CHAPTER ONE
1.1   INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND OF STUDY
From the creation, man has been a social being.  He could not afford to stay alone, hence God created for him a helpmate.  From then on, man has come to rely on interactions with his fellow men and his environment for survival and achievement of his aims for life to be meaningful, he has to relate to others by way of communication and be responsive as well as in order to impart his ideas and feelings.  The boss is not an exception, he has to relate positively with his secretary in order to accomplish the organizational goals and objectives.
In the modern organization, the importance of the secretary-boss relationship on organizational productivity.  This is so because, the two personalities are the pivot around which the functions of the organization revolves.
The secretary-boss relationship in the right perspective and context could be seen as a mutual bond, binding the secretary-boss I their quest for effective staff management and increased productivity, aimed at accomplishing the organizational set goals.  According to Hanna, Pohem and Tilton (1973) a secretary is an assistant to an executive, possessing mastery of office skills and ability to assume responsibility without direct supervision, who displays initiative, exercise judgment and makes, decision within the scope of her authority her.
Secretary plays a vital role in the organization.  She organizes, supervises and controls the junior cadre of workers.  The secretary acts as a co-coordinator between the subordinates and the management.  She makes sure that there is no gap in communication between the two.  This is because, if there is a breakdown in communication, attainment of goals becomes difficult. Subordinates must be informed to enable them know who to report to.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of both the secretary-boss to ensure that there exist cordial human relationship between them to enable staff management and increased productivity.  Effective staff management according to Denger (1980) is determining the number, level, types, qualification, personal qualities and duties of the people required and ensuring that they perform their job satisfactorily and cost effectively. Managing people is of course the hardest part of management.  It is relatively easy to have beautiful scheme but the implementation may result to a total failure because of poor staff management.
A cordial relationship between secretary-boss creates the enabling environment for free flow of communication in the organization.  Thus the secretary is well placed to communicates the organizational goals to the workers and at the same time convey the workers feelings and aspirations to the boss. By sustaining the upward and downward communication in an organization, the secretary maximizes the positive relationship between the boss to enhance effective staff management and increased productivity.
On the other hand, where their relationship is formed on a negative side, it will adversely affect the organization in many ways.  Such as job dissatisfaction, lack of motivation, poor staff management, low productivity, just to mention but a few.  The boss who sees his secretary as an ordinary typist will definitely under utilize her talents and this will result to frustration because she will not be motivated to take up challenges and her responsibilities.  On the contrary, a boss who sees his secretary as a partner will always involve her in the achievement of the organizational objectives and this will bring the best out of her and will lead to efficiency. Winston (1985) in his analyses of the motivation received from his secretary started that the best thing that has ever happened to him was having a secretary who wanted to work for a president.  He was not the president then, but she set out to help him make it.  She had tremendous impact in hid effectiveness and indeed he made it.