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The Politics of the Exhibition: Viewing Corporate Museums Through the Paradigmatic Lens of Organizational Memory
Author(s) -
Nissley Nick,
Casey Andrea
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
british journal of management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.407
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1467-8551
pISSN - 1045-3172
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8551.13.s2.4
Subject(s) - forgetting , exhibition , politics , organizational memory , identity (music) , sociology , organizational identity , public relations , political science , organizational learning , psychology , aesthetics , cognitive psychology , visual arts , organizational commitment , knowledge management , computer science , art , law
This paper explores corporate museums as little–understood sites of organizational memory and proposes that corporate museums, as a form of organizational memory, are used strategically by organizations in the development of the firm’s identity and image. More critically, the authors examine the politics of the exhibition of organizational memory, or what Sturken refers to as ‘organized forgetting’ or ‘strategic forgetting’. The authors propose that organizations, through these museums, choose what is recalled (the politics of remembering) as well as what is not remembered (the politics of forgetting). Four propositions are suggested to guide future research on corporate museums with the purpose of furthering our understanding of these museums and their relationship to the development of organizational identity and image as well as organizational actions – past, present, and future. The paper concludes with implications for the organizational–studies scholar.