Dismantling Bureaucracies: Consequences for Record-keeping in New Zealand and in Estonia

In the late twentieth century, both New Zealand and Estonia experienced societal changes which impacted on the nature and functioning of organizations. The impact on record-keeping was quite different in these two environments. A comparative case study approach focusing on an organization with the same functions in both countries (the postal service) is used to illustrate these differences. There was a recognition of the need for records and document management at the highest management levels in Estonian Post, which was completely absent in New Zealand Post. In Estonia, the essential nature of records management was clearly recognized and accepted, whereas in New Zealand record-keeping traditions were not sufficiently embedded to survive organizational change.