Records Management Practices as a Strategic Tool for Business Performance in the Digital Age

The paper discusses the importance, characteristics and benefits of a good literature review, and highlights some of the models/ theories that may be adapted to develop the theoretical framework in graduate records management research or thesis/dissertation. The paper emanates from the author’s experiences as a tutor of the research methodology module to graduate students at the School of Information Sciences, Moi University, Kenya, and of the very common problem of such graduate students being unable to undertake good reviews of the literature or develop adequate theoretical framework for their research. The paper explains the concepts of records management, models and theories, and explores the link between theories and models in scientific research. Some of the existing records management models/theories and their suitability in investigating issues relating to the management of paper and electronic records are subsequently described and analyzed. The discussion of the models presented in this paper should be of interest to students and researchers undertaking master’s and doctoral programmes in records and archives management schools within and outside Africa. Students and researchers should however evaluate the models themselves, in terms of their adaptability and relevance to the African setting, and adapt them to fit their research objectives and contexts.