Business Processes: An Archival Science Approach to Collaborative Decision Making, Records, and Knowledge Management

221 Pages·2004·0.85 MB·English

by  Angelika Menne-Haritz

Business Processes
THE ARCHIVIST’S LIBRARY
Volume 3
Editor-In-Chief
Terry Eastwood, University of British Columbia, Canada.
Editorial Board
Luciana Duranti, University of British Columbia, Canada
Maria Guercio, University of Urbino, Italy
Michael Piggott, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Business Processes
An Archival Science Approach to
Collaborative Decision Making, Records,
and Knowledge Management
by
Angelika Menne-Haritz
German Federal Archives,
Berlin, Germany
German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer,
Germany
KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK,BOSTON, DORDRECHT, LONDON, MOSCOW
eBookISBN: 1-4020-2198-4
Print ISBN: 1-4020-2197-6
©2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.
Print ©2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers
Dordrecht
All rights reserved
No part of this eBook maybe reproducedor transmitted inanyform or byanymeans,electronic,
mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written consent from the Publisher
Created in the United States of America
Visit Springer's eBookstore at: http://ebooks.kluweronline.com
and the Springer Global Website Online at: http://www.springeronline.com
v
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................1
1 DECISION MAKING PROCESSES............................................................7
1.1 Research methods...........................................................................................7
1.2 Records..........................................................................................................11
1.3 Two forms of business processes: decision making versus production
processes........................................................................................................12
1.4 Decision making...........................................................................................15
1.5 Bureaucracy..................................................................................................16
1.6 Systems theory and business processes......................................................19
2 THE HISTORICAL SHIFT FROM COMMITTEE TO PAPER BASED
DECISION MAKING..................................................................................25
2.1 Monocratic form...........................................................................................25
2.2 Historical forms of oral committee based government.............................27
2.3 Basic forms of oral deliberation in historical administrations.................28
2.3.1 Differentiation between council and chancellery...............................29
2.3.2 The introduction of stricter forms for the voting procedure...............31
2.3.3 Written instruments of oral administration.........................................35
2.3.4 Special characteristics of the Prussian form of committee based
administration.....................................................................................39
2.4 ‘Conceptual orality’ of writing....................................................................41
2.4.1 Persistent distribution of anticipated competencies............................43
2.4.2 The use of functions of oral deliberations for purposes other than
decision making..................................................................................46
2.4.3 Characteristics of collegial decision making......................................48
vi
2.5 Differentiation of functional competencies................................................52
2.5.1 Contradictions between process oriented and monocratic .....................
tendencies...........................................................................................53
2.5.2 Functional responsibilities of the registry office................................58
2.5.3 Compensation for the vanishing unity of the debate..........................63
2.5.4 Installation and revocation of the task list as an organising
instrument...........................................................................................65
2.5.5 Installation of co-Principals................................................................67
2.5.6 Replacement of board control by hierarchy........................................70
2.6 Committee based decision making and modern bureaucratic
techniques.....................................................................................................72
2.7 Classical collaborative decision making processes....................................74
2.7.1 Elements of typical business processes..............................................75
2.7.2 Problems.............................................................................................78
2.7.3 The legacy of Prussian collegial traditions.........................................81
2.8 Work process guidelines for the central ministries: legacy from the
Office Reform...............................................................................................83
2.8.1 First attempts of an office reform for the central agencies in Prussia 83
2.8.2 Brecht's first source: Drews’publication.............................................84
2.8.3 Content of the guidelines: a mixture of problematic elements...........87
2.8.4 The modular structure of the text.......................................................89
2.9 Business processes in post-war German government...............................91
2.9.1 Contradictory elements.......................................................................93
2.9.2 Preparations for electronic records.....................................................96
3 RECORDS....................................................................................................99
3.1 Forms and functions of records and files...................................................99
3.1.1 Effects of writing..............................................................................100
3.1.2 Effects of oral communication.........................................................108
3.1.3 Characteristics of oral and written decision making processes........116
3.1.4 Written instruments of oral administrations.....................................123
3.1.5 Files of modern administration.........................................................128
3.1.6 Archival definitions..........................................................................130
3.1.7 Elementary units of the record: the entries.......................................132
vii
3.2 Organisational backgrounds.....................................................................134
3.2.1 Infrastructure for board-based decision making...............................135
3.2.2 Functional differentiation for written decision making processes....137
3.2.3 Organisational structures..................................................................138
3.2.4 Control of operational work.............................................................144
4 FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS OF OPEN COMMUNICATION
PROCESSES IN ELECTRONIC ENVIRONMENTS............................147
4.1 Needs of autonomous open ended processes............................................148
4.1.1 Use and construction of memory......................................................149
4.1.2 Usefulness of latency........................................................................156
4.2 Needs for stability and functions of archives in electronic
environments..............................................................................................167
4.2.1 Characteristics of digital recordings.................................................171
4.2.2 Reconstruction versus storage..........................................................175
4.3 Archival Functions in Digital Environments...........................................178
4.3.1 Meanings of the core archival competencies....................................178
4.3.2 Archival science and the theoretical basis for new strategies...........190
4.3.3 Archives and Knowledge Management as complementary
functions...........................................................................................195
BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................205
INDEX.......................................................................................................................211
This page intentionally left blank
INTRODUCTION
Records, their creation and use as sources have rarely been a subject of attention
outside archives. Only since the availability of document management systems and
electronic archives has records management begun to experience new interest.
However, it seems that there is not much to theorise about. Nevertheless, after the
introduction of electronic office systems some problems have occurred when the easier
retrieval and the higher flexibility have lead to people forgetting things. Which version
of a draft was the final one and which one was sent? Who made the PDF version and
when? Is the collection in the folder on the server complete or is there other data
stored somewhere else? These and more complicated questions arise and allow the
difference separating the usual ways of working with documents, records and files in
the tangible world from the new methods using electronic recordings become obvious.
The introduction of a new medium has far reaching consequences on the way of
handling recordings and on communication in general.
However this is not the first discontinuity in media that mankind has experienced.
The changes which occurred during the introduction of writing into a society based
mainly on oral tradition have been described by Eric Havelock [Havelock (1982)]
using the example of antique Greece. He showed how literacy first was used in the
economic sphere and had nothing to do with cultural abilities, whilst instead learning
by heart and recitation was the main way in which literature was distributed. Oral
language had developed techniques of remembering that were not available in the
written forms and therefore the oral tradition was more trusted than writing. However
that form of oral communication was not that of everyday life. It was more formal and
that formality facilitated memorising. During the following centuries the techniques of
oral communications, including the purposeful use of their special impacts on
transmitting messages and memorising, however, were less trained and trusted.
A similar shift occurred when writing was introduced into an administration
system relying mainly on oral communication for finding solutions many centuries
later. In the Prussian administrative tradition boards were the main form for the core
administrative work, in contrast to other European countries like France and even in
contrast to the central government of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation,
which was situated in Vienna. Prussia was situated far away and was integrated into
the administrative structures of the Empire rather late. At that time the legal traditions
of the south relying on written procedures were integrated into a deeply rooted oral
tradition of committee based work. Even up to the 19th century, for instance, the heads
of the provincial government could be outvoted by a majority of the heads of its
departments, the so called ministers. A royal decision in the 17th century conserved
these oral working techniques for administrative work, whilst the written procedures
of Roman law were adopted for legal cases, both inside the same body. The long
tradition of deliberations finally led to a special form of processes using writing as non
textual disposals for activities to be done. Internal writing took over the form of