In Praise of Organizational Forgetting

This article reviews and evaluates the concept of organizational forgetting. Drawing on established literature in the field of organizational learning, the authors analyze forgetting from three perspectives—cognitive, behavioral, and social. They argue a counterintuitive line that forgetting, in the right circumstances, can be beneficial for companies and demonstrate how the advantages and disadvantages vary according to the perspective adopted. The authors conclude with some practical suggestions about how companies can increase their ability to forget and also offer suggestions about the academic research agenda.