Chapter1: Modern Office

OFFICE

Office is an important section of a business. The term business implies office work.

The disctionary meaning of office is

 "a place for transaction of business, the room or department,

where the clerical worl is done", or we can say,
 "a place where business is carried on",or it is "a place where all sorts of
activities of organisation are dealt with.

Office is the centre of an organisation. Commercial Office acts as a central

directing and co-ordinating agency of the various activities of any business.

An office is understood to be a place where clerical work is performed and where all
kinds of paper work (letters, correspondence, files, records etc.) is maintained and
dealt with.

In modern age, the 'office is used in a broader sense.

Prof. Dicksee states,

 "An office is to a business what the mainspring is to a watch".

 An organisation cannot be carried on without an office, as a watch without
the mainspring is useless. In the present times, the modern office
organisation has so much importance as the brain in a human body.

Commercial office can be called "

 a clearing house of all essential business information".

 The office has to receive or collect all information of the business, process
the collected information (analyse, arrange and classify) and put them
into understandable form on the one hand. .

According to the Random House Dictionary,

 "An ofce is a place where business is transacted or professional

services are available". An office is the place where the control
mechanisms for an enterprise are located, where records are initiated for
communication, control and efficient operation of the enterprise.

According to Mills and Standing Ford,

 "The office is the administrative centre of a business. The purpose of an office

has been defined as the providing of a service of communication and record".
  "An office is the place where work in connection with the preparing and
furnishing ofinformation is done.

OFFICE WORK

Office work is mainly concerned with clerical work or paper work. But this is a very
narrow view and is an old concept of office work.

Office work is primarily concerned with making, preserving and using records.

 The records are concerned about purchasing. producing, selling, accounting

and correspondence, inventories and written or printed memorandum of all
kinds.
 These records are essential for an efficient and effective control of operation
of the organisation.

An office serves as the memory centre and control centre of an organisation. The
office performs many services like communication, reproduction, mechanical data,
processing, procuring of stationery, furniture and equipments, secretarial assistance
etc. to other departments in an organisation.

Office is a unit where records for the purpose of control, planning and efficient
management of the organisation are prepared, handled and preserved.

The purpose of an office is:

1. To preserve all the records of the business.

2. To handle incoming correspondence
3. To plan the policies of the business and ensure their implementation.
4. To direct and co-ordinate the activities of the various departments, and
5. To maintain accounts, statutory and non-statutory books etc. of the business.