"Hur man hanterar saker ute i verkligheten" : En studie av upplevelser av arkivarbete vid svenska utlandsmyndigheter

Sammanfattning

This paper examines how employees at Sweden’s Foreign Authorities are experiencing archival and records management duties. When compared to other authorities in Sweden, who often require higher education within the record management and archival field, the employees at Sweden’s Foreign Authorities can be assigned archival and record management tasks without prior experience. The employees are equipped with different resources to support them in their archival work, such as regulatory documents and reference guidelines, a short training session, and online archival support from the Government office. To examine their experiences, a survey was sent to all foreign authorities, directed at employees with archival responsibilities. Four interviews were held with foreign authority staff as well. Two theoretical perspectives were used: the records continuum model and new institutional theory. By using the continuum model, we were able to analyze the impact the context has, if any, on the employees’ experiences, and together with new institutional theory, we were able to analyze the relationship and dynamic between the Government office and the Foreign Authorities. We could conclude that the employees often feel under pressure in order to fulfill an archival ideal in their work, an ideal which is formed within the organization but also by other authorities such as the Government office. In relation to the given support, which is a necessity for the employees to be able to perform their tasks, several factors are pointed out which can be improved to further ease the work. As a whole though, most employees were fairly satisfied with the level of offered support in regard to the archival work, even if there are room for improvements in areas such as updates to regulatory documents to better reflect their everyday experiences, and more resources and time to spend on archival tasks.