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Forgetting to learn and learning to forget: the call for organizational unlearning

Mandolen Mull (Puri School of Business, Rockford University, Rockford, Illinois, USA)
Clayton Duffy (College of Education and Human Development, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA)
Dave Silberman (Administrative Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA)

European Journal of Training and Development

ISSN: 2046-9012

Article publication date: 30 March 2022

Issue publication date: 26 May 2023

548

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Citation

Mull, M., Duffy, C. and Silberman, D. (2023), "Forgetting to learn and learning to forget: the call for organizational unlearning", European Journal of Training and Development, Vol. 47 No. 5/6, pp. 586-598. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-10-2021-0162

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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