سازمان های دولتی کانادا توسعه سیاست های مدیریت ایمیل

As e-mail has become a widely used communication tool by the Government of Canada (GoC), this article examines current e-mail management policies and system implementation in Canadian government agencies. GoC implemented the Records, Document, and Information Management System (RDIMS) as an integrated system tool for efficient document and records management. RDIMS provides the capability to create, manage, and access information and documents, regardless of ministerial, departmental, or geographic location. GoC presents legal guidance on e-mail management, based on the Access to Information Act, Privacy Act, and Library and Archives of Canada Act. Developing an e-mail management policy promotes an effective capture, management, and retention of e-mail messages.

Electronic mail (e-mail) has become a major tool for organizational and interpersonal communications and is one of the most business-critical information management applications (Stephens & Wallace, 2003). One study found that an average corporate user generates and receives about 84 e-mails a day, requiring about 10 megabytes of storage; this number is expected to rise to 15.8 megabytes by 2008 (Moerdler, 2006). E-mail has changed the way business is conducted in working environments because of its ease and speed and also because of the cost-effectiveness of sending and receiving information in electronic form. For the Government of Canada (GoC), e-mail has become the most frequent form of communication (Library and Archives Canada, 2006c). GoC has made attempts to establish e-mail systems and provides policies on e-mail management guidelines across ministries, departments, and government agencies. However, research into the effectiveness of implementing current e-mail management systems and policy guidelines into practice in the Canadian government has been rare to date. This study reviews current e-mail management trends and problems by exploring the e-mail management policies and practices of Canadian government agencies. It describes e-mail messages as records and reviews the existing e-mail management policy guidelines of five federal agencies in the Canadian government on the basis of system, legal compliance, and records management. Finally, this study discusses issues related to e-mail management and suggests further implementation tasks to be addressed by the Canadian government.

The rapid growth of e-mails and an increasing awareness of e-mail management underline the fact that electronic mail messages must be managed, like other electronic records, in accordance with business needs. In order to manage e-mail messages efficiently, significant issues must be addressed, including system-related issues, legal issues, records management issues, business-related issues, and employee-related issues. This study examined the e-mail management policies and practices in the Canadian government in the process of creating, receiving, maintaining, preserving, and providing access to e-mail messages for accountable and reliable records management. In conclusion, e-mail management policies must be implemented in government agencies, and the emergence of e-mail management is an integral part in government information management and information technology. Although implementation details may vary according to each agency's institutional business requirements, organizational culture, and technology architecture, GoC has designed a records and document management solution that can improve the government's information management and implementation by electronically enabling consistent document management and record-keeping practice. E-mails must be preserved in a proper manner. Consequently, an e-mail management program can be deemed successful (a) when the system captures official e-mails of government agencies and manages the records through their life cycle and (b) when e-mail management policy becomes ingrained in the agency's culture and business processes.