Office systems

An office system may be defined as a series of procedures designed to attain a specific objective. A procedure is a group of related tasks which, together, provide a routine. The differences between a task, a procedure and a system may be stated as follows:

A task is a basic operation which, normally, cannot stand on its own and has meaning only when it is part of a series, and forms part of a procedure. An example is that of slitting envelopes in a mail inwards routine.

A procedure is a series of tasks which achieves a routine that can stand alone but which is purposeless unless associated with other related procedures to achieve an objective. Taking mail inwards again, the procedure of opening the post consists of those operations involved in opening the envelopes, abstracting the contents and sorting them for despatch to departments. Stopped at this point the procedure serves no useful function.

A system comprises all the procedures which go into achieving a stated goal from beginning to end. So a system for dealing with mail inwards embraces the procedures involved in the collection or receipt of the mail, opening, abstracting, date-stamping, sorting and delivering it to the various departments for attention.

The systems and procedures installed in an organisation will depend principally upon the types of activities carried on and should be designed or will evolve, to suit the practices existing in the organisation. In considering the installation of an office system there are three aspects that demand particular attention, one of which will be paramount in any particular case. These are speed, accuracy and economy. They are all required to some degree in every system but must be examined so that their relative importance can be determined

Speed. In many cases the question of speed is overriding and takes precedence over the other aspects. With speed must be linked the requirement to meet a specified date and time, particularly where the system has to operate on a daily or weekly basis.

Accuracy. The question of accuracy is the most important aspect of many office procedures and systems, particularly where money matters are concerned. All financial accounting systems have accuracy as their fundamental requirement.

Economy. Whereas economy is an important element in any system, in some cases it is more important than others. The accuracy of the accounting system would not be sacrificed for economy but cost would play an important part in, say, the design of the sales invoicing procedures.

The question of the relevant importance of any of these aspects must exercise the mind of the office administrator whenever a procedure or system has to be devised or amended. It is essential to recognise, moreover, that the relative importance of any one of them is not necessarily immediately obvious. An example of this is the wages system. At first glance it might be assumed that accuracy is the most important attribute. On reflection, however, it will be clear that speed, in the sense of timing, is paramount because the workers must be paid without fail at the proper time even though there may be errors in one or more wages packets. So accuracy must be sacrificed to some extent, when occasion demands, to achieve payment at the proper time.

1. Defining Procedures

Because procedures can be identified individually and because they are normally carried out entirely by one individual or one group, it is usual to specify these in detail separately rather than to detail a complete system in one specification. This, of course, follows the practice in manufactur­ing and contracting where complete jobs are broken down into separate units which are then defined in detail. This makes it easy to marshal together the tasks required to be carried out by the individual or group and to write the procedures to suit.

In this respect it is important that each procedure be defined clearly and that the total of the duties, authority and responsibilities are set out distinctly so that they are easily understood. The limits of the procedure must also be explicitly stated. This prevents present and future misun­derstandings by those who have to carry out the procedure and also ensures that whoever designs the procedure (or the total system) must think clearly and analytically about the procedure.

A procedure is designed on the basis that the work will flow without interruption and it is usual that instructions are given in step-by-step detail, particularly for those below supervisory level. However, it is inevitable in the day-to-day running of an organisation that exceptions to standard procedures will arise. With this in mind the question poses itself as to whether instructions on how to deal with exceptions should be included in each procedure. On reflection, however, it will be apparent that it would be impossible to provide for every eventuality that might arise. The most logical solution is to provide for a limited use of initiative according to specific rules in cases of minor exceptions and for more important problems to be referred to the person next in authority, who may be given power to act on an ad hoc basis according to the nature of the problem.

2. Written Procedures

Procedures may be given by verbal instruction or they may be written and assembled into a procedure manual. Verbal procedure instruction is not usual except in small organisations where there is much personal contact between staff and supervisors and managers. It is claimed by the advocates of this method that it develops a mutual trust between the managers and the managed and that it makes for flexibility in procedures in that alteration to fit changing needs is easy to accomplish. Certainly it can build a good staff/manager rapport, but it can also lead to misun­derstanding of requirements and also to personal interpretations which may not coincide with what is required but for which there is no concrete reference.

Written procedures have the advantage of being definite and of being always to hand for reference. They are also available for reference and interpretation should disagreement of any kind arise as to what is intended should be done, or what the limits are of the procedure and the individual’s duties within the procedure. Finally, a written procedure is a guide to a newcomer when introduced to a position.

To provide flexibility in written procedures it should be the practice to have regular reviews of the operation of procedures so that they may be amended to suit changing circumstances. It follows, therefore, that the procedure manual is best kept on the loose-leaf principle.

3. Advantages of Definite Procedures

A number of advantages flow from the establishment of clearly defined procedures, which may be listed as follows:

1. The office will operate more smoothly because of the clear work guidelines laid down by properly drawn-up procedures.
2. The work of individuals in a department and that of associated departments can be coordinated more effectively.
3. The known work requirements provided by definite procedures permit more effective control of the work itself, a more even spread of the workload and a reduction in errors, particularly in errors of omission.

4. Every worker is made specifically aware of what is expected in the way of duties and the extent of the worker’s authority and accounta­bility.
5. Because the formulation of a specific procedure requires an analytical approach it is possible to introduce specialism into a job to a greater degree. This results in more efficient use of personnel and equipment.
6. Similarly, the requirements of training programmes can be seen more clearly, with obvious beneficial results on these programmes.
7. There is a definite guide for workers which is especially valuable to new starters. A highly beneficial outcome of this is that work is more likely to be carried out to a standard and known pattern throughout the organisation and is less liable to be done according to the idiosyncrasies of individual workers or supervisors.

4. Clerical Activities

Office procedures consist of one or more of the seven operations of which clerical work consists. These are:

1. Writing and initiating original records. This covers such activities as writing or dictating original letters, reports and similar documents.
2. This involves making a further record or records from an original, either simultaneously as in taking a carbon copy, or sepa­rately as when photocopying an incoming letter. It also covers transferring information from one source to another as happens when making up a warehouse picking note from a customer’s order.
3. All arithmetic operations fall under this heading, i.e. addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
4. This refers not only to checking calculations but also to checking such operations as copy-typing where the copy is compared with the original, often by being read over by one clerk to another. This operation is, in fact, often termed comparing since checking calculations involves comparing the second result with the first.
5. Sorting and classifying. Little information is of value unless it is in a specific order or sequence with other information. This is the necess­ary activity that classifies documents of all kinds and arranges them in appropriate order.
6. Filing and indexing. These are the natural subsequent activities after sorting and classifying. They ensure both appropriate storage and easy retrieval of documents and are very necessary if the office and the organisation are to function smoothly.
7. This is the most essential element in the operation of the office and of the organisation. It involves the transmitting and receipt of information and instructions either verbally or in written form, both internally throughout the undertaking and externally with the outside world.

The efficiency of the office service depends upon the proper amalga­mation of the appropriate activities within the procedures for their effective operation: the degree of inclusion will depend to a large extent upon the paramount need for speed, for accuracy or for economy. For example, if speed or economy is more important than accuracy then the checking activity in a procedure may be omitted, or included at a minimum level.

5. Specialisation

It has been suggested that the careful analysis of work required to enable an efficient procedure to be formulated encourages, and provides the basis for, specialisation – that is, the division of operations into their component tasks, each such task being carried out by a separate member of staff. An example would be the invoicing procedure. This may consist of pricing the items sold, calculating the total cost of each item on the invoice (quantity times price), adding them together to produce the invoice total and then typing the invoice for despatch to the customer. If this procedure were subject to specialisation the tasks of pricing, calculating and typing would be carried out by different people. In practice, of course, this method is quite common.

The advantages that are claimed to flow from specialisation are such that it is accepted practice. They may be listed as follows:

1. It separates the different skills required to operate a procedure, particularly the simple from the complex.
2. It thus permits staff to concentrate on one activity and so develops expertness and with it speed of execution.
3. It unifies the methods practised in the various specialist activities where similar jobs have to be done. Letter-writing is an example.
4. It facilitates control and checking and fixes responsibility for efficient working and for errors.
5. It permits the recruitment of specialist staff who will bring experience and expertise.
6. Because of (a) the fixing of responsibility and (b) the need for collusion where more than one person is engaged in a procedure, it helps to reduce the possibility of fraud.
7. It helps to simplify staff training.

There are, however, some disadvantages attendant upon specialis­ation, which include the following:

1. It almost always results in more movement and handling of paper­work and even the necessity to raise transmission documents that would otherwise be unnecessary. An example is where filing is centralised and thus specialised. In such cases files have to travel from the filing department to the user and back again and, in large organisations particularly, may require the use of requisitions and receipts.
2. As papers travel between clerks and each has to peruse them in order to be able to deal with his or her own particular part of the procedure, this can add to the time taken to complete the whole job.
3. Both 1 and 2 can cause delays and so slow up the procedure and, thus, the system.
4. The clerk’s job can become monotonous and boring and therefore uninteresting. This can lead to a lowering of enthusiasm and morale, which is conducive to errors. It can also slow up a worker’s pace.
5. There is a tendency for a narrow view of the organisation to be induced bounded by the specialism. A sales ledger clerk’s view of the undertaking may be circumscribed by the sales ledger with little or no appreciation of the activities of the rest of the organisation.
6. Workers who are too specialised become non-interchangeable because of their lack of knowledge and experience outside their own jobs. In such circumstances it becomes very difficult to deal with overloads of work by exchanging staff between departments, or even within departments.

Most modern organisations are aware of the dangers of too rigid specialisation and deal with this by job enrichment or job enlargement, or by moving staff around from time to time where this is possible.

6. Planning a New System or Procedure

As the needs of an organisation alter, or the current systems or procedures become out of date because of changes, in legislation, policy or the development of new methods, new ones have to be devised. More often than not it is only a part of a system – namely a procedure that has to be amended or revised, but the same rules apply to both a system and a procedure.

To plan a new procedure it is necessary for the office administrator to consider very carefully the many questions involved, which may be set out as follows:

1. Is a new procedure really necessary? Often it will be found that a slight modification of an existing procedure will satisfy the need: this causes less disturbance in the office and is more acceptable to staff.

2. Exactly what is the new procedure required to achieve? The precise requirements must be known before a change can be either planned or justified.
3. What is the best method of achieving the desired result, particularly bearing in mind the resources available or those that can be econo­mically acquired?
4. Who should operate the new procedure? Is staff available, both in numbers and competence, to carry out the new procedure?
5. Will the results of the new procedure justify its cost? It is very easy to put in a new procedure that will cost much more to operate than the value of the result. Benefits that cannot be quantified, particularly in money terms, make this question very difficult to answer.

It is important to recognise that all systems and procedures must achieve a useful objective. With the course of time some may lose their purpose but, nevertheless, remain in being: the office administrator must be alive to this fact. A common example is the continued production of statistics and reports when the need for them has long ceased. Periodic reviews of systems and procedures are the most effective way of discovering redundant practices.

The cost of every procedure and system must be commensurate with the value of the results produced. It would not be appropriate, for instance, to establish a system of stock control to combat pilfering if the cost of the system were considerably more than the possible value of the thefts. The economical use of staff and equipment must also be a consideration.

The design and installation of office systems and procedures have become very much the province of specialists in organisation and methods, either internally employed or engaged from outside the organisation on a consultancy basis: this is discussed in the next chapter.

Source: Eyre E. C. (1989), Office Administration, Palgrave Macmillan.