Information Manager
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority
Sydney NSW
Australia
Christopher Colwell will be presenting on Ethics for high days: The Social Values of Recordkeeping and Information Management Professionals in Australasia on Wednesday.
The inaugural RMAA Research Grant was awarded to Chris Colwell in 2005 to undertake research into the social values of recordkeeping and information management professionals in Australasia.
The literature advocates that for the recordkeeping profession to be considered a profession by the community at large it must first demonstrate its social relevance. Inclusion of social values in professional codes of ethics is a way of achieving this recognition. A profession’s code of ethics does not only provide guidance for its members it can also be a powerful public relations tool. There is an absence of social values, or ‘ethics for high days’, in the RMAA’s Code of Professional Conduct and Practice.
The recordkeeping profession in Australasia has been a world leader in setting technical standards but does not have the same position in relation to promoting and setting professional standards. An authoritative set of social values, truly representative of the views of the profession in Australia, will assist in promoting the relevance of the profession to the community at large and in ensuring that professional standards are in line with international best practice.
The research goals and objectives were
The project was undertaken in two phases. The first phase was an exploratory study, qualitative in nature, utilising semi-structured interviews. This elicited from a small sample of practitioners themes and issues for consideration and this data was used to guide the formulation of a quantitative survey instrument. The quantitative survey instrument was then used to elicit authoritative empirical data from a large sample of practitioners in the recordkeeping profession in Australasia.
The audience for the results of this research is the international recordkeeping and information management community as well as the community at large.
The interim research results were published in the inaugural issue of the Information and Records Management Annual (iRMA) in August 2006. This conference paper will present the result of the final phase of the research and make recommendations about alterations necessary to our Code of Professional Conduct and Practice.
