Memory of the Organisation and Memories within the Organisation

Although the concept of memory is primarilyassociated with individuals, researcherssuggest that memory could also pertain tosupra-individual groups. It is commonlybelieved that organisations retain someknowledge of the past when key organisationalmembers leave. While there have been empiricaland theoretical works on organisational memory(e.g. Cohen and Bacdayan, 1994; Nelson andWinter, 1982) as well as review works (e.g.Walsh and Ungson, 1991), a critical synthesisof the interpretative approaches oforganisational memory that have emerged ismissing. Using the distinction put forward byBartlett (1961) on memory of the groupand memory within the group, this paperprovides a framework within which we discussand contrast the positions of those that arguethat a memory of the organisation can beidentified and indeed stored in the hierarchyof repetitive patterns of organisationalbehaviour (memory of the group) and thosethat maintain that members of any organisationsdo not share rules and therefore memory doesnot and cannot emerge as a feature of anorganisation (memory within the group). The paper argues that the concept of organisational context constitutes a linkbetween these two main approaches. Implications for theoretical interpretation offirm and empirical research are drawn. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2003