Policy instruments for sustainability-oriented organizational learning

Policy instruments for sustainability-oriented organizational learning

Policy instruments for sustainability-oriented organizational learning

Muller M., Siebenhuner B. Business Strategy and the Environment, March 2007, Vol. 16 No. 3, Start page: 232. No. of pages: 14

Purpose – to ascertain which environmental policies promote organizational learning and innovation for sustainability. Design/methodology/approach – links government obligations to reduce polluting emission to organizations’ environmental management, maintains that prescriptive policies are ineffective, proposes use of policies supporting learning and innovation, but observes that innovation promotion is usually contained in R&D policies. Asks how learning about sustainability can be translated to organizations and under what conditions such learning can take place, discusses internal conditions of culture, structure and behaviors, points out that organizational learning builds on individual learning, and suggests external learning conditions, to be considered when developing an environmental policy, that include temporal dynamics of the systems subject to the policy, linkages between different environmental media, e.g. water air and soil, organizational decentralization and stakeholder involvement. Combines both internal and external factors in a framework of sustainability organizational learning. Debates the effects of different types of policy instrument, looks at command-and-control, market-based and persuasive policy-types, contends that command-and-control policies limit temporal flexibility and do not allow deliberative processes in their development or implementation, that application of economic instruments is limited since companies cannot avoid demanding standards and high prices for emissions, and that the effectiveness of persuasive instruments depends on the receptiveness of stakeholders and consumers, and concludes that a mix of instrument types, with ratios dependent on the problem to be addressed and improvements to be achieved, is the best approach. Originality/value – summarizes the characteristics of, and suitable applications for, the three policy-types.ISSN: 0964-4733Reference: 36AJ586

Keywords: Corporate culture, Environmental management, Innovation, Learning, Organizational behaviour, Organizational structure, Sustainable development