RECORDS PROFFESIONAL ROLES AND TRAINING

RECORDS PROFFESIONAL ROLES AND TRAINING

Noor Fadilah bt Dulgani

Faculty of Information Management, Universiti Teknologi Mara,

Selangor, Malaysia

RECORDS PROFESSIONAL ROLES AND TRAINING

ABSTRACT

Purpose - This paper aims to explore the definitions of business management and some of the issues associated with records management role and records professionals training in business management.

Design/methodology/approach – General definitions of “role” and “training” from the perspective of a professional records manager and archivist.

Findings – Education about record management provides new professionals in the course. It provides the information-seeking skills and encourages a reflective habit that underpins independent lifelong learning. Training focuses on acquisition of specific skills and competencies necessary in the workplace. More is needed for a viable profesional future; education for research is essential to the development of professional knowledge and for the survival of education programs in universities.

Originality/value – This paper aims to give appropriate weight to role and training to ensure that records professionals are known for high levels of competence as well as productive reflection and creative forward thinking.

Keywords: Professional education, Training, Competencies, Records management, Research, Role

Introduction

            The records management refers to a set of activities required for systematically controlling the creation, distribution, use, maintenance, and disposition of recorded information maintained as evidence of business activities and transactions (AAIM,2016). These set of activities also known as records life cycle. ISO 15489 defines records management (RM) as the field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records, including the processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records. Meanwhile, the business management is the activities associated with running a company, such as controlling, leading, monitoring, organizing, and planning (Business Dictionary, 2016). Business records is document that is used to store information from business operations. Types of operations having business records include meetings and contracts, as well as transactions such as purchases, bills of lading and invoices (Investor Words, 2016). It must be retrievable at a later date so that the business dealings can be accurately reviewed as required. Since business is dependent upon confidence and trust, not only the record must be accurate and easily retrieved, the processes surrounding its creation and retrieval must be perceived by customers and the business community to consistently deliver a full and accurate record with no gaps or additions. Business transactions can be conducted electronically, both within and between organizations.

Objective

The objective of these article is:

• To explain about the role and good practice as records professionals across the organizations.
• To ensure that records vital to the overall operation of all parts and levels of organizations are identified and preserved.
• To ensure the most efficient use of time, money, people and accommodation.

Content

Roles

            According to https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/records-manager website, it is said that records professionals are responsible for the effective and appropriate management of an organization’s records from their creation, right through to their eventual disposal. Professional capacity and status of the staff responsible of any integrated record management program will be measured depend on their success on handling the records. The head of any records and archives institution should ultimately be responsible for ensuring that records staff throughout the organization are adequately trained for the work they are expected to undertake. All staff appointed to posts involving records care, whether or not they already possess a professional, paraprofessional, or specialist qualification, must be trained in the specific policies and procedures of the institution.

            Training programs should be part of the overall management strategy, and they should contain elements to support professional or career development. The head must also

ensure that staff receive adequate instruction in the tasks they are required to perform, as

well as receiving appropriate standards, manuals, and guidelines to assist their work.

Agency records managers will also be involved in the selection and training of their

departmental staff (The World Bank, 2000).

The Service Ethic

Based on the notes by The World Bank, 2000. The following below is record professionals responsibilities:

• Records professionals manage, appraise, select, acquire, preserve, and make available for use records and archives, ensuring their intellectual integrity and physical protection for the benefit of users both in the present and future.
• Records professionals perform their tasks without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, or national or ethnic origin.
• Records professionals encourage and promote the greatest possible use of the records in their care, giving due attention to confidentiality, personal privacy, physical preservation, and legislative or policy requirements.
• Records professionals carry out their duties according to accepted records and archives principles and practices, to the highest standard of conduct.
• Records professionals contribute to the advancement of records and archives knowledge and skills by sharing their knowledge with other professionals and with the public in general, using their knowledge for the benefit of society as a whole.

Training

            In Malaysia, records management training is one of the best area for training within world-wide. But many information professionals are lack of work and they also lack in public sector administration, in companies or in organizations. So offering records management courses may help the organizations in their related fields. The subsequent employment of records managers or records professionals within organizations who wish to improve their recordkeeping systems will help the organization to alert with the rapid growth and use of IT.

“Training” is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary (2000-) as:

a)      Discipline and instruction directed to the development of powers or formation of character; education, rearing, bringing up; systematic instruction and exercise in some art, profession, or occupation, with a view to proficiency in it; also, of an animal (emphasis added).

If a training programed is run within or tailored for a particular institution, it may be delivered in short sessions which are spread over a few weeks, allowing time to consolidate skills before moving on to the next stage, building a skill set (Karen Anderson, 2007).

Examples include:

• an orientation course for new recruits to an organization, spread over time to avoid information overload and allow a structured learning process;
• leading participants to gain familiarity with particular stages or the whole process of implementing the Designing and Implementing a Records System set out in Part 2 of ISO 15489 (International Standards Organization, 2001);
• learning to use a particular electronic records management system (ERMS) as it has been implemented in a particular organization, allowing consolidation of practice in one module or level of authority before moving on to another module or higher level of responsibility on the system; and
• an introduction to a new performance appraisal process adopted by the organization.

CONCLUSION

            In a nutshell, the concept of record management and business management can be understood as an important strategies, which emphasizes the great potential in achieving good results in life.  Every seconds in our life, thousands of records were created around the world. And with the development of digital production today, the records professionals are very important. Few roles of records professionals is to manage, maintain, classify and select records. The lack of a mandatory requirement for information professionals practicing in some companies will make the record management unorganized. The perspective of the business records assure people that the developing the work ethic within all the organization is important and the performance in the workplace too. The professionals must be constantly supportive about the idea of records management in each sector or organizations because of how important it is because in record management and business management, every criteria has to be calculated if we want to achieve the best management. Moreover, the conflicts in the working environment needs to be aware and fixed in order to keep the momentum of the values. Therefore, business records perspective can be a vital with filing records and can help with understanding the records system used in the organizations and companies with thoughtful over research commitments.

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