Purpose: The paper aims to investigate the importance of leadership -- distributed leadership (DL) -- for the relationship between organizational learning (OL) and business sustainability (BS). Design/methodology/approach: Extensive literature research was carried out to investigate the relationship among leadership, OL and BS. Two theoretical…

Purpose: This paper aims to clarify under which conditions, and via what mechanisms, power asymmetry is likely to affect team learning. This work is part of a two-paper series. Part I presents the theoretical arguments linking power asymmetry to team learning via egalitarianism and the moderating role of environmental hardship. In Part II, the…

Purpose: While the importance of interorganizational learning (IOL) as a resource for strategic renewal has been acknowledged in research, limited attention has been placed on exploring IOL in complex networks or ecosystems. This paper aims to bridge this gap in literature through conceptualizing IOL in the tourism industry at the micro, meso and…

Purpose: The aim of this invited paper is to explore how more complex epistemic environments generate opportunities and challenges for organizational learning in professional realms. Based on these explorations, a second aim is to discuss whether there are specific conditions in Nordic working life that facilitates or restricts such learning…

Purpose: This paper aims to understand the effects of team power asymmetry (hierarchy) on team learning. Design/methodology/approach: Literature suggests that power asymmetry can hurt team learning due to unequal interactions. The authors integrate the situated focus theory of power and the theory of adversarial growth to propose that…

Purpose: This paper aims to provide an overview of the development of learning organization concepts from the perspective of Nancy Dixon, who has been at the forefront of the learning organization discussion since the 1980s. Design/methodology/approach: Through a conversation with Dixon, and a scan of some of her works, this paper discusses…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore what contributes to egalitarian teams and facilitates for team learning in professional service teams. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative case study, including 41 in-depth interviews (n = 18) of professional service team members and managers in one of Nordics largest professional service…

Purpose: While much empirical research has examined how routines are unlearned, little is known about the intentional forgetting of rules in organizations. This paper aims to combine the literature on organizational rules and that on intentional forgetting with the aim of studying the relationship between power types of rule imposition and the…

Purpose: The purpose of this two-part paper is to provide a summary of current research opportunities in organizational forgetting literature and a future research agenda. Design/methodology/approach: The summary of current research opportunities and future research agenda is drawn from the systematic literature review and synthesis reported in…

Purpose: This paper aims to provide an overview of the history, the present and the future or the learning organization as a concept and a practical approach, from the perspective of Professor John Burgoyne. Design/methodology/approach: This conversation piece follows the development of the concept from its early days into the current debates and…

Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate how the Nordic model, featuring highly regulated trade union-employer collaboration, has enabled the building of learning organizations through a co-generative learning model involving both practitioners and action researchers. Design/methodology/approach: A literature search on the Nordic sociotechnical…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze learning organization by comparing with other types of organizations. This typology is based on the levels of consciousness and relates each type of organization with a level of learning and an organizational structure. Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper based on the concept of…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore how gendering of the learning environment acts to shape the design and outcome of workplace learning. The primary intention is to reflect on the idea of gender-equal organizations as a prerequisite for workplace learning. Design/methodology/approach: A review of literature relating to gender and workplace…

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to introduce a systemic approach to organizational learning "triple loop learning" (TLL) that addresses processes of power. Three equally important foci in our TLL are processes of design, processes of debate and processes of power. The focus on power aims to shift "power over" (power as…

Purpose: This paper aims to use critical theorist Jürgen Habermas's conceptualization of the relationship between knowledge and interests to better understand the role of common and competing interests during organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws on critical accounts of work and learning, and on Habermas's…