Et organisasjonslæringsperspektiv på miljøledelse | An organizational learning perspective on environmental management

Markets are creating tougher competition which increases the pressure on organizations tolearn and adapt, to be more proactive, and to change faster to stay ahead of competitors. Thusthe ability to learn is very important. The notion of the “learning organization” is recognitionof the importance to organizations of being able to respond rapidly and creatively to eventsoutside the firm’s boundaries. The challenge posed by the consequences that organizationshave on the natural environment are among the most difficult that the firm faces. Effectivestrategies and responses demand that all of the firm’s knowledge resources are used. Pressurefrom society implicitly makes the environment a part of the company’s strategy by forcing itto adapt to social demands. The environmental achievements the learning organizations gainare not necessarily rewarded and not proven by a certificate or mark. As evidence of theircommitment to environmental performance an increasing number of companies choose to getan environmental certification, if only to satisfy demands from customers and society.As the number of environmentally certified companies continue to grow it is relevant to lookat the effects and consequences this trend has on organizations’ ability to learn. This studyfocuses on the ISO 14001 certification system, which has been criticized for several aspectsincluding being both a “one size fits all” approach to all industries and for including only topmanagement stakeholders. This is not compatible with the more dynamic and flexibleapproaches supported by the organizational learning perspective. As the study will show, thetwo approaches, ISO 14001 and organizational learning, have interactions that can lead tocultural challenges and learning limitations.Learning organizations are dynamic and seem to fit the metaphor of organic organizations.ISO certification appears to be more compatible with mechanistic organizations, which aremore rigid and facilitate other organizational aspects than organic organizations. To gaindeeper understanding of the interaction effects that an ISO-implementation can have on anorganization’s learning ability, the paper starts with a theoretical discussion of bothenvironmental standards and learning organizations. This identifies the main differencesbetween the two approaches and sets the stage for a model that combines aspects from bothapproaches.To illustrate the effects of a proposed ISO implementation, the oil industry exploration firm,PGS, is used as a case. The firm’s learning culture is assessed using an instrument developed by Di Bella et al. (1998). The initial assumption that this study is based upon is supportedthroughout the paper, showing several inconsistencies between learning organizations andISO 14001. The conclusion is that the more learning based the organization is, the more willits characteristics conflict with the aspects facilitated by ISO 14001.