Can people unlearn? A reflection on the conceptual and cognitive foundations of organization systems theory

Organizational science literature frequently employs biological metaphors, likening organizations to organisms that not only strive for survival but also learn from experience. Yet, this accumulated knowledge can become obsolete as internal and external environments evolve, necessitating the abandonment of outdated beliefs and knowledge—a process termed "unlearning." Introduced by Hedberg (1981) and Nystrom and Starbuck (1984), unlearning is defined as the deliberate discarding of old knowledge to make way for new insights, especially crucial in hypercompetitive environments. Despite its growing relevance, the concept of unlearning lacks a clear, consistent definition and its distinction from psychological concepts like forgetting remains unclear. Our study aims to clarify unlearning by achieving three objectives: delineating how unlearning is defined across organizational literature, exploring its relationship with psychological concepts, and proposing a cognitively plausible definition of unlearning. We propose a multidimensional taxonomy of unlearning, argue for its unique position within cognitive literature, and offer a definition that facilitates empirically testable theories. This work seeks to refine the theoretical foundation of organizational systems by elucidating a concept critical to adapting in rapidly changing environments.