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On the Determinants of Organizational Forgetting

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  • Brachet, Tanguy
  • David, Guy

Abstract

Studies of organizational learning and forgetting identify potential channels through which the firm’s production experience is lost. While the ability to distinguish between these channels has implications for efficient resource allocation within the firm, to date, their relative importance has been ignored. This paper develops a framework for eliciting the contributions of labor turnover and human capital depreciation to organizational forgetting. We apply our framework to a novel dataset of ambulance companies and their workforce. We find evidence of organizational forgetting, which results from sizable skill decay and turnover effects, with the latter having twice the magnitude of the former.

Suggested Citation

  • Brachet, Tanguy & David, Guy, 2009. "On the Determinants of Organizational Forgetting," MPRA Paper 21464, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:21464
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Thompson, 2007. "How Much Did the Liberty Shipbuilders Forget?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(6), pages 908-918, June.
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Organizational Forgetting; Labor Turnover; Skill Decay; Learning‐by‐Doing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • L23 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Organization of Production
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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