UNLEARNING IN ORGANIZATIONS: UNDERSTANDING AND RETHINKING THE WAY ORGANIZATIONS LEARN AND CHANGE

Year 2019, , 43 - 47, 30.07.2019

Tolga Ege Ayla Esen , Ozen Asik

https://doi.org/10.17261/Pressacademia.2019.1062

Abstract

Purpose- This paper aims to portray the
overall picture in the relevant literature regarding unlearning and intends to
emphasize its role both in organizational learning and organizational change
processes. Through a framework, it aims to figure out how unlearning should be
considered in organizations, especially in management practices, and propose a
future reseach agenda to develop an advanced field.

Methodology- The paper
summarizes the relevant literature from a critical perspective; it reviews
definitions and aims to clarify what unlearning means for organizations at
individual, group and organizational levels and argues how the concept of
unlearning has been mentioned in models, frameworks and ideas in relation to
organizational change, organizational learning and learning organizations. It
provides range of definitions to develop the limited understanding of
unlearning in management practices, and examines models, frameworks and ideas
to clarify the confusions in literature.

Findings- Literature on organizational
learning and change has elaborated on the idea of unlearning from different
perspectives, highlighted its importance and attempted to clarify its meaning
and processes in organizations at various levels. However, limited research has
been carried out where the process of unlearning has been reflected in
different organizational settings, and relatedly, fewer seminal works, compared
to organizational learning and organizational change ones, remained
acknowledged.

Conclusion- Current knowledge in
organizational studies restricts a detailed understanding of unlearning and
lack of empirical studies leaves the territory under-researched and blurred. Through
the framework proposed above and future research in parallel, we aim to capture
a widened understanding of unlearning in literature and intend to construct a
new perspective in management practices, mainly in organizational learning and
change processes.

Keywords

Unlearning, unlearning in organizations, organizational change, organizational learning, learning organization

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