A Dialectical Sensemaking Model for Making Electronic Record Control Practice Decisions

As organizations become more complex the business units that comprise them have differing requirements for electronic records. Recent focus on regulatory compliance brought about by such issues as accounting scandals and identity theft have brought newfound pressure for IT managers to make sure that their electronic records and the IT processes that create them are in compliance with these standards. Due to the increasing complexity in organizations, however, coming up with organizational level control practices that meet these diverse needs is no easy task. This paper proposes a collaborative process for making decisions with regards to the control practices for electronic records and the IT processes that create them. The process is based on the sensemaking of Wieck (1995), dialectical theory, and the CobIT framework. It is our argument that by following the process, organizations can create a better vision of their present and future that they can use to make control process decisions based on the control objectives found in CobIT.