| The purpose of this study was to identify what office automation competencies office support personnel (OSP) need for entry-level employment, thereby contributing to the development of a quality Office Management (OM) program at the University of Bahrain. The sample consisted of 130 managers and 130 OSP employed in Bahraini financial institutions. A questionnaire consisted of three parts: (a) Demographics; (b) Office Automation competencies; and (c) software and automated office equipment/hardware used. A total set of usable questionnaires including 122 (94%) from managers and 125 (96%) from OSP was received. The following conclusions are based on the findings of the study: (1) The two respondent groups (OSP and managers) rated the importance of competencies very similarly regardless of size or type of financial institution. Therefore, almost all the 47 competencies related to databases, general office automation, presentations/graphics, spreadsheets, Windows operating system, and word processing should be required for entry-level OSP positions. (2) Since there is no standardized software for all financial institutions, experience with a software may be more important than having used a specific package. Therefore, all of the following 11 software applications are important and should be required: accounting; calendering and scheduling; database; desktop publishing; form processing; graphics/presentation; internet; speech recognition; spreadsheets; word processing and workflow. (3) There is no standardized automated equipment for all types of financial institutions; therefore, experience with automated office equipment categories such as microcomputers, printers, records management, and electronic communication may be more important than experience with specific equipment. (4) A two-year college degree is the minimum requirement to get a job. From the findings, the following recommendations have been made: (1) Continuous research into new hardware and software should be conducted on a larger scale and in different sectors. (2) Technology curriculum should be re-evaluated on an annual basis to assure that it reflects current needs. (3) Instructors need to maintain a direct connection with business professionals to keep learning activities consistent with business needs. |
