Abstract:

Cleaner Production and Industrial Ecology are challenging new preventive concepts that can improve the environmental and economic performance of industry. In this paper, the author sketches the conditions to challenge the experienced reluctance to change routines in many dissemination projects of these concepts. Organizational learning processes are needed to go beyond limited results such as some good housekeeping practices and waste exchange links.
A dilemma for the dissemination of new concepts in general is that pilot studies never meet the full conditions that are needed. The disseminator is often restricted through resistance to change and many organisational management obstacles. The organisation that is willing to co-operate with an assessment, is often not really interested in the implementation of the results. The funds for research are bounded to the limits of the vision of the funding public or private organisations.
In this article a change process that might generate more radical approaches, is promoted. The steps of this dissemination process within and between organizations are:
1. Bringing information about a new concept for the start of a process of awareness-raising and commitment building;
2. After that, educating the concept to provide the knowledge for the assessments of the concept and strategic discussions in interaction processes with the key-actorswithin and between organizations to generate a basis for implementation;
3. Evaluating the learning processes to stimulate continuous improvement programmes;
4. The above-mentioned actions can be better embedded in organizations when asurroundings and an organizational analysis for the dissemination of the new concept is performed and the results are included in the approach.
Received on Septenber 30, 2004
References: 21