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MULTICULTI OR

MELTING POT

A research on information culture and its effects on recordkeeping at a social housing association.

Master thesis

Archival Science University of Amsterdam 29 June 2016

Student:

Bram van de Ven 10641246

venbramvande@yahoo.com

Supervisor: Dr. F. Foscarini

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Samenvatting

Bij de implementatie van software in een kantooromgeving, zoals bijvoorbeeld bij document management systemen is er vaak enkel aandacht voor management aspecten. De interactie tussen de mens en het systeem wordt vaak buiten beschouwing gelaten. Na de implementatie kan het in de praktijk voorkomen dat de ene persoon een systeem precies naar zijn hand kan zetten en exact gebruikt waarvoor het bedoeld wordt, terwijl de andere medewerker niets met het betreffende systeem te maken wil hebben en documenten op zijn eigen manier beheert. Dit kan van persoon tot persoon verschillen maar ook per afdeling of per bedrijfslocatie. Deze verschillen hebben niet zozeer te maken met de technische en functionele aspecten van een informatiesysteem maar met name met de manier waarop de gebruiker tegen een systeem aankijkt en daarmee interacteert. Het is een cultuurkwestie. Dat cultuuraspecten een rol spelen in het beheer van informatie is onderwerp geweest van diverse onderzoeken. Voor het

onderhavige onderzoek is gebruik gemaakt van de studie van Gillian Oliver en Fiorella Foscarini, zoals deze beschreven is in hun boek “Records Management and Information Culture” uit 2014. In dit boek wordt een relatie gelegd tussen de invloed van cultuur in organisaties op het beheren van informatie. De auteurs introduceren in het boek het “Information Culture Framework” (ICF), een instrument om deze informatiecultuur in kaart te kunnen brengen. Met behulp van dit ICF is er in deze vergelijkende gevalsstudie onderzoek gedaan naar de informatiecultuur bij een woningcorporatie. Meer specifiek bij een bepaalde functiegroep waarvan de medewerkers zijn verdeeld over de twee vestigingslocaties van het bedrijf, een locatie in Tilburg en een locatie in Breda. Deze functiegroep, zijnde de woonconsultenten, is onder de loep genomen door middel van het uitvoeren van een kwalitatieve gevalsstudie waarbij het verzamelen van data op diverse manieren is gebeurd. Allereerst is er een deskresearch gedaan waarbij er in het document management systeem is gekeken naar de gearchiveerde documenten. Vervolgens zijn betrokkenen geïnterviewd door het afnemen van een semigestructureerd interview met een open eind. Aan het einde van deze interviews is er aan de betrokkenen gevraagd om deel te nemen aan een observatie om te tonen waar en hoe zij documenten opnemen, beschrijven en organiseren. Tot slot heeft er een literatuuronderzoek plaatsgevonden met als doel concepten te verhelderen om een theoretisch kader te kunnen vormen.

De reden om juist de woonconsulenten, verdeeld naar locatie (Tilburg en Breda) uit te kiezen voor deze gevalsstudie is omdat ze heel duidelijk de primaire processen van de

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3 van betaalbare woningen aan huurders die vanwege hun financiële draagkracht hiervoor in

aanmerking komen. Daarbij bestond het vermoeden dat de woonconsulenten uit Tilburg een geheel andere visie hadden op documentbeheer en de archieven van de organisatie dan hun collegae in Breda. Daarvan is echter niet gebleken uit het onderzoek. Reorganisaties en een veelheid aan cursussen op het gebied van informatievoorzieningen van zowel de afdeling Documentaire Informatie Voorziening als van de juridische afdeling lijken eventuele verschillen teniet te hebben gedaan. Er is dan wel misschien geen duidelijk onderscheid in

informatiecultuur aangetoond tussen de twee groepen, er is wel onderscheid aangetoond tussen de consulenten onderling. Dit onderscheid wordt veroorzaakt door diverse factoren. Gebrekkige samenwerking tussen afdelingen en collega’s onderling, het grote aanbod aan informatiesystemen, persoonlijke voorkeuren in het gebruik van deze systemen, persoonlijke visies op wat er wel en niet bij het werk hoort en het ontbreken van een archiefbeleid als aanvulling op het reeds bestaande informatiebeleid. Een van de doelstellingen van deze scriptie is ook het archiefbeheer bij WonenBreburg te verbeteren. De veronderstelling is dat een zogenaamde ‘zachte’ aanpak bij de creatie en het beheer van documenten de organisatie in de gelegenheid zullen stellen dit doel eerder te bereiken. De organisatie zou dus haar informatie cultuur moeten herkennen en erkennen om ze vervolgens te gebruiken bij het verbeteren van haar archiefbeheer.

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Abstract

During the implementation of software applications for office work, e.g. document management systems, there is often only a focus on financial, technical and functional aspects. Following implementation, the focus often shifts onto management issues. The interaction between people and systems is frequently disregarded. Some people know exactly how to operate these systems. They know the ins and outs, and capture and organize all documents correctly so that they can be used by any colleagues in their absence. While other employees seem to have trouble managing information and their own work. Variations may exist from person to person but also from department to department or from branch to branch. These differences have not so much to do with the technical and functional aspects of information systems but more with the way each person regards these systems. It is a matter of culture. The cultural aspects of the management of information have been a subject of several studies. This research is based upon studies by Gillian Oliver and Fiorella Foscarini, as described in their book "Records Management and Information Culture", published in 2014. The book describes the relationship between the influence of culture and managing information. In their book, Oliver and Foscarini introduce the "Information Culture Framework" (ICF), a tool to analyse information culture. The ICF was used in the comparative case study that is the subject of this thesis in order to research the

information culture at a social housing association. Information culture was investigated at two departments of district consultants, located in two different cities within the company, a department in the Tilburg branch and a department at the Breda branch. For this qualitative case study, many methods were used to collect data. First of all, desk research was applied to gather data from the document management systems in use at the two branches. In addition, interviews took place. These interviews had a semi-structured character with open-ended questions. After each interview interviewees were asked to take part in observations aiming to show where and how they captured and organized their documents. To conclude, a literature review was conducted in order to clarify concepts and to form a theoretical context for this study.

The reason to select these particular two groups for this case study lies in the fact that district consultants represent the core business of the organization. They play an important role in the process of providing affordable housing to tenants. In addition, the study started with the assumption that the district consultants from Tilburg would have a completely different view on document management and archives than their colleagues in Breda. This research showed

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5 however, that this assumption was not correct. Recent reorganisations and a variety of training

measures in the field of document management that took place in both the records

management department and the legal department seemed to have offset any differences. Today there is arguably no clear distinction of information culture between the two groups. However, there are still differences among the employees of WonenBreburg. These differences are caused by various factors. This study identified the following factors: lack of cooperation between departments and between colleagues, a wide range of information systems that are available, personal preferences in relation to using these systems, personal visions on what is and what is not part of the job, and the absence of a specific archival policy to supplement the existing information policies.

One of the aims of this thesis is to provide suggestions for improving the archival situation at WonenBreburg. It is expected that by focusing on the “soft” aspects of making and keeping records, the organization will be able to achieve its goals more effectively, as a result of taking the characteristics of its information culture into consideration.

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6

Foreword

It was in February of the year 2013 that I was sitting and waiting with my girlfriend Emmy in a small room in the Sofia children’s hospital in Rotterdam. The tension in this room was palpable. After a series of hospitalizations directly after her birth, my daughter Sam was finally undergoing surgery that would treat her from a patent ductus arteriosus. While nervously waiting and trying to kill time I started reading the NRC newspaper of that day. An article written by Bastiaan Bommeljé called “De grote verdomming; De generatie Einstein kan niet spellen, niet rekenen en niet lezen” caught my eye. In this article Bommeljé describes the negative effects of

‘rendementsdenken’ (maximizing profits at many costs) in our educational institutions. He posed that because of rendementsdenken students only wanted to, or where pushed to apply for studies that don’t have any specific target, studies that create the most revenues for

universities. Exact sciences ended up with a shortage of students. Bommeljé counted: “Opposed to thousands of students that graduate from communication studies each year, on average, only 21 students graduate from library and archival sciences”. At that moment my final decision was made. Archival science at the University of Amsterdam would keep me busy for the next three years.

Since graduating from my previous education Informatie Dienstverlening en Informatie Management in 2002 I have been working in the field of records management. First, for some local governments and after that in November 2007 I started working for WonenBreburg. A totally different branch as opposed to the municipalities that I used to work for. This also meant that there was a complete different vision on archives and recordkeeping practices. At first this felt liberating but, after a few years, I felt that there should be more to records management than we practiced at WonenBreburg. Luckily my supervisor Ron Graumans saw the need to explore the discipline as well and approved my request to study Archival Science at the University of Amsterdam. I therefore owe him many thanks. I owe even more thanks to my parents in law and my mother who often were more than willing to babysit in times of need. But, by far, the most thanks goes to my girlfriend Emmy who had to deal with the fact that I suddenly found a new ‘hobby’ and who supported me all the way. To conclude I would like to mention my supervisor Fiorella Foscarini who, during her inspiring lessons, showed me that there is much more to archives and records management than meets the eye. It’s not just as simple as organizing documents in a certain system. It’s all about the people that use these documents and the way they see life. In other words the culture is key. A concept that is hardly

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7 heard of in an Information Technology driven organization like WonenBreburg and therefore

was very interesting to do research in.

But this thesis is not just simply a product of a research. It also stands for a three year experience with periods of joy and periods of stress, a period of meeting new people, making new friends and learning a lot. But most of all it stand for a promise and a message to myself, to my daughter and to my son Luc, who was born in the second year of my study, to make the most of life and take the chances that are given to you. One is capable of achieving much more than one could ever think of.

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Table of contents

Samenvatting ... 2 Abstract ... 4 Foreword ... 6 1. Introduction ... 10

1.1 Identification of the problem ... 12

1.2 Aim of this research ... 12

1.3 Scope of this research ... 13

1.4 How to read this thesis ... 13

2. Research Design ... 14

2.1 Theoretical framework ... 14

2.2 Research method ... 20

2.3 Data analysis ... 22

2.4 Research questions ... 22

3. Records management at WonenBreburg ... 23

3.1 District consultants and the Recordkeeping System ... 23

3.2 Recordkeeping analysed with the Record Continuum Model... 29

4. Information culture and recordkeeping: a closer look ... 32

4.1 Information culture explained ... 32

4.2 Information culture in relation to organization culture ... 36

4.3 The connection between information culture and recordkeeping ... 38

4.4 The Information Culture Framework... 40

4.5 Legislative and procedural context ... 41

4.5.1 Legal framework ... 42

4.6 The value accorded to records ... 43

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9

5. Two cities, two cultures? Putting theory into practice ... 46

5.1 The merger, a brief history ... 46

5.2 The merger and the archives ... 48

5.3 District consultants, representing the core business ... 49

5.4 The information culture of the district consultants ... 51

5.4.1 Value accorded to records... 52

5.4.2 Trust in information systems ... 55

5.5 Threats ... 58

Conclusion and recommendations ... 60

Bibliography ... 64

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1. Introduction

Documents come in a variety of shapes. Documents can come as photos, as statues, as films, as pictures or any other action captured in time. They can be found in collections at home or in a museum. But when we speak of documents most people will probably still think of them as a piece of information written on paper which they received from any kind of organization. Or perhaps, when sitting down at their workstation, they are faced with a pile of documents ready to be archived in the companies archives. 1 Within the last 30 years documents have been undergoing a massive change in appearance. Firstly, most documents nowadays are born digital. That means that most paper documents are created on a digital medium and through some digital platform such as a desktop or tablet. Furthermore the invention of e-mail communication has created a huge change within work processes. It has become an enormous challenge for records managers and archivists to deal with these documents because of the enormous amount of them brought about by this (relatively) new technology. These Information Technology developments, also known as the digital revolution, have caused a paradigmatic shift within the world of archives and recordkeeping.2 They have, for instance, triggered a big change in the way documents are captured in Recordkeeping Systems.3 Record managers and archivists used to be the only professional groups responsible for managing archives; today, modern electronic document and records management systems (EDRMS) are capable of providing every user who has access to these systems the opportunity of archiving documents themselves without any direct help from a specialist.

Nevertheless, one thing hasn’t changed; documents still share the same properties. They are created as a result of activities and these activities are all part of a primary or secondary process that has been triggered for a reason and will always have an outcome. In addition, these documents represent certain values. The value of a document may change during its lifecycle. Values can be divided in three categories.4 There are legal values, i.e. documents need to be captured in a recordkeeping system for evidence and accountability. There are values that are of

1It is important to notice that for the word ‘archives’ in this thesis I use the definition used by Theo Thomassen in ‘Een korte introductie in de archivistiek’, where on page 13 he states that archives are process-bound information. So, in this thesis the term archives is used as a synonym for records. Furthermore the terms record and document are also used as synonyms.

2 Thomassen, Theo “Een korte introductie in de archivistiek.” Horsman, P., F. Ketelaar & T. Thomassen. Paradigma. Naar een nieuw paradigma in de archivistiek. (1999): 11-20., 6

3 In paragraph 2.1 the RecordKeeping Systmen is explained in detail.

4. For this thesis I refer to the values that Peter Horsman describes in his book “Archiveren, een inleiding”. On pages 16 and 17 he mentions five values. I have grouped these values in three categories.

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11 importance to the conduct of business, i.e. conducting the primary business processes. And

there are social values. When the first two types of values are no longer important, documents can still be of value to society. They could still be useful to historians, journalist or genealogists. Another way to assess values could be by the primary tasks or functions and by the secondary task or functions performed by documents as Thomassen does.5 Within the primary tasks the values of a document would be serving memory, supporting organizational work processes, a source of knowledge (arguably a task for a librarian and a collection in a library), a source of evidence, needed for accountability and documents can be of emotional value. The secondary task would be a cultural-historical one.

In the past when an archivist or a records manager was solely responsible for managing the archive, he or she also knew the importance of these values. But now that the

responsibilities for the capture of documents in archives have moved to ‘new players’ it is of the utmost importance that these persons also understand the values that could be given to

documents. Furthermore, it is important to notice that these new players are (or were) not used to archiving documents by themselves in EDRMS. Therefore, trust in these systems has to be gained in order to convince end-users that they should archive documents in EDRMS and not solely keep them in their personal archives, in one form or another.

This is where information culture begins to play an important part.Not every employee in an organization may recognise the values as discussed above and not every employee may be convinced that he or she can trust the EDRMS to archive his or her documents. Information culture provides a theoretical framework that may be used to identify the reasons why people regard and treat documents as they do and why they do, or do not, trust the company’s archives to hold ‘their’ documents.6 The concept of information culture as introduced by Oliver and Foscarini is used in the case study described, in this thesis to get a deeper understanding of the value accorded to documents and the trust employees have in recordkeeping practices in a real life organization, in this case at WonenBreburg. Additionally, the two branches of

Wonenbreburg (one located in Breda and one in Tilburg) will be compared in order to establish whether there is a difference in information culture between the two. To do so two groups of district consultants (one in each branch) will be the subject of this research in order to inform this case study.

5 Thomassen, 13

6 Oliver, Gillian and Foscarini, Fiorella. Records management and information culture : tackling the people

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12 The organization Wonenbreburg is a social housing association in the south of the

Netherlands in the province of Noord-Brabant. It is one of the biggest in this region. There are approximately 440 social housing associations in the Netherlands. WonenBreburg has

approximately 34.000 dwellings. Its mission is to provide the residents of the cities and towns in the vicinity with rental prices that are affordable for people with an annual income which is less than €34.911,-. These associations are of a unique kind in Europe. The best way to define them is private organizations with a public task. WonenBreburg is a ‘stichting’, that is, a

non-governmental organization bound to strict non-governmental rules regarding the letting of dwellings. The rental price of its dwellings is, in most cases, well below the market price and these prices are regulated by the government. Following a recent reorganization, its work force consists of about 350 employees. Besides the letting of dwellings WonenBreburg also offers important services to the local community with regard to guardianship of city districts. Its main partners in this task are the local police force, the local government and local social organizations. The organization is situated in the cities of Tilburg and Breda.

1.1 Identification of the problem

As mentioned in the previous paragraph WonenBreburg is situated in Tilburg and Breda. In each city the same tasks are performed by different groups of staff. It is proposed that each location has its own information culture and that these cultures reflect upon recordkeeping practices. It is possible that these proposed discrepancies influence recordkeeping in a negative way and that they might cause a liability problem for the organization. This liability problem has already manifested in different ways. For example, the loss of documents resulted in extra costs for the company because contracts had to be recreated (value to the conduct of business).Moreover, there is the risk that when WonenBreburg has to appear before the court (this is the case several times a year) it does not have the complete file at hand (legal value). Furthermore, the difference in recordkeeping practices might have a negative effect upon the work efficiency of the groups that are being examined in this thesis.

1.2 Aim of this research

This research analyses information culture at Stichting WonenBreburg within two branches of the organizational groups of district consultants. By analysing the perspectives of the district consultants regarding the values they attach to records and the trust they have in the EDRMS,

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13 this research will establish whether there is a difference in information culture between the two

locations, why this difference has occurred (if at all) and how it affects recordkeeping practices. Besides answering these questions, the study will investigate whether any of the differences identified might pose a liability problem or has a negative effect upon work efficiency, as

explained in the previous paragraph. It will also provide recommendations for WonenBreburg to overcome, or deal with, any discrepancies between the two groups, so as to improve

relationships and recordkeeping practices. The theoretical contribution of this thesis is twofold. On the one hand, this thesis offers a new approach to the analysis of recordkeeping functions, which focuses on how people understand and manage documents in real-world situations, rather than how they “should” perform these functions. On the other hand, this thesis probes the validity of information culture as a lens through which to examine the formation of archives in organizational contexts by applying information culture ideas to an actual case.

1.3 Scope of this research

This research provides insights into the information culture within two groups of district consultants at WonenBreburg. An examination of the information culture and recordkeeping practices of the whole organization is outside the scope of this study. The reason for not replicating this research in relation to other groups or other areas in the organization has solely to do with the amount of time that is available.

1.4 How to read this thesis

This thesis is made up out of five chapters and a conclusion. The first two chapters provide the reader with theoretical background of the research and the subject that this case study focuses upon. In chapter three records management at WonenBreburg will be put into perspective by archival theories regarding recordkeeping systems and the records continuum. Chapter four describes the theory of information culture in relation to recordkeeping. The focus in this chapter will be on the value accorded to records by employees and the trust that they have in the systems that make up the archives at WonenBreburg. And chapter five will provide the reader with a vision of these theories that are put into practices at WonenBreburg. The thesis will end with the conclusion in which recommendations will be made to WonenBreburg.

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2. Research Design

I started working for WonenBreburg in November 2007 when I took the job of Coördinator Documentaire Informatie Voorziening (DIV) (Coordinator for the department of records

management). In the nine years that I have been working at this workplace I have dealt with all kinds of records that have been managed in the EDRMS called INVU (in use from 2007 until 2015) and that are managed in the EDRMS E-content since November 2015. For this research I have used the knowledge that I have gained during this period. Furthermore, in order to collect more information that was needed to answer the research questions that are mentioned in paragraph 2.4, a case study has been carried out involving a comparative analysis between two groups of individuals (district consultants) working in different branches of the same

organization. In this chapter the research design of this case study will be discussed.

2.1 Theoretical framework

The theoretical framework supporting this research includes archival science as well as the existing literature on information culture.

Culture might seem to be an intangible concept. Maybe this is so because culture is formed by people, by the way they look upon the world, by their history, by their language, their values, their norms and by their feelings. There is, for example, Geert Hofstede’s view of culture. He says culture is: “the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from another"7. The "category" can refer to: “nations, regions within or across nations, ethnicities, religions, occupations, organizations, or the genders.”8 This of course means that everywhere where people live their culture is ‘surrounding’ them,

influencing their environment and influencing their own behaviour. Also at an organizational level employees form their culture, collectively, influenced by this “collective programming of the mind” in the organization they work for. Geert Hofstede’s view on this matter is,

“organizational culture is defined as the way in which members of an organization relate to each other, to their work, to the outside world that distinguishes them from other organizations”.9

7 Hofstede, Geert. Culture’s Consequences. Comparing Values, Behaviours, Institutions, and Organizations

across Nations. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2001. 9

8 Ibid., 9 9 Ibid., 9

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15 Within these definitions of Hofstede the human aspect can be seen as the main

component that constitutes culture. This human aspect is, according to Peter Horsman, also one of the components of what he calls the ‘Archiveringssysteem’. He translates this from Dutch into English by using the term Recordkeeping System.10 In his view this system (or theoretical model) is a method to analyse how and why documents are created, captured and described and by whom. It is not to be mistaken for a record system (system which contains archives for example a software program like an EDRMS). This holistic approach to recordkeeping in an organization is based upon the assumption that the information system “processes data to information that is relevant for its main users, who have a specific purpose for this information”.11 Horsman’s approach with his model is to use a black box with which he analyses the environment in which the Recordkeeping System operates. Important here are the interactions between the

Recordkeeping System and its surroundings.

10 Horsman, Peter, “Archiveringsysteem”, Abuysen ende desordiën. Archiefvorming en archivering in Dordrecht 1200-1920 (Den Haag, 2011), 26.

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16 Figure 2.1. The Recordkeeping System (Archiveringssysteem) and its surroundings in an

organization. Created by Peter Horsman. 12

Figure 2.2. The black box, a view of the Recordkeeping System , complementary to figure 2.1. It represents the Besturingssysteem (the pyramid on the left) and the Primair transformatie systeem together with the information system (not depicted in figure 2.1.).

12 Ibid., 29

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17 Upon opening the black box one can analyse the characteristics that form the Recordkeeping

System.13 These characteristics include several components and processes. Horsman defines the Recordkeeping System as: “The whole of people, documents, resources, methods,

procedures, processes, metadata and knowledge with which an organization or a person shapes and expresses into concrete the required quality of its records for the conduct of business, memory or accountability”.14The processes that Horsman states in this definition are capture, store, describe, organise, appraise, make accessible and dispose.15 Figure 2.3 brings these components and processes together in a schematic overview.

Figure 2.3. After opening the black box all components and processes that play their part within the Recordkeeping System are depicted in relation to each other.

Information culture comes into play precisely within these processes. One could take the components from Hofstede’s definition of organizational culture and link them to information and information management. This would mean that an analysis could be made of the view that employees have towards information by linking the ‘relation to each other, to their work and to

13Ibid., 27 14 Ibid., 27 15 Ibid., 27

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18 the outside world’ with the behaviour towards information. By connecting (information) culture

to Horsman’s theory this would mean that the following questions can be asked:

 Why and how are documents being captured and what values are given to them by employees?

 How do employees store, describe and organise documents and do they trust the systems that are used for this?

 Is appraisal and disposal taking place?

 Do employees think documents are accessible?

Another method of analysing record management is by using the Records Continuum Model created by Frank Upward. This model is divided into four dimensions (Figure 2.4). Each dimension describes the ‘state’ which the record is in at that point in time in that dimension. It is not a linear model. That means that a record can be useful for multiple stakeholders at the same point in time and can simultaneously represent different values. This feature is one of the main characteristics of a digital born document. All four dimensions in this model describe activities that employees in an organization like WonenBreburg undertake in order to archive their documents. Some components and processes used by Horsman can be found in the Records Continuum Model or vice versa. Therefore, these theoretical models can be seen as

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19 Figure 2.4. The Records Continuum Model (RCM) created by Frank Upward.16

As mentioned above in this paragraph, the concept of culture might seem hard to define. Geert Hofstede’s definition on culture can be used to overcome this problem. But how can culture be linked to information and can culture influence recordkeeping practices in an organization? Hofstede, based upon his definition of culture, would probably conclude that since information is created, captured, organized and pluralized by people within the work-processes of an organization that culture does influence recordkeeping practises and so do Oliver and Foscarini. They have developed a framework which can be used to assess culture in organizations. This Information Culture Framework (ICF) is divided into three parts (see also figure 2.5) which represent a pyramid shaped whole. The base of the pyramid represents aspects of information culture that are hard to influence or change. It consists of aspects like language, technological infrastructure, the value that is accorded to records and predilection towards the way of communicating amongst colleagues. The middle part of the pyramid contains aspects which employees can acquire by training or getting work experience. It “represents the skills, knowledge and expertise of employees relating to information management”17, according to

16 Upward, Frank. “Modelling the continuum as paradigm shift in recordkeeping and archiving processes,

and beyond – a personal reflection.” Records Management Journal,. 10.3 (2010): 115-139.

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20 Oliver and Foscarini. The top of the pyramid represents two aspects that are easier to change. It

is the trust that employees have in the software that is used to manage documents, for instance an EDRMS, and the information government model that is in place.

Figure 2.5. The Information Culture Framework (IFC) created by Gillian Oliver and Fiorella Foscarini.18

The principle of Horsman’s Recordkeeping System and the Records Continuum Model (RCM) created by Frank Upward are used in this research to put archival science into perspective. This is done by using both models as an overall framework throughout this thesis. The Information Culture Framework (IFC) is used as a backbone in this thesis for analysing information culture at WonenBreburg.

2.2 Research method

Because of the qualitative nature of this research design (i.e., single-case study design) and the nature of the research questions that are discussed in paragraph 2.4. (i.e., open-ended

questions), the themes that will be discussed will emerge from the answers the study will

18 Ibid., 17

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21 gather. A combination of different data gathering methods has been used in order to enhance

the quality of the study (triangulation).19

First of all desk research has been done by gathering data from the two EDRM systems. Data from the years 2013, 2014 and 2015 was collected and analysed. Then the total amount of documents that was archived by each consultant was counted and by using the metadata that was given to each document a classification was made of what documents were captured.20 This was based upon the use of descriptors available in the EDRMS. By making this classification it was possible to see which documents each district consultant created and how he or she went about it. Furthermore, ten district consultants, five from each branch, have been interviewed using a semi-structured interview method with an open ended character. Because almost all consultants were willing to be interviewed a random selection has been made by using the ‘Rand function’ in Microsoft Excel to determine which consultant should be interviewed. In addition, to verify the statements made by the consultants and to gather information from a different perspective, also the legal officer, two of the district consultant’s secretaries and two of their managers have been interviewed. Information relating to the implementation of the new EDRMS and the history of the archives of WonenBreburg was gathered by interviewing staff of the department of records management and derived from own experiences. All these

interviews have been based on an interview guide that was developed in accordance with the set of questions mentioned in the next paragraph and a case study protocol.21 Interviews have all been taped after permission was given by each consultant. After each interview district consultants were asked if they were willing to participate in direct observation of their work practices. They were asked to show their archives and the way they manage their documents either at their desk after the interview or on their tablet or desktop during the interview. To conclude a literature study has been completed in order to clarify concepts and to form a theoretical context for this study.

19 Yin, Robert K., Case study research: Design and methods. London: SAGE, 2014. 90-92

20 It is important to notice that both EDRM systems do not have the possibility of making files. Documents

cannot be combined into one file but are put in a repository as a single object. Consequently there is no archival bond between them, the context of these documents therefore remains unclear.

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2.3 Data analysis

As mentioned in the previous paragraph different methods of data collection have been used in this research. One of the methods used was that of interviewing the study population. To analyse the data collected, interviews were transcribed and subsequently coded. By using the principle of pattern matching the data was interpreted. The propositions made in chapter one have been matched with the data that was gathered. To make this match the coded text was combined and categorized. The categories that were used are: willingness to share records, recognising the value of records, the trust that is or is not given in records, the trust in software systems. These categories derive from the Information Culture Framework and were also used in the questionnaire during the interviews.

2.4 Research questions

This research is a case study involving a comparative analysis between two branches of the same organization. The goals that have been set for this research, as mentioned in the previous chapter, lead to the following major research questions:

What is the information culture of the Tilburg Breda branch of WonenBreburg?

If the two cultures appear to be different, why does this difference exist and what does it mean for the organization?

How does the information culture (or information cultures) identified affect recordkeeping? Is the organization running any risks due to its current information culture(s)?

In order to answer these questions the following sub-questions need to be answered: 1 What is information culture?

2 How does information culture relate to organization culture?

3 Which aspects of information culture can be recognised in the case that is being examined?

4 Is there a relationship between the manifestations of information culture in the two branches of WonenBreburg and the history of the organization?

5 What changes may be made to the organization’s recordkeeping system in order for it to be a “good fit” with the information culture(s) identified?

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3. Records management at WonenBreburg

In this chapter the practices of record management at WonenBreburg are being assessed. This is done by using the theoretical model of Horsman’s Recordkeeping System in paragraph 3.1 and the Record Continuum Model in paragraph 3.2.

In the introduction of this paper WonenBreburg was briefly introduced. As mentioned the organisation is relatively big in comparison with similar organisations that operate in the same region. To fully comprehend the Recordkeeping System of the organization it is necessary to notice that it has not outsourced any of its processes. All of its primary and secondary

processes are being managed by WonenBreburg itself. Although it is not uncommon for housing associations like WonenBreburg to outsource processes like ICT, facilities, finance, HRM and such, WonenBreburg has chosen not to do so because it is believed that outsourcing would raise the costs of these processes and reduce efficiency.22 This also means that WonenBreburg has a records management department to support all recordkeeping activities in the organization. This department is responsible for handling incoming mail, incoming e-mail of general e-mail accounts (e.g., info@WonenBreburg.nl, contact@WonenBreburg.nl), capturing documents that cannot be captured by employees working in the primary processes (e.g., documents that need a signature) and managing the functionalities of the EDRMS as an application. Furthermore, they have an advisory role on recordkeeping policy. With this advisory role the department creates a framework based upon the recordkeeping processes and the components that make up the Recordkeeping System, so that other departments can make use of it. The processes and components used by two of those departments (the two groups of district consultants, one in Breda and one in Tilburg) are described below.

3.1 District consultants and the Recordkeeping System

Peter Horsman describes archives as a representation of activities that are being executed by the concerning organization or a part of this organization. The Recordkeeping System is closely linked to the organization. In his view the organization is the context of the Recordkeeping System.23 Therefore, by analysing the activities we can understand the reason why records are created and by whom.

22 WonenBreburg. WonenBrebrug overkoepelend I&A beleid. Tilburg: WonenBreburg, 2011. 23-24 23 Horsman. 2011, 28

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24 In order to examine how a department works, its way of functioning can be explained by

describing the work processes, also known as activities. Activities can be analysed at a so-called micro level, which consists in breaking them down into several transactions. These are the different steps one must take to accomplish the entire activity. These transactions can be represented, for example, by the use of a flow chart. They can be as simple as: ‘make telephone call’, or ‘send email’, or ‘arrange a meeting’. It is within these steps that documents are created. In theory it is possible to analyse the different document types that are being created by these transactions. It is even possible to make templates for each record originated by a certain transaction, so that each employee is obliged to always use the same lay-out, and the same fixed structure, so that variations in form are reduced to a minimum. This would reduce the amount of mistakes. In practice it is often very difficult to analyse exactly what documents are being used in what part of the activity. Besides that, employees often create their own working methods. These methods can deviate from the obligatory procedures. By taking a closer look at the activities that make up the work-processes at WonenBreburg it is clear that work can consist of high structured processes, like raising the rental prices each year, and low structured

processes, like clearing a home because of nuisance. High structured processes are easier to analyse and standardise because the transactions that comprise them are more linear and predictable, while transactions in a low structured process tend to deviate from standardised models. Furthermore, when an analysis of low structured processes is being made it is often very difficult to provide employees with such software that allows everything to be correctly managed each time the same low structured process occurs. Nevertheless, the theoretical understanding of transactions explained above can be useful as guideline to analyse activities that are created within both high and low structured processes.

Let’s take a closer look at the departments of the district consultants by breaking them down by using Horsmans’ components and processes to the level of the activities and

transactions. Each group of district consultants reports to either the branch “Wonen Tilburg” or the branch “Wonen Breda”. In turn these branches report to the department “Wonen”.24 The groups are divided in twelve employees that work in Tilburg and eight employees that work in Breda. To qualify for the job of district consultant candidates must at least have a diploma of a university of applied science. As there is no special education for district consultants in practice employees have many different educational backgrounds. Some of them have a bachelor degree in social sciences but there were also interviewees with an educational background in law

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25 studies, economical studies or human resource management. District consultants have a certain

level of freedom in which they can do their work. They can manage ‘their’ district as they see fit as long as they stick to agreements made with their manager but also to a framework which is developed together with several other internal and external stakeholders. External stakeholders could be the police, local government or social institutions. In this framework law and regulation is also taken into account. As a result the district consultants closely work together with

WonenBreburg’s legal experts. From this framework procedures and working methods have been determined which districts consultants use to manage their work processes. These processes are all directly related to the tenants of WonenBreburg. A few examples of these work-processes or activities are: raising the rent, enacting legal procedures for drug related problems and co-managing renovation projects. When performing the transactions that make up these work processes districts consultants create several documents which they capture and store in the Recordkeeping System. This can be done by describing them and saving them in the EDRMS, by saving them on a shared drive or by simply printing them out and keeping them in a bag in their car25. On a daily basis the district consultants work with several software

applications with which they produce their documents and communications. The EDRMS (E-content developed by the Van Dinther company), is an application based upon SharePoint 2013. Van Dinther added record management features to it. It is used as a horizontal application in which every employee, including consultants, can archive their documents. It is linked with several other horizontal and vertical applications. One of the more important applications is Empire. This is an Enterprise Recourse Planning system based upon Microsoft Dynamics. This system is also used to share knowledge among colleagues. For example, Empire gives them the opportunity to log conversations with other departments or tenants that could not be captured in a document, like a telephone call. Furthermore, the organization uses Microsoft office professional plus 2013. This also includes MS Word and MS Outlook to form letters and emails. The templates the employees use to write their letters derive from the framework that is created together with the stakeholders as mentioned above. These templates can be found in Empire and in MS Word and are linked with E-content. Nonetheless almost every consultant makes use of their own set of templates which they have gathered during their working years at WonenBreburg. When capturing their documents in the EDRMS, every employee must choose from a set of metadata that is provided by E-content (see also figure 3.1). The metadata from which employees can choose derives from the classification scheme that has been embedded in

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26 the EDRMS. This is a function based classification scheme. This classification scheme is based

upon the theory of analysing all functions that are available in the organization and clusters them together. This is the highest level of this classification scheme. It is an abstract level where logical clusters are made of functions and business procedures that belong together. This is visible in figure 3.1. At the top level these logical clusters are shown as ‘Sites’. ‘Beheren Eenheden’ is such a site.

Figure 3.1. A snapshot of the EDRMS E-content that shows meta data.

On a lower level all activities (work-processes) are depicted and on a level below that all transactions are shown. Within these transactions the actual documents are created and captured. For the records that are created by the district consultants this means that an analysis has to be made of all records that might be created by them. But the analysis also concentrates on documents generated by other parties as long as they are in a way linked to the activities of the district consultant. Since this classification scheme focuses on more than just the

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27 district consultants deal with. Because documents can be created outside the department, but

can still be a part of that certain activity.

This idea of structuring information is not something that WonenBreburg has developed by itself. The organization is a member of the NETWIT organization, an alliance of 119 different social housing associations that are working together in the field of information sharing. One of the tasks they have is to develop a policy or give an advice regarding the management of information. This advice is published in the so called ‘CORA document’.26 At this moment CORA 3.0 is the most recent version of this document. The document gives an overview of the

functions and activities that are common in social housing association. 27 This has also been done regarding the activities of ‘Wonen’, as can be seen in figure 3.2. From these activities the

transactions can be derived, in which the documents are created. Furthermore, CORA 3.0 also offers a list of possible metadata that can be added. So from an abstract top level, the function groups, via the activities one level below on to the transactions this structure forms the basis for a function based classification scheme. In this filing system all documents that are captured by the district consultants or by any of their colleagues that work within the same work processes, can theoretically be captured and filed.28

26 Netwit. Cora. De referentiearchitectuur voor Nederlandse woningcorporaties Versie 3.0

Alphen aan den Rijn: Netwit, 2012.

27 Netwit. 2012, 89

28 Van de Ven, Bram. “Constructing records, A research regarding the digital records of a real estate

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28 Figure 3.2 Functions and activities at social housing associations. 29

In theory the use of this filing system should result in the archival bond between documents being secured and in an easy disposal as well as selection possibilities for documents. This could be done on one level above the document level. One could make a selection based upon a certain transaction, or a step higher, based upon an activity. Although in theory these features could work in the EDRMS, in effect this is not yet the case. This lack of functionality has

influence on the extent to which district consultants trust this EDRMS, as we will see in chapter five. Furthermore the same structure makes it possible to arrange authorisation to records and record groups. And, maybe most importantly, documents can be filed in a uniform way. Every employee is being ‘forced’ into the right direction when capturing a record. This enables documents to be accessible by others than the person that has captured them in the first place. To conclude, one can notice that with adding this classification scheme there are three possible ways of retrieving documents. First, documents can be found with full text search options. Secondly, documents can be retrieved by means of metadata (including the classes of the classification scheme). And in third place, documents can be found from a macro to micro level

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29 by following the logical classification structure: Function, Activities, Transaction and Documents.

So the documents are placed at a micro level and functions are placed at the macro level.30

3.2 Recordkeeping analysed with the Record Continuum Model

Social housing associations like WonenBreburg are private organizations with a public function. That means that they do not have any public authority. Because of that, archival legislation like the Archiefwet 1995, the Archiefbesluit 1995 and the Archiefregeling 2009 does not apply. That is important to notice because these laws state that organizations subject to them (that is, public sector organization), have to dispose of their archives at a certain point in time. They can do this by transferring the archives to a repository or destroy them after they have been appraised. Because WonenBreburg is not under the scope of those state laws there is no obligation to dispose her archives and basically its disposed by chance. There is no clear vision regarding the disposal of documents, nor about the technical possibility in the recordkeeping systems of WonenBreburg to dispose documents in a structured way. The consequence is that at the moment almost two million documents are captured in the EDRMS and every day about 2000 new documents are being added to it. This can be seen as a downside of not having to apply to this legislation. On the other hand however, these laws can also delay innovations in the field of record management. WonenBreburg has always been in a position where it could develop her own digital environment in which she could manage their archives. No archival inspection can reprimand her. The only laws she has to take into account are laws regarding taxes and privacy. This freedom resulted in early adoption of new technologies. By the year 2000 the archives of the organization were almost completely digitized and made accessible through the EDRMS Keyfile. This means that they have been dealing with the complexity of

recordkeeping in a digital environment for more than sixteen years now. By using the Records Continuum Model created by Frank Upward we can analyse how the archives are managed in this complex environment.

The Records Continuum Model is divided into four axes (Evidentiality, Transactionality, Recordkeeping containers and Identity) and four dimensions (Create, Capture, Organize and Pluralize). The dimensions of the Records Continuum Model have no boundaries. They also are

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30 non-sequential. So they can occur independently from each other. This means that, for example

the third dimension, Organize, could occur long before Capture takes place. As mentioned in the previous paragraph the overall Recordkeeping System is equipped with software that provides every employee with the opportunity to create a document (the Create dimension). Therefore every employee with access to the computer network can use MS Word or MS outlook on any device that is able to connect to this network. A district consultant is therefore solely

responsible (within the given framework) for creating a document. The reason to create documents here is that district consultants can perform their work. It is to support the business processes of the organization. Besides the documents that are created with MS office,

applications log files are made with Empire and sometimes photographs and film are captured. All these documents created through different applications can then be captured in the

Recordkeeping System. To do this (the Capture dimension) the district consultants must recognise the value of documents and have trust in software applications to capture them. Furthermore, sufficient possibilities must be available to them. Metadata sets must be clear to them and made usable. Within the Organize dimension, the classification scheme is put in place, activities are analysed and this provides the necessary metadata for employees to use when capturing documents. It is here that the main characteristics of documents are secured. These characteristics according to ISO 15489 are the usability, authenticity, integrity and reliability of records.31 Besides that, system authorization and confidentiality are implemented. At

WonenBreburg all these conditions are assigned by the departments of Informatisering and Automatisering (I&A) and Documentaire Informatie Voorziening (DIV) to documents and processes within the recordkeeping system. Most of the time this attribution (of metadata) takes place before a work process is even started but it can also be done when the work process is completed. In the beginning of this paragraph it was mentioned that archival legislation does not apply to WonenBreburg. This also means that WonenBreburg is not obliged to dispose of documents by transferring them to a repository. That doesn’t mean that this never happens but normally documents remain within the Recordkeeping System of WonenBreburg. The fourth dimension of the Records Continuum Model (Pluralize) involves documents being deployed outside the creating and maintaining organization. For WonenBreburg this almost solely means that documents are given to third parties when they ask for them. In case of the district

consultants this means that documents can be given to lawyers, courthouses, police and bailiffs.

31 NEN-ISO 15489-1, Nederlandse norm voor Informatie en documentatie – Informatie- en

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31 This happens, for instance, in case of work-processes that cover nuisance. But it is also possible

that tenants or journalists are the recipients of documents. This, of course, depends on the nature of the work-process and the reason the documents are requested. Because disposition of archives does not or hardly take place, this is the only possibility for records from the

Recordkeeping System of WonenBreburg to manifest themselves in the collective memory. Therefore, it is virtually impossible for e.g. historians to do research in the archives of WonenBreburg even though such archives might be of cultural-historical value.

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32

4. Information culture and recordkeeping: a closer look

In chapter two information culture was briefly introduced to describe the theoretical framework that is used as a backbone for this research. In order to answer the research questions a broader understanding of information culture in relation to recordkeeping is necessary. Therefore this chapter takes a closer look at this subject by relying on findings from a literature review. The following sub-questions will be addressed in this chapter:

1 What is information culture?

2 How does information culture relate to organization culture? And it will provide a back ground to the answer of sub-question three:

3 Which aspects of information culture can be recognised in the case under study? This chapter will begin with an explanation of information culture in paragraph 4.1. This paragraph and the subsequent one will show that there have been different viewpoints on information culture. Paragraph 4.3 elaborates on the relation between culture and records management. And in paragraph 4.4 an explanation will be given of the Information Culture Framework (ICF) and how it is used in this research to asses information culture at

WonenBreburg. As mentioned in chapter two the ICF was developed by Oliver and Foscarini to clarify their view upon information culture and to use it as an assessment tool. The last two paragraphs elaborate on two factors that play a part in the ICF. Paragraph 4.5 will give an explanation of the value that is accorded to records and paragraph 4.6 will discuss trust issues regarding recordkeeping. The reason for choosing these aspects will also be clarified.

4.1 Information culture explained

The idea that culture influences the business processes of organizations and the way

information is managed and used within these processes has been the subject in several studies. Over time many researchers have developed their vision on what they called information culture and subsequently came up with their definitions. A review of the literature about information culture shows, for example, that Adrienne Curry and Caroline Moore are cited most frequently with their study on information culture published in April 2003. In this study they state that information culture is:

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33 “a culture in which the value and utility of information in achieving operational and strategic

success is recognized, where information forms the basis of organizational decision making and Information Technology is readily exploited as an enabler for effective Information Systems”.32 Going further back in time, one of the first researchers to carry out research on information culture, Mariam Ginman, who in 1988 said that information culture is:

“the transformation of intellectual resources [that] is maintained alongside the transformation of material resources. The primary resources for this type of transformation are varying kinds of knowledge and information. The output achieved is a processed intellectual product which is necessary for the material activities to function and develop positively”.33

Ginman’s research triggered Anne Grimshaw to do an empirical study together with the British Library Research and Development Department to determine a correlation between information culture and the success of a business.34 She concluded that the human aspect in information culture was of influence on the conduct of business. This is something that Tom Davenport also derived from his study in 1994. He also found that in order to manage information,

organizations often only focused upon technological solutions. In his view the emphasis should be more “human-centered” as he calls it.35 In his 1997 study he comes to the conclusion that a holistic view upon information culture is the preferred way when it comes to managing information. This is what he calls information ecology: “an organisation's entire information environment “.36 According to Davenport information ecology is made up out of four

components: 1. Information culture (values and beliefs employees have about information); 2. Information behaviour and work processes (the way employees make use of information); 3. Information politics (the climate in which information sharing is counteracted or inhibits or promoted) ;4. Information Technology (the hardware and software systems that are in place). By using the term information ecology he reduced the weight of the technological aspect and underlined the importance of the human aspect. More recent research is that of Chun Wei Choo

32 Curry, Adrienne ; Moore Caroline. “Assessing information culture—an exploratory model” International Journal of Information Management, 23 (2003): 91–110

33 Choo, Chun Wei ; Bergeron, Pierrette ; Detlor, Brian ; Heaton, Lorna. “Information culture and

information use: An exploratory study of three organizations” Journal of the American Society for

Information Science and Technology, 59.5, (2008): 793 34 Ibid. 793

35 Davenport, Thomas H. “Saving IT's Soul: Human-Centered Information Management” Harvard Business Review, 72.2, (1994): 119-131

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34 et al. in 2006 and 2008. In those studies, the authors looked at information culture “as the

socially shared patterns of behaviours, norms and values that define the significance and use of information in an organisation”.37 They concluded that if organizations want to enhance their business performance they should focus on the following issues: “1. Information technology practices: the capability to manage IT applications effectively and infrastructure to support operations, business processes, innovation and managerial decision-making, 2. Information management practices: the capacity to manage information effectively over the lifecycle of information use, including sensing, collecting, organizing, processing and maintaining

information, 3. Information behaviour and values: the capacity to instil behaviours and values in people which promote the effective use of information”.38 Choo et al. also considered

information culture as being similar to organization culture but with an emphasis on the presumptions of “shared values, shared norms, and shared behaviours that shape the organization’s perception, management and use of information”. 39 Another, completely different, view upon information culture is that of Thomas Hapke. In his 2012 paper

“Informationskompetenz in einer neuen Informationskultur” Hapke links information culture to information literacy.40 The focus of his research is on the methodology of searching information and how to make use of the retrieved results after an information search. This can clearly be seen by the “spheres” he uses to help define information literacy: “1. Find/access/locate 2. Evaluate/discern/judge and 3. Use/communicate/produce. Users of information systems should take the following into account according to Hapke: 1. Don’t trust only one information source, 2. Be prepared for constant change, 3. Know your skills and limits, 4. When searching “bullshit in is bullshit out”. 5. Tolerate ambiguity and differences, 6. Don’t give up too early, 7. Be aware that every fact is a result of an act, that information has been created by somebody with a certain purpose”.41 Hapke has a total different view on Information Culture as opposed to the rest of the mentioned researches. He seems to be solely interested in information seeking behaviour and although he does address the creation of information this feature is hardly

37 Choo, Chun Wei. “Information culture and organizational effectiveness” Journal of information management, 33, (2013): 775

38 Choo et al. 2006, 794 39 Choo. 2013, 776

40 Hapke, Thomas. “Informationskompetenz in einer neuen Informationskultur” Handbuch Informationskompetenz. Berlin: de Gruyter Saur, (2012): 36-48.

41 Hapke, Thomas. “Information culture – different view on information literacy” Slideshare 31 may 2012.

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35 elaborated. The same can be concluded for all mentioned studies in this paragraph. Their point

of view on information culture almost solely encompasses the use and management of information and the effect of this use upon business performance. Other dimensions like the creation of information and maintenance do hardly play a part.

This study focuses on the theories of Gillian Oliver and Fiorella Foscarini, as they are discussed in their book “Records Management and Information Culture. Tackling the people problem” which was published in 2014. Their view of information culture is much more focused on the relationship with records management than the studies mentioned earlier. Because of that they do not only address the use of information but they take a more holistic viewpoint and stipulate that creation and maintenance cannot be dismissed. Given their all-encompassing approach to information, they use the records continuum model as the framework within which to examine the activities involved in creating and managing information. Each dimension of this model plays a part in their information culture view. These dimension: create, capture, organize and pluralise all have their own features that should be addressed in order to analyse

information culture and the impact it has on record keeping processes. See also figure 2.4 in paragraph 2.1. In contrast to some of the studies mentioned earlier, Oliver and Foscarini also state that information culture always exists. Ginman, Grimshaw, Curry and Moore look at information culture as something that only profitable organizations have. In their view,

dysfunctional organizations have no information culture; while Oliver and Foscarini state that all organizations have an information culture, independently of their being successful or not. It is not something that an organization can introduce at will in order to enhance business

performance. In every organization, no matter its size or shape information culture, like organizational culture, is always there simply because culture is unknowingly ‘created’ by humans as it is an aspect of being, of living and working together. Or to quote Geert Hofstede again “the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from another”.42 This also implicitly means that an organization can have sub-cultures. Oliver and Foscarini articulated the following definition of information culture: “The values accorded to information, and attitudes towards it, specifically within organizational contexts.”43 Although Oliver and Foscarini in their definition underline the organizational contexts, they acknowledge the fact that information culture should also be addressed from different viewpoints. They postulate that in order to study information culture not only the

42 Hofstede. 2001, 9

43 Oliver, Gillian; Foscarini, Fiorella. “Information Culture: An Essential Concept for Next Generation

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36 organizational level should be taken into account but also the surroundings in which the

organization is located. This means that information culture on a societal level should also be identified and cannot be dismissed. It is important to notice that Oliver and Foscarini’s

understanding of information culture on a societal level also encompasses information culture on a national level.44 When studying information culture on a societal level, features that should be taken in to account are for example: spoken languages, technological infrastructure,

legislation as well as information literacy. For this term they use the expression information-related competencies, which besides information literacy also includes digital literacy. 45 On a more abstract level societal information culture also includes a vision upon the impact of social media in a society and the way privacy is taken into account. The latter also has to do with memory and (the right to) forget(ting), that is retention policies, which is a feature of recordkeeping practices in the form of selection and disposition, an aspect in which records management professionals are experts.

4.2 Information culture in relation to organization culture

Paragraph 4.1. briefly referred to organization culture. It showed that several studies recognized that these two aspects are related with each other. E.g. Choo approached information culture as “being analogous to organizational culture but with a distinctive focus on the shared

assumptions, values, norms and behaviours that shape the organization’s perception,

management and use of information.”46 Curry and Moore believe that information culture and organizational culture are an integral part of the actions that are needed for an organization to become a ‘knowledge’ organization. They say: “The organization first recognizes the need to adopt an information culture, then communicates the ethos and demonstrates commitment by restructuring to reflect the components of an information culture. The process is dynamic and continues until the philosophy and practice of an information culture becomes the norm. At this stage the information culture is no longer distinguishable from the organizational culture and the organization has evolved into one in which the availability and use of information are inherent in everyday activities.”47 When analysing this citation the difference between authors’

44 Oliver; Foscarini. 2014, 2

45 Ibid., 94 46 Choo. 2013, 776 47 Curry; Moore. 2003, 96

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