Modern Office Equipment and Their Contributions to the Success of a Business Organization (a Case Study of NNPC Enugu Depot)
Chapter One
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
For every act, there must be a reason and in light of this, the purposes of this study are:
- To discover what office equipment is all about.
- To identify the contributions of modern office equipment on the success of business organization.
- To examine the training needed for the operation of these office equipments.
- To identify how to maintain them in the office.
- To discover the problems associated with the use of these equipments.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
THE REVIEW METHOD
The ideologies as expressed by various opinions on modern office equipment seem to agree with each other. The review was organized and carried out in this phase:
- Definition of modern office equipment.
- Types of office equipment / machines.
- Sources of acquiring office equipment.
- Determine the training needed for operators.
- Designing of training program for operators.
- Maintenance of office equipments.
- Advantages of using modern office equipments.
- Disadvantages of using modern office equipments.
DEFINITION OF MODERN OFFICE EQUIPMENT
According to Akuchie (1999:9), “modern office equipment can be described or defined as a new system adapted or invented to improve the efficiently of the old system where by document can be easily and quickly retrieved. It also involves the various technological devices & methods in performing process without the direct interaction of human brain. Most of the secretarial functions previously performed manually are now done by machines. This has brought about the manufacture of much office equipments such as computers, word processor, electric and manual typewriters, and scanner, duplicating machines etc. these machines enables established offices to accomplish more work in few hours with greater accuracy and better quality which in turn increase the rate of productivity.
TYPES OF OFFICE EQUIPMENT
According to Akuchie (1999:10) “a modern office requires different types of office equipment to function smoothly and efficiently. Office equipments range from various types of stationary items which are used on daily basis to expensive equipments which lasts for a long period of time. They are classified as follows:-
- Stationary: even in the 21stcentury, stationary items are considered to be essential for the effective functioning of an office in the earlier days. Even in today’s office stationary item such as pens, notepads, books, glue stick, stapler pins and so forth are used in large amounts in various offices. Various types of notepads are used in meeting to note down important details and the minutes of the meeting.
- Communication device:in addition to office stationary items, various types of communication devices such as telephones, fax machines and intercoms are used in offices devices have several built-in features which enable people to work in an office ease.
- Computer: today, computers play a central role in all activities. According to Sir Henry White (Cambridge 1992) a good knowledge of computers and their mode of operation get individual prepared for the future. According to Olofine (1994:103), a computer could be defined “as any device accepting data applying a sequence of process to the data and supplying the result of these processes” computer is highly valuable in business. It performs numerous functions, it process batches of data such as invoice, and budget statement, wages for employees etc. it is very useful in financial institution, e.g. banks and oil companies.
- Hardware: some of the other essential and expensive varieties of machines used in a regular office activities are: printers, scanners and shredders, photocopy machine and also use in some offices. However, different types of printing machines are been used in the offices, these printers are often connected to the computers to produce hard copies of a documents, reports and so forth. Scanners are also considered essential as it facilities scanning of different types of essential documents. Today there are various types of high resolution scanners available in most of the online stores at affordable price rates. Paper shredder is useful equipment used in offices these days. Shredders are basically used to destroy documents which contain important information which can be manipulated by fraudsters.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study is designed to outlay the contribution of modern office equipment to the success of business organization. It is based on a sampled option of the population of the study. The population consists of NNPC workers Enugu depot based in Enugu state. This business organization has been a sample because it had equipment with both old as well as modern office equipment, and it recognizes the importance and possibilities facing the use of this modern office equipment in business organization today.
- The research method.
- Method & source of data collection.
- Treatment of data.
POPULATION
The population consists of the staff of NNPC Enugu depot, made up of 250 senior and junior management staff.
SAMPLING TECHNIQUES/ SIMPLE SIZE
The method of random sampling was used and sample size is one hundred and fifty (150) staffs.
METHOD & SOURCE DATA COLLECTION
The researcher has employed the following instrument in the collection of data. These include:
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
This part deals with the analysis and interpretations of the questions contained in the questionnaires to respondents, a total of 150 questionnaires. Table and percentages are given to YES or NO answers as the basic for analysis; I used my initiative to analyze open ended question.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
SUMMARY
This study is aimed at identifying various types of modern office equipment and their contributions to success of business organization particularly NNPC Enugu depot.
The researcher, in chapter one, talked about the increase in number of modern office equipment and how a new office worker may be expected to operate one of these equipment.
Chapter two, deals with the literature review of the project work. This described what other authors and educationists have written about the subject matter. The different types of equipments, source of acquiring them, determine the training program for the operators, maintenance, advantages and disadvantages of using them in the office.
Chapter three discussed the research methodology: the population, sampling techniques, source of data collection and tools for data analysis, research questions were sent to NNPC Enugu depot, for their workers ideas and opinions.
Chapter four deals with the presentations of data, analysis of data and discussion of findings.
Finally, chapter five deals with summary, conclusion and recommendations.
CONCLUSIONS
From the analysis of data collected, the researcher discovered that modern office equipment are very vital tools in business organizations, as most of the work carried out in office today are dependent on the use of these equipment e.g. the computer, telephone and photocopier.
Concerning the factors that worked against the use of these equipment in offices, the analysis suggest that power failure often occurs, affecting the daily activities in the office.
High cost of maintenance and purchase is another problem that faces this equipment in organization. Despite the problems enlisted, the use of this equipment such as the computers, and photocopiers make information available to workers faster and make organizations response to inquiring faster, by bringing the world of work right into the office, and ensuring accuracy and efficiency.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To remove problems and difficulties associated with the use of modern office equipment, the researcher recommends the following:
- Lack of fund for maintenance:the private firms are better funded than the government parasite such as NNPC; they should be given the opportunity to take loans from the government. They should run commercially to increase their productivity.
- Power failure:firms should be encouraged to acquire stand by generating sets. They should also acquired UPS (uninterrupted power supply) to avoid power surge that can be damaging to acquired equipment as this may load to loss of data.
- Provision of purchase machine and spare parts:organizations should purchase adequate machines and spare parts and replacement spare for break down. Firms can support companies’ that work as local representatives of the manufactures to provide spares for their equipment.
- Qualified staff:firms/organizations should Endeavour to train staff in the proper use of machines. They should try to send their workers for training in order to increase ability and knowledge.
If these recommendations are implemented, some of the impediment as to the use of this equipment will be relieved.
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The researcher faced many problems in the course of this study. First, were the problems encountered in the course of collecting the necessary data and information required for the study.
These include lack of finance for transport to the place of interest, i.e. NNPC Enugu depot, Enugu State. The unwilling of the respondents to provide very useful answer to some of the questions, there are also time constraints taken into consideration of the short period of time during which this study was able to conclude the research project despite this limitations.
SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
To obtain in-depth knowledge on all aspects of modern office equipments and their contribution to business organization, research work could be carried out in order too find out if the inventions of these equipments out rightly phase out certain profession.
REFERENCES
- Akuchie G. (1999): the effect of modern office equipment on productivity, p: 11-24.
- “Advantages & disadvantages of using equipments & machines in the office”, http://www.unesco-nigeriatve.org. Retrieved 19th November, 2013.
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- Ejiofor (1989): foundation of Business Administration, African-fep publishers’ ltd Onitsha. P: 1-294.
- Olofine C. (1994): computer technology for beginners, University press ltd, Ibadan. P: 103.
- “Problems of allocation, distribution & marketing petroleum”, http://www.doublegist.Com/problems-allocation distribution-marketing-petroleum-products. Retrieved 19th November 2013.
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