Organizational Risk: “Muddling Through” 40 Years of Research

AbstractThe recognition that organizations are a part of adverse outcomes has become commonplace in risk research. Social organization is a key theme in relation to risk minimization through institutional control and monitoring, and in how organizations are connected to society's perceptions of risk (beyond outcomes). The article reviews progress made in research on organizational risk over the last four decades and the contributions made to the field by fieldwork and descriptive approaches, understanding risk as partly determined by organizational context. A key issue for risk analysis is to figure out what these insights mean for risk professionals, such as while developing assessment methodologies and management approaches. Analysis of the literature shows thatwhat to model if organizational factors are to be included in risk assessments remains as big a question ashow to model. Integrating fieldwork and descriptive approaches for analyzing organizational risk, accidents, and safety is argued to be a main task for the risk analysis community.
Source: Risk Analysis - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Original Research Article Source Type: research