Mika Rekola , Annukka Valkeapää, Tapio Rantala

Nordic forest professionals’ values

Rekola M., Valkeapää A., Rantala T. (2010). Nordic forest professionals’ values. Silva Fennica vol. 44 no. 5 article id 127. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.127

Abstract

The present study analyses the values held by forest professionals in three Nordic countries: Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The data is from a large (n = 1113) internet survey that used cognitive mapping as a research tool, which is a novelty in value measurement. The questionnaire is based on the organisational value theory of Schein (1992), supplemented with relevant forest-related and environmental values. The forest-related main value factors were in the following order of importance: Expertise, Private forestry, Forest production, Nature conservation, and Tradition. The measurement included two kinds of cases: action values, referring to present decision-making, and ideal values, referring to decisions concerning future ideals. Most of the values’ scores were similar. Almost all values received higher scores of importance in the ideal cases compared to action cases, a fact that can probably be explained by constraints related to the professionals’ current working environment. Some international differences were also found: Sweden and Norway were closer to each other and both differed from Finland, where private forestry, forest production, and traditions are highly valued. Moreover, respondents working in industry were found to be slightly more production-oriented than other forest professionals. The study also revealed several weaknesses of the cognitive mapping method in measuring values.

Keywords
forest professionals; values; cognitive mapping; Nordic countries

Received 8 December 2009 Accepted 12 October 2010 Published 31 December 2010

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