Induction Practices and the Continuous Recreation of Organizational Memory

Abstract

Research on organizational memory (OM) lacks a dynamic perspective that shows how OM is continuously recreated and enacted over the course of time. In this paper, we intend to fill up this research gap and integrate OM with knowledge of staff induction and organizational recreation. We provide a theoretical analysis of the continuous recreation of a firm’s OM by focusing on staff induction from an OM perspective. Staff induction serves as a means to enable newcomers to learn parts of the firm’s knowledge base with the aim of acting in accordance with the standards of the firm. We contribute to the existing research by explaining the continuous recreation mode of OM (adjustment pressure, demonstrative learning, and knowledge provision). Furthermore, we describe the integration into organizational routines by emphasizing the inductee’s learning of the firm’s knowledge architecture to integrate technical, social and cultural knowledge in a meaningful way. Finally, we investigate the role of a control-based and a commitment-based HRM strategy to govern staff induction, where the level of the newcomer’s background knowledge and the attempt to learn from inductees determine whether to use a control-based approach (transferring knowledge from the firm to the inductee) or a commitment-based approach (seize also novel ideas from newcomers).