association (AMA)
is the world’s leading membership-based management development organization.
AMA offers a full range of business education and management development
programs for individuals and organizations in Europe, the Americas, and
Asia. More than 700,000 AMA customers and members a year, including 488
out of the Fortune 500 companies, learn superior business skills and best
management practices through a variety of seminars, conferences and special
events, e-learning courses, assessments and customized learning solutions,
publications, on-line resources and through interaction with AMA’s
faculty of top practitioners.
|
