Business History Seminar: Ellen Mølgaard & Anders Ravn Sørensen (CBS). The form and use of the past: memory and historical sources in organizational identity studies

The object of this paper is to discuss the concept of memory forms as formulated by Schultz & Hernes and to problematize the connection between these forms and the construction of identity in the organization. We agree that the concepts of memory and identity are closely connected and that identity construction may be seen as an ongoing process. However we argue that memory comes in only one form; namely that of a cognitive process. A process Mead describes as drawing images of the past (1929: 237). Finally, we propose an alternative and more reflexive understanding of the traces of the past - the historical sources - when analyzing organizations, their pasts and identities.