Organizational Forgetting Research Articles

Investigating the role of mediator of knowledge sharing and purposeful organizational forgetting and the relationship between information literacy among employees of Kerman University of Medical Sciences

Investigating the role of mediator of knowledge sharing and purposeful organizational forgetting and the relationship between information literacy among employees of Kerman University of Medical Sciences

Managers and organizational forgetting: a synthesis

PurposeThis paper aims to evaluate how managers influence accidental and intentional organizational forgetting, i.e. knowledge depreciation, knowledge loss and unlearning.Design/methodology/approachThe literature was reviewed based on predetermined search terms to identify peer-reviewed articles published in English and available in full-text format from the EBSCOhost and Google Scholar databases. Empirical and theoretical contributions were included. Additional articles, books and book chapters were manually selected and included based on recent reviews and syntheses of organizational forgetting work.FindingsFindings revealed that managers contributed to preventing accidental knowledge depreciation and loss and preserving organizational memory. With respect to intentional forgetting, findings revealed contradictory positions: on the one hand, managers contributed to the disbandment of existing beliefs and frames of reference, but on the other hand, they preserved existing knowledge and power structures.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was limited by the accessibility of subscribed journals and databases, research scope and time span.Practical implicationsThis paper provides useful guidelines to managers who need to reduce the disruptive effects of accidental forgetting or plan intentional forgetting, i.e. managed unlearning.Originality/valueThis paper represents a first attempt to review and define the influence of managers on organizational forgetting.

Intentional Forgetting in Organizations: The Importance of Eliminating Retrieval Cues for Implementing New Routines.

To cope with the already large, and ever increasing, amount of information stored in organizational memory, “forgetting,” as an important human memory process, might be transferred to the organizational context. Especially in intentionally planned change processes (e.g., change management), forgetting is an important precondition to impede the recall of obsolete routines and adapt to new strategic objectives accompanied by new organizational routines. We first comprehensively review the literature on the need for organizational forgetting and particularly on accidental vs. intentional forgetting. We discuss the current state of the art of theory and empirical evidence on forgetting from cognitive psychology in order to infer mechanisms applicable to the organizational context. In this respect, we emphasize retrieval theories and the relevance of retrieval cues important for forgetting. Subsequently, we transfer the empirical evidence that the elimination of retrieval cues leads to faster forgetting to the forgetting of organizational routines, as routines are part of organizational memory. We then propose a classification of cues (context, sensory, business process-related cues) that are relevant in the forgetting of routines, and discuss a meta-cue called the “situational strength” cue, which is relevant if cues of an old and a new routine are present simultaneously. Based on the classification as business process-related cues (information, team, task, object cues), we propose mechanisms to accelerate forgetting by eliminating specific cues based on the empirical and theoretical state of the art. We conclude that in intentional organizational change processes, the elimination of cues to accelerate forgetting should be used in change management practices.

Organizational forgetting, absorptive capacity, and innovation performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how the organizational forgetting affect innovation performance under the consideration of the environmental turbulence as a moderating factor of the analysis framework.Design/methodology/approachThis study constructs and verifies a moderated mediating model of organizational forgetting to innovation performance, using the exploratory factor analysis and the hierarchical regression analysis based on a survey sample of 320 Chinese companies.FindingsThe organizational forgetting is a critical determinant for improving innovation performance of an enterprise. A more detailed analysis reveals that first organizational forgetting cannot promote organization’s innovation performance without absorptive capacity. Second, the mediating effect of absorptive capacity is more positive when environmental turbulence is higher.Practical implicationsThis study provides empirical evidence about the importance of organizational forgetting in the firm innovation.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the existing literature by providing a clear explanation of the impacts of organizational forgetting on innovation performance through a comprehensive empirical study. Contrasting with previous research, this research clarifies the boundary conditions under which organizational forgetting enhances innovation performance. In particular, the authors find that organizational forgetting is not equally positive but instead increases with the level of environmental turbulence.

Authentic Leadership: A New Approach to Leadership (Describing the Mediatory Role of Psychological Capital in the Relationship Between Authentic Leadership and Intentional Organizational Forgetting)

In the last decade, companies have increasingly understood the value of knowledge management for obtaining competitive advantage. The two main dimensions of knowledge management are organizational learning and organizational forgetting. Despite much research that has been done about knowledge management and organizational learning, not much studies have been conducted so far on organizational forgetting and how to handle it. The purpose of the present study is to consider the relationship between the most recent leadership approach called authentic leadership and the concept of intentional organizational forgetting and psychological capital, which are suggested as a conceptual model for the first time. Research methodology is descriptive-correlational, and in terms of purpose, it is an applied study. Statistical population includes the employees of National Oil Products Distribution Company of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, out of which 165 individuals were selected through random sampling. Data collection tool includes the standard questionnaires of authentic leadership, organizational forgetting, and psychological capital, whose content validity was confirmed by experts’ comments and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha. In this research, correlation test, regression test, and structural equations model were used, and data were analyzed using LISREL Software. Results indicate that authentic leadership directly and indirectly affects intentional organizational forgetting through psychological capital. Also, the psychological capital, as a mediator variable, is relatively effective in the relationship between authentic leadership and intentional organizational forgetting.

The Impact of Organizational Forgetting on Knowledge Management: Evidence from Pharmaceutical Industry in Egypt

Purpose: The purposes of this paper are to determine the impact of Organizational Forgetting (OF) on Knowledge Management (KM) among employees at the Pharmaceutical industry in Egypt.Design/methodology/approach: Present study is conducted by descriptive-survey method and its population consists of employees at the Pharmaceutical industry in Egypt. 356 standard questionnaires were distributed of which 285 questionnaires (80%) were returned. To gather data, KM questionnaire devised by Jakob (2003) and Wiig (2003) and OF questionnaire devised by Fernandez & Sun, (2009) and Moshabbeki et al., (2012) are used.Findings: The research confirmed a conceptual model for OF. Moreover, research results showed that there is a meaningful relationship between OF and KM. Research results also indicate that OF impacts on KM.Research limitations/implications: Managers should encourage their employees to share their knowledge. Organizational knowledge can be created through individuals’ interactions. This study has some limitations. First, this paper just focuses on organizations to find new perspective for the OF literature. Second, because of the scope of this research, interviewees are limited to individuals who have knowledge or take any seminars related to field of this sector. Other sectors must be considered to attain detailed knowledge related to OF because case-specific studies will bring new dimensions to the literature of OF.Originality/value: First, this study makes a research contribution to the field of OF because studies related to OF mostly consist of conceptual papers. Second, I have introduced two new perspective to the concept of OF through this research paper.

Authentic Leadership: A New Approach to Leadership (Describing the Mediatory Role of Psychological Capital in the Relationship between Authentic Leadership and Intentional Organizational Forgetting)

In the last decade, companies have increasingly understood the value of knowledge management for obtaining competitive advantage. The two main dimensions of knowledge management are organizational learning and organizational forgetting. Despite much research that has been done about knowledge management and organizational learning, not much studies have been conducted so far on organizational forgetting and how to handle it. The purpose of the present study is to consider the relationship between the most recent leadership approach called authentic leadership and the concept of intentional organizational forgetting and psychological capital, which are suggested as a conceptual model for the first time. Research methodology is descriptive-correlational, and in terms of purpose, it is an applied study. Statistical population includes the employees of National Oil Products Distribution Company of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, out of which 165 individuals were selected through random sampling. Data collection tool includes the standard questionnaires of authentic leadership, organizational forgetting, and psychological capital, whose content validity was confirmed by experts’ comments and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha. In this research, correlation test, regression test, and structural equations model were used, and data were analyzed using LISREL Software. Results indicate that authentic leadership directly and indirectly affects intentional organizational forgetting through psychological capital. Also, the psychological capital, as a mediator variable, is relatively effective in the relationship between authentic leadership and intentional organizational forgetting.

Organizational trauma – Types of organizational forgetting in the case of Belgrade theaters

Organizational memory studies (OMS) frame memory in a managerial mode, treating it as a data storage, limiting the scope from wider field of social memory studies. There is a lack of understanding about how the process of institutional forgetting works and how some memories stay a part of oral narratives and communicative social memory while they are omitted from the official memory represented by the official documents and events of remembering. Inspired by Paul Connerton’s article on the typology of forgetting we explore his typology in selected case studies of three public theaters located in Belgrade, focusing on remembering policy and practices investigating if a type of forgetting typical for a state/society/nation level is possible to be applied in the context of a cultural organization. We agree with Wessel and Moulds that developing common language and terminology would be important and beneficial for cross disciplinary dialogue. In this sense, the study shows how the typology of forgetting in societies can be applied and developed in the organizational memory studies and cultural management. The focus of the research is the dynamics of remembering and forgetting explored through analysis of the interaction between changing context, official institutional memories, and social communicative memories.

Production with learning and forgetting in a competitive environment

It has been shown that learning-by-doing enables firms to reduce marginal production costs, but that this effect weakens due to organizational forgetting. In order to assess the impact of both learning and forgetting on long-term competitiveness and a firm’s profitability, we model an experience accumulation process with depreciation and consider two competing firms that produce fully substitutable products. In this model, unit production costs decrease with the firm’s experience due to the proprietary learning process as well as the spillover of experience from the competing firm. Firms can either share or hide from each other their information about the state of their respective experience throughout the game. We found that in an equilibrium steady state, if the organizational forgetting is sufficiently large (larger than the spillover rate value), then information sharing, compared to information hiding, results both in less competitiveness and increased profits for firms. Conversely, if the organizational forgetting is small and the spillover opportunities are relatively large, then information sharing promotes both long term competitiveness and firm profits. Accordingly, firms are better off in the long term by deliberately limiting (expanding) their experience accumulation process whenever organizational forgetting is relatively large (small). A high ability of proprietary learning, however, can interfere in this relationship so that limiting the firms’ experience process will always be compatible with higher profitability.

The effects of chaos edge management on intentional organizational forgetting with emphasis on quantum learning (case study: information technology-based organizations)

Unlike learning process, the critical phenomenon of organizational forgetting is not entirely understood. There are two categories of forgetting: accidental forgetting (not-preferred) and intentional forgetting (preferred). Therefore, all the variables that influence intentional forgetting can be important for organizational learning. One of them, which have been neglected thus far, is the edge of chaos in quantum learning. It is the point that a balance is achieved between stability and chaos. Organizational innovation, learning, and creativity all reach a proper level at this point. Along with emphasizing on these variables and surveying an IT-based organization, the present study is an attempt to discover the causal relationships between the variables. Based on the data from 289 filled out questionnaires, of which reliability and validity have been confirmed, structural equations model was developed in AMOS. The results showed that the all path coefficients were significant. In addition, comparison of goodness of fit indices and the standard range showed that all indices were acceptable and the main hypothesis regarding effectiveness of quantum learning on organizational forgetting was supported. The effect of quantum learning on organizational forgetting in non-standard and standard conditions was 0.51 and 0.28, respectively. Keywords: quantum learning, edge of chaos management, intentional organizational forgetting. JEL Classification: D83, D23

Examining the Effect of Transformational Leadership Method on Organizational Learning According to Organizational Forgetting Moderator in Astara Custom Organization

In today's competitive and complex environment, organizations need to create increasing learning ability. Among the factors that affect learning abilities in organizations is transformational leadership method. This research is done to test how transformational leadership method effects organizational learning. Organizational intentional and accidental forgetting have been selected as moderating variable. Based on these variables, a questionnaire include 64 questions was designed and it's standard through factor analysis was confirmed and stability of questionnaires of transformational leadership method and organizational learning and organizational forgetting are respectively (0.76, 0.78, 0.89). Statistical society of researcher is 138 employees of Astara's custom organization which according to limited sampling fomula,103 employees were selected. Researcher's data were collected through questionnaires and data analysis was done through regression test. Research results show that transformational leadership method has a significant effect on organizational learning and all it's dimensions. Here, intentional organizational forgetting could moderate the effect of transformational leadership method on organizational learning. Eventually, practical suggestions in such context was presented to senior managers. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n4S1p160

Organizational forgetting and cognition challenges. The case of a complex engineering organization

The paper deals with capabilities cognition in situations where “organizational forgetting” occurs: to what extent does organizational forgetting impact the ability to identify and assess organizat...

Evidence of Organizational Learning and Organizational Forgetting from Financial Statement Audits

SUMMARYThis paper examines the association between audit firm tenure and audit production efficiency. The analyses are based on proprietary audit production data provided by a large international accounting firm. The results document evidence of learning over time. Specifically, repeatedly servicing a client increases production efficiency by reducing the total audit hours expended in an audit engagement. Learning rates vary across different ranks of labor and learning is more pronounced among higher personnel ranks, with lower ranks experiencing little learning. Further, learning rates are not constant over time; there is little incremental learning beyond the initial productivity gains consistent with the concept of the learning curve. Finally, the results show some evidence of productivity losses as audit hours increase for very long tenures consistent with the notion of organizational forgetting.JEL Classifications: M41; M42

Does Organizational Forgetting Affect Vendor Quality Performance? An Empirical Investigation

The development of organizational knowledge and the depreciation of knowledge within organizations are processes that invariably occur concurrently. In the quality domain, many researchers have examined how the development of organizational knowledge (organizational learning) enhances quality performance. We build on this literature and investigate how the depreciation of organizational knowledge (organizational forgetting) affects quality performance. We analyze information on 2,732 quality improvement initiatives implemented by 295 vendors of a car manufacturer and find that organizational forgetting affects quality gains obtained from both learning-by-doing (autonomous learning) and quality improvement initiatives (induced learning); more than 16% of quality gains from autonomous learning and 13% of quality gains from induced learning depreciate every year. Furthermore, the impact of organizational forgetting (i) differs across the types of quality improvement efforts (quality gains from process improvement initiatives depreciate, whereas those from quality assurance initiatives do not), and (ii) depends on where quality knowledge was embedded (depreciation is lower for knowledge embedded in technology than for knowledge embedded in organizational routines or organizational members). Our results highlight the ubiquity of organizational forgetting and suggest the need for continued attention to sustain and enhance quality performance in supply chains.

Does organizational forgetting matter? Organizational survival for life coaching companies

Purpose– The purposes of this paper are to determine the role of organizational forgetting in different type of coaching companies and to determine organizational survival based on both knowledge structure of coaching companies and organizational forgetting with core features of organizations.Design/methodology/approach– Within the context of this research, two worldwide and well-known coaching companies were examined as case study, and analyses of case studies which included company background and testimonial analysis was used as inputs for the semi-structured interviews of 12 PhD students in the UK who took seminars and training from the coaching companies. Based on the interviews, the authors concluded the research as describing knowledge structure, core features and organizational forgetting type. Thus, organizational survival based on organizational forgetting could be interpreted.Findings– Based on the case studies and interview results, there were two findings. First, it was indicated that the type of organization (knowledge structure) had a different type of organizational forgetting. Second, core features of organizations based on the interviews and types of organizational forgetting were linked to each other. According to these results, organizational survival for coaching companies was discussed.Research limitations/implications– This study also has some limitations. First, this paper just focuses on coaching organizations to find new perspective for the organizational forgetting literature. Second, because of the scope of this research, interviewees are limited to individuals who have knowledge or take any seminars related to field of coaching. Other sectors also must be considered to attain detailed knowledge related to organizational forgetting because case-specific studies will bring new dimensions to the literature of organizational forgetting.Originality/value– First, this study makes a research contribution to the field of organizational forgetting because studies related to organizational forgetting mostly consist of conceptual papers, and, second, we have introduced two new perspective to the concept of organizational forgetting through this research paper.

Examining the Relationship of Organizational Agility and Organizational Forgetting with Organizational Effectiveness

This study aimed to investigate the relationship of organizational agility and organizational forgetting with organizational effectiveness among staff of the education administration of Zahedan. The population of this study included a total of 645 staff of the education administration of Zahedan who served in the 2013-14 school year. Using the Krejcie-Morgan table, 200 individuals were selected through applying stratified random method. To collect data, three questionnaires including Organizational Agility [1], Organizational Forgetting [2] and Organizational Effectiveness [3] were used. Content validity of these questionnaires was approved by the faculty members of the Department of Management and confirmatory factor analysis was used to ensure the results. In addition, Cronbach’s alpha for the scales of organizational agility, organizational effectiveness and organizational forgetting was calculated, which was 0.73, 0.74 and 0.76, respectively. The results showed that there was a significant positive correlation between organizational agility and organizational effectiveness. Moreover, there was a significant positive relationship between organizational forgetting and organizational agility. In addition, there was a significant positive relationship between organizational forgetting and the components of organizational effectiveness. Additionally, there was a significant positive correlation between organizational agility and the components of organizational effectiveness.

Organizational forgetting: Reviewing 40 years of research

We conducted a systematic review of the literature on organizational forgetting that has appeared in the past 40 years to assess unlearning, knowledge loss, and depreciation mechanisms. This review...

The Study of Relationship between Organizational Forgetting , Changes and Creativity of Employees of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences

The Study of Relationship between Organizational Forgetting , Changes and Creativity of Employees of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences

A Dynamic Model of Knowledge Shaping

We propose a dynamic model of knowledge shaping developed from a three-year qualitative case study. The model describes five possible organizational knowledge shaping response modes to new knowledge: Extension, replacement, elucidation, distortion, and avoidance. Each mode is determined by (a) the degree of understanding of new knowledge and (b) the perceived value of new knowledge. Degree of understanding is influenced by incompatibility between new and initial knowledge, and discontinuity in the knowledge introduction process; perceived value is influenced by employees’ perceptions of the benefits of new knowledge and organizational attributed value to new knowledge as shaped by managers. We explored these dynamic knowledge shaping actions in the context of the literature on organizational forgetting. Implications for theory and practice are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.

Surveying the Impact of Intentional Organizational Forgetting on Technical Innovations

The description of correlation is methodology of this research. The main purpose of this study is surveying the Impact of Intentional Organizational Forgetting on technical innovations. The population of this research includes of all small and middle established employees who work in Ardabil industrial cities. Sampling method is the simple random method which based on Cochran formula, 132 companies were selected as the sample size. This data collected by questionnaire. We have used multi variable regression for analyzing and meaningfulness of the data. The findings show that any dimensions of intentional organizational forgetting, learning relaxation and avoiding bad habits have the power of explaining and predicting technical innovations.