This paper studies the different mechanism used in organizations to enact voluntary organizational forgetting. Based on a literature review, previous and original research, four main mechanisms are identified: assets and technologies, routines and procedures, structure and understandings. Each mechanism is discussed and implications are drawn for future research.
Amit, R., & Schoemaker, P. (1993). Strategic assets and organizational rent. Strategic Management Journal, 14, 33-46.
2.
Anand, V., Manz, C., & Glick, W. ( 1998). An organizational memory approach to information management . Academy of Management Review, 23, 796-809.
3.
Argote, L. ( 1999). Organizational learning: Creating, retaining, and transferring knowledge. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic .
4.
Argote, L., Beckman, S.L., & Epple, D. ( 1990). The persistence and transfer of learning in industrial settings. Management Science, 36, 140-155.
5.
Argote, L., & Epple, D. ( 1990). Learning curves in manufacturing. Science , 247, 920-924.
6.
Barney, J. ( 1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17, 99-120.
7.
Benkard, C.L. ( 2000). Learning and forgetting: The dynamics of aircraft production . American Economic Review, 90, 1034-1054.
8.
Besanko, D., Doraszelski, U., Kryukov, Y.S., & Satterthwaite, M. (2010). Learning-by-doing, organizational forgetting, and industry dynamics. Econometrica, 78, 453-521.
9.
Bettis, R.A., & Prahalad, C.K. (1995). The dominant logic: Retrospective and extension. Strategic Management Journal, 16, 5-14.
10.
Bettis, R.A., Wong, S.-S., & Blettner, D. ( 2010). Dominant logic, knowledge creation and managerial choice . In M. Easterby-Smith & M. Lyles (Eds.), Handbook of organizational learning and knowledge (2nd ed., pp. 343-356). New York, NY: John Wiley.
11.
Blau, P.M., & Schoenherr, R.A. (1971). The structure of organizations . New York, NY: Basic Books.
12.
Carlson, J.G., & Rowe, A.J. ( 1976). How much does forgetting cost? Industrial Engineering, 8(9), 40-47.
13.
Casey, A. ( 1997). Collective memory in organizations. In P. Shrivastava, A. Huff , & J. Dutton (Series Eds.) and A. Huff & J. P. Walsh (Vol. Eds.), Advances in strategic management: Organizational learning and strategic management (Vol. 14, pp. 111-151). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
14.
Chandler, A.D. ( 1962). Strategy and structure: Chapters in the history of the American industrial enterprise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
15.
Cohen, M.D. ( 2007). Reading Dewey: Reflections on the study of routines. Organization Studies, 28, 773-786.
16.
Cohen, M.D., Burkhart, R., Dosi, G., Egidi, M., Marengo, L., Warglien, M., & Winter, S. ( 1996). Routines and other recurring action patterns of organizations: Contemporary research issues. Industrial and Corporate Change , 5, 653-698.
17.
Crossan, M., Lane, H., & White, R.E. ( 1999). An organizational learning framework organizational learning: From intuition to institution. Academy of Management Review , 24, 522-537.
18.
Daft, R.L., & Weick, K.E. ( 1984). Toward a model of organizations as interpretation systems . Academy of Management Review, 9, 284-295.
19.
Cyert, R.M., & March, J.G. ( 1963). A behavioral theory of the firm. Englewood Cliffs: NJ: Prentice Hall.
20.
Darr, E., Argote, L., & Epple, D. ( 1995). The acquisition, transfer and depreciation of knowledge in service organizations: Productivity in franchises. Management Science, 41, 1750-1762.
21.
Devadas Rao, R., & Argote, L. ( 2006). Organizational learning and forgetting: The effects of turnover and structure. European Management Review, 3, 77-85.
22.
Dierickx, I., & Cool, K.O. ( 1989). Asset stock accumulation and sustainability of competitive advantage. Management Science, 35, 1504-1511.
23.
Dougherty, D., & Hardy, C. ( 1996). Sustained product innovation in large, mature organizations: Overcoming innovation-to-organization problems. Academy of Management Journal, 39, 1120-1153.
24.
Dougherty, D., & Heller, T. ( 1994). The illegitimacy of product innovation in established firms. Organization Science, 5, 200-218.
25.
Duncan, R.B., & Weiss, A. ( 1979). Organizational learning: Implications for organizational design. In B. M. Staw (Ed.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 1, pp. 75-124). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
26.
Easterby-Smith, M., Crossan, M., & Nicolini, D. ( 2000). Organizational learning: Debates past, present and future . The Journal of Management Studies, 37(6), 783-796.
27.
Easterby-Smith, M., & Lyles, M. ( 2003). Re-reading organizational learning: Selective memory, forgetting, and adaptation. The Academy of Management Executive , 17(2), 51.
28.
Epple, D., Argote, L., & Devadas, R. ( 1991). Organization learning curves: A method for investigating intra-plant transfer of knowledge acquired trough learning by doing. Organization Science, 2, 58-70.
29.
Feldman, M.S., & Pentland, B.T. (2003). Reconceptualizing organizational routines as a source of flexibility and change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48, 94-118.
30.
Fernandez, V., & Sune, A. ( 2009). Organizational forgetting and its causes: An empirical research. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 22, 620-634.
31.
Gold, A.H., Malhotra, A., & Segars, A.H. ( 2001). Knowledge management: An organizational capabilities perspective. Journal of Management Information Systems, 18, 185-214.
32.
Greve, H.R. ( 2002). Sticky aspirations: Organizational time perspective and competitiveness. Organization Science, 13, 1-17.
33.
Greve, H.R., & Taylor, A. ( 2000). Innovations as catalysts for organizational change: Shifts in organizational cognition and search. Administrative Science Quarterly, 45(1), 54.
34.
Hargadon, A., & Fanelli, A. ( 2002). Action and possibility: Reconciling dual perspectives of knowledge in organizations. Organization Science, 13, 290-302.
35.
Huber, G.P. ( 1991). Organizational learning: The contributing processes and the literature. Organization Science, 2, 88-115.
36.
Kraatz, M.S., Ventresca, M., & Deng, L. ( 2010). Precarious values and mundane innovations: Enrollment management in American Liberal Arts Colleges. Academy of Managament Journal, 53, 1521-1545.
Martin de Holan, P., & Phillips, N. ( 2004a). Organizational forgetting as strategy. Strategic Organization, 2, 423-433.
39.
Martin de Holan, P., & Phillips, N. ( 2004b). Remembrance of things past? The dynamics of organizational forgetting. Management Science, 50, 1603-1613.
40.
Miner, A., & Anderson, P. ( 1999). Industry and population-level learning: Organizational, interorganizational and collective learning processes. Advances in Strategic Management, 16, 1-30.
41.
Miner, A.S., & Mezias, S.J. ( 1996). Ugly duckling no more: Pasts and futures of organizational learning research. Organization Science, 7, 88-99.
42.
Nag, R., Corley, K.G., & Gioia, D.A. ( 2007). The intersection of organizational identity, knowledge, and practice: Attempting strategic change via knowledge grafting. Academy of Management Journal, 50, 821-847.
43.
Nelson, R.R., & Winter, S. ( 1982). An evolutionary theory of economic change. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
44.
Newstrom, J. W. (1983). The management of unlearning: Exploding the "clean slate" fallacy. Training and Development Journal, 37, 36-39.
45.
Olivera, F. ( 2000). Memory systems in organizations: An empirical investigation of mechanisms for knowledge collection, storage and access. Journal of Management Studies, 37, 811-832.
46.
Orlikowski, W.J. ( 2002). Knowing in practice: Enacting a collective capability in distributed organizing. Organization Science, 13,249.
47.
Penrose, E.T. ( 1959). The theory of the growth of the firm. New York: NY: John Wiley.
48.
Pentland, B., & Rueter, H. ( 1992). Organizational routines as grammars of action. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39, 484-510.
49.
Phillips, N., Lawrence, T., & Hardy, C. ( 2004). Discourse and Institutions. Academy of Managament Review, 29, 635-652.
50.
Prahalad, C.K., & Bettis, R.A. ( 1986). The dominant logic: A new linkage between diversity and performance. Strategic Management Journal, 7, 485-502.
51.
Scott, W.R. ( 1987). The adolescence of institutional theory. Administrative Science Quarterly, 32, 493-512.
Smunt, T.L., & Morton, T.E. ( 1985). The effects of learning on optimal lot sizes-Further developments on the single product case. IIE Transactions , 17, 33-37.
54.
Teece, D.J., Pisano, G., & Shuen, A. ( 1990). Firm capabilities, resources and the concept of strategy (Center for Research on Management Working Paper). Berkeley, CA: University of California.
Tsoukas, H., & Chia, R. ( 2002). On organizational becoming: Rethinking organizational change. Organization Science, 13, 567-582.
57.
Walsh, J.P., & Ungson, G.R. ( 1991). Organizational memory. Academy of Management Review, 16, 239-270.
58.
Weick, K.E. ( 1979). The social psychology of organizing (2nd ed.). Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.
59.
Weick, K.E., & Westley, F. ( 1996). Organizational learning: Affirming an oxymoron. In S. R. Clegg, C. Hardy, & W. R. Nord (Eds.), Handbook of organization studies (pp. 440-458). London: SAGE.
60.
Wickelgren, W. A. (Ed.). (1976). Memory storage dynamics. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
61.
Williamson, O.E. ( 1975). Markets and hierarchies: Analyses and anti-trust implications . New York, NY: Free Press.