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Although individual exploration activities have been shown to promote organizational change and innovation, few studies have clarified the factors that quantitatively promote such aspects. This study aims to examine how individual exploration activities are facilitated by goal orientation and individual unlearning.

The data are analyzed from 1,474 employees in various jobs in a variety of organizations in Japan. This study uses structural equation modeling to test the research model.

The results of this study indicate three findings. First, unlearning is effective in promoting individual exploration activities. Second, goal orientation has not only a direct effect on individual exploration activities but also a significant indirect effect on such activities through unlearning. Third, performance goal orientation has an inhibitory effect on individual exploration activities.

Managers should encourage team members’ exploration activities by setting learning goals for members and providing opportunities for members to unlearn the outdated knowledge or skills they are familiar with and learn new ones.

These findings contribute to the existing literature by demonstrating that learning goal orientation and unlearning play important roles in promoting individual exploration activities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between unlearning and strategic flexibility from the down-up change perspective.

Drawing on the routine-updating process, this study builds a theoretical model and examines it using survey data from 233 firms in China.

Unlearning is the enabler to strategic flexibility. Specifically, individual unlearning and organizational unlearning both have positive effects on strategic flexibility. Organizational unlearning exerts a partly mediating effect on the relationship between individual unlearning and strategic flexibility.

The paper examines the different mechanisms of individual and organizational unlearning on strategic flexibility and suggests that unlearning is a useful method or approach for strategic flexibility. In addition, this study is useful to help managers or practitioners determine how to embrace strategic flexibility by unlearning.

Although unlearning is considered an essential step for creativity, little is known about the relationship between team unlearning and employee creativity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of individual reflection between team unlearning and employee creativity.

The research model was tested using multisource survey data from 164 employees in 28 teams at a manufacturing firm and a service firm.

The results of the multilevel analyses indicated that team unlearning had a positive influence on supervisor-rated employee creativity, fully mediated by individual reflection.

It should be noted that employee creativity is not automatically enhanced through team unlearning. Managers should encourage members to reflect on their work practices following team-unlearning exercises for the purpose of enhancing their creativity.

The findings contribute to the existing literature by demonstrating that reflective practices play significant roles in linking team unlearning with employee creativity. This study explored preceding literature examining employee creativity in terms of the unlearning process.

This study aims to qualitatively investigate when and how individuals' paradox mindset influences their individual unlearning.

This study adopted Charmaz's constructivist grounded theory approach based on constructivist ontology and interpretive epistemology. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 16 employees of a research company. The employees were asked about their perceptions of their roles and other factors that stimulated them to unlearn in a tension-setting environment.

This study developed a process model of paradox mindset for enhancing individual unlearning through three relational mechanisms, namely, enabling motivation to unlearn, understanding to unlearn and engaging in the unlearning process. The unlearning process is found to be influenced by paradoxical frames and emotions. Moreover, external factors, such as organizational changes, stimulate the adoption of paradoxical cognition and emotions while resource availability facilitates the unlearning process.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to qualitatively investigate how a paradox mindset facilitates the process of unlearning through relational mechanisms. This model provides a holistic understanding of the cognitive, emotional and motivational processes involved in accepting the tensions of unlearning and promoting the unlearning process. The findings also have implications for research on paradox theory and the management of unlearning tensions at the micro level.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the antecedents, levers of control and outcomes of organizational unlearning and forgetting in new product development (NPD) teams.

This paper employs a holistic multiple-case study design. This paper gathered data from 30 individual semi-structured interviews in 10 different NPD teams as well as additional data to triangulate the findings.

The authors propose a model of unlearning and forgetting elements occurring in NPD teams. The two most prominent factors that hamper innovation are the inability to unlearn and involuntary forgetting. Failure to manage these antecedents results in the loss of crucial resources, missing innovations or intra-team tensions. Managing knowledge loss by promoting unlearning and reducing forgetting leads to enhanced creativity and flexibility, a higher chance of exceeding innovation goals, increased conversion efficiency and augmentation of existing knowledge.

This paper contributes empirical evidence to the field of unlearning and forgetting. The model illustrates the NPD process from the perspective of organizational unlearning and forgetting. The authors examined the NPD process from an unlearning and forgetting perspective and proposed new categories of antecedents, consequences and managing unlearning and forgetting. This generates a more profound theoretical understanding of underlying knowledge loss processes in NPD teams.

Companies should promote unlearning and specify spatial and temporal freedom. In doing so, team members can identify outdated and obsolete knowledge. Being attentive to unlearning and forgetting processes allows teams to achieve increased creativity and flexibility.

This paper provides empirical evidence to generate a more profound understanding of the underlying mechanisms of knowledge loss in NPD teams. First, the authors propose a holistic model of antecedents, levers of control and consequences of both unlearning and forgetting. Second, the authors suggest that organizations can use these levers of control to successfully manage unlearning and forgetting in NPD teams.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to explore the dynamic process of knowledge management from the perspectives of organizational unlearning and organizational relearning, which promote a favorable context for knowledge management.

The model is proposed based on extensive review of literatures. According to this model, the evolutions of organizational unlearning and organizational relearning are separately analyzed, and the interactions between them are revealed.

Organizational unlearning and organizational relearning are the indispensable factors to the dynamic knowledge management. Organizational unlearning positively affects the dynamic knowledge management by discarding the outdated and useless knowledge, while organizational relearning has a positive influence on the dynamic knowledge management by acquiring the new knowledge. Organizational unlearning and organizational relearning have synergies on the dynamic knowledge management.

This paper theoretically illuminates the relationships among organizational unlearning, organizational relearning and knowledge management, and doesn't offer an empirical test.

This paper will provide insights to practitioners to better understand the dynamic process of knowledge management. The practitioners need to provide favorable context to ensure that organizational unlearning and organizational relearning can occur.

Most existing studies focused on the inflows of knowledge, but the outflows of knowledge still lack sufficient attention, especially the dynamic process of knowledge management. The framework provides guides in that process.

Although employees' innovative work behaviors are crucial for innovativeness and the success of modern organization, the impact of individual unlearning and critical reflection on innovative work behaviors is underresearched. This study's goal is to empirically examine relationships between job characteristics, critical reflection, unlearning and innovative work behaviors.

This study uses survey data from 252 Polish employees and the partial least squares method.

The results indicated that, among three considered job characteristics, only problem-solving demands were related to critical reflection. This study also shows that critical reflection is both direct and indirect, through individual unlearning, related to both idea generation and idea realization. However, nonmanagers have stronger relationships between unlearning and innovative work behaviors than do managers, while managers have stronger relationships between critical reflection and innovative work behaviors.

Results of this study may be used by human resource development managers to improve employees' innovative work behavior.

The study contributes to the limited empirical research on the role of critical reflection and individual unlearning for innovative work behavior. This study also explores which job characteristic affects critical reflection.

One of the critical issues for change management, particularly in relation to the implementation of new technologies, is the existence of prior knowledge and established mental models which may hinder change efforts. Understanding unlearning and how it might assist during organizational change is a way to address this resistance. The purpose of this paper is to present research designed to identify specific factors that facilitate unlearning.

Drawing together issues identified as potential influencers of unlearning, a survey questionnaire was developed and administered in an Australian corporation undergoing large‐scale change due to the implementation of an enterprise information system. The results were analyzed to identify specific factors that impact on unlearning.

Findings from this paper identify factors that hinder or help the unlearning process during times of change including understanding the need for change, the level of organizational support and training, assessment of the change, positive experience and informal support, the organization's history of change, individual's prior outlooks, and individuals' feelings and expectations.

The use of only one organization does not allow for comparisons between organizations of different sizes, cultures or industries and therefore extension of this research is recommended.

For practitioners, this paper provides specific elements at both the level of individuals and the organization that need to be considered for optimal unlearning during times of change.

Previous literature on unlearning has been predominantly conceptual and theoretical. These empirical findings serve to further an earlier model based on qualitative research into potential influencers of unlearning.

Although still under-researched and characterized by a fragmented understanding, unlearning and forgetting have recently received increased scholarly attention. The purpose of this systematic literature review is to survey and evaluate key works in the field of organizational unlearning and forgetting. Through analyzing and synthesizing common themes, this paper aims to highlight research gaps and avenues for future research.

This paper follows a systematic approach of identifying, analyzing and synthesizing pertinent literature in the field of organizational unlearning and forgetting. In total, 63 works were thoroughly reviewed.

This paper highlights different levels and scopes, as well as antecedents and consequences of organizational unlearning and forgetting. Even though unlearning and forgetting has gained increased attention, researchers still need to provide robust conceptual and empirical evidence to advance the field.

By structuring the analysis and synthesis around various constructs, theories, typologies and related themes, this paper outlines several research gaps and proposes avenues for further research. Additionally, this systematic literature review resulted in the development of a framework based on the intentionality and depth of knowledge loss, which allows future researchers to position their research and differentiate themselves from other literature in the field.

Interest in the topic of unlearning has grown in recent years, fueled by rapid changes in the business environment and resultant organizational change. This change challenges individuals and organizations to unlearn past knowledge and practice to embrace new organizational realities. However, much of the unlearning literature focuses on either individual or organizational factors that enable or hinder unlearning. This paper aims to look beyond the organizational boundary to question whether there are tensions between professionals and the organizations in which they work that influence organizational unlearning.

This is a conceptual paper analyzing how professions are established to identify the implications for organizational unlearning. The critical elements of a profession are explored to identify the potential impact that professionals within the organization may have on organizational learning and unlearning.

The paper argues that to facilitate unlearning, organizations must recognize not only internal factors but also external pressures on individuals and groups. In particular, professions with a strong identity may represent a significant force that can either engender or resist attempts to learn and unlearn by the organization.

Within the existing unlearning literature, individual and organizational factors that facilitate or hinder unlearning have been widely canvased. However, little attention has been given to the factors beyond organizational boundaries that may also impact unlearning, particularly for individuals and groups with strong professional identities. This paper offers some unique insights into this potential factor for consideration by those seeking to enhance organizational unlearning.