When team-support technologies are used as a primary communication mode, they enable the building of team memory. Team support technologies capture and store a record of communication and provide a repository of shared documents and other information. A level of high performance is reached when team members know where to route information and where to locate that information for use. When the technology is designed to mirror the way the team thinks and works, a repository can be searched and used in a variety of ways to monitor team processes and tasks. Team members need to know where to route relevant information and where to locate that information for later use. Having well-structured information facilitates the distribution of information and knowledge among team members, and information is available as needed, or on a "just-in-time" basis. The team's work becomes more visible to the team members, and new members can be integrated more quickly by reviewing the team's interaction history (Lipnack & Stamps, 1997).

Organizational memory consists of repositories of knowledge. Prahalad and Hamel (1994) refer to organizational memory as "corporate knowledge" or "corporate genetics." Organizational memory is the result of organizational learning if the learning is captured and there is an ability to share the resulting knowledge. Technologies have greatly enhanced school district's ability to build organizational memory. The challenge of organizational learning and organizational memory is in interpreting information that is easily accessible to all team members.

Organizations and school systems contain two basic types of organizational memory. The first is hard data such as numbers, facts and rules, while the second is more along the lines of incidental participatory data such as expertise, experiences, anecdotes, incidents, and details about practices and procedures. What is needed are ways to store and retrieve the second type of data - participatory. Emerging technologies provide the means for storing incidental participatory data and the means for retrieving and sharing this information. Groupware and other collaborative technologies provide the means for capturing participatory data that can be shared and applied by others.

Many schools have various kinds of information systems such as inventory systems, budget systems, and administrative systems to store and retrieve "hard" data, but have yet to establish systems for capturing incidental participatory information. Greater organizational learning can occur if experiences and other incidental information are stored electronically for future reference. The captured and stored knowledge from experiences can be shared and linked to others in the school system and can be used to induct new team members so that individuals can quickly reach the level of other team members.

Emerging technologies have the ability to provide full-text retrieval systems for storing and retrieving vast amounts of organizational knowledge. Modern access utility programs such as navigation, queries, and personalized pathways provide quick and easy access to such stored organizational memory. The trend in emerging technologies for information storage is moving away from the limited systems that make inferences based on a fixed set of rules to systems that involve human actions in the decision-making and interpretation of information. Publishing on the Internet is one widely used mechanism for the creation of organizational memories. Internet publishing mechanisms capture formal knowledge such as training manuals, employee handbooks, and training material and also capture incidental participatory knowledge such as tacit know-how, expertise, and experiences. These types of captured organizational knowledge are the result of Internet mechanisms being interactive on many levels other than just text. The resulting knowledge from captured information can be considered team memory and collective intelligence, but teams may be reluctant to share information for storage in electronic forms since giving up valuable information in many school systems means losing individual competitive edge. The first step towards removing such fears is to have an open climate that promotes trust.

Leaving Evidence - Footprints

Characteristics of Organizational Memory

Organizational memory consists of hard data such as numbers, facts, and graphics, as well as soft information such as tacit knowledge, expertise, experiences, anecdotes, critical incidents, stories, artifacts, and details about how decisions are made (Morrison, 1993).
Organizational memory exists in obvious places such as in manuals, databases, and filing systems.
Organizational memory exists in individuals. Individuals are a prime location for retention of the organization's knowledge, but organizational memory can be retained in many other places such as in the school culture, processes, and structures.
Organizational memory is supported by information technology in two ways. 1) by making recorded knowledge retrievable, or 2) by making individuals with knowledge accessible.
Organizational memory refers to stored information from an organization that can be used by its members.
Organizational memory is not centrally stored, but distributed across the school system.
Organizational memory is already provided by some technologies in the form of electronic mail (email) and is at no additional documentation cost.

Checklist for Designing Organizational Memory Systems

Develop systems that store and retrieve both kinds of information (hard and soft information).
Develop a computer-based organizational memory system that helps automate capturing and retrieving information which results in complete and precise computer- resident organizational memories.
Develop systems that augment the notion of capturing the process data. This is actually an additional documentation burden with systems that capture communication, but is possible with software and application development such as current email systems that can be adapted for capturing team communications using group mail filing systems.

Cautions with Organizational Memory

$ Many schools lack systems for capturing soft information, but have various kinds of information systems such as inventory control systems, budgetary systems, and administrative systems to store and retrieve "hard" information.

$ Many schools suffer from too much information while the people don't know they have it.

$ Many school personnel know they have the information, but they don't know how to find it.

$ Many schools are already capturing information in a written record, but this is only one form of organizational memory.

$ Many schools do not suffer from a scarcity of documents and artifacts for the organizational memory, but rather the quality, content, and organization of the material.

$ Many schools currently function within a paradigm in which the only thing captured is the information that schools are drowning in: more data, documents, and artifacts. Schools need to focus building their memory with the context behind the documents when they were created.

$ Many schools stop with email which has a low capture cost, but email does not provide an effective record because email messages are strictly personal and are stored that way. Individuals organize email so poorly that it cannot effectively augment even an individual's memory.

Last updated: March 10, 1998