Apathy under the surface: Theorizing quiet quitting’s impact on organizational learning

Abstract

Purpose This paper integrates research on quiet quitting (a mindset where employees restrict their efforts to their job description) and organizational learning (OL) to illustrate how quiet quitting challenges the sub-processes of OL. Design/methodology/approach By integrating the existing literature on quiet quitting and OL, this paper identifies and maps the challenges of quiet quitting to the sub-processes of OL, namely, intuiting, interpreting, integrating, and institutionalizing within the 4I framework of Crossan et al. (1999). Findings This paper conceptually establishes that quiet quitting undermines employees’ cognitive efforts and weakens employees’ contribution to team discussions. Further, quiet quitting undermines suggestion sharing and creates a reluctance to share knowledge, undermining OL. Practical implications The paper provides actionable strategies for managers to tackle the challenges of quiet quitting on OL. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is amongst the first to illustrate the challenges of quiet quitting on OL.