1. ¹School of Management, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire SO17 1BJ, U.K.
2. ²School of Management and Business, University of Wales, Aberystwyth SY23 3DD, U.K.

Correspondence: Jonathan Klein, School of Management, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire SO17 1BJ, UK. Tel: +44 023 80592554; E-mail: J.H.Klein@soton.ac.uk

Received 27 July 2006; Accepted 22 February 2007.

Abstract

This paper examines the contradiction of organisational memory: that an organisation requires a memory to operate effectively, but that that same memory inhibits and constrains its ability to operate effectively. We briefly review the field of organisational memory and note its close connection with organisational learning.We introduce a conceptual framework pioneered by Schultze and Stabell for examining contradictions in the area of knowledge management. We use this framework to distinguish between the conventional view of organisational memory, which implicitly or explicitly regards knowledge as a commodity, and a constructivist view, from which emerges a picture of the Markovian organisation: an organisation the future behaviour of which is determined not by memories of the past but by its current state, characterised by an organisational consciousness informed by the activities in which it is engaged. While the emphasis of this paper is theoretical, we suggest that adopting this Markovian view of the organisation might be particularly appropriate to practitioners in organisations that are immersed in turbulent environments.