Replying to LO29388 --
Dear Vana,
Responding to a paragraph in LO29388:
> What I've been searching is an organization that has systematically gone
> beyond documenting procedures and explicit knowledge to trying to fully
> capture and understand the stories, the myths, the legends that underlie
> the organization's values and culture. What information is transferred and
> how? What are the connections between WHAT an organization chooses to
> retain in its organizational memory and the type of LO it can become?
> Organizations, like people, have unique filters (mental models, frames,
> call them what you want) they use to select stimuli for processing. The
> information is further altered by the organization's history, perceptions,
> biases, values. What emerges on the tail end as it becomes part of
> organizational memory is socially constructed "reality" from that
> organization's point of view. This is what interests me, not
> documentation.
You might try looking beyond business organizations to more "social"
organizations (that may or may not be LOs). A few possibilities that come
to my mind (essentially organizations that were required to learn due to
new or drastically changed situations):
- The early United States, after winning independence from England.
- The Republic of South Africa post-Apartheid.
- The early days of the labor union movement in the US and elsewhere.
- Ditto the civil rights movement (you'd probably want to focus a
particular organization such as NAACP).
Hope this gives you some ideas,
Best wishes,
--Don Dwiggins "Solvitur Ambulando" d.l.dwiggins@computer.org
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