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This paper seeks to review current approaches to learning from health and safety incidents in the workplace. The aim of the paper is to identify the diversity of approaches and analyse them in terms of learning aspects.

A literature review was conducted searching for terms incident/accident/near misses/disaster/crisis modified with learning/training and safety. Shortlisted articles were analysed by questioning who is learning, what kind of learning process is undertaken, what type of knowledge is employed and the type of problem that these incidents addressed. Current approaches to learning from incidents were critically analysed and gaps identified.

Very few papers addressed all the envisaged aspects when developing their learning from incidents approaches. With support from literature, it was concluded that all the four perspectives, namely participants of learning (participation and inclusion), learning process (single loop, double learning), type of incident and its relation to learning (Cynefin complexity framework) and types of knowledge (conceptual, procedural, dispositional and locative) are important when deciding on an appropriate learning from incidents approach.

The literature review focused on journal articles and identified keywords, which might have narrowed the scope. Further research is needed in identifying ways to embed the learning from incidents aspects in the organisation.

The framework developed could be useful by safety planners, safety managers, human resource managers and researchers in the area of organisational learning and safety.

The paper concludes by outlining key questions and proposing a framework that could be useful in systematically analysing and indentifying effective approaches to learning from incidents.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the relationship between the organizational learning capacity of manufacturing companies in the Spanish Basque Region and their management systems.

To this end, an ad hoc questionnaire was devised and addressed to the Chief Executive Officers of a representative sample of 200 companies from all manufacturing sectors of the Basque Country.

The results obtained show that the characteristics of the management system of a company (the strategy formulation process and organizational design) do not condition the learning level that can be attained as a result of an experience of concrete change. However, it is true that companies which have experienced changes in which a high level of learning has been achieved have adapted their management systems more according to what theorists deem appropriate to help future learning.

The research carried out allows a better practical knowledge of the existing relationship between management systems, change processes, and levels of organizational learning.

This paper integrates literature from downsizing and organisational learning. A conceptual framework is developed which argues that downsizing (adaptive or single loop learning) and reorientation (double loop or generative learning) will have a negative and positive effect respectively, on the three elements of a learning orientation: commitment to learning; shared vision); open‐mindedness. Data were collected from the top 2,000 manufacturers in Australia, and analysed using a structural equation modelling approach. Results confirm the study hypotheses. Implications for management are discussed, along with suggestions for further research.

The purpose of this study, which consists of two parts, is to bring together literature on organizational design and learning of individuals in organizational settings. The literature suggests that learning takes place in organic and less-structured organizational designs, whereas empirical research provides conflicting evidence. This first part theorizes about the influence of mechanistic vs organic designs on three different aspects of employees’ learning behavior: knowledge sourcing, learning styles and learning loops.

This paper is built on previous research on the impact of structure on learning and theorizes about the relationship between mechanistic/organic design and specific learning behavior at work.

Four propositions are developed in this paper, regarding how a different structure leads to a different learning behavior. Mechanistic structure is associated with internal learning, independent learning and single-loop learning, whereas organic design leads to external learning, collaborative learning and double-loop learning.

Because the paper is conceptual in nature, the propositions are in need of empirical validation. Some directions for empirical testing are proposed.

For an organization design practice, managers should be aware of the distinct impact different structures have on individual learning at work. Furthermore, the appropriate organizational structure for learning must be considered in the broader context of contingencies.

This paper contributes to the organizational design literature and to the organizational learning theory by conceptualizing the relationship between structure and learning of individuals at work.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the instructions of the lean startup methodology influence entrepreneurs. It explores what happens when such instructions are enacted by entrepreneurs in the context of a “prescriptive accelerator”. The goal is to shine a light onto the mechanisms by which these instructions are acquired and then utilised by entrepreneurs and to outline in some detail the implications of adhering to the lean startup methodology.

This paper employs an in-depth phenomenological semi-structured interview design. Two rounds of interviews were conducted, one at the beginning and one at the end of the programme with the CEOs and founders of 11 entrepreneurial ventures, totalling 22 interviews. The analysis of the interviews resulted in five second-order themes that are discussed in light of the processes of experiential and vicarious learning.

The findings suggest that through two distinct modes of vicarious and experiential learning, the instructions of the lean startup methodology are acquired, internalised and consequently put into practice by entrepreneurs. The paper further highlights the modifications to entrepreneurs’ governing variables and action strategies, as well as the resulting consequences of these modifications. This provides insights into possible outcomes of following the lean startup methodology in the context of a prescriptive accelerator where a strong focus on adhering to a systematic entrepreneurial methodology is a characteristic feature.

This paper contributes to our understanding of the under-studied and novel phenomena of the lean startup methodology and prescriptive accelerators. It complements the prevailing understanding of entrepreneurial learning as being largely experiential by accounting for the vicarious learning processes that occur in pedagogical settings such as prescriptive accelerators. It therefore shows that prescriptive accelerators provide unique learning situations where the combination of vicarious and experiential learning impacts the business development activities. Further, it provides a model of entrepreneurs’ theory of action as the outcome of the interactions between the lean startup methodology and the two modes of vicarious and experiential learning.

This paper distils practical perspectives from experienced consultants on an integrative framework on organisational learning and performance. The foundation of this framework is governed by behavioural and cognitive learning theories. Convergent interviewing was the methodology used to verify the practicality of the framework and provide insight for further development. Data derived from four organisational development consultants confirmed the framework’s feasibility, but suggested additional issues to examine organisational learning further. The conclusion drawn is that there are distinct stages of learning but the relationship between them is robust and dynamic. Further, the notion of “triple‐loop learning” is often misconstrued in practical contexts due to its level of abstraction. Effective leadership is regarded as the leitmotif in driving strategic organisational learning initiatives. However, leaders must consider the time factor involved, as such initiatives can only take effect after a period of time rather than immediately.

This Special Issue is intended to heighten awareness of the importance of organizational learning in addressing the demands of organizational sustainability, and in particular triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability. A definition of TBL sustainability is provided, together with an exploration of the practical issues relevant to adopting organizational learning in addressing it. By exploring research and practitioner viewpoints bearing on sustainability‐related applications of organizational learning, this Special Issue aims to help organizations remove barriers to achieving sustainability goals and catalyze the progress for an organization on its sustainability journey.

General sustainability‐related concerns and challenges associated with organizational learning are reviewed, and individual authors voice their understanding of the application of organizational leaning to particular aspects of sustainability based on their research, their case studies, and the extant literature.

Findings include enhanced understanding of the incompatibility of single‐ and double loop learning in TBL sustainability contexts, and the required emphasis on double‐loop learning to progress sustainability aims successfully. The effectiveness of dialogic interaction is described in achieving a transition towards sustainability in people, organizations and society as a whole. How individual worldviews called “our ecological selves” allow creation of the conditions for confronting global environmental challenges is explained. Contributions are made to the understanding of hybrid organizations through the case of a Brazilian networked organization, and a paradox view of management based on the theories of organizational learning and managerial cybernetics is applied to enlighten the understanding of sustainability. The learning and adaptive system of the US commercial aviation industry is explored and the application of such a system in an organization operating according to triple bottom line sustainability principles is described.

The opinions and research presented provide new and unique understanding of how organizational learning may contribute to organizational sustainability. Further value is added via the assessment of means to progress the sustainability ideal, the identification of barriers, and the many practical examples of means to facilitate progress toward that ideal.

There is limited research that utilizes the consequential‐conflictual (CC) approaches, which utilized radical orientation of double loop, second order and reorientation of organizational learning strategies. Both the functional‐institutional (FI) and CC approaches are integrated with the sustainability and ecological resources management literature. The aim of this paper is to fill this research gap.

The paper applies FI and CC sociological approaches.

This paper's contribution to the managerial auditing education literature is based on the proposition that ethics education can improve the moral and ethical reasoning of auditors, when the educational processes incorporate both the FI and CC sociological organizational learning strategies. The paper suggests that ethics education in auditing could benefit from experiential teaching methods utilized in allied applied disciplines of medicine, engineering, and educational psychology.

Sociological approaches have been commonly applied in behavioral managerial accounting and control systems research. This paper extends the FI and CC framework to ethics education in managerial auditing research.

The subject of accounting ethics education is important to auditors. When accounting ethics education utilizes both the FI and CC teaching approaches, the managerial auditing education processes become interactive and cooperative by bringing experiential organizational experiences to the classroom.

Accounting ethics education is shaped by ecological and environmental sustainability concerns. Recently, business school interest and growth in sustainability management has contributed to the integration of ethics education in managerial auditing and accounting contexts, overcoming the shortcomings accounting programs experienced from stand‐alone ethics courses.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the theoretical interface between statistical thinking, the statistical method of the control chart, and contemporary theories of organisational learning in regard to processes and their improvement.

Theoretical discussion results in an integrated model showing how statistical thinking and methods relate to organisational learning. This is supported by findings from a food industry research project following a design of: exploration (stage 1); theory development (stage 2); and theory testing/refinement (stage 3) incorporating surveys, case studies and key informant interviews.

Empirical evidence shows that statistical techniques such as the control chart can be of benefit to organisations for creating process improvement and organisational learning, providing the charts are utilised to actively convert the data they contain into information and knowledge about the process. Four distinct categories of use of control charts were observed which impacted on the effectiveness with which the charts were able to achieve this.

The findings have come from a study conducted only on the food industry. The implications are generalisable, however, to the wider industry context.

Findings illustrate problems with control chart application and the vital role of statistical thinking in ensuring that maximum benefit is derived from the charts. We argue that statistical thinking is a fundamental prerequisite to achieving effective double loop learning when using control charts as a basis for process monitoring and improvement

Statistical thinking and knowledge management are both growing areas of interest within the quality management and process improvement literature. The paper examines their interrelationship.

Organizational learning (OL) is receiving increasing attention from researchers and practitioners alike. In fact, some have suggested that the only sustainable competitive advantage is a firm's ability to learn faster than its competitors. In spite of OL's promise, the field has been slow to evolve. The primary impediments to the development of OL theory are that inconsistent terminology is used for comparable concepts and that different definitions are used to describe the phenomenon. Furthermore, many theorists have neglected to make explicit their underlying assumptions about the phenomenon. Employing an inductive approach, this review surfaces the implicit and explicit assumptions of OL researchers, identifying three key dimensions that differentiate perspectives: (1) unit of analysis—individual, group, organizational, and inter organizational; (2) cognitive/behavioral emphasis; and (3) the learning‐performance relationship.