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
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