Abstract

The aim of this study is to find out how sociological factors affect professional secretaries in their career. The career has being considered as inferior to other professions as well as being perceived as predominantly female profession. This is as a result of their non-contributory attitude to decision making on the organization. The objective of this study is to investigate the causes of non-recognition of secretaries and their profession or career compared to other professions in our society.  

Data were collected through preparation of questions (questionnaires) which were given to secretaries in the selected organizations used as case study. About 60 secretaries across the selected organizations were respondents through which primary data is gotten. Further data was obtained from document sources such as textbooks, magazines, newspapers, seminar paper, journals, and publication from private, public professional and academic libraries.   The researcher went to the selected public organizations namely (Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as well as some members of the Nigerian Institute for Professional Secretaries), where questionnaires were distributed to the respondents which were completed and collected after 2-3 days. After collection of the questionnaire, the information obtained were analyzed.

The findings shows that there are 3 major sociological factors affecting professional secretarial career, namely; Religion, Ethnicity and Education.

More than any other factors, these 3 factors affect and destabilize secretaries, thereby threatening their professional career. This has largely lead to wrong impressions about the career. The management of both private and public organizations should however make sure that the sociological factors affecting secretarial career are well addressed, which will eventually lead to motivation at work.