Does organizational forgetting matter? Organizational survival for life coaching companies

Abstract

Purpose – The purposes of this paper are to determine the role of organizational forgetting in different type of coaching companies and to determine organizational survival based on both knowledge structure of coaching companies and organizational forgetting with core features of organizations. Design/methodology/approach – Within the context of this research, two worldwide and well-known coaching companies were examined as case study, and analyses of case studies which included company background and testimonial analysis was used as inputs for the semi-structured interviews of 12 PhD students in the UK who took seminars and training from the coaching companies. Based on the interviews, the authors concluded the research as describing knowledge structure, core features and organizational forgetting type. Thus, organizational survival based on organizational forgetting could be interpreted. Findings – Based on the case studies and interview results, there were two findings. First, it was indicated that the type of organization (knowledge structure) had a different type of organizational forgetting. Second, core features of organizations based on the interviews and types of organizational forgetting were linked to each other. According to these results, organizational survival for coaching companies was discussed. Research limitations/implications – This study also has some limitations. First, this paper just focuses on coaching organizations to find new perspective for the organizational forgetting literature. Second, because of the scope of this research, interviewees are limited to individuals who have knowledge or take any seminars related to field of coaching. Other sectors also must be considered to attain detailed knowledge related to organizational forgetting because case-specific studies will bring new dimensions to the literature of organizational forgetting. Originality/value – First, this study makes a research contribution to the field of organizational forgetting because studies related to organizational forgetting mostly consist of conceptual papers, and, second, we have introduced two new perspective to the concept of organizational forgetting through this research paper.