Deposited Remembrance: The Construction of an Organizational Memory on the Extinct Banco da Lavoura de Minas Gerais
Keywords:
Organizational Memory. Memory Construction. History. Memory Artifacts. Banco da Lavoura.Abstract
Departing from the analysis of Banco da Lavoura de Minas Gerais’ Memoria do Tempo 1960 vídeo, this paper discusses the construction of organizational memory. The video was produced to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the organization. As part of this action that we here call 'an exercise in futurology', documents and objects were also locked in an urn created for this purpose, which was opened in the year 2000, 40 years after its closing. The organizational discourse registered in the movie was analyzed along with interviews conducted with Banco da Lavoura’s former employees. The research relied in current debates founded in the literature that focus on organizational identity and the construction of organizational memory. Using those references we discussed the intentionality that permeates the construction of a certain memory and a certain organization history that could be used strategically by the organization. The result shows that organization managers had the interest of preserving a history and a memory of the organization, but not all history (which would be impossible) or any memory. Organization managers were not interested in remembering failures and organizational weaknesses, or in building a history based on employees’ memoirs, since they almost does not appear in the analyzed material. It was interesting to bring to knowledge those things that could project a certain organizational identity and memories of how the past happened that could corroborate to that image. Thus, the memory becomes a subject of disputes and is actively constructed to help shape the way the organization is remembered. Only in this way it could help building a good organizational image towards the workers and society. Despite the studied bank no longer exists and therefore no longer harbors a community of "lavourenses" the paper allows reflections on similar efforts in preserving (and constructing) a memory held by other organizations.
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