Bureaucracies Remember, Post‐bureaucratic Organizations Forget?

The paper examines the hypothesis that post‐bureaucratic forms of organization perform less well than traditional bureaucracies with respect both to organizational memory and learning from experience. First, the paper discusses the meanings of the main terms and concepts to be used in the argument, and delimits its domain. Second, it identifies a series of mechanisms that are likely to bring about memory loss. Third, it examines the empirical literature in search of evidence to confirm or disconfirm the existence and effects of these mechanisms. Fourth, it reflects on its own limitations. Finally, it sets out some broad conclusions concerning the state of organizational memories in the public sector. The aim is to develop new theory, identify relevant generative mechanisms, set this model alongside such evidence as is available, and suggest lines for further research. The new men of the Empire are the ones who believe in fresh starts, new chapters, clean pages; I struggle on with the old story, hoping that, before it is finished, it will reveal to me why it was that I thought it worth the trouble. (J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians , 1980, p. 26)