A ‘sticky’ past: The viscosity of organizational memory in navigating ethical change [r-libre/3912]

Dudink, Yentl; Taminiau, Yvette; Veenswijk, Marcel, & Bencherki, Nicolas (2025). A ‘sticky’ past: The viscosity of organizational memory in navigating ethical change. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-025-06210-7

File(s) available for this item:

PDF - DudinkTaminiauVeenswijkBencherki-StickyPast.pdf
Content : Submitted Version

Download

Item Type:	Journal Articles
Refereed:	Yes
Status:	Published
Abstract:	This paper introduces viscosity as a conceptual lens to examine how organizational memory shapes ethical transformation. Based on a qualitative case study of a Dutch bank seeking to distance itself from a legacy of irresponsibility, we show how the past persists not only in discourse but also through affective, material, and temporal traces. These lingering effects create friction that complicates efforts at ethical renewal. Building on scholarship in organizational memory, historic corporate responsibility, and temporality, we theorize viscosity as the condition through which a problematic past becomes difficult to dislodge—sticking to identities, routines, and interpretations in ways that elude managerial control. Rather than framing ethical change as a matter of strategic reframing or discursive forgetting, viscosity draws attention to how history continues to be felt, inhabited, and negotiated in everyday organizational life. We show that while viscosity can constrain transformation, it may also simultaneously intensify the moral urgency for reform. In doing so, this study contributes to research on organizational memory by offering a vocabulary for understanding how organizations live with, and through, their unresolved and ‘sticky’ pasts.
Official URL:	https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-0...
Depositor:	Bencherki, Nicolas
Owner / Manager:	Nicolas Bencherki
Deposited:	10 Dec 2025 15:23
Last Modified:	10 Dec 2025 15:23

Actions (login required)

RÉVISER