The Risk Culture Framework: Introducing an Integrative Framework for Holistic Risk Analysis

Risk culture shapes individual, group, organizational, and societal risk perception, and behavior, and, therefore, is a promising concept in risk analysis. Risk culture concepts are popular among practitioners since they have the potential to integrate different research strands and provide practical guidelines. However, such concepts are still ill-defined, and their empirical foundations are limited. We introduce a new framework for risk culture derived from research on organizational culture and risk climate that aims to overcome the shortcomings of current models. The Risk Culture Framework is a 3 x 3 matrix that differentiates three influence domains (i.e., person, social context, and risk situation) and three cultural layers (i.e., observable, non-observable, and implicit factors). The framework can be applied in different contexts and fields of risk research. Each cell of the matrix can be filled with specific, proven factors relevant to the context of interest. The framework aims to enable the integration of different disciplines and approaches, to enlarge the understanding of mechanisms that shape risk perception and behavior, to navigate the conception of research studies, to provide a blueprint for comprehensive risk measures, to guide practical risk analysis, and to facilitate benchmarking for appropriate risk cultures. Considerations for the application of the Risk Culture Framework, as well as its validation through future research, are outlined.

Automated summary

Risk culture is an important concept in risk analysis as it shapes individual, group, organizational, and societal risk perception and behavior. Although popular among practitioners, risk culture concepts are still poorly defined and lack empirical foundations. This study introduces a new Risk Culture Framework based on research on organizational culture and risk climate, which aims to overcome these limitations and provide practical guidelines.