The human side of ERMS: an Icelandic study
| Date | 20 February 2009 |
| Published date | 20 February 2009 |
| Pages | 54-72 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09565690910937245 |
| Author | Johanna Gunnlaugsdottir |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
The human side of ERMS:
an Icelandic study
Johanna Gunnlaugsdottir
University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a research conducted in Iceland
during the period 2001-2005 and in 2008 on how employees view their use of Electronic Records
Management Systems (ERMS).
Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative methodology was used. Four organizations were
studied in detail and another four provided a comparison. Open-ended interviews and participant
observations were the basic elements of the research. The research discovered the basic issues in the
user-friendliness of ERMS, the substitutes that employees turned to if they did not welcome ERMS,
how confident employees were in their computer use and how they felt that their work could be shared
and observed by others.
Findings – Employees seemed to regard ERMS as a groupware for constructive group work and not
as an obtrusive part of a surveillance society. The research identified training as the most important
factor in making employees confident in their use of ERMS. Participation in adapting the classification
scheme to the ERMS changed the views that employees had regarding the user-friendliness of the
ERMS and their effectiveness as users.
Originality/value – This topic has not been studied as regards ERMS before. The research identifies
the most important implementation factors and the issues that must be dealt with to make employees
more content, confident and proficient users of ERMS.
Keywords User interfaces,Change management, Database management systems,
Records management,Iceland
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The implementation and use of ERMS (Electronic Records Management Systems) was
studied in recent research that was conducted in a number of Icelandic organizations.
The data collection took place during the period 2001 to 2005 in eight organizations. A
follow-up was made in 2008.
One of the aims of the study was to discover how employees felt working with
ERMS and that is the focus of this research paper. It examines:
.whether employees found the ERMS user-friendly or not;
.what employees used as a substitute if they did not use ERMS;
.whether the employees experienced insecurity regarding computer use; and
.whether employees objected that their work in ERMS was being monitored or
observed by others.
There was a strong relationship between the important implementation factors an d the
level of use. This has already been discussed in two separate articles (Gunnlaugsdottir,
2008a; Gunnlaugsdottir, 2008b). This is, however, the first time that the feelings of
employees in connection with the implementation are presented in detail.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0956-5698.htm
RMJ
19,1
54
Received 6 May 2008
Revised 5 November 2008
Records Management Journal
Vol. 19 No. 1, 2009
pp. 54-72
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0956-5698
DOI 10.1108/09565690910937245
The following discussion is organized into six sections starting with a presentation
of the methodology used. The interviewees expressed their feelings regarding their
work in ERMS. Their feelings are grouped into four categories: the user-friendliness of
ERMS, informal alternatives to RM other than using ERMS, insecurity regard ing
computer use, and superiors monitoring and fellow employees seeing work per formed
in ERMS. These categories are covered in the next four sections. The paper concludes
with a general discussion of the findings.
Methodology
The aim of this part of the research was to discover how employees in eight
organizations in Iceland felt about working with ERMS. A qualitative methodology
with a triangular approach was chosen for conducting the research (Denzin and
Lincoln, 2003; Gorman and Clayton, 1997) although it was attempted to use
quantitative measurements whenever qualitative data lent themselves to such
interpretations as suggested by Silverman (2005). Two different methods were used in
the field. Open-ended interviews were conducted with employees (King, 1999; Kvale,
1996) and participant observations were undertaken (Bogdan and Biklen, 2003).
The main data collection took place during the period September 2001 to April 2005.
The total number of interviewees in the eight organizations was 38. The workstations
that were visited during the participant observations were 140 in total. Follow-up
interviews were had with the records managers in the eight organizations in the
beginning of 2008. At that time the records managers at two organizations, the
Manufacturing Firm and the Municipal Office, had left their jobs and new individuals
had replaced them.
The eight organizations had bought four different ERMS (D, E, F and G) with two
organizations using the same system. All of the four systems had been evaluated and
were believed to meet all of the important requirements of the DoD 5015.2-STD (2002)
– latest edition (2007), the requirements for approved RM procedures according to the
ISO 15489 standard for RM (ISO, 2001a; ISO, 2001b), and Icelandic law. They all meet
the requirements of being ERMS (ARMA International, 2004, p. 4; CECA, 2001,
pp. 63-64).
These ERMS were all equipped with a classification scheme/system (CS), “the
foundation of any ERMS” (CECA, 2008, p. 23). All of the four ERMS offered
opportunities for group work and co-operation between employees (Coleman, 1999;
Gunnlaugsdottir, 2003, 2004; Orlikowski and Barley, 2001).
An overview of the research, explaining the distribution of interviewees in the eight
organizations and the participant observations, is shown in Table I.
The user-friendliness of ERMS
User-friendliness means that the employees should be able, with limited knowledge of
computers, to learn and adopt the new work procedures and to use the system
correctly. ERMS must be user-friendly concerning the following work procedures:
word processing, classification of records, cataloguing or registering of records, saving
records, searching for and retrieving records and the distribution of records and
information.
All of the interviewees in the organizations (38 people) were asked how they liked
the user interface concerning the work procedures mentioned above. All of them had an
The human side
of ERMS
55
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