کد مقاله | کد نشریه | سال انتشار | مقاله انگلیسی | نسخه تمام متن |
---|---|---|---|---|
1053572 | 1485065 | 2014 | 10 صفحه PDF | دانلود رایگان |
• Case study in government department responsible for environmental policy.
• Informal and lateral communication main sources informing risk management.
• Risk governance framework not meeting knowledge requirements of decision makers.
• Informal communication vulnerable to knowledge loss and resource constraints.
• Explore systematic knowledge management to better support risk management.
Effective risk management within environmental policy making requires knowledge on natural, economic and social systems to be integrated; knowledge characterised by complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. We describe a case study in a (UK) central government department exploring how risk governance supports and hinders this challenging integration of knowledge. Forty-five semi-structured interviews were completed over a two year period. We found that lateral knowledge transfer between teams working on different policy areas was widely viewed as a key source of knowledge. However, the process of lateral knowledge transfer was predominantly informal and unsupported by risk governance structures. We argue this made decision quality vulnerable to a loss of knowledge through staff turnover, and time and resource pressures. Our conclusion is that the predominant form of risk governance framework, with its focus on centralised decision-making and vertical knowledge transfer is insufficient to support risk-based, environmental policy making. We discuss how risk governance can better support environmental policy makers through systematic knowledge management practices.
Journal: Environmental Science & Policy - Volume 41, August 2014, Pages 23–32