Purpose: This study aims to analyze the theoretical complexity that underlies purchase managers' perceptions of their ability to take part in the implementation of a new back-office service strategy. Design/methodology/approach: A survey of purchasing department managers in the Antalya (Turkey) region was conducted. The purchasing managers of…

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 definitions and examining the dimensions, actors and processes involved, the authors aim to offer a holistic…

Purpose: Learning, unlearning and relearning (LUR) has been preached as a panacea to organizations. Whereas, research on learning and unlearning has grown exponentially, relearning is still considered as an obscure concept. This paper aims to provide a new insight on organizational relearning and highlight its linkages with organizational…

Purpose: The purpose of this two-part paper is to provide a summary of current research opportunities in organizational forgetting literature and a future research agenda. Design/methodology/approach: The summary of current research opportunities and future research agenda is drawn from the systematic literature review and synthesis reported in…

Purpose: Organizational learning and unlearning are often viewed as different and distinct concepts in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the unlearning concept and reassess its position vis-à-vis learning, in particular second-order and double-loop learning. Design/methodology/approach The paper entails a conceptual analysis.…

Purpose: The purpose of Part II of this two-part paper is to uncover important differences in the nature of the three unlearning subprocesses, which call for different leadership interventions to motivate people to move through them. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws on research in behavioral medicine and psychology to demonstrate that…

Purpose: This paper aims to consider middle managers' influence on organizational learning by exploring how they cope with demands and tensions in their role and whether their practice affects available team energy. Design/methodology/approach: In total, 43 managers from three large organizations involved in major change assessed their group's…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how interruptions in organizational learning effect institutional absorptive capacity and contribute to organizational inertia. Design/methodology/approach: An exploratory model is presented as a heuristic to describe how interruptions in organizational learning affect absorptive capacity.…

Purpose: The purpose of this research paper is to explore the learning process associated with international mergers and acquisitions (M&A) integration strategies. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs a comparative case study methodology, utilising qualitative data through in-depth interviews with top management responsible for…

Purpose: In an effort to better understand the political dimensions of organizational learning, this paper aims to examine learning processes in an organizational context--namely renegotiation of pay and performance management arrangements--where the interests of organizational members are threatened. Design/methodology/approach: Data were derived…

Purpose: The aim of this article is to examine whether the boundary between the separate worlds of evaluation and frontline work in a hospital can be overcome. The study provides an example of a rare, innovative creation process of an assessment tool in which the tool users and the tool producer participated. The article aims to widen the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show that changes in social systems do not occur randomly. They are consistent with what has gone on before, with the history and identity of the system. As long as the organizing principles of a dominant culture remain unchallenged, behavior of all the social-units originating from this culture will remain…

Interviews with 42 bank managers considered learning in the context of new technological projects. Case studies of projects provide evidence that learning from past mistakes is the exception and, therefore, even successful projects had a limited impact on organizations. (Contains 22 references.) (JOW)

A project designed to reduce accidents in sugar factories used metaphors as tools for creative analysis, as ways of creating emotions, and as methods for fostering unconscious learning. When change is the goal, images, stories, narratives, and fairy tales were shown to be more effective than formal conceptual learning. (Contains 32 references.)…

Postmodern organizations are driven by a new set of expectations. Organizational development increasingly involves interventions based on human resource development and learning organizations. Line managers are expected to be change agents who are aware of the external environment and know how to realign internal characteristics to adjust to…