Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-c9gpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T15:30:17.153Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Values at Risk

Perspectives on the Ethical Turn in Risk Management

from Part II - A View of Risk Culture Concepts in Firms and Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2020

Michelle Tuveson
Affiliation:
Judge Business School, Cambridge
Daniel Ralph
Affiliation:
Judge Business School, Cambridge
Kern Alexander
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Get access

Summary

In the wake of the 2007–2009 financial crisis and subsequent financial services scandals, there are numerous normative and regulatory demands on risk managers to assess the ethicality of corporate plans and actions. An ethical turn in risk management looms, focusing the attention of boards and executive teams on a plurality of values at risk, rather than on a single or composite—and primarily financial—Value at Risk. The question of what risks an organisation is running is increasingly seen as intertwined with the ethical question of whose risks an organisation is managing—or even taking into account—a discussion that needs to be addressed in the “risk appetising process.” Based on case studies conducted in two Canadian high-reliability organizations, I show empirical evidence that some risk managers have created tools and processes that tangibly link risk management and business ethics. Drawing on the literature of new accounting emergence and behavioural ethics, I argue that risk managers have now the mandate, and possibly, the tools and processes to visualize and bring business ethics concerns to decision makers. Finally, I highlight two areas of concern where an explicit consideration of Values at Risks tools and processes might be necessary for generating constructive debate and action: corporate failures due to conflicts of interest, and the incubation of man-made disasters. I conclude that an ethical turn in risk management will require the ability to bring the ethical dimension to the fore by making values at risk an inescapable and actionable part of decision-making and formal control processes.

Type
Chapter
Information
Beyond Bad Apples
Risk Culture in Business
, pp. 232 - 270
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahrens, T. and Dent, J. F. (1998). Accounting and organizations: Realizing the richness of field research. Journal of Management Accounting Research, 10(1), 139.Google Scholar
Andersen, E. (2013). What happens when leaders only care about money? Forbes, 2013 December 18. https://bit.ly/2Nhgzr0Google Scholar
Badaracco, J. L. Jr. (1997). Defining Moments: When Managers Must Choose between Right and Right. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Bazerman, M. H. and Sezer, O. (2016). Bounded awareness: implications for ethical decision making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 136, 95105.Google Scholar
Buehler, K., Freeman, A. and Hulme, R. (2008). The Risk Revolution. McKinsey Working Papers on Risk, No. 1. https://mck.co/2Chfg57Google Scholar
Chugh, D. and Bazerman, M. (2007). Bounded awareness: what you fail to see can hurt you. Mind and Society, 6(1), 118.Google Scholar
COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations) (2009). Strengthening Enterprise Risk Management for Strategic Advantage. https://bit.ly/2JSW8i6Google Scholar
COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations) (2016). Enterprise Risk Management: Aligning Risk with Strategy and Performance (Public Exposure). https://bit.ly/2PO3BCLGoogle Scholar
Edmondson, A. et al. (2005). The recovery window: organizational learning following ambiguous threats. In Starbuck, W. H. and Farjoun, M., eds., Organization at the Limit: Lessons from the Columbia Disaster. Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 220–46.Google Scholar
European Commission (2011). Green Paper: The EU Corporate Governance Framework. https://bit.ly/2CiH2hOGoogle Scholar
Grant Halvarson, H. and Rock, D. (2015). Beyond Bias. Strategy+Business, 2015 July 13. www.strategy-business.com/article/00345?gko=ed7d4Google Scholar
Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: a social intuitionist approach to moral judgment, Psychological Review, 108(4), 814–34. DOI: 10.1037/0033-295X.108.4.814CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hall, M., Mikes, A. and Millo, Y. (2015). How do risk managers become influential? A field study of toolmaking in two financial institutions. Management Accounting Research, 26, 322.Google Scholar
Hillson, D. and Murray-Webster, R. (2012). A Short Guide to Risk Appetite, 1st ed. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hood, C. (1996). Where extremes meet: ‘SPRAT’ versus ‘SHARK’ in public risk management. In Hood, C. and Jones, D. K. C., eds., Accident and Design. London, UCL Press, pp. 208–27.Google Scholar
IBM Financial Services (2008). Risk Appetite: A Multifaceted Approach to Risk Management. https://bit.ly/2rjoVWRGoogle Scholar
ISO (International Organization for Standardization) (2009). Risk Management – Principles and Guidelines, ISO/FDIS 31000:2009. Geneva: ISO.Google Scholar
KPMG (2013). Developing a Strong Risk Appetite Program. https://bit.ly/2WQhNgiGoogle Scholar
Marsh (2009). Research into Definition and Application of the Concept of Risk Appetite. https://bit.ly/32hoRDtGoogle Scholar
Mikes, A. (2009). Risk management and calculative cultures. Management Accounting Research, 20(1), 1840.Google Scholar
Mikes, A. (2011). From counting risk to making risk count: boundary-work in risk management. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 36( 4–5), 226–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mikes, A. (2012). Enterprise risk management at Hydro One (A). Harvard Business School Case 109-001.Google Scholar
Mikes, A., Hall, M. and Millo, Y. (2013). How experts gain influence. Harvard Business Review, 91(7–8), 70–4.Google Scholar
Mikes, A. and Hamel, D. (2012). Enterprise risk management at Hydro One (B): how risky are smart meters? Harvard Business School Supplement 112-073.Google Scholar
Mikes, A., Oyon, D. and Jeitziner, J. (2017). Risk management: towards a behavioral perspective. In Libby, T. and Thorne, L., eds., The Routledge Companion to Behavioral Accounting Research, Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors) (2009). Risk Governance: Balancing Risk and Reward. Arlington: NACD.Google Scholar
National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States (2011). The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report. Washington: US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Oliver Wyman (2007). What’s Your Risk Appetite? https://owy.mn/32gTgBXGoogle Scholar
Palermo, T., Power, M. and Ashby, S. (2017). Navigating institutional complexity: the production of risk culture in the financial sector. Journal of Management Studies, 54(2), 154–81.Google Scholar
Pidgeon, N. (1997). The limits to safety? Culture, politics, learning and man-made disasters. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 5(1), 114.Google Scholar
Power, M. (2009). The risk management of nothing. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 34(6–7), 849–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2009.06.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Power, M., Ashby, S. and Palermo, T. (2013). Risk Culture in Financial Organizations: A Research Report. London: London School of Economics.Google Scholar
Purdy, G. (2010). ISO 31000:2009 – setting a new standard for risk management. Risk Analysis, 30(6), 881–86. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2010.01442.xGoogle Scholar
PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) (2008). Risk Appetite – How Hungry Are You? https://pwc.to/33mAQB7Google Scholar
Quail, R. (2012). Defining your taste for risk. Corporate Risk Canada, Spring 2012, 24–30.Google Scholar
Robinson, D. (2007). Control theories in sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 35, 157–74.Google Scholar
Sabato, G. (2010). Financial crisis: where did risk management fail? International Review of Applied Financial Issues and Economics, 2(2), 315–27.Google Scholar
SAS Institute Inc. (2011). The Art of Balancing Risk and Reward: The Role of the Board in Setting, Implementing and Monitoring Risk Appetite. Cary, NC: SAS Institute Inc.Google Scholar
Selznick, P. (2000). On sustaining research agendas: their moral and scientific basis: an address to the Western Academy of Management. Journal of Management Inquiry, 9(3), 277–82.Google Scholar
Soltes, E. (2016). Why They Do It: Inside the Mind of the Quail-Collar Criminal, New York: PublicAffairs.Google Scholar
Stinchcombe, A. L. (2001). When Formality Works: Authority and Abstraction in Law and Organizations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Turner, B. (1976). The organizational and interorganizational development of disasters. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21(3), 378–97.Google Scholar
US Department of Justice (2016a). Goldman Sachs agrees to pay more than $5 billion in connection with its sale of residential mortgage backed securities. Press release, 2016 April 11. https://bit.ly/2CsykxDGoogle Scholar
US Department of Justice (2016b). GS Settlement Agreement. www.justice.gov/opa/file/839891/downloadGoogle Scholar
US Department of Justice (2016c). Statement of Facts. www.justice.gov/opa/file/839901/downloadGoogle Scholar
Vaughan, D. (1996). The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Vaughan, D. (1999). The dark side of organizations: mistake, misconduct, and disaster. Annual Review of Sociology, 25, 271305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade Benzoni, K. (1999). Thinking about the future: an intergenerational perspective on the conflict and compatibility between economic and environmental interests. American Behavioral Scientist, 42(8), 1393–405.Google Scholar
Weick, K. (1998) Foresights of failure: an appreciation of Barry Turner. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 6(2), 72–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×