Dear Colleagues,

Organisational learning happens when organisations make changes in how knowledge and experiences are build, arranged and integrated in the organisation as e.g. new routines and behaviors, actions and learning systems or practice-based competences. The vast majority of organisational learning researchers argues that fast-changing and dynamic societal and business environments are making it more imperative than ever that organisations have the capacity to learn and adapt. Still, the majority of organisational learning studies have had its focus on strategy, management, economic performance and competitiveness with limited concerns for what learning means in relation to transforming the ecosystems around and within organisations in a sustainable way. We thus need to turn our attention to what characterize decent, durable and responsible processes and outcomes of learning and change in e.g. work environments, work life, business models, inter and intra-organisational development and growth and production, thus develop a theory of learning in organisations that are shaped in the context of sustainability.

The aim of this special issue Sustainable Learning and Change in Organisations is to develop the existing knowledge on sustainable organisational learning. Sustainable Learning and Change in Organisations aspire to address how we are to define and conceptualize sustainable organisational learning and what characterize sustainable learning and change processes in organisations. With this special issue, we particularly want to reach out and strengthen ties to ongoing research in the nexus of sustainability and organizational learning. Given the importance of the societal and business challenges and complexity of the transition towards sustainable organisational learning, we welcome empirical and theoretical research from diverse and cross-disciplinary perspectives that can focus on the following indicative topics:

• Struggles over the meaning of sustainability within and across organizational learning
• Conceptualize sustainable learning in organisations based on a behavioural, cognitive or practice-based framework.
• Challenges and opportunities for sustainable organisational learning and change models
• Action related for how to create the grounds for transitions to sustainable organisational learning between and across different types of organisations
• Outline factors that distinguish sustainable learning and change in organisations and its ecosystems from less sustainable ones
• The consequences of broader contextual dynamics in the emergence of more sustainable patterns of learning and change in the organisation and its ecosystems.
• Circumstances of obtaining more inclusive and durable models of learning and change in different sizes and types of organisations
• Present examples and cases of applied research on organisational change that reflects attempts to design sustainable patterns of learning

References:

Benn S and Martin A. (2010). Learning and change for sustainability reconsidered: A role for boundary objects. Academy of Management Learning & Education 9: 397-412.

Brandi U and Elkjaer B. (2011). Organisational learning viewed from a social learning perspective. In: Easterby-Smith M and Lyles MA (eds) Handbook of Organizational learning and knowledge management. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.

Elkjaer B. (2004). Organizational learning - The 'third way'. Management learning 35: 419-434.

Zollo M, Cennamo C and Neumann K. (2013). Beyond what and why: Understanding organizational evolution towards sustainable enterprise models. Organization & Environment 26: 241-259.

Siebenhüner B and Arnold M. (2007). Organizational learning to manage sustainable development. Business Strategy and the Environment 16: 339-353.

Pluye P, Potvin L and Denis J-L. (2004). Making public health programs last: conceptualizing sustainability. Evaluation and Program Planning 27: 121-133.

Smith PA. (2012). The importance of organizational learning for organizational sustainability. The learning organization 19: 4-10.

Wals AE. (2011). Learning our way to sustainability. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development 5: 177-186.

Prof. Dr. Ulrik Brandi
Prof. Dr. Bente Elkjaer
Guest Editors

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• Knowledge sharing
• lifelong learning
• organisational change and development
• organisational learning
• sustainability