Explaining institutional amnesia in government

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Stark, Alastair
• 署名单位: University of Queensland
• 刊物名称: GOVERNANCE-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POLICY ADMINISTRATION AND INSTITUTIONS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0952-1895
• DOI: 10.1111/gove.12364
• 发表日期: 2019
• 关键词: memory; ORGANIZATIONS; KNOWLEDGE; remember

摘要

This article explains why different government agencies experience variations in organizational memory loss. It first explains institutional amnesia theoretically by expanding the formal-institutional view of organizational memory to include agential and structural-contextual properties, revealing a broader range of novel explanations for amnesia. Institutional amnesia is then explained empirically through an international analysis of memory loss in four Westminster systems (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom). This analysis, which principally relies on 100 interviews with ministers, policy officials, and public-sector leaders across the four countries, leads to the introduction of four explanations for amnesia, relating to: organizational churn, absorptive capacity, strategic-instrumental decision making, and historical storytelling.