Management if electronic mails: A case study of Technical University of Kenya

Abstract

The study examined the current methods of managing email records in the technical university of Kenya. The main objectives of the study were to ; investigate the creation, accession, disposal and storage of the email records in the institution , establish what policies, systems, standards and procedures that exist to guide the management of email records, determine the extent of use of email records in decision making and service delivery, investigate the challenges the institution experiences with the management of email records and finally recommend strategies to address the challenges facing email records management. A qualitative approach was used in this research with some aspects of quantitative research techniques in the design of data collection instruments, and in the presentation of research findings. Purposive sampling was used to select the seven (7) respondents from the School of Information and Communication Studies and the university ICT department. Data was collected through interviews. The study established that the management of email records was done at an individual level. The biggest challenge was lack of policies or regulations to guide the staff in managing the records.Other challenges were lack of qualified personnel and poor infrastructure among others. The study concludes that the School of Information and Communication Studies lacked a common e-mail system since the emails were managed at an individual level and by staffs who were not qualified in the area of records management.. This therefore made communication within the school difficult since there was lack of management of emails that were sent and received within the school. The study recommends that the School of Information and Communication Studies to first set up a policy to guide the management of email records,improve infrastructure through repairing the computers, protect the email data through security measures like firewalls and employ qualified personnel or records managers to manage the email records. It also emphasizes on the need to have a common e-email system for purposes of transparency and accountability when managing the emails.