How to expedite office work? – Jan Kościołek’s ways of rationalising office work

Abstract

Jan Kościołek was a trained lawyer, a clerk of mid-war and post-war Poland, author of many publications. Almost all of them had one objective: to make works of offices more effective. The main aim of the article is to describe his literary output and methods of dealing with records more efficiently, that are presented there. The first part of the article lists 34 publications of Kościołek in a matter of chronology and their subject. He published manuals describing all aspects of institutions functioning (from social problems of working in an office to specific office tasks), as well as articles and books about specific subjects, like controls on district levels or creating manipulative prints and forms. He also published reports on foreign literature and commentaries to regulations of that time. The second part of the article is a synthesis of topic that, according to Kościołek, were supposed to expedite office work, e.g. system of employees suggestions, a special organisational units dedicated to control of creating and storage of records, diagnosing problems in office work (with several methods of analysis), using forms, questions of office space and its equipment, the role of the management staff, working according to an agreed agenda, and systematic controls. The article also describes some of Kościołek’s suggestions about, among others, circulation and storage of records, elements of correspondence, methods of classifying records, office systems.

Keywords

• jan kościołek, zarządzanie dokumentacją, biurowość, racjonalizacja biurowości