Actualizing Organizational Memory with Information Systems

Eric W. Stein and Vladimir Zwass
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Eric W. Stein: Pennsylvania State University, Great Valley Campus, Management Program, 30 East Swedesford Road, Malvern, Pennsylvania 19355
Vladimir Zwass: Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, New Jersey 07666

Information Systems Research, 1995, vol. 6, issue 2, 85-117

Abstract: Preservation of organizational memory becomes increasingly important to organizations as it is recognized that experiential knowledge is a key to competitiveness. With the development and widespread availability of advanced information technologies (IT), information systems become a vital part of this memory. We analyze existing conceptualizations and task-specific instances of IT-supported organizational memory. We then develop a model for an organizational memory information system (OMIS) that is rooted in the construct of organizational effectiveness. The framework offers four subsystems that support activities leading to organizational effectiveness. These subsystems rest on the foundation of five mnemonic functions that provide for acquisition, retention, maintenance, search, and retrieval of information. We then identify the factors that will limit the success of OMIS implementation, although full treatment of this issue is outside the scope of the paper. To initiate a research agenda on OMIS, we propose an initial contingency framework for OMIS development depending on the organization's environment and its life-cycle stage, and discuss the relationships between an OMIS and organizational learning and decision making.

Keywords: organizational memory information system; organizational effectiveness; organizational learning; corporate memory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1995
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