1. By Moses S. K. Azameti, Nana K. Annan & Emmanuel Adjei
TITLE: A Conceptual Framework Explaining Strategies Tertiary Institutions Adopted For Managing Academic Records
Its Effectiveness, Philosophy and Implication for Quality Service Delivery.
By Moses S. K. Azameti, Nana K. Annan & Emmanuel Adjei
8th October, 2014

2. OUTLINE Abstract Introduction Theoretical Framework
The Lifecycle Concept
Allied Theories
The Conceptual Diagram
Philosophical Background
Implications

3. ABSTRACT
Managing academic records effectively and efficiently hinges on strategies which every institution has adopted based on its peculiar situation and the typology of technology platform being used as its unique service delivery systems. In the midst of dynamic technological environments, strategies for managing academic records have been severally construed, designed and executed yet the efficacy thereof, and the philosophy behind have not been investigated through empirical analysis in order to ascertain the effectiveness and the implications for quality service delivery within the context of servqual and the servperf conceptualization of service quality.

4. INTRODUCTION
By and large the ESP theory was a ground breaking study of Daft, R. C.(1986) mentioned in Dennis, A.R. and Valacichi, J.S. (1999:32-35), was first presented at the 32nd Hawaiian international Conference on systems Science, January 2010.The theory is equally applicable to communication studies and analysis of information science. The extension to this theory in the current study is to show the process of embodiment of strategies and the corresponding domains which practitioners of academic records keeping and management in higher education have profoundly construed in the context of their art of ensuring effective and efficient management of students’ academic records in the current fluid technological environments where the authenticity and trustworthiness of records are scarcely guaranteed due to the human interface and it’s concomitant exigencies.

5. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
One major gap in the records management literature is the perceived implausibility of rigorous theoretical models or paradigm that helps to explain the effectiveness of strategies adopted for record-keeping and management practices, the underlying philosophy and the implications for quality service delivery in the domain of the servqual and servperf conceptualization of service quality measurement. This lack of plausible theoretical frameworks make it extremely difficult to state a testable hypothesis as inputs for explaining the effectiveness of records management strategies adopted in all categories of tertiary institutions and the challenges associated with the records management profession in contemporary educational environment in Ghana.

6. THEORETICA FRAMEWORK cont.
In this paper two allied theories apart from the life-cycle and continuum concepts of records management have been identified. These theories have been summarised in examining the epistemological and methodological approaches to the study. The conceptual framework presented has guided the determination of the dependent and independent variables of the study, which sought to investigate strategies adopted for managing academic records and challenges associated with the creation, management of academic records and quality of service delivery in contemporary tertiary institutions.

7. THE LIFE CYCLE CONCEPT

8. THE LIFE CYCLE CONCEPT cont.
Practically, the life cycle concept has various ramifications for the institutional mechanisms for records management. Without it, vast quantities of inactive records clog up in expensive office space, it is virtually impossible to retrieve important administrative, financial and legal documents; and this situation undermines the accountability of the institution and endangers the rights of students. Without a management programme which controls records through the earlier phases of their life-cycle, those which are of archival value cannot readily be identified and safeguarded. This means that without the life-cycle concept we lose our heritage.
We requires a detailed programme which pulls together the following range of interlocking issues:
The urgent necessity for the strengthening of records office services;
Records inventory and scheduling;
The establishment of a records centre for the management of semi-current records.

9. ALLIED THEORIES
The two allied theories which were used to support the study are
Media synchronicity theory (MST)
Embodied Social Presence theory (ESP).

10. ALLIED THEORIES
Media Synchronicity Theory (MST), the main dependent factors include communication performance and effectiveness and the main independent constructs consists of Media Synchronicity, transmission velocity. Parallelism, symbol sets rehears ability and reprocesses ability according to (Dennis et al 1986). The MST is an extension to media richness theory Daft and Lengel which was propounded in (2007) specifically; the MST posits that only communication can be broken into two fundamental processes, thus conveyance and convergence.

11. ALLIED THEORIES
The main dependent constructs of the ESP consists of the flow, perception of Embodiment and the Task focus. The major independent factors also include Virtual Embodiment, Technological Readiness, Psychological Readiness, Embodied Presence and Embodied co-presence. Simply put, the ESP Theory holds that the human body is the nexus of communication whereby an embodied representation affects the perception of users by urging them to enter into a higher level of mental engagement in their critical analysis and acts of communication. It is a process during which users of the embodiment engage themselves into a loop of shifting the main focus of their attention on the virtual and the real self of a given situation, and on the other social actors virtual and real self and on the context of interactions

12. ALLIED THEORIES
The ESP theory in this paper explains a situation where records practitioners in academic environments find themselves in a situation of being unable to exhaustively defend the virtual and the reality of allegations of malpractices against their professional conduct and the perceived non trust worthiness and authenticity of academic records so created, kept and managed in various institutions which has become a subject of research and topic of social interaction among students and other stake holders both being direct and indirect consumers of the services provided by practitioners of the field.

13. THE CONCEPTUAL DIAGRAM

14. THE CONCEPTUAL DIAGRAM
What constitutes academic records in educational institutions?
The domain of strategies adopted for managing academic records consists of setting of policies and standards to guide practitioners.
Philosophy underlying strategies tertiary institutions have adopted for managing academic records simply means the reason why the strategies were adopted.
How are the effectiveness domains of strategies adopted in managing academic records determined?

15. Philosophy
Philosophy underlying strategies tertiary institutions have adopted for managing academic records simply means the reason why the strategies were adopted, however, a wider explanation of the term philosophy need to be considered in the context of this study. The word philosophy in its etymological context might best be explained in three aspects:
An activity
A set of attitude and
A body of context
The activity aspect of philosophy is by noting what philosophers do. For instance, synthesizing, speculating, prescribing and analysing are the four activities that have traditionally been at the heart of philosophic endeavours.

16. Philosophy
This study focuses on only the activity aspect of philosophy which implies that, practitioners in academic records management must constantly engage in the four activities concerning the aforementioned strategies adopted for managing the records. They must speculate, prescribe, analyse and synthesize the adopted strategies for managing the records in order to ascertain the effectiveness and efficiency of managing the records (George,R.Knight,1998).

17. IMPLICATIONS FOR Q.S.D
When the records management strategies such as setting policies for managing the records, assigning authorities over the use of the records and holding all other variables constant, the strategy will most axiomatically result into the needed service quality delivery systems under the servqual and servperf conceptualization of service quality which according to PZB (1994) involves the appropriateness of the perceptions – expectations gap conceptualization, which form the basis of the servqual scale and the servperf scale identified by Cronin and Taylor (1992).

18. CONCLUSION
It is important to affirm that the whole gamut of managing academic records strategically to ensure its underlying philosophy, effectiveness and its implications for quality service delivery is a mixed bag of activities required of the records keepers and managers in today’s fluid technological academic environments.

19. CONCLUSION
According to the debate started by Cronin and Taylor (1992) and latter critiqued by PZB (1994) may be seen in the context of this paper as a cogent academic exercise in an educational paradigm which is full of challenges. However, it is important to note further that that the emerging literature on service quality has supported the performance-based paradigm over the disconfirmation-based servqual paradigm of measuring service quality.

20. CONCLUSION
The effectiveness of records management strategies which tertiary institutions adopted for managing academic records cannot be ascertained until students and lecturers who are direct consumers of services provided by practitioners make request of the people in charge of keeping and managing the records.

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22. THANK YOU