Beyond the tools of office automation: Records management as a discipline

ARMA Records Management Quarterly, Oct 1998 by Sanders, Robert L

One of records managers' most enduring aspirations has been to be considered "professionals." Thus, ARMA officially identifies as "The Information Management Professionals." However, one might well ask, "What kind of 'professional' do we have in mind?" The dictionary lists two primary meanings for the term. The first is what a person does for a living (i.e., an occupation, trade, or craft). In this sense, the term is frequently used in connection with the tools required in the trade and the skill to use those tools effectively. As might be expected, identification of the term "profession" with tools is especially prevalent among tool vendors. Prefixing "pro" or "professional" to the name of a product (or to a higher priced model of a product) is common to all manner of items: power tools, vacuum cleaners, wrenches, software, golf clubs, etc. It is hard to find a product line that does not contain something with a "professional" descriptor.

In its second meaning, "professional" refers to a member of one of the learned professions (e.g., medicine, law, or engineering). The distinction between the two types of "professional" is somewhat obscured by the fact that the learned professions are also commonly associated with the "tools of their profession." Engineers were once almost inseparable from their slide rules, while the stethoscope frequently symbolizes the medical doctor. However, despite the fact that both learned professionals and tradesmen are identified with their own sets of instruments or tools, the distinction remains valid. While the tradesman's profession is generally limited to his skill in selecting and using the "tools of his trade," the learned professions are identified by their assimilation and grasp of an extensive body of arcane knowledge that forms a separate branch of learning, namely, a discipline.

Whether records managers belong to the learned professions or fit in the tradesman category is not yet totally clear, but much evidence supports their inclusion in the latter. To be sure, records managers have a code of ethics, a certification program, and a professional association, yet they are weak in the area that most distinguishes the learned professions from trades: assimilation of an academic discipline. The suggestion that the body of knowledge upon which records management is based is comparable to that digested by students in schools of law or medicine will occasion smiles, if not laughs. The certified records management exam may be tough, but it does not really compare to examinations for MD, JD, or CPA labels.

Although most records managers verbally assert their desire to be considered "true professionals" trained in an academic discipline, their actions manifest the preoccupation with tools, and the skills in using those tools, that is characteristic of tradesmen or "craftsmen." To see this trait exhibited, one need only attend the technology shows that are the focal points of our annual conferences. While all of us examine the various products and even listen to a few vendor presentations, we spend most of our time in these aisles of advanced technology doing something else: filling up shopping bags with information management gadgets.

Of course, our irrational obsession with collecting information management freebies is partly explained by our basic passion for freebies of any sort. For we exhibit the same behavior at the supermarket sample counter and at the promotions for time-share resorts. However, our conduct at the conferences also manifests a way of thinking that is more indicative of a tradesman than of a learned professional. For example, even when we direct our attention to serious office automation products, we are usually interested in their specifications, how fast they can perform a certain task, and how many really cool bells and whistles they possess. Consideration of which actual information management problems they can solve and how, are usually secondary considerations at best. Rather, we are interested in the tool for the tool's sake. It becomes something with which we can play, i.e., a toy. Like the proverbial "man with a hammer, to whom everything looked like a nail," we are records managers with a machine in search of a problem to solve.

Confessions of a Records Management Tool Collector

If we displayed this irrational obsession with RIM (records and information management) tools only at conferences, we might dismiss it as just a "conference eccentricity." However, we exhibit the same attitudes back in the office as well. Our fascination with tools for handling paper is the most familiar.

On the surface, it might appear that our staplers, tape dispensers, paper clips, monster clips, post-its, note pads, correction fluid, and ergonomic pens are just part of the "paperwork burden," about which we complain so endlessly. But if they have no secret appeal, why do we order too many of them and hoard them in locked desk drawers? Why do we look forward to receiving them at Christmas as stocking stuffers?