Reimagining the past: Towards a theory of routine encounters with organizational history

Scholars have explained how organizational history might be sought out, revised and used for strategic purposes, but have yet to examine the more routine ways through which organization members encounter organizational history. Drawing from a field study of a home healthcare agency, we develop theory that explains how organization members discover, interpret and animate an organization’s history in ways that sustain its influence. We demonstrate how newcomers’ recognition of organizational imprints during socialization experiences spur sensemaking processes through which members express, revise and endorse shared understandings of an organization’s history. We close with a discussion of the implications of our work for organizational scholarship."