Institutional amnesia during large crisis: Effects of poor documentation

Abstract

In this “work in progress” research, we attempt to understand and explore the effects of inadequate documentation during crises. We have studied the work of three different organizations during the first six months of the Covid- 19 pandemic and have been able to ascertain that almost no official documents from the organizations' crisis management teams can be found. The consequences of inadequate documentation resulted in challenges when learning from mistakes, difficulties in real-time learning, and a lack of understanding regarding the rationale behind the decisions made. This institutional amnesia is problematic for many reasons and needs to be further studied. The next step in our research will be to study information culture and try to understand the effect of this amnesia on resilience.