Purpose: This study aims to understand how practitioners use their insights in software development models to share experiences within and between organizations. Design/methodology/approach: This is a qualitative study of practitioners in software development projects, in large-, medium- or small-size businesses. It analyzes interview material in…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to challenge processes of organizational learning and innovation that are based on making use of, extrapolating, or adapting past experiences and knowledge, because such a strategy turns out to be incapable of dealing with the challenges of today's volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment. As a…

Purpose: Corporate-startup collaboration is an opportunity for inter-organizational learning. This paper aims to develop an empirically grounded typology to guide researchers and managers in choosing a model that is coherent with the underlying learning processes. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical research consisted of three phases.…

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: This study aims to develop a process model that details the mechanisms and learning processes by which entrepreneurial learning transpires at multiple levels in the organization. Using the transactive memory system (TMS) framework as a reference, the model specifies how individual streams of knowledge are routinized in nonhuman elements…

Purpose: This paper aims to challenge the alleged gender-neutral character of Argyris and Schön's theory of organizational learning (1978). While theories in organizational science seem gender neutral at the surface, a closer analysis reveals they are often based on men's experiences. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses the method of…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine multiple learning cycles across a UK housebuilder organization following changes made to their quality management routine at the organizational level, through to subsequent understanding and enactment at the level of the individuals involved. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a qualitative case study…

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: Calls for dialectical learning process model development in learning organizations have largely gone unheeded, thereby limiting conceptual understanding and application in the field. This paper aims to unify learning organization theory with a new understanding of Hegelian dialectics to trace the development of the storytelling learning…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the dominance of the participation metaphor for learning in the literature on learning organizations and to propose a working model of the teaching organization with conceptual input from educational science and the sociology of professions. Design/methodology/approach: The paper combines…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrated framework to indicate which antecedents of absorptive capacity (AC) influence its learning processes, and to propose testing of this model in future work. Design/methodology/approach Relevant literature into the antecedents of AC was critically reviewed and analysed with the objective…

Purpose: Sustainability is, in itself, the idea of a harmonic answer to the dual nature of the most pressing problem for global society. Most of the problems dealing with sustainability concern its dual and contradictory nature. That paradoxical reality is in no way a unique feature of sustainability; its universal pervasiveness is demonstrated by…

Purpose: The concept of a mental model has been described by theorists from diverse disciplines. The purpose of this paper is to offer a robust definition of an individual mental model for use in organisational management. Design/methodology/approach: The approach adopted involves an interdisciplinary literature review of disciplines, including…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to show how a model for sustainable learning has been formed in the meetings between practitioners and researchers. Design/methodology/approach: With the point of departure in an interactive research approach, the authors have worked with learning and common knowledge development. Empirical data were…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model that uses dialectical inquiry (DI) to create cognitive conflict in strategic decision-makers for the purpose of improving strategic decisions. Activation of the dialectical learning process using DI requires strategic decision-makers to integrate conflicting information causing…