Records Management

A pioneer of scientific management and organizational efficiency, one who considered effective records systems as one of the twelve most important management efficiency principles, was Harrington Emerson (1853-1931).

Almost as well known as Taylor, Gantt, and the Gilbreths, Emerson was an engineering consultant for U.S. railroads who found that a sense of effective organization was often lacking in business enterprise and that there was a need to eliminate wastes in time, material, and labor.

His Twelve Principles of Efficiency (New York: The Engineering Magazine, 1912), a book which ran through six editions, was the first management publication to spell out a conceptual foundation for the importance of records in the business environment.

Emerson's principles included clearly defined goals, organizational effectiveness, and standardized control functions.

His Sixth Principle specifically enunciated the importance of "Reliable, Immediate, and Adequate Records." While he did not spell out the specifics of managing records as a resource, Emerson spoke to the nature and problems of adequate records. Some of his remarks have a strangely modern resonance:

In the same decade that Harrington Emerson's Principles appeared, some managers were going even further in applying the gospel of system and scientific management to records. For example, in his book The American Office (1913), J. William Schulze proposed that "records systems" were one of the three fundamental functions of all offices. The others he called "management" (i.e., human resources administration and budgeting) and "organization" (i.e., facilities, equipment, and telecommunications).(17) In addition to a lengthy section on files, filing systems, good recordkeeping practices, what records to keep and their formats, Schulze addressed issues such as disposition of 'useless" records, avoiding unneeded new records series, and the folly of making unnecessary copies of records for dubious legal needs.

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Who put the "management" in records management?
ARMA Records Management Quarterly, Oct 1995 by Pemberton, J Michael

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