Abstract
Organizational Fields as Mnemonic Communities
Highlights
The concept of the organizational field is central to organization theory
We propose a new way of understanding organizational fields—as imagined communities that are bounded by collective practices of remembering
Despite this clear understanding that organizational fields are constituted by shared structural interactions and common cognitions, most empirical applications of the construct seem to privilege one component of fields over the other
Summary
The concept of the organizational field is central to organization theory. Despite its influence, the construct suffers from a lack of precise definition. Most theorists accept structuration as the core dynamic through which fields emerge (Scott, 1994) and, as a result, most definitions of organizational fields contain an element of structure or place, on one hand, and an element of collective meaning or cognition on the other. The moral, or normative, dimension of the field encompasses the remembrance and forgetting of the good and the bad, as well as the moral appropriateness of the practices and frameworks of remembering This redefinition of organizational fields as communities of remembrance offers an enriched view of organizational fields and provides an innovative path to the development of research on the reproduction and change of organizational fields and institutions over time. We conclude with a discussion of how the implications of viewing the organizational field as a mnemonic structure can generate future research
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