As the reliance on technology continues to expand in offices, the role of the office
professional has greatly evolved. Office automation and organizational restructuring have
led secretaries and administrative assistants to assume responsibilities once reserved for
managerial and professional staff. Many secretaries and administrative assistants now provide
training and orientation for new staff, conduct research on the Internet, and operate and
troubleshoot new office technologies. In spite of these changes, however, the core
responsibilities for secretaries and administrative assistants have remained much the same:
Performing and coordinating an office’s administrative activities and storing, retrieving,
and integrating information for dissemination to staff and clients.
Secretaries and administrative assistants are responsible for a variety of administrative
and clerical duties necessary to run an organization efficiently. They serve as information
and communication managers for an office; plan and schedule meetings and appointments;
organize and maintain paper and electronic files; manage projects; conduct research; and
disseminate information by using the telephone, mail services, Web sites, and e-mail. They
also may handle travel and guest arrangements.
Secretaries and administrative assistants are aided in these tasks by a variety of office
equipment, such as fax machines, photocopiers, scanners, and videoconferencing and telephone
systems. In addition, secretaries and administrative assistants often use computers to do
tasks previously handled by managers and professionals: create spreadsheets; compose
correspondence; manage databases; and create presentations, reports, and documents using
desktop publishing software and digital graphics. They also may negotiate with vendors,
maintain and examine leased equipment, purchase supplies, manage areas such as stockrooms
or corporate libraries, and retrieve data from various sources. At the same time, managers
and professionals have assumed many tasks traditionally assigned to secretaries and
administrative assistants, such as keyboarding and answering the telephone. Because
secretaries and administrative assistants often are not responsible for dictation and
word processing, they have time to support more members of the executive staff. In a
number of organizations, secretaries and administrative assistants work in teams to work flexibly and share their expertise.
Specific job duties vary with experience and titles. Executive secretaries and
administrative assistants, for example, may perform fewer clerical tasks than do secretaries.
In addition to arranging conference calls and scheduling meetings, they may handle more complex
responsibilities such as conducting research, preparing statistical reports, training employees,
and hiring and supervising other clerical staff.
Some secretaries and administrative assistants, such as legal and medical secretaries,
perform highly specialized work requiring knowledge of technical terminology and procedures.
For instance, legal secretaries prepare correspondence and legal papers such as summonses,
complaints, motions, responses, and subpoenas under the supervision of an attorney or a paralegal.
They also may review legal journals and assist with legal research—for example, by verifying
quotes and citations in legal briefs. Medical secretaries transcribe dictation,
prepare correspondence, and assist physicians or medical scientists with reports, speeches, articles, and conference proceedings. They also record simple medical histories, arrange for patients to be hospitalized, and order supplies. Most medical secretaries need to be familiar with insurance rules, billing practices, and hospital or laboratory procedures. Other technical secretaries who assist engineers or scientists may prepare correspondence, maintain their organization’s technical library, and gather and edit materials for scientific papers.
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