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Learning, unlearning and relearning (LUR) has been preached as a panacea to organizations. Whereas, research on learning and unlearning has grown exponentially, relearning is still considered as an obscure concept. This paper aims to provide a new insight on organizational relearning and highlight its linkages with organizational unlearning.

This study is based upon a systematic literature review of organizational unlearning and organizational relearning. Papers expounding upon relearning were carefully analyzed vis-à-vis organizational unlearning.

Organizational unlearning and organizational relearning assume a vital place in developing a learning organization. However, linking the two processes in a sequence tends to arouse certain conceptual difficulties. First, it is not necessary that relearning follows this prescribed ordering sequence. It is a process that can happen without prior unlearning. Second, based on the process model and multiple definitions of unlearning, the very purpose of organizational unlearning is to acquire new knowledge (relearning in literature). Therefore, in this sense, relearning seems to become a redundant concept and a neologism. As a result, this hampers the proper contextualization of relearning.

This paper attempts to expound upon the debate of organizational relearning and its interplay with organizational unlearning. As the concept of lifelong learning and building learning organizations assumes the center stage in contemporary organizations, it is suggested that unless the conceptual issues of related to LUR are not adequately addressed, academicians will naturally find it difficult to prescribe proper course of action to practitioners.

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 Organizational unlearning positively affects the dynamic knowledge management by discarding the outdated and useless knowledge, while organizational relearning has a positive influence on the dynamic knowledge management by acquiring the new knowledge.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

This study aims to develop the understanding of learning processes related to the new ways of interacting in the enforced digital workplace over time.

A multiple, longitudinal case study of knowledge-based workers in three firms located in Sweden has been conducted from March 2020 to March 2023. In total, 89 interviews with 32 employees in three knowledge-based firms have been collected.

The study shows how the intricate interaction between rules and norms for interaction and work must be renegotiated as well as un- and relearned when the physical work environment no longer frames the work context. Furthermore, technology can be viewed as both an enable and a barrier, that is, technology has enhanced collaboration between organizational members yet also created social difficulties, for example, related to communication and interaction. The study emphasizes that individuals learned through trial and error. That is, they tried behaviors such as translating social interactions" to a digital arena, appraised the outcomes and modified the practices if the outcomes were poor.

The present study does have several limitations. First, it is based on interviews with respondents within three organizations in Sweden. To broaden and deepen the understanding of both organizational and learning, future studies can contribute by studying other contexts as well as using a mixed method approach in other countries.

Results from the study can provide a practical understanding of how the rapid change from working at the office to working from home using digital technologies can be understood and managed.

Contributions include combining interaction order and un- and relearning among organizational employees. This insight is important given that the rapid digital transformation of our society has changed how work is performed and how the future workplace will be both structured and organized.

Dramatic changes are constantly shaping the business world. Business in such bizarre settings requires shooting on moving targets. The need to constantly rejuvenate organizations for enduring strategic advantage mandates an out‐and‐out adoption of the learn‐unlearn‐relearn (LUR) model. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the paradigm shifts in the extant literature on the three concepts and then attempts to club the three. It also introduces the concept of the FAST culture symbolized by flexibility, agility, steadfastness and tactfulness in the light of LUR model. Further it takes up a discussion of the strategic nuances, barriers and prerequisites involved in implementing the LUR model.

The paper bases itself on extensive review of literature and industry experience, citing several examples to drive home the central idea of the thesis.

It is concluded that adopting the LUR model requires a gradual and steady process of strategic transformation. It requires challenging old assumptions and creating newer layers of assumptions. The approach to LUR has to be seamlessly beaded with the firm's line of attack.

The paper will provide insights to strategic decision leaders vis‐à‐vis implementation of LUR model and its utility to the organization.

The paper proposes and introduces the LUR model as an important modern‐day imperative for organizations and has supplemented the idea with relevant examples and arguments. The paper also introduces the concept of the FAST culture.

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.

This paper aims to evaluate how managers influence accidental and intentional organizational forgetting, i.e. knowledge depreciation, knowledge loss and unlearning.

The literature was reviewed based on predetermined search terms to identify peer-reviewed articles published in English and available in full-text format from the EBSCOhost and Google Scholar databases. Empirical and theoretical contributions were included. Additional articles, books and book chapters were manually selected and included based on recent reviews and syntheses of organizational forgetting work.

Findings revealed that managers contributed to preventing accidental knowledge depreciation and loss and preserving organizational memory. With respect to intentional forgetting, findings revealed contradictory positions: on the one hand, managers contributed to the disbandment of existing beliefs and frames of reference, but on the other hand, they preserved existing knowledge and power structures.

The study was limited by the accessibility of subscribed journals and databases, research scope and time span.

This paper provides useful guidelines to managers who need to reduce the disruptive effects of accidental forgetting or plan intentional forgetting, i.e. managed unlearning.

This paper represents a first attempt to review and define the influence of managers on organizational forgetting.

SMEs may be trapped in a suboptimal stable equilibrium, as many overloaded managers are cutting back on their resources and may be over‐investing in the development of exploration and exploitation processes rather than investing in mechanisms to facilitate an unlearning context. This paper proposes an unlearning context to manage an appropriate balance between exploratory processes and exploitative processes.

This paper examines the relationship between and significance of two key factors of organisational learning (the exploration and exploitation of knowledge) within an unlearning context, and their effects on the improvement of the performance of SMEs. These relationships are examined through an empirical investigation of 229 SMEs in the Spanish metal sector.

The results indicate that the effects of exploration and exploitation of knowledge on organizational performance are mediated through an unlearning context.

The findings provide interesting insights into the drivers of organizational performance for SMEs using an unlearning context. SMEs need to provide for and support changes of perspective, of individual habits and in the framework for consolidating emergent understandings.

In the context of rapid environmental changes under current school reform, the present paper attempts to locate an answer for a historical question related to the sources of organizational changes and for a prevailing question probing the relationships among external, internal and contextual factors affecting school organizational learning. Based on the information provided by 1,197 teaching staff from 67 Hong Kong government‐aided elementary and secondary schools, the present study confirms the proposition advanced by the “strategic choice school”, that it is leadership action which accounts for organizational adaptation. Moreover, through a series of path analyses, transformational leadership along with supportive culture and flexible structure are mainly accountable for organizational learning, while external and contextual conditions provide the additional incentives in dictating the extent of organizational learning that is taking place in schools.

Reports upon research carried out in Taiwan to assess the relative importance of external environment, internal conditions and contextual variables as the major source or momentum for school organizational learning. Maps out the intricate causal relationships among all external, internal and contextual factors with organizational learning process and outcomes. The sample comprised 51 primary and 37 secondary schools. It was found that school internal conditions – notably transformational leadership, positive school culture and supportive structure – outrank factors from other sources as the most critical elements in promoting organizational change, irrespective of the type and nature of schools or individual personal and background factors. Environmental constraints were not shown to be the dominant forces for organizations to engage in learning. Concludes that it is the leaders through their voluntary choice who bring about organizational change.

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.