ABSTRACT

Organizations fall back on their identities in times of uncertainty as a way of making sense of unfamiliar situations and to reflect on their values in the face of attack. Identity formation is inextricably linked to memory, both that of the individual organization and its members and the collective memory of the society in which it functions. The collective memory of the United States holds wartime service in high esteem, and for an organization facing hardship, this can open the door to an opportunity to build goodwill by linking identity to that narrative for an external audience. In this article, I analyze a case study of the Onondaga Pottery in World War II using the concept of social memory assets (SMAs) to see how management created an SMA based on the memory of their contributions to the war effort and deployed it as a tool when threatened by cuts in tariff rates during the Cold War. I demonstrate that SMAs can be used not only to proactively create a competitive advantage for an organization but as a defensive strategy as well.

摘要

在不确定的时期，组织会回避自己的身份，以此来了解不熟悉的情况并在遭受攻击时反思其价值观。身份形成与个人组织及其成员的记忆以及它所运作的社会的集体记忆密不可分。美国的集体记忆高度重视战时事务，对于一个面临困境的组织，这可以为通过将身份与外部观众的叙述联系起来而建立商誉的机会打开大门。在这篇文章中，我使用社交记忆资产（SMA）的概念分析了第二次世界大战中Onondaga陶器的案例研究，以查看管理层如何根据对战争贡献的记忆来创建SMA，并在受到威胁时将其部署为工具在冷战期间削减关税率。我证明了SMA不仅可以用来为组织主动创建竞争优势，而且还可以用作防御策略。