Learning from crisis: The role of enquiry commissions. (10th June 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Renå, Helge; Christensen, Johan
• Is Part Of: Journal of contingencies and crisis management. Volume 28:Number 1(2020:Mar.)
• Page Start: 41
• Page End: 49
• Publication Date: 2019-06-10
• Subjects: crisis learning -- crisis management -- enquiry commissions -- organizational learning; Crisis management -- Periodicals; 658
• DOI: 10.1111/1468-5973.12269
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0966-0879

Abstract

Abstract: The literature on crisis learning has thus far paid little attention to the institutional channels through which governments draw lessons from crisis events. This paper examines theoretically and empirically a key institutional site for crisis learning: enquiry commissions. The theoretical argument is illustrated by analysing the enquiry commission that examined the 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway. The paper argues that the work of enquiry commissions exhibits tensions that condition the subsequent opportunities of government to learn from crisis. The paper shows how the lessons drawn by the commission investigating the attacks were shaped by the commission's dual function, by the dominant professional perspectives within the group, and by the specific models of decision‐making and assessment standards that the commission adopted.