Futuristic whole-brain success profile for the administrative professional in a South African context

Abstract

The rapid economic developments of the last decade have been driven by the impact of the revolutionary developments in information and communications technologies. The increasingly complex and specialised effect of this explosion of information technology and its diversity has not been limited to the business environment and educational and training institutions. These technological developments irreversibly and significantly affected the role of the administrative professional with regard to the assimilation, processing and utilisation of information. Administrative professionals are, therefore, expected to align their knowledge and skills with the characteristics and requirements of the new world of work. They have had to adjust from the role of executing duties on the instructions of the manager during the service economy to an economy based on the demand for innovation and creativity skills to contribute towards the creation of unique value and experiences for consumers, referred to as the experience economy. The relationship economy has prompted a shift towards another conformation, namely interpersonal and intuitive skills. An immense skill disruption, which has set the stage for the sharing economy, is evident in skills such as social, cognitive abilities, technical, resource management, process, content, system and complex problem-solving, but also requires one to be flexible and able to adapt to change. Being flexible and adaptable are skills required for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), taking into consideration the technological advances that are driven by extreme automation and connectivity through artificial intelligence. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of the global and national key drivers of change and transformation on the future success profile for optimal effectiveness of the administrative professional. This was achieved by means of a national skills survey conducted among administrative professionals in the public and the private sectors, followed by constructing a futuristic whole-brain success profile for administrative professionals in the South African context. The study used a mixed methods approach, combining both qualitative and quantitative data. An electronic structured questionnaire was employed to achieve the primary purpose of the study, in order to assess the impact of the global key drivers of change on administrative professionals becoming whole-brain thinkers in executing their role effectively. The survey questionnaire was distributed through a professional association using nonprobability sampling of the population, namely members in the public and the private sectors in all the provinces. The questionnaire was completed by 219 respondents. The findings revealed that the global and national key drivers of change and transformation has not negatively affected the current knowledge and skills set of administrative professionals at national level. The only skill shortages identified were in the category of web-based applications. In addition, qualitative data were gathered by means of semi-structured interviews conducted with five individuals in order to investigate the perspectives of various stakeholders on the current gap in the literature regarding the required competencies and capabilities of administrative professionals (participants) in the public and the private sectors. It has been found that the mentioned skills continue to be important skills to remain effective within the next ten years. The current knowledge and skills required by administrative professionals, which have been determined by an international investigation and research studies, were compared to the directives of key drivers of change. These directives consist of models such as the Lifelong Learning Skills, Future Work Skills 2020 and the Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Existing theories and approaches pertaining to whole-brain human information processing selected to frame this study, were Herrmann’s Whole Brain® Model, Taggart’s whole-brain human information processing theory, Sternberg’s theory of thinking styles and Kirton’s model of cognitive style. These whole-brain human information processing theories and approaches were applied to discover and interpret the perceived impact of the global key drivers of change and transformation on administrative professionals for effective performance in the changing world of work from a whole-brain perspective. Concurrent with the aim of the study, the Whole Brain® Model of Ned Herrmann served as the conceptual framework within which to construct a futuristic whole-brain success profile for the administrative professional in the South African context. The data gathered from both of the international and national investigations have been combined with the data gathered from the literature review to construct a futuristic whole-brain success profile for the administrative professional. The future success profile involves three different gathering processes, namely the first phase that summarises the skills and knowledge gaps that emerged from the international investigation. The skills and knowledge gaps that emanated from the literature are summarised as Phase 2, followed by the findings of the national skills survey summarised as Phase 3. One of the conclusions derived from the research study was that this future success profile has definite implications for the individual administrative professional, administrative professionals’ associations and educational institutions.