The role of organisational learning in climate policy development : a study of participatory vulnerability assessment project in Estonian local and regional governments
(2012) In Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science MESM01 20121LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
- Abstract
- Local and regional governments play a key role in responding to climate change. Climate change
vulnerability assessment is used to inform them about the possible risks and response options. It is
apparent that with those assessments there is a risk of ‘learning on paper’ as opposed to ‘learning in
use’. To move from one to another, the policy-makers have to understand climate change in relation
to their own understanding of hazard and governance. They can learn only in relation to what they
already know. To ensure that the local government does not lose its valuable knowledge when, for
example, someone leaves the collective, it is important that the new perspectives are picked up by
the whole organisation. It is possible for... (More) - Local and regional governments play a key role in responding to climate change. Climate change
vulnerability assessment is used to inform them about the possible risks and response options. It is
apparent that with those assessments there is a risk of ‘learning on paper’ as opposed to ‘learning in
use’. To move from one to another, the policy-makers have to understand climate change in relation
to their own understanding of hazard and governance. They can learn only in relation to what they
already know. To ensure that the local government does not lose its valuable knowledge when, for
example, someone leaves the collective, it is important that the new perspectives are picked up by
the whole organisation. It is possible for an organisation to learn if the necessary conditions have been met in, according to Denton, the strategic, structural and cultural dimensions. His description of conditions for organisational learning is also the theoretical framework in this study. If an
organisation itself does not undertake a learning process, it can be initiated by an external
cooperation project. The framework was used to analyse the work process and interviews that were
conducted with people who were involved with the project – two project leaders, two project
coordinators and eight participants from the local and regional level who were actually carrying out
the vulnerability assessment.
The results show that with such a project it is possible to create dynamics that make the local and
regional governments externally well aware of and cooperative with each other. A project is
moderately capable of offering a flexible structure and supportive and blame-free atmosphere but
less useful in providing a learning strategy with a shared vision. External initiation allowed the
creation of new knowledge but lack of instructions on how to make it accessible later inhibited its
dissemination. At the same time it is hard to surprise policy-makers with information that they did
not know before. Unless there is no truly revealing locally specific data, the emphasis on the climate
scenarios does not have to be huge as there are many more things that deserve attention if local
governments are expected to learn. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/2856640
- author
- Vihma, Markus LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MESM01 20121
- year
- 2012
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- policy, organisational learning, climate change, vulnerability assessment, local and regional governments, sustainability science
- publication/series
- Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science
- report number
- 2012:008
- language
- English
- id
- 2856640
- date added to LUP
- 2012-06-29 12:34:06
- date last changed
- 2012-11-26 10:27:42
@misc{2856640, abstract = {{Local and regional governments play a key role in responding to climate change. Climate change vulnerability assessment is used to inform them about the possible risks and response options. It is apparent that with those assessments there is a risk of ‘learning on paper’ as opposed to ‘learning in use’. To move from one to another, the policy-makers have to understand climate change in relation to their own understanding of hazard and governance. They can learn only in relation to what they already know. To ensure that the local government does not lose its valuable knowledge when, for example, someone leaves the collective, it is important that the new perspectives are picked up by the whole organisation. It is possible for an organisation to learn if the necessary conditions have been met in, according to Denton, the strategic, structural and cultural dimensions. His description of conditions for organisational learning is also the theoretical framework in this study. If an organisation itself does not undertake a learning process, it can be initiated by an external cooperation project. The framework was used to analyse the work process and interviews that were conducted with people who were involved with the project – two project leaders, two project coordinators and eight participants from the local and regional level who were actually carrying out the vulnerability assessment. The results show that with such a project it is possible to create dynamics that make the local and regional governments externally well aware of and cooperative with each other. A project is moderately capable of offering a flexible structure and supportive and blame-free atmosphere but less useful in providing a learning strategy with a shared vision. External initiation allowed the creation of new knowledge but lack of instructions on how to make it accessible later inhibited its dissemination. At the same time it is hard to surprise policy-makers with information that they did not know before. Unless there is no truly revealing locally specific data, the emphasis on the climate scenarios does not have to be huge as there are many more things that deserve attention if local governments are expected to learn.}}, author = {{Vihma, Markus}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, series = {{Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science}}, title = {{The role of organisational learning in climate policy development : a study of participatory vulnerability assessment project in Estonian local and regional governments}}, year = {{2012}}, }