Can “organizational unlearning” be the normalizer for purposeful routines in any learning organization? An interview with Prof Eric Tsang

Abstract

Purpose

This paper was developed with the objective of unravelling the concepts and their applications in the broad areas of organizational learning (OL) and learning organization (LO). The same altogether was captured by the academic lens of Professor Eric Tsang. Through the interview, Prof Tsang helped in tracing the progressive path of his academic journey, understanding his ideas and perspectives from the space of OL and LO as well as his contributions related to those. Overall, this study aims to add to the ongoing knowledge-intensive process of redefining the ways in which organizations ‘learn’.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on a detailed conversation with the distinguished academician, Prof. Eric Tsang.

Findings

How OL can follow the continuum of “purposeful organizational routines (ORs)” and that changes in such ORs will happen if shared work experiences of employees are put together. Also, organizational unlearning (OU) as a phenomenon is hard to ignore for successful organizations, especially large multinational companies.

Originality/value

The discussions with Prof Eric Tsang reflected his thoughts and critique pertaining to the core theme of OU and the significance of “purposeful organizational routines.” In the near future, other researchers and professionals can use the scope of verifying some of the assertions made in different contexts of conducting business across LOs.

Citation

Acharya, A. and Mishra, B. (2022), "Can “organizational unlearning” be the normalizer for purposeful routines in any learning organization? An interview with Prof Eric Tsang", The Learning Organization, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 317-324. https://doi.org/10.1108/TLO-12-2021-0144