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Post-records survey inspections in Zimbabwe
No full text
Purpose
This paper aims to establish public departments’ compliance with National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ)’s records survey recommendations as well as to find out reasons for compliance and non-compliance.
Design/methodology/approach
This quantitative research used a survey research design and collected data using questionnaires, which were triangulated by document reviews and personal observation. A census approach was used where all 15 public departments upon which post-records survey inspections were conducted by Gweru Records Centre in the Midlands Province in 2016 were involved in the study.
Findings
The study revealed that many public departments in Zimbabwe disregarded records survey recommendations given by NAZ after records surveys. This was despite the fact that NAZ was armed with the National Archives of Zimbabwe Act (1986) which in principle is supposed to induce compliance by client departments. As a result, the records management situation in public departments has not improved much, and in some cases, it has become worse.
Originality/value
A lot has been published about records surveys in Zimbabwe, for example, by Chaterera (2008, 2013), Dewah (2010), Karimanzira and Mutsagondo (2015), Maboreke (2007) and Mutsagondo (2012). These studies have shown the importance of records surveys. However, none of them has evaluated the effectiveness of records surveys by examining the degree of compliance to records survey recommendations by public departments. This study thus scores a first in this regard. The study will enable NAZ to make a cost-benefit analysis of records surveys as well as to use results of this study to effect necessary operational, tactical and strategic decisions as regards the exercise.
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THE ROLE OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF ZIMBABWE IN FOSTERING PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT OF EMAIL IN ZIMBABWE’S CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
Get PDFManagement of emerging technologies such as business electronic mail (email) has been a perennial challenge in many developing countries. Amongst challenges to effective management of email are lapses in legal, policy and procedural frameworks, skills and information and communication technology infrastructural deficiencies. The national archival authority in Zimbabwe, the National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ), has received a lot of criticism for failing to give direction and help public institutions in managing email in accordance with the provisions of Section 6 of the NAZ Act (1986) which gives the NAZ a superintending role in the management of records in any format in the country. This paper traces the current interventionist role that the NAZ is playing with regards to the management of email. The article focuses on Zimbabwe’s central government where head offices of 12 out of 22 government ministries participated in the study. This mixed methods research sought to tackle the research question from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. A total of 240 records officers, administration officers and information technology officers completed questionnaires while seven NAZ archivists, the NAZ director, one Administration Director and one Information Technology Director from central government participated as interviewees. The study revealed that NAZ had of recent begun to play a more proactive role in helping central government manage email properly and professionally although the assistance was not vibrantly felt across the length and breadth of the entire public service
The Long Walk to Leadership: Are Women their Own Worst Enemies?
No full textThis study traces subordinate women’s perceptions of the root causes of the rift and polarization between women in subordinate positions and women in super-ordinate positions and how this impacts female leadership emergence. Unlike many earlier studies on leadership, this investigation interrogates the feminine leadership crisis from the point of view of women in subordinate positions. Whilst using a case study research design, 50 female teachers from Gweru in Zimbabwe completed questionnaires while 10 officers from the Ministry of Women Affairs were interviewed. Descriptive statistics, mainly, frequencies and percentages were used to analyze data. The study reveals that women play a significant role in their own demise in leadership as they spent a lot of time and energy fighting each other. Most subordinate women expressed that they neither like nor support female leaders and prefer working under male leaders. This confirms the prevalence of the “Pull Her Down Syndrome”. The study serves to remind women that a divided house falls and therefore, it encourages women to support and help each other in leadership circles in the true spirit of feminism
TRACING THE MOTIVATION FOR USE OF EMAIL RECORDS IN ZIMBABWE’S CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
Get PDFThere is increased use of electronic mail (email) as official records in many organizations. In fact, email is no longer used for communication purposes only, but it is also as an official record in business transactions. Zimbabwe’s central government is one such institution where reliance on use of email is on the increase. This article identifies and discusses factors that motivate Zimbabwe’s central government in using email as an official record in day-today business. The study was mixed method research and it made use of the convergent mixed methods research design. A total of 240 out of 660 informants from 12 out of 22 government ministries participated in the study where they responded to structured questionnaires. Ten interviewees also participated in the study. These included seven archivists from the National Archives of Zimbabwe, the director of the National Archives of Zimbabwe, an administration director from one government ministry and an Information Technology director from another government ministry. In addition to structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, data were also collected through personal observation and document reviews. Revelations from the study were that rise in use of email records was boosted by strides in electronic government and mobile government as well as issues of low cost, speed and ease of use of email, the later factors owing much to the innovation diffusion theory which greatly informed this study. The study recommended that increase in use of email records should match proper management of email records in order to make email an authentic, reliable and useful record of integrity
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Challenges and prospects of records maintenance in public departments
No full text Records maintenance is a critical aspect of records management, which guarantees the availability of records now and into the future. Unfortunately, a plethora of challenges face both creating departments and the secondary depository facility, a situation which threatens the records lifecycle. This work looks at records maintenance challenges faced by government ministries and the Gweru Records Centre in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. Using questionnaires and document reviews, data were collected from records and information management officers in 25 government ministries in the province as well as from staff of Gweru Records Centre. Due to lack of records management knowledge and financial challenges, many government ministries are not transferring semi-current records when transfer is due. At the same time, Gweru Records Centre is unable to accession large volumes of records from creating departments due to space, logistical and operational challenges. However, a number of activities are being carried out by the Centre to redress the situation. The study recommends provision of financial resources for records management and staff development programmes to inculcate behavioural change among records staff and management in government ministries, as well as the establishment of a large purpose-built records centre in the Midlands Province. </jats:p
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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