Earlier studies that discussed information culture (Ginman 1987; Grimshaw 1995; Owens, Wilson and Abell 1997; Hoglund 1998;Widén-Wulff 2000) were more concerned with finding the interrelation between information culture and business performance. Other studies (Grimshaw 1995; Choo 2013; Hansen and Widen 2017) discussed information culture in relation to organisations’ effectiveness, innovation, and information use while Lauri, Heidmets and Virkus (2015) investigated the relationship between information culture and job satisfaction.
The key finding of these studies was that there is a correlation between information culture and organisational performance and organisational effectiveness.
Within the information science discipline, Bergeron et al. (2013) and Vick, Nagano and Papadiuk (2015) discussed the role of information culture in knowledge management. Choo, Furness, Paquette, Van Den Berg, Detlor, Bergeron and Heaton (2006) and Travica (2005) concluded that within information management a good information culture supports the effective creation, use and management of information. Some studies have attempted to investigate the link between information culture and information literacy. Information culture and information literacy have been mainly discussed from the academic perspective with the key finding being the need to focus on students’ information culture-related issues by introducing context-dependent values, norms,
49 and practices (Lauri, Heidmets and Virkus 2015; Alillerie, Cordier and Lehmans 2017; Lepik and Kannukene 2017; Martínez-Rocha, Lau and Díaz 2017). In other instances, information culture has been discussed alongside information literacy in the workplace by Crawford and Irving (2009) and Widén and Karim (2017).
It is evident from the literature presented above that information culture has been investigated in a variety of contexts. Studies reviewed so far focused on information in general, especially the informative quality of the content, whereas records management considers the evidential value of information as well as its transactional value. Earlier studies by Grimshaw (1995), Widén-Wulff (2000) and Choo et al. (2008) established some propositions on the importance of values and attitudes as part of information culture. They concluded that it is possible to identify behaviours and values that describe an organisation’s information culture. The set of identified behaviours and values can account for a significant proportion of the variance in information use outcomes.
However, if their observations are true the question “How do attitudes and behaviours affect electronic records management in Botswana parastatals?” needs to be asked. Electronic records are about managing change as people will react differently to the introduced system. Gunnlaugsdottir (2008) observed that there have to be supporting factors to implement electronic records successfully, namely, top management support, user participation, and training. The author concluded that there is a strong relationship between the successful implementation factors and positive outcomes of the process. The positive outcomes were a high level of use of the ERM system and better work procedures. Gregory (2005), Zinner and Viborg (2008) and Alzubi (2015) argued that an ERM system is not only about software acquisition but it also involves employee mindset change and cultural change.
The above points are reiterated by Alzubi (2015) who ascertained that challenges to implementing electronic records in Pakistan were more related to administrative culture. There were conflicts related to values as the system workflow did not fit well within the organisational culture and employees’ mindsets. Wilkins and Swatman (2008) cautioned that organisations, in the implementation of an ERM system, tend to leave people and processes involved in the creation and maintenance of records and information behind. The authors point out that the uptake of an ERM system requires a major cultural change in an organisation. Likewise, Alshibly, Chiong and Bao (2016) added that the work environment, culture and a change management strategy are key to effective ERM implementation. It is clear that effective ERM implementation requires cultural change. Furthermore, Pan (2017) highlighted the need to understand users of records and information specialists as part of the solution to ERM system implementation.
50 According to McLeod, Childs and Hardiman (2011), among the challenges of electronic records are “people issues” which comprise their cultural and philosophical attitudes. Furthermore, the authors emphasise the role of people in accelerating change in ERM systems. This was also observed by Oliver and Foscarini (2014) who purport that cultural change is a significant factor when introducing an ERM system in an organisation as people are often unwilling to relinquish “their” information. Notably, mindset and cultural change are vital to the implementation of an ERM system. The findings that culture and people can comprise barriers to the implementation of an ERM system, means there is a need for a new perspective in its implementation. Hence, Joseph, Debowski and Goldschmidt (2012) stress that the information culture embedded in an organisation is important for successful records keeping.
The information culture concept within ERM has been discussed by Oliver (2004) who investigated organisations in Germany, Hong Kong and Australia. In terms of methodology, Oliver (2004) used a multiple case study in which 12-16 interviews were conducted in each organisation. The author concluded that the interaction of culture and information involves investigating people’s actions, attitudes and opinions. The values and attitudes became influencing factors of the information culture in the organisations. Oliver (2004) did not specifically elucidate on the creation and capture of records where most human activities/transactions are carried out in the records continuum. However, the study being the first of its kind has paved the way for other studies to pursue aspects related to information culture and ERM.
Wright (2013) investigated information culture in the Canadian public service. A survey method involving 207 participants was carried out to understand the relationship between the records management training provided to staff, self-perceptions of records management competencies, and compliance with a formal records management program. Wright (2013) found that there was a potential relationship between formal training and self-perceived level of records management competency. However, the study did not clearly demonstrate any impact of the training programme on the organisation’s information culture. Oliver and Foscarini (2014) purport that within electronic records, values and attitudes shape information culture.
Svärd (2014), using a case study design involving 103 interviews to understand Enterprise Content Management and information culture concept, concluded that Swedish municipalities faced organisational and cultural attitudes that hindered records management. The author concluded that the Swedish municipalities have an immature information culture and an anarchistic information model. Furthermore, the author states that the attitudes demonstrated by employees make it difficult to pluralise records. Sundqvist and Svärd (2016) pointed out that while there is a lack of research on information culture and records management, a few researchers have explored
51 the impact of cultural aspects on records management. They also noted that the cultural impact on how records are created, captured and organised has rarely been acknowledged in the literature on information culture.
Like the studies discussed above, the current study had an interest in exploring the influence of information culture on records management. However, there is a difference in how it explored this as well as a difference in theoretical orientation. For example, Svärd (2014) used the Records Continuum Model, the Enterprise Content Model and information culture based on Davenport and Prusak (1997). The current study used the Records Continuum Model, the Information Culture Assessment Framework and information culture based on Choo et al. (2008).
Thus, the difference between the current study and the ones discussed above is methodological orientation. The studies of Svärd (2014) and Oliver and Foscarini (2014) were qualitative, whereas the current study adopted a mixed methods approach. Also, unlike the previous studies which were conducted in developed countries, the current study took place in a developing country. Therefore, the current study presented information culture and records management from a developing country’s perspective.