VITAL RECORDS
PROTECTION IN PUBLIC OFFICES FOR THE CONTINUITY OF SERVICES AND BUSINESS
OPERATIONS IN TANZANIA
A CASE OF PUBLIC SERVICE SOCIAL SECURITY FUND
(PSSSF) HEAD QUARTERS- DODOMA CITY
VITAL RECORDS
PROTECTION IN PUBLIC OFFICES FOR THE CONTINUITY OF SERVICES AND BUSINESS
OPERATIONS IN TANZANIA
A CASE STUDY OF PUBLIC SERVICE SOCIAL SECURITY FUND
(PSSSF) HEAD QUARTERS- DODOMA CITY
By
Jumanne James
A dissertation submitted
in partial/fulfilment of the Requirements for Award of the Bachelor Degree of
in Public Administration in Records and Archives Management (BPA-RAM) of Mzumbe
University.
2021
CERTIFICATION
We, the undersigned, certify that we have read
and hereby recommend for acceptance by the Mzumbe University, a dissertation entitled Vital records protection in public
offices for the continuity of services and business operations in Tanzania in
partial/fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the of Bachelor degree
of Public Administration in Records and Archives Management of Mzumbe
University.
Hamis Kiyabo
Signature
___________________________
Major
supervisor
Internal
Examiner
___________________________
Signature
___________________________
Accepted for the board of School of Public Administration and
Management
(SOPAM)
Signature
DECLARATION
AND
COPYRIGHT
I, Jumanne James, declare that this
dissertation is my own original work and that it has not been presented and
will not be presented to any other university for a similar or any other degree
award.
Signature ___________________________
Date
___________________________
©
This research
report is a copyright material protected under the Berne Convention, the
Copyright Act 1999 and other international and national enactments, in that
behalf, on intellectual property. It may not be reproduced by any means in full
or in part, except for short extracts in fair dealings, for research or private
study, critical scholarly review or discourse with an acknowledgement, without
the written permission of Mzumbe University, on behalf of the author.
DEDICATION
This work is dedicated to my Parents including my
father and mother: Mr. James William & Mrs. Raheli Kajala, My uncle and
Aunt: Mr. Ezekiel Mgolola & Mrs. Agnes Kisinza, and my research Supervisor
Mr. Hamis Kiyabo.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This
work has been achieved through the contributions of many people, firstly I
extend my earnest gratitude to my God for the supernatural power surrounded me
to achieve this work.
I extend
my acknowledgement to my research supervisor Mr. Hamis K. Kiyabo for his
endless supervision until the completion of this study. I also acknowledge
the lecturers from Mzumbe
university belonging to the school of public administration and management for
their guidance as well as support.
I also
acknowledge my family members including my father and mother: Mr.
James William & Mrs. Raheli Kajala, My uncle and Aunt: Mr. Ezekiel Mgolola
& Mrs. Agnes Kisinza. Special gratitude to be extended to the Public
Service Social Security Fund (PSSSF) headquarter for their wonderful cooperation
and support within the entire time of data collection as they offered a consent
for the data to be collected from their offices to achieve this study.
Thanks to all members whom in
direct or indirect way facilitated the completion of this study.
LIST OF
ABBREVIATIONS
PSSSF Public Service Social Security Fund
TAHO Tasmania Archive and Heritage
Office
PO-PSM President’s Office- Public Service
Management
US United States
RAM Records and Archives Management
RAMD Records and Archives Management
Department
RAMP Records and Archives Management
Policy
ACOG American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologist
CNAATD Catalonia National Committee of Records
Access Appraisal and Disposition.
USAID United States Aid
ABSTRACT
Ensuring better vital records protection is very
crucial to any public organizations because vital records are necessary for the
organization to revamp its normal operations after a disaster. The study aimed to
find out on how the vital records
protection has been done in public offices for the continuity of services and
business operations in Tanzania. A case of Public Service Social Security Fund
(PSSSF) Dodoma City.
The specific objectives of the study were to find
out if the government has approved any vital records and business recovery
plans for the public offices, to find out if the public offices are managing and
implementing the vital records and business recovery plans according to the
standards and guidelines issued by the government, to determine if the public offices
are insuring that their vital records and business recovery plans include the
provision of any necessary hardware, software and procedure manual to
facilitate access and use of vital records.
The study applied a case study design to
enable a researcher to make an examination closely about
the data of a context by which a researcher chosen a small or modest
geographical unit and used it as the subject for the research study. A sample
selected was 30 out of 60 as total population of the organization where the
purposive sampling and simple random sampling method were applied to select a
sample. Data collection was
done through interview, questionnaire and observation method to obtain the most
relevant and accurate data and they were analyzed through both qualitative analysis
and quantitative analysis
On the basis of the findings, the government
approves the vital records and business recovery plans for the PSSSF to promote
the vital records protection, the PSSSF has been considering the standards and
guidelines issued by the government in implementing the vital records and
business recovery plans and managing the vital records, at the PSSSF there is
an inclusion of the provision of any necessary hardware, software and procedure
manual in their vital records recovery plans to facilitate access and use of records.
The
study concluded that the NRAMP of 2011 has been put into practice towards vital
records protection at the PSSSF although various hurdles face its
implementation which the study provides recommendations to deal with them.
The
study recommends that the top managers in the public organizations should train
all of their employees about the importance of records management, also the
records management staff members should be receiving a regular training about
their profession.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM OF THE STUDY
1.2. Definition
of terms which will be used frequently
1.3. Background
to the problem
1.7. Significance
of the study
1.9. Limitation
and delimitation of the study
2.2. Theoretical
literature review.
2.3. Theoretical
framework for this study
3.5. Sample,
sample size and sampling methods
3.6.2. Quantitative
data collection methods
3.8. Data
presentation and analysis
DATA PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.2. Summary
of the study’s method and procedures
5.6. Suggestions
of the areas for further study
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1. Accessible
population of the study
Table 3.2.
Sample size division
Table 4.1.
Biographic data of the respondents
Table 4.2.
Standards and guidelines issued by the government existing at the PSSSF
Table 4.3.
presents the data on the standards and guidelines consideration
Table 4.4. Ways
of implementing the standards and guidelines issued by the government
Table 4.5.
Presents the data collected through questionnaire
Table 4.6. Researcher’s observation Checklist
LIST
OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1.The records continuum model
Figure 2.2. The records life cycle model
Figure 2.3. The conceptual framework of the study
Figure 4.1. Approval of the vital records recovery plans
Figure 4.2. Recovery plans approved by the government
Figure 4.3. Presence of standards and guidelines issued by government
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM OF THE STUDY
1.1.Introduction
This
chapter has been designed to cover the definition of terms which appeared most
frequently, background to the problem, statement of the problem, objectives of
the study, research questions, significance of the study, scope of the study,
limitation of the study, delimitation of the study and ethical considerations.
1.2.Definition
of terms which will be used frequently
The
terminologies which required to be defined very clearly in this study include
the records, theory, vital records, vital records protection, public offices,
policy and the implementation. These terms are defined properly as follows.
Record, is an
electronic or paper document that is generated, received, and preserved to document
organizations’ transactions or serve as the evidence of business transactions
(Western University, 2020). Records include invoices, maps, minutes and
vouchers of travel. They are the information kept in any media like data bases,
papers, spreadsheets, and words documents (Western University, 2020).
Vital
record, Vital records are the records which without them the
organization cannot perform its operations and they cannot be replaced easily
and they require significant resources for them to be recreated (Tasmania
Archive and Heritage Office (TAHO), 2020). Vital records contain the crucial
details necessary to revamp the organization’s normal operations after a
disaster or another event that may end up destroying the records, these include
information like the information concerning the organization’s core business
operations, information about preparing and responding to an emergency,
information about the organization’s financial and legal rights as well as the
information about customer’s legal and financial rights (TAHO, 2020).
Vital
records protection,
vital records protection refers to a plan that recognizes and protects those
records containing the vital details which are crucial for an enterprise to
continue with its key operations and activities in case of emergency or
disaster like the earth quake, firebreak, floods and others (University of
Missouri, 2020). It is the process of protecting vital records against fire,
floods, firebreak, and earthquake.
A policy is the guidance for doing an action.
Therefore, policy implementation is the process of putting the policy’s goals,
objectives and statements into actions or practice (Khan 2016). Therefore,
implementation of National Records and Archives Management Policy of 2011 is
the process of putting this policy into practices in the records and archives
management offices or organization in the public offices. The NRAMP should be
implemented towards vital records protection in the public organizations
through implementing its policy statements towards protection of vital records
which require the government to approve vital records and business-recovery
plans for the public organizations; the public offices to manage and implement
vital records and business recovery plans according to standards and guidelines
issued by the government; the public offices to ensure that the vital records
and business- recovery plans include the provision of any necessary hardware,
software and procedure manuals to enable the records to be accessed and read.
Theory in social science research can be defined as the mental picture
that is constructed for a research problem (Turner, et al. 2018).
Public
offices,
by taking the concept of public organizations, the term public offices refer to
the publicly and government owned and controlled offices which offer services
to the public like the hospitals, records centers, public registries, public
universities and others (Institute of Internal Auditors, 2011). The public
offices include the international partnerships offices, national regional and
local owned offices like municipals (Horne. S, & Turner. B, 2011).
1.3.Background
to the problem
The
origin of vital records protection can be traced far back around 1854 in the
Register house of Edinburgh where they were called vital statistics by the
James Stack (Blumberg, et al., 2012). Nowadays in both the government and
non-government organizations and institutions, the term vital statistics has
changed the name to vital records which has become applicable not only in the
context of statistics registration systems but also in the organizations, it
means the records which the organizations need to have in order to recover
their normal operations in the event of disasters which ends in destroying all
other records (Iron Mountain, 2020). These records include the contracts,
leases, policy manuals, and quality assurance records, financial records and
legal records (Iron Mountain, 2020). Regarding
the importance of vital records in the world as they are needed to restructure
the organizations after the disaster which ends up on destroying all other
records, the idea about protecting them became the central one in every
organization’s records management in the world (Jaderstrom, Kruk & Miller,
2005). Various efforts have been undertaken in the world to enforce vital
records protection including the innovation and advancement of the fire
resistant cabinets which were firstly innovated in 1818 in the United Kingdom to
protect the vital records against fire, establishment of various frameworks,
standards and guidelines like policies and Acts for vital records protection in
the world, development of the online storage to protect vital records, establishment
of vital records programs, and the establishment of the professions to train
elites on how to protect vital records as well as the International standards
for records management known as International Standards Organization (ISO
15489) and the International Records Management Trust (Jaderstrom Kruk &
Miller). However, the vital records protection is still poor in most parts of
the world due to the fact that the vital documents still go missing every day
due to misfiling and sometimes they are forever lost in towns and cities the
loss of documents hinders the ability of the organization to revamp its normal
operations in case of emergency, also the issue of security of vital records is
still a challenge because most of the organizations are still getting
difficulty to maintain the vital records’ confidentiality (Pagliaro, 2012). Hence,
vital records protection becomes unable to yield the expected better results to
the organizations in the world.
The
African continent as part of this world is also owning its own history of vital
records protection, the origin of vital records in Africa can be traced far
back in the late 19th C and early 20th century when they
were referred to as the Genealogy, genealogy implies the records maintained at
the local level (Pagliaro, 2012). The genealogy included the records of birth,
records of marriage, records of deaths, records of the family history and
others (Pagliaro, 2012). The vital records also gained popularity after the end
of colonialism when the decolonized African governments obtained the very
critical information concerning their territories which were left by
colonialists after independence, the need of the African Governments to protect
more their national critical information from being lost, various vital records
sections were initiated secretly to protect those vital records and this became
the custom of every African governments to protect its own vital records
related to the Nation (Pagliaro, 2012). Various
efforts have been undertaken to improve vital records protection in Africa
including the introduction of various standards, procedures, policies and
guidelines to promote vital records protection including the policies like the
National records management policy existing in Tanzania, and the Records Management
Acts (Pagliaro, 2012). However, the vital records protection is still poor in
most African countries because the vital records are still lost every day due
to misfiling and poor storage as well as poor handling, the loss of documents
hinders the ability of the African organizations to revamp their normal
operations in case of disasters, the poor vital records protection is the
result of the challenges like the issue of inadequate knowledge on managing
electronic vital records because most of the Records staffs are still getting
difficulty to cope with technological change in managing vital records, costs
of management and protection, and the poor policies to enforce vital records
protection (Pagliaro, 2012). Hence, the vital records protection becomes unable
to yield the admired fruits towards the continuity of business operations and
service delivery in the public service.
By
considering the context of Tanzania which is located in the eastern part of
Africa, the government has been undertaking various efforts towards the
protection of vital records, it is believed that for the organizations to
sustain their operations in Tanzania they should not ignore the protection of
vital records (PO-PSM, 2011). Regarding the importance of the vital records for
the continuity of business operations and service delivery in Tanzania, the government
has made various efforts to promote the vital records protection, according to
Mohamed, (2018) the major effort made by the government to enforce protection
of vital records in Tanzania was the inclusion of the vital records protection
into the National Records and Archives Management Policy of 2011. However, the
vital records protection is still poor in Tanzania since the vital records are
still lost every day due to misfiling,
the
weak records’ office environment and setting, misfiling the documents, and the insufficient
electronic systems to manage the electronic records. Hence, the National
Records and Archives Management Policy becomes unable to bring improvements on
the vital records protection in Tanzania.
With regard to the major effort made by the government
towards protection of vital records in Tanzanian public offices, the public
organizations should comply to the established National Records and Archives
Management Policy issued in 2011 towards protecting vital records. One of the
objectives of this policy towards vital records is to ensure that the vital
records are properly protected against fire, flood, theft, technical failure,
breach of security and loss and developing business recovery plans to protect
and recover vital records in the event of disaster for the continuity of key
services delivery. In order to achieve this objective, there are policy
statements towards protection of vital records which require the government to
approve vital records and business-recovery plans for the public organizations;
the public offices to manage and implement vital records and business recovery
plans according to standards and guidelines issued by the government; the
public offices to ensure that the vital records and business- recovery plans
include the provision of any necessary hardware, software and procedure manuals
to enable the records to be accessed and read (PO-PSM, 2011). Currently, the
public organizations in Tanzania are still unable to revamp their key services delivery
and operations due to the loss of records through fire, flood, theft, technical
failure, breach of security and loss (Mohamed, 2018). Hence, this invites to
find out the implementation of the NRAMP of 2011 towards vital records
protection in public offices. There are many empirical research studies already
done by different scholars concerning the vital records including the research
study done by Kanuti, (2014), the study done by the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) in September 2015, the study done by
Miquel Serra Fernandez in 2009, lastly, the study done by Kimario, (2014). Despite
the fact that various research studies have already been conducted on the vital
records protection, the research gap was realized from the existing knowledge
because most of empirical researches have explained about other topics related
to protecting vital records but they lacked documentation about how the National
Archives and Records Management Policy of 2011 has been implemented by public
organization on protecting vital records for the continuity of business
operations and service delivery in Tanzania. So, this research study went to
fill this gap through studying on how the National Records and Archives
Management Policy of 2011 is being followed or implemented in Tanzanian public
offices to protect their vital records to attain the continuity of business
operations and the key services operations.
1.4.Statement
of the problem
Various
reasonable efforts have been undertaken globally to enforce vital records
protection including the innovation and advancement of the fire resistant
cabinets which were firstly innovated in 1818 in the United Kingdom to protect
the vital records against fire, establishment of various frameworks, standards
and guidelines like policies and Acts for vital records protection in the
world, development of the online storage to protect vital records,
establishment of vital records programs, and the establishment of the
professions to train elites on how to protect vital records as well as the
International standards for records management known as International Standards
Organization (ISO 15489) and the International Records Management Trust
(Jaderstrom Kruk & Miller). Various
efforts have been undertaken in Africa to improve vital records protection
including the introduction of various standards, procedures and guidelines to
promote vital records protection like the policies like the National records
management policy existing in Tanzania, and the Records Management Acts as well
as guidelines and procedures (Pagliaro, 2012). Regarding the importance of the
vital records for the continuity of business operations and service delivery in
Tanzania, the government has made various efforts to promote the vital records protection,
according to Mohamed, (2018) the major effort made by the government to enforce
protection of vital records in Tanzania was the inclusion of the vital records
protection into the National Records and Archives Management Policy of 2011.
Despite
the efforts made globally, still poor vital records protection has continued to
prevail in the world since 1970s, the launched systems for vital records
registration in the world were in greater variation from good quality to poor
quality among the developed countries and the developing countries, the
variations were the result of the several barriers for improving the vital
records registrations system including the absence of laws to bring autonomy to
the central authorities concerned with registration (Blumberg, et al 2012). Poor
vital records protection has also continued to be a problem in Africa since
early days of African independence, the vital records are still lost every day
due to misfiling, poor storage, poor handling, inadequate knowledge on managing
electronic vital records, and huge costs of management and protection (Pagliaro,
2012). Despite the efforts made by Tanzanian government, poor vital records
protection has continued to prevail, the public organizations in Tanzania are
still unable to revamp their key services delivery and operations due to the
loss of records through fire, flood, theft, technical failure, breach of
security and loss (Mohamed, 2018).
The
vital records protection has failed to bring the desired results in the World,
Africa and Tanzania at all, many empirical research studies have been done by
different scholars concerning vital records protection including the study done
by Kanuti in 2014, the study done by ACOG in 2015 and the study done Kimario in
2014 as the efforts to find the ways to solve the problems on vital records
protection, but these studies failed to indicate how the vital records protection is done in public offices
for the continuity of services and business operations in Tanzania, this
invited this study to find out on how the vital records protection has been
done in the public offices particularly at the PSSSF for the continuity of
services and business operations in order to fill this knowledge gap.
1.5.Objectives
of the Study
1.5.1.
General objective
The
main objective of this study was to find out on how the vital records protection has been done in public
offices for the continuity of services and business operations in Tanzania.
1.5.2.
Specific objectives
i)
To find out if the
government has approved any vital records and business recovery plans for the
public offices.
ii)
To find out if the public offices are managing
and implementing the vital records and business recovery plans according to the
standards and guidelines issued by the government.
iii)
To find out if the public offices are
ensuring that their vital records and business recovery plans include the
provision of any necessary hardware, software and the procedure manuals to
facilitate the records access and use.
1.6.Research questions
i.
Does the government approve the vital
records and business recovery plans for the public offices?
ii.
How do the public offices manage and
implement the vital records and business recovery plans according to the
standards and guidelines issued by the government?
iii.
Do the public offices ensure that there
is an inclusion of provision of any necessary hardware, software and the
procedure manuals into their vital records and business recovery plans to
facilitate the records’ access and use?
1.7.Significance of the study
It
was the expectation of the researcher that this study will help the government
and other scholars to get the valuable information about how the public offices
are implementing the policy towards protection of their vital records which
will help in making decisions towards promoting effective protection of vital
records in the public offices. The results from this study added knowledge to
the researcher as he got to know about how the public offices are striving to
implement the records and archives management policy of 2011 in protecting
their vital records.
This
study’s report becomes a literature review to other researchers who will be
carrying out researches on the related topic concerning the implementation of
the Records and Archives Management Policy of 2011 in public offices, so this
study is significant. Also the study has brought an information to other
scholars to know if the government approves the vital records and business
recovery plans for the public offices, the public offices are managing and
implementing the vital records and business recovery plans according to the
standards and guidelines issued by the government and if the public offices are
ensuring that their vital records and business plans are including the
provision of any necessary hardware, software and the procedure manuals to
facilitate the records access and use.
1.8. Scope of study
This study has covered the
investigation on the government approval of vital records and business recovery
plans for the public offices, determination if the public offices are managing
and implementing the vital records and business recovery plans according to the
standards and guidelines issued by the government, and if the public offices
are ensuring that their vital records and business recovery plans include the
provision of any necessary hardware, software and the procedure manuals to
facilitate the records access and use.
1.9.Limitation
and delimitation of the study
This
study experienced the various limitations including unwillingness of the
respondents to fill the questionnaires, unwillingness of the respondents to pay
attention on interview questions and lack of awareness about vital records
protection to the respondents. To solve those limitations of the study the
researcher used of observation method where necessary to cope with the
unwillingness of the respondents to provide data, a researcher explained
clearly to the respondents about the concept of vital records protection to
make them aware with vital records protection, and lastly the researcher used
of questionnaire method where interview methods failed
1.10.
Ethical
considerations
A
researcher considered all ethical issues from topic selection until the
completion of this study, the ethical issues considered include an informed
consent to the respondents before data collection, maintaining privacy of the
respondents through using anonymous names, respect to the respondents and
others.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1.Introduction
This
chapter was tailored properly in a manner that brought a combination of the
already existing researches or knowledge about the vital records protection.
The review of literature included two forms. The first was theoretical review
and the second is an empirical review (Turner, et al., 2018). Theoretical
literature review is the part of literature review that aims to concretely
explain about the collection of the theoretical ideas which have been
accumulated regarding the problem under investigation or phenomena (Turner, et
al., 2018). Empirical review refers to the researches done by various
researchers about your topic or other people’s or scholars researches that
resemble to your research topic, the names of those researchers should be
attached to their findings (Imperial Writers, 2017).
2.2.Theoretical literature review.
Theoretical
literature review is very important as it makes the researcher know about what
theories are already available and the researches done over the theories and
the tested relationship among them (Turner, et al., 2018). For the researcher
to conduct the theoretical review he/she is
required to show theories supporting the study and it is necessary to give
reasons on the use of those theories in the study. So,
regarding this research study there are many ideas and theories related to the
vital records protection reviewed from different sources of different authors.
So, the theoretical review for this study was organized in form of theoretical
ideas highlighted from different sources and the theory which was sought to be useful
for this study:
2.2.1.
Meaning and
Concepts of records, and vital records
Record has been defined
by various authors but most of meanings share the same content, according to
Western University, (2020) record is an electronic or paper document that is
generated, received and preserved that documents the organizations’
transactions as well as functions during its legal obligations or serve as the
evidence of business transactions. Records include the invoices, maps, minutes
and vouchers of travel. They are the information kept in any media like data
bases, papers, spreadsheets, and words documents (Western University, 2020). Another term is vital record, Vital records are the
records which without them the organization cannot be able to continue its
operations and they cannot be replaced easily and they require significant
resources for them to be recreated (Tasmania Archive and Heritage Office
(TAHO), 2020). Vital records contain the crucial details necessary to revamp
the organization’s normal operations after a disaster or another event that may
end up destroying the records, this include information like the information
concerning the organization’s core business operations, information about
preparing and responding to an emergency, information about the organization’s
financial and legal rights as well as the information about customer’s legal
and financial rights (TAHO, 2020).
2.2.2.
Protecting vital
records from the unfavorable situation and environments
According
to Deputy Governor’s Office, (2005) vital records need to be free from
unfavorable environments including earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, as well as
floods. Also, vital records should be protected against various forms of
disasters which are man-made like accidents, thefts as well as the common
unfavorable environment situations like the presence of dusts, spotlight,
insects, uncontrolled temperature and humidity which may alter the rate of
vital records destruction in public offices (Deputy Governor’s Office, 2005).
The vital records protection should be the primary responsibility of the head
of departments where the records maintenance takes place, order to achieve the
vital records protection, it is better to call upon the Archives and records
Management Program staff who can play a pivotal role in identifying vital
records and planning to protect them (Deputy Governor’s Office, 2005).
2.2.3.
Vital records schedule for vital records identification in an
organization.
According
to the Deputy Governor’s Office (2005) in any company/organization there should
be a vital records schedule which is useful for assisting in the identification
of the vital records within the department and the way they are to be
protected. The copy of the vital records schedule should be given to the
officer who is a chief records manager for the review as well as approval in
consultation with archivist, every department’s section should have a copy of
vital records schedule retained in it (Deputy Governor’s Office 2005).
2.2.4. Methods of vital
records protection.
According
to the Deputy Governor’s Office (2005) once the vital records have been
identified the practical steps to protect them should be undertaken, there are
three major ways of protecting vital records which include; the duplication and
dispersal method which involves a production of backup copies once the records
are generated or through a scheduled periodical records production and when the
duplicate copies have been produced they have to be stored in the offsite
storage, the inside storage and vaulting and the last one is the maintaining
vital records in the remote storage and vaulting.
According
to SOAS University of London (2020) to
ensure protection of vital records the first thing is for them to be identified
and then be protected either electronically or in hard-copy form. When the
vital electronic records have been identified they should be protected through
storing them into servers, securing them through creation of backups and
recovery from disasters, the vital electronic records should be protected by
not being kept in the easily carried hardware like the USBs, CD and DVD because
they can be lost or stolen easily with vital electronic records and lastly the
long term value vital electronic records should be kept by using the readable
formats like the portable document format (PDF), plain text and rich text
formats, also on the side of hard copy vital records, the SOAS University of
London, (2020) suggests that they should be protected through scanning and
saving them into electronic form, storing them offsite, storing them in another
building and the use of fire protection safes to secure the document.
2.2.5.
Disaster preparedness
and recovery towards protection of vital records
To
promote the vital records protection there must the presence of the disaster
preparedness and recovery plan in any public office (Deputy Governor’s Office,
2005). The Heads of Records and Archives Management Department are responsible
for undertaking the precautionary measures towards vital records to protect
them from the loss and damage in the event of disasters (Deputy Governor’s
Office, 2005). The heads of department should designate the Records Officers
and others to see and ensure that the precautionary procedures are being
implemented well in every department/ unit (Deputy Governor’s Office, 2005).
According
to the United States (U.S) Department of Energy, (2011) vital records are
needed to bring support for the organization’s activities as well as
responsibilities during and after the event or occasion that significantly
interrupts the normal activities like the natural disasters. Vital records
should be identified and protected by implementing the records disaster
reduction and recovery plan to bring an insurance against disturbance to the
organization’s operations (U.S Department of Energy, 2011).
2.2.6.
Protection of vital records in public offices for the continuity of
business operations and service delivery.
Vital
records protection refers to plan that recognizes and protects those records containing
the vital details which are crucial for an enterprise to continue with its key
operations and activities in case of emergency or disaster like the earth
quake, firebreak, floods and others (University of Missouri, 2020).
According
to PO-PSM, (2011) the National Archives and Records Management Policy of 2011
enforces public organizations to ensure protection of vital records for the
continuity of key services provision and
business operations as one of its objectives. According to the PO-PSM, (2011)
in the National Archives and Records Management Policy there are policy
statements included to guide the public offices on various practices to protect
vital records for the continuity of business operations and service delivery, the
policy statements towards protection of vital records clearly stipulate that
the government must approve the vital records and recovery plans for public
organization’s offices. The public office must manage and implement vital
records and business recovery plans according to standards and guidelines
issued by the government; and the last policy statement towards the protection
of vital records is that public offices has to ensure that the vital records
and business recovery plans including the provision of any necessary hardware,
software and procedure manuals to enable the records to be reachable and read.
According
to the United States department of Energy, (2011) every vital records program
must include the following: recognizing, securing regulating access, retrieval of
information and making sure that records and other systems of information are
available, initiating and retaining vital records complete lists (inventory),
the complete list system should include electronic and hardcopy records,
continuous appraisal of vital records especially with an annual review as well
as maintaining and storing vital records.
In order to protect vital records or in order to implement the vital
records program in the organizations the methods like bringing into existence
unique duplicate copies in separate location, storing the source records which
may be used to recover the vital records, preserving vital records in special
items or equipment like safes, vaults or fire resistant-equipment should be
done to protect the vital records for continuity of business operations (US
Department of Energy, 2011).
Despite
the fact that these theoretical ideas from various authors have suggested the
best practices to be done in the field of records management to ensure that
vital records are well protected and their management is done effectively to
ensure that the business and service delivery are sustained in various
companies or organizations but there is no adequate documentation to show how
those theories are being implemented practically in protecting the vital
records in public offices.
2.3.Theoretical
framework for this study
Theoretical
framework is the part of literature review which describes the path of the
study and the grounds in which the study is theoretically built (Adom, 2018).
The theoretical framework can be defined as the guidance of the research study
based on the research problem or enquiry’s field which has close relation to
the hypothesis of the study (Adom, 2018). There are many theories applicable in
records management including the records continuum model, International Council
on Archives (ICA), Electronic records guideline, the National archives (TNA)
2005 model, and the design and implementation of records keeping system (DIRKS)
model. Regarding this study, a researcher discussed the records continuum model
and the life cycle model as follows:
2.3.1. Records life cycle model
According
to Kemon, (2008) the development and application of the records and life cycle
theory in the records and archives management is the matter that needs to be
discussed. The life cycle theory originated from the United States of America
after the end of the first world war by the National Archives and Records
Management administration (Kemon, 2008). The life cycle theory passes through
three main stages which are: creation of records, semi active stage of records
and the inactive records stage (Kemoni, 2008). This theory is weak as it is not
fully applicable in managing the electronic records, it is only useful for
paper records management (Kemoni, 2008). This theory was applicable to this
study because this study is also concerned with vital paper records protection.
|
Active stage: Records are
received or created |
|
Semi active stage Records
are stored for retention |
|
Non-Active stage Long-term
value records are arranged and stored permanently |
|
Non-active stage Non-long-term value records are reported and approved for
destruction |
|
Records
are destroyed in a confidential manner |
|
Records
destruction must be done within one year |
|
Appraisal |
|
Appraisal |
Figure 2.2. The records life cycle
model
Source:
Research data, 2021
By
considering the diagram above, for the organizations to achieve the better
vital records protection, the vital records protection activities should be
done at every stage of the life of records. This imply that the vital records
should be protected at the active stage where they are created and used
frequently, but also they should be protected at the semi-active stage where
they not frequently used but they are still retained in the creator, also they
should be protected at the non-active stage where they are either transferred
for permanent storage or destroyed. By doing so, will help the organization to
have better vital records management and protection.
2.3.2.
Records
continuum model
In
support with a major reason that, the continuum model is suitable for the
research studies which are dealing with the management of electronic or paper
records and archives, rather than life cycle model which is only useful for
management of paper records only, the continuum model was sought to be suitable
to this study because this study dealt with both paper and electronic vital
records protection for the continuity of service delivery and business
operations in Tanzania. The public organizations must follow the continuum
model when protecting their vital records in either electronic or paper formats
to attain continuity of services and business operations. The concept of
records continuum model has been explained below as follows:
This
model emerged after the weakness of the life cycle theory. The continuum Model
became globally accepted to be useful because it is applicable for the paper or
electronic records and archives management which is impossible when using the
lifecycle model because the life cycle model is useful in managing the records
or archives which are in paper form only (Kemoni, 2008). Therefore, the
continuum model become more suitable for the research studies which are dealing
with the management of electronic or paper records and archives (Kemon, 2008).
The continuum model is composed of four major stages which includes the
creation stage which the records are generated, capturing stage by which the
records are documented, organizing stage where the records are classified, and pluralizing
of information which involves making them accessible for use (Kemon, 2008).
With
the continuum model, the records and archives managers should be very involved
in every stage when managing and protecting vital records and archives under
the continuum model to achieve the continuity of services and business
operations. So, researcher explored if the public organizations are protecting
the vital records throughout the continuum model. Consider the figure below to
show the records continuum model.
Figure 2.1. The records continuum
model
Source:
Svad, (2013)
2.4.Empirical
review
The aim of this section was to make
a review on the available empirical researches related to this research study’s
topic. There are many empirical research studies already done by different
scholars concerning the vital records, this made easy to review their research
reports and make an analysis of those research reports to obtain the missing knowledge
by which this study was going to add as an advantage over the existing research
reports of researches done by other researchers, the following were the
empirical research studies already done concerning the vital records:
The
research study done by Kanuti, (2014) titled as the protection of vital records
in relation to continued service delivery in public service based on the challenges
of protecting vital records in relation to service delivery in public sector, the
study had the specific objectives of investigating to know the hurdles which
face the protection of vital records in the public offices and to obtain the
suggestions of measures to address these challenges. The study used
questionnaire method and interview method to collect data. The study’s findings
revealed that the protection of vital records in public sector is experiencing
a lot of challenges including the weak records’ office environment and setting,
misfiling the documents and the last is insufficient of electronic systems to manage
the electronic records. The study concluded that the attainment of better vital
records protection in public sectors is very challenging due to the presence of
several challenges by which the reasonable efforts should be undertaken to
address those challenges, to address those challenges the study recommended
various reasonable efforts like provision of trainings to the records staffs,
improving the office environments for records management, and adopting
electronic systems for records management. However, the study was too general as it did
not consider to find out how the vital records are being managed and protected
according to the Records and Archives Management Policy of 2011 in the public
offices for the continuity of their operations and service delivery in Tanzania.
The
study done by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) in
September 2015 titled as the importance of vital records and statistics for the
Gynecologists. This study had one specific objective of finding out the
importance of the vital records’ details in public health service provisions
and the efforts needed to protect vital records system in health sector. The
study used interview method only to collect data. The study’s findings revealed
that the details from the vital records are very crucial for identification and
quantification of health-related issues and for measuring the progress towards
improvement of quality and public health goals, also the vital records are the
good source of data related to the population for assessment of risks and
quality of perinatal results. This study also revealed the efforts to be done
to protect vital records system health sector which is to conduct training
development for hospital service staff on completing the vital records. The
study concluded that the vital records are very crucial for better health
services delivery so the protection of vital records should not be under
estimated, the study recommended that crucial efforts should be launched to
protect vital records system in health sector including to provide trainings
and development for hospital service staffs on completing the vital records.
Despite the better results revealed by this study, the study did not consider
to find out how the vital records are being managed and protected particularly
in Tanzania where the vital records protection is guided by Records and
Archives Management Policy of 2011 in the public offices for the continuity of
their operations and service delivery in Tanzania.
The
study done by Miquel Serra Fernandez in 2009 with the title namely as the
preservation of vital e-records in universities, the study had two specific
objectives which include to find out on how vital e-records can be accessed and
appraised, also to find out the way authenticity and accessibility can be
guaranteed to vital e-records. The study used interview and questionnaire to
gather data. This study came up with findings that; vital e-records of the
Catalan Public universities that exist in traditional formats (particularly in
paper form) can be identified and monitored through the use of classification
scheme; The collegiate body in the technology that can access, appraise and
make selection in Catalonia is the National Committee of Records Access,
Appraisal and Disposition (CNAATD); authenticity and accessibility can be
guaranteed to the vital e-records through digital certification and signature/
time stamping and access can be made both at National level and in-line with
regulated access to and security on personal data, it is a must to make
determination on the type of treatment to be applied on vital records given
that many of them are subject or restricted, In digital environment there is a
must to consider on how those vital e-records should be protected. The study
concluded that the management and preservation of vital e-records and the ways
authenticity and accessibility can be guaranteed to vital e-records were good
and in a good state in the Catalan Public Universities but little advancements
were needed to improve access and security, to achieve this, the study
recommended that the Public Catalan Universities should establish the strong
online systems which can protect vital records and at the same time provide
enough access to the right users. However, this study did not consider the
context of Tanzania to find out on how the vital records are being managed and
protected according to the Records and Archives Management Policy of 2011 in
the public offices for the continuity of their operations and service delivery
in Tanzania.
Lastly,
the study done by Kimario, (2014) with title named as the challenges of
managing the public vital records in Tanzania, the study had two specific
objectives which were to determine the prevalence of challenges in managing the
public vital records, and to make identification of the challenges facing vital
records protection for the continuity of business operations. The study used
questionnaire method and interview method to collect data. The study came up
with the findings which revealed that the challenges facing vital records
management include the costs of management, inadequate knowledge on vital
records management and bulk logs. The study concluded that many challenges are still
facing vital records protection and in order to address them it recommended
that the trainings should be provided to the records management staffs as well
as adequate budget allocation on records management. However, this study did
not consider to find out how the vital records are being managed and protected
according to the Records and Archives Management Policy of 2011 in the public
offices for the continuity of their operations and service delivery in Tanzania.
2.5.Research
gap
Research
gap refers to the absence of some elements of information in the existing
empirical literature review which a researcher decides to address or fill it by
doing a research by using various approaches (Al-Sharif, 2017). By considering
various practical knowledge shown in the empirical literature review above, the
research gap realized from the existing knowledge was the absence of information
about how the National Archives and Records Management Policy of 2011 has been
implemented by public offices in protecting vital records for continuity of
business operations and service delivery in Tanzania, this is due to the fact
that most of the empirical studies have explained about other topics related to
protecting vital records but they lacked documentation about how the National
Archives and Records Management Policy of 2011 has been implemented by public
offices in protecting vital records for continuity of business operations and
service delivery in Tanzania. The presence of that gap made this research study
to be conducted to fill this gap by studying on how the Records and Archives
Management Policy of 2011 is being followed or implemented in Tanzanian public
offices to protect their vital records so that they can attain the continuity
of business operations and the key services operations.
2.6.Conceptual
framework
Conceptual
framework is an important section in literature review, it is linked with
empirical review to provide a structure that a researcher hope that it can
clearly describe the natural progress of the phenomena under investigation, it
contains the independent and dependent variables of the research study (Adom,
2018). Dependent variables are those variables which cannot stand on their own
without depending on another variable. Independent variable are the variables
which can stand alone and influences changes to the dependent variable (Teemba,
2019). This study was like other research studies, it contained independent and
dependent variables. The independent variable for this study included all best
practices which should be done to influence better vital records protection the
public offices these include the presence of approved vital records recovery
plans, implementation of the vital records recovery plans and the provision of
computer hardware, software and procedure manual. While the dependent variable
of this study is the vital records protection because the better vital records
protection depends on the presence of the approved vital records recovery
plans, implementation of the vital records recovery plans and the provision of
computer hardware, software and procedure manual in the organization.
|
INDEPENDENT VARIABLES |
|
DEPENDENT VARIABLE |
|
Approved
Vital records recovery plans |
|
Implementation
of the vital records recovery plans |
|
Provision
of computer hardware, software, and procedure manual |
|
VITAL
RECORDS PROTECTION |
Figure
2.3. 1
The conceptual framework of the study
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1.Introduction
This
chapter was designed to provide a theoretical analysis on the methods and
procedures which were applied in this research study. The research methodology included a
theoretical analysis about the research design, area of the study, targeted
population, sample size and sampling methods, data collection methods, data
collection tools as well as data analysis and interpretation methods (Igwenagu,
2016). So, all the things mentioned here are explained in detail under this
chapter.
3.2.Research
design
Research
design is a fundamental plan that provides a guidance and phases of analysis
for the research study (Kinner & Tyalor, 1996). The general meaning is that;
research design is the blue print that is to be followed by the researcher to
accomplish the research study. Research design was selected based on the three
criteria which included the aim, time and focus as well as experiment (Zainal,
2007). The suitable research design for this research study was selected on the
bases of the time and focus criteria (Zainal, 2007). According to the time and
focus criteria there were three types of research design which included the
cross-sectional research design, longitudinal research design and the case
study research design (Zainal, 2007). For this study, the suitable research
design was the case study design because it was sought to be useful as it could
enable a researcher to make an examination closely about
the data of a context by which a researcher chosen a small or modest
geographical unit and used it as the subject for the research study (Zainal,
2007).
3.3.Area
of the study
The
area of the study refers to the location or place in which the research study
should be carried out, it includes the names of regions, state, or city where
the study will be conducted (Silvanos, 2020). This study was conducted at the
Public Service Social Security Fund (PSSSF) company located in Dodoma City as a
case of this study, the reasons behind selecting this area of the study was due
to its situation of being very interesting to the researcher both
professionally and personally as it contained the suitable professional
environments which could support this research study to be carried out properly
and successful, and personally was due to the presence of kindly, well trained
and welcoming staffs who could provide data to this study, the last reason was
that the PSSSF company fitted well to this research study’s topic because it
had a well and developed records management systems and practices which made
the researcher to be vaguely interested to conduct his/her research in that
company and hoped to produce a best work at that area of the study.
3.4.Population
of the study
According
to Kombo, (2005) as quoted by Loru, (2020) the term population of the study
means the group of elements or individuals with common characteristics which
the samples are obtained from for investigation. The population of the study
contained two groups which are the targeted population and the accessible
population.
3.4.1.
Targeted population (Universe) of the study
The
target population of the study refers to the entire group of objects to which
the researcher had been interested to generalize the study findings (Kombo,
2005), so, as much as this research study was concerned with vital records
protection in public offices for the continuity of business operations in
Tanzania, then the target population for this study included all public offices
or institutions practicing records management in Tanzania. So, this research’s
findings were generalized to all public offices practicing records management
in Tanzania.
3.4.2. Accessible population
Accessible
population refers to the part of the population to which a researcher had a
reasonable access, it was the subset of the target population and this was
whether limited to a state, region, city, county, or institution (Kombo, 2005).
A researcher could not have an access to the entire targeted population due to
a limited time, financial resources and transport facilities so, it was
necessary for him to select the accessible population where the data could be
collected successfully. So, the accessible population for this study included
all staff members or professionals who were working with Public Service Social
Security Fund (PSSSF) as one of the public offices which was selected from
Dodoma City because a researcher had a reasonable access to the PSSSF
headquarter in Dodoma City both personally and professionally.
By
considering the research design for this study the PSSSF public organization
was selected as the case study among all other public offices from Dodoma City,
the staffs from this case study formed the accessible population for this
study. So, the findings which were obtained from this case study were
generalized to the entire targeted population. The PSSSF Company contained 60
staffs, so the accessible population for this study included 60 staffs. The
following table shows the accessible population for this study.
3.1. Accessible population of the
study
|
Departments |
Number
of employees |
Percentages
|
|
1. Records
management |
15 |
25% |
|
2. Department of law |
10 |
16.67% |
|
3. Accounts and
finance |
10 |
16.67% |
|
4. Administration |
10 |
16.67% |
|
5. Human resource |
10 |
16.67% |
|
6. Member records |
5 |
8.33% |
|
TOTAL |
60 |
100% |
Source:
Research data, (2021)
3.5.
Sample, sample
size and sampling methods
3.5.1. Sample of the
study
A
sample of the study is the targeted population’s subset from which data is
obtained for deriving conclusions about the entire targeted population (Loru,
2020). By referring to the accessible
population suggested in the previous section, the sample of the study was
selected from sixty (60) staff members who were working with the Public Service
Social Security Fund (PSSSF) company selected as the case for this study in the
Dodoma city.
3.5.2.
Sample size
A
sample size is a total number of individuals to be included in a group or
collection of individuals or objects which are chosen from the entire targeted
population of the study with all characteristics necessary to represent the
population of the study, sample size should not be too large or too small (Loru,
2020). This study’s sample size constituted a total of thirty (30) staff
members from PSSSF as respondents by which about 3 members of the sample were
selected through purposive sampling while 27 members were selected through simple
random sampling, this formed a sample size of 30 staffs because a researcher
sought that this sample size could bring an adequate and accurate data but also
it could bring the adequate representation of the population of the study. Also the study decided to use a sample of 30
staffs as it was aided by the formula developed by the Survey Monkey, in 2020 and
it was applied by the study to calculate a sample size for this study and it has
been shown below:
n=
Where
N=
Population size
n
= sample size
e=
margin of error
z=
score
P=
population proportion
Given
N=
60
e=5
Z-score=
1.96
P=0.5
By
using the formula mentioned above
From
the calculation above, the sample size from a population of 60 employees was 30
employees, and the sample division was made according to departments as shown
below:
Table 3.2.
Sample size division
|
DEPARTMENT |
FREQUENCY |
PERCENTAGE |
|
1.
Records management |
Five (5) Records managers |
16.66% |
|
2.
Department of law |
Five (5) Lawyers |
16.66% |
|
3.
Accounts and finance |
Five (5) accountants |
16.66% |
|
4.
Administration |
Five (5) Administrators |
16.66% |
|
5. Human resource |
Five (5) Human Resource managers |
16.66% |
|
6. Member records |
Five (5) records managers |
16.66% |
|
TOTAL |
30 |
100% |
Source:
Research data (2021)
3.5.3. Sampling methods
Sampling
is the process of creating a sample to represent the entire population of the
study (Kabir, 2018). Sampling method refers to the way of getting the sample
from a population of the study (Kabir, 2018). There are three types of sampling
methods which are probability sampling and non-probability sampling and the
combination of both probability and non-probability sampling methods (Kabir,
2018). In probability sampling every individual of the population has an equal
chance to be included in the sample while in the non-probability sampling not
every individual of the population has an equal chance to be included in the
sample, and the combination of probability and non-probability sampling is the
use of both probability and non-probability methods to obtain a sample to for a
particular research study (Datta, 2018).
This
study employed the use of both non-probability and probability sampling
techniques, by starting with non-probability sampling the sub category of
non-probability sampling known as the purposive sampling was applied in
selecting three (3) members from Member records management department including
Head of Member records management, Senior member records manager, and the Assistant
member records manager because they were belonging to the department where too
much vital records are managed and thus why they were considered to be the knowledgeable
members of the sample. Therefore, through purposive sampling a researcher
obtained 3 knowledgeable respondents who could provide a very important and
relevant data related to this research study, and not every PSSSF’s employee
from 60 staffs was suitable to provide data for this research study because by
using purposive sampling, only knowledgeable members of a population about
vital records protection and management were selected to constitute a sample. The
major reason to use purposive sampling technique was to enable the study to have
members of the sample who had a knowledge or idea about vital records protection
and management in the PSSSF public office to provide relevant data to the
researcher to produce a best work. The purposive sampling was done by using the
homogenous technique by which the selected members had some shared
characteristics as they were belonging to the same organization this enabled
each of them to provide data and when finish they could refer the researcher to
another person whom they hoped was knowledgeable enough to provide a researcher
with accurate data about a certain issue of the study, so a researcher selected
first the head of records management who was sought to be knowledgeable with
the study and later the head of records management referred the researcher to
the Head of human resource management for further information and lastly the
head of human resource referred the researcher to the head of Accounting and
Finance for more information.
The
study also applied the probability sampling by which a simple random sampling
was applied to select about 27 members to constitute the sample of the study, the
major reason on using the simple random sampling technique was to avoid bias by
achieving the accurate representation of the study’s population because every
member of each of the PSSSF’s departments had an equal opportunity to be
included in the sample. The simple random sampling was done by using a manual
lottery method by which all members of each department were assigned with numbers,
then the assigned number were drawn at random to constitute a sample group,
since a simple random for this study was taken from a population of 60
employees, then every employee in every department should have known
probability or chance of being included in the sample, the manual lottery
method was applied to this study because the study had a small population size which
was less than 100 but this method is not suitable for the larger population
sizes. The following table indicates the probability or chance of every
employee to be included in the sample at every department of the PSSSF.
|
Departments |
Number
of employees |
Members’ Probability
for being included in the sample |
Number
of sample elements |
|
1.
Records management |
15 |
|
5 |
|
2. Department of law |
10 |
|
5 |
|
3. Accounts and
finance |
10 |
|
5 |
|
4. Administration |
10 |
|
5 |
|
5. Human resource |
10 |
|
5 |
|
6. Member records |
5 |
|
2 |
|
TOTAL |
60 |
27 |
Source:
Research data, 2021
3.6.
Data collection
methods
Data
collection refers to the process of gathering and measuring data on the
interested variables in a manner that will enable the researcher to answer the
research questions, evaluate the results and test the hypothesis (Kabir, 2016).
While data collection methods are the techniques used by the researcher to
obtain the data from the sample (Kabir, 2016). The methods for data collection
can be the primary data collection methods or secondary data collection methods
(Kothari 2004).
From
the research questions of this study, it was thought that the questions required
qualitative data due to the absence of numeric expressions like “how many” “to
what extent” or “what is the number of” therefore this proved that this study
required qualitative data by which the qualitative approach was used to collect
data to answer these research questions. So, the interview, and observation were
applied to obtain the qualitative primary data to answer those research
questions. Also, for the sake of quantifying the qualitative data to have good
generalization of findings, this study used questionnaire as a quantitative
data collection method because the questionnaire method could assist the
researcher to gather the quantitative data with objective and subjective nature
from the large population of study for obtaining the results which had
significance statistically. Hence, the study used both quantitative and
qualitative data collection methods. For the case of secondary data documentary
review was applied.
3.6.1.
Collection of qualitative primary data
The
qualitative approach of data collection
involves the use of qualitative observation, focus group discussion method, and
the qualitative interview method to collect data to answer various qualitative
research questions (Flick, 2013). But this study employed the use of only two methods
of qualitative data collection which were qualitative observation and
qualitative interview as clarified below.
i. Observation
The
term observation implies the way of collecting data through observing what is
being done in the real-life environment through looking with eyes, touching,
tasting and hearing (Flick, 2013). To collect the qualitative data by using observation
method the researcher must use the qualitative observation (Flick, 2013). The
use of observation method for this study was crucial due to the reason that the
observation could save time and was useful in making an exploration to see what
was being done in the natural settings, therefore it enabled the researcher to
extract data about what was being done practically to implement the Records and
Archives Management Policy of 2011 towards protecting vital records in the
public offices’ environment. There are two types of observation method of data
collection which include the participant observation and non-participant
observation (Ciesielka, 2018). This study used the participant observation
method to enable the researcher to see and study what was being done
practically in the public offices or the PSSSF organization which was the field
place under investigation. Observation was conducted by using the observation
checklist which guided the researcher on what to be observed directly from the
field to help a researcher to be more focused.
iv.
Interview
method
Interview
was another method of data collection which was used by this study, the
interview uses open-ended questions to provide qualitative data to answer the
qualitative research questions (Flick, 2013). Interviews are used to obtain an
in-depth information or data about the knowledge, thoughts, motivations and
reasoning of the participants about the study’s topic (Flick, 2013). So, this
research study used the interview method to enable the researcher to go deeper
into the inner in the mind of the respondents to enable a researcher to gain
awareness or understanding about the respondent’s perspectives and awareness
about how Records and Archives Management Policy of 2011 is being implemented
towards protection of vital records in public offices. There are three types of
interview method including the structured interview, semi structured interview
and unstructured interview (Zaripoush, 2020). This study used the semi
structured interview method to enable the researcher to use an interview
protocol that could provide guidance to the researcher during the interview
process, however it went through with a structure but it granted the researcher
with the capacity to probe the respondents to get the detailed or additional
information. The interview method was done through the use of interview guide
by which a researcher had a predetermined list of questions to guide a
researcher during interview to make the study to be more focused.
3.6.2. Quantitative data collection methods
Quantitative data collection methods are the
techniques used to collect the data containing numbers, there are many
quantitative data collection methods including the questionnaire (Abawi, 2013).
For
the sake of quantifying the qualitative data to have good generalization of
findings, this study used questionnaire as a quantitative data collection
method because the questionnaire method could assist the researcher to gather
the quantitative data with objective and subjective nature from the large
population of study for obtaining the results which had significance statistically
as explained below.
i.
Questionnaire
method
Questionnaire
is an instrument of gathering data using series of written questions for the
aim of collecting quantitative data from the participants (Abawi, 2013). A
researcher should use the questionnaire method only if he/she think that it
will enable him/her together the accurate and complete information logically
(Abawi, 2013). A well-tailored questionnaire should be able to fit well to the
research objectives and goals while reducing the un-responded questions (Abawi,
2013). This research study used the questionnaire method because a researcher
sought that it could bring the targeted data as it brings enough time the
respondents to think and answer the questions without any necessary presence of
the researcher as it is in other methods, but also the questionnaire method
could assist the researcher to gather the quantitative data with objective and
subjective nature from the large population of study for obtaining the results
which had significance statistically (Abawi, 2013). There are two types of
questionnaire which are unstructured or open questionnaire method and
structured or closed ended questionnaire method (Zaripoush, 2020). This study employed the use of both
closed-ended and open-ended questionnaires to obtain data which were more
detailed. The questionnaire method was done through preparing the printed
questions relevant to answer the research objectives and distributing all of
them to be answered by the respondents at the PSSSF.
3.6.3. Collection of secondary data
All
secondary data which could be available for this research study like the
PSSSF’s already printed documents with the information related to this study
were to be collected by using the documentary review method. Documentary review
is the process of passing through various existing documents which contain
information which can be used to answer the research questions and objectives
of the study (Zaripoush, 2020). Unfortunately the researcher did not find either
the PSSSF’s documents like the PSSSF’s Records Management Policy containing the
vital records and business recovery plans to see if those vital records and
business recovery plans included the provision of any necessary hardware,
software and the procedure manuals to facilitate the records access and use or documents
containing the PSSSF’s standards and guidelines issued by the government to see
if they were being put into practice in protecting the vital records. This
implies that no any secondary data were collected by this study through
documentary review.
3.7.
Data collection
tools
Data
collection tool refers to the tool used to gather the data during the research
study (USAID, 2019). Data collection tools for the primary data collection
include the discussion guide, observation checklist, interview guide, paper
questionnaires and the observation checklist (USAID, 2019). But for the case of
secondary data collection, the tool to be used is the documentary review which
has been explained in the previous section (the section of secondary data
collection method). So, this study used only three data collection tools for
the primary data collection which are the observation checklist, interview
guide and paper questionnaires from three data collection tools which are the
observation, interview and questionnaire methods and they are explained in
detail as follows:
i.
Observation checklist
Observation
checklist is the list of the questions which the researcher uses to answer when
he/she is observing the respondents and the visible features in the research
field (USAID, 2019). The observation checklist was used as the data collection
tool because the researcher used the observation method of data collection in
form of participant observation. This checklist aimed to assist both the
researcher and the respondents who were being observed to know exactly what
will be observed during the observation.
Therefore, this study used the observation checklist to help the
researcher to be focused in collecting data which helped him to answer the
research questions. The observation checklist has been attached at the end of
this document as the first appendix. Observation checklist was applied by the
researcher as the guidance on what was to be observed during observation.
ii. Interview guide
Interview
guide is the complete list of the questions which an interviewer is going to
ask an interviewee during the interview (Boyce, 2006). This study used an
interview guide because this study used the qualitative interview method in
collecting data to answer the research questions. It is very important to prepare the interview
guide in the qualitative research approach when using the qualitative interview
method of collecting data (Boyce, 2006). In this study the interview guide’s
questions were open ended rather than leading questions and the researcher did
not use the suggestive language in the interview guide to enable the
respondents or interviewee to express their ideas and experiences about the
research problem (Boyce, 2006). The interview guide guided the interviewer
during the interview to enable the researcher to gather the intended data. The
interview guide has been attached at the end of this document as the second
appendix. The interview contained only six questions which were being asked to
the respondents. The interview guide was applied by the researcher as the
guidance on what to ask the respondents during interview.
iii. Questionnaire
Questionnaire
is an instrument of gathering data which consists of question’s series for the
aim of gathering data from the respondents (Abawi, 2013). This research study
used the questionnaire as the tool of collecting data because this tool was
suitable for the questionnaire method of data collection which had already been
chosen to be used to collect data during this research study. The questionnaire
has been attached at the end of this document as the third appendix. The questionnaire
contained both open ended and close ended questions for the sake of gathering
more details. The questionnaire was structured into four major sections
including the Respondents’ preliminary information, vital records and business
recovery plans, standards and guidelines on the management and implementation of
vital records and business recovery plans, and the last section was
facilitation of vital records access and use. The questionnaire paper was
applied as the representatives of the researcher by which the respondents could
fill them without any necessary presence of the researcher.
3.8.
Data presentation
and analysis
The presentation of data for this study was done
both qualitatively through interview quotations explanations and quantitatively
through statistical charts and tables. Data analysis is an important step in
the research study (Kawulich, 2020). Since this research study collected the
qualitative data through interview and observation, and quantitative data
through the questionnaire, the suitable data analysis approaches were the
qualitative data and quantitative data analysis. Qualitative data analysis is
the group of procedures and processes by which the qualitative data gathered
are moved into an explanation form, interpretation, or understanding of the
persons as well as the understanding about the situations being researched
(Sunday, 2020). The major purpose of the qualitative data analysis is to make
an examination of the symbolic and meaningful content of the qualitative data
collected, while the quantitative data analysis focuses more on emphasizing the
objectives measurements as well as the statistical, numerical and mathematical
analysis of data collected through questionnaires, polls, and surveys by manipulating
pre-existing statistical data through computational techniques, quantitative
data analysis can be descriptive or inferential (Sunday, 2020).
3.8.1.
Qualitative
data analysis
There
are many types of qualitative data analysis which include content analysis, narrative
analysis, ethnographic analysis, thematic analysis and the phenomenological
analysis (Sunday, 2020). This study used two types of qualitative data analysis
which are the thematic analysis, and content analysis.
A. Thematic analysis
Thematic
analysis is the kind of qualitative data analysis which is done when the
researcher is trying to investigate out on the people’s views, opinions as well
as experiences from the qualitative data for example, it can be like from the
interview transcripts and survey’s answers (Caulfield, 2020). A researcher can use the inductive approach
or deductive approach in making thematic data analysis (Caulfield, 2020).
Thematic analysis can use inductive approach or deductive approach in making
analysis (Caulfield, 2020). By using inductive approach, a researcher allows
the collected data to make determination of his or her research themes while
the deductive approach is when the researcher comes to the data with the
preconceived themes expected to be tested through the collected data based on
the existing knowledge theory (Caulfield, 2020). So, in this research study,
the researcher used thematic analysis with the deductive approach by which the
researcher used the research objectives as the preconceived themes to be tested
by using the collected data from the interviews and other methods of data
collection. The major reason of using thematic analysis method was that the
study had collected data which contained the individuals’ views, opinions, knowledge
and experience through interview method, and thematic analysis was the only
method needed to extract the useful information from those data. Thematic
analysis was done by passing through six stages which were familiarizing with
interview data, coding them, generating themes from the interview data,
reviewing themes to make sure the themes are useful for the study, defining and
naming these themes, and lastly writing up.
B. Content analysis
Content
analysis is the method of data analysis for the behavioral or verbal data to classify,
summarize, and tabulate the data in the descriptive level and interpretive
level (Sunday, 2020). The descriptive level of data analysis reveals only about
what is data while the interpretive level reveals the meaning of the collected
data (Sunday, 2020). In this research study, the researcher used also the
content analysis to analyze data through looking on the content of the
collected data and coming up with certain information concerning about the
research objectives. The main objective of the data analysis is to answer the
research objectives or questions by using the data collected (Sunday, 2020).
This type of qualitative data analysis was suitable for the data collected
through observation because content analysis is also concerned with behavioral
or verbal data which can be obtained through observation method. The content
analysis was done through three stages which were to select the content to
analyze by which the data in the observation checklist was selected to be analyzed,
coding the observation checklist by all relevant data were recorded, and lastly
the analysis of the observation results was done and the conclusion was made.
3.8.2.
Quantitative
data analysis
A
researcher sought the quantitative data analysis technique to be useful for this
study to analyze the data collected by this study through questionnaire method.
The suitable quantitative data analysis approach for this study was the
descriptive analysis as explained below:
i.
Descriptive Analysis
Descriptive
analysis is the term which mean the analysis of data that serves to make
description, reveal, and summarize in a meaningful manner the patterns which
emerges from the data, it is also referred to as the descriptive statistics,
descriptive statistics is very crucial because without them we cannot be able
to make visualizations of what data was revealing, especially when there are
many data, so the descriptive statistics helps the researcher to make data
presentation in a more meaningful manner to allow simpler interpretation of
data (Caulfield, 2020). There are two categories of statistics used in
descriptive analysis which are measures of central tendency which aims to bring
a central position of frequency distribution and the Measures of Spread which
aims to summarize the group of data by giving description on how the spread of
scores are (Caulfield, 2020).
With
regard to the nature of data collected by this study, the suitable quantitative
data analysis was the descriptive analysis by which the Measure of spread
category of descriptive analysis was considered to be useful to analyze data of
this study. The descriptive analysis was done through summarizing the data by
giving description on spread out scores of various aspects from the data
collected, and through this technique of data analysis the statistical tables
and charts were drawn with assistance of the Microsoft excel to achieve the
descriptive data analysis for this study by using the measures of spread
category.
DATA
PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
This
chapter provides the presentation, analysis and discussion of the findings on the
vital records protection in public
offices for the continuity of services and business operations in Tanzania using
the case study of the Public Service Social Security Fund (PSSSF) headquarter
in Dodoma City. The presentation, analysis and discussion of findings was
accomplished according to the specific research objectives as outlined below;
i.
To find out if the government has
approved any vital records and business recovery plans for the public offices;
ii.
To find out if the public offices are
managing and implementing the vital records and business recovery plans
according to the standards and guidelines issued by the government,
iii.
To determine if the public offices are
ensuring that their vital records and business plans include the provision of
any necessary hardware, software and the procedure manuals to facilitate the
records access and use.
This
study’s findings were obtained using of three data collection methods including
questionnaire, interview and observation method.
4.2.Biographic data
For
the sake of gaining an understanding on the respondents’ social characteristics
and comparing them, the study describes the demographic characteristics of the
respondents as follows.
Table 4.1. Biographic data of the
respondents
|
S/N |
Variables
|
Attributes
|
Frequencies
|
Percentages |
|
|
1. |
Gender of the respondents |
Male |
17 |
57% |
|
|
|
|
Female |
13 |
43% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2. |
Departments |
Records
management |
5 |
16.66% |
|
|
|
|
Department of
law |
5 |
16.66% |
|
|
|
|
Accounts and
finance |
5 |
16.66% |
|
|
|
|
Administration |
5 |
16.66% |
|
|
|
|
Human resource |
5 |
16.66% |
|
|
|
|
Member records |
5 |
16.66% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3. |
Education
level |
Higher
education |
30 |
100% |
|
|
|
|
Diploma |
0 |
0% |
|
|
|
|
Certificate |
0 |
0% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4. |
Working
experience |
1-6 years |
5 |
16.67% |
|
|
|
|
6-11 years |
10 |
33.33% |
|
|
|
|
11-16 years |
10 |
33.33% |
|
|
|
|
Above 16 years |
5 |
16.67% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Source: Research
data, 2021
4.2.1.
Departments
of the respondents
About
16.66% of the respondents were from Records management department, about 16.66%
of respondents were also coming from the department of law, about 16.66% of the
respondents were coming from the Accounting and Finance department, about 16.66%
were coming from Administration Department, also about 16.66% of the
respondents were coming from Human Resource Management, and the last 16.66% of
the respondents were coming from the Member records departments. These data
imply the equality attained by the researcher in selecting the sample to achieve
the accurate representation of the entire population of the study, by selecting
the same number of respondents from each department made a fair proportion from
each department of the PSSSF to constitute a sample of the study as supported
by Kabir, (2016) who argued that, to have an accurate representation of the
population of the study a sample must contain a fair proportion of units to
represent all groups of the population into the sample.
4.2.2.
Gender
of the respondents
About
57% of the respondents were males while 43% of them were females implying that,
at the PSSSF there are more male staffs who work hard in records center, quicker
in retrieving records stored in the cabinets and they provide support to the
accomplishment of the organizations mission and visions. These findings are
supported by the Scott, (2019) who argue that some organizations fuel gender
differences in employing staffs, some organizations prefer male employees
because they work hard and offer their maximum support towards accomplishment
of the organization’s mission and vision while ignoring female gender because
the females are unable to work independently.
4.2.3.
Education
level of the respondents
About
100% of the respondents were found belonging to the higher education level
which include the bachelor degree, Master Degree and the Philosophical Doctor
(PhD), none of them was found belonging to certificate or diploma level. This
implies that, the respondents had high knowledge enough to provide an
appropriate answers to the researcher because when the employees attend higher
educations and trainings both the records management staffs and other employees
become more competent in their areas of specializations, these results are in support
with Frost, (2019) who argued that, the regular training and development enable
the employees to be filled with consistent knowledge on the organization’s
policies, activities and organization’s admire.
4.2.4.
Working
experience
About
33.33% of the respondents had the experience ranging from 6-10 years at the
PSSSF and about 33.33% of the respondents had experience ranging from 11-16
years at PSSSF. This implies that the highest percentage of the respondents
belong to the moderate work experiences and this means that most of the
respondents had a moderate understanding of their work context, independent,
and self-confident enough in their profession. These findings are in support
with Frost, (2019) who argue that the higher the work experience the higher is
the employees’ understanding on the work context, understanding and self
confidence in their area of profession.
4.3.The
government’s approval of vital records and business recovery plans for the
public offices.
To
answer the first research objective on the government’s approval of the vital
records and business recovery plans for the public offices, the study
acknowledged the presence of the first statement of the National Records and
Archives Management Policy towards vital records protection which clearly stipulates
that, the government must approve the vital records and business recovery plans
for public organizations (PO-PSM, 2011). To gain an understanding if the
mentioned policy statement for vital records protection is being applied in the
organization, a researcher asked the respondents to acknowledge if the
government approves the vital records recovery plans and identify various
recovery plans approved by the government.
In
attempting to answer the first question asked through questionnaire to 27
respondents, the question aimed to know if the government approves the vital
records and business recovery plans for the organization. About 16 respondents forming
59% of the entire sample acknowledged that, the government has been approving
the vital records and business recovery plans for the PSSSF. Consider the diagram below which present the
response of the respondents.
Figure 4.1. Approval of the vital
records recovery plans
Source:
Research data, 2021
From
the diagram above, it shows that, highest percentage of the respondents
acknowledge the government’s approval of the vital records recovery plans for
the PSSSF. This implies that the government has been a frontline on
implementing the first policy statement towards vital records protection
because vital records are very important for the organization to recover its
normal operations after the disaster or emergency which ends up on destroying
all other records.
Furthermore,
in answering the second question asked through questionnaire to 27 respondents
with the aim to identify various vital records recovery plans approved by the
government for the organization, the respondents acknowledged the presence of
various vital records recovery plans approved by the government, they include
the duplication and dispersal plan which was mentioned by 17 respondents equal
to 63% of respondents, a plan to store
vital records onto the server mentioned by 3 respondents equal to 11% of the
respondents, a plan to keep vital records free from fire mentioned by 2
respondents equal to 7% of the respondents, and the training plan which was
mentioned by 5 respondents equal to 19% of the entire sample of the study.
Consider the diagram below which presents the responses of the respondents.
Figure 4.2. Recovery plans approved
by the government
Source:
Research data, (2021)
From
the diagram above, the results show that there are various vital records
recovery plans approved by the government for the PSSSF. These data imply that
the government and the PSSSF have been implementing the policy statement
towards vital records protection by formulating and approving various vital
records recovery plans for the PSSSF in order to insure that the organization
becomes capable to revamp to its key services provision and business operations
in Tanzania immediately as possible after the emergency of disaster.
Furthermore,
through the use of interview method by which about 3 respondents were
interviewed to get more clarifications on various vital records recovery plans
mentioned above in order to gain an in-depth understanding about them as they are
used at the PSSSF, through interview method the respondents offered more
clarification as provided as follows:
i.
Vital
records duplication and dispersal plan
The
respondents mentioned this plan as one among other plans which were approved by
the government for the PSSSF, according to one interviewee who was anonymously
named as “X” said that: “the PSSSF company initiated the plan of
duplicating every record only if it will be identified as the vital record for
the company and after duplication the vital record must be dispersed into
different locations for storage and it was approved by the government”
(Research data, 2021). This has revealed that the employees working with the
PSSSF are aware with the vital records duplication and dispersal plan as the
one of their vital records recovery plans approved by the government and how it
works in their organization.
Also
according to another respondent anonymously named as “Y” said that: “Duplication
has to be done through scanning the paper onto the network cloud storage
because paper copies are more fragile and can be misplaced easily, after the
duplication accomplished the copies of the vital records are to be dispersed to
offsite location for easy recovery in the case of emergency, the backup copies
were to be stored in the location which is not less than 15 miles from the
PSSSF buildings where the original copies are located” (Research data,
2021). This also proves that the respondents are aware with the vital records
duplication and dispersal plan as the one of their vital records recovery plans
approved by the government and how it works in their organization.
Also,
respondent “Z” was quoted saying
that:
“After the PSSSF’s
formulation of the vital records duplication and dispersal plan, the government
was asked to approve this plan in 2018, then the government reviewed the vital
records duplication and dispersal plan, the plan came to be trusted by the
government to be suitable for the PSSSF’s vital records recovery plan,
therefore the government approved this
plan and until now this plan has been put into practice at the PSSSF public
organization” (Research data, 2021).
Therefore,
this reveals that the government approves the vital records and business
recovery plans for the public offices.
ii.
A
plan of storing vital records into the server.
The
respondents mentioned the storage of vital records into the server as one of
the vital records recovery plans which was approved by the government to be
used at the PSSSF public organization.
The
interviewee anonymously named as X
was quoted saying that:
“The PSSSF company
formulated the plan of storing the vital records into the server in 2017 in
order to ensure that the vital records which are generated in electronic form
are stored in the central servers to ensure that they are well protected by the
presence of appropriate backup and disaster recovery to support the business
operations and service delivery continuity” (Research data,
2021).
Also,
interviewee Y added more by saying
that:
“After
the formulation of this plan, the PSSSF company requested the government to
approve this plan, the government did not hesitate to approve this plan because
it trusted this plan to be used as the vital records recovery plan at the PSSSF
public organization, therefore, in 2017 the plan of storing vital records into
the server was approved by the government, immediately after the approval of
this plan, the PSSSF put it into practice by ensuring the presence of the
Central severs where all backup copies can be accessed by any branch on time,
for example PSSSF sub Head quarter located in Dares salaam can access the vital
records of the PSSSF head quarter located in Dodoma city” (Research data
2021).
So,
all these quotations prove the presence of the plan of storing vital records
onto the server at the PSSSF organization. But also, the findings reveal that
in 2018 the plan of storing vital records into the server was approved by the
government, immediately after the approval of this plan, the PSSSF put it into
practice by ensuring the presence of the Central severs where all backup copies
can be accessed by any branch on time, for example PSSSF sub Head quarter
located in Dares salaam can access the vital records of the PSSSF head quarter
located in Dodoma city, also the PSSSF company has been ensuring that there is
enough provision of necessary hardware and software as well as procedure
manuals to its staff members to ensure that the vital records are stored on the
server, protected and can be accessed on time. So, this reveals the presence
and implementation of the approved plan of storing vital records into the
server at the PSSSF.
iii.
A
plan of keeping vital records free from fire and other disasters
About
two (2) respondents of this study said that plan of keeping vital records free
from fire was also one among other vital records and business recovery plans
formulated by the PSSSF public organization in 2017, their explanations were quoted
as follows;
The
interviewee “X” was quoted saying
that:
“This plan aimed to protect vital records
from fire damage through the initiation of using the fireproof cabinets for
file storages, the use of fire suppression systems which use different elements
to combat the fire once it starts, this system should sense heat or smoke, to
achieve this, it aimed to initiate various systems like chemical, water
sprinkler, mist system and aerosol to protect vital records from fire hazard”
(Research data, 2021)
The
interviewee “Y” was quoted saying
that:
“After the formulation of this plan the
government was requested to approve this plan in 2018”, the same as previous plans, the government
approved this plan in 2018 to be one among other vital records and business recovery
plans suitable for PSSSF company. After the approval of this plan the PSSSF
organization did not delay to put it into practice because, the respondents
mentioned various practices which are being done to implement this plan these
are the presence of water sprinkler, mist system, chemical like and gas like
carbon dioxide fire extinguishers”
So,
all these quotations have revealed the presence of the plan of keeping vital
records free from fire and how it works at the PSSSF headquarter.
iv.
Training
plan
About
3 respondents mentioned this as one of the PSSSF’s vital records and business
recovery plan which was approved by the government. The following are the
quotations from the interview transcripts captured when the interviewees were
responding to the interview, by starting with interviewee “Z” who was quoted saying that:
“The PSSSF as a public organization initiated
this plan in order to ensure that its staff members responsible for the PSSSF’s
records recovery receive enough training to capture adequate skills and
knowledge suitable for emergency preparedness so that they become able to
assist the official coordination of the vital records disaster recovery on
time”.
The
respondent “Y” of this study said
that: “The government approved this plan
immediately when it was requested to be approved by the PSSSF because this plan
was seen to be suitable for the PSSSF public organization” (Research data,
2021). So, all of these proves that this plan was approved by the government
and it exists at the PSSSF after the approval of the government.
4.4.The public
offices’ management and implementation of the vital records and business
recovery plans according to the standards and guidelines issued by the
government.
To
answer the second objective of the study on the public offices’ management and
implementation of the vital records and business recovery plans according to
the standards and guidelines issued by the government. The study acknowledges
the presence of the second statement of the National Records and Archives
Management Policy towards vital records protection which clearly stipulates
that, the public offices has to manage and implement vital records and business
recovery plans according to standards and guidelines issued by the government (PO-PSM,
2011). The study also acknowledged that there are different legal frameworks, standards
and guidelines issued by the government including the Records and Archives
Management Act of 2002, Guidelines and Procedures for Managing Personnel
Records in Public services of 2013, and the Procedure manuals but most of them
are not specifically for vital records management (Mohamed, 2018). In order to
gain an understanding on if the standards and guidelines of the mentioned are
being considered when implementing and managing vital records and business
recovery plans in the organization to implement the second policy statement,
the respondents were asked to acknowledge, identify and show the implementation
mode of the standards and guidelines applicable in the organization on management
and implementing the vital records and business recovery plans
In attempting to answer the first question asked
through questionnaire method to 27 respondents with the aim to know if the
standards and guidelines issued by the government exist at the PSSSF, about 20 respondents
forming 74% of all respondents acknowledged the presence of standards and
guidelines issued by the government guiding the implementation of vital records
and business recovery plans. Consider the diagram below.
Figure 4.3. Presence of standards and guidelines issued by government
Source: Research data, 2021
From the diagram above, the data shows that the
highest percentage of the respondents acknowledged the presence of standards
and guidelines issued by the government to guide the vital records protection
and management in the organization. The data imply that the organization is
aware with the presence of various standards and guidelines issued by the
government to guide vital records protection and management and it ensures that
the standards and guidelines issued by the government are well known and
available to the employees in order to achieve the better vital records
management and protection.
Furthermore, in attempting to answer the second
question which aimed to identify the standards and guidelines issued by the
government existing in the organization to guide vital records management and
protection, the respondents acknowledged
the presence of various standards and guidelines issued by the government at
the PSSSF to guide the vital records protection by mentioning the National
Records and Archives Management Policy issued in 2011, and Records and Archives
Management Act no.3 of 2002. Consider the following table which presents the response
on the presence of the standards and guidelines issued by the government at the
PSSSF.
Table 4.2. Standards and guidelines
issued by the government existing at the PSSSF
|
Available Standards and guidelines |
Number of respondents |
Percentages (%) |
|
Records and archives management policy of 2011 |
27 |
100 |
|
Records and Archives Management Act no.3 of 2002 |
20 |
74 |
Source, Research data, (2021)
From the table above, the data shows that the respondents
acknowledged the presence of National Records and Archives Management Policy
issued by the government in 2011 and the Records and Archives Management Act of
2002 as suitable for guiding the vital records management and protection. The
data imply that, even though the government has not issued the specific
guidelines and standards in Tanzania for vital records protection, the employees
were aware with the presence of the policy and records management Act which
they regarded them as standards and guidelines issued by the government and available
in the organization to guide the vital records protection and management as
stipulated by the second policy statement.
By answering the second objective of the study, the
question was asked to 27 respondents through questionnaire with the aim to know
if the organization has been managing and implementing its vital records and
business recovery plans according to the available regarded standards and
guidelines issued by the government. About
93% of respondents acknowledged the presence of implementation of the vital
records and business recovery plans in accordance to standards and guidelines
issued by the government at the PSSSF. The following table presents the
response of the respondents.
Table 4.3. presents the data on the
standards and guidelines consideration
|
QUESTION |
YES |
NO |
DON’T KNOW |
TOTAL |
|
Do the
standards and guidelines issued by the government being considered in
managing the vital records at PSSSF? |
25 (93%) |
2 (7%) |
0 (0%) |
27(100%) |
Source: Research data, 2021
From the table above, the data shows that the
highest percentage of the respondents acknowledged the consideration of the
available standards and guidelines including the National Records and Archives
Management Policy as well as the Records and Archives Management Act when
implementing the organization’s vital records and business recovery plans. This
imply that the PSSSF has been implementing the second policy statement by working
hard to comply with the available standards and guidelines when managing and
implementing its vital records recovery plans because failure to achieve
compliance with the standards and guidelines can lead to a business risk.
Furthermore, in order to answer well the second
objective of the study, the interview method was applied by which 3 respondents
were interviewed on the ways in which the vital records are being managed in
accordance to the standards and guidelines issued by the government, the
respondents acknowledged two major ways of implementation which include the
heads of the PSSSF being responsible to their responsibilities outlined by the
Records and archives management Act as well as protection of vital records
according to the policy of records and archives management. Consider the table
below presents the response of the respondents.
Table 4.4. Ways of implementing the
standards and guidelines issued by the government
|
IMPLEMENTATION
TECHNIQUES IN ACCORDANCE TO STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES |
FREQUENCY |
PERCENTAGE (%) |
|
The heads of the PSSSF are
responsible to public records and archives as articulated in the Records and
Archives Management Act of 2002. |
R 3 |
100% |
|
Protecting Vital records as
articulated by the RAMP of 2011. |
3 |
100% |
Source:
Research data, 2021
From the table above, the data show that the PSSSF
has been considering the standards and guidelines particularly the National
Records and Archives Management Act no.3 of 2002 and the National Records
Management Policy of 2011 issued by the government to implement its vital
records and business recovery plans. The respondents explained more through
interview about the consideration of standards and guidelines to protect vital
records as follows:
a.
The heads of
the PSSSF are responsible to public records and archives as articulated in the
Records and Archives Management Act of 2002 in section 7(9).
The respondents acknowledge that the heads of the
PSSSF have been responsible towards vital records management and protection by insuring that the PSSSF’s current records are
created and managed within appropriate filing system, this was proved by the
quotation captured from the interview transcript when one interviewee was
saying that:
“Our
heads including the Director of Human Resource and Administration has been
emphasizing us as records managers to ensure that the current records created
within or received by organization are managed properly by using a keyword
filing system, the major aim for them to do this is to comply to the Records
Management Act, and this has been directly affecting the implementation of the
vital records recovery plans like Training on vital records management” (Research
data, 2021).
Furthermore, the respondents acknowledge the
responsibility of the heads of the PSSSF on Retention and Disposal Schedules
drafting, this was mentioned as the way in which the heads of the Heads of the
PSSSF has been responsible to records management. This has been proved through
the quotation from the interview transcript which was captured when the
interviewee was saying that:
“We
have been drafting the retention and disposal schedules related to the vital
records of our organization with assistance of the Director of our Department to
ensure that the vital records continue to be retained in our organization
through storing them into the server and in other ways, while the no longer
needed records are destroyed or transferred to the archive. We have been doing
this to meet the Section 7 (9) of the National Records Management Act of 2002” (Research
data, 2021)
b.
Protecting
Vital records as articulated by the RAMP of 2011
The respondents acknowledge the relevance of the
National Records and Archives Management Policy (NRAMP) of 2011 to the PSSSF as
they mentioned it as one of the standards which have been considered in
managing vital records. This has been revealed by the following quotation
captured from one interviewee who was saying that:
“We
have been considering what is written in the Records and archives management
Policy in managing vital records, for example the policy stipulates that the
vital records should be protected against fire and other disasters, even us we
have established the plan to protect vital records from fire and other
disasters, and we follow the policy statements in managing vital records”
From the
interview data, the results are generalized by saying that the vital records
recovery plans have been implemented in accordance to the National Records and
Archives Management Act no 3 of 2002 and the National Records and Archives
Management Policy of 2011 in order to attain continuity of business operations
and key services delivery to the public
4.5.Determination on
if the public offices are ensuring that their vital records and business
recovery plans include the provision of any necessary hardware, software, and
the procedure manuals into the vital records and business recovery plans to
facilitate the records access and use.
To
answer the third objective of the study on the
determination if the public offices are insuring that their vital records and
business recovery plans include the provision of any necessary hardware, software,
and the procedure manuals onto the vital records and business recovery plans to
facilitate the records access and use. The study acknowledged
the presence of the third statement of the National Records and Archives
Management Policy towards vital records protection which clearly stipulates
that, the public offices must insure
that their vital records and business recovery plans include the provision of
any necessary hardware, software, and the procedure manuals into the vital
records and business recovery plans to facilitate the records access and use
(PO-PSM, 2011). To answer the third objective of the study on the inclusion of
the necessary hardware, software and procedure manual into the vital records and
business recovery plans the respondents were asked to acknowledge the provision
of
hardware, software and procedure manuals in the organization.
In
attempt to answer the question asked to all respondents through questionnaire
with the aim to know if there is provision of computer hardware, software and
procedure manual at the PSSSF, about 27 respondents equal to 100% of the
respondents acknowledged the provision of all necessary computers’ hardware and
software, while only 19 respondents equal to 70% of all respondents
acknowledged the presence of records management procedure manuals. Consider the
following table presenting the response of the respondents.
Table 4.5. Presents the data
collected through questionnaire
|
ITEM TO BE INCLUDED |
YES |
NO |
DON’T KNOW |
TOTAL |
|
A. Provision of necessary
hardware |
27 (100%) |
0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
27 |
|
B. Provision of any necessary
software |
27 (100%) |
0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
27 |
|
C. Provision of procedure
manuals |
19 (70%) |
4 (15%) |
4 (15%) |
27 |
Source:
Research data, 2021
From
the table above, the data shows that there is higher provision of the
computer’s hardware and software as well as procedures manual in the
organization. The data imply that the PSSSF has been working hard to provide
necessary computers’ hardware and software because this kind of technology is
highly required in the organization to facilitate access and use of vital
records as the managers are able to use and track vital records, storing them,
accessing them easily, managing and cutting costs of the physical storage of
the vital records by using computers hardware and software. Also, the provision
of the procedure manual is very significant to the organization for providing
guidance on vital records access and use.
Furthermore,
to accurately answer the second objective of the study a researcher applied an
observation method to observe the presence of the computer hardware, software
and procedure manuals in the organization. Using observation checklist, the
study acknowledged the presence of the computer hardware, software and
procedure manuals. Consider the observation checklist below which reveals the
results obtained through observation method.
Table 4.6. Researcher’s observation
Checklist
|
PHENOMENA
OBSERVED |
RESULTS (X -
absence) and (Ö-presence) |
|
Presence of hardware to facilitate records access and use of vital
records |
Ö |
|
Presence of software to support access and use of vital records |
Ö |
|
Presence of procedure manuals to the records managers to support vital
records management |
Ö |
Source:
Field data (2021)
From
the observation checklist above, the data shows that there is a provision of
the computer’s hardware and software as well as procedures manual in the
organization. The data means that the PSSSF has been working hard to provide
necessary computers’ hardware and software because this kind of technology is
highly required in the organization to facilitate access and use of vital
records as the managers are able to use and track vital records, storing them,
accessing them easily, managing and cutting costs of the physical storage of
the vital records by using computers hardware and software. Also, the provision
of the procedure manual is very significant to the organization for providing
guidance on vital records managements, access and use.
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1.Introduction
This
chapter brings a summary of the study’s methods and procedures, summary of the
findings, recommendation, as well as conclusion on the vital records protection
in public offices for the continuity of business operations and service
delivery in Tanzania at the PSSSF Headquarter as the case of the study in city
of Dodoma and at the end of this chapter are the suggestions for the areas
which need further researches to be conducted.
5.2.Summary of the study’s method and procedures
This
study employed the use of the case study design through which the PSSSF
headquarter was chosen to be the case for investigation, a sample was selected
from the case of study by using the non-probability and probability sampling
techniques by which the purposive sampling technique and simple random sampling
were used, this study used both the qualitative and quantitative approaches in
collecting data by which the questionnaire, interview and observation data
collection methods were used to collect the primary data for this study. The
data collection tools for this study were the questionnaire, interview guide
and the observation checklist. The data were presented by both quantitative methods
using various statistical tables and charts and qualitatively by explanations.
Two methods of qualitative data analysis were applied to analyze the data obtained
by the study including thematic analysis and content analysis and one
quantitative analysis method known as descriptive analysis was applied in this
study.
5.3.Summary of the findings
The
major aim for this study was to explore on how the Records and Archives
Management Policy of 2011 is being implemented in the Tanzanian public offices
towards protecting the vital records for the continuity of business operations
and service delivery in Tanzania, to achieve this main objective, the
researcher developed three more specific objectives of the study which were to
find out if the government has approved any vital records and business recovery
plans for the public offices; to find out if the public offices are managing
and implementing the vital records and business recovery plans according to the
standards and guidelines issued by the government, and lastly was to determine
if the public offices are ensuring that their vital records and business plans
include the provision of any necessary hardware, software and the procedure
manuals to facilitate the records access and use, so the following is the
summary of the findings made per each objective of the study:
The
government approves the vital records and business recovery plans for the
public organizations to promote vital records protection, this study aimed to
find out if the government approves the vital records and business recovery
plans for the public offices as the records and archives management policy of
2011 stipulates, the data shows that the
highest percentage of the respondents acknowledged the presence of standards
and guidelines issued by the government to guide the vital records protection
and management in the organization. The data imply that the organization is
aware with the presence of various standards and guidelines issued by the
government to guide vital records protection and management and it ensures that
the standards and guidelines issued by the government are well known and
available to the employees in order to achieve the better vital records
management and protection.
The
public offices have been considering the standards and guidelines issued by the
government in implementing their vital records recovery plans and managing
vital records, this study focused to find out if the public offices are
managing vital records and implementing their vital records recovery plans
according to the standards and guidelines issued by the government. The data shows that the highest percentage of the
respondents acknowledged the consideration of the available standards and
guidelines including the National Records and Archives Management Policy as
well as the Records and Archives Management Act when implementing the
organization’s vital records and business recovery plans. This imply that the
PSSSF has been implementing the second policy statement by working hard to
comply with the available standards and guidelines when managing and
implementing its vital records recovery plans because failure to achieve
compliance with the standards and guidelines can lead to a business risk.
There
is an inclusion of the provision of any necessary hardware, software and
procedure manuals in the vital records recovery plans, this study determined if
the public offices are ensuring that their vital records and business recovery
plans include the provision of necessary hardware, software, and procedure
manuals to facilitate access and use. The data shows that there is higher
provision of the computer’s hardware and software as well as procedures manual
in the organization. The data imply that the PSSSF has been working hard to
provide necessary computers’ hardware and software because this kind of
technology is highly required in the organization to facilitate access and use
of vital records as the managers are able to use and track vital records,
storing them, accessing them easily, managing and cutting costs of the physical
storage of the vital records by using computers hardware and software. Also,
the provision of the procedure manual is very significant to the organization
for providing guidance on vital records managements, access and use.
5.4.Conclusion
According
to the findings obtained by this study, it can be concluded that to the large
extent the Records and Archives Management Policy of 2011 has been implemented
in public offices towards vital records protection through government’s
approval of vital records and business recovery plans for the public offices,
the public offices are managing and implementing the vital records and business
recovery plans according to the standards and guidelines issued by the
government, and lastly the public offices are ensuring that their vital records
and business plans include the provision of any necessary hardware, software
and the procedure manuals to facilitate the records access and use.
But
the implementation of this policy has not reached the 100% due to the
prevalence of various challenges like underrating of the records management
field is a challenge hindering the implementation of the policy because the
registry works have been underrated by various top managers and the normal
employees from other fields to an extent of making the registry as the dumping
place where unnecessary documents and equipment are being kept following the
orders of the top managers and middle managers, this is professionally wrong as
it may cause damage of the records which are being managed in the registry, the
inadequate of knowledge about
records management in general and vital
records specifically to the staff members like accountants, legal officers,
directors and others is a challenge because it becomes difficulty for the
records managers to emphasize the protection of vital records to them as shortage
of knowledge to other staff members makes them to be reluctant in the efforts
of promoting protection of vital records in public organizations.
5.5.Recommendations
By
considering the challenges hindering the implementation of the National Records
and Archives Management Policy of 2011, the study recommended the following:
The
top managers in the public organizations should train all their employees like
Human resource managers, Lawyers and accountants about the importance of
records management to avoid the underrating of records management functions,
also they should be trained about the importance of protection of vital records
so that they can become aware with proper usage of record by protecting it from
damage.
Lastly,
the records management staff members should be receiving a regular training
about their profession so that they can be able to cope with the increasing
developments of information and technology like computers and computer software
so as to become capable of using various modern technologies in managing the
vital records and other records for the continuity of efficiency and
effectiveness of business operations and service delivery to the public which
can foster the implementation of the Records and Archives Management Policy of
2011.
5.6.Suggestions
of the areas for further study
This
study is just the starting point for further more researches to be conducted
about how the National Records and Archives Management Policy of 2011 is being
implemented in Tanzanian public organizations, by which this study determined the
implementation of only one of this policy’s objectives which is to ensure vital
records protection in public offices for the Continuity of business operations
and service operations. The researcher suggests the following areas to be
researched by other researchers in the field of records management:
a. On
how the government ensures that the proper classification system for public
records and archives is being implemented?
b. What
makes the government fails to review the Records and Archives Management Act of
2002?
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APPENDIXES
APPENDIX
1: OBSERVATION CHECKLIST TO GUIDE THE RESEARCHER IN COLLECTING DATA THROUGH QUALITATIVE
OBSERVATION
|
PHENOMENA TO BE OBSERVED |
RATE (NO means absence and YES means the presence) |
|
1.
Presence of hardware to facilitate records access
and use of vital records |
|
|
2.
Presence of software to support access and use of
vital records |
|
|
3.
Presence of procedure manuals to the records
managers to support vital records management |
|
APPENDIX
2: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR THE RESEARCHER, THE QUESTIONS TO ASK THE PSSSF’s COMPANY
STAFFS
1.0.Does the PSSSF company contain the vital
records and business recovery plans?
2.0.Who is responsible for approving the PSSSF’s
vital records and business recovery plans?
3.0. Do standards and guidelines for managing
vital records exist in the PSSSF company?
4.0. Does the government issue the standards and
guidelines for implementing vital records and business recovery plans of the
organization?
5.0.Do the vital records management’s standards
and guidelines being considered in your company when managing vital records?
6.0.How do you manage the PSSSF’s vital records in
accordance to the available standards and guidelines?
Appendix
3: RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE TO PUBLIC SERVICE SOCIAL SECURITY FUND (PSSSF) STAFFS
FORE WORD TO
RESPONDENTS
Dear respondents,
My name is JUMANNE
JAMES, a student of Mzumbe University main campus located in Morogoro region
pursuing a course known as the Bachelor of Public administration in Records and
Archives Management (BPA-RAM). I am a third year student, and according to our
university’s academic requirements I should conduct a research study on “VITAL
RECORDS PROTECTION FOR THE CONTINUITY OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS AND SERVICE
DELIVERY IN TANZANIA” so that I can fit
for the degree award from the university, so with regard to this requirement,
every person who is concerned with records management within the Public Service
Social Security Fund (PSSSF) who gets this document is kindly requested by the
researcher to fill the questions outlined within this questionnaire.
This document should
be applicable to every person who receives it and should be the one who is
concerned with records management within the Public Service Social Security
Fund (PSSSF) because the PSSSF company has been selected by the researcher to
be the case study. This research questionnaire is concerned with the
implementation of the records and archives management policy of 2011in
protecting vital records by the public offices for the continuity of service
delivery.
I extend my earnest
gratitude to every respondent who is going to respond on my questionnaire
positively by answering the questions contained in this document.
PART
A: RESPONDENTS’ PRELIMINARY INFORMATION
Under this part, the respondent should answer the
questions by considering instructions indicated for each question:
For example:
a.
Are you aware with
the presence of records and archives management policy of 2011 of Tanzania? (write yes or no). NO
1.
What is your highest level of academic qualification? (select the correct academic level below to
which you belong)
a.
Higher education
b.
Diploma
c.
Certificate ( )
2.
Which department do you belong in the PSSSF organization? (Write Briefly below the department where you
belong, eg HRO, Registry & etc.)
__________________________________________________________________________
PART
B: VITAL RECORDS AND BUSINESS RECOVERY PLANS
1.
Does your office possess the vital records recovery plans?
- Yes
- No ( )
2.
Who approves your company’s vital records and business recovery plans?
(for example, government or other)
- Government
- Others
like the board of trustees ( )
3.
Does the government approve your company’s vital records and business
recovery plans?
- Yes
- No ( )
PART C: STANDARDS
AND GUIDELINES ON THE MANAGEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF VITAL RECORDS AND
BUSINESS RECOVERY PLANS
1.
Does the PSSSF company use standards and guidelines on managing vital
record?
a.
Yes
b.
No ( )
2.
What are the standards and guidelines used by the PSSSF company to
manage its vital records?
a.
_________________________________________________________________
b.
_________________________________________________________________
c.
_________________________________________________________________
d.
_________________________________________________________________
e.
_________________________________________________________________
3.
Do those standards and guidelines for vital records management at
PSSSF issued by the government?
a.
Yes
b.
No ( )
4.
Have the standards and guidelines issued by the government been
considered in managing and implementing the vital records and business recovery
plans at PSSSF?
a.
Yes
b.
No ( )
5.
What are the records management practices do you undertake in managing
vital records as per standards and guidelines applicable in your company?
a.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
b.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
c.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
d.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
e.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
f.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
6.
What are the challenges or difficulties which makes you fail to
consider the standards and guidelines issued by the government in managing
vital records to insure vital records protection?
a.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
b.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
c.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
d.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
e.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
7.
What does the PSSSF company uses as the guidance in managing vital if
there is no standards and guidelines from the government?
a.
___________________________________________________________________
b.
___________________________________________________________________
c.
___________________________________________________________________
d.
___________________________________________________________________
e.
___________________________________________________________________
PART D: FACILITATION OF VITAL RECORD’S ACCESS AND USE
1.
Do the PSSSF’s vital records and business recovery plans includes the
following? (Put a tick to an item which is available in your office or company)
- Provision of any necessary hardware ( )
- Provision of any necessary software ( )
- Provision of procedure manuals ( )
2.
At what rate does the provision of the necessary hardware/software/
procedure manuals help to facilitate the access and use of vital records within
your company?
- Very helpful
- Helpful
- Not helpful at all ( )