...Samuele Maccioni; Cristiano Ghiringhelli; Edoardo Datteri Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the phenomenon of organizational unlearning with a focus on challenging path dependence and its implications on the organizational change field. By generating a taxonomy of unlearning...

... if shared work experiences of employees are put together. Also, organizational unlearning (OU) as a phenomenon is hard to ignore for successful organizations, especially large multinational companies. Originality/value The discussions with Prof Eric Tsang reflected his thoughts and critique pertaining...

... on organizational relearning and highlight its linkages with organizational unlearning. Design/methodology/approach This study is based upon a systematic literature review of organizational unlearning and organizational relearning. Papers expounding upon relearning were carefully analyzed vis-à-vis...

...Karen Becker Purpose This paper aims to provide a synthesis of the contributions to this special issue focusing on organizational unlearning. Design/methodology/approach The papers were examined in depth to identify the key contributions and areas of ongoing concern for those researching...

... that influence organizational unlearning. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper analyzing how professions are established to identify the implications for organizational unlearning. The critical elements of a profession are explored to identify the potential impact that professionals within...

...Yuliya Snihur Purpose This paper aims to examine Borders response to business model innovation (BMI) by Amazon in the bookselling industry. The case illuminates potential causes for protracted periods of organizational unlearning, explaining why organizational unlearning, although beneficial...

...Eric W.K. Tsang Purpose This paper aims to provide some comments on the four papers, other than the author’s own, that were included in a recent special issue on organizational unlearning. Design/methodology/approach The author carefully reads these papers and identify problems that may hinder...

... satisfaction with the new. Originality/value All empirical studies of organizational unlearning imply some form of destabilization of old learning as an antecedent to unlearning, and many of them discuss subsequent behavioral and cognitive displacement. However, they have not clearly distinguished between...

... 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited Licensed re-use rights only --> Unlearning Organizational unlearning Education reform Nader N. Chokr’s book Unlearning or ‘How Not to Be Governed’ aims to show why unlearning should be viewed as crucial for education reform. Challenging...

...Eric W.K. Tsang Purpose The first purpose of this short essay is to respond to Howells and Scholderer’s (2016) harsh critique that organizational unlearning is a superfluous concept. The second purpose is to establish a relationship between organizational unlearning and the learning organization...

... unlearning embedded routines. Originality/value The organizational unlearning literature provides many examples of organizational members relinquishing old routines to then make new learning possible and also provides little insight into the processes by which this occurs. The paper addresses this gap...