Institutional Amnesia and Public Administration: Does History Repeat?

Abstract

Existing research suggests that a lack of institutional memory causes history to repeat in problematic ways within public administration agencies. However, this claim has not been well supported by theory or data that illuminates the process and effects of history repeating. To remedy this, the nascent concept of institutional amnesia is presented here as a means of theorizing repetitions of public administrative history. A sequential explanatory mixed method research design uses quantitative survey data (n=1608) and qualitative interview data (n=75) generated in the public services of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom to show how institutional amnesia can lead to the recycling of ideas and practices, the inefficient relearning of information seeking processes and the delivery of conducive decision-making environments that can help address historical problems. These findings draw attention to the fact that administrative history does indeed repeat in public agencies because of institutional amnesia, but that it does so in positive as well as negative ways.