Organizational Forgetting and Strategic Renewal: A Quantitative Study of Knowledge Discarding, Legacy Attachment, and Renewal Success
Keywords:
organizational forgetting, organizational unlearning, strategic renewal, change management, organizational learning, innovation, knowledge management, organizational adaptationAbstract
This study examines the role of organizational forgetting in facilitating strategic renewal, focusing on how organizations intentionally discard outdated knowledge, routines, and mental models to adapt to changing competitive environments. Drawing on Organizational Unlearning Theory (Hedberg, 1981) and the Strategic Renewal Framework, the research investigates the mechanisms through which deliberate forgetting contributes to organizational transformation and performance improvement. Data were collected from 100 managers working in organizations that had recently undergone significant strategic renewal initiatives, including entry into new markets, business model innovation, and technological transformation. The findings reveal a strong positive relationship between deliberate organizational forgetting and successful strategic renewal (r = 0.52), indicating that the ability to abandon obsolete assumptions and practices is a critical factor in organizational adaptation. Organizations that attempted to maintain legacy thinking alongside newly adopted strategic directions experienced substantially greater implementation difficulties, reporting 42% more conflict during the renewal process. Several managed-forgetting practices were associated with improved renewal outcomes. These included structured sunset rituals for retiring outdated practices, which increased renewal speed by 34%; clear differentiation between archived knowledge and actively utilized knowledge, associated with a 28% improvement; and the strategic introduction of new employees, which enhanced renewal effectiveness by 32% through the infusion of fresh perspectives. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that forgetting intentionality (β = 0.36), legacy attachment (β = −0.30), and renewal vision clarity (β = 0.26) jointly explained 44% of the variance in strategic renewal success. The findings suggest that organizational forgetting is not merely a passive loss of knowledge but an active capability that supports transformation and innovation. The study contributes to management science by extending theoretical understanding of organizational unlearning and offers practical guidance for leaders seeking to implement effective strategic renewal in dynamic environments.
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