Beyond Formal Risk Management: Sensemaking in Riskwork

This dissertation seeks to improve our understanding of riskwork in organizations by extending the focus from implementational risk management towards more "improvisational" practices. Theoretically, the study employs the sensemaking and sensegiving perspectives which focus on the micro-level processes of constructing shared understanding and joint action. This work consists of an introduction and three essays. They analyze the fine-grained mechanisms and the heterogeneous factors influencing the understanding of risks and riskwork in practice. All three essays are empirical studies, with the first two being single case studies in a financial conglomerate, and the third essay being a field study. More specifically, the research agenda seeks to contribute to recent emerging streams of literature in accounting and riskwork. The first essay is positioned within the stream of "the communicative turn in riskwork studies". It investigates how the organizational enterprise risk management implementation becomes complemented by "improvisational" riskwork carried out among other organizational functions, beyond the risk function. The second essay is positioned within "the emotional turn in accounting" and riskwork. It seeks to shed light on the complex interrelations between riskwork and (client) emotionality in the context of wealth management. It illuminates how wealth managers sought to make and give sense of the client's emotionality along the client relationship – to manage risks for the client as well as the wealth management company. The third essay aligns with "the narrative turn in accounting", by analyzing the role of narratives when diverse actors construct the opportunities and risks associated with a novel accounting technology of distributed ledgers, such as blockchain. The study shows how narratives can give credibility to particular opportunity-risk approaches while marginalizing alternative perspectives.