Mid Sweden University

When faced with change and external demands the receiving organization faces both challenges and opportunities. This occurrence has also been evident when organizations aim to implement a new archival description system. Challenges regarding resource supply and demand, managing involved actors as well as balancing the existing operations with the requirements of the new were all factors that influenced the implementation process. Considering that the new archival system is based on and closely linked to organizational processes, it has been argued that the aforementioned is affected by the latter. 

The purpose of this study is to examine whether organizational factors can influence information management and if by identifying these factors also secure the quality of said management. To achieve this, the study examines the implementation process of a new organization based archival description system within three units of the Lutheran church of Sweden. 

The data was collected through interviews with key figures within the units’ management and administration. The selection was based on the intention to gain an understanding of both the strategic and operational factors that form the unit’s organizational conditions for the implementation process. 

The result of this study indicates that the implementation process was influenced by organizational factors and that the nature of these factors differed between sites. Identified factors such as allocation or lack of resources, conflict management and ensuring compliance within the unit all affected the implementation process. The implementation process was also affected by factors at the macrolevel within the organizational structure of the Church. Perspectives regarding the structure of information management, as well as communication regarding archival strategies within the organization differed on a national, regional and local level.

By analyzing the units’ organizational conditions regarding their implementation process, a plan to assure the quality of their continued information management could be formulated.