Organizational memory: processes, boundary objects, and trajectories

Abstract

The term organizational memory is due for an overhaul. Memory appears to be everywhere in organizations; yet, the term has been limited to only a few uses. Based on an ethnographic study of a telephone hotline group, this paper presents a micro-level, distributed cognition analysis of two hotline calls, the work activity surrounding the calls, and the memory used in the work activity. We find a number of interesting theoretical concepts that are useful in further describing and analyzing organizational memory.