Organizational learning for environmental innovation in an electric power company

Abstract

As the incorporation of environmental issues advances in organizations through its innovation agenda, the field of organizational learning emerges in this process as an important element of analysis. Based on this perspective, it is suggested that the notions of organizational learning and learning for sustainability should be revisited as antecedents of the environmental innovation process itself, suggesting the emergence of a new field of analysis – the Organizational Learning for Environmental Innovation. Thus, this work aims to identify the relationships between the elements of organizational learning, learning for sustainability and environmental innovation and the way in which they interact, in order to promote greater awareness of innovative environmental practices. For that, a conceptual model of analysis was elaborated, which was applied to a company of the electric sector. Learning from regulation and the role played by the entrepreneur presented themselves as the most important inductors in this process, while the pressure of product users was not recognized as a variable that induces learning processes. On the other hand, the category of environmental education is underestimated, for it an important tool, which generates changes in routines that could guide organizations to adopt environmental innovations.

Keywords: organizational learning, learning for sustainability, environmental innovation.