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Organizational Learning: A Socio-Cognitive Framework
Abstract
Organizational learning is a popular topic in business and academia and attracts many researchers and practitioners from different fields. Even though organizational learning scholarship is still growing, there are few studies that cross-fertilize social cognition and organizational learning. This investigation examines organizational learning from the perspective of social cognition. It is argued that social cognition explains the organizational learning process better by integrating fragmented studies on the processes of learning, and the study proposes that organizational learning is an outcome of reciprocal interactions of the processes of information/knowledge acquisition, information/knowledge dissemination, information/knowledge implementation, sensemaking, memory, thinking, unlearning, intelligence, improvisation, and emotions - connected by organizational culture. In addition, the implications of social cognition on organizational learning are discussed.
... According to Gupta et al. (2000), the term KM refers to the need to capture, collate, organise, process and transfer knowledge in support of organisational and prevent problems (Akgun et al., 2003;Wang and Ahmed, 2003), and triple loop learning (Wang and Ahmed, 2003), through which organisations 'learn to learn' or learn strategically, a mode of learning that is practiced by only the most mature organisations. Wang and Ahmed (2003) further emphasise that learning progresses more effectively once organisations recognise the value of organisation unlearning so that they do not wait for current concepts to fail-in-use. ...
... Many authors have discussed the intricacies of how learning takes place in organisations. Significant concepts include systems thinking as discussed by Senge (1992), social and cognitive interaction (Akgun et al., 2003), and individual, group and OL cycles that enable individual and collective conversion of emerging knowledge to be embedded in processes, systems and organisational culture (Sanchez, 2005). Lee and Roth (2007) are proponents of the emerging view that OL is not just the sum of the learning of individuals and groups, but it is its own form of learning. ...
... Finally, cognitive ability is a key OL need (Akgun et al., 2003), in order to effectively utilise learning tools, implement practices, maintain and improve processes and systems, and contribute within and influence the organisation's culture. ...
... In order to delve into new ventures' digital technology strategies from a learning perspective, drawing a line between digital technology learning (DTL) and digital technology search (DTS) is an important consideration. According to Nambisan [3], Akgün et al. [8], and Zollo and Winter [9], DTL focuses on "learning style," encompassing the cognitive and behavioral processes involved in acquiring and transferring digital technology-related knowledge and information. It underscores the importance for new ventures to delve into the fundamental logic and core attributes of digital technology. ...
... This startup primarily learns and exploits BDA from various sources such as experts, forums, users, and non-competitive entities in the same industry. Another example is a Chinese venture dedicated to providing Artificial Intelligence Internet of Things (AIoT) embedded system solutions 8 . To research and produce AIoT embedded software and hardware, this venture engages in technological exchanges and learning through various sources such as exhibitions, expos, conferences, experts, and enterprises from eco-industrial chains. ...
In an ever-evolving digital environment, mastering digital technology has emerged as a pivotal challenge for new ventures seeking growth and progress. By integrating organizational learning theory, organizational search literature, and digital entrepreneurship literature, this study investigates how new ventures configure their digital technology learning (DTL) strategies and digital technology search (DTS) strategies to promote their performance. A sample of 231 new ventures in China is analyzed to ascertain how the configuration of DTL and DTS strategies contributes to performance, particularly under the influence of digital environment support. The findings reveal that exploratory DTL based on DTS breadth is positively associated with new venture performance, and this relationship is strengthened by digital environment support. While exploratory DTL based on DTS depth exhibits a negative association with new venture performance, this negative relationship is mitigated by digital environment support. Furthermore, exploitative DTL based on DTS depth demonstrates a positive relationship with new venture performance, but this positive relationship remains unaffected by digital environment support. Unexpectedly, exploitative DTL based on DTS breadth exhibits a positive association with new venture performance, and this relationship is strengthened by digital environment support. In summary, this study offers a more nuanced comprehension of the technology strategy configurations of new ventures and advances the research on the relationship between digital technology and firm performance from a learning perspective.
... A wide range of organizational learning approaches/strategies has been discussed in the literature, including single-loop learning, double-loop learning, trial-and-error learning, proposed behavioral learning, cognitive learning, and collaborative learning (Argyris & Schon, 1997;Bartunek, 1984;Cohen & Levinthal, 1990;Garud & Nayyar, 1994;Li et al., 2022). Particularly, some studies proposed two organizational learning strategies: organizational relearning, which refers to the response that an organization adapts to new cognitive patterns, procedures, routines, beliefs, and new knowledge structures (Tabassum, 2008;Wang et al., 2017;Zhao et al., 2013), and organizational unlearning, which refers to the deliberate behavior allowing firms to identify, alter, and abandon useless and obsolete beliefs, knowledge, and routines (Akgü n et al., 2003;Zhao et al., 2013;Yang et al., 2014). A s such, organizational relearning involves the inflow of knowledge in organizations by generating new knowledge, whereas organizational unlearning involves the outflow of knowledge in organizations by abandoning outdated knowledge. ...
... Organizational relearning describes organizations seek to explore new cognitive patterns, procedures, routines, beliefs, and knowledge structures ( Tabassum, 2008;Wang et al., 2017), which will help organizations generate novel solutions for organizational tasks and therefore enhance organizational creativity (Dodgson, 1993;Zhao et al., 2013). Organizational unlearning describes that organizations challenge old rules and break routines by identifying, altering, and abandoning useless and obsolete beliefs and knowledge (Akgü n et al., 2003;Yang et al., 2014), which is necessary to nurture organizational creativity (Lozano, 2014;Lyu et al., 2020). Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that if organizational unlearning and organizational relearning are both high, i.e., the inflow and outflow of knowledge enable organizations to form a coherent and smooth knowledge flow, organizations are more likely to generate novel solutions and develop high organizational c reativity than they are both low. ...
Organizational creativity is important to the survival and success of organizations. How to stimulate organizational creativity is thus a highly relevant issue. In the digital era, more and more organizations are engaging in digitalization, which has been considered to have great potential in nurturing organizational creativity. However, we still lack theory-driven empirical inquiries into "black box" between digitalization and organizational creativity. Drawing upon organizational learning theory, we introduce organizational learning to understand how organizations adapt to digitalization to improve organizational creativity. Using 194 responses from managers and senior IT employees, the results of polynomial regression analysis uncover the effects of the congruence types, the effects of incongruence, and the effects of the incongruence types between organizational unlearning and organizational relearning on organizational creativity. Digitalization is also found to affect organizational unlearning and organizational relearning positively. Key findings and implications are also discussed.
... Risk of disruption of processes occurs in a volatile or turbulent environment when the new knowledge implementation-unlearning-improvisation interaction become dislocated, because either turbulence is absorbed into operations, there is a failure to operationalize new knowledge or information due to rigidity or inflexibility, or there is a lack of capacity for effective, agile improvisation to occur (Akgün et al., 2003(Akgün et al., , 2006(Akgün et al., , 2007. Thus, the antecedents, processes, and consequences of unlearning are of importance here (Akgün et al., 2006;Hislop et al., 2014). ...
... The case study demonstrates that organizational unlearning as a process of relinquishing ways of doing at the personal and organizational level in terms of personal and organizational cognitive processes and behaviors can potentially create risk. Unlearning as a process of strategic change (Akgün et al., 2003) and to underpin new product and service development (Akgün et al., 2007;Cegarra-Navarro et al., 2010) and to innovate with new ideas (Prahalad & Bettis, 1986) requires new practices within day-to-day operations. Akgün et al. (2007) consider this dynamic as a dual unlearning-improvisation interaction especially where planned activities or process fail to deliver when internal and/or external environments are highly turbulent or uncertain. ...
Strategically unlearning specific knowledge, behaviors, and practices facilitates product and process innovation, business model evolution, and new market opportunities and is essential to meet emergent supply chain and customer requirements. Indeed, addressing societal concerns such as climate change and net zero means elements of contemporary practice in food supply chains need to be unlearned to ensure new practices are adopted. However, unlearning is a risky process if crucial knowledge is lost, for example, if knowledge is situated in the supply base not the organization itself, or there is insufficient organizational food safety knowledge generation, curation, and management when new practices/processes are designed and implemented. An exploratory, critical review of management and food safety academic and gray literature is undertaken that aims to consider the cycle of unlearning, learning, and relearning in food organizations and supply chains with particular emphasis on organizational innovation, inertia, and the impact on food safety management systems and food safety performance. Findings demonstrate it is critical with food safety practices, such as duration date coding or refrigeration practices, that organizations “unlearn” in a way that does not increase organizational, food safety, or public health risk. This paper contributes to extant literature by highlighting the organizational vulnerabilities that can arise when strategically unlearning to promote sustainability in a food supply context. Mitigating such organizational, food safety, and public health risk means organizations must simultaneously drive unlearning, learning, and relearning as a dynamic integrated knowledge acquisition and management approach. The research implications are of value to academics, business managers, and wider industry.
... Furthermore, Yang et al. (2014) proposed that organizational learning includes forgetting old knowledge as well as changing beliefs and conventions within the organization. Finally, Sinkula (2002) and Akgün et al. (2003) argued that the essence of organizational unlearning is to change organizational beliefs and conventions. By contrast, Chinese research on organizational unlearning began relatively late, and, naturally, there has been little output. ...
... Unlearning is not simply a process of forgetting; it also involves renewing and replacing old conventions and ideas (Xi et al., 2020) or changing beliefs, norms, values, and procedures. These manifest as advancements in organizational concepts and conventions (Akgün et al., 2003). Unlearning behaviors are essential for product development activities at the organizational level (Buchen, 1999). ...
Product innovation integrates technology, knowledge, management practices, and market innovation, making it essential to gain a competitive advantage. Effective management of dynamic knowledge, which is the foundation of and driving force for product innovation, is a powerful tool that allows a firm to successfully innovate, adapt to environmental changes, and improve its competitiveness. In the “nanosecond age,” unlearning and learning in an organization is crucial to a firm’s ability to promptly update its organizational knowledge and maintain innovation vitality. Based on the dynamic knowledge management perspective, this study integrates and constructs a theoretical model with environmental dynamism as the moderating variable, discusses the impact of organizational unlearning on product innovation performance, and empirically analyzes 208 valid questionnaires in the Yangtze River Delta using the multiple regression method. The results show that organizational unlearning shares a positive relationship with dynamic capabilities and product innovation performance. Dynamic capability is positively related to product innovation performance and has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between organizational unlearning and product innovation performance. Environmental dynamism shares a positive moderating effect on the relationship between organizational unlearning and product innovation performance. This study deepens the existing research on the factors that influence product innovation performance, which may help firms improve their dynamic knowledge management and product innovation performance.
... Prior literature has recognized that organizational unlearning, defined as organizational practices to change or discard traditional or obsolete beliefs and routines within a firm (Akgün et al., 2003(Akgün et al., , 2006Tsang and Zahra, 2008), is a critical factor in renewing firms' knowledge base (Zhao et al., 2013). By changing or adjusting traditional mental models, cognitive structures and dominant logics, organizational unlearning enables firms to reduce their dependence on existing knowledge, overcome competency traps and improve performance (Fiol and O'Connor, 2017). ...
... With the rapid changes in the global business environment, such as the growing trend of globalization and the resultant organizational changes, an increasing number of scholars have paid attention to organizational unlearning (Becker, 2018;Hedberg, 1981;Wang et al., 2017), Organizational unlearning which has been characterized by conscious and deliberate changes in organizational beliefs and routines (Akgün et al., 2003(Akgün et al., , 2006Lyu et al., 2020;Tsang and Zahra, 2008). The importance of unlearning has been widely acknowledged in previous studies (Akgün et al., 2007b;Becker, 2018;Lyu et al., 2020;Wang et al., 2017;. ...
Purpose – Empirical results remain unclear as to whether organizational unlearning can improve radical innovation performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate how, and under which conditions, organizational unlearning influences firms’ radical innovation performance.
Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on the knowledge-based view, this study develops a theoretical model that hypothesizes a positive relationship between organizational unlearning and radical innovation performance, which is mediated by knowledge generation strategies. It also proposes that the impact of unlearning on knowledge generation strategies will be moderated by dysfunctional competition. Using survey data from191 Chinesemanufacturing firms, the hierarchical regressions were used to test the hypotheses.
Findings – The empirical results show that organizational unlearning not only impacts radical innovation performance directly, but also indirectly affects radical innovation performance through two distinct types of knowledge generation strategies: (internal) knowledge creation and (external) information searching. Moreover, dysfunctional
competition plays a dual role, strengthening the positive relationship between organizational unlearning and information search andweakening the positive relationship between organizational unlearning and knowledge creation.
Research limitations/implications – The present research broadens the understanding of how to promote radical innovation performance, which has great potential to improve the performance of firms on the market. Specifically, it deepens the knowledge of how organizational unlearning facilitates radical innovation performance by focusing on two distinct types of knowledge generation strategies as the crucial links, and enriches
existing literature on the effectiveness of organizational unlearning in a dysfunctional competitive environment.
Practical implications – Practicing organizational unlearning for firms’ long-term success requires firms to develop and implement appropriate knowledge generation strategies in accordance with the characteristics of market competition in their operating environment.
Originality/value – This study offers new insights into how and under what conditions organizational unlearning affects radical innovation performance, enhancing the understanding of how organizational unlearning can be implemented to drive firm radical innovation.
... A partir das contribuições seminais de Hedberg (1981) e Huber (1991), outros autores abordaram a questão da desaprendizagem organizacional, associando-a tanto à ideia de esquecimento de comportamentos e rotinas não que se mostram mais úteis à organização (Argote, 1999;Dodgson, 1993), quanto ao ato de remover ou eliminar conhecimentos, crenças, hábitos e rotinas para a aquisição de novos conhecimentos ou práticas (Akgün et al., 2007;Akgün, Lynn, & Byrne, 2003;Martin de Holan & Phillips, 2011;Navarro & Moya, 2005;Tsang & Zahra, 2008). ...
... Os resultados deste estudo contribuem para as discussões no âmbito dos estudos sobre desaprendizagem nas organizações, especificamente no que diz respeito ao desenvolvimento conceitual da ideia de desaprendizagem individual. Com base no entendimento de que são as pessoas quem detêm o papel de agentes de aprendizagem (Antonello & Godoy, 2011;Argyris, 1991;Crossan et al., 1995) considera-se, ainda, que os resultados deste trabalho trazem implicações para os estudos sobre a desaprendizagem em seu nível organizacional, dado que as definições de desaprendizagem organizacional tendem a considerar a eliminação ou remoção de conhecimento na organização (Akgün et al., 2003;Cegarra-Navarro & Moya, 2005;Hedberg, 1981). ...
Studies on unlearning have been overwhelmingly orientated towards the organizational level, at the expense of understanding the phenomenon on an individual level. One also observes that the definitions of individual unlearning are not derived from empirical elements, which contributes towards fragility and a conceptual misunderstanding that come to symbolize the theoretical development of unlearning in organizations. Thus, by means of a basic qualitative study the forms through which unlearning presents itself in the professional experience of learning managers was identified and analysed. The results show that the new learning led to changes in how individual knowledge is expressed, in that previous knowledge was not exactly modified in its content but more in the way it was articulated along with the new knowledge, for the formulation of interpretations by the individual. The individual unlearning is shown not as the discarding of values and assumptions, but as the acquisition of new information and behaviours that contribute to the desired change and performance improvement at the individual and organizational levels. This study contributed to discussions centralized around the conceptual development of the idea surrounding individual unlearning.
... Research focus on organizational learning can be grouped into three main themes: how defensive routines prevent learning (for example Adler & Zirger, 1998;Akgün, Lynn, & Byrne, 2003;Argyris & Schön, 1978), how changes in organization's routines affect future behaviour(for example Argote & Miron-Spektor, 2011;Bolman & Deal, 2003) and how characteristics of performance changed as a function of experience (for example Altman & Iles, 1998;Dutton, 2003;Ellinger, Ellinger, Yang, & Howton, 2002). From the three main themes of organizational learning, emerge six academic perspectives which have made significant contributions to understand Jurnal Sistem Informasi Manajemen dan Akuntansi Vol 13 No 2 November 2015, hal.67-83 ...
... Information flow and processing in organization as well as beneficial usage for whole organization are influenced by structural aspect of the organization (Hedberg (Hedberg & Wolff, 2003;Mavin & Cavaleri, 2004), 1981Mavin&Cavaleri, 2004). Hierarchies and the power differences are crucial determinants of how information is shared among organization members (Easterby-Smith & Lyles, 2005;Easterby-Smith, Snell, & Gherardi, 1998;Hong, Easterby-Smith, & Snell, 2006).In addition, sociology and organization theory suggest that organizational learning means different things and operates in different ways according to the nature of the organization (Akgün et al., 2003;Kontoghiorghes, Awbre, & Feurig, 2005;Schulz, 2008;Schulz, 2001). Shrivastava(1983) demonstrated how different organizational structures and cultures lead to distinct learning processes. ...
Many academics and practitioners have proposed that organizational learning as process of continuous knowledge acquisition, dissemination and exploitation may lead to competitiveness of an organization. The paper is intended to explore literature on the field. An extensive literature of organizational learning was reviewed. The results reveale that organizational learning is a prerequisite to success in the fierce business competition and determine sustainability of a business organization. It is recommended to investigate the field empirically.
... Garvin (1993) highlighted that businesses able to master the art of learning can gain a significant competitive advantage. This notion is further supported by the work of Akgün et al. (2003) who found a positive correlation between organizational learning and firm adaptability. In conclusion, the readiness for change involves considering both individual and organizational factors. ...
Change in business organizations often leads to suffering individuals. For organizations it remains difficult to find guidance on how to reduce this pain. Readiness for Change (RfC) in business contexts is a topic that is been gaining importance during the last decade, thus the purpose of this paper is to provide a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) on this topic, by collecting and listing all antecedents of RfC. Starting with data collected from the Web of Science, a search protocol, validated by two independent researchers, is applied. This procedure returned 79 articles which are analyzed per year, journal, author, country, and area. The review articles are exported to NVivo for full content analysis and coding. This article presents a structured categorization of the published reviewed papers and an overview of all antecedents of RfC. It also includes empirical evidence on the state-of-the-art in RfC including a list of antecedents of change. One key antecedent of RfC recognized is knowledge transfer. This work has policy-setting implications for understanding the RfC process and its antecedents. It can also help organizations prepare, anticipate, and minimize the impact of negative organizational change.
... Modified or new mental models used in sensemaking provide critical and pertinent inputs and a means of learning (Chermack, 2005). Because sensemaking activities provide meaning to the internal and external information collected by individuals and teams, they prompt a change in the state of knowledge and, thus, learning (Akgün et al., 2003;Rosa et al., 2021). This enables the systematic exploration of a new BM and flexibly aligns it with the underlying opportunities, needs, and requirements (Mezger, 2014). ...
Foresight is fundamental to strategy scholarship and can affect organizational outcomes such as innovation. However, few attempts have been made to link foresight with business model innovation (BMI). Therefore, it remains empirically unclear whether and through which mechanisms strategic foresight influences BMI development. To address these shortcomings, this study analyzes the direct effect of strategic foresight on BMI and the mediating effects of sensemaking and learning. The data were derived from surveying a sample of senior managers at 146 Finnish organizations (both large firms and SMEs) and the analysis was conducted by applying structural equation modeling. The findings provide evidence of a direct association between strategic foresight and BMI and suggest a partial mediating effect of learning and, more importantly, sequential mediating effects of sensemaking and learning. This study offers valuable insights into the relationships among BMI, strategic foresight , sensemaking, and learning. It enriches theory and practice by providing empirical support for the direct effect of strategic foresight on BMI, uncovering the multifaceted roles of the mechanisms that influence BMI, and proposing a model that could help managers handle barriers to BMI robustly and systematically.
... From a stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) paradigmatic angle [8], tourist attitudes, behaviors, experiences, and their trip pattern decisions can be influenced by the stimulus offered by the attraction sites and the journey, as well as the personal motives, expectation and religious beliefs, and faiths. As such, the S-O-R phenomenon shares the socio-cognitive theory of learning [9] in the aspects that the tourists subject themselves consciously [6] to information processing on personal matters and about their encounters. Thus, the study of spirituality-oriented tourism is worthy of a systematic and cross-disciplinary effort. ...
The extant literature demonstrates a gap in topics relating to spiritual and pilgrimage tourism in the domain of "tourist experience". This study fills the gap based on a stimulus-organism-response (S-OR) framework and highlights the spiritual experience as the domain of stimulus. The organism construct, which states the tourists' inner states of perceptions, cognition and affection towards the stimulation, is represented by an overall image, the significance of experiences, and life satisfaction. The response examines the revisit intention of tourists. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed based on 170 valid data sets, and the results support the significant functions of both cognitive and affective tourist experiences in contributing to the formation of positive tourist impressions in spirituality-oriented tours.
... Higgins (2000) conceptualizes the interdependency of social cognition and learning ability. Akgün et al. (2003) developed an OL model to emphasize the importance of social cognition. Social cognition facilitates the adaption to the unfamiliar changes and makes use of cognitive change structures to identify strategic actions, leading to organizational learning capabilities (Barr, 1998;Barr et al., 1992). ...
A series of recent studies have theoretically articulated the importance of organizational learning in formulating and implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies. Yet, there is dearth of empirical investigations to examine the relevance of learning regarding the link between CSR strategy implementation and organizational performance. This research fills this gap. In so doing, it does not only investigate the direct link between CSR strategy implementation and firm performance but also examines the facilitatory role of organizational learning for the above-stated relationship. These relationships were examined by collecting data from the CSR strategists including CEOs, CSR committee members, designated officials, and human resource managers of the leading organizations of Pakistan. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on 391 responses. For the confirmatory factor analysis and partial least squares structural equation modeling, the final sample size consisted of 269 respondents. The results of this study have shown positive and direct relationship for CSR strategy implementation and organizational performance. With respect to the organizational learning, this study has found that learning has been an important underlying mechanism for the link between CSR strategy implementation and organizational performance. Moreover, this finding adds to the existing but limited empirical evidence regarding the pertinence of organizational learning in contemporary organizations. Our findings imply that CSR enablers and managers should devote attention and resources to develop appropriate organizational learning mechanisms to facilitate the implementation of their intended CSR strategies so that organizations can sustain their competitive advantages.
... Organizational learning There are three main approaches to OL as cognitive, behavioral and social approaches (Easterby- Smith and Lyles, 2011). According to the cognitive approach, OL is defined by changes in the cognition of individuals in organizations and is characterized by the human information-processing process that includes information acquisition, forming, storage, processing, extraction and application (Akgün et al., 2003). According to the behavioral approach, organizations learn by drawing lessons from their past experiences and transforming these lessons into routines that guide their behavior. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the mediation role of intentional organizational forgetting in the relationship between organizational learning and innovation management according to faculty members’ opinions.
Design/methodology/approach
Research was designed as a relational survey model. The population of the study consisted of faculty members who work at X University, Y University and Z University during 2019–2020 academic year. The sample consisted of 524 faculty members who were selected by using stratified sample technique from the population. Data of the study was collected with organizational learning scale, organizational forgetting scale and innovation management scale. In the analysis of the research data, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, structural equation modeling and bootstrapping method were applied.
Findings
According to the results of the study, it was found statistically meaningful and positive relationships between organizational learning, innovation management and intentional forgetting in higher education institutions with respect to faculty members’ opinions. Moreover, according to the results of structural equation modeling, it was found that intentional forgetting had a partial mediating effect in the relationship between organizational learning and innovation management. Finally, according to the results of bootstrapping analysis, indirect effects were found to be significant.
Originality/value
Based on research results, it may be recommended for practitioners that higher education institutions implement both organizational learning processes and intentional forgetting processes effectively at the same time to become a more innovative organization.
... The dominant view in the literature is that knowledge transfer is accomplished through instructions and/or socially constructed practices; framed by the belief that texts and practices carry with them the codes necessary for their own decoding and therefore enable an unproblematic knowledge transfer (Ringberg & Reihlen, 2008). Accordingly, knowledge transfer is an outcome of reciprocal interactions of the processes of information/knowledge acquisition, information/ knowledge dissemination, information/knowledge implementation, sense-making, memory, thinking, unlearning, intelligence, improvisation and emotionsconnected by organisational culture (Akgün et al., 2016). Therefore, decoding information into meaningful knowledge is mediated by the individual's interpretation and by the cultural context, created from their cognitive dispositions (i.e., acumen, memory, creativity, volitions, emotions) and socio-cultural interaction (Ringberg & Reihlen, 2008). ...
Set in a French higher education context, this paper contributes to the knowledge management literature by arguing that the digital transformation of knowledge transfer via distance learning includes negative outcomes, in addition to many benefits. Based on quantitative and qualitative data, via an online survey from learners and instructors, our findings show that while online modes of delivery are convenient and cost-effective, they overlook many aspects that enable users to engage in knowledge transfer.
... According to Easterby et al. [30], the knowledge-absorptive capacity includes externalknowledge acquisition and internal-knowledge learning, which correspond to knowledge management [31,32] and organizational learning [33,34], respectively. Moreover, these two dimensions jointly promote knowledge-innovation activities and improve enterprise performances. ...
Under open innovation, the position of the innovation subject in the knowledge network plays a vital role. The purpose of this paper was to identify the role of structural holes in the relationship between the knowledge-absorption capacity and the innovation performance. Previous studies have ignored the role of structural holes in this relationship. Moreover, there are differences between structural-hole theory and weak-relationship theory on the mechanism of the network location on the innovation performance. A hierarchical regression model was applied to test the hypothesis. The findings from a study of 74 Chinese-listed integrated-circuit companies confirm the positive effect that the absorptive capacity has on the innovation performance, as well as the moderating role of structural holes in this relationship. By benefiting from the advantages of information and control, structural-hole spanners often have stronger knowledge-absorption abilities, and they thus achieve higher innovation performances. The results suggest that the synergy of structural holes should be taken seriously by those enterprises that are trying to strengthen their knowledge-absorption abilities to improve their innovation performances.
... Learning processes are guided by different activities and focused on interaction between stakeholders and the learning outcome is related to both practical solutions to sustainability, as well as to the connection with a general understanding of the environment and different ways of living more sustainably. (Crossan et al., 1999) and depends on the created environmental environments in which learning takes place, within organizational structures and social systems (Akgün et al. , 2003;Stein, 1997). Individual learning depends on an environment in which information is easily accessible and requires contact with multiple sources, such as peers and social networks (Stagl, 2007). ...
Tourism in biosphere reserves is recognized as a method of providing a way to develop small and locally anchored tourism based on natural values, with the ambition to minimize negative environmental impacts, as a way to encourage nature and local community engagement in sustainable ways and enable learning to achieve sustainability. This thesis represents the literature review on sustainable tourism. It defines the term biosphere reserves and the basic characteristics of sustainable tourism. The natural and social characteristics of the researched area are presented, the case study, the number of visitors and accommodation capacities of Bačko Podunavlje are described. Then, all three functions of the "Backo Podunavlje" Biosphere Reserve have been explained. In the methodological part, the tools, procedures, and sample surveys, together with working hypotheses related to primary research - attitudes of the local population, and then research methods for secondary research - analysis of Danube water quality, are presented. Throughout the results and discussion, the hypotheses are confirmed, partially confirmed or refuted, using statistical calculations and other methods of testing. On the other hand, in the conclusion of the paper, a scientific and practical contribution to the theory and field studies, as well as the limitations of the research have been shown. Also, ideas and proposals for future research and practical advice are presented, which aim to suggest and motivate the initiation of changes that can lead to the sustainable tourism development of the Bačko Podunavlje Biosphere Reserve.
... Guided by socio-cognitive theories of learning (e.g., Akgün et al., 2003;Langfield-642 Smith, 1992), multicomponent interventions likely to enhance SMM via active strategies that 643 directly elicit or shape the content and structure of knowledge held by individual members 644 and how that knowledge is communicated between members, relative to interventions that 645 address only one of these elements in isolation (e.g., how knowledge of taskwork and 646 teamwork is communicated rather than the content and structure). Team training, for individual members are organised and integrated to achieve shared goals 655 Taggar & Ellis, 2007). ...
Having everyone on the “same page” in teams working toward a common objective is essential to effective teamwork, yet an integrative understanding of factors that enhance these shared mentalmodels (SMM) is absent fromthe evidence base.Weaddressed this gap in the literature via a prospectively registered (https://bit.ly/2I7zJzz) systematic review of five databases to identify eligible studies and statistically synthesize evidence from 36 lab or field experiments (131 effect sizes, Nparticipants = 6,209, Nteams = 1,912) that tested the effectiveness of team development interventions (TDI) for enhancing SMM among adults where participants were randomized to experimental groups. Via a three-level random effects meta-analysis, we found a positive and significant medium-to-large overall effect of TDI on SMM, g = .61, 95% CI [.41, .82]; sensitivity and meta-bias analyses (e.g., risk of bias, Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations [GRADE] assessment) generally supported the robustness of this overall effect. Moderator analyses indicated that outcome assessmentmethodmeaningfully altered the overall pooled effect, with stronger effects observed when outcomes were researcher-assessed. Nevertheless, our assessment indicated low certainty in the quality of the evidence and “noisiness” in the overall estimate (i.e., prediction interval of −0.66 and 1.89). Overall, this study contributes new knowledge on the antecedents of SMM that can inform theory regarding the nomological network of this concept, as well as methodological insights that can improve the evidence-base in future work.
... Cluster 3 mainly deals with unlearning learning rigidities. The articles in this cluster include Nystrom and Starbuck (1984), Levitt and March (1988), Klein (1989), Starbuck (1996), Akgün et al. (2003), Becker et al. (2006), and Becker (2008). Undoubtedly, OL is critical to sustaining competitive advantage (Argyris and Schön 1996). ...
Unlearning has evinced immense traction and opportunity in debates pertaining to organizational learning, innovation, management of change, knowledge management, and new product development, to name but a few. Provided the diversity and expansiveness of the phenomenon, past studies have undertaken both narrative and systematic reviews to synthesize the field of organizational unlearning (OU). Although highly commendable and enlightening, these scholarly efforts would be augmented by contemplating the share of leading management journals towards furthering the research on unlearning. Moreover, a systematic comprehension of the research themes of OU can be instrumental in representing the intellectual structure of the field. For this purpose, we undertake a combination of bibliometric and thematic analysis to identify critical trends that have helped shape unlearning research. The results discern the main scientific actors (articles, authors, journals, universities), research design, and dimensions of OU. In addition, eight clusters of unlearning along with underlying theoretical perspectives are analyzed, which may help scholars integrate the development of one domain to another, formulate pertinent research questions related to OU, and encourage interdisciplinary research.
... However, Sakhdari [37] highlighted the great scarcity of theories analysing how organisational mechanisms can affect different aspects of ACAP. The focus of this study was on what ACAP predicts, and it is related to fields such as dynamic capability [38,39], organisational learning [40,41] and knowledge management [42,43]. ...
The purpose of this study was to understand how proactivity can affect the relationship between absorptive capacity and organisational performance. Most previous studies have ignored the role of proactivity in this relationship and have not considered the multidimensional nature of absorptive capacity. A questionnaire was sent to 800 CEOs of Spanish companies from different sectors, procuring a response rate of 38.25%. A structural equation model was applied to test the hypothesis. This study confirms the positive effect that absorptive capacity has on business performance and the moderating role of proactivity in this relationship. Companies that develop their capacity to absorb information from the environment achieve better results. Furthermore, if they engage in proactive behaviour within their company, this relationship is stronger. Future research should include more capacities that are related to knowledge and business performance (i.e., learning capability, innovation capacity, etc.). This study contributes to the understanding of how to manage a company’s knowledge in an appropriate way. It sheds new light on how knowledge management should be conducted, emphasising not only the gathering of information but also the promotion of a proactive attitude on the part of employees to achieve the goal of better performance.
... Second, top decision makers with an innovative cognitive style may have a greater willingness to unlearn outdated or useless information (Lowik et al., 2017). Unlearning, which refers to discarding information (Akgun et al., 2003), has been described as an important element of AC because when firms unlearn prior information, they may more readily assimilate new information as well as develop new products or other operational methods (Wensley and Navarro, 2015). Unlearning can be especially critical when the information firms acquire new information that contradicts or is widely divergent from firms' existing knowledge -to be able to use this information, firms must be willing to abandon old ideas (Cepeda-Carrion et al., 2012). ...
Despite scholars’ early emphasis on the role people play in fostering firms’ absorptive capacity (AC), research has not deeply explored the individual-level antecedents of this important capability. We draw on adaptive-innovative theory to explain how top decision makers’ cognitive styles can influence the degree to which their firms develop AC. Top decision makers who have high adaptive cognitive style prefer to adhere to existing norms, follow established procedures, and rely on current knowledge, and we argue that these attributes will strengthen those dimensions of AC based on firms’ existing knowledge and knowledge-assimilation abilities. Top decision makers who have high innovative cognitive style are more likely to reframe information, experiment with new problem-solving approaches, and take risks by violating norms, and we argue that these attributes may strengthen those dimensions of AC based on firms’ acquisition of new knowledge and the assimilation of knowledge throughout the firm. We also argue that gender differences may moderate these effects. Empirical results support our hypotheses.
... The Indian apparel industry is the context for this study. As with any socially constructed entity, an Indian supplier firm's external and internal interactions emerge collectively as the summation of every individual's cognitive attitudes, task characteristics, and leadership behaviors (Emery and Trist, 1965;Walsh, 1995;Bolino et al., 2002;Akgün et al., 2003). However, this study's unit of analysis is the individual practitioner having an influential role in SCC strategy and implementation. ...
Consumers expect global apparel suppliers to adhere to strict social sustainability standards following several deadly noncompliance incidents. This study provides a unique contribution to social sustainability governance by utilizing a causal-effect analysis to classify noncompliance antecedents into causal and effect groups and analyze the interactions. Combining a structured Delphi technique, involving thirty senior manufacturing professionals in the Indian apparel sector, with a fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory method (DEMATEL) revealed specific antecedents related to the adherence to social sustainability standards. The most influential antecedents identified were manufacturing cluster behavior, stringent regulations, multiple standards, business continuity, and buyer preference. Notably, the study theorizes that a supplier’s compliance deliberations intertwine with operational considerations around business volumes, costs, inappropriate governance, and regional cultural norms. Stakeholder theory and the theory of reasoned action help explain the institutional logics underlying the interactions between antecedents and highlight the crucial need for local production hubs to adopt universal social compliance codes. To our knowledge, this research is the first to identify manufacturing cluster behavior as a leading cause of noncompliance, highlighting the need to recognize clusters as essential stakeholders. The study has notable implications for brands, suppliers, governments, manufacturing councils, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that call for coordinated action and new forms of governance to minimize the incidences of noncompliance by apparel suppliers.
... Group Unlearning: Akgün, Lynn, and Byrne (2003) assessed group unlearning as a process of altering the beliefs, norms, values and routines of the group. Cegarra-Navarro and Rodrigo-Moya (2005) stated that unlearning at group level subsists of three stages: knowledge disintegration, knowledge sharing, and elimination of knowledge. ...
In the literature, the subject of unlearning is discussed less than organisational learning and learning organisation. Thinking the dynamics of today’s economy and the business world, having an unlearning ability is especially important for firms that focus on innovation and sustainable development. This research aims to explore the process of unlearning in an innovative company with a high capability of R&D, to determine the type of unlearning and its antecedents affecting the unlearning process, and also to find the positive outcomes of unlearning for the company and to establish a model as a result of these findings. In line with the purpose of the research, this investigation was undertaken by using the case study method and doing semi-structured interviews with company officials in an R&D company that offers advanced technological products and services to the defence, environment and energy industries in Turkey. According to the research findings, it is seen that company A can unlearn and the processes related to unlearning. When the findings obtained in terms of the unlearning process and its sub-dimensions are combined, it is noteworthy that the company sees unlearning at the centre of development and improvement. A model was proposed through the findings.
The literature generally supports the linear effect of cross-border acquisition (CBA) experience on subsequent CBA behaviour. We draw from the extended organisational learning perspective to propose an S-shaped relationship between CBA experience and subsequent CBAs. We hypothesise that the number of CBAs decreases at a low level of CBA experience, increases at a moderate level of CBA experience, and decreases again at a high level of CBA experience. Based on a sample of 1675 observations from 205 Indian MNEs, we find support for our hypothesis. Our findings contribute to the CBA literature, specifically in the context of emerging economy multinational enterprises.
The paper exhibits a reasonable system with regards to Knowledge Management (KM) in Business Schools (B-schools) in India. We trust that if the system is embraced in business colleges, it will yield more advantages to expand the nature of information sharing. There has been surely an outlook change in administration training in India. The new type of administration experts should be productive to handle issues from cross practical, social and moral points of view and outfitted with aptitudes to seat mark for worldwide authority positions. There has been a crying need to introduce a quality development and to benchmark the same with world models. We have made an endeavor to bolster our structure by breaking down one of the Knowledge Management apparatuses that was executed in India's Test Institute of Management (TIM), (a pen name given to cover the organization's name). This paper concentrates on the information administration instrument and elements that are actualized in TIM and a few issues that impeded learning administration hones at TIM. Presentation: Information administration is the control of empowering people, groups and whole associations to all things considered and efficiently make, share and apply learning to better accomplish their goals. KM conveys extraordinary joint effort to boost the estimation of hierarchical data and information resources prompting enhanced viability and more prominent advancement. [22] characterizes learning as "the bits of knowledge, understandings and the reasonable expertise that we as a whole have". [15, 21, 24] distinguished two sorts of learning-implied and unequivocal. Implied learning is the type of information that is intuitively comprehended and connected. Implicit information is exceedingly customized, increased through experience and impacted by convictions, points of view and estimations of the people. It is hard to arrange and dwells in the psyches of the general population having it. It is generally shared through exceptionally intelligent discussion and shared encounters. Unequivocal learning, then again, is anything but difficult to eloquent, catch and appropriate in various configurations. It is formal and methodical [13]. Express learning can be archived and effectively conveyed. This information is less demanding to share and use over the association. Learning administration frameworks are utilized by associations to meet the authoritative targets of enhanced execution, upper hand, experience exchange and the improvement of community practices. [5] characterizes learning administration as the "recognizable proof, development and successful utilization of an association's basic information". Information administration is "the precise, all encompassing way to deal with the practical change of the treatment of learning on all levels of an association" [6]. As indicated by [13], learning administration is the way toward distinguishing, developing and adequately applying an association's current information with a specific end goal to accomplish the association's objectives, while making an authoritative society that grants further learning creation. From these and different perspectives about information administration it is induced that a decent learning administration framework ought to be incorporated into the day by day schedules of the general population empowering a persistent information stream in the association. A learning administration framework depends on catching, putting away, changing and sharing the hierarchical information. Data innovation (IT) is a key empowering agent for KM frameworks and encourages the catch, stockpiling, change and dispersal of information. Administration training foundations make information amid their scholastic and authoritative procedures. Learning is made as express information as reports, strategies, results and additionally unsaid information as encounters, judgements, perspectives and observations that dwells with people. The test is the way to make accessible to the establishment this express and inferred information as an incorporated focal asset. Catching and making the institutional information accessible will guarantee progression and will quicken institutional learning [16]. Actually, most HEIs face the troublesome errand of coordinating their institutional information for enhanced learning sharing and compelling basic leadership. Learning is made at different levels in various structures and is required at every level in an alternate structure. Scholarly and managerial procedures of instructing, examination, assessment, affirmations, advising, preparing and situation and exploration and consultancy result in numerous valuable encounters and studies which might be characterized as learning with regards to administration instructive foundations [18]. KM in administration instructive organizations goes for incorporating the learning delivered at all levels and utilizing it towards the foundation's objectives and targets.
Bu çalışmada kurumsal duygusal hafıza, kurumsal itibar ve bilgi paylaşımı konuları ele alınmıştır. Çalışmanın amacı kurumsal duygusal hafızanın (duygusal deneyim seviyesi, duygusal deneyim depolaması, duygusal deneyim yayılımı) kurumsal itibar üzerindeki etkisini incelemektir. Çalışmanın diğer amacı kurumsal duygusal hafızanın (duygusal deneyim seviyesi, duygusal deneyim depolaması, duygusal deneyim yayılımı) kurumsal itibar üzerine etkisinde bilgi paylaşımının (örtük bilgi paylaşımı, açık bilgi paylaşımı) aracılık rolünü test etmektir. Çalışmada, nicel araştırma yönteminden faydalanılmıştır. Veri toplama tekniği olarak anket formu kullanılmıştır. Çalışmanın örneklemini, tekstil işletmelerinde çalışan 331 idari personel meydana getirmiştir. Verileri analiz etmek için SPSS 24.0 yazılım programından faydalanılmıştır. Aracı değişken etkisinin analizinde, Hayes (2013)’in Process Macro SPSS eklentisinden yararlanılmıştır. Veriler frekans analizi, faktör analizi, güvenirlik analizi, korelasyon analizi ve regresyon analiziyle test edilmiştir. Çalışmanın hipotez testi sonuçlarına göre; duygusal deneyim seviyesinin, duygusal deneyim depolamasının, duygusal deneyim yayılımının kurumsal itibarı pozitif yönde etkilediği tespit edilmiştir. Duygusal deneyim seviyesinin, duygusal deneyim depolamasının, duygusal deneyim yayılımının örtük bilgi paylaşımını ve açık bilgi paylaşımını pozitif yönde etkilediği saptanmıştır. Duygusal deneyim seviyesinin, duygusal deneyim depolamasının, duygusal deneyim yayılımının kurumsal itibara pozitif yönde etkisinde bilgi paylaşımının kısmi aracılık rolü bulunduğu belirlenmiştir.
Purpose
Although scaling is considered a “hot topic”, very little is known about how knowledge management (KM) assists in scaling social impact. To fill this gap, the authors draw on knowledge-based and social capital theories and investigate how various KM practices and external networks (e.g. bridging social capital) affect scaling social impact in developing countries.
Design/methodology/approach
Applying structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS version 23, the authors conducted a survey with 354 women leaders who are working in women-led social enterprises in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Findings
The authors found that knowledge codification, training and mentoring, and bridging social capital are positively and significantly associated with scaling social impact.
Originality/value
This is one of the pioneering study that explore how KM impacts scaling social impact for women-led social enterprises in the context of a developing country. The authors also extend knowledge-based theory by applying it at the individual level. Finally, the authors enhance the understanding of women entrepreneurship by showing that women entrepreneurs in developing countries are also utilizing bridging social capital to overcome challenges associated with scaling social impact.
Die Themen WissensmanagementWissenWissensmanagementManagementWissensmanagement und Organisationales LernenLernenorganisationalesOrganisationorganisationales Lernen haben eine enge Beziehung zueinander und beide gemeinsam sind es, welche in der strategischen Betrachtung berücksichtigt werden sollten, damit eine StrategieStrategie vollumfänglich und effizient umgesetzt werden kann. Ausgehend von der schnellen Veränderbarkeit von WissenWissen in OrganisationOrganisationen und sogar dem Aspekt, dass WissenWissen veraltet sein kann, müssen OrganisationOrganisationen agil aufgestellt sein und dementsprechend agieren. Dies beeinflusst sowohl die Art und Weise als auch die Geschwindigkeit des Organisationalen LernenLernenorganisationalesOrganisationorganisationales Lernens. Die Zielgruppe sind hierbei Erwachsene, welche ganz bestimmte Anforderungen und Erwartungen an LernenLernen und LehrenLehreLehren besitzen und dementsprechend müssen LernszenariLernenLernszenarioenLernenLernszenario ausgearbeitet werden. Es gibt viele unterschiedliche Arten, wie man LernenLernen kann und diesen Aspekt kann man nutzen, um unterschiedlichen LerntypLernenLerntypen WissenWissen effizient zu vermitteln. Es braucht nicht nur den Willen der Lernenden, LernenLernen zu wollen, sondern auch der Bereitschaft der OrganisationOrganisation, LernenLernen zu fördern und eine LernkulturLernenLernkulturKulturLernkultur zuzulassen.
Ausgehend von den theoretischen Paradigmen ist ableitbar, dass das ManagementManagement von WissenWissen einen besonders wichtigen Aspekt darstellt, damit diese RessourceRessource auf strategischer Ebene genutzt werden kann. Es müssen unterschiedliche Voraussetzungen zugelassen und geschaffen werden, damit WissenWissen entstehen, verteilt, genutzt, etc. werden kann. Ein besonderes Instrument stellt die WissensbilanzWissenWissensbilanz dar, welche ein „Inventar“ darstellt, in welchem der Bestand an wissensbasierten RessourceRessourcewissensbasierteWissenwissensbasierte Ressourcen strukturiert zusammengefasst wird. Dies ermöglicht das Erkennen von Defiziten und damit (quantitativ und qualitativ) jene Anküpfungspunkte, welche vom ManagementManagement optimiert werden können. Sie stellt demnach die wichtige Basis dar, damit eine strategische Ausrichtung nach dem KBV umgesetzt werden kann. Die optimierte Umsetzung der StrategieStrategie erfolgt dann unter Berücksichtigung von unterschiedlichen Aspekten des WissensmanagementWissenWissensmanagementManagementWissensmanagement, welche zu einem erfolgreichen Transfer von WissenWissen zwischen Individuen und Gruppen führen, sodass die Grundlage für eine lernende OrganisationLernenlernende OrganisationOrganisation geschaffen werden kann.
This study demonstrates how humanized, work processes generate measurable knowledge for the organization. However, because knowledge naturally defies operationalization, this study employed a reification methodology towards giving it some concrete property. With this, the paper explored the complementary relationship among the heterogeneous knowledge resources to develop a “KonCapExp” model for measuring organizational knowledge. The findings thus reveal that there are socio-technical interactions among the organizational work elements (workers, tools, and tasks, tangible resources). And that through socio-technical interactions, organizations create, not only visible goods and services, but also measurable knowledge. Also, the study revealed that the measurable, complementary, knowledge resources exhibit an associative relationship that portends higher-order value for stakeholders. The paper, therefore, advocates that knowledge be operationalized using practice-friendly absorptive capacity and competence constructs.
Purpose
Industry and academia are interested to understand how companies develop alliance capabilities through managing the knowledge, for alliance success. This study aims to investigate how alliance learning process is related to the overall success of any alliance, and how openness culture moderates the relationship of alliance learning process and alliance success.
Design/methodology/approach
English language questionnaires were sent to top executives of 400 companies because English is a commonly understood language at managerial level in Pakistani companies. In total, 186 usable answers were received. Hierarchical linear regression was used for hypothesis testing.
Findings
Alliance learning is significantly and positively related to alliance success. Openness plays a role as moderator between the relationship of alliance learning process and alliance success. Contrary to the literature, at low level of alliance learning, high level of openness increases the chances of alliance but as we move toward high level of alliance leaning, low level of openness is more effective to achieve the alliance success.
Research limitations/implications
The data in this study was collected from Pakistan. The results may not be generalized to other regions, especially to developed countries.
Practical implications
The results have implications for managers involved in alliances. They can be benefitted by this study to understand the role of alliance (knowledge) learning process on alliance success and contingent role of openness on this relationship.
Originality/value
This study is an important contribution to understand the notion of organizational learning and knowledge management in alliance context. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate openness as a moderator of the relationship between alliance learning process and alliance success.
Purpose
This research aims to bridge the gap in the literature by developing a model to investigate individual work performance (IWP) within small and medium enterprises (SMEs) using soft organizational memory (OM) and additionally aims to test the role of learning and growth (LG) as a mediator in this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey was developed and adopted from previous studies and distributed to a sample of 320 employees from middle and bottom management levels in Jordanian SMEs. Data were collected and analyzed to test the proposed model employing structural equation modeling (SEM) through AMOS23.
Findings
The study finds that soft-OM positively and directly impacts IWP and LG. Besides, the results show that LG directly affect IWP. Surprisingly, LG mediate the relationship between soft-OM and IWP within SMEs.
Practical implications
Establishing a store for internal knowledge in such a progressively active environment is probably inadequate; however, knowledge needs to go beyond that among the firm and external structures such as clients, business allies and education and research organizations. This, in turn, will allow building streams of knowledge, consequently attaining an adequate level of performance.
Originality/value
The originality of the current study departs from the fact that stock and flow of knowledge are different. The knowledge stock is the collection of human capital that an organization's employees retain, such as employees' knowledge, capabilities and skills. In contrast, the flow of knowledge expresses the practices that allow the transfer of competence and experience across time, geography and organizations. The current research findings propose that the decomposed approach helps understand the multifaceted associations represented in the knowledge management (KM)–performance linkage that cannot be speculated utilizing a complex model.
Error management culture (EMC) has received a significant interest in the service management literature. However, there remains a lack of studies investigating the underlying mechanisms (mediating variables) where EMC affects service innovation within the boundary condition of its moderating variables. This study investigates how EMC influences service innovation through organizational learning capability (OLC) and organizational resilience mechanisms. In addition, this study empirically examines the moderating role of error frequency on the relationship between EMC and OLC and organizational resilience. By investigating 300 service firms, this study empirically reveals that (a) EMC positively relates to OLC and organizational resilience; (b) OLC positively relates to organizational resilience; and (c) OLC plays a mediating role in the relationship between EMC and service innovation. This study also demonstrates that error frequency weakens the relationship between EMC and OLC in service firms.
Purpose
The purpose of this conceptual paper is to provide a foundation for human resource development (HRD) scholars in attempts to devise mechanisms for establishing and facilitating actionable pathways through which unlearning can be acknowledged and serve as a contributing agent for HRD interventions. This paper concludes with a call to action for our HRD colleagues to join us in further examination of unlearning interventions within the organizational context.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper narratively details the literature associated with the myriad social science domains that have investigated the unlearning process. Additionally, a cross-disciplinary literature review provides the basis for an operational definition of unlearning provided herein.
Findings
The field of HRD is devoted to creating learning organizations as well as utilizing change initiatives to develop organizations. However, unlearning has been largely ignored within the field of HRD.
Originality/value
The first contribution is by answering the call of scholars across varied disciplines to further investigate unlearning within the organizational context (Bettis and Prahalad, 1995; Hedberg, 1981; Nystrom and Starbuck, 1984). Additionally, this paper seeks to specifically address the role that unlearning holds within the field of HRD as it builds upon the definition provided by Wang et al. (2017) and offers its own operational definition. Finally, this paper provides the only known review of cross-disciplinary research pertaining to unlearning.
Luxury brand consumption has remained strong even in countries with recessions. This study explores the role of personal factors, socio-cognitive factors, and potential marketing forces, in driving consumers' luxury purchase intentions in a market that is struggling to recover from a recession-Greece. Data were collected using a self-administered survey via an online panel. The results indicate that consumers' need to escape and impulsiveness are positively associated with luxury brand purchase intentions in a recession. Sales promotions moderate the relationship between escape, self-expression, and luxury brand purchase intentions. Consumers' perceptions about the recession effect on society also moderate the relationship between escape, self-expression, social status, and luxury brand purchase intentions. This study contributes to the literature and practice of luxury branding in recession by identifying the interplay between various personal, social, and marketing factors that can influence luxury brand purchase intentions in a recessionary environment. ARTICLE HISTORY
Purpose-The purpose of this study is to consolidate the existing research on interorganizational projects and to explore how organizations learn by closely examining multilevel learning, that is, organizational and interorganizational learning.
Design/methodology/approach-This article adopts a single case study approach, examining the Islamabad-Rawalpindi Metro project in Pakistan, with data consisting of interview results and archival data. An inductive approach is used for data analysis.
Findings-An empirically grounded learning model was developed based on an interorganizational project following eight lessons: capacity building, personality traits of leadership, working procedures, impeccable planning and implementation, involvement of stakeholders, design compatibility, investigation of underground services, conditions and maintenance of databases, and conceive rational timelines. These lessons learned were classified into three categories: (1) organizational capacity, (2) organizational embeddedness and (3) collective awareness.
Originality/value-This paper develops a novel learning model that can deepen our understanding of the practices and processes involved in multilevel learning. This study contributes to and extends the literature on organizational and interorganizational learning by studying an interorganizational setting.
Purpose
This empirical research draws on the existing theory of transformational leadership, adaptive culture and organizational resilience, and investigates the effect of the elected TQM leadership style “transformational leadership” through the mediating effect of adaptive culture on organizational resilience, that is the key of survival during crises like the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which has severely impacted the business globally.
Design/methodology/approach
This study exploited a cross-sectional online questionnaire of a random sample of Dubai service firms, with the unit of analysis being at the firm level. In total, 379 usable responses were received. Regression analysis was conducted to test hypotheses.
Findings
The overall findings of this study supported that transformational leadership is positively associated with both adaptive culture and firm's resilience and significantly impacts them. Adaptive culture was found partially mediating the effect of transformational leadership on organizational resilience.
Practical implications
The research findings provide important insights to practitioners (managers and leaders) to better improve their transformational qualities, as these qualities are expected to improve the organizational adaptive cultures and capacity of resilience.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first studies to examine the transformational leadership effect on organizational adaptive culture and firm's resilience. This investigation expands the boundaries of leadership style theory into new arenas, attempting to partially address the identified knowledge gap in this vein.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the impact of changes in human capital development and evolution of tacit knowledge following transgenerational succession in ethnic companies. The paper contributes to the understanding of transferring tacit knowledge across generations in ensuring ethnic business sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
In answering the how question, this paper tracked the changes and their impact in the process over time, using the multiple-case study method. A total of six interviews were conducted with three Indian-owned companies in the jewellery industry in Malaysia, with each interview lasting between 45 and 60 min. Secondary data were collected to supplement the primary data for analysis. Data triangulation method was applied to strengthen the design of this study.
Findings
The results indicate that changes in human capital development and tacit knowledge have enabled ethnically Indian-owned jewellery-based companies to alter their products to respond to demands of modern society whilst sustaining and commodifying the ethnic identity of their businesses. The findings also highlight that proper succession planning by ageing entrepreneurs may promote sustainability of these ethnic enterprises.
Originality/value
Despite the growing attention on ethnic and migrant entrepreneurship, less is known about the impact of the changes through transgenerational succession over time in ethnic businesses, especially when such changes involve human capital as the key players. This study is important in addressing the gap, in identifying human capital development and tacit knowledge among the critical ethnic resources contributing to ethnic business sustainability. Using a conceptual framework, this paper sheds some light on how ethnic businesses are sustained through transgenerational succession.
Le contexte contemporain de l'agriculture et de l'agroalimentaire est un vecteur important d'innovations non technologiques, que nous regroupons sous le terme de pratiques managériales innovantes, en RSE et en management de la sécurité sanitaire des aliments par exemple. Dans cette perspective, la thèse traite de l’adoption en réseau de ces innovations dans les PME agroalimentaires, entreprises qui constituent un élément structurant et dynamique du secteur agroalimentaire européen. Néanmoins, ces PME rencontrent des difficultés et des limites dans leur capacité à adopter ces innovations. En prenant le point de vue des partenaires à l'innovation, nos résultats confirment que la participation des PME à un réseau d’apprentissage favorise l'adoption. Les caractéristiques du réseau ont un impact positif sur les innovations managériales. Les facteurs comme l’hétérogénéité des partenaires du réseau et l’appartenance à un club d’entreprises contribuent à l’adoption de ces innovations. Il est aussi important que les PME soient conscientes de leurs propres caractéristiques en plus de celles du réseau. Ainsi, les entreprises qui sont prêtes à travailler en partenariat et qui ont plus d’expérience et de connaissances en matière de réseautage peuvent en tirer davantage profit. Les perspectives de nos travaux portent sur l’institutionnalisation et la sectorisation du réseau comme éléments facilitateurs de l’adoption des innovations managériales dans les PME.
Adaptive leadership is presented as an effective approach to adult learning and organizational research, which encourages flexible thinking, double-loop learning, and transformative changes. The most comprehensive adult studies programs and applied research studies in the future will be those where researchers become immersed in the research process and engage with participants in the process of learning and knowledge creation. Through this process, researchers help unleash the creative potential of the organization and gain valuable learning experiences.
Purpose
This paper aims to study the relationship between the knowledge obtained in social networks by firms together with the firms’ knowledge absorptive capacity and organizational unlearning as influencers of service-dominant (S-D) orientation, as well as the mediating role of absorption capacity and organizational unlearning in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample amounts to 101 responding companies, obtained from the SABI database. The companies belong to the service sector in Spain and have at least 50 employees and 5 years or more of existence in the market. The model was estimated through partial least squares structural equation modeling with smartPLS software 3.2.6.
Findings
The results show that the use of social media is very important for firms to acquire knowledge and capabilities that help them to become S-D oriented. In addition, absorptive capacity and unlearning processes are dynamic capabilities necessary to transform the knowledge acquired in social media and to become S-D oriented.
Research limitations/implications
Companies’ managers draw conclusions that can generate great value, while better meeting the needs and desires of the market, the more knowledge is obtained. In addition, the use of the knowledge generated in this process will reduce the risk of sudden changes in the market.
Practical implications
The more knowledge is gained using social networks, the better the companies’ managers will be able to draw conclusions that can generate great value, while at the same time better satisfying the needs and desires of the market, and thus create capacities that allow the company to be service-oriented. In addition, the use of these knowledge platforms strengthens the strategic advantage of companies through the promotion of innovation and by relating dynamic capabilities with the orientation toward sustainable development. As mentioned above, a process will be generated that will reduce the risk of sudden changes in the market.
Originality/value
This is one of the few studies trying to study the antecedents of S-D orientation and the first to study the direct effect of social media use, and the direct and indirect effect of absorptive capacity and organizational unlearning on S-D orientation as dynamic capabilities.
This paper provides an investigation into how social media can be used to promote disruptive innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from a capability perspective. Based on the strategic capability literature, this study examines the influence of social media strategic capability (SMSC) on disruptive innovation, the mediation role of organizational unlearning, and the moderating effects of top management team (TMT) heterogeneity and environmental dynamism. The empirical results from a sample of 198 Chinese manufacturing firms, each with paired respondents, show a significant association between SMSC and disruptive innovation, which is mediated by organizational unlearning. Furthermore, the effect of SMSC on unlearning is enhanced when SMEs have heterogeneous TMTs, and the influence of unlearning on disruptive innovation is strengthened in dynamic market and regulatory environments but weakened in dynamic technological environments. These findings contribute new knowledge to the literature on both social media and disruptive innovation.
The article studies corporate training in general as a line in research and a concrete issue about the degree of investigation of the issue of decision-making in this sphere of activity. The issue of decision-making is fundamental for management of corporate training, as training model depends on this mechanism. In previous studies this issue was touched upon only indirectly. To study this problem deeply it is necessary to understand the topical level of research on mentioned-above direction. The goal of the article is to study methods used in this sphere and current condition of this field of academic research. In order to attain the goals of the research descriptive literature review of sources from the international database Web of Science was carried out focusing on studying methodology and level of theoretical investigation. As a result the article identified several key trends in studying corporate training and revealed predominance of quantitative works even in conditions of insufficient theoretical investigation. Works being analyzed more often used concepts of training organization by K. Watkins and V. Marsic and the model of digital maturity by A. Back and S. Berhause.
From the perspective of behavioural science, this book systematically investigates organizational learning in Chinese organizations based on multilevel theory over the past 20 years. The findings contribute to the theory and practice of organizational learning and give insights into the construction of learning organizations. Revisiting existing studies on organizational learning, the author reconceptualises organizational learning and constructs an integrative model, which is corroborated and then supplemented by empirical research. Based on samples and materials from 3,000 managers and employees in organizations from all over China, the book further elaborates this integrative model covering the multilevel structure, trans-level functions and generative mechanisms that figure prominently in organizational learning in Chinese organizations. This framework helps enhance the organizational learning ability and the establishment of a learning culture, while offering possible directions for updating research methods and a stereoscopic theory of organizational learning.
The book will be a good reference for management practitioners, students and academics interested in organizational behaviour, human resource management, innovation management, and multilevel perspective.
(https://www.routledge.com/Organizational-Learning-in-China-Building-a-Multilevel-Approach/Haibo/p/book/9780367763398)
Purpose
Although previous studies noted the importance for organizations in establishing an innovation strategy, few have examined innovation orientation as a multidimensional knowledge configuration. Therefore, this study draws on the valuable theoretical underpinnings of the resource-based view and information processing theory to examine the mechanism through which an organization's innovation orientation (IO) and team unlearning (TU) can impact new product development (NPD) success.
Design/methodology/approach
A causal model was developed in order to analyze the role of innovation orientation and team unlearning on NPD success. This proposed model and several hypotheses were gauged using data from 255 NPD team members from Taiwanese high-tech and traditional companies.
Findings
The results indicate that both IO and TU relate to outcomes. Specifically, this study demonstrates that it is insufficient that firms simply establish the configurations needed to enhance their IO and TU, firms also need to find out the correct mechanism to enhance NPD success. The relationships between IO, TU and NPD success were fully mediated by team information processing.
Originality/value
This report sheds light on the importance of innovation orientation and team unlearning in today's NPD process and uncovers the underlying mechanism through which IO and TU contribute to NPD success. It also offers precise advice for the assessment of management of team information-processing to boost the performance of new products.
This paper characterizes managerial problem sensing, a necessary precondition for managerial activity directed toward organizational adaptation, as composed of noticing, interpreting, and incorporating stimuli. It then reviews the constituent social cognition processes that make certain kinds of problem-sensing behavior, including errors, relatively likely to occur. Implications for the organizational issues of crisis, chance events, break points, and extreme change are explored.
The phrase 'learning in the face of mystery' is borrowed - in homage -from Barry Turner, who coined it in contrast to 'learning in the face of problems', which assumes learning to be voluntaristic, always functional to the organization, synonymous with change. The shift from the one to the other resides in an aesthetic choice between rationality and relationality. In fact, in spite of the huge amount of literature on organizational learning, there is still very little understanding about organizing as a practice based on a distributed knowledge system. At the same time, the normative/prescriptive discourse on Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization is mobilized as a further means of organizational control. The aim of this paper is to explore, from the perspective of the sociology of knowledge, the implicit assumptions underlying the Organizational Learning literature, and to look for alternative ways of conceptualizing learning-working-innovating as non-distinct activities. The term 'learning-in-organizing' is proposed as a replacement for 'organizational learning', so that its distributed and provisional nature can be considered when interpreted as a practical accomplishment.
This article explores applications from the field of social cognition to educational issues. Among the topics examined are: mainstreaming, low achievement, academic self‐concept, achievement change programs, achievement‐related emotions, praise and blame, help‐giving, and affective communications of pity and anger. These issues are clarified with the use of concepts from cognitive social psychology such as perceptual salience, causal ascriptions, perceived personal control, and compensatory schema. Throughout the article, future research directions in educational contexts are suggested from the point of view of cognitive social psychology.
Based on an ethnography of recruiting methods, this article explains why Amway distributors attempt to generate strong and conflicting emotions among recruits (i.e. ambivalence) to facilitate learning. Case data are used to construct a three-stage model of the full unlearning and relearning cycle that is triggered by felt ambivalence. Thus, emotion is seen as a core element in changing the cognitions and behaviors of individuals and organizations. The micro- and macro-level implications of bridging the research on emotion and learning theories are discussed.
This article provides an overview of current debates in the field of organizational learning through the device of examining key `divergencies' within the literature. Clear divergencies are noted in two areas: first, between the practitioner literature which is primarily engaged in creating learning organizations and the academic literature which is engaged in the study of learning processes in organizations; and, second, in the views of both academics and practitioners about the nature and essence of organizational learning. In addition, but with somewhat less significance, divergencies are noted in the preferred ways of investigating and researching into organizational learning, and ways of improving the ability of organizations to learn. The article then identifies power as an issue that has received limited attention in the literature, but which appears to underlie many of the above divergencies.
The field of organizational learning (OL) has been characterized by a wide diversity of opinions, definitions, and conceptualizations. After discussing difficulties associated with previous conceptualizations of organizational learning, this paper suggests a broader conceptualization which is consistent with and integrates diverse perspectives in the field of OL. To the extent that organizations continuously act and enact their environments, cognitive processes associated with learning continually take place whether the organization recognizes it or not. OL cannot be understood without taking into account the continuous ongoing change of organizational cognitive structures. However, learning is only recognized when an observer identifies and contextualizes those changes. Thus, organizational learning can be interpreted as a social construction which transforms acquired cognition into accountable abstract knowledge. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of this conceptualization of learning on management practice and organizational research.
This article focuses on the activities teams use to manage their organizational environment beyond their teams. We used semistructured interviews with 38 new-product team managers in high-technology companies, log data from two of these teams, and questionnaires completed by members of a different set of 45 new-product teams to generate and test hypotheses about teams' external activities. Results indicate that teams engage in vertical communications aimed at molding the views of top management, horizontal communication aimed at coordinating work and obtaining feedback, and horizontal communication aimed at general scanning of the technical and market environment. Organizational teams appear to develop distinct strategies toward their environment: some specialize in particular external activities, some remain isolated from the external environment, and others engage in multiple external activities. The paper shows that the type of external communication teams engage in, not just the amount, determines performance. Over time, teams following a comprehensive strategy enter positive cycles of external activity, internal processes, and performance that enable long-term team success.
Traditionally, theories of organizational learning have taken one of two approaches that share a common characterization of learning but differ in focus. One approach focuses on learning by individuals in organizational contexts; the other, on individual learning as a model for organizational action. Both base their understanding of organizational learning on the cognitive activity of individual learning. However, there is something organizations do that may be called organizational learning, that is neither individuals learning in organizations nor organizations employing processes akin to learning by individuals. This form of organizational learning can be seen in the case of three small workshops that make "the finest flutes in the world." This essay proposes a perspective on organizational learning, drawing on the concept of organizational culture, that can be useful in understanding the case. This perspective provides a fruitful basis for exploring the above distinctions in both theory and practice.
The perceptions of organizational politics model proposed by Ferris, Russ, and Fandt (1989) was tested in this study, and reasonably strong support was found for most of the linkages in the model, including the moderating effects of control and understanding, and the mediating effects of politics between predictors and outcomes. Furthermore, politics was characterized as a potential source of stress in the work environment, contributing to our understanding of the dynamics of politics in organizations. The results of the present study are discussed in light of the implications and directions for future research.
Develops an understanding of the complex interface between emotion and learning and highlights the special contribution of psychoanalytic insights in understanding individuals’ reactions to organizational changes. Explores the extent to which emotions are products of learning, the ways in which emotions facilitate or inhibit learning, and the ways in which learning redefines and re-organizes emotions at both an individual and an organizational level. The analysis shows the interdependence between emotion and learning and highlights many of the subtleties of individuals’ reactions to change that current research into individuals’ adaptability to organizational change tends to neglect. Reviews some of the implications of the psychodynamic explication of emotion and learning to our understanding of individuals’ reactions to organizational change.
AbstfBCt This paper presents a field study exploring the differences between two tnethods of mapping otganizational cognition — social representation and causal tnapping. After introducing the two tnethods and describing the mapping procedures in detail, the paper discusses the different outcomes yielded by the two methodologies. Conditions of use and intrinsic limitations of each mediod are then examined in the light of the results. The paper concludes with some reflections on the notion and practice of mapping organizational cognition.
Research on cognition in organizations has focused primarily on managers and how they think while performing a variety of managerial tasks. This approach limits our understanding of cognition at the collective level and the interactive effects across levels of analysis. We propose a framework of cognition - based on structure, process, and style - which can be applied to the individual, group and organizational levels of analysis. By mapping the territory, we observe certain well-travelled routes, while other terrain remains relatively unexplored. This map also identifies theoretical and methodological road blocks which suggest a number of future research directions.
Organizational learning has many virtues, virtues which recent writings in strategic management have highlighted. Learning processes, however, are subject to some important limitations. As is well-known, learning has to cope with confusing experience and the complicated problem of balancing the competing goals of developing new knowledge (i.e., exploring) and exploiting current competencies in the face of dynamic tendencies to emphasize one or the other. We examine the ways organizations approach these problems through simplification and specialization and how those approaches contribute to three forms of learning myopia, the tendency to overlook distant times, distant places, and failures, and we identify some ways in which organizations sustain exploration in the face of a tendency to overinvest in exploitation. We conclude that the imperfections of learning are not so great as to require abandoning attempts to improve the learning capabilities of organizations, but that those imperfections suggest a certain conservatism in expectations.
Studies suggest that young children are quite limited in their knowledge about cognitive phenomena—or in their metacognition—and do relatively little monitoring of their own memory, comprehension, and other cognitive enterprises. Metacognitive knowledge is one's stored knowledge or beliefs about oneself and others as cognitive agents, about tasks, about actions or strategies, and about how all these interact to affect the outcomes of any sort of intellectual enterprise. Metacognitive experiences are conscious cognitive or affective experiences that occur during the enterprise and concern any aspect of it—often, how well it is going. Research is needed to describe and explain spontaneous developmental acquisitions in this area and find effective ways of teaching metacognitive knowledge and cognitive monitoring skills. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The authors differentiate among 4 kinds of organizational learning and describe the associated policies, practices, and possibilities for action. They argue that learning organizations must be willing to uncover their assumptions about themselves and their environment. Organizational learning is about more than simply acquiring new knowledge and insights; it requires managers to unlearn old practices that have outlived their usefulness and discard ways of processing experiences that have worked in the past. Unlearning makes way for new experiences and new ways of experiencing. It is the necessary precursor to learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Brand equity components, brand attitude and brand name familiarity, influence not only the positive benefits but also the adverse consequences that follow brand leveraging. Making use of event study methods, the authors assess whether and how the stock market return—a measure of the change in expected future cash flows—associated with a brand extension announcement depends on these brand equity components. The empirical analysis indicates that stock market participants’ responses to brand extension announcements, consistent with the trade-offs inherent in brand leveraging, depend interactively and nonmonotonically on brand attitude and familiarity.
This article explores the difference between learning in an organization and organizational learning. I construct a conceptual framework for understanding organizational learning at an organizational level of analysis. This framework is based on the proposition that organizational learning is visible in the organizational dynamics created from the interaction between politics (power relations) and emotion within an organization. Using a combination of psychodynamic theory and reflections on the politics of organizing I develop the idea that organizations are learning when the 'establishment' that is being created through the very process of organizing can be identified and critically reflected upon. I use a case example of a change initiative within Hyder PLC, a multinational company, to identify organizational dynamics that limit organizational learning. In the final part of the article, I discuss the conclusions that emerged from the case example and the implications of these conclusions for the theory and practice of organizational learning.
This paper reviews aspects of two largely disparate literatures from the adjacent fields of individual and organizational learning and identifies some implications for theory and practice. The focus of attention is the extent to which the individual level construct cognitive style can be meaningfully applied to aid the understanding of learning at the level of the organization as well as at the level of the individual. Attention is given to the ways in which consideration of cognitive style can improve the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve individual and organizational performance. Nine categories of intervention are identified.
This article presents a two-faceted (structural and cultural) approach to organizational learning. The structural facet focuses on organizational learning mechanisms, which are institutionalized structural and procedural arrangements allowing organizations to systematically collect, analyze, store, disseminate, and use information that is relevant to the performance of the organization. The cultural facet focuses on the shared values, without which these mechanisms are likely to be enacted as rituals rather than as means to detect and correct error. The authors describe how this proposed approach deals with the problem of anthropomorphism in organizational learning and discuss its utility for researching organizational learning and for introducing it into organizations.
This paper analyzes learning processes of a seven-man team during a semester's involvement in a complex management decision exercise. Four phases of organizational development are identified and discussed: an initial phase, a searching phase, a comprehending phase, and a consolidating phase. Observations of how the team learned are then compared with three recent discussions of organizational learning processes in laboratory, industrial, and governmental settings. The paper proposes a synthesis which views organizational learning as a product of interactions among three kinds of stress. It presumes that learning is sporadic and stepwise rather than continuous and gradual and that learning the preferences and goals goes hand in hand with learning how to achieve them. Separate mechanisms are postulated to control adaptation at the individual and subgroup level within the organization and to control adaptation of the organization as a total system. Links between the two levels of adaptation are also described.
Social-cognitive principles underlie people's learning about what matters in the social world. The benefits of these social-cognitive principles reveal essential aspects of what it means to be human. But these social-cognitive principles also have inherent costs, which highlight what it means to be ‘only human’. Social cognition is ‘social’ because what is learned concerns the social world, and where the learning takes place is in the social world. This paper reviews the benefits and costs of both sides of social cognition: (1) the cognition of social psychology principles of organization, explanation, knowledge activation and use; and (2) the social psychology of cognition principles of shared reality role enactment, social positions and identities and internal audiences. The fact that there are inherent costs of the same social-cognitive principles for which there are essential benefits affords a new perspective on social-cognitive costs that is different from either the classic ‘conflict’ perspective or the more current ‘limited capacity’ and ‘dual-process’ perspectives. This ‘trade-off’ perspective deepens both our understanding of the true nature of these principles and our appreciation of our common humanity. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Organizational research suggests that the way information is used is likely to be a function of the presence of organizational systems or processes, in addition to individual manager activities. The author suggests that firms vary their emphasis on certain organizational market information processes, such as information acquisition, information transmission, conceptual use of information, and instrumental use of information. The author argues that the emphasis is determined, in part, by the congruence, or fit, among an organization's cultural norms and values and theorizes that the presence of these organizational information processes affects new product outcomes. Survey results indicate that clans dominate the other cultures in predicting organizational market information processes, suggesting that information processes are fundamentally "people processes" that involve commitment and trust among organizational members. The results have important implications for balancing internal and external orientations within firms. The results also indicate that the information utilization processes, especially those that are conceptual in nature, are strong predictors of new product performance, timeliness, and creativity, indicating that competitive advantage is tied to information utilization activities in firms.
Our understanding of how organizations process market information can be advanced substantially on the basis of principles derived from models of organizational learning. Accordingly, the author examines the extant literature on organizational learning, proposes a hierarchy of market sense making, and provides research propositions that will enhance marketers' understanding of information processing and knowledge creation in organizations.
The present study explored the relationship between individual differences in the content and structure of social‐cognitive systems and team member (1) assessments of team communication effectiveness and (2) satisfaction with the team. Participants were members of six hospice interdisciplinary teams. Greater emphasis on communication‐related descriptors in interpersonal construct systems was negatively associated with assessments of the team's decision‐making process and discussion of the task. Further, team members whose construct systems emphasized following conversational rules evaluated the team more negatively in the area of task discussion.
Arguing that organizational memory affects key new product development processes by influencing the (1) interpretation of incoming information and (2) the performance of new product action routines, the authors introduce four dimensions of organizational memory, including the amount and dispersion of memory. Data from 92 new product development projects indicate that higher organizational memory levels enhance the short-term financial performance of new products, whereas greater memory dispersion increases both the performance and creativity of new products. They also find, however, that under some conditions of high environmental turbulence, high memory dispersion actually detracts from creativity and has no effect on financial performance. Under conditions of low turbulence, high memory dispersion promotes higher levels of creativity and short-term financial performance. These findings provide some initial evidence that knowledge is not an unconditionally positive asset and suggest that developing and sustaining valuable organizational memory may require attention not only to the appropriate levels of memory but also to managing subtle aspects of memory dispersion and deployment. These results imply that if organizations fail to understand the subtle ways in which different features of organizational memory influence product development, they may fail to harvest the full value of organizational learning.
Three main criticisms of the 'learning organization' are developed in this paper. First, it is argued that the concept is badly flawed because of its proponents' apolitical assumptions. This leads them to neglect the political activity likely to be encountered in a learning organization, activity which will tend to frustrate the learning aims. Second, while their model allows for greater employee empowerment the amount will probably be relatively modest in real terms. On the other hand, the power of managers, especially those at the apex of the organization, is likely to be enhanced by their privileged access to any extra informational and symbolic resources that are created by individual and collective learning processes. The third, and potentially the most damning, criticism is that the concept of the 'learning organization' is expressed in ways that provide raw material for managerial ideology, potentially constraining the meanings and actions of other employees so that they support the interests of the dominant coalition.
The phrase "switching cognitive gears" is used to call attention to the fact that cognitive functioning involves the capacity to shift between cognitive modes, from automatic processing to conscious engagement and back again. Effectiveness may be as much a function of an actor's capacity to sense when a switch is appropriate, as to process in one or another mode. In this paper the authors develop a perspective on the switch from automatic to active thinking and the conditions that provoke it. They apply the perspective to work settings and identify types of situations in which actors are expected to switch from habits of mind to active thinking. They propose further work to develop a framework for understanding the switch from active thinking to automatic.
In this article, the state of the art of research on emotion work (emotional labor) is summarized with an emphasis on its effects on well-being. It starts with a definition of what emotional labor or emotion work is. Aspects of emotion work, such as automatic emotion regulation, surface acting, and deep acting, are discussed from an action theory point of view. Empirical studies so far show that emotion work has both positive and negative effects on health. Negative effects were found for emotional dissonance. Concepts related to the frequency of emotion expression and the requirement to be sensitive to the emotions of others had both positive and negative effects. Control and social support moderate relations between emotion work variables and burnout and job satisfaction. Moreover, there is empirical evidence that the cooccurrence of emotion work and organizational problems leads to high levels of burnout.
The notion of corporate or organizational memory has been discussed for over a quarter of a century. A major objective of this work is to review the conceptual foundations of organizational memory drawing from information systems research, management science, economics, systems theory, political theory, organizational behavior, decision making, and communication theory. The paper provides the reader with a working definition of organizational memory, identifies ways to distinguish the contents of organizational memory, and explicates the processes of memory including knowledge acquisition, retention, maintenance and retrieval. Recommendations are made throughout the work regarding ways information managers can assess and control the effects of organizational memory. While this work does not represent the last word on organizational memory, it provides a conceptual road map to the many different and seemingly contradictory perspectives on the topic. As a practical guide, this work is valuable to managers struggling to compete using, and in spite of, organizational memory.
Common sense suggests that work is organized in accordance with plans that are created by designers who reflect on the work setting and manipulate representations of the work process in order to determine new and efficient organizational structures. Or, even if “outside” designers are not involved, the reorganization of work is normally attributed to the conscious reflection by members of the work group itself. A detailed examination of the response of a real-world group to a sudden and unexpected change in its informational environment shows that these common sense assumptions may be quite misleading.
While entering a harbor, a large ship suffered an engineering breakdown that disabled an important piece of navigational equipment. This paper considers the response of the ship's navigation team to the changed task demands imposed by the loss of this equipment. Following a rather chaotic search of the space of computational and social organizational alternatives, the team arrived at a new stable work configuration.
In retrospect, this solution appears to be just the sort of solution we would hope designers could produce However, while some aspects of the response appear to be the products of conscious reflection, others, particularly those concerning the division of cognitive labor, are shown to arise without reflection from adaptations by individuals to what appear to them as local task demands. It is argued that while the participants may have represented and thus learned the solution after it came into being, the solution was clearly discovered by the organization itself before it was discovered by any of the participants.
Since Family Assurance started life in 1975 the society has grown to
become the UK's largest tax-exempt friendly society. In 1994 the first
phase of a new computer system – FACE, for Family Assurance Client
Environment – will come on-stream. Describes how the core of the new
system, the in-house marketing database, was set up to optimize direct
mailing activity, improve client selection for mailings and help
determine campaigns and product design. Assesses the success of the
system so far and potential benefits in the future.
This paper briefly reviews some history of the concept of dominant logic, and then elaborates some of the ways in which the authors have further developed this concept in recent years. Discussion focuses on the dominant logic as a filter, on the dominant logic as a level of strategic analysis, on the unlearning (forgetting) curve, on the dominant logic as an emergent property of organizations as complex adaptive systems, and on the relationship between organizational stability and the dominant logic. Throughout emphasis is given to the inherent nonlinear nature of organizations and the mental models that they create.
Organizational learning in new product development involves the development of a knowledge base that can inform technical problem solving and decision making. We contend that learning processes in new product development can be studied by examining deliberations, that is, the patterns of exchange and communications which RD&E personnel engage in as they attempt to reduce the equivocality of problematic topics. This action research study examines how the management and design of deliberations enabled and obstructed learning. Using a blend of quantitative and qualitative methods, two knowledge intensive product development projects of equal technical complexity were studied. Factor analysis of barriers which obstructed knowledge development yielded four factors: knowledge sharing and planning barriers, knowledge frame of reference barriers, knowledge retention and procedural barriers, and a knowledge acquisition barrier. In addition, content analysis of interview data identified eleven categorical forces which enabled and disabled product development team learning. The results show that barriers and obstructions to product development team learning are linked to poorly designed and mismanaged deliberations. The results also suggest that learning in complex new product development projects is enabled by deliberations which are organized into small and informal forums; are conducive to knowledge sharing and active inquiry; which expose more people to the “big picture” of how the overall product system functions; and which utilize a participative approach to decision making. We conclude by discussing the managerial and research implications of these findings.
The study of organizations is rife with competing vocabularies and perspectives. Taking a specific and traditional focus - organizational structure - the authors argue for a more unified theoretical and methodological analysis that is adequate at the levels of meaning and causality. They break with the typical conception of structures as a formal framework counterposed to the interactive patterns of organizational members. Drawing upon Bourdieu and Giddens, they stress the way structures are continually produced and recreated by members so that the structures embody and become constitutive of their provinces of meaning. Such an analysis must incorporate not only relations of meaning and power but also the mediation of contingent size, technology, and environment. The creativity of members in the face of contextual constraint can only be assessed by setting the analysis in a temporal, historical dimension.
Contemporary work on marketing management is grounded implicitly in a structural functionalist or contingency perspective of organizational functioning. However, the field of organizational behavior from which such a perspective derives has recently developed a major thrust into theoretical modeling and empirical research on organizational culture. The authors survey this emerging literature on organizational culture, integrate it in a conceptual framework, and then develop a research agenda in marketing grounded in the five cultural paradigms of comparative management, contingency management, organizational cognition, organizational symbolism, and structural/psychodynamism.
Since the late 1970s, theorizing in psychological social psychology has been dominated by the computer metaphor of information processing models, which fostered an emphasis on “cold” cognition and the conceptualization of individuals as isolated information processors. More recent research shows a renewed interest in the interplay of feeling and thinking in social judgment and in the role of unconscious processes in reasoning and behavior. Moreover, research into socially situated cognition and the interplay of communication and cognition highlights the role of conversational norms, social interdependence, and power in social judgment. Experimental research into these issues is reviewed. The emerging picture is compatible with social psychology's latest metaphor, humans as motivated tacticians who pragmatically adapt their reasoning strategies to the requirements at hand.
The significance of unlearning for six different learning situations is outlined, and positive, negative, and neutral strategies for overcoming resistance, based on force-field analysis, are given. (SK)
The study of cognition in organizations has burgeoned in recent years. Top-down information processing theory suggests that individuals create knowledge structures to help them process information and make decisions. While the benefits of employing such knowledge structures are widely noted, there is a growing concern that they can limit decision makers’ abilities to understand their information environments and thus, compromise their decision making. This issue has captured the imagination of managerial and organizational cognition researchers. To date, their inquiry has been eclectic in focus and method. To order and advance this work, the author reviews extant research on the developmental origins and decision consequences of both the content and structure of knowledge structures at multiple levels of analysis. A host of research challenges are identified to help develop a better understanding of knowledge structure representation, development, and use in organizations.
In order to account for the various ways in which problems are solved, it has been shown to be necessary to postulate at least three psychological processes. The first of these is termed "variability"; it includes Krechevsky's hypothesis behavior and accounts for trial-and-error learning. The second, called "equivalence reactions," involves the process commonly called "transfer of training," and makes possible what has been called "concept formation," where some limited aspect of a situation comes to evoke the response. The third is named "spontaneous integration," or reasoning, and is shown to differ basically from learning in its neurological and psychological basis. This third type of problem solving is probably dependent on the integrating effect of certain forces outside the integrated experiences themselves. These are called "directions," and they may be of two sorts, either habitual, like hypotheses, determining tendencies, etc., or "new" and unaffected by past associations. The latter kind can survive brain operations and can reintegrate memory traces, whereas the former kind cannot. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)