Investigating unlearning and forgetting in organizations

Abstract

Purpose Insight has grown that for an organization to learn and change successfully, forgetting and unlearning are required. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the relevant existing body of empirical research on forgetting and unlearning, to encourage research using a greater variety of methods and to contribute to a more complementary body of empirical work by using designs and instruments with a stronger reference to previous studies. Design/methodology/approach As the number of theoretical papers clearly exceeds the number of empirical papers, the present paper deals with the main insights based on the empirical state of research on unlearning and forgetting. So far, these empirical results have shown relationships between unlearning and other organizational outcomes such as innovation on an organizational level, but many of the other proposed relationships have not been investigated. The authors presents suggestion to apply a larger variety of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods in organizational research. Findings Unlearning and forgetting research can benefit both from more diverse theoretical questions addressed in research and from a more complementary body of empirical work that applies methods, designs and instruments that refer to previous research designs and results. To understand and manage unlearning and forgetting, empirical work should relate to and expand upon previous empirical work to form a more coherent understanding of empirical results. Originality/value The paper presents a variety of research designs and methods that can be applied within the research context of understanding the nature of organizational forgetting and unlearning. Additionally, it illustrates the potential for different methods, such as experience sampling methods, which capture the temporal aspects of forgetting and unlearning.

Two forms of organizational unlearning: Insights from engaged scholarship research with change consultants

“…This, in turn, can be enabled by interdisciplinary research approaches (Rousseau, 2011). Recent attempts to introduce psychological perspectives into the organizational unlearning research (Grisold et al, 2017; Klammer et al, 2019b; Kluge et al, 2019) highlight new research methods applicable to study knowledge loss in organizations. For example, Kluge et al (2019) suggest examining organizational unlearning processes through an experience sampling method wherein organizational actors report their thoughts, emotions, and perceived progress of the organizational unlearning process.…”

“…The latter refers to organizational routines and practices. It is important to note that many authors stress that organizations themselves cannot unlearn; the process is carried out by organizational actors (Brook et al, 2016; Grisold et al, 2017; Kluge et al, 2019). Zhao et al (2013) further support this idea, claiming that organizational unlearning unfolds at the team level and is realized on the individual level.…”

“…Grisold and Kaiser (2017) and Kluge and Gronau (2018) apply different psychological theories, arguing that organizational unlearning happens when actors refrain from enacting outdated knowledge over time. However, as Cegarra-Navarro and Wensley (2019: 3) stress, the utility of the concept is still “insufficiently clear.” Klammer and Gueldenberg (2019) and Kluge et al (2019) further highlight the lack of a common understanding, arguing that future research should clarify what organizational unlearning implies and how it can be measured.…”

Retentivity Beats prior Knowledge as Predictor for the Acquisition and Adaptation of New Production Processes

“…We see a great advantage in our rather complex experimental design especially in the sense of ecological validity, as we aimed for the most realistic production setting [75]. To our knowledge, there are no similar complex designs in the context of production Page 4802 process simulations available to compare our study with.…”

Guest editorial

“…We believe that their alternative can serve as a starting point for improving existing conceptualizations and developing more unambiguous definitions in future studies. In their article titled "Investigating unlearning and forgetting in organizations: Research methods, designs and implications", Kluge et al (2019) analyze and synthesize the existing body of research on organizational unlearning and forgetting. They find and address an imbalance between theoretical and empirical papers.…”