Content area
Abstract
Since the late 1960s, several studies have investigated personal information management (PIM) in the workplace. However, very few studies have focused on the behaviour of office support staff in a work environment. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the document management behaviour of office support staff in a large Canadian university.
The methodological approach used for this study was grounded theory. Fifteen in-depth interviews were conducted in participants' offices, and visual observations of their document structures were made. A pre-interview survey was also administered in order to gather additional information. Participants were chosen according to the principles of theoretical sampling, and simultaneous data collection and analysis continued until theoretical saturation was reached. Transcribed interviews were coded, after which abstract concepts were derived and grouped into categories, using the constant comparison method. A substantive theory was then developed.
The findings suggest the existence of several distinct document spaces within workers' document landscape: a main folder, secondary folders, the operating system desktop, e-mail, paper documents and shared environments. Behaviour pertaining to the handling of orphan files and multiple versions, the naming of files and folders as well as searching and browsing were described. Overall, despite several elements in common, significant variation was noted among participants.
In order to explain the variation observed, a model of the factors that are likely to influence PIM behaviour was developed. It comprises seven main categories of factors: job content, job status, existing documents, relationship with the superior, worker characteristics, organizational context and document attributes. Several of the factors identified had never been mentioned in the PIM literature, while in other cases, the evidence presented helped confirm previous findings. The proposed model also highlights the inherent complexity of PIM, and the importance of adopting an all-encompassing view when analyzing PIM behaviour.
