Corporate history belongs to everyone. It belongs just as much to communications professionals keen to craft unifying narratives for their clients and staff, as it does to historians who advocate honesty when it comes to the grey areas. To prevent the past from being rewritten, researchers are calling for the promotion of an ‘ethic of organisational memory’.
The way organisations construct their past is never trivial; it is the result of a collective, negotiated – and sometimes conflict-ridden process involving stakeholders with divergent interests. For example, Lacoste makes no mention of the 1990s, a decade marked by internal conflicts. Numerous examples illustrate the ethical questions that society and businesses are only just beginning – at best – to articulate.
