Organizations and Risk in Late Modernity

Abstract

Risk is an important but under-investigated feature of organizations in Late Modernity. This paper introduces the Special Issue on Organizations and Risk in Late Modernity. The rationale for the special issue is discussed. An overview of important approaches to risk research and organizations is provided to frame the special issue. These approaches include the cognitive science approach, which takes a positivist perspective and assumes that risks are objective and knowable. This view is contrasted with socio-cultural theories based in work by Mary Douglas, Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens and Michel Foucault. Charles Perrow's organizational theory of the production of risk and accidents due to interactive complexity, and Karl Weick's theory of risk sensemaking, are then discussed. The paper then reviews the contributions of papers in the special issue and outlines issues for future research on risk and organizations.

Client privilege, compliance and the rule of law: Swedish lawyers and money laundering prevention

“…The identification and management of risk as a preventative strategy in AML/CTF can be viewed in light of the growing trend for risk-based regulation across various fields of society (e.g. [35,36]). This trend reflects a change in how risk is being viewed in Late Modernity, away from 'the opportunity for gain and more possibility of loss' ( [37], p. 141).…”

Sense-Making in Compensation Committees: A Cultural Theory Perspective

“…As a result, morality surrounding crisis is directed at locating individuals as source of risks and at blaming individuals for concretizations of risk (Gephart et al, 2009).…”

“…This dense and varied production contrasts with the rather modest use of Douglas's work in the organizational analysis literature (Gephart et al, 2009). One of the first notable contributions is that of Altman and Baruch (1998), who rely on two case studies in Israeli organizations to introduce, at a very general level, the basis of grid/group analysis by stressing its explanatory power and originality in comparison to other analytical models, such as those of Miles and Snow (1978) and Hofstede (1991).…”

Constructing risk objects and their controllability in the insurance industry

“…Uncertainty and risk are argued to have increased in the new global risk landscape, becoming extremely difficult for organizations to understand and control (Beck, 1992;Gephart, Van Maanen, & Oberlechner, 2009;Giddens, 1999Giddens, , 2002). Yet, despite organizations being the critical agents for managing risk and this task becoming increasingly difficult (Hutter & Power, 2005;Scheytt, Soin, Sahlin, Andersson, & Power, 2006), organizational scholars have paid infrequent attention to how organizations construct and control risk (Gephart et al, 2009;Maguire & Hardy, 2013).…”