The office administrator is a crucial person for the office, and he/she is the supporting system for the office. An effective office administrator can lead to various successful stories for an organization. There are some special foundations and associations for office administrators. Sometimes, successful administrators seek tips and help to become effective administrators. There are proven records that the office administrator role has led to manager roles, considering their effectiveness and successful stories.
The office administration is the organization’s backbone, whether public or private. The office administration has many activities, from mundane typing and filing to upper-level management. An office administrator is a person who needs a broad range of skills and abilities to handle tasks and manage the office and projects effectively. There is a considerable demand for office administrators in various sectors such as IT, healthcare, education, etc.
Overview of Office Administration
Office administration is a day-to-day activity related to organizing, planning, controlling, and decision-making. An organization needs to have good administration, as it will make the organization more efficient and impact the performance of the employees. Office administration normally is the main foundation of the organization’s overall operations. Office administration depends on the size of the organization. One or two administrators will be enough for a small company to monitor the overall operations. However, a more prominent company will need a group of office administrators to take over each specific office administration area. Office administration is very crucial for the growth of an organization because it is the central core of an organization. It helps an organization to achieve better performance and achievements. The typical mission of an office administrator is to ensure that the organization runs smoothly. To achieve their mission, they perform various tasks and display different skills that are very important to the organization. Office administrators must plan, organize, lead, and control the activities to ensure everything is in order. They also have to control all the resources given to ensure all the activity is completed within the time frame and with minimal resources. Besides that, office administrators also need to be able to make decisions because sometimes they need to decide something for the good of that particular situation. These tasks are very familiar with a manager’s job, so in a small organization, an office administrator might need to take on a role or display managerial skills to ensure effectiveness in carrying out their tasks.
Importance of Office Administration for Managers
“Office Administration” refers to the activities that create, maintain, and support an environment of accomplishment for carrying out the work of an organization. The administration in any organization deals with the intricacies of tasks and men to arrange an integrated behavior of work. In the present competitive environment, satisfying customers by continually improving products and services is very important. It is the product quality through which an organization can survive. Moreover, quality comes from good work, which is an outcome of efficient management. To produce a quality product, an organization must perform its various activities in a coordinated manner to provide its best customer service. This requires a good deal of systematic work and the ability to foresee the requirement of resources to carry out a specific job. Since every work requires planning, coordination, and control of resources, it calls for effective management. Management is the regulation of group activities or, in other words, the act of getting things done through others. When management in an organization is sound enough, there is less likely an occasion to call for the manager to direct an individual who already knows what to do and how to do it. This is because the requirements have already been known to that worker, and the work is already familiar to him due to previous work planned for that job. This indicates that an administrator’s job is to plan every work to facilitate its people to perform best in their related areas. However, from the beginning of planning, a manager must foresee the requirements of resources and time-to-time changes in the plan, and here, administration comes into play. An efficient administration can progress a plan closer to its objectives by organizing and utilizing resources properly and providing an appropriate atmosphere for its workers to deliver their best. Given this situation, an administrator is expected to have an understanding of his administration. However, it is unfortunate. Generally, there is less study on administration and its activities. A person may have a sound knowledge of medical science, engineering, IT, etc., but administration is not learned at school. He learns it through the experience in life and the feedback from trial and error in his jobs. Administration is the backbone of management, and for a manager to perform an administrative activity, an understanding of the process and the firm or the organization is required. This will create a demand for education in office administration and respective managers.
Role of Managers in Office Administration
Managers often work closely with administrative staff to solve problems and make decisions when the company faces changes or problems. Because the manager has to understand the situation in which a decision is required, it may be necessary for the administrator to provide background information that is best accessed through well-organized systems. This assists the decision-making process in identifying alternatives and selecting the best course of action. A study showed that one aspect of decision-making, particularly addressing a data-rich problem, is akin to top management working with a computer to access and process the information (Reference). This is similar to the administrator providing information to the manager, who should ultimately decide. This association is significant because decision-making is a highly accountable activity, and the ability to retrieve the methodology and information is crucial in convincing stakeholders of the decision’s validity. This study, which was done on a decision support system involving a manager and his intelligent agent, found that the manager always preferred access to the agent because it was the easiest method to ensure the information was available when required (Reference). This is similar to the close association of managers and administrative staff to ensure information availability.
Managers form the company’s top management and often determine the organization’s effectiveness in the way they conduct and work in their respective departments. Therefore, their support and understanding of office administration are crucial for its success. Staff look up to the manager for guidance and resources for administrative tasks. They often determine the priority of tasks that are important to the effective running of the unit. If they believe in the importance of administrative tasks, they are more likely to allocate resources to ensure satisfactory completion.
Many researchers have found that companies operated by managers who have detailed knowledge about office administration tend to run more efficiently (Reference). Therefore, this section aims to help managers recognize the key areas where their involvement can benefit the successful implementation of administrative services in their organizations.