Research

Administrative professionals in New Zealand: their professional development opportunities and career pathways.

Master's Thesis - Eth Lloyd M.Ed., P.G.Dip Ed, DipBusAdmin, AAPNZ Fellow, Cert. (eth.lloyd@paradise.net.nz)

This thesis is the first academic research to be conducted solely in New Zealand into administrative professionals. It looks at the perceptions of administrative professionals of their professional development opportunities and career pathways.

In 1995 a survey focussing on the changing roles for secretarial staff was conducted in Australia by Heather Maguire. This survey used members of the respective administrative professional associations in Australia and New Zealand; Australian Institute of Office Professionals (AIOP) and the then New Zealand Society of Executive Secretaries, now the Association of Administrative Professionals New Zealand Inc (AAPNZ). The results of this research were presented at a conference in Australia in 1996, in a paper titled; "Just a Sec! A comparative study of the changing role of secretarial staff in Australia and New Zealand".

It is interesting to note that internationally there has been little research of the administrative profession. In fact in a six year search I retrieved only about 10 academic papers. There has been some research undertaken over the last five years, but it has been based primarily in Australia, United States and the United Kingdom. These papers have real interest and are worthy of reading. However they do not specifically apply to New Zealand and focus on secretaries, not the wider generic role of the administrative professional. In Australia in 2008, a PhD thesis titled "Women, work and learning" by Dr Jillian Cavanagh was completed, researching 'auxiliary workers' (administrative professionals) within legal offices in Queensland.

In 2003 I presented a paper at the 5th International Secretarial Summit in London titled "Value ourselves so others value us". Writing this paper and at the same time developing AAPNZ's Certification process as National President, contributed to my realisation that there was little research into administrative professionals who are a valuable part of the workforce and economy. This prompted me starting my research and to a presentation on the initial results in 2009, at the 7th International Office Professionals Summit in Trinidad & Tobago.

I submitted my thesis in May 2010 and was informed in July that after achieving a B+ for my thesis I would be awarded my Masters in Education with Merit, in December. The contribution of AAPNZ members to the survey and those non-members, who participated through the snowball survey, was invaluable. In particular those in the research focus groups who were crucial to gathering the rich deep qualitative data required in my thesis. Without the quality of the voices of those who responded to the survey and the depth of the stories from the participants in the focus groups, the validity of the data gathered would have been reduced.

This research was supported by AAPNZ through providing me with access to the members for the survey and by awarding me the 2009 Doreen Smart $1,000 Scholarship. AAPNZ was the environment in which the whole idea for undertaking this research was developed and AAPNZ provided support to me during the research and writing of my thesis.

I hope that those who wish to read this document (click here) get value from doing so and I look forward to hearing comments and discussion on the reported results.

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