Organisational Learning in Disaster Management Systems: Mechanisms, Barriers and Institutional Resilience

Abstract

Disaster management systems (DMS) operate in contexts of uncertainty, urgency and complexity. Events such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and the COVID‐19 pandemic exposed how infrastructural breakdowns and weak coordination undermine institutional performance while accelerating innovation in digital information systems and coordination platforms used in disaster response. Organisational learning (OL), understood as the capacity of institutions to improve through experience, has emerged as a critical dimension of resilience. This review synthesises insights from 23 academic publications published between 2010 and 2025, organising the analysis around 5 dimensions: evolving approaches to OL, knowledge infrastructures and information management, interorganisational cooperation and networked learning, barriers to OL and technology‐enabled adaptive learning systems. The analysis shows that systems fostering reflection, digital integration and collaboration are better equipped to adapt and improve by transforming operational experience into shared knowledge and institutional memory. However, political constraints, staff turnover and the loss of tacit knowledge continue to impede progress. The study highlights persistent gaps between policy and practice and outlines directions for future research and governance towards more adaptive and learning‐oriented DMS.