Records management as invisible work: A study of Finnish municipalities

Abstract

Records are strategic tools in e-government in the communication between public organizations and citizens and in promoting trust between these two actors. Records management professionals (in short, RM professionals) are responsible for organizations' daily records management practices. Rapid technological development has changed the status of RM professionals and put them in the background while other groups such as IT-professionals have gained prominence. This study examined visibility of records management work and RM professionals in Finnish municipal organizations. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire. The theoretical framework of invisible work was tool in analysis. The findings show that records management and RM professionals in Finnish municipalities are invisible when looked through the factors that previous studies have shown to be related invisible work. RM profession in Finnish municipal organizations is strongly fragmented and gendered and the work is done in informal structures sometimes by temporary personnel. The connection of these factors to invisible work and especially their implications to public sector organizations' records management have not gain much attention in earlier research. Therefore, in order to promote trustful e-government more future studies that examine the visibility of the records management work and RM professionals in different public sector organizations are needed.