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Unlearning in founder chief executive officers : a critical competence for success

Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2017.

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Other Authors: Sutherland, Margie
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2018
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Sutherland, Margie
author_browse Sutherland, Margie
author_facet Sutherland, Margie
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2018 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2017.
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
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license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2018
publishDateRange 2018
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publisher University of Pretoria
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spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/64815 Unlearning in founder chief executive officers : a critical competence for success Sutherland, Margie ichelp@gibs.co.za Singh, Virosha UCTD Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2017. Founder-CEOÔs are highly influential in the growth of their businesses which operate in increasingly complex and turbulent environments. It is key for the businessesÔ survival that the Founder is adaptive and flexible in coping with changes in the external environment. Typically, Founder-CEOÔs bring certain knowledge and behaviours into the business, which may be unsuitable for the developing business context. The literature shows a significant relationship between unlearning and change. Unlearning can facilitate the discarding of attachments to old knowledge and outdated behaviours. The literature, however, does not extensively discuss Founder-CEOs attachments and how they are unlearned. This study fills this gap in literature through the use of qualitative, exploratory research methods to gain deeper insights into the unlearning of unfavourable attachments of Founder-CEOÔs. A total of 15 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with Founder-CEOÔs of businesses from 14 different industries. The key findings confirmed that Founder-CEOÔs are unfavourably attached to various knowledge structures, behaviours, attitudes, beliefs and skills. Certain external events transpire that force the Founder to unlearn these attachments during different stages of their businesses lifecycle. Letting go of a deeply entrenched attachment has an emotional impact on the Founder-CEO, as they find it difficult to let go of their preferred practises. However, the Founder-CEOÔs propensity for growth outweighs these emotions. This study provides two major contributions towards the literature. Firstly, the findings provided the necessary insights to make adjustments to Rautenbach, Sutherland, & Scheepers (2015) original process model of unlearning an attachment for the context of Founder-CEOs. Secondly, and most importantly, a model for the Founder-CEO Unlearning Stages for Business Growth emerged from the findings. This model provides a means for the early identification of an unfavourable attachment through the processes of pre-unlearning, unlearning and post-unlearning. This will help the business transition to the next stage of its growth and improves its chances of survival. lt2018 Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) MBA Unrestricted 2018-05-11T09:02:30Z 2018-05-11T09:02:30Z 30-03-18 2017 Mini Dissertation Singh, V 2017, Unlearning in founder chief executive officers : a critical competence for success, MBA Mini Dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/64815> http://hdl.handle.net/2263/64815 en © 2018 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Unlearning in founder chief executive officers : a critical competence for success
title Unlearning in founder chief executive officers : a critical competence for success
title_full Unlearning in founder chief executive officers : a critical competence for success
title_fullStr Unlearning in founder chief executive officers : a critical competence for success
title_full_unstemmed Unlearning in founder chief executive officers : a critical competence for success
title_short Unlearning in founder chief executive officers : a critical competence for success
title_sort unlearning in founder chief executive officers a critical competence for success
topic UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/64815