This work aims to identify the potential of corporate museums as organizational memory initiatives, as well as the contribution of these spaces to internal communication as assets to strengthen a company's culture. In this qualitative research, we conducted a bibliographic study, in which we identified in the literature since the need for the feeling of belonging to society; the advent of the “memory culture” phenomenon; the formalization of the past in places of memory; and the interface of these social movements within organizations - with the rise of corporate museums. As an intersection of structuring the past, in Brazil and in the world, there are historical periods marked by changes in power and political freedoms. To understand and identify this process, we analyzed six corporate museums, which are owned and operated by traditional private organizations, installed over 40 years ago in Fortaleza and neighboring municipalities, in the state of Ceará. Thus, we structured the results of applying a semi-structured questionnaire in a table, which was sent by e-mail to those responsible for these memory spaces. The questions were constructed, aligned with the theoretical concepts presented and in search of the specific objectives to identify: the potential contribution of these corporate museums as a tool of internal communication in the management of people; understand the role of these spaces in the development and consolidation of the sense of identification and belonging of the internal public, through the transmission of institutional values. We also structured the analysis of data and institutional information collected in the table, characterizing each museum. Thus, by mapping the type of collection, the place where they work and the directions of the narrative exposed in the analyzed spaces, it is possible to dimension perspectives for the questioning of an organization, after all, “Museum, for what? ”. In other words, what is the intention of each memory space, what message do want to strengthen with visitors, for example. Still, among the contributions presented for academic studies and professional performance, are: an unprecedented proposal, not found in the literature, for the classification of potential explored by the internal communication area (low, good and high). Regarding this classification, it is worth mentioning that we were guided by the purpose of finding perspectives for academic studies, as well as for professional performance in organizational communication, not having the objective, therefore, to tax any evidence found, right or wrong, but rather to give light to the opportunities already understood and explored by the internal communication, human resources and public relations sectors of one organization, but not yet strengthened in another. In our studies, we have also identified the possibilities of strategic use of this organizational memory by the areas of internal communication, public relations and HR, such as tax exemptions, in addition to the direct relationship of corporate museum projects to the high management of the initiatives studied. The literature and the studied spaces also showed us that the memory of a company, as well as its organizational culture, can be seen as a strategic element, of affirmation and positioning in the market in times of great changes. Understanding the internal public and its potential to multiply organizational culture is also a possible and necessary look at companies memory projects. We also bring the contribution that, in order to be strategic in strengthening ties and for the perpetuation of institutional values in the internal environment, the corporate museum needs to be aligned with the effort to consolidate the collective memory of the social context in which the organization is inserted.
Extending Organizational Memory and Corporate Communications Research via Autoethnography/Autobiography
