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We have not lived long enough: sensemaking and learning from bushfire in Australia
Organisations are increasingly finding themselves responding to unprecedented natural disasters that are complex and unpredictable. This study examined how organisations understand and learn from these novel experiences by examining three Australian bushfires. It showed how sense-making and learning occurred during public inquires that followed those events, and how learning continued in emergency management organisations.

Key Topics

Key Topics:

Project Status

Project Status: 
Completed

Driving Change Themes

Policy, Political Engagement and Influence

Student researcher

Dr Graham Dwyer Research Leader

Organisations are increasingly finding themselves responding to unprecedented natural disasters that are complex and unpredictable. This study examined how organisations understand and learn from these novel experiences by examining three Australian bushfires. It showed how sense-making and learning occurred during public inquires that followed those events, and how learning continued in emergency management organisations.

Part of this study also involved analysing the the devastating impacts that disasters such as bushfires can have, on how emotions influence the sensemaking process associated with implementing recommendations in such organisations. This project built a new theory in relation to the ways that individuals in organisations make sense of and learn from public inquiry recommendations after disasters, while highlighting the role of both negative and positive emotions in this process.

This project was completed in June 2017.

Year Type Citation
2022 Book Dwyer, G. Making Sense of Natural Disasters: The Learning Vacuum of Bushfire Public Inquiries. 135 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022). doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94778-1
2021 Journal Article Dwyer, G., Hardy, C. & Tsoukas, H. Struggling to make sense of it all: the emotional process of sensemaking following an extreme incident. Human Relations (2021). doi:https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00187267211059464
2021 Journal Article Dwyer, G. Learning to learn from bushfire: Perspectives from Victorian emergency management practitioners. Australian Journal of Public Administration (2021). doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8500.12476
2020 Journal Article Dwyer, G., Hardy, C. & Maguire, S. Post-inquiry sensemaking: the case of the ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires. Organization Studies (2020). doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840619896271
2017 Thesis Dwyer, G. We have not lived long enough: sensemaking and learning from bushfires in Australia. (2017). at <https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/158069>
2016 Journal Article Dwyer, G. We have not lived long enough: Sensemaking and learning from bushfire in Australia. Management Learning 47, (2016).
2015 Journal Article Dwyer, G. & Hardy, C. We have not lived long enough: Sensemaking and learning from bushfire in Australia. Management Learning (2015). doi:10.1177/13500507615577047
We Have Not Lived Long Enough: Making Sense and Learning from Bushfire In Australia
18 Aug 2015
We Have Not Lived Long Enough: Making Sense and Learning from Bushfire In Australia
economics, emergency management
Organisations increasingly find themselves responding to unprecedented natural disasters that are expereinced...