NON DOCUMENT ATTRIBUTES IN DOCUMENT ORGANIZATION: AN ARTICLE CRITIQUE
The research reported in this article investigated the ways in which individuals organize documents in their offices. The purpose of the research was to identify factors implicated in the process of document organization that were not attributes of the documents per se. These non document attribute factors were identified by the author of this article as an individual's (1) goals, (2) purposes, (3) knowledge, (4) history, (5) predisposition, (6) constraints, and (7) understanding of the situation within which document organizing occurs. These seven factors were referred to by the author of this article as the context within which organizing occurred. With the context of the organization process established, the author pursued five objectives, as follows, were pursued through the conduct of the research reported in the article:
2. Identify the documents that are significant within the context.
3. Describe how documents are differentiated within the context.
4. Isolate the dimensions of the context and the characteristics of the documents that are salient to the organizing individuals.
5. Identify patterns of organizing behavior.
The sample for the research reported in this article consisted of eight members of a university faculty. The task studies in the research was the sorting by the members of the research of their daily mail.
The author of this article made a good case for the proposition that, when studying individual behavior, it is best to study such behavior within the actual context within which it typically occurs. The case that the author did not make convincingly is why anyone, other than the person involved, should care how that person sorts her or his daily mail.
One "startling" revelation in the study findings reported by the author of this article was that "people are able to articulate
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