Stefania Mariano, Andrea Casey and Fernando Olivera
This paper aims to evaluate how managers influence accidental and intentional organizational forgetting, i.e. knowledge depreciation, knowledge loss and unlearning.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to evaluate how managers influence accidental and intentional organizational forgetting, i.e. knowledge depreciation, knowledge loss and unlearning.
Design/methodology/approach
The 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.
Findings
Findings 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/implications
The study was limited by the accessibility of subscribed journals and databases, research scope and time span.
Practical implications
This 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/value
This paper represents a first attempt to review and define the influence of managers on organizational forgetting.
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Stefania Mariano, Andrea Casey and Fernando Olivera
The purpose of this paper is to systematically review and synthesize the literature on organizational forgetting.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to systematically review and synthesize the literature on organizational forgetting.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review approach was used to synthesize current theoretical and empirical studies on organizational forgetting.
Findings
The review and synthesis of the literature revealed that the organizational forgetting literature is fragmented, with studies conducted across disparate fields and using different methodologies; two primary modes (i.e. accidental and purposeful) and three foci (i.e. knowledge depreciation, knowledge loss and unlearning) define current organizational forgetting literature; and the factors that influence organizational forgetting can be grouped into four clusters related to individuals, processes, tools and organizational context.
Research limitations/implications
This literature review has limitations related to time span coverage and journal article accessibility.
Originality/value
This paper offers an integrative view of organizational forgetting that proposes a holistic and multilevel research approach and systematic synthesis of organizational forgetting research.
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Stefania Mariano, Andrea Casey and Fernando Olivera
The purpose of this two-part paper is to provide a summary of current research opportunities in organizational forgetting literature and a future research agenda.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this two-part paper is to provide a summary of current research opportunities in organizational forgetting literature and a future research agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
The summary of current research opportunities and future research agenda is drawn from the systematic literature review and synthesis reported in Part I.
Findings
Two broad areas for future research are proposed: A first area that highlights a need to address integrative theoretical challenges that include issues of temporality, history, power dynamics, and organizational context. A second area that highlights a need to reconcile contradicting explanations – such as whether technological sophistication and codification practices versus social networks prevent knowledge depreciation and loss – through a multilevel perspective.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations relate to time span coverage and journal article accessibility.
Originality/value
This Part II paper provides a summary of current research opportunities and offers directions for future research on organizational forgetting.
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Stefania Mariano and Andrea Casey
The purpose of this paper is to explore the individual employee's role in the process of knowledge retrieval in a US high‐technology research, engineering and consulting company…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the individual employee's role in the process of knowledge retrieval in a US high‐technology research, engineering and consulting company, using a constructivist perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study design was used and employed three methods of data collection: interviewing, observation, and document analysis. Using these data gathering methods provided data triangulation and supported the validity of the study. The unit of analysis is individual action. This is an embedded strategy because it involves more than one subunit of analysis. Data are collected across five practices (sections) of one division of this company.
Findings
This study found that people generally followed five steps to retrieve knowledge and that the type of work to accomplish and structure of the team were critical to what knowledge was retrieved and shared. Explicit and tacit knowledge retention structures were identified and revealed that three or fewer individuals were usually involved in the search process of tacit knowledge.
Research limitations/implications
This study does not focus on the process of knowledge storage but only on the process of knowledge access and retrieval. This study only looks at the process of knowledge retrieval during decision‐making or problem‐solving activities. It collects data through individual interviews at the consultant level. It does not focus on other hierarchical levels, e.g. managerial level, which might have given different perspectives or results.
Practical implications
This finding suggests the need to promote a culture to support knowledge sharing through the help of managers. Leaders should thus focus on strengthening the attitudes of employees to share tacit knowledge, making their own knowledge accessible to other coworkers not only through one‐to‐one communication but also through the use of explicit knowledge retention structures such as electronic databases. This will be essential for those organizations where employees' day‐to‐day decisions are not routine decisions and people's expertise represents a decisive source of knowledge to best accomplish a work task. Another implication is that, when an organization wants to preserve its memory, rules and templates should be implemented to teach employees how to convert their own tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge to make it available to the other members. In addition organizations must integrate this activity into work structures, i.e. billing for hours.
Originality/value
This research develops a framework for conceptualizing structures and processes of knowledge retrieval among individuals in organizational contexts. It also identifies and classifies which factors are likely to influence the knowledge retrieval process.
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Ozgur Ekmekci and Andrea Casey
Very little is known about how contingent workers' identification with an organization evolves over time. This study seeks to contribute to the literature by investigating how the…
Abstract
Purpose
Very little is known about how contingent workers' identification with an organization evolves over time. This study seeks to contribute to the literature by investigating how the emergence and strength of organizational identification is affected by four variables: duration of primacy; duration of recency; frequency of interaction with other members of the organization; and frequency of information received about the organization.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a cognitive model of organizational identification grounded in memory, agent‐based modeling and NetLogo language were employed to form a model in which two groups of 567 contingent workers joined 1,134 different organizations and worked for 365 days. Correlation and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data.
Findings
Evolution of organizational identification for a contingent worker depends on how much the individual interacts with other members of the organization and how much information about the organization that particular individual receives over time.
Research limitations/implications
The generalizability of the simulation study's findings may be expanded if similar studies are carried out incorporating factors that mark differences in individuals, groups, organizations, sectors, industries, cultures, and geographies.
Originality/value
The existing literature on how contingent employees identify with an organization does not adequately provide a process‐based view of the phenomenon. This study extends and complements literature on contingent workers by emphasizing the social construction of time in and from memory throughout the process of organizational identification.
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Catherine Lombardozzi and Andrea Casey
This study of the impact of relationships on the development of practice competence in new graduates entering the workforce aims to contribute to the understanding of relational…
Abstract
Purpose
This study of the impact of relationships on the development of practice competence in new graduates entering the workforce aims to contribute to the understanding of relational learning activities and enrich the knowledge about the overall process of learning practice skill.
Design/methodology/approach
This research used a qualitative interview methodology with thematic data analysis.
Findings
Findings revealed that the process of learning through relationships involved an iterative interplay between specific developer‐led teaching activities, learner‐led activities in interaction with others, and learner action and cognitive processing.
Originality/value
A model for the process of learning through relationships specifically for new graduates who have academic backgrounds in their fields of practice is proposed.
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The purpose of this editorial is two‐fold: first, to provide an overview of team‐related issues in the particular realm of contingent work arrangements, and second, to introduce…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this editorial is two‐fold: first, to provide an overview of team‐related issues in the particular realm of contingent work arrangements, and second, to introduce the collection of articles encompassing this special issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The editorial is a general literature review that provides the readers of this special issue with a broader scholarly literature framework. The editorial also provides a historical context of the field. First, the phenomenon of contingent work arrangements is discussed. Second, attention is given to identification of major strategic factors, which have been contributing to the growth of contingent work arrangements. Third, team‐related issues of differentiation, integration, and cooperation are discussed.
Findings
The overview of research in the area of contingent work arrangements demonstrates that such work arrangements are diverse in their contractual structure. The rationale for which organizations use contingent work arrangements are diverse, as are the reasons why employees undertake such work outside the scope of the traditional employment model. Research in this area has grown primarily with the focus on economic, legal, and social factors influencing the expansion of non‐standard work arrangements. Less research is found in the area of individual, managerial, and organizational consequences of this expansion.
Originality/value
This editorial – and the special issue in particular – gives attention to understanding the array of experiences associated with contingent workers with the purpose of accumulating theoretical knowledge in this field, but also – and perhaps more importantly – to add to the transition from evidence‐based knowledge to practical advice.