Organizational Forgetting in Higher Education

The sum of experience and capabilities of individual members of an organization is an important factor that defines the experience and the capabilities of the organization, influencing directly its performance and efficiency (Grusky 1961; Shaw 1981). The degree of organizational learning defines the ability of the organization to transform the experience and the capabilities of individuals into organizational capabilities. Many researchers have studied the process of organizational learning through the members of the organization; however, the processes of organizational unlearning and forgetting have not been studied with the same intensity. According to Martin and Phillips (2003), the forgetting process is just as important as the organizational learning process to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage; however, many papers don’t mention these organizational capabilities.