Organisational Memories in Project-based Companies: an Autopoietic View

This conceptual paper draws attention to the autopoietic knowledge production as a potential explanation for the project-based company’s learning and organisational memory. First, the concept of project-based company is described. Second, the epistemological assumptions are highlighted with the purpose to get a better understanding of what is knowledge and how it and organisational memory develop. Third, concept of organisational memory is described in brief. Fourth, the main content of the paper, namely the study on autopoietic knowledge production (i.e. learning) and memory development in project-based companies is described. The paper ends with the conclusion according to which project-based companies’ organisational memories are autopoietically produced and reproduced, which brings about that although people may leave companies, the knowledge produced and communicated by these people is not, as argued by many authors, completely lost, but it continues to be active in the organisational memories of these companies.