DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AS PREDICTORS OF SECRETARIES’ PRODUCTIVITY IN PUBLIC TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The study investigated selected digital technologies as predictors of secretaries’ productivity in public tertiary institutions in Anambra State. Two research questions guided the study and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The correlational research design was adopted for the study. The population comprised 386 secretaries in four public tertiary institutions in Anambra State. The entire population was studied because the size was manageable. Out of 386 copies of the questionnaire administered, 332 copies were returned in good condition and used for data analysis. The instruments relevant to the paper were the Digital Technologies Questionnaire (DTQ) and Secretaries Productivity Questionnaire (SPQ). The DTQ clusters on computer applications and electronic document management system contained 10 items each, while the SPQ contained 15 items. The instruments were validated by three experts. A Content Validity Index of 1.00 was obtained. Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficients of 0.86 and 0.89 were obtained for the computer applications and electronic document management system clusters respectively, while 0.87 was obtained for the SPQ. Simple regression was used to analyse the data. Findings revealed that computer applications positively predict secretaries’ productivity and account for 41.1% of its variation. Electronic document management system also positively predicts secretaries’ productivity and accounts for 46.8% of its variation. The findings further showed that computer applications and electronic document management system significantly predict secretaries’ productivity in public tertiary institutions in Anambra State. Based on these findings, the researcher concluded that the productive performance of secretaries improves when relevant office applications and electronic document management systems are available and effectively used. It was recommended that heads of secretarial units should provide functional office productivity applications and that registry departments should strengthen electronic systems for storing, retrieving, tracking and protecting official records.