Organizational Unlearning: An Analytical Literature Review

Akhshik, Somaye Sadat

doi:10.4172/2162-6359.1000190

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Unlearning, considered to be the “intentional displacement of well-established patterns of action and understanding due to an exogenous disruption” (Fiol and O’Connor, 2017, p. 18), is contingent primarily upon two broad overarching catalysts: intentionality and subject-oriented components (Akhshik, 2014). As such, we contend that unlearning, the fulcrum catalyst of the learning process, must be a purposeful act and is not confined to subject-oriented factors such as organizational hierarchy, tenure or business units.…”

Section: Overview Of Unlearningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Together, these definitions provide a basis that unlearning refers to reducing the influence of prior knowledge and accepting that situational context is varied across the growth process. Referencing back to all definitions of unlearning by past scholars, four distinct themes routinely emerge: intentionality, process property, level-based definitions and subject-oriented methods (Akhshik, 2014). Of the four previously mentioned themes, intentionality and subject-oriented unlearning methods are perhaps the most beneficial and efficient within the field of HRD.…”

Section: Unlearning Definedmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Forgetting to learn and learning to forget: the call for organizational unlearning

Mull

Duffy

Silberman

2022

EJTD

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Purpose The purpose of this conceptual paper is to provide a foundation for human resource development (HRD) scholars in attempts to devise mechanisms for establishing and facilitating actionable pathways through which unlearning can be acknowledged and serve as a contributing agent for HRD interventions. This paper concludes with a call to action for our HRD colleagues to join us in further examination of unlearning interventions within the organizational context. Design/methodology/approach This paper narratively details the literature associated with the myriad social science domains that have investigated the unlearning process. Additionally, a cross-disciplinary literature review provides the basis for an operational definition of unlearning provided herein. Findings The field of HRD is devoted to creating learning organizations as well as utilizing change initiatives to develop organizations. However, unlearning has been largely ignored within the field of HRD. Originality/value The first contribution is by answering the call of scholars across varied disciplines to further investigate unlearning within the organizational context (Bettis and Prahalad, 1995; Hedberg, 1981; Nystrom and Starbuck, 1984). Additionally, this paper seeks to specifically address the role that unlearning holds within the field of HRD as it builds upon the definition provided by Wang et al. (2017) and offers its own operational definition. Finally, this paper provides the only known review of cross-disciplinary research pertaining to unlearning.

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Section: Overview Of Unlearningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Unlearning Definedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forgetting to learn and learning to forget: the call for organizational unlearning

Mull

Duffy

Silberman

2022

EJTD

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“…The "things" to which the definitions refer are, for the most part, knowledge and routines. In a review of 66 works on the unlearning literature (Akhshik, 2014), 43 and 19 per cent, respectively, dealt with the subjects of knowledge and routines. In this paper, we build on this understanding of unlearning as the process of discarding misleading knowledge and obsolete routines in organizations.…”

Section: Unlearning: Definition and Its Rolementioning

confidence: 99%

The role of unlearning in metamorphosis and strategic resilience

Morais-Storz

Nguyen

2017

TLO

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PurposeThis paper aims to conceptualize what it means to be resilient in the face of our current reality of indisputable turbulence and uncertainty, suggest that continual metamorphosis is key to resilience, demonstrate the role of unlearning in that metamorphosis and suggest that problem formulation is a key deliberate mechanism of driving continual cycles of learning and unlearning. Design/methodology/approachThe paper entails a conceptual analysis. FindingsIt is found that both the unlearning and resilience literature streams are stuck in a paradigm whereby organizational behavior entails adaptation to the external environment and reaction to crisis. This paper suggests that, given a world of turbulence and uncertainty, a more useful paradigm is one where organizations take action before action is desperately needed, and that they proactively contribute to enacting their environment via their own continual metamorphosis. Research limitations/implicationsFuture research should explore further the factors that can facilitate sensing the early warning signs, and facilitate the cyclical learning-unlearning process of metamorphosis. Practical implicationsThe primary practical implication is that to ensure strategic resilience, managers must be able to identify early warning signs and initiate metamorphosis. This means understanding the processes needed to support unlearning, namely, problem formulation. Originality/valueThe originality and value of the present paper lies in that it suggests a shift in paradigm from adaptation and reaction, to action and enactment. Further, it proposes a cyclical process of learning and unlearning that together define periods of metamorphosis, and suggests problem formulation, whereby the mission statement is assessed and revised, as a mechanism in that endeavor.

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“…To reach the goal of organizational forgetting, it is crucial that adaptation and forgetting occur on the individual level (Kluge & Gronau, 2018). Individual forgetting is a precondition for organizational forgetting (Akhshik, 2014;Cegarra-Navarro & Moya, 2005), and similar to every human behavior, its success depends on various dispositional and situational factors (Niessen et al, 2020). For example, past research has shown that cognitive abilities are of particular importance for adaptation (e.g., Haase et al, 2020;Jundt et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Behavior in the Context of Continuous Change - An Exploratory Analysis in a Research and Application Center Industry 4.0

Roling,

Schüffler,

Thim

et al. 2023

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

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The modern world of work is characterized by discontinuity and innovation. Organizations must adapt to continuous change, which makes it crucial to manage organizational knowledge. Learning and forgetting processes are necessary to react successfully to the changes. On the individual level, this means that individuals have to adapt their behavior, which is often well-learned and routinized. This study aims to take a first step toward a more detailed understanding of human behavior in the context of continuous change. For this purpose, an exploratory analysis was conducted on data collected in a Research and Application Center Industry 4.0. The participants had to deal with the continuous change of routine actions in a simulated production environment, which enabled us to measure their adaptation errors. The occurrence of adaptation errors, their dependency on the type of change, and the behavioral patterns are discussed in detail. Implications for further research are derived..

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Organizational Unlearning: An Analytical Literature Review

Cited by 7 publications

References 32 publications

Forgetting to learn and learning to forget: the call for organizational unlearning

Forgetting to learn and learning to forget: the call for organizational unlearning

The role of unlearning in metamorphosis and strategic resilience

Human Behavior in the Context of Continuous Change - An Exploratory Analysis in a Research and Application Center Industry 4.0

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