Collective memory and corporate irresponsibility - A collection of essays

Jukka Rintamäki

Kollektiivinen muisti ja vastuuton yritystoiminta: Kokoelma esseitä

Jukka Rintamäki

Johtamisen laitos

Tutkimustuotos: Doctoral Thesis › Collection of Articles

Abstrakti

Kuten kurkistamalla menneisyyteen voi todeta, yritysskandaalit ja vastuullinen yritystoiminta yleisemmin ovat jatkuvasti uutisotsikoissa. Ja vaikkei kukaan voikaan kieltää yritysskandaalien keräämää välitöntä, ajoittain laajaa ja intensiivistä huomiota, tämä huomio kuitenkin tapaa huveta melko nopeasti. Muutaman vuoden kuluessa harva edes muistaa yksittäisiä skandaaleja kovinkaan tarkkaan. Vaikka menneiden tapahtumien unohtuminen ajan mittaan ei ole sinällään mitenkään yllättävää, usein unohtuminen ei kuitenkaan ole automaattinen ja välttämätön lopputulema, vaan aktiivisten toimijoiden tietoisen työn tulosta.Tässä neljästä esseestä koostuvassa väitöskirjassa väitän, että organisaatioilla on taipumus pyrkiä vaikuttamaan yleisiin mielikuviin niiden omista menneisyyksistään (toisin sanoen niitä koskevaan kollektiiviseen muistiin), esittelen tapoja, joilla organisaatiot pyrkivät vaikuttamaan mielikuviin omista menneisyyksistään, ja empiirisen tapaustutkimuksen kautta havainnollistan erääseen menneeseen yritykseen liittyneen (ja edelleen hieman liittyvän) muistikamppailun tämän menneisyydestä: oliko kyse vastuuttomuudesta vai jostain muusta?Kahdessa ensimmäisessä esseessä käsitteellistän tapoja, joilla yritykset pyrkivät määrittämään omiin menneisiin vastuuttomuuksiinsa liittyvän kollektiivisen muistin uudelleen. Kolmannessa ja neljännessä esseessä esittelen tapaustutkimuksen muistityöstä ja menneestä (oletetusti) vastuuttomasta yritystoiminnasta. Tämä väitöskirja sisältää kolme pääkontribuutiota ymmärrykseemme yritysten ja yhteiskunnan välisestä vuorovaikutuksesta. Käyttämällä kollektiivisen muistin käsitettä pääasiasiallisena linssinäni vastuuttoman yritystoiminnan ja yritysten menneisyyksien havainnointiin, alleviivaan etenkin menneisyyden sisäänrakennettua epäluotettavuutta, mutta myös sen alttiutta aktiiviselle muokkaukselle palvelemaan organisaatioiden etuja nykyhetkessä. Tämä herättää kysymyksiä sidosryhmäpaineen suhteen: vaikka voimmekin olettaa sidosryhmäpaineen jossain määrin suitsivan vastuutonta yritystoimintaa nykyhetkessä, voimmeko kuitenkaan olettaa sen tekevän niin pidemmällä tähtäimellä? Tässä väitöskirjassa tekemäni työ viittaa siihen, että sidosryhmien vastuuttomaan yritystoimintatapaukseen kohdistama huomio tapaa heiketä ajan myötä. Toisena pääkontribuutiona nostan esiin vastuuttomien yritystoimien unohtamisen negatiivisen puolen. Vaikka unohtaminen voikin helpottaa käsittelemään epämiellyttävästä menneisyydestä juontuvia traumoja, se helposti myös häiritsee menneistä virheistä oppimista. Näin organisaatiot (ja yhteiskunnat) toistavat samoja virheitä yhä uudelleen. Lopuksi, muistityön käsitteen kautta osoitan ja havainnollistan, kuinka organisaatiot voivat muokata mielikuvia menneestä, ja ovat siten tärkeitä kollektiivisen muistin määrittäjiä.

Julkaisun otsikon käännös	Kollektiivinen muisti ja vastuuton yritystoiminta: Kokoelma esseitä
Alkuperäiskieli	Englanti
Pätevyys	Tohtorintutkinto
Myöntävä instituutio	Aalto-yliopisto
Valvoja/neuvonantaja	Spicer, Andre, Ohjaaja, Ulkoinen henkilö Mäkelä, Kristiina, Ohjaaja
Kustantaja	Aalto University
Painoksen ISBN	978-952-60-6908-1
Sähköinen ISBN	978-952-60-6909-8
Tila	Julkaistu - 2016
OKM-julkaisutyyppi	G5 Tohtorinväitöskirja (artikkeli)

Tutkimusalat

Kollektiivinen muisti
vastuuton yritystoiminta
muistityö
muistiyhteisöt
organisaatiotutkimus

Pääsy asiakirjaan

http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-60-6909-8Lisenssi: Määrittelemätön

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title = "Collective memory and corporate irresponsibility - A collection of essays",

abstract = "As history will tell us, corporate scandals and instances of irresponsible firm behavior have frequently occupied newspaper headlines. And while no one will deny the attention large scale corporate scandals typically receive at the outset, this attention tends to peter out relatively quickly, and in a matter of years, many such scandals are largely forgotten. Although forgetting of past events is often to be expected, in many cases it is not an automatic, inevitable outcome, but rather the result of active efforts by actors with interests.In this dissertation, over four essays, I argue that organizations often have a tendency to attempt to influence perceptions of their own pasts – i.e. collective memory of them – particularly when it comes to instances of corporate irresponsibility, propose ways in which they go about reconfiguring their pasts, and through an empirical pilot study, demonstrate a struggle over the past of an organization that had been deemed irresponsible.Over the course of the first two essays I conceptualize ways in which firms attempt to reconfigure the collective memory of their past acts of irresponsibility. For the third and fourth essay, I have conducted a pilot study on memory work and (perceived) past irresponsibility. With this dissertation, I make a number of contributions, three of which are worth outlining here. By using collective memory as the primary lens through which to observe corporate irresponsibility and the pasts of organizations, I highlight the inherent unreliability of the past, as well as the fact that the past can be utilized and manipulated to serve present purposes. This poses questions to stakeholder pressure: while we can expect stakeholder pressure to keep firms in check in the short term, can we say the same about the long term? My essays indicate that stakeholder attention to corporate irresponsibility will tend to wane as time passes. As a second primary contribution, I point to the potential negative effects of forgetting of past irresponsibilities. Although forgetting may alleviate the trauma of an uncomfortable past, it may also obstruct learning from past mistakes, leading organizations (and societies) to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Finally, through the notion of organizational memory work, I demonstrate that organizations can influence public understandings of the past, and are indeed important determiners and facilitators of collective memory. Though resistance can be mounted, the amount of resources that business firms have, and their ability to focus them, means that they can be potentially very powerful drivers of collective memory.",

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