Oral History: Utilising the Experience of Others

Dublin Core

Title

Oral History: Utilising the Experience of Others

Subject

oral history
military history
Irish Defence Forces
Military Archives
Bureau of Military History

Description

The Irish Defence Forces Leadership Doctrine emphasises the need for lifelong study and experiential learning, and the Defence Forces have considerable experience in managing oral history projects, including the Bureau of Military History and the Military Archives Oral History Projects. However, Irish doctrine does not outline any formal method to capture these experiences as a leadership development tool or to enhance organisational memory. The aim of this paper is to examine the value of utilising oral history for leadership development and organisational memory. It demonstrates that there is a risk to organisational memory unless a formal methodology is in place to capture the experiences of Defence Forces members and connected personnel. The use of tacit knowledge, which has facilitated the handover of information to date, is not sufficient nor is the written record alone. This paper shows that a combination of multiple primary sources, including the written record and oral history, provides an opportunity to enhance leadership development. It also demonstrates that the use of oral history provides an opportunity to capture the social and human aspect of Defence Forces activities to not only enhance organisational memory but to understand the context within which decisions were made.
Please note that the views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and should not be taken to represent the views of the Irish Defence Forces, the Command and Staff School or any other group or organisation.

Creator

Kennedy, Padraic

Source

Journal Of Military History and Defence Studies; Vol. 1 No. 2 (2020): Journal of Military History and Defence Studies, November 2020; 107-141
2712-0171

Publisher

Maynooth Academic Publishing

Date

2020-12-04

Rights

Copyright (c) 2020 Journal Of Military History and Defence Studies
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Relation

Format

application/pdf

Language

eng

Type

info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article

Identifier

Citation

Padraic Kennedy, Oral History: Utilising the Experience of Others, Maynooth Academic Publishing, 2020, accessed December 24, 2024, https://igi.indrastra.com/items/show/2567

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