The ‘Dark Side’ of Learning – An Exploration of Overlearning and its Consequences in Retailing

Abstract

Organizational learning and competence development has been a debated issue in management research for some time now, and that organizations should constantly evolve through knowledge acquisition, development and transfer is an, to a large extent, undisputed statement. However, research on the connection between organizational learning and performance appears to be surprisingly monotonous, and ‘the dark sides’ of organizational learning, that is how increased learning may affect organizations in a negative manner, are conspicuously absent. Recently, in retailing, the development of sales peoples’ product knowledge through various sorts of training programs has been popular. This is often seen as a way to enhance customer service and improve organizational performance in the customer-sales person interaction. However, it is questionable whether this is always the case. The aim of the present paper is to critically scrutinize this assumption, by exploring how sales people’s expertise can influence the customer-sales person interaction negatively. In order to explore this, the paper draws on vignettes generated from various retailing settings, such as consumer electronics stores, financial advising and wine stores.