Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to place the idea of the learning organization in a historical, multidisciplinary context with the aim of identifying obstacles and opportunities for its greater realization in practice. Design/methodology/approach: Marking the 30th anniversary of publication of Peter Senge's "The Fifth Discipline",…

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 unlearning research. Findings: While each paper has its own merits,…

Purpose: This 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…

This summary piece aims to provide a clear connection for leaders, managers or even individuals as they endeavor to put organizational unlearning into practice inside their organization. The author attempts to simplify the details from the diverse articles within this issue only with the aim of helping build an easier method for practical…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose how a bottom-up creation of an ambidextrous organization can be enabled. By integrating research on "contextual ambidexterity" and "individual and organizational capacity building", an "innovation capacity building" framework is conceptualized that suggests how balance…

Purpose: This paper aims to review the concepts and constructs of some common models and frameworks advocated for knowledge management (KM) and organisational learning (OL) in literature. It sets forth a critical enquiry towards the integration of KM and OL practices and their relationship with the concepts of the learning organisation (LO) and…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which espoused values among police managers in the Norwegian police force are compatible with those of a learning organization. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was developed and administered to police managers in two police districts in Norway. A set of values was…

Purpose: This paper extends the corporation-based metaphor of the tree by proposing that cognition is the core ability that nourishes the development of core competencies. From such an extension, this paper aims to take a step forward to answer the question: what is the role of cognition in the organization that is in pursuit of core competencies…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that organisational sustainability is not a continuation of the status quo but, seen from a complexity theory perspective, is a continuous dynamic process of co-evolution with a changing environment. It is underpinned by learning, and it creates new structures and ways of working to adjust and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an examination of the concepts and mechanisms of complexity and learning usability and applicability for management in turbulent environments as well as their examination through the Chaordic system thinking (CST) lenses and framework. Contributing to awareness of how different mechanisms could be…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Special Issue; to provide a practitioner's retrospective views of the learning organization concept; and to comment on the status of "The Learning Organization" journal. Design/methodology/approach: The approach adopted involves recounting a personal history of a practitioner's experiences…

Purpose: Radical changes and increasing competition in the global economy and markets lead enterprises to change their business policy and activities. This process demands the creation of effective organizational learning mechanisms. This paper seeks to illustrate how three service organizations designed and utilized organizational learning…

Purpose: This paper seeks to understand whether significant senior management and structural changes within an Australian university is the result of learning or other influences and how these explain the impact of change on the careers of two individuals within the organisation. Design/methodology/approach: The organisation and the changes are…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to analyse the evolution of the concepts of organizational learning and the learning organization and propose guidelines for the future. Design/methodology/approach: The evolution of organizational learning and the learning organization is analysed in the light of the three-stage model of the evolution of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the journal and organizational learning over the years. Design/methodology/approach: The approach adopted is that of providing a viewpoint perspective to look at the concept of the learning organization. Findings: By looking at organizational learning partly from the perspective of a publisher,…