Perspectives on sustainable learning and organizing

The first issue of volume 32 starts with the special issue “Perspectives on sustainable learning and organizing – Part II” guest edited by Ann Svensson, Ulrika Lundh Snis and Irene Bernhard. The special issue features a variety of topics relating to learning and leadership in the learning process. For instance, Salles, Cavalcante, Villardi, & Pereira-Guizzo (2025) investigated multi-level learning in a knowledge-intensive public organization under exceptional and crisis conditions caused by lockdowns. Svensson & Aggestam (2025) investigated the role of digital applications in knowledge sharing in health care. Chatzipanagiotou, Mirijamdotter, & Mörtberg (2025) examined the work of library managers through the prism of their learning practices in the context of collaborative work when supported by technology or computational artifacts. Eriksson & Lycke (2025) examined the challenges of introducing the lifelong learning demanded by industry in higher education institutions that resulted in lessons for their organizational learning. Dellve, Jonsson, Arman, Gillberg, & Wikström (2025) investigated whether organizational learning programs strengthen basic needs in the workplace, which could contribute to the attractiveness of the workplace and prevent older employees from leaving prematurely. Zgrzywa-Ziemak, Walecka-Jankowska, & Zimmer (2025) examined the question of what type of leadership supports both organizational learning and business sustainability and found that distributed leadership serves this purpose well. Areskoug Josefsson & Lunde (2025) also emphasized the importance of leadership in the creation of learning content in the context of digital courses in higher education involving multiple stakeholders.Organizations learn at all levels – individual, team, organizational and interorganizational. However, these learning processes are interwoven and reinforce each other, leading to learning synergies. They have been studied under normal conditions, e.g. in the everyday life of profit and non-profit organizations. However, there is a lack of studies that focus on multilevel learning in crisis situations. Salles et al. (2025) filled this gap by investigating multilevel learning in a knowledge-intensive public organization under exceptional conditions imposed by lockdowns, which was a sudden crisis situation.Knowledge-intensive organizations consist of highly qualified employees whose work is mainly intellectual in nature (Alvesson, 2001). It is also an organization that focuses on generating new knowledge that it uses to innovate and continuously adapt to the conditions of its environment. Their learning is mostly collaborative in nature, making them communities of learning and practice that build their resilience based on improving their learning capabilities and creating new knowledge to not only adapt to new situations but also to successfully overcome and learn from crises. Social interactions based on their strong social capital form the foundation of their work. They encourage their employees to engage in ongoing debates and dialogs with their colleagues that span multiple levels and contribute to shared sense-making and critical reflection. They strive for mature and lasting relationships that help them to master complex tasks, strengthen their learning skills and ensure that their work is meaningful and meets internal and external requirements.The role of leadership in knowledge-intensive organizations is of utmost importance. Their role is to design the environment in a way that encourages ambidexterity, i.e. the use of existing knowledge and the development of new knowledge that could be conducive to innovation. But their role is also to fulfill the role of a servant of the organizational mission and employees by providing constant feedback and creating an environment where employees are autonomous and empowered and can freely express their ideas, but also have many opportunities for new learning and self-development (Bos-Neheles, Bondarouk, & Nijenhuis, 2017). However, effective leaders for knowledge-intensive organizations are hard to find. This is especially true for public organizations that face high levels of regulation and often conflicting environmental demands while operating in mechanistic, hierarchy-based organizational structures that disrupt the flow of knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, collective sense-making and critical reflection (Reus & Liu, 2004). Therefore, an important task of a leader in a knowledge-intensive public organization is to find ways to overcome structural constraints that hinder or prevent the development of social learning relationships; otherwise, their innovation and adaptation processes may also be impaired.Salles et al. (2025) studied the multilevel learning process in an organization dedicated to the preservation of institutional memory, research, teaching, documentation and dissemination of the history of public health in Brazil during a crisis caused by lockdowns in which the workforce had to transition to remote working and telecommuting. The transition was abrupt and unexpected, requiring employees to adopt new behavioral routines and new technical skills. To this end, Salles et al. (2025) used the famous 4I model by Crossan, Lane, & White (1999). This model was useful because it allowed the authors to examine the learning and adaptation process from the individual level to the organizational level in terms of new practices and routines, but also to consider the interactive aspects of organizational change reflected in social relationships. Intuition is the first phase of the model and involves individual attempts to make sense of the new experience. This is followed by interpretation, first at the individual level and then at the group level, which involves shared sense-making and critical reflection and leads to a shared understanding. This is followed by action based on the shared understanding and building an identity, which is reflected in the integration phase that leads to the institutionalization or implementation of the new knowledge in the value creation process so that the new knowledge is reflected in the organizational systems, structures and practices or organizational routines.The managers interviewed shared their views on learning in the crisis situation, which were reflected in the fact that they criticized but also embraced the crisis situation, questioned the practices of that time and experimented with new approaches. This meant that the organization underwent a dynamic process of learning through practice and intuition, based on experimentation, improvisation and learning from experience, but also on critical reflection. The learning process was highly interactive and social in nature and included formal, nonformal and informal forms of learning and knowledge generation. This process was followed by the institutionalization of the newly acquired knowledge through documents and work routines, but also through the establishment of digital platforms and online processes, such as the one for selection. Although the process was challenging, it strengthened the relationships between the organizations and the internal social capital and left lasting positive results.It is well known that technological solutions such as information and communication systems are an important prerequisite for learning and knowledge management in organizations. Therefore, it is of academic and practical interest to investigate the possibilities of using different IT solutions, such as applications, for learning, knowledge sharing and knowledge management in different sectors and human activities. In issue 1, Svensson & Aggestam (2025) examined the role of digital applications in knowledge sharing in health care. Health care worldwide faces numerous challenges, such as staff shortages, budget constraints, increasing demand for medical services and demographic changes that particularly affect this demand. On the other hand, successful and effective health care depends primarily on the continuous learning of medical staff and the effective application of knowledge in the design of various health-care procedures and protocols. Collaboration and knowledge sharing are key to this process.IT systems can effectively enable and promote learning and knowledge sharing. Because of the continuous feedback loop, these IT systems are also constantly updated and improved based on the experiences and needs of their users. Because of the vast amounts of user and log data, health care is highly digitized and new solutions are being developed and tested almost daily. However, it should be noted that for the effective implementation of IT systems, various technological, but also organizational and social, factors must be taken into account, which are also interconnected and intertwined, influencing each other and stimulating further adaptations to internal needs and external requirements. In other words, multiple stakeholders and their interactions need to be considered to design and create an effective information system that leads not only to the best possible health care but also to the discovery of the most efficient solutions, the integration of different stakeholders such as medical staff, patients, their families and regulators, as well as learning, knowledge sharing and the discovery of new knowledge.In Issue 1, Svensson & Aggestam (2025) examined how digital applications facilitate knowledge sharing between different care providers and health-care professionals by conducting a qualitative action case study in a change laboratory where a digital app for wound care was used. This app was a knowledge repository used to support learning but also knowledge sharing about the most effective wound care. In this way, new knowledge could be fed into the system based on new insights and experiences, but also the reuse of knowledge for those who needed it. In this way, the application remained current, relevant and reliable over time. Its purpose was to provide support in assessing wounds and determining the appropriate treatment. This was made possible by two modules of the app – a knowledge library or repository of information on wound infections and tools for wound assessment and treatment selection.The authors found that the digital app facilitated individual reflection, learning and knowledge sharing. Using the app stimulated collaborative sessions in which participants discussed their experiences and shared knowledge that was valuable for inclusion in the application. The app itself also facilitated knowledge sharing between participants when using the app. This also enabled the identification of information and knowledge that could be included, updated or removed from the app. In this way, the app served as an effective knowledge management tool that enabled not only the storage and retrieval of knowledge but also the sharing and creation of knowledge. It is also important to note that any KM system primarily enables the retrieval and storage of explicit knowledge. However, when supported by knowledge sharing and collaboration, tacit knowledge is also shared, developed and created, allowing the full benefits of knowledge management to be realized. It is important to note that these processes should be supported by effective leadership that is responsible for shaping the learning culture.The process of learning, also known as the process of acquiring knowledge, is deeply rooted in the environment in which it takes place. In other words, learning is often achieved by doing or performing certain activities, which lead to experiences and benefits that result from the learning curve. The process of knowledge acquisition is therefore linked to the situation, context and culture in which the knowledge is acquired, developed, used or shared (Weinert, Billert, de Gafenco, Janson, & Leimeister, 2023). Learning is therefore situational and work-integrated, which has opened the door for research into workplace learning. Workplace learning is essential in today’s world because work is rarely repetitive, and are often with situations and that and that is also shared and distributed the In the at the of the when there was a strong of between and work was from learning because the work was mostly and learning or learning at work has a process that is highly and because the work of organizational is often also highly and Therefore, workplace learning is often collaborative in Workplace learning takes through through and through and shaping possible courses of action by Workplace learning is therefore a practical process that is social in nature and in which participants learn by working in the workplace is highly by various information and communication technology has therefore work and learning as well as communication between organizational all organizations use form of computational or such as or systems, that a e.g. or should well into the work dynamic and enable and between employees this special et al. 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