Managing organizational discontinuity in a corporate museum: case study of the Polish Vodka Museum

Abstract

The article explains how corporate museums employ rhetorical history to construct a narrative of continuity against discontinuities in the organizational past. By analyzing the exhibition narratives and what these communicate to the stakeholders, the article ex- plores the case of the Polish Vodka Museum in Warsaw, which was established in the revitalized remains of a defunct vodka plant. The analysis has revealed that features of the former plant that represented continuity, such as the location, buildings, and brands, were emphasized in the narrative, while discontinuous features, such as ownership, legal status, and the core business were downplayed. The article contributes to the literature on rhetorical history, or the strategic uses of the past, by providing a case study of how corporate museums deal with organizational discontinuity by applying rhetorical tools. The case study is a corporate museum from Eastern Europe, an underrepresented region in the business history field characterized by political and socio-economic discontinuities.