Content area
1. Perspectives on sustainable learning and organizing
This issue provides an in-depth understanding of opportunities for sustainable learning and organizational strategies, with a particular focus on public organizations, to help them address their challenges. Organizations today play a central role in the quest for sustainable development and the focus of sustainable learning and organizing is of vital importance. Referring to United Nations (2021), an organization needs to learn how to be sustainable in many perspectives or dimensions. However, it is a complex and huge challenge for the organizations constantly confronted to obtain new knowledge, demanding the learning of new practices and expertise to make informed decisions not knowing the outcomes in advance. Moreover, it is a challenge obtaining new information, adapting new strategies and a readiness to leave behind old ways of organizing and working. And, not to forget, to manage crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, and the technology-embeddedness are of vital importance.
Digital technology essentially changes the way organizations operate, often seen as a disruptive driver of change and learning. Digital transformation including artificial intelligence and technology implementation poses challenges for human empowerment and judgment and calls for new perspectives and logics of organizing and learning involving the understanding of revolutionary as well as continuous changes in operations that affect the whole organization (Shahlaei & Lundh Snis, 2022; Svensson, Bergkvist, Bäccman, & Durst, 2021; Vallo Hult & Byström, 2022). Moreover, it put forward changes of work organizations, competences and roles, as it typically will challenge established routines and relations between actors within organizations and forming new practices in public organizations (Bednar & Welch, 2020; Bernhard & Wihlborg, 2022; Drechsler, Gregory, Wagner, & Tumbas, 2020; Kallinikos, Aaltonen, & Marton, 2013; Lyytinen, Yoo, & Boland, 2016). Then, to stabilize new practices, the organizational learning and management agency is crucial (Barley, 2020).
When working with these complex concerns, there is a need to embrace multiple perspectives such as managing competences based on inclusion of workforce, trust, transparency, regular employee development, collaboration and encouragement for constant new organizational initiatives and experimentation (Battistella, Cicero, & Preghenella, 2021; Bernhard & Olsson, 2020; Bernhard & Wihlborg, 2022).
Learning as a concept is generally connected to values and valuations, and the understanding of learning is dependent on what theoretical perspective that is used (Wenger, 2010). However, there are several useful learning theories for research within this area. Knowledge from recent research has, e.g. recognized the importance of organizational learning for an organizational shift to be more sustainable (e.g. Hermelingmeier & von Wirth, 2021) and organizational learning and a learning organization are treated as tools and even as a key element of any effort to implement sustainable development in organizations effectively (e.g. Battistella et al., 2021). Furthermore, research state that the work-integrated learning (WIL) theory is particularly useful as it articulates a trans-disciplinary approach to learn. Within WIL, trans-disciplinary and inter-professionality means that new learning is achieved in collaboration, where theoretical and practical knowledge as well as experiences are integrated and linked in organizations (Bernhard & Olsson, 2023; Billett, 2004, 2014).
However, research on sustainable learning and organizing is insufficiently covered in the context of public organizations. Hence, the focus within this issue is on sustainable learning and organizing in public organizations, where the view on learning varies with the purpose of each contribution.
To sum up, the purpose of this special issue is to extend the understanding of the opportunities for learning by providing knowledge, new frameworks and practices about organizations’ ability, focusing on public organizations, to support sustainable development in their management of learning and organizing initiatives.
2. The papers in this special issue
Former versions of the seven papers in this special issue were presented at the OLKC 2022 Conference of Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities which took place on September 7–9, 2022, at School of Business, Economics and IT, University West, Trollhättan, Sweden having “Learning future workforce capabilities for global sustainability” as the overall theme. The papers collected in this special issue suggest many vital aspects on the theme: “Perspectives on sustainable learning and organizing.
An overview of this issue includes a contribution that sets a scene for a sustainable perspective on the role of distributed leadership’s effect of organizational learning on business sustainability. Furthermore, this publication contains novel research contributions focusing on different aspects of organization learning in public health organizations and in academic education, as well as on industry–academic collaboration.
The paper “The effect of organizational learning on business sustainability–the role of distributed leadership” is written by Walecka-Jankowska, Zgrzywa-Ziemak, Walecka-Jankowska, and Zimmer (2025). The paper conducts a discussion on the relationship between organizational learning and business sustainability, which are two strongly interdependent concepts, interacting with each other. In particular, the authors want to examine if and in what way distributed leadership is a factor important for the relationship between organizational learning and business sustainability. An extensive literature review forms the basis for their hypothesis, which are then verified through large-scale empirical cross-country research, i.e. Denmark and Poland. The value of the paper is the development of two alternative models of the relationship among distributed leadership, organizational learning and business sustainability. The results from the empirical study reveal that distributed leadership stands as a significant factor positively influencing both organization learning and business sustainability. Importantly, the positive impact of distributed leadership on business sustainability becomes more pronounced as organizational learning processes intensify. Findings show that distributed leadership is the element that appears to be important for implementing business sustainability, since commitment to business sustainability is largely driven by sharing values. They conclude that distributed leadership has led to a shift from a focus on the heroic leader to a concept of leadership as an adaptive process, fostering a systemic perception of reality and the involvement employees.
The paper “Multilevel learning in a knowledge-intensive public organization during teleworking implementation amidst the COVID-19 crisis” is written by Salles, Cavalcante, Villardi, and Pereira-Guizzo (2025). The aim of this paper is to identify emergent multilevel learning processes developed during abrupt telework implementation amidst COVID-19 health crisis in a public knowledge intensive organization. The paper takes point of departure from the Brazilian case when, due to public health emergency declaration and mandatory social isolation as a preventive measure to face COVID-19 dissemination, teleworking was adopted by all public sector workers excepting those performing essential activities in their institutions. A qualitative research approach was applied and extensive as well as multidimensional results are provided. The findings offer rich descriptions of excerpts which are analyzed in categories of learning types, learning modes and learning levels. They demonstrate how different learning processes flow diverse organizational levels that emerged in crisis. The findings end up in eight emergent learning processes allowing workers to adopt teleworking so, continuing their activities during crisis context. Learning emerged from the unexpected process of coping with the crisis, which included activities, i.e. improvisation, experimenting and taking critical decisions to discover alternative possibilities for continuing work in a social isolation labor context.
The paper “How digital applications can facilitate knowledge sharing in health care” is written by Aggestam and Svensson (2025), and it contributes to understanding how digital applications can facilitate knowledge sharing in a healthcare context. The study was conducted as a qualitative action case study performed as a formative intervention study as a Change Laboratory. In the study different care providers and healthcare professionals participated in the Change Laboratory with eight sessions. Between the sessions the healthcare professionals used a new digital application concerning the process of assessment and treatment of wounds that are hard to heal. The sessions contributed to identifying new knowledge that has potential for being included in the application and hence are important to keeping the application updated and relevant over time. The collaborative sessions also prove to support knowledge sharing and learning when a new digital application has been implemented in the work process on the organizational level. As such, the collaborative sessions were also an important issue in driving learning in collaboration and to develop new ways of working, i.e. organizational change.
The paper “Organizational learning programs to fulfilling basic needs at work: significance for work attractiveness and turnover in strained sectors” is written by Dellve, Jonsson, Arman, Gillberg, and Wikström (2025). The aim is to explore whether participation in employer-provided skills and learning programs can strengthen older workers’ abilities to carry out their work in a meaningful way so that it increases work attractiveness and a willingness to remain in the current job position. The paper presents a quantitative study on organizational learning programs at work to strengthen work conditions. Some welfare sectors, such as educational and caring sectors, are strained by challenges to maintain, sustain and develop quality, knowledge and staff, due to poor economic and social resources with regard to sustainability. Therefore, this study especially includes professionals as assistance nurses, nurses and teachers, aged 55 years and older, in a Swedish city. The results show positive relationships between active participation in organizational learning programs and autonomy, relatedness and competence, as well as attractive work. Associations are also observed between participation in learning programs through the strengthened basic needs at work with work attractiveness and lover intention to leave, but not prolonged retirement preference. Thus, organizational learning programs at work have the potential to strengthen work conditions and increase work attractiveness in strained welfare sectors.
The paper “Learning from coproducing digital courses in sexual health in higher education in Norway” is written by Areskoug Josefsson and Lunde (2025). The purpose is to explore the feasibility and value of large-scale digital co-production in higher education. The particular focus is on how such digital co-production is conducted in higher education courses in sexual health. A large-scale development project of seven courses of sexual health at master’s level is taken as an example in this research. In all, over 100 people from various stakeholder groups (teachers, students, researchers, patients, etc.) participated in the project. Co-production, sharing of knowledge and developing competence together were key features of the study. The authors motivate their aim with theoretical conceptualizations of co-production and co-design, with a special concern about the equality and power-sharing principles of co-production. An important implication from this study is the learning that was enabled through co-production with active engagement of all stakeholders on all project activities. Issues and conflicts are part of co-production and equally important are the discussions and critical reflections that facilitate equal participation. The diversity in the group might have increased the tensions but still highly relevant for a future working life and thus need to be manageable. The results also show that the study was under stable management and core group which supported a learning culture.
The paper “Work-integrated learning in managers’ cooperative work practices,” written by Chatzipanagiotou, Mirijamdotter, and Mörtberg (2025), regards public digitalization research on academic library managers’ learning practices. The background and context are that academic library managers’ everyday work mainly is cooperative. This cooperation is predominantly supported by computational artifacts. Thus, they must learn how to use the computational artifacts efficiently and effectively which involves understanding the changes in everyday work that affect managers which requires a deep understanding of their cooperative work practices. The empirical setting of the research was based on a Swedish university library where ten managers participated in the research. A thematic method was used to analyze the empirical material, which was conducted by focused ethnography through participant observations, interviews and document analysis. Work-integrated learning and computer-supported cooperative work was used as the conceptual lens. The results demonstrated five learning practices:
collaboration;
communication;
coordination;
decision-making processes; and
computational artifacts’ use.
Regarding learning, the findings revealed that learning is embedded in managers’ cooperative work practices, which do not necessarily include sufficient training time. Furthermore, learning was situational and intertwined with cooperation. To sum up, the central contribution lies in providing insights into how academic library managers learn and cooperate in their everyday work, accentuating the role of computational artifacts, the importance of the work context and the collective nature of learning.
The paper “May the force of lifelong learning be with you–sustainable organizational learning in HEIs meeting competence needs in industry,” written by Eriksson and Lycke (2025), is aiming to study how organizational learning supports the development of academic structures, creating agile and sustainable formal educational models that are meeting external competence needs. The background to this research is that the development of novel technology, digitalization and global societal changes re-shapes manufacturing industry highlighting needs for competence development of industrial professionals. The findings are based on a qualitative case study which is a part of a longitudinal research study. Qualitative data was collected through five focus groups, incorporating 32 informants from different HEI function categories. The results are three folded. First, changing traditional academic structures requires joint engagement between all HEI functions, emphasizing organizational learning with sub-processes of searching, creating, sustaining and exchanging knowledge in a learning loop. Next: there is a consensus among the different HEI functions regarding the value of the HEI’s co-production with society, although bureaucracy and academic structure hinder flexibility. Third: cross-functional teams building a “chain-of-trust” within HEI unified with complete management support, demonstrate opportunities to progress into a learning organization.
With this special issue the authors thank all authors, reviewers and other contributors that participated at the Conference of Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities September 7–9, 2022, at School of Business, Economics and IT, University West, Trollhättan, Sweden. The authors hope that the issue will inspire both researchers as well as practitioners to develop the field of organizational learning and the perspectives on sustainable learning and organizing.
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