Organizational memory: a qualitative research study on a multi-cultural organization

PurposeThis paper articulates a multi-contextual and dynamic system for memory research in relation to multi-cultural organizations (MCOs) by a qualitative research method.Design/methodology/approachFace-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives of 30 national officers in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to illuminate how the construction of organizational memory (OM) can then be compared and contrasted across different cultures.FindingsThe findings show that OM still mostly resides in individuals with the social transfer. However, even if, cultural aspects define what should be stored, time and purpose, the static memory of individuals becomes dynamic OM that is represented and interpreted in an organization's practices, policies and learning.Originality/valueThe primary contribution is to attempt to dissolve the seeming assumption of dialectical metaphoric perspectives of OM between different but related sub-communities of practice and outcomes. Consequently, socially constructed and individual memory models are necessary to integrate different metaphors according to the multi-context theory, which extends the understanding of the diversity between the cultural backgrounds of individuals and groups.

Knowledge retention in oil and gas industry – the case of contract workforce

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to investigate how organization retain the knowledge of Contract Workforce (CWF) and to understand the associated challenges in this regard.Design/methodology/approachAdopting an inductive approach, 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers, project heads and consultants working in leading oil and gas companies across eight countries (USA, Australia, UAE, KSA, Pakistan, UK, Thailand and Russia). Thematic analysis was carried out to analyze the data collected.FindingsCWF appears to be a significant source of knowledge attrition and even knowledge loss in the oil and gas sector. There are various risks associated with hiring of CWF, such as hallowing of organizational memory, repeated training of contractors, no knowledge base, workforce shortage among others which can impede the knowledge retention capability of O&G companies in the context of contract workforce. Various knowledge retention strategies for CWF have been revealed, however, there is interplay of various factors such as proportion of CWF deployed, proper resource utilization, cross-functional multi-level teams' involvement and strength of transactional ties. Maintaining strong relationships (Transactional ties) is crucial to maintain a virtual organizational memory (partial knowledge retention) and to follow a adopting a rehired when required policy.Originality/valueThe knowledge retention issue in the context of CWF has not be addressed in past researches. This article attempts to fill this gap.

Museus Corporativos como Ferramentas de Comunicação Interna no Curso da Memória Organizacional / Corporate museums as tools for Internal communication in the orientation of Organizational Memory

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.

PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIZATIONAL WISDOM IN THE HEALTH TOURISM INDUSTRY

Health tourism is when patients travel to another state (or within a country) to improve or restore health (Hudson and Li, 2012). Recent studies show that health care spending is on the rise, averaging around 9 percent of GDP in OECD countries, and that the right balance needs to be struck between spending on disease prevention and treatment. Assessing the problem field of the health tourism industry and the current situation, the following key problems are identified: lack of communication and support between health tourism policy makers and health tourism organizations; lack of a culture of cooperation and organizational partnership between the public and private sectors; lack of strategic planning; gaps in the targeted distribution of responsibilities between actors in the health tourism network; resistance of the public and private sector to change. Thus, the article solves the problem – how to ensure the effective application of the principles of organizational wisdom in the health tourism industry? According to the authors, it is expedient for the organizations involved in this complex field of tourism to base their activities on the principles of organizational wisdom. The aim of the article is to propose the application of the principles of organizational wisdom in the health tourism industry. For the systematic review, scientific articles were searched in databases: Cambridge Journals Online; EBSCO; Emerald Publishing; SAGE Journals Online; Science direct; Taylor & Francis. The scientific articles included in the systematic review cover the period 1999-2020. The following methods are used to present the results of the research: comparative analysis, synthesis, graphical representation and generalization. The study identified the following essential principles of organizational wisdom that are appropriate to adapt in the health tourism industry: transformational leadership; organizational culture, management structure and teamwork; recognition of environmental change and rapid and effective response to it; systemic thinking; interaction between different organizations that can lead to high-quality solutions (innovation); the ability to accumulate organizational memory to compare past and present situations and decisions made. The authors in the article substantiate the opinion that the sustainability of the application of these principles depends on the mechanism of organizational partnership in organizing / creating health tourism cooperative. Such an organization has: a balanced structure and clearly defined roles and responsibilities of participants; long-term commitments are matched by specific short-term objectives that can be measured; periodic evaluation of the effectiveness of the role played by each partner; accurate and effective communication between partners and all stakeholders.

BULANIK TOPSIS VE BULANIK VIKOR YÖNTEMLERİYLE BİR ENERJİ ŞİRKETİNDE KURUMSAL HAFIZANIN OLUŞTURULMASI

According to today's strategy of gaining competitive advantage; it is possible for a corporation to be effective and efficient whether it aims to make the same work better, faster, more efficient and cheaper than other corporations. In today's information age, change and competition in business are experienced rapidly; "organizational memory", where the collective feelings/experiences of corporations are stored, is the basis of the memory in the Corporation and it is invisible, whereas it is formed by the experiences and experiences that have penetrated into whole corporation, has a major/important place. Organizational memory includes all kinds of data/information, methods and capabilities that the corporations’ experience in the past and associate with its current decisions when necessary. In the study, 45 number of experts working in the energy sector (Decision-Makers: DM) were interviewed to determine the criteria, sub-criteria and weights used in facilitating knowledge and formation of organizational memory in companies, and as a result of the interviews, the criteria and sub-criteria of the study are formed. The criteria and sub-criteria (11 number of main criteria /41 number of sub-criteria) are evaluated. In the study, fuzzy multi-objective mathematical model (FMOM: by using Fuzzy AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process), Fuzzy TOPSIS and Fuzzy VIKOR methods) are used to develop/evaluate/calculate the formation of organizational memory in companies working in energy sector. By the help of the mathematical model, formation of organizational memory in 12 number of energy companies have been evaluated/calculated by using Fuzzy TOPSIS and Fuzzy VIKOR methods and most suitable company is selected. In the study, the criteria were weighted by using Fuzzy AHP method, and among the criteria the most important evaluation dimension/main-criteria is "Storage Criteria" which has the highest importance weight value, therefore it was the most important criterion. The most important factor in storing organizational memory is the place where it is stored and should be improved by time. In energy companies; organizational memory/info may be stored in many places. These places are: business plan, work schedules/flow diagrams/programs, procedures, rules and guidelines, standards, policies, documents showing the work flow, performance criteria, case studies, business designs, archives (physical archive repositories and electronic archives), information about products and services, current situation evaluations/reports, employees' experiences, company culture, transformations within the company ... etc.

AI for augmenting human judgement in Business Processes Management

The paper outlines the recent trends in the evolution of Business Process Management (BPM) – especially the application of AI for decision support. AI has great potential to augment human judgement. Indeed, Machine Learning might be considered as a supplementary and complimentary solution to enhance and support human productivity throughout all aspects of personal and professional life. The idea of merging technologies for organizational learning and workflow management was first put forward by Wargitsch. Herein, completed business cases stored in an organizational memory are used to configure new workflows, while the selection of an appropriate historical case is supported by a case-based reasoning component. This informational environment has been recognized in the world as being effective and has become quite common because of the significant increase in the use of artificial intelligence tools. This article discusses also how automated planning techniques (one of the oldest areas in AI) can be used to enable a new level of automation and processing support. The authors of the article decided to analyse this topic and discuss the scientific state of the art and the application of AI in BPM systems for decision-making support. It should be noted that readily available software exists for the needs of the development of such systems in the field of artificial intelligence. The paper also includes a unique case study with production system of Decision Support, using controlled machine learning algorithms to predictive analytical models.

Responding to organizational identity change: ethnographic insights from multinational hotel subsidiaries

Purpose This paper aims to use an organizational ethnography perspective to explore how subsidiary hotel properties of a multinational hotel corporation experience planned organizational identity (OI) change instituted by headquarters. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a multi-site approach to collect ethnographic data on organizational change from six hotel subsidiaries in California, USA. Over three years, multiple sources of data were collected including: 31 interviews with hotel subsidiary leaders; more than 100 participant observation hours including job shadows, conferences and meetings; and photographs and internal communication materials. Findings Multinational hospitality companies face struggles between corporate standardization and subsidiary localization. This paper reveals that when headquarters plan changes focused on employees at their subsidiaries, the ways the latter initially accept and resist change are significantly impacted by the organizational memory and history of subsidiary leaders. However, as time progressed, properties with strong financial performance continued to operationalize new identity initiatives while properties with poorer profit margins played a balancing act between headquarters’ visionary identity and subsidiary ownership’s revenue expectations. Additionally, the situational realities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to all properties which amplified practical and emotional challenges of organizational ethnography in hospitality research. Originality/value This paper contributes to hospitality literature by introducing an under-researched concept, OI change and advances understanding of the struggles in managing multinational company change. More importantly, this paper is a stepping stone for future hospitality management to embark on organizational ethnography.

The relationship between nursing groups’ organizational socialization and nurses’ perception of organizational learning subprocesses: a cross-sectional study in hospital wards

Purpose This study aims to investigate the relationship between a nursing group’s organizational socialization (OS) and the organizational learning (OL) subprocesses of information acquisition, information distribution, information interpretation, information integration and organizational memory. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional study, with an anonymous self-report questionnaire, was conducted at two university hospitals in Japan. OL was measured using the scale for OL subprocesses, while OS was measured using the scale for learning about the external environment. The questionnaire was administered from August to October 2018. Among the 1,077 nurses recruited from 34 wards, data from 466 nurses from 24 wards were analyzed. To verify the influence of the group’s OS on each OL subprocess, two-level hierarchical linear modeling with fixed effects was performed. Individual nurses’ OS was analyzed using centering within clusters and the group’s OS was analyzed using each ward’s average OS score by performing grand mean centering. Findings Nursing groups’ OS was positively and significantly associated with information interpretation and information integration, but not with information acquisition, information distribution and organizational memory. Originality/value This study expands OS and OL research by focusing on the relationship between the degree of OS of an entire group and the OL subprocess. When the degree of homophily of value, rule, knowledge and behavior of the entire group increases, the information understanding and the formation of new explicit knowledge may also increase in the group.

Enhancing Organizational Memory Through Virtual Memoryscapes: Does It Work?

Enhancing cognitive memory through virtual reality represents an issue, that has never been investigated in organizational settings. Here, we compared a virtual memoryscape (treatment) – an immersive virtual environment used by subjects as a shared memory tool based on spatial navigation – with respect to the traditional individual-specific mnemonic tool based on the “method of loci” (control). A memory task characterized by high ecological validity was administered to 82 subjects employed by large banking group. Memory recall was measured, for both groups, immediately after the task (Phase 1) and one week later (Phase 2). Results show that (i) in Phase 1, the method of loci was more efficient in terms of recalling information than the to the virtual memoryscape; (ii) in Phase 2, there was no difference. Compared to the method of loci, the virtual memoryscape presents the advantages – relevant for organizations – of being collective, controllable, dynamic, and non-manipulable.