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Article
Publication date: 1 April 2005

Doug Mercer, Thomas Leschine, Christina H. Drew, William Griffith and Timothy Nyerges

To derive from the environmental risk and knowledge management literatures a model that integrates organizational form, democratic vision and epistemological needs of public

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Abstract

Purpose

To derive from the environmental risk and knowledge management literatures a model that integrates organizational form, democratic vision and epistemological needs of public agencies responsible for addressing environmental risks. To analyze the knowledge management practices of the United States Department of Energy (USDOE) that is responsible for cleaning up landscapes contaminated by 50 years of plutonium production.

Design/methodology/approach

The model was used as a framework for a case study analysis of the USDOE knowledge management practices.

Findings

Conceptual: a vision of democracy and an understanding of the type of knowledge process can facilitate organizational constancy. Organizational forms should be matched to knowledge process and democratic vision. Empirical: USDOE has behaved erratically in addressing environmental risks viewed through this model of knowledge management.

Research limitations/implications

The model idealizes democratic visions, epistemological processes and organizational forms. Care should be taken in making predictions for the success or failure of an organizational approach based solely on this model.

Practical implications

Practically, the model aids scholars in making connections between knowledge management and public sector environmental risk management literatures; and provides managers with a systematic framework for relating democratic context knowledge production processes to particular organization forms. Use of this model particularly during agency restructuring may facilitate resolving environmental risks though improving organizational legitimacy, constancy, and knowledge generation capacity.

Originality/value

This is a first attempt at integrating two related but so‐far disconnected literatures (environmental risk management and knowledge management).

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

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