5 Functions of Modern Office are listed and explained herein. We hope you find this educative, informative, and able to meet the needs of your research.
5 Functions of Modern Office
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When you hear the word ‘Office’ what comes to your mind? In this article, we will crucially take a look at the functions of an office but before we do such, let’s throw more light on what an office is.
An office is a place where information is received, processed, reviewed, retrieved, and dispensed in order to reach and make up quality decisions.
Information’ in the definition above means a collection of raw and unprocessed facts and data. The information may sometimes be in letters, memos, invoices, orders, forms, and reports.
It can also be gotten from other sources such as phone calls, television, and written sources, etc. In other words, an office can equally be defined as a place where the activities of the clerk or better put, clerical activities take place in an organization. It is also a place where inquiries are done and information is dispensed.
Without an office, the whole essence of an organization may be defeated because such an organization may find it very difficult to achieve its specified objectives because anyone who wants to do any form of business with an organization usually dies through the office of such an organization.
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The office of an organization may either be a big one or a small one depending on the volume and nature of work done in it or the number of personnel in the office, the physical size of the office, or the available land space it has for plant and machinery, furniture and fittings as well as other fixed assets in the company.
5 Functions of Modern Office
Some Functions of the Modern Office irrespective of the size are:
1. Receiving Data
Primarily, this is one of the major functions of an office. An office in every organization is usually designed to receive data from the general public, the type of data received by an office may differ depending on the nature of the business that the organization is involved with, it may be complaints, orders, applications, and so on and these data can be gotten either in textual or oral form.
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2. Processing data
When data is gotten in an office, sometimes, it is passed on to another office in order to be processed so that the essence of the data will not be defeated.
This processing could be done in the same office or another office too either in or out of the organization.
The processed data becomes a piece of information that could be further acted upon or used in making credible decisions within the organization.
3. Recording Information
After data is processed to become a piece of information, the next thing is usually to record the outcome. An organization usually employs the use of different types of documents to record its information.
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These documents include; registers, diaries, etc. Depending on the company and its scope of operations, computers are usually used to type and save documents.
4. Dispensing Information
After going through the first three expected functions of an office, the recorded information will do no good to the company or its customers if the information is not dispensed accordingly.
5. Storing information
Not all information is to be dispensed, some information in a company is strictly confidential and is to be treated as such. Other information needs to be stored for future use of the company.
Information that is gotten and processed in an office but not stored for future use or reference will be lost, so organizations make use of different storage mediums to keep information safe for future use.
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Having learned the functions of an office, you can fully understand now that for every organization, an office is a fundamental necessity as long as there is a future awaiting such an organization.
