Purpose: In the era of hyper-competitiveness, firms, especially project-based management structures, have to focus on ideas for both new and existing sets of products and services, i.e. ambidextrous innovation. The ambidextrous innovation can be helpful, but achieving such a level is a problem to be solved. This study aims to yield ambidextrous…

Purpose: Organizations will be key to realizing the "transformative change for humanity" now being called for. However, the complexity calls for new ways of facilitating change and organizational learning; it also calls for moving beyond sustainability to develop practices that restore and regenerate the world in which we live. Above…

Purpose: Executive isolation, also known as workplace loneliness, its factors and impact are major issues for organizational development, future of work for leadership and learning culture. The purpose of this study is to examine the Executive isolation phenomenon where relationships between power distance, organizational culture and executive…

Purpose: The "Implication for practitioners" paper summarizes the articles within this issue of "The Learning Organization" in an easy-to-digest format for the practitioner audience. This paper aims to outline how in practice the structure and people and the interplay of both have an impact in creating a learning organization.…

Purpose: While much empirical research has examined how routines are unlearned, little is known about the intentional forgetting of rules in organizations. This paper aims to combine the literature on organizational rules and that on intentional forgetting with the aim of studying the relationship between power types of rule imposition and the…

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 analyse how dynamic capabilities (DC) affect organizational learning (OL) in a Brazilian higher education institution (HEI) and how this relationship affects organisational ambidexterity (OA). Design/methodology/approach: The research strategy involves a qualitative, single case study. Data were collected through…

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 provide an overview of the history, the present and the future or the learning organization as a concept and a practical approach, from the perspective of Professor John Burgoyne. Design/methodology/approach: This conversation piece follows the development of the concept from its early days into the current debates and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between transformational leadership, knowledge management capabilities, organizational learning and innovation performance in the context of higher education institutions. Design/methodology/approach: Using a survey research design, data was collected from 219 respondents comprising…

Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate how the Nordic model, featuring highly regulated trade union-employer collaboration, has enabled the building of learning organizations through a co-generative learning model involving both practitioners and action researchers. Design/methodology/approach: A literature search on the Nordic sociotechnical…

Purpose: This paper aims to provide an overview of the development of learning organization concepts from the perspective of Professor Bob Garratt and presents an interesting evolution toward his work on learning boardroom members. Design/methodology/approach: Through a conversation with Professor Garratt, the authors capture several topics…

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: This study aims to explore whether hierarchical position and organizational size affect perceptions of a learning organization (LO) during reform implementation. Design/methodology/approach: An electronic survey was distributed in four Norwegian police districts at an early stage of reform implementation. One of the objectives of the…