CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Employee
records may be defined as "record that contain initial application forms,
results of physical examination, interviewers’ notations, test scores,
periodical appraisals, transfer and promotions, disciplinary actions, releases
and retiring wages, salaries, taxes paid, contributions and similar items"
(Soveign, 1984). Some or all the following information may be also included in
an employee file: full name, address telephone number, age and sex,
nationality, ethnic origin, religion, membership in trade union etc. In many
organizations these records are poorly organized and under-utilized despite the
vital or important information contained there. Emerson (1984) argued that
personnel records pose a particular problem because of their "bulk,
longevity, and sensitivity."
Professional
literature on archives and records management pays little or no attention at
all to the subject of managing personnel records even though these files are
substantial. In comparison to financial records, which have clear retention
periods, personnel records do not seem to have well developed retention period.
Merriam
– Webster dictionary (2014) defines computerization as the ability to carry
out, control, or produce by means of a computer. Computerization is the use of
computers, control systems and information technologies to optimize
productivity in the production of goods and delivery of services. The correct
incentive for applying computerization is to increase productivity, and/or
quality beyond that possible with current human labor levels so as to realize
economies of scale, and/or realize predictable quality levels. In this scope of
industrialization, computerization is a step beyond mechanization. Whereas
mechanization provides human operators with machinery to assist them with the
muscular requirements of work, automation greatly decreases the need for human
sensory and mental requirements while increasing load capacity, speed, and
repeatability. Computerization plays an increasingly important role in the
world economy and in daily experience. (Merriam – Webster, 2015).
A
database is a collection of interrelated data (records) organized so that
individual records or groups of records can be retrieved that satisfy various
criteria. Typical examples include employee records and products catalogs. (Encyclopedia
Britannica, 2015).
Mankind
has been keeping records since the dawn of civilization. The oldest surviving
examples of records made by humans are purely pictorial such as painting of
animals, which dates back to more than 15,000 years ago. These methods of
record keeping were mostly found in Spain and France.
However,
as civilization developed, pictorial records changed into pictographic
representations, such as hydro graphic used by Egyptians and subsequently into
the alphabetic system we use today. Also, the changes from subsistence
economies based on trade necessitated the recording of numerical and financial
information as well as records of the people and events.
Similarly,
the traditional office system used by most organizations consists of paper
based filling systems, which comprised filling cabinets, folders, shelves that
occupied considerable space, and also require maintenance/servicing frequently
(Williams, 1994).
According
to Ramez and Shamkant in their book titled “Fundamentals of database system”
Databases were classified into 3 types, these are:
1. The
hierarchical model, in which record types are linked in a tree like structure
(e.g., employee records might be grouped under a record describing the
departments in which employees work).
2. The
network model, in which arbitrary linkages of record types may be created (e.g.,
employee records might be linked on one hand to employees departments and on
the other hand to their supervisors - that is, other employees).
3. The
relational model, in which all data are represented in a simple tabular form.
In
the relational model, the description of a particular entity is provided by the
set of its attribute values, stored as one row of the table, or relation. This
linkage of n attribute value to
provide a meaningful description of a real-world entity or a relationship among
such entities form a mathematical n-tuple,
in database terminology, it is simply called a tuple. The relational approach
also supports queries (request for information) that involve several tables by
providing automatic linkage across tables by means of a “join” operation that
combines records with identical values of common attributes. Payroll data, for
example could be stored in one table and personnel benefits data in another,
complete information on an employee could be obtained by joining the tables on
the employee’s identification number. To support any of these database
structures, a large piece of software known as a database management system
(DBMS) is required to handle storage and retrieval of data (via the file
management system, since the data are physically stored as files on a magnetic
disk) and to provide the user with commands to query and update the database.
The relational approach is currently the most popular, as older hierarchical
data management systems, such as IMS, the information management system
produced by IBM, are being replaced by relational database management systems
such as IBM’s large mainframe system DB2 or the Oracle Corporation’s DBMS,
which runs on large servers. Relational DBMS software is also available for
workstations and personal computers.
The
need for more powerful and flexible data models to support non business
applications (e.g., scientific or engineering applications) has lead to
extended relational data models in which table entries need not be simple
values but can be programs, text, unstructured data in the form of binary large
objects (BLOBs), or any other format the user requires. Another development has
been the incorporation of the object concept that has become significant in
programming languages. In object-oriented databases, all data are objects.
Objects may be linked together by an “is-part-of” relationship larger,
composite object. Data describing a truck, for instance may be stored as a
composite of a particular engine, chassis, drive train, and so forth. Classes
of objects may form a hierarchy in which individual objects may inherit
properties from objects farther up in the hierarchy. For example, objects of
the classes “motorized vehicle” all have an engine; members of subclasses such
as “truck” or “airplane” will then also have an engine. Furthermore, engines
are also data objects, and the engine attribute of a particular vehicle will be
a link to a specific engine object. Multimedia databases, in which voice,
music, and video are stored along with the traditional textual information, are
becoming increasingly important and also are providing an impetus toward
viewing data as objects, as are databases of pictorial images such as
photographs or maps. The future of database technology is generally perceived
to be a merging of relational and object-oriented views.