Organizational remembering as narrative: ‘Storying’ the past in banking

Abstract

This article focuses on organizational remembering in banking. To provide an alternative to the repository image of memory in organization, organizational remembering is conceptualized as narrative, where narrative represents a way to organize the selection and interpretation of the past. The narrative perspective deals with both the experiential and contextual nature of remembering by addressing concerns raised by critiques of organizational memory studies, namely, the subjective experience of remembering and the social and historical context in which remembering takes place. Antenarrative and microhistory methods are employed to discuss narrative fragments of remembering that deviate from consolidated narratives and indicate normal exceptions and an ‘ante’ state of affairs. Based on the study of narrative fragments of remembering in two different banking contexts, the article illustrates how the narrative perspective reveals ruptures and ambiguities that characterize organizational remembering that would remain hidden in the organizational memory studies approach.