DIGITAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCY AND OFFICE MANAGER EFFECTIVENESS IN STATE OWNED TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The term office manager operationally refers to middle level administrative heads saddled with the responsibility of manning the affairs of a department or unit of an organization. Within the structure of tertiary institutions, administrative heads within this category include Heads of Departments (HODs), Deans, and Directors of Academic Units (Odu, 2019; Otamiri, et al., 2020). Office managers are saddled with the responsibility of coordinating the administrative activities of the unit under their auspices; they ensure that management decisions and other administrative information are properly communicated; and they are also expected to manage the administrative records of the unit under them. However, the inability of office managers (middle level administrative heads) to effectively pilot the administrative affairs of such units under them is one of problems bedeviling tertiary institutions in Nigeria and Rivers State in particular. Incessant cases of file misplacement, late dissemination of administrative information, poor coordination, inability of administrative heads to effectively supervise staff under them as well as resolve students’ complaints on time indicate ineffectiveness on the part of some of the office managers.