287 Electronic Mail Management: A Corporate Memory towards Organizational Performance Nurussobah Hussin a , Haslinda Mohamed b , Nor Rashimahwati Tarmuchi c Faculty of Information Management Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kampus Puncak Perdana, Shah Alam, Selangor. Tel : 03-79622223, Fax : 03-79622007 a E-mail : nur_huss@yahoo.com b E-mail : haslinda@salam.uitm.edu.my c E-mail : norra758@salam.uitm.edu.my ABSTRACT This study evaluates government practices in electronic mail (email) management to identify perception on the email management’s contribution as a corporate memory towards organizational performance. The study uses questionnaires as the instrument and a sample of 250 respondents from various government officers in Putrajaya, Malaysia participated in this survey. The study aims to investigate the practices at the government agencies in applying records management principles to email, such as separating email information from email records in the circulation and dissemination process, storing emails, and applying retention and disposal management. The result reveals that the respondents perceive that the documents send through emails contribute to the better performance of their departments. Keywords Electronic Mail Management, Corporate Memory, Perception, Performance, Organization 1.0 INTRODUCTION An electronic mail message or “email” consists of a digitally stored message and any attached digital documents transferred between computer users. Any organizations either public or private organizations use email for a variety of tasks such as sending and receiving internal and external correspondence, distributing memos, circulating drafts, disseminating directives, transferring official documents, and supporting various business processes of the organizations. Therefore, email constitutes a ‘corporate memory’ on how an organization conducts its business, evidence of corporate decisions and behavior. According to Sabah.net (2005), email is provided to enhance the performance of the government. Unnecessarily large email messages or email with unnecessarily large attachments create congestion within and between email systems. This congestion results in long delays and unnecessary costs for the storage and transport of the said email. Just a few excessively large messages can create a number of email delivery delays and other "performance" failures for many users. Hence, to help manage the potential for email system congestion (and some type of denial of service attacks), controls on interagency and extra-governmental email size should be in place. Like any other record in any medium, email should be managed according to basic rules and principles. According to Makhura (2005), the management and retention of electronic mail in South Africa is subject to the National Archives and Record Service of South Africa Act (No. 43 of 1996 as amended) and its regulations. Meanwhile in Malaysia, there are guidelines on procedural use of internet and email management established by National Archive of Malaysia and other government agencies such as circulars on email management issued by Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) and Malaysian Administrative Modernization and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU). It is hoped that by establishing the procedures with the compliance to it, Malaysian organizations can create an environment that promotes successful management of email records. According to Sutcliffe (2003), if email is not captured as soon as it is generated, then it may never be captured. Furthermore, once information is published on the Web, it becomes a record, and creates liability for the organization that published it if it has gone through a formal review and approval process. 2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT Email has revolutionized communications in the modern working environment. Thousands of valuable email records are created and exchanged by email systems in offices around the world every day. Yet despite this prolific level of usage, the process of managing and preserving email records remains a significant challenge for many organizations. This is not least because of the technical challenge involved in email circulation, but also the accompanying organizational and cultural challenges of raising awareness, achieving compliance, and integrating email management into organizational infrastructures. Email has thus become both a solution and a problem. Failure to properly address these