Autobiographical Memory and Identities in Organizations

2020 ◽  
pp. 373-390
Author(s):  
Roy Suddaby ◽  
Majken Schultz ◽  
Trevor Israelsen
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Organizational Memory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Life Narrative ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ongoing Effort ◽  
Narrative Constructions ◽  
Autonoetic Consciousness ◽  
Over Time

Current theories of identity in organizations assume and valorize stability of identity over time. In this chapter the authors challenge this assumption by introducing contemporary understandings of the fluidity of time in the construction of autobiographical memory. They argue that, both in individual and organizational memory, narrative constructions of the self fluidly incorporate episodes from the past, present, and future in an ongoing effort to create a coherent autobiography. They elaborate the construct of autobiographical memory as constituted by autonoetic consciousness, life narrative, and collective memory and discuss the implications for identities in organizations.

scholarly journals Rethinking history and memory in organization studies: The case for historiographical reflexivity

2020 ◽  
pp. 001872672092744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Decker ◽  
John Hassard ◽  
Michael Rowlinson
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Organizational Memory ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Organizational History ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
Methodological Choices ◽  
The Past ◽  
Memory Traces

The historic turn in organization studies has led to greater appreciation of the potential contribution from historical research. However, there is increasing emphasis on integrating history into organization studies, rather than on recognizing how accommodating history might require a reorientation. As a result, key conceptual and methodological insights from historiography have been overlooked or at times misrepresented. We identify four modes of enquiry that highlight distinctions from history about ‘how to conceptualize’ and ‘how to research’ the past. First, historical organization studies research the past primarily through reference to archival sources. Second, retrospective organizational history reconstructs the past principally from retrospective accounts, such as those generated in oral history. Third, retrospective organizational memory uses ethnography and interviews to explore the role of memory in the present. Fourth, historical organizational memory traces the institutionalization of organizational memory through archival research. From the analysis, we argue that historical organization studies are increasingly established, and interest in ‘uses of the past’ has contributed to the rise of retrospective organizational memory. However, historiographical reflexivity – a new concept for organization studies – focuses attention on engaging with both history and collective memory, and on the distinct methodological choices between archival and retrospective methods.

scholarly journals Living up to the past? Ideological sensemaking in organizational transition

Organization ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mairi Maclean ◽  
Charles Harvey ◽  
John A. A. Sillince ◽  
Benjamin D. Golant
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Organizational History ◽  
Organizational Transition ◽  
The Past ◽  
Top Managers ◽  
Over Time

This article builds upon archival and oral-history research on organizational change at Procter & Gamble from 1930 to 2000, focusing on periods of transition. It examines historical narrative as a vehicle for ideological sensemaking by top managers. Our empirical analysis sheds light on continuities in the narratives they offer, through which the past emerges as a recurrent lever of strategic manoeuvres and re-orientations. This reveals that while organizational history is sometimes regarded as a strategic asset or intrinsic part of collective memory, it is also re-enacted as a shared heritage, implying responsibilities. Executives (re)interpret the past and author the future, maintaining the historical narrative while using interpellation to ensure ideological consistency over time. The interpellative power of rhetorical narrative helps to recast organizational members as participants in an ongoing drama. In this way executives claim their legitimate right to initiate and manage organizational transition.

scholarly journals Reality Monitoring and Autobiographical Memory: Negotiating the Self

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Montemayor
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
History Of Psychology ◽  
The Self ◽  
Reality Monitoring ◽  
Inner Speech ◽  
Different Types ◽  
History Of ◽  
Contemporary Study

The contemporary study of memory has greatly benefited from recent findings in neuroscience and psychology showing that memory is a highly flexible, contextualized and yet, reliable enough system, composed of different types of functions that overlap to provide an overall balance of accuracy and meaning. Although I discuss some of these findings, my main focus is on putting them into a larger perspective. Memory has been a very important issue in the humanities, literature, and the history of psychology. This paper discusses the importance of inner speech and narrative from a theoretical and historical perspective, interpreting contemporary findings in the light of previous theories of memory, consciousness, and the influence of language on both. Collective memory, different forms of reality monitoring, and the interaction between episodic and autobiographical memory are discussed. Previous views on the suppression and intrusion of memories are also analyzed.

Sites of Ottoman Memory

2020 ◽  
pp. 68-106
Author(s):  
M. Hakan Yavuz
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ottoman History ◽  
Turkish Literature ◽  
Early Republican ◽  
A Site

This chapter presents Turkish literature as an incubator for the rise of counter-identity, exploring literature not merely as an instrument for exploring memories but, more important, as a site for storing and reconstituting them. The counterpoint of fictional writers and poets against professional historians and scholars is examined. In the case of Ottoman history, early Republican novels and poems were turned into texts of collective memory that offered a basis for reimagining the self simultaneously as Ottoman/Muslim and Turk. Literature stimulated interest and desire in Turkish readers to learn more about the past. The chapter also examines the Sufi orders and their role in preserving and reviving Ottoman memory.

The Role of the Self in the Organization of Memories and Imagined Future Events

2019 ◽  
pp. 134-159
Author(s):  
Alexandra Ernst ◽  
Clare J. Rathbone
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Future Thinking ◽  
Reminiscence Bump ◽  
The Past ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Self Reference ◽  
Neuropsychiatric Conditions

This chapter reviews the organizational role of the self in the distributions and accessibility of memories and imagined future events. It covers research on the self-reference effect, self-defining memories, and the reminiscence bump. In this context, the different methods used to explore the relationships between the self, autobiographical memory, and future thinking are reviewed. A comparative view of the findings obtained for the past and the future are also given. The contributions of studies conducted in both healthy controls and clinical populations are discussed. One section is devoted to investigations in people with neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions and their contribution to improving our understanding of the relationships between autobiographical memory and the self.

Israeli war veterans’ memory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafi Nets-Zehngut
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
The Past ◽  
Palestinian Refugee ◽  
Refugee Problem ◽  
First Time

Purpose This paper aims to explore, for the first time over a long period of time, the autobiographical memory of Israeli veterans of the 1948 War, pertaining to the 1948 Palestinian exodus that led to the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. Does this memory include the Zionist narrative (i.e. willing flight of the Palestinian refugees) or a critical narrative (i.e. willing flight and expulsion)? One of the primary sources to influence the collective memory of conflicts is the autobiographical memory. This memory is also one of the primary sources for research of the past. Thus, autobiographical memory is of importance. Design/methodology/approach Methodologically, this is done through an analysis of all 1948 veterans’ memoirs published between 1949 and 2004. Interviews were also conducted with various veterans, to understand the dynamics of their memoir publication. Findings Empirical findings suggest that during the first period (1949-1968), this memory was exclusively Zionist; during the second (1969-1978), it became slightly critical; and during the third (1979-2004), the critical tendency became more prevalent. Onward, the nine empirical causes for the presentation of exodus the way it was presented are discussed. Theoretical findings relate, inter alia, to the importance of micro factors in shaping the autobiographical memory, assembles seven such theoretical factors, suggests that these factors can influence in two ways (promoting collective memory change or inhibiting it), and that their impact can change over time. Originality/value Taken together, the paper contributes empirical and theoretical findings that are based on a solid and wide scope research.

Framing Variations and Collective Memory

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Schuman ◽  
Amy Corning ◽  
Barry Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Separate Experiment ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Over Time

Central to American identity have been public memories of events like the struggle for independence and the achievements of key figures from the past. The individual most often subject to hagiographic accounts is Abraham Lincoln, with emphasis both on his epic achievements in saving the Union and ending slavery and on his personal characteristics, such as honesty and the motivation to transcend his “backwoods” childhood and attain positions of local, state, and national leadership. However, a recent study based on extensive survey data found that Lincoln’s connection to emancipation provided the primary content of beliefs about him for most Americans today, with other beliefs mentioned much less often. Our present research supports that emphasis when presidential actions are the focus, but a randomized survey-based experiment shows that with a type of questioning that reflects the distinction between “essence” and “action”—inner character versus public achievements—beliefs about the former become at least as prominent as beliefs about the latter. Preliminary evidence to this effect is replicated decisively in a separate experiment, and the study is then extended to consider changes over time in indicators of essence versus action. Our research highlights the importance of how inquiries are framed, and they show that variations in framing, including those that are unintended, can enlarge our understanding of collective memory of Lincoln and of collective memory generally.

The Neural Basis of Autobiographical Memory

2019 ◽  
pp. 111-133
Author(s):  
Heather Iriye ◽  
Peggy L. St. Jacques
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Autonoetic Consciousness ◽  
The Brain

Recent advances in neuroimaging techniques have led to significant progress in our understanding of how the personal past is represented in the brain. A key insight has been the degree to which autobiographical memory (AM) is structured according to self-related processes. This chapter addresses the role of the self in organizing AM in three key areas: (1) processing of self-related information, (2) awareness of the self in time (i.e. autonoetic consciousness), and (3) the centrality of egocentric visual perspective. There are exciting areas for future research that capitalize on the benefits of recent advances in fully immersive virtual reality technologies.

The Landscape of Family Memory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradd Shore ◽  
Sara Kauko
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Intergenerational Transmission ◽  
Specific Memory ◽  
The Family ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
Family Memories ◽  
Over Time

How do families remember? How are families remembered? How are family memories structured, and what functions do they serve? “Family memory” as a focus of historical, sociological, and anthropological research often finds itself situated in the amorphous space that lies between autobiographical memory and collective memory. Reviewing memory literature that investigates family memory, this chapter proposes that family memory can be distinguished as its own realm for specific memory production, modes of remembering, and mnemonic transmission. Primordial in shaping families’ identities, family memory engages constant dialogue between the family understood as a collective unit and the family understood as a collection of remembering individuals. This chapter examines how family memory shapes individual identities; how it is organized around specific narratives, places and objects, and routines and rituals; and how it persists and evolves over time through intrafamilial and intergenerational transmission.

Remembering the self in cultural contexts: A cultural dynamic theory of autobiographical memory

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Dynamic Theory ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Relationship Maintenance ◽  
The Self ◽  
Childhood Memories ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Cultural Dynamic

People from different cultures often tell diverse stories about their past experiences. Research in the past two decades has revealed systematic differences in the content (self-focus vs other-focus), structure (specific vs general), valence (positive vs negative), accessibility (memory density and detailedness), developmental origin (age and density of earliest childhood memories), and functional usage (self-definition, relationship maintenance, behavioral guidance, and emotion regulation) of autobiographical memory across cultures. I outline a cultural dynamic theory of autobiographical memory that aims to synthesize the findings and provide a coherent guide to future investigation. The theory posits that (1) autobiographical memory takes place in the dynamic transaction between an active individual and his or her changing environment; (2) it is situated in culturally conditioned time and space over a multitude of timescales; and (3) it develops in the process of children acquiring cultural knowledge about the self and the purpose of the past through early socialization. I further discuss how the theory can provide insights into collective memory and future simulation.

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