How Institutional Memory Can Improve an Organizations Essay

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When you take a position in a company of any size, you are entering into a community that has its own rules and regulations as well as its own history. This is often called \"institutional memory\" and not knowing it can put you at a disadvantage. I am looking for a formal essay that explains at least one aspect of a company\'s institutional memory and how it should or should not impact future decisions.Institutional memory is a polarizing and contentious issues within the business community. For one, institutional memory, when done correctly, can have a large advantage within a organization. Here, institutional memory is engrained with the overall culture of the organization, creating a work environment that is empowering and inspirational. Companies that are able to leverage this institutional memory are better able to attract, retain, and promote competent talent with their respective organizations. By leveraging institutional memory, organizations are better able instill positive policies that can be used to help influence futures decisions. Aspects related to product expansion, product innovation, or other business elements can be applied used the principles engrained through institutional memory. Examples include Tesla and Google who are using their institutional memory to create new and differentiated products designed to help improve mankind. In the example of Tesla, the company is pioneering elective vehicle technology that can be adapted to help reduced societies dependence on foreign oil and gas. This ultimately will lower greenhouse gas emissions and prevent an overheating of the planet. In addition, Google has pioneered the idea of information exchange thus enhancing the transparency between businesses and consumers. Due to this information portal, consumers are able to shop for better prices, look for important information, and even entertain themselves much more efficiently (Alavi, 2001). All of these innovations occurred due in part to institutional memory that was leveraged in a positive manner. Likewise, institutional memory can also be a detriment to organization. An organization predicated on cutting corners or that lacks integrity can hamper economic development. In some cases, this institutional memory can undermine the enter financial system as a whole. For example, Wells Fargo has shown how institutional memory can negatively impact the financial performance of a company, thus placing its employees, its communities, and the economy overall at risk. In these instances, the negative institutional memory was associated with a culture predicated on fraud. Here, Wells Fargo heavy focused on a culture of sales. Many of the company’s compensation programs were centered around sales and generating new business. Although this institutional memory is not negative on its own, Wells Fargo took it to an extreme level. Due in part to the intense pressure for sales, many Wells Fargo employees opened fraudulent accounts, to make their sales goals.

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They put customers in products they didn’t ask for, opened new accounts, and even gave customers products that they would not have been eligible for ordinarily. All of this occurred due to an intense pressure to make sales goals and quotas. Here, the institutional memory prevailing in the organization caused a negative impact on not only the organization but society at a large. Individual consumer finances, credit history, credit reporting and their trust in the financial system overall were damage. This example illustrates the power of institutional memory and how it can either help or…

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…experiences. This allows the company to better leverage these assets as a competitive advantage against new challengers to their market share.To accomplish this companies must segment Institutional memory into tangible and intangible information. Tangible information such as documents, legal agreements, certificates, personal information, sales figures, and financial statements can all be housed in centralized databases. Sensitive information such as product specifications and intellectual property documentation can also be housed internally in very secure protections. Here, anything document that provides direct value to the organization can be stored centrally through to help preserve institutional memory.Intangible assets are much more difficult to perve through institutional memory. Early, the examples given for intangible assets where heavily centered around culture. The examples used revolved around Alibaba group and how they leverage institutional memory to preserve their intangible asset of culture. However other intangible assets exist. The employee base or work force for example is an intangible asset with large amounts of institutional memory. Losing a key employee can also result in the loss of a large amount of institutional memory as the individual often possess a large amount of knowledge regarding the products and culture of the organization. If the individual is in a high-ranking position with oversight of others, the person may often be able to create process efficiencies that can be leveraged throughout the organization. These benefits are decimated with high levels of employee turnover. As a result, institutional memory looks to create an environment that allows employees to stay with an organization for very long periods of time. This allows the organization to benefit from the efficiency gains from the employee. They also gain from lower costs associated….....

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