Emotional “dead Fish” as Impediments to Organizational Learning

Nonaka and Takeuchi’s (1995) model of organizational learning emphasizes the need for face-to-face communication to establish a channel for tacit-to-tacit knowledge exchange between individuals. Within any organization, new concepts are imparted during these tacit exchanges. This paper explores the relevance of emotional unawareness on learning by examining the association between alexithymia and undergraduate computing and business students’ GPA. Alexithymia is a personality construct where individuals have difficulty identifying feelings, have difficulty describing feelings, have an externally-oriented thinking style, and have a diminished fantasy life. The paper discusses the etiology and characteristics of alexithymia and particularly those characteristics as they relate to interpersonal communication. These preliminary findings suggest that alexithymia inhibits academic success as indicated by GPA. The paper concludes with a discussion of future research.