A WIDE-ANGLE VISION OF THE PROFESSION

EUROPE/USA/BRAZIL

First of all I want to thank my colleagues in Europe who received me so well during the 27th European Annual Conference in Helsink, and especially those who sent me comments about their secretarial jobs in their countries:

SLOVENIA
Marjeta Peternel

FINLAND
Anja Ojaharju and Eskola Satu

ENGLAND
(Sarah Pugh who brought me newspapers from London)

FRANCE
Gabriela Coly

GERMANY
Christine Schmidhuber( a special thanks for the data you sent me)

This a summary of these comments and also the results of the workshop I had with braziilian secretaries just after I came back from Finland , when we compared the secretarial characteristics around the world. The conclusion was that we have very similar characteristics and some smalll differences:

  1. EUROPEAN CHARACTERISTICS

Based on the comments I received and some articles in the magazine ProActive:

  • Importance of networking

  • Merges & Acquisitions

  • Investment in the career (Companies invest in training)

  • Linguistics Skills

  • Professional Vision

  • Academic Education: Technical Degree or University degree in majors as: Economics/Administration

  • Emphasis on professional knowledge

  • Various salary levels : according to the region/country

  • Still facing some "male chauvinistm"

  • Profession not recognixzed as it should be

  • Technology skills required

  • Motivation and Initiative required

  • Teamworking skills required

From Christine Schmidhuber I also received this comparative chart about the tasks of the professional secretary:

Tasks

TODAY

BEFORE 2001

  • Time management, keeping diaries, making appointments and arrangements"

82%

82%

  • Telephoning

80%

87%

  • Organising meetings, conferences, travel

77%

77%

  • Business correspondence

75%

80%

  • Serving guest and custome

64%

81%

  • Working with spreadsheets and graphics

64%

34%

  • Handling Mail

63%

70%

  • Mediating between superior (boss) and fellow workers

60%

45%

  • Copying

54%

72%

  • Organising the work environment, storing and recording documents, archiving, managing files etc.

54%

65%

  • Giving general information

50%

49%

  • Surveying and managing information

45%

45%,

  • Data management

44%

27%

  • Organising office equipment

40%

48%

  • Project assistance and –management

40%

10%,

  • Assisting in controlling

38%

14%

  • Filling in forms

35%

39%

  • Assisting in human resource

33%

16 %

  • Taking minutes

23%

60%

Source : Christoph Veige - Board member of the Bundesverband Sekretariat und Buromanagement - bSb Chairman of the bSb Examination Committee-Stuttgart-December 29, 2000

 

B. USA

Source : OfficeTeam* Research - " Office of the Future 2000™"

In the USA, the organizations are looking for office professionals with the following characteristics:

* Multifunctional

* Technological skills ( Microsoft Office, database proficiency)

* Internet research abilities

* Communication and negotiation skills

* Lingüistic skills

* Interpersonal skills

* Teamworking skills

* Productivity ( "Work smarter, not harder")

These were the results of OfficeTeam™ survey with 1,000 executives (cited in Fortune magazine) who were asked about the most important skills for the office professionals in the "Office of the Future™ ( www.officeteam.com)

C. BRAZIL

Brazilian professionals are used to working in unstable and kind of chaotic political and economic environment, and as a consequence, brazilians are flexible and quite capable of facing changes"( David Cohen - Exame magazine)

Some characteristics of the professional secretaries:

* Flexibility and adaptation skills

* Cordial interpersonal relations: ability of creating rapport; a favorable
psychological environment in the office

* Creativity

* Ability of accepting ambigüity and individual differences.

* Exocentrism : "looking out of the window" = need to get information about
others/ rather than "looking inside "

* Lingüistic skills: English as a second language and Spanish.

* Enthusiasm

* Profession not recognized as it should be

* Still facing some "male chauvinism"

 

Patrícia Bretas
International Affairs Coordinator
FENASSEC - BRAZIL
Email: patricia@pratica.com.br

 

 

fenassec@fenassec.com.br

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