An analysis of an Office Technology curriculum at the college leve

The curriculum of college programs in Office Technology has traditionally focused on the task analysis of skills and competencies required by secretaries in the workplace. Arising largely from the management philosophies of Frederick Winslow Taylor, this production model for curriculum reflected the demands of, and to some extent shaped, the twentieth century patriarchal office place.;However, as management philosophies and the business world have changed, so must the Office Technology curriculum. The recent democratizing tendencies that have produced management teams and project work require that the office worker possess a new body of skills and competencies. Perhaps no other office position has altered as much in recent years as that of the secretary. Therefore, the question of whether the curriculum adequately prepares the secretarial student for the contemporary office place is especially germaine.;This dissertation takes a case study approach to examining the Office Technology curriculum in place at a community college in western Canada. Using a combination of document analysis, observation and interview, the study explores and compares the perceptions of students, instructors, employers and working secretaries regarding the role of the secretary. The root assumptions and tacit learnings revealed in these perceptions provide the basis for suggestions for curriculum development in Office Technology Programs.;The framework used to analyze the Office Technology curriculum is the model developed by Dodds (1983) and modified by Hopper (1993). This framework takes into account different levels of curriculum as well as the influence of instructor--and student--produced individual agendas that affected the Office Technology curriculum. Since the Office Technology curriculum is influenced by the expectations of the business world, the business agenda was added to this model.;The current study contends that the tensions amongst the instructor, student and business agendas is realized as the mechanistic curriculum-as-planned and the experiential curriculum-as-lived. Even though the curriculum-as-planned acknowledged the technical skills the Office Technology students needed to acquire, a parallel curriculum of equal importance was seen to be operating in the curriculum-as-lived. It was through this parallel curriculum that the Office Technology curriculum was updated so it was humanized and current with the requirements of the business world of the 90s.;This study recommends that the Office Technology curriculum-as-planned must be altered to reflect the demands of the modern workplace. It must emphasize cognitive skills such as analysing, evaluating, and decision-making; interpersonal skills such as conflict resolution, cooperation, and coordination; personal management skills such as self-confidence, integrity, accountability, and adaptability. The study also recommends that the Office Technology curriculum be strengthened by extending both its length and options that are open to its students. These two changes would recognize that the Office Technology program can and should be articulated with Office Management and Business Administration programs. The study further recommends that ties to the business community be augmented through implementation of cooperative education programs and professional development opportunities for college staff.