Records Management in the Context of Business Excellence

U članku se analizira proces upravljanja zapisima u kontekstu poslovne ili organizacijske izvrsnosti kao poželjnoga koncepta upravljanja u poslovanju suvremenih organizacija. Obrađuju se tri interna dokumenta koje se preporuča izraditi u svakoj organizaciji i koje se smatra bitnim preduvjetima za postizanje izvrsnog upravljanja zapisima: interni akt o upravljanju zapisima, klasifikacijski plan i popis zapisa organizacije s rokovima čuvanja. Budući da sadržavaju obavijesti o vrstama, načinu odvijanja i izvođenja pojedinih aktivnosti u okviru procesa upravljanja zapisima, ta se tri dokumenta promatra kao sastavne dijelove dokumentacije sustava upravljanja kvalitetom. Ukazuje se na pozitivne učinke koje njihova primjena, osim na upravljanje zapisima, ima i na postizanje zadanog sustava kvalitete i obavljanje poslovnih procesa organizacije u cjelini.The paper analyzes the process of managing records in the context of business or organizational excellence as a desired management concept in contemporary organizations’ business. Assuming that most of business functions, processes and associated activities result in records creation, and that these records are needed for their carrying out, it is considered that excellent records management is one of the bases of performing every other business function and process. The paper tries to show how excellent records management, as a support (secondary) process, influences the optimization and rationalization of organization’s business as a whole. In the context of Porter’s generic strategies and information ecology, it examines records managementas a part of organization’s unique value chain, and shows how costs of records management, adjusted to (match) business’s real needs, can lower the costs of organization’s products and services, i.e. increase its profit and net worth. It elaborates on three internal policies that every organization is advised to create (some organizations are bound to do so by law) and which are considered important prerequisites for maintaining excellent records management: internal records management policy, classification scheme, and disposition schedule. Since they hold information on types, methods and performance of particular records management activities, these three policies are examined as integral parts of quality assurance system documentation. Emphasis is put on positive outcomes of their implementation when it comes to records management and maintaining quality assurance goals, as well as conducting organization’s business functions and processes. In terms of the given context, the paper is not limited to a particular type of organization (e.g. categorized creators and custodians under state archives’ supervision, organizations subject to Regulation on Records Management) and its recommendations are considered to be applicable in every organization that maintains or aims to maintain business or organizational excellence. All these organizations, whose goal is maintaining excellent records management process, are encouraged to benchmark the process internally and externally, and to implement policies within current normative framework that regulates records management, regardless of being subjected to these policies or not