CHAPTER 6 DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
6.2 Awareness of the Waste Act
6.2.1 Discussion on Awareness of the New Waste Act
The research results indicate that there are low levels on awareness of the provisions of the Waste Act amongst key parts of the MM. These include the political level, the middle management and operational levels of the WMU and LSU and the trade union sector. In terms of the current arrangements the development of new municipal policies, strategies and services associated with the Waste Act can only be driven by the senior management of the WMU and LSU given their awareness of the Waste Act. By keeping the political leadership of the MM unaware of significant changes in national waste management policy and their effects on the MM, senior management of the WMU and the LSU could be intentionally seeking to maintain existing waste management policy within the MM since it allows them to remain in their existing comfort zones and not have to develop new strategies, plans and services to implement the policy. In doing so senior management of the MM are contributing to ensuring waste management services continue to remain a very low priority within the MM despite shifts nationally to increase the attention given to waste management issues.
As a result of not making staff aware of the new waste management policy opportunities for enabling the internalisation of explicit knowledge contained in the policy documents have been lost, with the result that knowledge related to the new policy has not become part of the tacit knowledge of front line staff involved in service delivery. Given this deficit in tacit knowledge amongst the middle management and operational level staff of the WMU and the LSU, it is unlikely that these levels of staff will be in a position to conceptualise strategies, plans and projects to implement the Waste Act and they may also resist changes in service
142 delivery required by the Waste Act given their limited understanding of integrated waste management practices. By keeping labour in the dark about national policy changes senior management are creating a situation where local policy changes that affect service delivery and workers will eventually be harder to implement. It is quite likely that labour will oppose future policy changes given that they have no background knowledge on the Waste Act and its possible effects on their members, they are unable to develop insights and options to cope with the changing context.
The apathy amongst the organised business sector on waste management issues could suggest that the sector continues to view waste management issues in terms of the conventional approach whereby municipalities collect and dispose waste with minimal obligations for the business sector.
All the stakeholders interviewed were unanimous in their concern over the low levels of awareness on the new waste management policy amongst the general public and the negative effect this would have on the implementation of new services like waste prevention, recycling and extended producer responsibility obligations. All stakeholders agreed that government at all levels was responsible for making ordinary citizens aware of the new policy and a failure to create sufficient awareness of the new policy and induce changes in waste management practices amongst citizens, is likely to increase the prospects of implementation failure.
6.2.2 Conclusions on Awareness of the Waste Act
The results obtained from senior management of the WMU and the LSU suggest that both units are operated as centralised machine bureaucracies where all powers are located at the centre, usually around one person with lower levels of staff not being involved in planning and decision making. According to Scharmer (2009a) centralised bureaucracies are blinded to what is actually going on internally and externally because their leaders are stuck in one view of reality, usually leaders of such organisations believe that they know what is best for their institution and the broader society, left unchecked such organisations evolve into absencing and eventual collapse.
Given that the political structures of the MM have very limited or no knowledge of the shift required in municipal waste management policy as a result of the Waste Act, it is unrealistic
143 to expect the political structures to act as drivers for shifts in the waste management policy, services and funding within the MM.
Given that senior management of the WMU and the LSU have not undertaken basic policy awareness activities within the MM it is unlikely that they would provide leadership to enable subsequent stages of the policy development cycle to be undertaken in the short term, one of the obvious effects of this situation is that the MM is unlikely to have new waste management policies that are aligned to the Waste Act in the short to medium term (1 to 3 years).
The low levels of tacit knowledge about the Waste Act and integrated waste management practices amongst middle management and operational level staff within the WMU and the LSU could result in new waste management policies and practices being delayed, opposed, lacking co-ordination and commitment from the levels responsible for policy implementation and service delivery. According to Scharmer (2009a, 314), one of the typical characteristics of organisations in systems that eventually collapse is that they display institutional
ignorance, “most staff do not know what is really happening in their company....and are not seeing what changes were happening in the marketplace”.
The low levels of tacit knowledge on the Waste Act amongst shop stewards and operational level staff in general will make it difficult to introduce new waste management services. The current opposition of labour to the source separation pilot project operating in a single ward of the MM is already demonstrating the effects of not sharing explicit knowledge and creating opportunities to influence the mental models and perceptions held by individuals.
Senge (2006) describes learning organisations as places where people are expanding their capacity to achieve organisational results that truly matter; this is achieved through team learning, shared vision and open mindedness. The WMU and the LSU do not meet these basic requirements for learning organisations since the senior management of these
institutions prevent team learning and the building of a shared vision by keeping all levels of the MM that are affected by waste management issues unaware of the new policy direction that the municipality must pursue.
144 Cloete et al (2000) suggests that despite the absence of a generally acceptable policy
implementation theory, the 5C implementation protocol has consistently identified the five key variables that determine implementation prospects, viz. the content of policy, the context of implementation, the commitment and capacity of implementers and the support of clients and coalitions. Given the limited capacity and commitment of the policy implementers within the MM the new waste management policy is unlikely to be effectively implemented.
The low levels of awareness on the Waste Act by the organised business sector and the lack of knowledge and experience with integrated waste management practices will most likely result in limited or delayed application of waste prevention measures relating to cleaner technology and extended producer responsibility obligations. In a context where it has been difficult to get global consensus on the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions despite the threat climate change poses to our planet, it is hardly surprising to find the organised business sector within the MM apathetic to waste management issues specifically and environmental issues generally. The obsession with the financial bottom-line within the sector persists in spite of overwhelming evidence of the need for economic growth to occur in a more ecologically sustainable manner.
6.2.3 Recommendations on Awareness of the Waste Act
Senior management of the WMU and the LSU should undertake processes that increase the awareness of the Waste Act and its implications for service delivery within the MM amongst the political, administrative and labour sectors of the MM affected by waste management issues. Senior management of the WMU should establish project teams comprising of political, middle management and labour representatives to develop strategies, policies plans and prototypes to bring the new waste management system embodied by the Waste Act into being. It will be important to develop a shared vision of the future waste management system and to nurture project teams to engage in learning and thinking around bringing the future system into being.
The IWMP planning process currently underway should be utilised to bring the different role players within the Msunduzi waste management system together in order to develop collective strategies and plans to transform the delivery of waste management services as envisaged by the Waste Act.
145 The MM should develop a public awareness strategy and programme to ensure the transfer of explicit knowledge relating to the Waste Act and integrated waste management practices to residents and business organisations within the MM.
The organised business sector should undertake measures to increase the awareness of the Waste Act amongst its members especially the largest waste generators in order to promote the adoption of cleaner technology, the development of industrial waste management plans, the establishment of recycling practices and the fulfilment of extended producer
responsibility obligations.