The defensible deletion of government email
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/RMJ-09-2018-0036 |
| Published date | 11 March 2019 |
| Pages | 42-56 |
| Date | 11 March 2019 |
| Author | James Lappin,Tom Jackson,Graham Matthews,Ejovwoke Onojeharho |
The defensible deletion of
government email
James Lappin,Tom Jackson,Graham Matthews and
Ejovwoke Onojeharho
Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
Abstract
Purpose –Two rival approaches to email have emerged from information governance thought: the
defensible deletionapproach, in which emails are routinelydeleted from email accounts after a set periodof
time; and the Capstoneapproach, in which the email accountsof important government officialsare selected
for permanent preservation. This paper aims to assess the extent to which the defensible deletion approach,
when used in conjunctionwith efforts to move importantemails into corporate records systems,will meet the
needsof originating government departmentsand of wider society.
Design/methodology/approach –The paper forms the first stage of a realist evaluation of policy
towardsUKgovernmentemail.
Findings –The explanation advanced in this paperpredicts that the routine deletion of email from email
accounts will work for governmentdepartments even where business email is inconsistently or haphazardly
captured into recordssystems, provided officials have access to theirown emails for a long enough period to
satisfy their individualoperational requirements. However the routine deletion of email fromemail accounts
will work for widersociety only if and when business email is consistently capturedinto other systems.
Originality/value –The paper looks at the policy of The National Archives (TNA) towards UK
government email and maps it against the approaches present in records management and information
governance thought. Itargues that TNA’s policy is best characterisedas adefensible deletion approach.The
paper proposes a realist explanation as to how defensible deletion policies towards email work in a
governmentcontext.
Keywords Archives, Records management, Automation, Information governance, Electronic mail,
Realist evaluation
Paper type Research paper
Method
This paper forms the first stage of a realist evaluation of archival policy towards UK
Government email.
Realist evaluation is a logic of enquiry developed by sociologists Ray Pawson and Nick
Tilley (Pawson and Tilley, 1997). Pawson and Tilley argue that in the social world, a policy or
programme achieves its intended outcome only if targeted stakeholders respond to it in ways
intended by policymakers. If policymakers misreadthereasoningandlikely reactions of
targeted stakeholders, then the policy may have unwanted effects (Pawson, 2006, pp. 27-28).
The UK National Archives(TNA) advises government departments to capture important
emails into corporate records systemswhilst routinely deleting email from email accounts
This paper comes from a doctoral research project funded by The National Archives (UK) (TNA).
The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not represent the views of TNA.
All decisions in relation to the research, from the study design onwards, have been made by the
authors and not by TNA.
RMJ
29,1/2
42
Received24 September 2018
Revised29 October 2018
Accepted29 October 2018
RecordsManagement Journal
Vol.29 No. 1/2, 2019
pp. 42-56
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0956-5698
DOI 10.1108/RMJ-09-2018-0036
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0956-5698.htm
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