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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.

The article aims at examining the ethical limits and risks of servant leadership. During the Second World War, the German army officer Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg is a loyal servant to his nation and homeland. But when he learns about the Nazis’ mass murders and crimes, he begins to have doubts about whom he should serve. Being confronted with numerous moral dilemmas, he finally decides to join a resistance group. Of course, Stauffenberg's situation as colonel and leader was an extreme case. Time and again, however, managers and leaders are faced with similar dilemmas. Indeed, the current COVID-19-crisis shows that even today’s leaders are repeatedly faced with almost insoluble dilemmas. The recent literature about ethics and leadership suggests a philosophy which is almost portrayed as a panacea to any ethical issues: servant leadership (SL). This study, however, questions the commonly held view that SL is always ethical. The purpose of our historical case study is twofold. First, this study explores the ethical challenges Stauffenberg (and other officers) faced and how they dealt with them. Second, this study elaborates on what responses (if any) SL would provide to these challenges.

The applied method is a historical case study, in which the authors draw on a plethora of secondary literature, including books, reports, and articles.

By analyzing the historical case of “Operation Valkyrie,” this study elaborated and identified risks and limitations of SL and pointed out ways to address these risks. In particular, SL poses risks in the case of a too narrow understanding of the term “service.”

While other leadership styles, e.g. transformational leadership or charismatic leadership, have been extensively studied with regard to ethical risks, in the case of SL possible risks and limitations are still largely unexplored.

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.

Customer knowledge has not yet been recognized as a possible source of strategic competitive advantage in expansion of the knowledge-based view. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to gain initial insights into the strategic dimension of customers knowledge in order to enable companies to define, identify and motivate the right customers and work with them together on a strategically successful level.

The following single case study is based on semi-structured interviews with nine employees and strategic customers as well as a document analysis in an entrepreneurially oriented smaller firm equipped with limited resources.

The findings demonstrate that strategic customers take on a valuable position within the company. It appears that the strategic customer is more aware of his/her value than the company itself. A definition and first criteria of strategic customers could be determined and a systematic identification of strategic customers is possible with the help of this study.

The paper is an empirical contribution to the existing customer knowledge management literature and aids in gaining further insight into the definition, identification and motivation of strategic customers. A definition is derived based on a literature study and developed further through the results of the empirical analysis. An additional result of the empirical study showed that customer oriented knowledge management is a promising bridge between the knowledge- and market-based view.

The apparent lack of resources in entrepreneurially oriented smaller firms can be overcome through the addition of external knowledge resources, which the paper refers to as strategic customers.

Management literature commonly suggests authoritarian leadership (AL) as the ideal leadership style during crises and extreme situations. This study aims to question this view, exploring servant leadership (SL) as an alternative.

In the field of leadership research, surveys and interviews are the most dominant research methods. In light of this dominance, this paper draws on a rather unorthodox research approach: a historical examination.

The elaborations in this paper suggest that SL exerts a higher influence on followers than AL, when organizational structures are absent or disregarded. Consequently, the higher influence of SL implies a lower need for regulations and directives within organizations.

Bureaucracy and red tape can be reduced. Particularly in situations of crises, SL’s relatively reduced reliance on formalized organizational structures can be advantageous to leaders.

The relationship among leadership (SL and AL) and formalized organizational structures is elaborated and illustrated in a historical examination.

This study aims to include two major objectives. Firstly, Frederick’s leadership is explored and characterized. Secondly, it is examined as to why a leader may (or may not) adopt servant leadership behavior in the case of Frederick II, King of Prussia.

The applied methodology is a historical examination of Frederick II’s leadership, an eighteenth-century’s monarch who has the reputation of being the “first servant of the state.” The analysis is conducted from the perspective of modern servant leadership research.

This study shows Frederick remains a rather non-transparent person of contradictions. The authors identified multiple reasons which explain why a leader may adopt servant leadership. Frederick’s motives to adopt a certain leadership behavior appear timeless and, thus, he most likely shares the same antecedents with today’s top executives.

The authors identified various antecedents of individual servant leadership dimensions, an under-research area to date.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to look at Frederick's leadership style through the lens of modern servant leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to link Peter F. Drucker's seminal theoretical conceptions with empirical insights on what constitutes perception of effective knowledge worker leadership in an intercultural environment. Both a fundamental shift of mind in theorizing and much more empirical research is needed, to fully understand the underlying view of leadership as a socially distributed activity. However, in a true Druckerian spirit, to take this new lens on leadership is neither magic nor rocket science – but it constitutes a road visible but not yet seen.

The authors link key recommendations on expert leadership from the timeless 1999 Drucker paper on knowledge worker productivity to the results of qualitative in‐depth interviews with over 100 top‐level leaders and their direct reports in China, Indonesia, and Singapore. Because leadership is all about influencing other people, the authors are especially interested on what constitutes good leadership from the followers' point of view.

One of the key findings is that perceived leadership effectiveness heavily depends upon fit to followers' expectations. As a result, a leadership style, which is effective in one country can wreak havoc when unreflectively transferred into another cultural environment. Hence being able to step back and to reflect on the appropriateness of one's leadership behavior is the key element of a globally successful leader.

Too many experts are currently sent to foreign assignments without proper preparation for good adaptation of their leadership behavior. A new leadership conception informed by psychological consideration provides expert leaders with recommended action on how to best deal with the group dynamics resulting from dealing with the twenty‐first century's most valuable asset entrusted to their care. This mind‐shift will overcome leadership barriers to international business, and optimize knowledge work results.

This contribution is one of the first studies about perceived knowledge worker leadership effectiveness in Asia. Integration of the paper's findings with recent Western leadership conceptualizations focusing on sharing and distributing leadership responsibilities will help build a richer understanding.

Taking company succession as an alternative means of embarking on an entrepreneurial activity, the aim of this study is to explore those intangible assets that are regarded as attractive from the viewpoints of external successors. Thereby, the focal point is on the preparation stage in which promising companies are identified and scrutinised.

The strategy of research behind this paper is the application of a mixed methods approach that is divided into an internet‐mediated questionnaire and a series of in depth interviews (given priority).

The findings suggest that intangible assets have a notable influence on the intention of an external successor to take over a company. This would suggest that the traditional issues considered with regard to company succession, such as tax, legal and financial aspects, should be extended to include intangible aspects. The findings are summarized by proposing a framework for the role of intangibles in external succession, thereby highlighting critical intangibles as perceived by external successors.

This explorative study is by no means exhaustive; however it is regarded as a valuable fundament for further research activities associated with the role of intangible assets in terms of company succession, particularly external succession.

The framework appears to be a valuable tool for understanding the importance of intangibles in external company succession in general and particularly their influence on external successors' business acquisition intentions. The findings are particularly considered as helpful for incumbent‐owners who plan to sell off their companies.

The study's findings can be viewed as a new perspective on company succession as it highlights the intangible assets that make a company attractive to external successors. Given the increasing number of small to medium‐sized enterprises waiting to be transferred to new owners, these findings are highly important as they provide a more holistic view of the dynamics of company succession (and external succession in particular).

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

When Rudyard Kipling said East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet, he reckoned without the consequences of the unrelenting globalization of business. East and West meet on a daily basis as commerce – and culture – become increasingly interdependent. Business leaders and their followers the world over face similar challenges and rapid advances in communication allow us to focus on those similarities. That is not to say, however, that diversity can be sidelined or that a style of business leadership which works well in one part of the globe will necessarily work well elsewhere.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to digest format.