Historicizing in the Carlsberg Group
Administrative Science Quarterly 1–41 Toward a Theory of Ó The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/ Using History journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0001839217692535 Authentically: asq.sagepub.com Historicizing in the Carlsberg Group Mary Jo Hatch1 and Majken Schultz2 Abstract Drawing on interviews, archival material, and observation, this article investi- gates how and why, on two different occasions, actors at the Carlsberg Group headquartered in Denmark were inspired to use a particular historical artifact, the Latin phrase Semper Ardens, carved above a doorway. Used first as the inspiration for naming a new line of handcrafted beers, ten years later it became the motto featured in the company’s identity statement. Findings describe a temporal pattern of micro-level activities that accounts for how actors used this historical material and, in doing so, lent the authenticity of his- tory to their actions, a phenomenon we term organizational historicizing. Analysis of historicizing activities revealed five micro-processes: rediscovering, recontextualizing, reclaiming, renewing, and re-embedding of an artifact in orga- nizational history. Relationships between the micro-processes, explained in terms of authenticity, power, and identity, are theorized in a process model describing organizational historicizing. The findings show the importance of his- tory when establishing claims to authenticity and how history becomes rele- vant to present and future activities. We also show that latent history can be revived for use in future historicizing. Keywords: organizational history, historicizing, brewing industry, authenticity, organizational identity, Carlsberg Group Scholars interested in history have long accused organizational researchers of being ahistorical, suggesting they overlook the ways history contextualizes other organizational phenomena (e.g., Zald, 1993, 1996; Kieser, 1994; Coraiola, Foster, and Suddaby, 2015).
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