American’s job to ‘turn employees on’

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32783, 7 December 1971, Page 6

American’s job to ‘turn employees on’

Miss Patricia Markas, the director of personnel for an American electrical appliances company, describes her job as one of training business executives to “turn their staff on.”

“It is quite a difficult job to teach any person how to motivate their subordinates,” she said in Christchurch yesterday. Miss Markas, who admits to to being fascinated by the world of big business, did not initially choose it as her career. She took an undergraduate degree in psychology, and worked as a psychologist for four years in a mental institution. Leaving psychology, she became director of Girl Scouts for a county council in her home state of North Carolina. MASTER’S DEGREE “Then I thought I’d try my hand at the business world, so I went to graduate school and got my master’s degree in personnel administration.” It was a field which had always interested her and was closely linked with psychology. Miss Markas’s position entails co-ordinating personnel training for 30 companies in an organisation employing between 2500 and 3000 people. “I have only a secretary bn my staff, but I only do coordinating work.” IN-SERVICE TRAINING There was, she said, a greater emphasis than ever being placed on in-service training of staff. "I guess you could say that we are training-happy. In the past, the United States has been geared to produc-tion—-to produce more and get it on the market. Now we are concerned with the quality of the product and of the person who is making it.” Miss Markas is the only woman in her field, the elec-trical-appliance business, in her state, and the only other person she knows of who holds her position is a man. “I really enjoy working in an all-male field. Men seem to be able to make a decision much easier than woman. This does not mean that what

they decide is right, it is just that they are more risk-takers than women are.” The company she works for is Tarheel Electric “Tarheels” was the name given to soldiers from North Carolina in the American War of Independence. “They were always on the front lines, stuck hard to the fighting, as if they had tar on their heels.” Miss Markas makes her home Durham, North Carolina (“the cigarette centre of the world”) and works in Raleigh, the state capital. She feels if she ever wanted to give up personnel work, it would be to study for a doctorate in philosophy to pursue a career in child psychology. “I always enjoy working with children. They are so free from the defences that

adults throw up, and so expressive.” Miss Markas is travelling with the United States professional golfer, Marilyn Smith. She is a keen golfer herself. The couple will go to Milford, Mount Cook and Queenstown tomorrow, to Auckland a few days later, and home via Honolulu.