An experimental investigation of task-oriented organizational memory for efficient product assortment recommendations

The ability to share the collective memory of workers across an organization can be a critical organizational asset. Researchers and practitioners recognize organizational memory as an important factor in the success of an organization's operations and its responsiveness to the changes and challenges of its environment (e.g. Stein 1995; Huber 1991). However, the components, functions and mechanism of organizational memory are not well understood (Olfman et al. 1998).; Capturing, encoding, storing and retrieving relevant historical knowledge and data for use in decision situations is a difficult problem. Attempts have been made to break the problem into smaller, more feasible chunks (e.g., Ackerman 1995; Mundviwalla 1998). This work builds on the notion of addressing organizational memory "in the small" by developing an information system that actualizes organizational memory for a specific task. Examining organizational memory from this is perspective helps to understand factors that are important in the development of organizational memory systems.; This investigation examines the effects of automating organizational memory to support a specific organizational task. The approach allows the unit of study to be based on individuals performing tasks that require the manipulation of existing memory archives (Morrison & Sandoe 1998). A Task-Oriented Organizational Memory System (TOOMS) was examined to assess its effectiveness for recommending an efficient product assortment for a category of pre-packaged food. A laboratory experiment was conducted to test the effects of knowledge type, task complexity and presentation mode on the actual and perceived effectiveness of completing a product assortment task. Analysis of results indicates that the availability of tacit knowledge, the complexity of the task and the users' general problem solving skill have statistically significant effects on the effectiveness of the product assortment recommendation. Presentation modes used in the experiment (overlapping windows and scrolling frames) did not yield statistically significant results.; This project contributes to the understanding organizational memory through the development of a conceptual model for task-oriented organizational memory. Category managers practicing efficient product assortment can learn about the types of knowledge that seem to be most relevant to this task. Researchers can take away lessons regarding the design and use of a task specific system to support organizational memory.