Cynthia Hardy University of Melbourne amp Cardiff Business School Steve Maguire McGill University Three modes of organizing risk Prospective Identifies the likelihood that events with negative effects will arise in the future predict the nature and magnitude of these ID: 659516
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Slide1
The Risk Cycle: Three Interconnected Modes of Organizing Risk
Cynthia Hardy
University of
Melbourne & Cardiff Business School
Steve Maguire
McGill UniversitySlide2
Three modes of organizing risk
Prospective
Identifies
the likelihood that events with negative effects will arise in the future, predict the nature and magnitude of these
effects
.
Aim is to predict
and
prevent risk by influencing
what may
happen
But, what do organizations do when hazards
are
not amenable
to
quantification/prediction?
Real-time
Deals with risks in real-time as they materialize
Aim is to
control and contain risks as they emerge
by influencing
what is happening
But, what do organizations do
when risks materialize in unexpected ways?
Retrospective
Investigates risk incidents to identify whether risks were managed appropriately
Aim is to
r
eview
and revise
: by ascertaining what
did happen
and
what
should
happen
But, what do organizations do when the emphasis is on blaming individuals rather than organizational learningSlide3
Prospective:
Prepare for risk
Real-time:
Act on risk
Retrospective:
Investigate previous risk
The organizational risk cycle
Failure to prevent risk
from materializing
Failure to contain risk as it materializes
Failure to learn and change how risk is organized Slide4
The Discourse of risk
Discourses
are
defined as collections of interrelated texts and practices “that
systematically form the objects of which they speak” (Foucault, 1979: 49
) Discourses provide a clear language “for talking about a topic and … a particular kind of knowledge about a topic” (du Gay 1996: 43) and clear meanings about who and what is ‘normal’ and acceptable The interconnected texts and practices that constitute the discourse of risk privilege certain ‘risk ‘identities’, and the ‘risk knowledge’ produced by those identities that conforms to accepted procedures and protocols (Hardy & Maguire, 2016).The discourse of risk results in a widely shared meaning that risk is “a tangible by-product of natural and social processes [that] can be objectively mapped, measured, and controlled, at least to the extent that science permits” (Jasanoff, 1998: 96)Slide5
The constraining effects of the discourse of risk
Prospectively
Produces
expert risk knowledge derived from empirical information about the past, which
is abstracted
into causal/predictive models.Privileges risk assessors/risk managers, scientific/technical knowledgeReal-timeProduces expert risk knowledge derived from empirical information about the past, which is abstracted into plans, scripts and protocolsPrivileges risk arbiters/command-and-control;, managerial knowledgeRetrospectivelyProduces expert risk knowledge derived from empirical information about the past, which is abstracted into a holistic, convergent but ‘notional’ account Privileges risk adjudicators, forensic knowledge, blame.Slide6
Resisting the discourse of risk: alternative forms of organizing
Individualization
I
mprovization
Precaution
Prospective:
Prepare for risk
Real-time:
Act on risk
Retrospective:
Investigate previous risk
‘
riskification
’: more and more organizing in the name of risk
Intensification
Discipline
GovernmentalitySlide7
So, what can we do?
Remember that risk looks to the past to manage the future
In doing so, it can mislead us
Recognize that risk is a risky concept
Identify other
discourses that we could use insteadConduct more empirical studies of ‘problematizing’ practices in organizationsBe critical and practical in our research