Honor the old, welcome the new: an account of unlearning and forgetting in NPD teams

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the antecedents, levers of control and outcomes of organizational unlearning and forgetting in new product development (NPD) teams. Design/methodology/approach This paper employs a holistic multiple-case study design. This paper gathered data from 30 individual semi-structured interviews in 10 different NPD teams as well as additional data to triangulate the findings. Findings The authors propose a model of unlearning and forgetting elements occurring in NPD teams. The two most prominent factors that hamper innovation are the inability to unlearn and involuntary forgetting. Failure to manage these antecedents results in the loss of crucial resources, missing innovations or intra-team tensions. Managing knowledge loss by promoting unlearning and reducing forgetting leads to enhanced creativity and flexibility, a higher chance of exceeding innovation goals, increased conversion efficiency and augmentation of existing knowledge. Research limitations/implications This paper contributes empirical evidence to the field of unlearning and forgetting. The model illustrates the NPD process from the perspective of organizational unlearning and forgetting. The authors examined the NPD process from an unlearning and forgetting perspective and proposed new categories of antecedents, consequences and managing unlearning and forgetting. This generates a more profound theoretical understanding of underlying knowledge loss processes in NPD teams. Practical implications Companies should promote unlearning and specify spatial and temporal freedom. In doing so, team members can identify outdated and obsolete knowledge. Being attentive to unlearning and forgetting processes allows teams to achieve increased creativity and flexibility. Originality/value This paper provides empirical evidence to generate a more profound understanding of the underlying mechanisms of knowledge loss in NPD teams. First, the authors propose a holistic model of antecedents, levers of control and consequences of both unlearning and forgetting. Second, the authors suggest that organizations can use these levers of control to successfully manage unlearning and forgetting in NPD teams.

Organizational forgetting Part I: a review of the literature and future research directions

“…Conceptualizations of strategic problem formulation, for instance, proposed that during reorientation periods, unlearning was vital because contextual discontinuities triggered secondorder learning and involved changes in decision-making premises and assumptions, requiring unlearning of prior modes of organizing such as practices and routines and increasing behavioral variability (Lyles and Thomas, 1988). This view was confirmed by studies of contractor organizations in Hong Kong that found a correlation between unlearning and double-loop learning (Argyris and Schön, 1978) to help change previous assumptions, beliefs, and routines that had caused errors and to support subsequent learning processes (Wong et al, 2012 (Bridoux et al, 2013; see also Klammer and Gueldenberg, 2019b). This transition period was proposed to build upon three connected processes of initial routine destabilization: ongoing discarding-from-use of old behaviors; experimenting with new behaviors; and discharge of prior understanding to develop new understanding (Fiol andO'Connor, 2017a, 2017b).…”

“…This transition period was proposed to build upon three connected processes of initial routine destabilization: ongoing discarding-from-use of old behaviors; experimenting with new behaviors; and discharge of prior understanding to develop new understanding (Fiol andO'Connor, 2017a, 2017b). Research also proposed that temporal and spatial freedom could help identify outdated knowledge and facilitate unlearning practices (Klammer and Gueldenberg, 2019b).…”

Exploring linkages between unlearning and human resource development: Revisiting unlearning cases

“…Finally, we selected four final cases based on two criteria: (a) the case clearly described the unlearning process, and (b) the case showed unlearning at one or more levels: individual, group, organizational, or combined level. The four cases were conducted in diverse sectors (construction, healthcare, public service, and R&D) in different countries (Austria, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Liechtenstein, Spain, and Switzerland) (Cegarra‐Navarro, Wensley, & Polo, ; Klammer & Gueldenberg, ; Love, Smith, & Teo, ; Wilbert, Durst, Ferenhof, & Selig, ).…”

“…In this section, we introduce four cases that demonstrate the unlearning process in each organization (Cegarra‐Navarro et al, ; Klammer & Gueldenberg, ; Love et al, ; Wilbert et al, ). For each case, we summarize the organizational context related to unlearning and how unlearning has been implemented based on the three phases of the unlearning process: awareness, relinquishing, and relearning.…”

The New Role of Leaders and Leadership in 2030

“…If we want to create trust, if we're going to succeed, then we must start with ourselves. Self-leadership will become the most important capability in a digital economy because you have to manage processes of unlearning your old mindsets and learning new leadership skills (Klammer and Güldenberg 2019).…”