A characterisation of corporate memory as a knowledge system

Any organisation, even a newly formed one, will have its own repertoire of practices and routines that reflect the purpose of the organisation and the prior experience of the people in it. This leads to the notion of a “corporate memory”. This paper presents a systems‐engineering style of characterisation comprised eight sub‐processes linked by knowledge and/or data flows that result in day‐to‐day actions within the organisation. The nature of flows between the sub‐processes is examined, considering the types of knowledge involved, and factors that may facilitate or inhibit the flow of knowledge. The model has proven useful in understanding what drives the organisation, and in developing a form of diagnostic tool to study how to better share knowledge within the organisation.