Interpreting the concept of risk culture : a review of academic literature and consulting documents

Abstract

This qualitative study is intended to provide a review of the interpretation of risk culture depicted in academic articles and consulting documents. In recent years, risk culture has come to be recognised as an important contributor to assist organisations in achieving strategic objectives. Despite the work on risk culture published in academic articles, the academic literature is not clear on the interpretation of the concept of risk culture, more specifically, organisational risk culture. In this study, a reflexive thematic analysis research approach was applied to investigate the interpretation of the concept in academic literature and consulting documents. A structured keyword search was used to seek academic articles in academically indexed journals and publicly available consulting documents with the term "risk culture" in the title. Fourteen academic articles and six consulting documents were selected based on their relevance to the topic of organisational risk culture, resulting in an overall study sample of 20 documents. These were qualitatively analysed using a cultural theory-, and supervisory-driven codebook. This study provides a novel review of the meaning attributed to risk culture by academics and consulting houses, indicating that aspects of the concept of risk culture are partially covered in academic articles and consulting documents. However, a shared, comprehensive view of the term does not exist. This situation is expected to negatively influence the adoption and use of this potentially valuable term in practice and academic research. The risk culture indicator model and codebook applied in this study provide a framework which can be applied to evaluate other research projects and literature on the interpretation of risk culture