MANUSCRIPT: Can Organizational Memory be Built?

• Organizational memory has become a key concept for many actors in society who want to stress the importance of deliberate change and progress in an organization. In the review of 40 articles from 1995 until today have some aspects for opportunities and challenges on memory building been identified. Building memory in an organization involves many different factors and prerequisites, but aspects of functional learning processes are perhaps most important for organizational memory building. Some scholars argue that organizational memory is part of the culture and sustainability of an organization, while others argue that organizational memory cannot be built in practice. Others point to learning from normal daily activities, and others are seeing the good examples as means to build memory. Yet others point to changes in rules, procedures and even in regulations as essential to progress. Severity of events and trust are dominant factors for learning that can lead to memory building, since individuals are effected by the severity, and trust since bond between individuals mean that they sense that their experiences may be of significance for actions or change. Common notions are that memory building and learning are ongoing activities that may lead to efficiency. Memory building may have to be flexible and adaptive to fit organizations with different means and goals. Organizational memory can be of significance for future decisions. Decisions are and may become even more intertwined with other societal actors, and decisions may have effects on other operations in society. Future research could study issues related to events that have effects on society and on organizations that have different means and goals for addressing common problems and their solutions in terms of how memory building works after such events, e.g. natural hazards related disasters, where multiple actors, institutions and operations are affected.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

organizational memory building

collective learning

organizational learning

Risk and Environmental Studies

Risk- och Miljöstudier

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

ovr (ämneskategori)