@article{YANG2026, 
author = {Zebin YANG and Zhenyang ZHANG},
title = {Knowledge as Power: The Role of Organizational Learning in Driving Effective Public Policy Implementation},
year = {2026},
journal = {China Public Administration Review},
volume = {8},
number = {2},
pages = {88-108},
keywords = {policy implementation, organizational learning, knowledge creation, policy knowledge},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/CPAR.2026.9680205},
doi = {10.26599/CPAR.2026.9680205},
abstract = {It is widely acknowledged that organizational learning is essential in the policy-making process, as it helps to refine policy design, align stakeholder interests, and enhance the quality of policy decisions in response to dynamic governance environments. However, does organizational learning also play a critical role in policy implementation, and if so, how does it contribute to effective policy implementation? To address these key questions, this study constructs an integrated “organizational learning & knowledge creation” theoretical framework, drawing on organizational learning theory and knowledge production theory with a focus on the dynamic transformation between tacit and explicit knowledge and the multi-stage knowledge production process, to analyze the processes, mechanisms and practical impacts of organizational learning conducted by local governments during policy implementation. Through an in-depth observational case study of the housing expropriation practice on state-owned land in Project B of City J, a pioneering urban renewal project located in the core urban area of a mega city in eastern China, which involves multiple stakeholders including government departments, technical experts, assessment institutions, and affected residents and bears the task of exploring replicable experience for old city renovation, the research reveals that dual drivers, namely authoritative advocacy by decision-makers and multi-stakeholder interactions among policy actors jointly facilitate the initiation of organizational learning, with the former providing institutional guidance and resource support to reduce policy ambiguity and the latter facilitating the acquisition of professional technical knowledge and context-specific local knowledge from external sources. This dual-driven initiation enables public organizations to effectively absorb substantial external tacit knowledge, such as practical working methods from inter-organizational observation, professional valuation insights from expert argumentation meetings, and targeted demands from household surveys of expropriated residents. Subsequently, by employing a three-stage organizational learning mechanism of nudging, adaptation and transformation, where the nudging mechanism fuels learning motivation by addressing the knowledge gap faced by public organizations, the adaptation mechanism adjusts learning strategies and carriers to match different implementation tasks at various stages, and the transformation mechanism integrates fragmented explicit knowledge into standardized and actionable policy documents, public organizations realize the integration and convergence of diverse knowledge, which significantly enhances the cognitive capacities and implementation capabilities of executing entities, resolving conflicts between policy rigidity and implementation flexibility, mitigating potential social risks triggered by interest disputes, and ultimately ensuring the smooth implementation of the housing expropriation policy as well as the successful completion of land acquisition and storage within the planned period. The findings enrich academic discussions on organizational learning in public policy processes and future research may focus on the typology of organizational learning models.}
}