Main Values in the Kenya National Archives - Report Example

Kenya National Archives The Kenya national archive is located in the capital city of Kenya along Moi Avenue and Kimathi Street. It is the only National archive in the country and it not only serves the people of the nation but also people from other nations. In other words it serves even as an international archives. It contains a collection of wide range of materials. it contains books, VCD, tapes, important treaties, laws, agreements and even the constitution of different countries in the world and mainly African continent. It establishment was due to an act of parliament ii the year 1965 and its operations are directly under the office of the vice president as well as the ministry of home affairs. it is the home of all the national documentations and from it, retrieval can be made easily. The vision The archives is focused in being referred to as the most, preferred source of most important governmental and other important documentation retrieval in the whole of the country as well as excel in serving as being the nation’s memory. Mission Aims at preserving the most valuable records of the public and be the most reliable source of information to the nation by ensuring the information in the records is accessible no only to the present generation but also to the future generation effectively and very efficiently. Values There are four main values that act as the principle guideline of all operations in the Kenya national Archives. They are as follows. Proper recruitment of competent employees and a thorough training of these workers so as to ensure the quality of services are not at any time compromised. In other words, great professionalism, conduct and responsibility are highly demanded from every employee. After the workers are recruited, before starting up the job, they are taken through a serious training. To offer citizens a wide range or variety of documented information which are of the best quality and very easily accessible to them anytime they need it and especially for the purposes of research. To ensure that all collection and documentation activities are done in high level of integrity. To ensure environmental protection is the first priority especially in terms of paper and electronic material disposal management. The goals and objectives The Kenya National archives, aims at Maintaining a lead in production To fully satisfy all needs of the interested people To offer the information and data at an affordable price To be of great help to the community and research field To ensure all the preservation and storage is done well for easy accessibility The external environment analysis A number or external factors are very challenging as far as the national archives is concerned. These ranges from competition and climate Climate: the climate found in Kenya is basically not very dry and hot with a maximum temperature of over 20o in some months like September and August. The average rainfall is about 120mm which falls in very short torrential. This is one of the greatest challenges in that such climate really affects the accessibility of the records especially by foreigners. This may force the archives to stay for a whole day without anybody visited it.. Politics: Politics and the governance of the nation is yet another factor likely to cause an effect in the production (Hannagan, 2005). This is because most activities are governed politically. For instance, the office of the vice president as well as the ministry of home affairs has been bestowed a great responsibility. Also the issues of finances (treasury) are politically sorted. Competition: Kenya national archives are not the only company dealing with documentation in the whole of the nation. The following are some of the companies involved in the same area of production; all the media stations, the national universities, Bomas of Kenya national libraries and also some of the international libraries. As a matter of fact, demand for documented information is really rising in the country. So as to keep up with the level of competition from these companies, the national archives is forced to reduce the prices of its entry fee relative to these other companies as well as to reduce the cost of production or collection (Burns, 1961). Bomas of Kenya is a competitor in the sense that it majors with almost the same products as the Kenya national archives. They include documentation of films, books, VCD, tapes, important treaties. It is actually the greatest provider of cultural documented information in the country. Therefore, it poses competition in the area of such information retrieval, employment of workers as well as in the international arena. The Kenya national libraries competes with the Kenya archives in that it provides very high quality services due to its great technologies of information documentation as well as retrieval. Also, its very well systematic organized management is an added advantage. Also it majors with almost the same products as the Kenya national archives which includes; laws, agreements and even the constitution of different countries in the world and mainly African continent. International libraries like the AMREF and UNEP libraries, are also a competitor of the Kenya national archives in that they offers produces a variety of same services and products. They also deals with the laws, agreements, films, books, VCD, tapes, important treaties. They are is ranked as major supplier of the electronic information retrieval services in the country to almost half of the population found in the country in need of research. Technology and service provision: libraries like the international ones (UNEP and AMREF) have more than one center where the information can be retrieved established in major towns of the country. They also use very modern technology of retrieving information like the film system as well as internet services which can be accessed within the buildings. They also have other improved services whereby they have online connection to other international archives and libraries such that someone can be able to retrieve information from those other libraries through the use of the existing connection between that particular library and the other international libraries and archives. This kind of technology beats the technology of the Kenya national archives. Therefore, for the archive to keep up to the modern information retrieval and storage standards it has to employ a number of new and improved technologies (Roger, 1988). The internal analysis Susan (2006) describes internal analysis also as the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis. It means carefully looking at the internal factors of a company which may either affect its production positively or negatively. Every company, when internally assessed must have some strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats which may affect its production either positively or negatively. Such ranges from the organization’s reputation, professionalism of the employees, administrative strengthens and financial strength (Allingham, 2002). The following is the outcome of the SWOT analysis in AI AIN Company. There are a number of strengths associated with the Kenya national Archives. First of all, Participation in the community is a major strengthen in increased opportunities for the archive. For instance, Social clubs and cultural activities in which the archive has been part and parcel of have enabled it to reach out to so many members of the community. It is widely known to support as many talents as possible in the community during community contests such as sports and cultural activities aim at cultural awareness among others. It is also known to support sports in that it sponsors many clubs as well as encouraging the youth to participate in local sports like handball, football, marathons, camel and horse races. All this aims at increasing its popularity with the community members and also winning of the trust of the citizens as far the authenticity of information stored is concerned, hence increasing trust (Chandler, 1992). The archive’s with other libraries and government relation is another strong point in increasing its production. It is the tradition of the archive to perform a auditing or evaluation or market study through an external professional research, so as to get to know the opinions of the citizens, perceptions, attitudes and expectation. This enables the archive to come up with products which matches the interests and needs of the community as well as the researchers. The technology used by the company has also been a major boost to the quality of service. The documentation in the library is up to date and the records are stored in such a way that they can be easily accessed by the researchers. The quality of the documented information is also very good in that it is very authentic. On the other hand there are a few weaknesses in the company. The company’s resources are few and there are a few workers or employees. This affects the level of service production in the company. Also, the marketing strategy where by their products and service that they offer are never advertised to the public to be aware. the lack of modern technology is also another factor that leads to reduced efficiency as well as effectiveness of the service provision. The strategic objectives Erica (2002) describes strategic objectives as the overall targets any organization has to reach in order for it to achieve a successful strategy. A number of strategic issues identified in the internal and external analysis have to be dealt with, For instance, the issues of competition, technology, political and sales strategy (Susan, 2002). To counteract the effects they may cause to the productivity as far as effectiveness and efficiency of service provision is concerned by the Archive, a number of goal and objectives must be set which are as follows: New equipments to be imported which are up to date with the modern technology. New machines needed for the collection, storage or documentation and retrieval purposes must be bought. For example, more machines to do the information collection like films, as well as computers for the storage and retrieval of the information. Improvement of marketing strategy: Initially, services and products are offered only within the archives main center in the city. Therefore, it ought to start supplying the products in other cities by opening other centers in the main cities as well as main public universities where there are students in their higher level of studies are likely to need the information and materials for their research works. More employees to be recruited: The process of having more employees will help in that the archive will be able to have more working shifts hence increasing its service production as well as efficiency. Increase the sources of raw data and information. The Archive ought to start collection of the information from the communities to increase the authenticity of information as far as culture is concerned. New means of capital acquisition Introduction of new branches Generic and Grand strategy The importation of the new machines must be done as soon as possible. This is because for the archive to beat the competition in the market as far as information retrieval and accessibility is concerned it has to use the modern technology. The use of the new technology is all aimed at increasing the productivity of the company (Mintzberg, 1979). It is anticipated that by using the new modern technology, there will be an increase of about 20% in the efficiency and a decrease of 25% in the cost of production and ineffectiveness. However, this does not mean the existing ones will be done away with. This is why; the employment of new workers is of paramount importance as far as this is concerned so that all machines will be working. The archive needs to approach the government, banks and other organization so as to get financial aid to increase its capital. Low cost strategy is very important. The archive will be very committed in the area of reducing the cost of production. For example, it can liaise with the public universities where students are greatly involved in research within the community to get the information it needs as well as the material important to the community at a very cost effective cost, he introduction of other branches in the country strategy to cut down the costs and also increase the availability of materials needed for the citizens (Chandler, 1962). Strategy Implementation and control The purchase of the equipments must be done immediately. However, this will be done in phases. A few equipments will be bought and then put into work. This is because of the large amount of capital needed to purchase them. The introduction of the new technology will not be done instantly. The new and old technology will be running simultaneously to ensure that the output or overall service production of the archive is not tempered with. Then, in future, after there is a satisfactory improvement in terms of production from the factory operating with the new technology, same equipments to be purchased and total replacement to be done in other branches too. The process of employee’s recruitment will be done after the introduction of the new technology because, by then more workers will be needed. This step of action will call for the introduction of shifts as well as new branches that will accommodate all these workers. The issue of more capital must be dealt with immediately so that the source can be identified (Thompson, 1967). For the archive to be able to implement all the strategic goals like building or securing new buildings for the new branches, purchasing more materials and equipments, there is a need for more capital. Therefore, consultations in the form of proposals must be done with the government through relevant ministries before the budget is read. Also, the proposal must be followed to ensure an action is taken towards it. References Allingham, M. 2002. Choice Theory: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University press. . Burns, T. 1961. The Management of Innovation. London: Tavistock. Chandler , A. 1962. Strategy and structure: Chapters in the history of the American industrial enterprise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Chandler , B. 1992. Management theory and practice. London: Thomson. Erica, O. (2006) Strategic planning for Dummies. Cambridge university press, Amazon Hannagan, M. 2005. Management concepts and practice. England: Prentice hall. Mintzberg, H. 1979. The Structuring of Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA: Prentice-Hall. scientific management of this story Roger, L. (1988) Strategic Planning for the Future. Cambridge university press, Amazon Susan, B. (2002) Rapid strategic planning, Oxford University Press, Amazon, Thompson, J. 1967. Organizations in Action. New York: McGraw-Hill. Read More