Secretaries at work

Abstract

This paper outlines some of the findings of two comparative studies of secretaries and their employers in central London in 1970 and 1981. The surveys look at secretarial recruitment, training, deployment, job content, job satisfaction, careers and the impact of technology. Lack of change over the decade in some of these aspects is discussed and the lack of motivating potential, in Hackman and Oldham's terms, in secretarial jobs is considered. Implications of the findings for the design of secretarial jobs are reviewed.