Unlearning at Work

Book excerpt: This book is to provide insights into the process of individual unlearning, which is little known in previous studies. This is the first book that described how employees should unlearn, i.e., abandon obsolete and outdated beliefs or routines to acquire new ones, at workplace. Updating old knowledge and skills to new one is crucial not only for organizations but also for individuals to survive in today’s competitive and turbulent environment. It provides readers with mechanisms by which personal factors, such as goal orientation, reflection, and critical reflection, and promotes employees’ unlearning under the influence of situational factors such as supervisors’ behaviors and promotion of the positions. Based on the findings by quantitative and qualitative analyses using questionnaire survey and interviews, this book is highly recommended to readers who are interested in higher-order learning process for self-change at work in the fields of organizational behavior and human resources development.