The Profile of Executive Secretaries and Their Relationship with Labor Demands

The work shows an analysis related to the emergence of the profession of the executive secretariat, highlighting the importance of the functions performed by the people who occupy these positions, for the good performance of public and private institutions. The results of an investigation carried out in the GAD of the Portoviejo canton, of the province of Manabí in Ecuador, are presented, where the current performance of a group of people in the position of the executive secretariat is evaluated, where the positive evolution is shown. It has been experienced in the last years in the exercise of this profession in correspondence with the labor demands of the Autonomous Decentralized Government of the canton Portoviejo.


Introduction
It is not known exactly where, how and when the secretaries appeared. It is very probable that they arose as a natural consequence derived from the need that a prominent person has, from someone in whom they can trust their confidential matters and who can act for the benefit of the boss. In the different civilizations and epochs, traits and situations are located that propitiate the knowledge of the past of the men who carried out tasks of a secretarial nature, without receiving the name of secretaries. These were very important and came to build a real social class which is called scribes, copyists, amanuenses, scribes or secretaries, that is, these professionals took their first steps together at the beginning of civilization, first as public proclamation and then as you write [1]. Some of them stood out as the Roman scribe Tiro, born in Rome in 93 BC, who thanks to his intelligence and interest in studies, aroused great esteem for his master Cicero. The importance of this secretary in his speech regarding the Tironian notes; a very safe and rapid stenographic system in his time.
In modern times, the kings, nobles and every powerful person had a secretary, usually, an occupation taken by men, who were elected because of their command of languages (Latin, for example) and because of their capacity to be advisors. These integrated the councils of administration and the state of the kingdom and as the authority of their writings that could not be altered except by the king himself. With the development of commerce, the business owners were in need of the services of the secretaries, and the Commercial Secretariat arises. With the rise of the Industrial Revolution and the advance of the thriving development of capitalism, by the end of the 19th century, the so-called offices began to be created, where important documents were archived. [1].
Currently the person who performs the profession of secretariat, exercises an important activity within the commercial, commercial, administrative and execution. Due it is considered an administrative assistant who has complete knowledge of the techniques of the office, demonstrating ability to assume the responsibility that his boss has delegated to him with great initiative and in the daily tasks, applying the common sense to emit an accurate judgment in the daily affairs and making decisions within the margin of authority that has been assigned to him. That is why the secretary becomes a vital element for the management system in the activity in question [2]. The objective of the work is to analyze the relationship between the professional profile of the executive secretariat and the labor demands of the Autonomous Decentralized Government of the Portoviejo canton.

Research Method
The type of study applied in the research is of a non-experimental nature, with a descriptive, transactional scope, which will be focused on the search for the relationships that exist between the profile of the Executive Secretary in the workplace. The research has a mixed (quality-quantitative) approach, characterized by a process that must achieve the analysis and linking of quantitative and qualitative data in a series of aspects that are investigated and that must respond to the hypothesis.
It is of a quantitative nature, since a statistical processing of the information collected individually from the surveyed or interviewed personnel is carried out in such a way that the results can be analyzed thanks to the application of the statistical method to transform numerical results, using the survey technique to explain, describe and explore information about the profile relationships of the executive secretary with the work environment in the Autonomous Decentralized Government of the canton of Portoviejo. While the qualitative approach was carried out with the application of the guide of interviews directed to the specialists of the area of human resources, economy and other officials of institutions subordinated to the Autonomous Decentralized Government of the canton Portoviejo. The collection of data is focused on obtaining the experiences and priorities of the participants. Therefore this approach provides depth in information, hermeneutics, contextualization, data, recent, original, flexible inquiry and unique experiences due to its proximity to the environment it is studied.
For the processing of information and data, the following methods were used: a) Deductive method: with the aim of deducing information from validated statistical data, to arrive at a deduction based on logical reasoning. b) Analytical method: with the objective of performing the analysis of the theoretical and statistical information as a starting point. The instruments that will be used are the following: a) Agenda with the contents of 6 study questions, which will be used as a basis for the interviews with the specialists and officials of the decentralized autonomous government (GAD) of the Portoviejo canton, in the subject under study. b) Questionnaire with ten questions that focus on obtaining quantitative criteria related to the study

Results and Analysis 3.1 The secretariat today
At present it is very difficult to assume any activity of administrative, commercial, service or production responsibility without the role played by a secretary or executive secretary and every day the complexities offered by technological development and the demands of modern politics, make more latent the efficient and reliable performance of an executive secretary [1]. The complexities that currently imply the performance of the position of secretary or executive secretary, suppose indispensably that the person occupying these positions possesses intellectual capacities, disposition, dynamics, personal security, adequate criteria, personality, political focus and evidence of being a person capable of saving reliability over their work, organization, and superiors [2].
Currently, the performance of a secretary is not the same as a few years ago when the demands of the market were lower, and the tasks usually focused on simple office tasks. New functions have emerged, and with this, the peculiar characteristics of the activity that the secretary or the secretary can perform have also changed, so they are usually classified as follows [3]: Especially the executive secretariat is an element of greater importance regarding greater responsibility, interference, and authority that has in the management of business affairs and activities of the company or entity. It acts on its behalf and at the level of headship in various dynamic actions such as purchase, sale, hiring, etc. For this position, professional training is required, with adequate knowledge of writing, personal and business administration, office techniques, advertising, commercial and administrative law, public relations, human relations, a high cultural level and proven reliability qualities [1], [2]. The administrative secretariat is the one who advises the boss in the labor decisions and administrative activities of public, semi fiscal or municipal company or service. Handles correspondence, files, informs, attends to the public, and connects the chief with other officials, among other activities [1]. The commercial secretariat is the person who prepares and advises in the commercial, commercial or professional activities to his immediate boss. Complete the work, suggest strategies to give your boss unconditional support with the established areas, in addition to accompanying him in the monitoring of the processes to follow in the marketing area [2]. The bilingual Secretariat is the one who carries out secretarial tasks that involve the use of one or more foreign languages. They also deal with other secretarial functions, for example, the organization of meetings and the travel arrangements for a manager or director [3]. The computer secretariat is the one that coordinates the actions that the department's departments carry out to provide information technology solutions, through the planning and integration of the required activities, with the objective of providing technological tools that facilitate the achievement of the institutional objectives [4].

The executive secretaries in the GAD of Portoviejo
There are authors who claim [1] that "The secretary contributes to the efficient functioning of a company through his discreet, orderly and methodical work." The truth is that currently the demands of the labor market are greater and require secretaries with a high level of skills and technical capabilities of their area, demonstrating expertise in the preparation of communications, document management, correspondence file , the elaboration of projects, budgets, technical reports and the accomplishment of the planning related to the management of the company, skills to use expertly the computational technological systems and all the necessary tools for their work.
"However, until recently, the acting secretaries of the Portoviejo GAD did not meet all the requirements of the current labor market, since more than a decade ago the post of secretary could be held by a bachelor, technician or professional any area of knowledge, who to maintain their job stability have faced the challenges of professional improvement and learn secretarial techniques through various means, with the purpose of responding to the changing labor market, with functions ranging from secretarial assistants, assistants, executive secretaries, among others " [2].
In order to verify the current status of the executive secretaries of the GAD in the canton of Portoviejo, in relation to the demands of the labor market, an investigation was conducted by a teacher from the Technical University of Manabí, with the participation of a student of the Secretariat career, for which a survey was applied consisting of a sample of 15 executive secretaries of the GAD of the canton Portoviejo, where the following could be verified: 93% of the secretaries surveyed have the upper level expired and one case that is currently exceeded to reach that level. The same percentage is graduated in the career of Executive Secretariat of higher level in different universities of the country, and one case is studying the 6th level of the career at the Technical University of Manabí.
13% of the executive secretaries who are occupying the positions have more than five years of experience in the position; 27% have experience between three and five years; 40% between one and three years and three cases that have been incorporated in the last year that represent 20% of the total. This situation shows that the stability of the executive secretaries in the position is maintained in positive parameters, which contributes to the increase of the expertise focused on the quality in the management that the executive secretaries fulfill. It was verified that 93% of the secretaries had demonstrated a high disposition for their cultural and professional improvement, there being a case that has manifested to be moderately disposed of by personal problems that prevent them from enjoying a high disposition for the overcoming.
40% of secretaries feel fulfilled in their work, while the rest declares feeling moderately fulfilled. In this aspect has much to do with the experience gained, where there is still more than half that raises the need to acquire a little more experience in the position.
40% consider that they feel comfortable with the salary they receive, while 60% consider that they feel fairly comfortable.
One hundred percent of the secretaries surveyed say they feel respected by the leaders and officials of the institution, as well as consider that their bosses do everything possible and contribute so that all the personnel of the organization respects the secretaries.
93% of the secretaries surveyed consider that they have all the necessary conditions to carry out their work, while there is a case that considers that they have the necessary conditions. At the same time, an interview was conducted with seven managers of the GAD of the Portoviejo canton, to verify the opinions related to the research carried out, where it was possible to verify the following: The executives interviewed recognized that the staff that works in the executive secretariat possess the cultural level and the professional preparation required to perform the job. However they must take advantage of the opportunities offered by the work climate to continue raising their level of preparation. The results of the research allowed us to prepare a comparative table related to the criteria of the managers who were interviewed and the opinions expressed by the secretaries that were surveyed, about a group of 11 parameters that were evaluated during the investigation and shown in figure 1.

Figure 1. Comparative table
It can be seen that on a scale of values from 1 to 100, the ratings offered by managers on the parameters evaluated are above 70 points, highlighting the intellectual level and personal relationships with the boss who are rated with 100 points, followed by dynamism in the tasks, personality and relationships with the rest of the staff who qualify with 80 points; the rest of the parameters are qualified by the managers with 70 points.
The qualifications offered by the secretaries that were surveyed are between 70 and 100 points, with the exception of the parameter personal security at work that is rated with 50 points; with 100 points the disposition for work and personal relationships with the boss is qualified, where it coincides with the evaluation made by the managers; with 80 points they qualify the intellectual level, the dynamism in the tasks, the corporate confidentiality, and the reliability; the rest of the parameters qualify with 70 points

Conclusion
The investigation made it possible to verify the qualitative leap experienced by the executive secretariat of the GAD of the Portoviejo canton in recent years, which highlights the elevation of the cultural and professional level of the people who hold these positions. It was possible to verify a relative balance between the criteria of the managers who were interviewed and the executive secretaries that were surveyed, about eleven parameters that characterize the general evaluation of positions on a scale of 1 to 100 points. Among the results that stand out is the elevation of the intellectual and professional level; personal relationships with bosses; the dynamism in the tasks; the personality and; the relations with the rest of the workers. It was found that, nevertheless, attention must continue to be paid to the provision for work; physical presence; effective character; corporate confidentiality and; reliability, paying special attention to personal safety at work.