geert-jan van bussel the theoretical framework for the 'archive-as-is' an organization oriented view on archives - part ii choices affect logistics, access, quality, and context of records. Employee choices are influenced by many variables and reasons, among which 'power', resistance to overbearing control systems, and their specific individual background are extremely important ones. The legal frameworks that are usually created to curb organizational misbehaviour, and the internal compliance processes that are implemented in many organizations are specifically designed to identify and punish those individuals and organizations that are implicated in misbehaviour. These measures attempt to dissuade organizations and their employees from engaging in misbehaviour by threatening to hold them to account for their actions and decisions. The prevalent views of the organization as a 'machine', characterized by stringent rules and procedures, standardization, centralization, task specialization, and ignoring relational (and social) dynamics, is (in scientific literature) increasingly being replaced by an awareness of the way relational dynamics within duties, responsibilities, and accountability requirements are developing (Painter-Morland, 2007ab). As Melvin Dubnick and H. George Frederickson (2011, p. 7-12) explain, accountability relationships are mostly in evidence after an event ('post factum'). These relationships include 'post factum' attempts to handle responsibility for human or organizational errors based on 'pre-factum' (before an event) expectations and assumptions on organizational behaviour, configured in ICTs. Such attempts are largely based on records about these facts. ICTs are defined and configured 'pre-factum' and reflect expectations and assumptions of behaviour, but they do not reflect the activities and behaviour 'per factum', during an event (Heidelberg, 2015). Neglected also are how these activities relate to decisions within real actions and transactions and how to be accountable for those 'per factum' activities (Heidelberg, 2015). Organizations try to eliminate this stage by designing ICTs to avoid social relations, to avoid political discussion and debate, and to avoid infringement on rules. But these rules are only strengthening the bureaucratic system itself. That system hides 'spaces of contestation', spaces that should be filled with possibilities for political discussions, negotiations, and debates, where decisions are reached and where accountability should be prominent. Heidelbergs 'per factum' theory stresses the situated, relational dynamics during current policies, decisions, actions, and transactions (Heidelberg, 2015, p. 10, 18). But because 'per factum' is neglected (or, maybe, denied), these activities are not or only marginally captured in records and archival systems, therefore prohibiting records to document the most important spaces of decision making within organizations. The activity theory can be used to explain the conflicts that exist within such a mechanistic view on information processing (Kaptelinin and Nardi, 2012). Bonnie Nardi (1996, p. 5) argued that mediation is a core concept of activity theory: human experience is shaped by the tools and sign systems in use. Nardi (1996, p. 7-13) emphasizes the importance of motive and consciousness, which are human characteristics that differentiate between people and things. People are not 'nodes' or 'agents' in a system. They are actors using systems as a tool to realize objectives. People and machines process information different. They cannot be modelled in the same way. When that happens, deviant human behaviour will be a result. This explains why configuring systems 'pre factum' to avoid 'per factum' is not going to work. It is not the way humans process information. EIM will need to address human behaviour in a way that allows employees to use ICTs as a tool that allows for relational dynamics in the 'per factum' stage. The accountability metaphors of the Agora and the Bazaar, proposed by Ciaran O'Kelly and Melvin Dubnick (2015) to characterize neglected 'spaces of contestation', stress the importance of relational dynamics in the 'per factum' stage. An Agora is a social environment in which purposes, reasons, and norms are developed. It is 'a fluid, contingent and localised accountability space, founded on an unending cascade of social situations and relationships' in and between organizations (O'Kelley and Dubnick, 2015, p. 9). This space is linked to collaboration between participants in that space, based on norms that focus on the fairness of aims and procedures. Organizational procedures, managerial power structures, and organizational purposes are 'informed' about the standpoints and decisions emerging as results from these collaborative relationships. These results are developed within a context where people combine moral sentiments with ethical requirements and constraints. The defining reasons for action are generated 'per factum'. Within the Agora, the metaphor of the Bazaar describes exchange in mutual pursuit of each other's interests. The focus of the Bazaar is on the negotiations that generate results, and the exchanges needed for those negotiations to be successful. These exchanges assist people in developing standpoints and decisions, trying to find a mutual interest and willing to trade favours, information, or esteem to achieve their purposes (O'Kelly and Dubnick, 2015, p. 9-16). It is what is happening in daily organizational practice. Exchanges within the Bazaar may not be open to description, formal scrutiny, codified rules, or bureaucratic control. Such spaces may involve psychotic and pathological behaviours (Singer, 1980). It is spaces like the Agora and the Bazaar where the effects of organizational behaviour are extremely dominant. Much of the exchanges in the Agora and the Bazaar are not captured in records until after the event ('post factum'), according to 'pre-factum' procedures, and, thus, distorting social and situational reality. It will be EIM's challenge to organize the information value chain in such a way that employees use flexible ICTs within spaces of contestation for that will not only allow accountability to be based more on relational dynamics but it will also guide human behaviour to focus on organizational objectives. 5. Concluding remarks and future research I started this research with the objective of finding a viable theoretical foundation for EIM. This foundation should allow EIM to capture unstructured information objects into its management procedures, tools, and ICTs to end the existing 'information chaos' and to improve the organizational ability to reach business objectives and to define business strategies. The concepts of records and archives are crucial for those endeavors. In the first part of this article, I showed that only within archival science theoretical frameworks have been developed using those concepts. Those theories offer valuable contributions and insights for EIM, but do not have a focus on reaching organizational objectives or defining business strategies. Their focus is on cultural (or historical) value and evidential value, not on the archives in liquid times 62 63

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Jaarboeken Stichting Archiefpublicaties | 2017 | | pagina 33