Organizational Cultures of Remembrance

4  Audi Tradition in its Role as the Official Carrier of Organizational Remembrance

AUDI AG claimed its corporate past as an ‘asset,’ requiring both preservation and promotion. This asset was handled by a dedicated institution, already alluded to in previous chapters, named Audi Tradition. The corporate history department had been installed to handle matters of the past relating to ‘history’ and ‘tradition.’ It was appointed the role of the official carrier of organizational remembrance, whose job it was to “cultivate tradition” by means of “tradition work” (Int. 28, l. 24) – a professionalized version of what Linde (2009) identifies as “working the past” (p. 3). At Audi, ‘tradition workers’ administered brand-, product-, and organization-related ...