Book contents
- Beyond Bad Apples
- Beyond Bad Apples
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Risk Culture Conceptual Underpinnings
- 1 Individual Agency and Collective Patterns of Action
- 2 Risk Culture and Information Culture
- 3 A Network View of Tone at the Top and the Role of Opinion Leaders
- 4 Rethinking Risk Management Cultures in Organisations
- Part II A View of Risk Culture Concepts in Firms and Society
- Conclusion
- Index
- References
2 - Risk Culture and Information Culture
Why an ‘Appetite for Knowledge’ Matters
from Part I - Risk Culture Conceptual Underpinnings
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 May 2020
Book contents
- Beyond Bad Apples
- Beyond Bad Apples
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Risk Culture Conceptual Underpinnings
- 1 Individual Agency and Collective Patterns of Action
- 2 Risk Culture and Information Culture
- 3 A Network View of Tone at the Top and the Role of Opinion Leaders
- 4 Rethinking Risk Management Cultures in Organisations
- Part II A View of Risk Culture Concepts in Firms and Society
- Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter explores the centrality of risk information to the construction of managerial agency. It is argued that this theme has been neglected by policy makers and others in the debate about risk culture in financial services. This debate is characterised by an underlying individualism in the approach to culture in general, and risk culture specifically, focusing ultimately on values and incentives as the core features of behaviour, from traders to board members. In contrast, drawing on a range of studies in the organisational sociology of risk, it is argued that information infrastructures are profoundly cultural and shape organisational values and the quality of decision making. Three illustrative themes – networking, technology and governance - are discussed and generate three indicative and testable propositions about the importance of information for risk culture. These three discussions also point to the fundamental role of an “appetite for knowledge” which varies between organisations and across fields. This revealed appetite is indicative and generative of organisational culture. Efforts to reform the culture of the financial services industry should therefore begin with understanding how information infrastructures do or don’t shape what counts as “doing the right thing”, rather conducting endless attitudinal surveys of individuals.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Beyond Bad ApplesRisk Culture in Business, pp. 42 - 72Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
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