Organizational Learning Minitrack

We welcome this year’s authors to HICSS 50th anniversaryand especially to the second anniversary of this new minitrackOrganizational Learning. Organizational learning involves processes of creating, transferring, modifying and retaining knowledge over time. These learning processes may occur at the individual, group or organizational levels, and involve topics that would benefit essential functions within the organization. In addition, whenever organizations consider themselves “learning” or “knowledge-based” they are interested in better understanding how to develop their workforce using knowledge management techniques. In this mini-track session, 2 papers are presented which exemplify the use of learning, knowledge management, and knowledge change to help organizations succeed. The paper #582: “Toward a Model of Wisdom Determinants in the Auditing Profession”, examines and develops the concept of wisdom in organizations. This study investigates the concept of wisdom and proposes a theoretical framework to describe three major virtues of wisdom in the auditing profession. The findings from case study analysis reveal that wise decision-making is an integration of three-E virtues: epistemic, enabling, and ethical skills. On the basis of the study findings, this research explicitly defines and explains the concept of wisdom in the auditing context. Through this research, a new understanding about decision-making in complex problems in the auditing profession can be resolved. Paper #568: “Unlearning before creating new knowledge: A cognitive process” presents the need for unlearning in organizations. For workers, additional processing, retention, and revisions of their knowledge base to update job functions is an ongoing problem in organizations. Implementation of knowledge change processes may result in added time to complete the updating process. This results in increased work product errors, increased operating costs, and may impact competitive advantage. Thus, process of new knowledge base change, has become an important focus for organizations. The authors focus on the cognitive dimension of unlearning and propose an alternative conceptualization that demonstrates that unlearning consists of reducing the influence of old knowledge on our cognitive capacity. From the results of this investigation, the authors propose unlearning process triggers that detract or facilitate the knowledge change process. Insights into how organizations and individuals use knowledge adds to the body of research in knowledge management in the Organizational Learning Minitrack.