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Value-added statement as a trigger to organizational unlearning

Shubham Sharma (Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India)
Usha Lenka (Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India)

Development and Learning in Organizations

ISSN: 1477-7282

Article publication date: 20 August 2018

Issue publication date: 6 November 2019

414

Abstract

Purpose

Organizational unlearning is easier said than done. Organizations are usually not cognizant of the ripe time to start questioning and discarding their existing paradigms and past success formulas. This paper aims to recommend the use of a financial metric, i.e. value-added statement, as a trigger to unlearning in organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a review of existing literature on organizational unlearning to highlight that although prescriptive studies on unlearning are abundant, “how” and “when” organizations should contemplate and discard the obsolete knowledge and routines is still inconspicuous.

Findings

Value-added statement is an adequate reporting measure that incorporates the contribution of organization toward not only its shareholders but also other stakeholders such as employees, providers of long-term finance, government, and public. It supplements income statement and provides an insight of how organizations are serving its interest groups. A decline in value addition by an organization in a reporting period can serve as a trigger to question the existing practices and break organization’s over-dependence on “one size fits all” approach.

Originality/value

Unlearning is considered as a means to attain financial performance in an organization. This paper attempts to recommend a financial metric which incorporates the economic, social, and environmental aspects of business, i.e. value-added statement. The rationale for not recommending other financial metrics as a trigger for unlearning is based on grounds of possible manipulation. Moreover, these financial statements are affected by legal, political, and economic context of a nation.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors extend our gratitude to Anne Gimson, Editor-in-Chief, and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. The authors also owe our gratitude to Parveen Sharma, Member, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, for helping us understand the concept of value-added statement.

Citation

Sharma, S. and Lenka, U. (2019), "Value-added statement as a trigger to organizational unlearning", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 33 No. 6, pp. 22-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/DLO-02-2018-0021

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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