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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide insight in how military expeditionary task forces cope with the dual challenge of organizing and learning, by reflecting on the experiences of Dutch expeditionary task forces in post-conflict missions in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reflects on the outcomes of a research project into the experiences of operators of different specific expeditionary task forces of the Dutch Armed Forces in dealing with everyday problems in their working environment. The case studies were based on interviews with military personnel of all ranks and focused on relating the process of making sense of environmental dynamics to characteristics of the organizational context. Findings: The case studies indicate that designing and learning become intertwined in the realities of everyday problem-solving in the more complex missions. As task forces are essentially tailor-made for the purpose of specific missions, units initially need to be selected. Subsequently, the design of the task force needs to be adapted to suit local conditions. This challenge interrelates with the everyday challenge for operators of making sense of their environment and finding pragmatic solutions for the everyday problems they are confronted with. In pragmatically solving everyday problems, operators in the cases engaged in working out incomplete or ill-fitting aspects of the task force design. Practical implications: The findings are relevant for military task forces and in general for organizations that are confronted with dynamically complex environments that rely on temporary structures. Originality/value: Existing literature on learning and on organizing generally treat these as two related, but essentially separate, phenomena. In the expeditionary military task forces, operators that aimed to develop pragmatic solutions to everyday problems, the processes of learning and organizing became intertwined: units needed to organize to learn and to learn to organize. The paper ends by suggesting a combination of specific circumstances that influences the nature of the interrelation between these processes.

For centuries, universities have proliferated and flourished around the world, playing an important role in societal knowledge production and diffusion. However, in the past four decades, this old organizational form has been subjected to neoliberal, managerialist policy doctrines such as New Public Management. Following this, universities have tended to become more 'business-like' in their internal management and governance, with generally perceived adverse effects on the quality of academic education, research, and working conditions. These developments pose fundamental threats to academic freedom and free knowledge production and diffusion. Acknowledging various forms of academic resistance to, and coping with, these threats, the purpose of our paper is twofold. First, we adopt the concept of 'performativity' – hitherto researched mainly in primary and secondary schools in Anglo-Saxon contexts – to account for, and critique, neoliberal university policies, and practices in a variety of Global North settings. Second, through collaborative autoethnography, we add our own personal narratives to 'talk back' to managerialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the crossing of knowledge and power boundaries within a bureaucratic organization by using enterprise social media (ESM). (Carlile's 2002) boundary crossing framework is used to guide this research. Design/methodology/approach: This is a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews and observations in a large Norwegian public sector organization. Findings: The authors find that investigating crossing knowledge and power boundaries by using ESM is problematic at syntactic, semantic and pragmatic levels. ESM is used predominantly for sharing, storing and retrieving explicit knowledge, which is a display of crossing the information-processing boundary. Hence, the possibilities of shifts in formal power positions where all employees can participate on equal terms is not achieved. On the contrary, as shared meaning on how to use EMS, taking the perspective of other on how to share knowledge and thus creating new knowledge practices in EMS by overcoming these knowledge barriers is not evident. Therefore, examples of crossing the semantic and pragmatic knowledge boundaries are rarely found. Research limitations/implications: The framework could be applied to a variety of contexts to further explore the role of ESM in learning and knowledge sharing and its ability to cross power and knowledge boundaries. Originality/value: This paper addresses a gap in the literature around discussions of power, trust, boundary crossing and the use of ESM for knowledge sharing and learning.

Purpose: This paper aims to challenge the alleged gender-neutral character of Argyris and Schön's theory of organizational learning (1978). While theories in organizational science seem gender neutral at the surface, a closer analysis reveals they are often based on men's experiences. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses the method of gender subtext analysis, centering on gendering and its interaction with gender, class and race. Findings: The dichotomous learning scheme of Argyris and Schön, in which a limited learning approach with alleged masculine values and interaction styles is opposed to an ideal learning approach with feminine values and interaction styles, is related to Bendl's subtexts of feminization and of unconscious exclusion and neglect in organizational theories. To overcome the binary character of the theory, a gradient and contextualized approach to organizational learning is proposed. Originality/value: This paper is the first to apply gender subtext analysis to theories of organizational learning and, thus, to analyze their gender subtext.

Purpose: Organizational learning and unlearning are often viewed as different and distinct concepts in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the unlearning concept and reassess its position vis-à-vis learning, in particular second-order and double-loop learning. Design/methodology/approach The paper entails a conceptual analysis. Findings: It is found that there are two conceptual problems with unlearning, and that it is best embedded in the dynamics of the learning process, where it appears to fit well in the "interruption" phase. Research limitations/implications: The research scope of the paper is limited to a theoretical analysis of organizational learning and unlearning. Implications for theory reside in the importance of unlearning and its relation to learning in current organizations. Practical implications: The paper has practical implications for organizations wishing to become more adept at learning and unlearning. Originality/value: The paper is among the first organizational papers to analyze unlearning in direct relation to different phases in the learning dynamics.

Purpose: This paper aims to discuss the "truism" that learning organizations cannot be large organizations and, conversely, that large organizations cannot be learning organizations. This paper analyzes learning in the German and US armies in the Second World War, based on a four-dimensional model of the learning organization. Design/methodology/approach: The paper entails a secondary analysis of historical and military sources and data. Findings: It is found that the German and US armies differed in learning capacity, which can be plausibly, but not exclusively, related to differences in the battlefield performance between those armies in the Second World War. Research limitations/implications: The research scope of the paper is limited to the analysis of two particular armies in the Second World War. Implications of theory reside in the importance of organizational learning capacity and its dimensions for learning in current organizations. Practical implications: The paper has clear practical implications for large organizations wishing to become effective and responsible learning organizations. Originality/value: This is among the first organizational papers to analyze army learning in the Second World War and to derive lessons from that analysis for current large organizations.

Rather than focusing on a functionalist implementation of Lean in a hierarchical, top-down manner, this article shows how public sector managers can look at Lean in a new way. They should be luring others into a Lean network by creating conditions in which they define problems and solutions, seek to interest others in these problems, enroll and commit them to possible solutions and mobilize them as one network. Rather than a linear, straightforward implementation, in this way Lean becomes embedded in a network that is capable of entertaining the multiple interpretations and uses of Lean, thus adding to its organizational success and viability. This article reconceptualizes Lean (management) from a concept that is instrumental to managers to a concept that develops through its relations with other (human) actors. Lean is not a guided process of implementation; rather, Lean transforms through network dynamics into forms that are not predefined. Using a case study from a public sector organization, the authors show that translation is not a linear implementation process and does not result in one stable Lean. Instead, it results in many different (sometimes temporal) 'local' Leans. The article contributes to theorizing about Lean, as well as to success factors in making Lean work in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Research on antecedents of organizational learning generally ignores the fact that organizational learning is at least a two-dimensional construct and that its dimensions may be conflicting. This research often fails to investigate the simultaneous effects of antecedents on these dimensions. To address this gap in the literature, this paper aims to discuss the effects of empowerment and knowledge conversion, two factors often considered to be important antecedents of organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach: The approach adopted involves a review of and reflection on the pertinent literature on learning organizations, organizational learning, empowerment and knowledge conversion. Findings: It is found that both antecedents have contradictory effects on two dimensions of organizational learning. Empowerment affects second-order learning in a positive sense, but first-order learning in a negative sense. Knowledge conversion is positively related to first-order learning, but negatively to second-order learning. Thus, it appears that efforts to improve organizational learning on one dimension may have (unintended) effects on the other, unmeasured dimension. Originality/value: The paper connects disjointed streams of theory and research in a novel way that is of interest and importance to both the academic literature and to organizational practitioners. (Contains 1 table and 1 note.)

To survive in and adapt to dynamic, turbulent, and complex environments, organizations need to engage in learning. This truism is particularly relevant for army organizations in times of war and armed conflict. In this article a case of army operations during World War II is analyzed on the basis of Ortenblad's integrated model of the learning organization and Argyris and Schon's theory of action approach. Among others, it is found that survival of and adaptation to combat conditions is possible through single-loop learning, provided that this learning takes place in an open and productive learning climate. This and other conclusions have important implications for theory and practice of organizational learning under conditions of hierarchy and discipline.