Organizational Adaptation to Climate Change : Three Case Studies from Bangladesh

Organizations deploy various approaches in managing impacts, undertaking adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Despite there has been a growing research in this area, yet the existing literature of organization studies and management is heavily dominated by empirical works using descriptive r...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Mehedi, Islam
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2020
Subjects:	HD28 Management Industrial Management
Online Access:	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/32153/5/Mehedi%20Islam.pdf
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

id	my-unimas-ir.32153
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-unimas-ir.321532024-02-19T06:22:30Z Organizational Adaptation to Climate Change : Three Case Studies from Bangladesh 2020-10-08 Mehedi, Islam HD28 Management. Industrial Management Organizations deploy various approaches in managing impacts, undertaking adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Despite there has been a growing research in this area, yet the existing literature of organization studies and management is heavily dominated by empirical works using descriptive research approach and oriented towards quantitative research paradigm. There has been a serious lack of in-depth research that examines organizational adaptation towards climate change impacts in the context of developing countries from qualitative paradigm that can offer useful theoretical insights to advance the current understanding in this area. The objectives of this research are as follows. It investigates organizational adaptation to climate change in Bangladesh, and further examines factors that motivate or prevent organizations in undertaking effective climate change adaptation strategies, as well as the outcomes of organizational adaptation practices and responses. The study integrates open systems theory, organizational learning theory and Pettigrew‟s processual analysis in the conceptual framework to guide the research. It deploys a qualitative approach using case study method that involved three organizations in Bangladesh and uses variety of data collection techniques. Based on the research findings, this study found that there is no unique approach deployed by the organizations, and their adaptation responses to climate change could be considered as co-adaptation with other typical organizational changes to complement with new conditions. Most adaptation decisions were also found to be reactive and mainly focused on managing immediate business risks. The common adaptation strategies such as climate-proofing infrastructure, climate-proofing process, and communicating climate risks were engaged by these organizations. The findings further revealed internal and external factors such as low awareness, weak leadership, costly adaptation technology, lack of information and difficulty to acquire adaptation finance, corruption, political instability and unsupportive regulatory environment as well as cultural factors could hamper initiatives to adopt effective business adaptation responses to climate change. Overall, this study makes three important research contributions. First, it extends the existing theoretical understanding about managing climate change impacts from the standpoint of an organization, by highlighting the dynamic interplays between internal and external factors, as well as cultural and institutional factors in the business environment, that are contributing towards reactive adaptation responses to climate change. Second, this study argues that in order to move beyond the typical reactive adaptation responses, initiatives such as development of good climate change governance framework, related policies and effective intervention programs by government are required to affect and sustain positive change in the business environment. Finally, the research has managerial and practical implications that can benefit Bangladesh business sectors particularly in telecommunication, real estate and garment manufacturing industries. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2020-10 Thesis http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/32153/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/32153/5/Mehedi%20Islam.pdf text en validuser phd doctoral Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) Faculty of Economics and Business
institution	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
collection	UNIMAS Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	HD28 Management Industrial Management
spellingShingle	HD28 Management Industrial Management Mehedi, Islam Organizational Adaptation to Climate Change : Three Case Studies from Bangladesh
description	Organizations deploy various approaches in managing impacts, undertaking adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Despite there has been a growing research in this area, yet the existing literature of organization studies and management is heavily dominated by empirical works using descriptive research approach and oriented towards quantitative research paradigm. There has been a serious lack of in-depth research that examines organizational adaptation towards climate change impacts in the context of developing countries from qualitative paradigm that can offer useful theoretical insights to advance the current understanding in this area. The objectives of this research are as follows. It investigates organizational adaptation to climate change in Bangladesh, and further examines factors that motivate or prevent organizations in undertaking effective climate change adaptation strategies, as well as the outcomes of organizational adaptation practices and responses. The study integrates open systems theory, organizational learning theory and Pettigrew‟s processual analysis in the conceptual framework to guide the research. It deploys a qualitative approach using case study method that involved three organizations in Bangladesh and uses variety of data collection techniques. Based on the research findings, this study found that there is no unique approach deployed by the organizations, and their adaptation responses to climate change could be considered as co-adaptation with other typical organizational changes to complement with new conditions. Most adaptation decisions were also found to be reactive and mainly focused on managing immediate business risks. The common adaptation strategies such as climate-proofing infrastructure, climate-proofing process, and communicating climate risks were engaged by these organizations. The findings further revealed internal and external factors such as low awareness, weak leadership, costly adaptation technology, lack of information and difficulty to acquire adaptation finance, corruption, political instability and unsupportive regulatory environment as well as cultural factors could hamper initiatives to adopt effective business adaptation responses to climate change. Overall, this study makes three important research contributions. First, it extends the existing theoretical understanding about managing climate change impacts from the standpoint of an organization, by highlighting the dynamic interplays between internal and external factors, as well as cultural and institutional factors in the business environment, that are contributing towards reactive adaptation responses to climate change. Second, this study argues that in order to move beyond the typical reactive adaptation responses, initiatives such as development of good climate change governance framework, related policies and effective intervention programs by government are required to affect and sustain positive change in the business environment. Finally, the research has managerial and practical implications that can benefit Bangladesh business sectors particularly in telecommunication, real estate and garment manufacturing industries.
format	Thesis
qualification_name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Mehedi, Islam
author_facet	Mehedi, Islam
author_sort	Mehedi, Islam
title	Organizational Adaptation to Climate Change : Three Case Studies from Bangladesh
title_short	Organizational Adaptation to Climate Change : Three Case Studies from Bangladesh
title_full	Organizational Adaptation to Climate Change : Three Case Studies from Bangladesh
title_fullStr	Organizational Adaptation to Climate Change : Three Case Studies from Bangladesh
title_full_unstemmed	Organizational Adaptation to Climate Change : Three Case Studies from Bangladesh
title_sort	organizational adaptation to climate change : three case studies from bangladesh
granting_institution	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)
granting_department	Faculty of Economics and Business
publishDate	2020
url	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/32153/5/Mehedi%20Islam.pdf
_version_	1794023017149366272

Organizational Adaptation to Climate Change : Three Case Studies from Bangladesh

Similar Items