Social memory assets as a defense mechanism: the Onondaga Pottery in World War II

ABSTRACT

Organizations fall back on their identities in times of uncertainty as a way of making sense of unfamiliar situations and to reflect on their values in the face of attack. Identity formation is inextricably linked to memory, both that of the individual organization and its members and the collective memory of the society in which it functions. The collective memory of the United States holds wartime service in high esteem, and for an organization facing hardship, this can open the door to an opportunity to build goodwill by linking identity to that narrative for an external audience. In this article, I analyze a case study of the Onondaga Pottery in World War II using the concept of social memory assets (SMAs) to see how management created an SMA based on the memory of their contributions to the war effort and deployed it as a tool when threatened by cuts in tariff rates during the Cold War. I demonstrate that SMAs can be used not only to proactively create a competitive advantage for an organization but as a defensive strategy as well.

KEYWORDS:

• Organizational identity
• organizational memory studies
• collective memory
• history
• social memory assets
• WWII

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Onondaga Pottery is better known by the name Syracuse China. While the company manufactured a dinnerware line by that name as far back as the late nineteenth century, it did not officially become known as Syracuse China until 1965.

2. Earthenware is a semivitreous product (meaning that miniscule amounts of liquid can be absorbed through the clay body), while china/porcelain is a fully vitrified product (fired at a higher temperature so that no liquids can be absorbed). Onondaga Pottery only manufactured vitrified china by the 1930s.

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Stephanie Vincent

Stephanie Vincent is a 2016 PhD recipient from Kent State University where she currently is an Instructor of History. Her research interests include American business history, social history, history of consumption, company–community relations, and the relationship between managerial strategy and changing business environments. She has previously published in The Historian and Enterprise and Society.