Citizen and Ethical Control of File Management in the Teaching Secretary’s Office

Introduction

File management is a process that preserves the history of institutions and the personal course of subjects by issuing, registering, archiving and protecting the information that keeps the memory of social processes in the form of documents. Each institution has dependencies specialized in file management, which is basically secretaries´ work content, as an expression of a public function of an administrative nature, recognized in each historical type of society.

In Cuban Higher Education, the documentary memory of university processes is preserved from personal files, documents that expose the memory of events of various kinds and specific reports that reveal the characteristics of the organization and management operation. Due to its character and significance, the Teaching Secretary´s Offices file management in the Higher Education Centers in Cuba, confers an official character to the documentation and legitimizes from legality the value of the documents it issues. Ethics is an important value that the personnel working in these departments must have, since the information handled is only of interest to certain and determined people.

The new Cuban constitution has ratified the country’s commitment to the development of an information and knowledge society, centered on people, integrating and oriented towards sustainable development, in which everyone can create, consult, use and share information and knowledge in improving their quality of life, by virtue of a more open public communication model.

However, there are limitations associated with file management, among them it is evident that the documents that regulate file management activities are not always consulted by teachers and managers, who generally do not have the necessary knowledge about these documents to guarantee the quality of file management in citizen control of university processes as an area of professional performance.

On the other hand, they lack preparation for file management in university processes and elaboration of the forms that must be presented to the Teaching Secretary´s Office and sometimes there is a lack of spaces and ways to promote knowledge as an ethical foundation of civic behavior for file management in the citizen control of the university processes of the teachers and staff that work in offices in order to achieve an appropriate and scientific preparation of all the practices that are carried out in the Teaching Secretary´s Office.

Similarly, there are difficulties in the quality of the documents received by the Secretaries, which affects the conservation of documentary evidence of the substantive processes. Taking into account the above mentioned, it is defined as a controversial situation: the need to enhance knowledge as an ethical foundation of civic behavior for citizen control of file management of university processes, by teachers and staff working in offices in order to achieve an appropriate and scientific preparation of all the processes that are carried out in the Teaching Secretary´s Office. The situation described above leads to the objective of this article, which is to highlight the design of a methodological strategy to enhance citizen and ethical control of file management in the Teaching Secretary´s Office at University of Granma, Cuba.

Materials and Methods

For the development of the research, the Faculty of Higher Education at University of Granma was chosen and as the population for the study, the Dean, two (2) Vice Deans, five (5) technicians from the teaching secretary´s office, and 28 Principal Professors of Academic Year (PPAA) of the six teaching departments in the Faculty (100%). While the sample was intentionally integrated by two (2) secretaries, five (5) PPAA, the Dean and Vice Deans.

Through research methods such as document analysis, survey, interview, observation and descriptive statistics, it was possible to verify the problem addressed and corroborate the effectiveness of the strategy in the practice.

Analysis and Discussion

Management is above all a system of knowledge or skills for action, a system of practices that cannot only be learned intellectually, although they can be supported or served by interrelated intellectual processes, which are continuously improved to achieve successful results inside and outside of an organization which purpose is to prepare a group of highly qualified professionals in each of the subsystems that comprise it [1]. Management is the set of integrated actions for the achievement of a certain term, objective that includes, among others, administrative, personnel, economic, planning and programming [2]. When referring to the educational field, it can be said that educational management is a complex process that involves the input of diverse resources, generates (new knowledge, professionalism, cognitive and investigative skills, capacities in the discovery, formulation, approach and resolution of professional problems), trying to minimize errors and maximize successes in order to guarantee the continued progress of human society in balanced harmony with the nature to which it belongs [1]. Based on the definitions proposed, it is considered that management requires committing people towards the fulfilment of the proposed objective, and in the framework of the Teaching Secretary´s Office, management implies planning actions, distributing tasks and responsibilities, directing, coordinating and evaluating processes and results.

As Sole and Llinàs-Audet refer, it is not by chance that the modern university requires an organizational design adapted to professional management and an information system [3]. Management at the university facilitates the understanding of educational systems that help strengthening the values of the organization and the need for professionals to acquire responsibility and ethical principles in the use of advances in science and technology, based on the social demands to the University of the 21st century. File management is one of the oldest professions of humanity since men needed to record their actions in lasting documents, and as a consequence of the need to memorize things that concerned everyone and therefore should not be forgotten. That is why material evidence of such activity is known in civilizations as old as Sumer, China or Mesopotamia [4].

At the beginning of the 30s of the 20th century, file management or records management, by its original in English, originated in the United States of America due to the large accumulation of documents that had been originating in state offices. It was conceived as a set of techniques and procedures aimed at solving the organization of documents; while they are necessary for conducting the activities and affairs of companies and administrations, concluding their activity once they are selected for perpetual conservation [5].

The purpose of file management is aimed at ensuring adequate documentation, avoiding non-essential documentation, simplifying the systems for creating and using the procedure, improving the way of organizing and retrieving documents, providing care and storage at low cost of documents in the intermediate files and ensure the proper redaction or disposal of documents that are no longer needed in the management of current affairs. Roberge considers file management as a system: the information that enters, the information processed the information that leaves, giving priority to the various information systems, classification and description, and preservation. Its function is to support decision-making and daily operations of an organization; its objective remains administrative efficiency and profitability [6].

This author maintains that one of the challenges facing organizations today is to protect their corporate memory and be viable for the proper functioning of the government through a sustainable system that includes its components, to give accredited persons access to any relevant information through the support documenting the activity of the organization. A Teaching Secretary´s Office file management is important in each school institution. If the documents are not prepared with quality and are properly preserved, so that they can be easily consulted, they do not have any useful function, which affects the quality of decision-making, accountability and institution’s capacity to comply with its obligations and certify its reliability, which is one of the aspects taken into account in the accreditation of institutions and specialties.

From the point of view of protection, ethical principles must be maintained and the integrity of the documents must be guaranteed, avoiding their loss or deterioration and restricting access to the documentation, so that only authorized persons can access it. Documents must be easily retrievable by users, either through hierarchies, text search or through folder systems, so that the minimum possible time is spent on this type of task.

The file manager of a Teaching Secretary´s Office must treat people with respect, giving them a dignified, courteous, cordial and tolerant treatment. It is necessary to work in accordance with the legal norms inherent to the function performed, with the obligation to know, comply with and enforce the legal provisions that regulate the processes that are carried out, there must be transparency in what is done, and responsibility for performance; functions must be performed with efficiency, ethics and quality. It is typical of this type of work to develop continuous improvement processes, with openness, modernization and optimization of resources. Leadership must be achieved and the performance of functions that promote values and principles in society must be fully ethically fulfilled.

Currently, file management at a Teaching Secretary´s Office exhibits strengths from the existence of a regulatory framework, made up of the documents (resolutions, opinions and other regulations) that govern the file management of a Teaching Secretary´s Office of a Faculty and that professors sometimes search for the methodology of some file management in different processes individually and spontaneously, which shows interest in working as best as possible. The importance of quality in file management is also recognized.

To work in a Teaching Secretary´s Office, a staff with ethics, responsibility, integrity is required, who act with honesty and adherence to the law. They must be honest people who avoid obtaining profit or personal advantage from the position or to favor third parties.

Results

An initial diagnosis was made in the months between September and December of the 2020-2021 school years in the Teaching Secretary´s Office of the Faculty of Higher Education at University of Granma, located on the “Blas Roca Calderío” Campus, in Manzanillo, Granma, Cuba. Instruments were built for the application of the empirical level methods, the measurement scales and the assigned value; then the instruments were applied, the data were collected and statistically processed to finally grant an evaluation and infer the causes that affect the detected weaknesses.

In the survey applied to the teachers of the sample, the following results were obtained: 70% of those interviewed was evaluated as regular, while the remaining 30% was evaluated as bad in relation to filling out the final exams records and their delivery to the Teaching Secretary´s Office. In question two (2), 85% of the teachers considered that the Secretary´s Office guides the delivery date of the documentation for filling out the data, but in general it was known that a methodological preparation is not carried out for the execution of the different types of documents that are managed throughout the school year in the different processes developed knowing the complexity, quality and ethics required to register them in the documents that control student´s results.

In question three (3), related to what the Faculty does to improve teachers in file management, they refer that there are no ways to do it, only, in some cases, agreements are made in the Faculty Board of Directors to solve the urgent problems in documents delivery and in their preparation due to the lacking of knowledge of these teachers, who individually, go to the Secretary´s Office, receive the information and in many occasions the importance of keeping ethics when working with these documents is not taken into account. According to the opinion of 100% of the interviewed teachers, the majority of the documents delivered to the Teaching Secretary´s Office are returned because they contain errors in their elaboration. They also stated that it would be very important to receive, in advance, a preparation to be able to execute with the greatest possible clarity all the management of documents that they make, since they are working with information that only authorized persons should know.

It was also possible to verify there are great difficulties in the documents teachers prepare related to quality, transparency of the information, lack of data necessary for the completion of the document, since abbreviations, blurs, poorly readable letters, little exquisiteness appear in many occasions according to its typology, which threatens the clarity for the future archive, as appropriate as historical memory of both the Faculty and the University, so the results are enclosed in a regular value. There is evidence of a lack of necessary knowledge about the social significance of the document, its historical value, and source of information, future research, accreditations and inspections of the different levels that in each school year is a prioritized task by the Ministry of Higher Education.

After analyzing this situation, a methodological strategy was developed to enhance citizen and ethical control of file management in the Teaching Secretary´s Office at University of Granma, Cuba. It consisted of three stages:

• Diagnosis: To verify teachers´ difficulty in the Faculty file management.
• Guidance: To offer the necessary methodological preparation to promote citizen and ethical control of document management.
• Execution: For each teacher to carry out file management during the different stages of the course.
• Control: to verify the quality of documents completion that must be filed in each student record.

Conclusion

Management in a teaching institution facilitates having a vision of educational systems that help strengthening the values of the organization and the need for professionals to acquire commitment and ethical principles in the use of advances in science and technology.

File management is one of the oldest tasks of humanity. In a Teaching Secretary´s Office, it is important because it allows ethical principles to be maintained and the integrity of the documents is guaranteed, avoiding their deterioration and limiting access to documentation.

There are different types of documents in correspondence with different points of view.

The interviewed teachers presented difficulties in knowing how to fill out documents in the Teachers’ Secretary´s Office. These deficiencies were eradicated through the elaborated methodological strategy.