e magazine

RECORDS MANAGEMENT AS A
STRATEGIC BUSINESS FUNCTION

Organization should continue this welcome trend and start to place their
organizational records on the business agenda. Not only their transnational records but
also other proprietary information produced in the daily course of its business.
McLeod's article mentioned the cyclical nature of many businesses and the need to
avoid 'reinventing the wheel' as circumstances change and develop. Before it can
begin to do this the organization needs to recognize that their proprietary information
does indeed have a value and should be managed in the same way as other recognized
resources i.e., it should be managed strategically.

Many organizations do not address the costs associated with lost, missing or
miss-information, until something goes wrong, by which time it's too late. With clear
records management policies in place and good records practice at all levels of the
organization, these costs can be minimize, and, in many cases, eradicated altogether.
Admittedly they will be replaced by the costs of operating an effective records
management policy, but at least this type of cost can be established and managed.
How do you cost lost information especially if it is effect to the organizational
operations?

Why has this Situation Arisen?

Perhaps I can best suggest some answers to this based on my own records
management experience. Whilst working in a technical information centre, a
colleague and I were discussing the reasons why our function as the main records
centre for an international organization did not appear to be valued in the same way as
other resource-based functions. The conclusions we came to were varied.

Also, the records centre served a cross functional user base, but the senior
management responsibility lay within a single discipline, obviously with different
priorities than those of some of the other disciplines served by the records centre. This
situation also resulted in dispersed budgeting across the whole
department.Conversations with current colleagues suggest that this situation is by no
means unusual.

Why Should Records Management be a Strategic Business Function?

Most of us are currently working in an environment of perpetual change.
Acquisitions, take-overs, mergers, business process re-engineering are all terms which
will be familiar to many, and relate to the ways in which organizations are changing,
in many cases with alarming regularity. These situations are not only happening to
organizations but also within organizations. Often organizational or departmental
records are lost in the changes or remain untouched in some store until someone takes
the decision to destroy them.

Many organization have gone down the 'quality' avenue. An example of this is
taken directly from my own experience and highlighted above. The majority of
quality initiatives are managed at the strategic level. In many organization they are
established as departments in their own right responsible for developing and
implementing a total quality system from the top level strategy, down to the
associated quality assurance procedures and work instructions.

Many organizations are decentralizing their services, resulting, in many cases, in
divergent practices. This, coupled with the increasing global communication network
and the growing number of organizations operating on an international level, could
lead to organizational records being dispersed over a wide geographical area, with
different management practices, and potential for vital records to be destroyed
because one location thought they were held somewhere else also, which may not be
the case.

MOTIVATIONS FOR RECORDS

MANAGEMENT IN MOBILE WORK

At the beginning of this articulation, it explains complete record management
and also includes some record management functions. Art also states that all
companies have the responsibility of managing records but not all organizational
departments are highly motivated to invest in records management units. For some
organizations, the benefits of information units are very important compared to others.
For example, the comparison company needs to maintain strict accounting so that
only those who have the right can see the record.

The main purpose of this articulated research is to see and understand motivation
for the records management organizational unit. Respondents were selected among
their own employees with mobile devices such as phones and laptops. Several
managers and skilled workers from the record management unit were also interviewed.
The results show that different motivations can encourage work in records
management. It can be assumed that ordinary workers are often easily identified with
motivations related to everyday life processes.

The most common motivation used to store and manage records among users is
to document actions. This motivation is influenced by coworkers because sharing
information with coworkers is as common and important as necessary. Documents
generated by mobile devices "While traveling." The information system needs to be
updated with the latest version as soon as possible because coworkers might need it.
Here can't wait for mobile users to be on their desktop. Documentation needs to be
available now, in less than two weeks. For example, in company management records
it is important from the client's perspective and the project's perspective; project
history needs to be saved because of continuity and in terms of project staff
procurement.

According to the ISO mindset, record management motivation has been in line
with the traditional thinking of experts by saying that why record management is
needed. To answer that question, the record management function is to have
organizational proof of function and accountability, to comply with the regulatory
environment, and to obtain organizational memory, for historical research and cultural
reasons. A moving work environment will increase the need for work especially when
work schedules become rigid.

Each record made by an organization is affected by its function and indirectly
influences the user's attitude and their knowledge of record management. In the public
sector are very bound by the laws and regulations of records, but the worker and staff
at the university of science have little knowledge of record management. When been
asked later we found out that there was no management and rules regarding sharing
information that been displayed.

In their discussion, consumers consider managing records only from their own
point of view, and consider imperfections from a historical and cultural standpoint.
The notes support the work of the respondents and once they are successful, the notes
have no significance to them. This discussion is supported by Sundqvist (2009): use
records are goals, which are driven by specific needs. Sundqvist has shown that every
function and every organization must contribute to this goal, while fulfilling their
work. Requirements for records will occur as a result of the work process.